The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: New York Plunders Connecticut While Minnesota Bests Golden State As Both Winners Stay Unbeaten and Phoenix Rallies on L.A.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK — It might sound like a cruel statement to say that the WNBA defending champion New York Liberty’s 100-52 blowout of the Connecticut Sun, tying their recent league record in the regular season connecting with 19 three-pointers Sunday afternoon here before a sellout 17,415 crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn could have been worse.

But that is the case considering that after building a 90-36 lead dominating in each of the first three quarters, the Liberty, with their leading scorers on the bench most of the fourth quarter, cooled off the final ten minutes in which the visitors (1-6) had a 16-10 advantage.

“We were committed to playing great defense to create our offense,” said New York coach Sandy Brandello.

The 48-point winning differential, which had gotten even wider in the game, is the second most in WNBA history behind 59 set by the Minnesota Lynx in 2017 and is now a franchise best passing a 43-point win over Washington, the Mystics’ expansion season in 1998.

“It was great to see a contribution from everyone,” said Sabrina Ionescu, who led with 18 points and was the top long-range shooter at 4-of-6 among all 11 New York players who connected. “Everyone came out really ready, everyone scored and contributed in a really impactful way from start to finish.

“Every single quarter, our goal was to be able to come out and play our best basketball, not worry about who we were playing and play the best we can and obviously, we knew there were 17,000 fans there,” the former Oregon star and past overall No. 1 draft pick when selected by New York continued.

“That was my message before the game - This is a big game, there could be new fans, new kids that want to come and watch us for the first time. They don’t know we’ve had four (games) in six days, they don’t care, they want to go out and watch Liberty basketball and we weren’t going to use that as an excuse to come out and be lethargic because we had been playing so many games.

“It was an opportunity to come out and put our best foot forward and I’m proud we did that.”

Ionescu fired up the arena in the third period when the game was well under control for New York, when the home team challenged a foul called on her off the three-point shot by the Sun’s Marina Marbrey.

The Liberty won the challenge and Ionescu reacted as if her team had just won another title, running with excitement on the court and then high five slapping the New York coaching staff.

“I was really in the moment. But I knew I didn’t foul her.”

The promotional event for the contest was the birthday of the popular mascot, Ellie the Elephant.

“I think she’s the best mascot, not just in the league but in the entire world,” said Brondello in the pre-game media availability.

The Liberty (7-0) continued their perfect start, matching the franchise mark set in the inaugural summer of 1997, and it came on the opening of the league’s three-week Commissioner’s Cup series in which the seven teams in the West will play each other home-and-home while the six teams in the East will do likewise.

 The two that appear at the top will face each other July 1 at the venue of the team with the best record. Although geographical alignment is the structure for the in-season tournament, the eight-team seeding in the playoffs is done based on overall records of what is now the 13 teams in the league.

Minnesota topped New York last year but the Liberty came back to edge the Lynx here at the very finish of overtime in the decisive Game 5 of the finals for their first-ever title in their then-28 years of existence dating to 1997.

Three other games that were played later Sunday in the West saw Minnesota (7-0) stay even with New York exploding in the third quarter to win at Golden State 86-75 in which the expansion Valkyries (2-4) at the Chase Center in San Francisco set a WNBA record with its third straight season-starting sellout with a crowd of 18,064.

Phoenix (5-2) on the road rallied from an 18-point first half deficit to win 85-80 over Los Angeles (2-6) in front of a crowd of 11,033 in the Sparks’ crypto.com Arena, formerly known as the Staples Center, while Las Vegas (4-2) narrowly won 75-70 in a road triumph over Seattle (3-4) in Climate Pledge Arena before a crowd of 10,201 Storm fans.

New York’s fourth game in six days this past week included their one road stop being Friday night in Washington completing a back-to-back from Thursday’s narrow win over Golden State here after routing the Valkyries two nights earlier.

The Liberty will resume play Thursday re-visiting Washington at CareFirst Arena while Connecticut is off until host the Atlanta Dream on Friday.

New York in the third quarter came within a deep shot of its record of 19 beyond the arc set May 22 against Chicago in Wintrust Arena on the road but only made one the rest of the way.

At one point late in the third, the Liberty was shooting 70 percent for the game, finishing at 62.3% going 33-of-52, while sizzling on threes at 19-of-32 for 59.4 percent, and 15-of-17 at the line for 88.2 percent.

Following Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Leonie Fiebich, and Jonquel Jones each scored 13 points, the latter also grabbing 10 boards and making 3-of-4 threes, as did Fiebich shooting threes, while Saint Joseph’s graduate Natasha Cloud made both of hers from deep and scored eight points with seven assists.

Tina Charles, who is back with the Sun team that made her the overall No. 1 pick when she graduated UConn, scored 10 points as did Jacy Sheldon.

Minnesota Explodes in Second Half of Golden State

After two games here in Brooklyn last Tuesday and Thursday, the expansion Valkyries had a third straight chance to separate their opponent from their unbeaten start to the season.

Having extended Golden State in the first half made it seem the third time would be the charm in taking a 52-51 lead at the break.

