The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: In War of Unbeatens Minnesota Fourth Quarter Surge Buries Dallas as Lynx Go Up Again on Idle New York; Washington Routs Connecticut

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Two games Sunday afternoon completed Week 3 of the WNBA’s 29th season and week one of the three-week in-season Commissioner’s Cup tournament that will determine a champion on July 1 at the home of the team with the better record in the title game between the best of the East and West.

In the latter contest, it stayed business as has been usual for the Minnesota Lynx (9-0), which for the moment snapped the unbeaten deadlock with the idle and WNBA defending champion New York Liberty (8-0) and went back into sole possession of first in the overall standings after winning at Dallas 81-65 before a crowd of 6,162 at College Park Center on the campus of Texas.

In the other game, Washington (4-6) at home in CareFirst Arena before a crowd of 4,200 had its best offensive performance of the season in routing the Connecticut Sun 104-67.

Both arena crowds were pretty robust for being a smaller total than others in the 13-team league so the attendance figures at both places cannot be labelled an emerging trending drop.

Coming up is a single game Monday in which the expansion Golden State Valkyries will try to expand on Saturday’s stunning domination of the Las Vegas Aces in San Francisco when the team visits the Los Angeles Sparks at 10 p.m. at Crypto,com Arena, formerly the Staples Center, on the WNBA’s streaming League Pass platform.

On Tuesday, New York back home at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn will try to return to the unbeaten tie with the Minnesota team it beat in ultimate Game 5 in overtime of the finals last October when the Liberty host Chicago at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

It would have been the first visit back from Courtney Vandersloot since winning the championship with the Liberty and then returning to her original team in the WNBA but the former collegiate all-American at Gonzaga suffered a season-ending ACL injury in the first quarter of Saturday’s wipeout by Indiana played before the Sky franchise-record crowd of 19,000+ in the first-ever league game in the NBA-United Center.

Indiana plays in Tuesday’s other game at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN3, visiting Atlanta at the Gateway Center in suburban College Park, Ga.

Word is awaited beforehand on Monday if Fever reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark, who had missed four games, her first injury-related absence since high school, due to a left quad strain, is given the green light after a medical evaluation.

Following Tuesday, Indiana stays on the road to visit New York Saturday, the first meeting since Clark sustained the injury last month during the Liberty’s narrow two-point victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Washington Thumps Connecticut

The visiting Sun’s recent victory, first at home this season, was short-lived in being dismantled in the Mystics’ scoring explosion.

Brittney Sykes scored 28 points for the home folks, helped by a near-perfect 14-of-15 at the line, while the first-round selection rookie duo continued to shine in Kiki Iriafen, fourth overall out of Southern Cal, with 12 points, and Notre Dame grad Sonia Citron had 11 with Sug Sutton collecting 10 points.

It was the first 100-point game for the Mystics (4-6), who matched the Sun’s 1-2 Cup record, since 2023.

The bigger news, and the reason Washington looks ahead of schedule in the rebuild when they play, was the performances off the bench from Shakira Austin with 14 points and second-year pro Aaliyah Edwards with 13.

Both have been used cautiously by first year coach Sydney Johnson in working their way back from injuries since the start of the season.

“Shakira is getting into her groove,” Johnson, a former men’s head coach at Princeton and Fairfield, said. “When she’s healthy, people know what she’s able to do. That’s not new at all. … Aaliyah, she had a wonderful year last year, and it’s the same thing. So, the more minutes they get and the more reps and comfort they feel, I think we can see performances like this from them.”

Johnson wants a high-tempo attack and with the duo given more minutes that’s what Washington got in a game in which the Mystics shot 36-of-63 for 57 percent from the field with 24 assists, and 26-of-37 from the line.

Rookie Lucy Olsen, the Collegeville native who played at Villanova and Iowa, played 11 minutes, connecting on her only shot, good for three from outside, while dishing three helpers and grabbing a rebound.

“We had one of our best days transition-wise,” Johnson said. “Maybe it won’t look always so flawless, but I think that improvement has just been something that they’ve embraced.”

Sykes said it was a point of emphasis, Saturday, which is what happens when one becomes a two-time victim on New York’s take-no-prisoners defense of the Liberty title.

