The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Golden State Shocks Vegas; Indiana Handles Chicago While Seattle Goes Up 2-1 on Phoenix

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

It was quite the exciting Saturday in three Commissioner’s Cup games, especially the two on national television broadcasts.

The fun began in the afternoon on ABC when the expansion Golden State Valkyries (3-5) snapped a four-game slide, three against the unbeaten duo of New York and Minnesota, by stunning the Las Vegas Aces 95-68 while extending their WNBA home season start sellout record to 4-for-4 with a crowd of 18,064 in the NBA Chase Center in San Francisco.

Next in what was the first WNBA prime time broadcast game on a major network, which was carried by CBS, a crowd of 19,496 at a first-ever game in the NBA United Center in Chicago, the Indiana Fever (4-4) shook off the enemy atmosphere of Sky fans, the absence of coach Stephanie White for personal reasons and continued absence for the fourth game in a row of reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark with a left quad strain to maintain domination of the series with a lopsided 93-79 record.

Finally, in the desert in the Southwest, a hostile crowd of 9,876 in the PHX Arena was countered by the visiting Seattle Storm (5-4) with Skylar Diggins erupting for 22 of her 26 points in the second half and Gabby Williams connecting on a personal best five 3-pointers to execute an 89-77 victory over the Phoenix Mercury (6-4).

Valkyries’ Triplesome Double Doubles Deck Aces

For the non-Las Vegas fans who like to gamble on a long shot, this one which paired the WNBA’s newest team with an Aces (4-3) team that won back-to-back league titles in 2022 and 2023 and advanced to the semifinals last season after moving from San Antonio, paid off big time.

Kayla Thornton led Golden State with 22 points and 11 rebounds, Veronica Burton had 14 points and a career-best 12 assists, and Monique Billings collected 14 points, 11 boards, with pairs of two steals and assists each as the Vakyries’ record in the in-season Cup tournament nearing the end of the first of three weeks improved to 1-2 while the Aces dropped to 1-1.

Additionaly, Cecilia Zandalasini had a personal best 18 points while former Iowa star Kate Martin, who was taken in the expansion draft from Las Vegas, scored 12 as the Valkyries had their best output of the season.

“This was no fluke,” exclaimed coach Natalie Nakase in a joyous locker room afterwards of beating the team the former UCLA star served the past three seasons as an assistant to Becky Hammon.

Martin finished the first half the way her Iowa teammate Caitlin Clark connected with consistency by nailing a deep three-pointer at the buzzer for a 49-28 advantage.

Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson scored 17 points, Chelsea Gray shot 7-of-11 from the field for 16 points, and rookie Aaliyah Nye had three from deep and scored 13 points.

Golden State will be at Los Angeles Monday night for the WNBA’s sole game while Las Vegas hosts the same Sparks on Wednesday.

Indiana Blasts Chicago

The Fever went wire-to-wire led by Kelsey Mitchell with 17 points while Natasha Howard scored 13 and the Cup record went to 2-0 while the damage in Clark’s absence got further minimal at 2-2 in what became two straight wins besides going 2-0 against the home team.

In losing its first Cup game played the Sky fell to 2-5 overall as Angel Reese was held to four points shooting 2-7 while grabbing 12 boards.

Kamilla Cordoso and Rebecca Allen each scored eight points.

On Indiana, former Arizona star Aari McDonald, who recently signed a hardship contract, connected three times from deep, while scoring 12 points with three steals. Aaliyah Boston scored 11 with five boards and five assists.

Assistant Austin Kelly guided Indiana with White staying behind.

The Sky had to make do most of the game without Courtney Vanderslice who left the game in the first quarter with a knee injury.

Chicago heads to unbeaten New York Tuesday while Indiana is at Atlanta the same night with the possibility of Clark’s return following an injury evaluation.

Storm Rage on Phoenix

With Diggins working her way in the second half out of an 0-7 start in the game, the visiting Seattle squad went to 2-1 in the Cup race while Phoenix fell to 2-2.

Williams, the former UConn star who played on the French team that lost by a point to the USA in the Olympic Gold Medal game in Paris, was 8-10 from the field scoring 21 points with seven assists. Nneka Ogwumike added 13 points with six boards and six assists.

Phoenix got got 22 points from Satou Sabally while Lexi Held collected 14 points.

Alyssa Thomas, formerly at Connecticut who signed a free agent deal, has missed five straight games with the Mercury suffering from a calf injury.

This was the third meeting between the two teams, Seattle holding a 2-1 edge after the win.

Both are off until Wednesday when Phoenix hosts Dallas and the Storm host unbeaten Minnesota.

There are just two games Sunday: Washington hosts Connecticut at 3 p.m. and Dallas hosts Minnesota at 4 p.m., both on the WNBA’s streaming League Pass.

Unlike the playoffs where teams are seeded on overall records, the Cup standings are kept by geographical affiliations during the three-week competition with the top teams from each side meeting July 1 at the the site of the team with the best record.