But former South Florida start Courtney Williams made a shot from deep at 3:01 of the third period for a Minnesota lead for keeps as the Lynx went on to explode with a 27-5 run deep into the final period that at the back end saw Collier and Williams connect on threes 27 seconds apart to make it 83-61 with 5:43 left  in regulation.

The spurt was highlighted with Natisha Hiedeman making all eight of her points.

Napheesa Collier, who founded the successful Unrivaled League with New York’s Breanna Stewart last winter in Florida, scored 24 points with 11 rebounds to continue her bid in the MVP race while Williams had 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists.

Kayla McBride was 6-for-10 from the field for 16 points for Minnesota while Bridget Carleton was also scoring in double digits with 12 points.

Despite keeping pace with New York, the 7-0 start that is the Lynx’s best since 2017, coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star from South Jersey who guided the USA squad to its eighth-straight Olympic gold medal in Paris last summer, was not totally thrilled with the way Minnesota played Golden State.

“That’s the thing with expectations,” Reeve said following the game. “We have to do more because our goals are high. There are times in the game we go through stretches where we are just not intentional. Being more consistent in that mind set is what we’re looking for.”

Collier backed her coach’s criticism.

“She was expressing her frustration with us,” Collier said. “And honestly, it’s really valid.  The fact that we know what to do and we’re not going out to do it — it’s extremely frustrating. We need to go out there and take responsibility.”

Added Williams, “If we want to accomplish the goals we have for ourselves, we can’t be a second half team.”

Veronica Burton, who played at Northwestern, had three shots from deep and finished with 21 points for the Valkyries, propelled by 7-of-11 from the field. Former Iowa star Kate Martin had 14 points, while Kayla Thornton scored 11.

Golden State has lost three straight games since it’s last home appearance.

“When our shots aren’t falling, we can’t get an offensive flow and we can’t let that affect our defense,” said Martin, who teamed with Indiana’s Caitlin Clark at Iowa and was drafted by Las Vegas last season before then landing with the Valkyries in the expansion draft.

“We know the adjustments we need to make, and we’ll make them moving forward.”

Minnesota hosts Phoenix Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ESPN3 in the Target Center in Indianapolis.

The Lynx beat the Mercury last week at the finish.

Phoenix Rallies on Los Angeles

The Mercury, one of the early surprises in the WNBA’s 29th season, trailed Los Angeles by 18 points in the first half before coming back to top the Sparks as Satou Sabally scored 24 points.

Kathryn Wesbeld and Kitija Laksa each added 15 points for Phoenix, which exploded with a 23-7 run in the third period.

Kelsey Plum through a held ball got the Sparks possession with 1:06 left in regulation but she missed an attempted three and a field goal shot from the lane and then committed a turnover.

Laksa, who starred at South Florida, made two from the line with 18.9 left while former Notre Dame standout Westbeld made two at 9.9 left for an 84-80 lead.

Sami Whitcomb had three of the Mercury’s 12 from deep and scored 11 while rookie Monique Akoa out of Cameroon who signed a training camp contract and then made the team had 10 points and six assists.

Former Baylor star Odyssey Sims was hot for the Sparks with 32 points propelled by 10-14 from the field, her most since collecting 39 as a rookie in 2014 while Plum and Dearica Hamby each scored 15 points, though Plum shot 4 of 19 from the field. Hamby had a near double-double with eight boards.

“I just played basketball,” Sims said of her game. “A little bit more aggressive. I think the rim was kind of big for me today.”

Los Angeles connected on eight from deep in the first half but was 0-15 long range the second half.

The Sparks are off until playing Dallas Friday night.

Las Vegas Quells Seattle

Reigning MVP A’ja Wilson had 19 points, seven boards and four blocks for the winning Aces against the Storm, while Jackie Young scored 12 and rookie Aaliyah Nye scored 10 off the bench, while Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd also scored 10 each.

Seattle’s Gabby Williams scored 20, while Skylar Diggins scored 11.

When the Aces went in front at the 8:13 mark of the first period that’s where they stayed the rest of the way. They went on to increase their lead comfortably at 17 points at 64-47 early in the fourth quarter.

For all her success in this one, Wilson failed to get to the line for just the fifth time in a pro career that reached 233 games. She continued with the longest active streak in the WNBA reaching double-digit scoring in 57 consecutive games. The former South Carolina sensation also had a prior 53-streak set of games in double digits.

Wilson also passed the late Margo Dydek with 2,150 rebounds, 26th on the WNBA career charts. The retired Diana Taurasi is 25th at 2210.

Las Vegas is off until Saturday making the Aces’ first visit to Golden State at 3 p.m.  on ABC/ESPN+.

Seattle stays home to greet Dallas Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN while the other game Washington will try to make it two straight on Indiana when the Mystics the same night visits Gainbridge Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. on NBA TV.

On Tuesday, Paige Bueckers, the overall No. 1 draft pick out of UConn, will miss her second straight game being in the concussion protocol.

Reigning Fever overall No. 1 draft pick Caitlin Clark on Tuesday misses her third of a minimum four games with a left quad injury.

The league is dark Monday at the front end of week three.