“Some of us were disappointed,” Sykes said of the most recent New York victory in their season series. “Some of us felt like we could have did more. It was one of those things where we had to understand that what happened doesn’t define us.

“How we respond, does. This was one of those games where we got a chance to bounce back.”

The Sun (2-7) on the other hand, who were crushed inside 56-24 and owned 42-22 by the home team on the boards, shot 39% (26-66) from the field and 8-9 on the line.

Tina Charles, an original first-round pick of the visitors out of UConn, who later went on to play in New York and Washington among other stops, returned to Uncasville as a free agent in the offseason and Sunday led the opposition with 17 points, while Marina Mabrey and substitute Jacy Sheldon each scored 15 points.

Connecticut, which lost for the first time in Washington since 2022, also went with 32-year-old Haley Peters as a starter, the oldest in the league since UNC duo-sport track star Marion Jones got her first WNBA start at 34 in 2010.

Peters, a Duke grad in 2010 who was not drafted, has played with San Antonio, which later moved to Las Vegas, previously with Washington, and Atlanta.

The Sun’s Rachid Meziane, also a first-year coach who coached the Belgium national team, said, “We’re looking for some consistency,” referencing the short swing in beating Atlanta then losing to Washington.

In the ebb and flow of games in the early season that saw New York go through a stretch of four games in six days with one back-to-back, and Phoenix hit with a heavy load of contests, the two teams that played in this one won’t don uniforms for games again until this Sunday, having the whole week off, before Washington hosts Atlanta while Connecticut hosts Chicago.

Minnesota Takes a Fourth Quarter Feast on Dallas to Stay Unbeaten

For all the talk of a rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese being the big draw in attendance and TV ratings in the WNBA, there’s a sense brewing all that may soon be subverted to a potential collision of unbeaten powers if Minnesota and New York meet again in the Cup title game and first time since the five-game playoff finals.

And considering that game does not count in the standings for overall seedings for the playoffs, they may still meet as unbeatens in their first of four clashes on July 30 at the Target Center in Minneapolis at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

For now, each continues to take care of its own business and Sunday was Minnesota’s turn again and the Lynx with a slim 57-56 lead after three quarters lowered the boom on Dallas with a thundering 24-9 finish over the final ten minutes.

Napheesa Collier continued her season-long game-by-dame domination with 28 points for Minnesota, now 3-0 in Cup games while Dallas (1-9) is 0-3. The former UConn great also grabbed 10 boards, while Kayla McBride was hot from outside with six makes from deep.

It’s the fourth best start for Minnesota, which holds the outset record in the league at 13-0 set in 2016.

Collier was 10-of-19 from the field, 3-of-6 on attempted threes, and also dealt four assists, grabbed four steals and blocked three shots.

McBride’s three-ball near the outset made it 5-2 and Minnesota never trailed while leaving Dallas still looking for a Cup win after three games.

Overall No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers out of UConn’s 12th championship in April, who missed three previous games placed in the concussion protocol, was cleared for Sunday but stayed sidelined with an illness.

Former Notre Dame star Arike Ogunbowale had one of her more explosive nights of this season rode 6 of 9 threes for the bulk of 26 points while Villanova all-time great Maddy Siegrist, back serving on the bench, scored 15 points.

Siegrist’s inside basket with a second left got the Wings to their one-point deficit at third, coming at the end of a 17-4 run.

Collier, however, answered at the start of the final quarter with a three-pointer and then fired for two more and the Lynx perfect start to the season continued.

In giving Dallas its fifth straight loss, Minnesota had 13 makes from beyond the arc, moved the ball well with 25 assists on the 29 field goals, and also grabbed 12 steals while committing just six turnovers.

Former South Florida star Courtney Williams missed most of the second half for the Lynx due to some concern with her calf, according to Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star from South Jersey who guided the USA Olympians to their record eighth straight gold medal in Paris last summer.

“We really, really erred on the side of caution until the start of the fourth quarter, when she demanded she be given the opportunity to play,” Reeve said.

Williams finished with scoring five points, with a pair of rebounds, eight and two steals.

Both teams are idle until Wednesday when, if New York ties Minnesota by beating Chicago Tuesday, the Lynx can snap the deadlock Wednesday in Seattle, while Dallas will try to end its skid playing at Phoenix.