The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Seattle Beats NY Dropping Liberty Two Games Out With Phoenix; Expansion Golden State Stays Golden; ‘Vegas Beats Indy Moving Into 7th Place Tie With Fever; Citron’s Shot Carries Washington Over Dallas

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Five Sunday game results on the WNBA card left a lot to process as week five concluded and several can lead off in any order to run a list before going into the individual action out of each site.

But we’ll start with the Northwest where the injury riddle defending champion New York Liberty (10-3) were struck down 89-79 by Seattle (9-5) before a Climate Pledge Arena crowd of 12,500 and fell back to the upper part of the trailing pack two games behind idle Minnesota (12-1) and a virtual tie with idle Phoenix (11-4), which is on a five-game win streak and resting from a recent road trip until Friday night.

Atlanta (10-4), which has also been hot, holds fourth a half-game back and 2.5 behind the league-leading Lynx after handling Chicago 93-80 before a crowd of 3,283 at the Gateway Center in suburban College Park, keeping the Sky (3-10) way down below with Dallas (3-12), which parted with a two-game win streak suffering a tough 91-88 overtime loss to the Mystics (6-8) in Southeast Washington at the small venue of CareFirst Arena before a crowd of 4,200.

Seattle’s win over New York moved the Storm into fifth 1.5 behind second and 3.5 behind first.

Moving into undisputed sixth at 1.5 behind Seattle and 5 games behind first place, expansion Golden State (7-6) rose above .500 already outperforming Atlanta’s first year by blasting Connecticut 87-63 keeping the Sun (2-12) at the very bottom of the league in their worst start as the Valkyries continued a WNBA record selling out every home game to date with a crowd of 18,064 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Indiana (6-7) visiting with Caitlyn Clark meant moving arena sites for Las Vegas (6-7) which rewarded a crowd of 18,547 at T-Mobile Arena by snapping a three-game losing streak beating the Fever 89-81 to move into a 7th place tie but on top of Sunday’s opponent a game behind Golden State, six behind first and just a half game ahead of Washington in the final playoff slots.

Idle Los Angeles (4-10) is two behind the Mystics in 10th and a half-game in front of Chicago.

Seattle Handles New York

On Saturday, the Liberty announced Jonquel Jones, the MVP of the thrilling narrow five-game championship series over Minnesota, was to be sidelined 4-6 weeks with a right ankle injury and on Sunday another key player Sabrina Ionescu was absent with a neck injury.

Also missing was Leonie Fiebich, who is overseas along with other international WNBA players playing for their home countries in a key tournament.

The result was a second-straight loss, the third in four, and it came at the start of a difficult road trip with stops at Golden State Wednesday and at Phoenix Friday before returning July 3 to host Los Angeles.

Nneka Ogwumike scored 26 on 12-17 from the field for Seattle, while Skylar Diggins added 20 points.

The Storm forced 21 turnovers mining 22 points for their third straight win and six of their last seven.

Former UConn star Gabby Williams, a member of the French runner-ups to USA in the one-point Olympic gold medal game in Paris, scored 12 for Seattle with a personal best 10 assists with six boards and four steals after gaining her first career double-double in Friday’s win over Las Vegas.

Breanna Stewart, who was an overall No.1 pick by Seattle winning several WNBA titles before returning to her home state as a free agent several years ago, scored 18 against her former team.

Marine Johannes had 17 points and five boards while Rebekah Gardner scored 12.

“Last couple games we played really hard for 40 minutes. We were consistent. We were right there,” said Liberty coach Sandy Brondello.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t win it. But proud of the effort. Maybe if we didn’t turn the ball over so much, things are differen’t.”

Having handed Minnesota it’s only loss, Seattle is the only team to hand the top three standings leaders losses including Phoenix in two of three meetings.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but I think we're trending in the right direction with a lot of the things we've been emphasizing,” said Storm coach Noelle Quinn. “Playing the top teams super- early it's tough to do in this league.

“And to be successful, especially against teams who are a well-oiled machine and have a lot of firepower - these are important wins. It's good for our group to feel how we should be playing.”

Seattle hosts Indiana Tuesday at 10 p.m. on NBA-TV on another busy league night with Washington hosting Minnesota at 8 p.m.; Chicago at the same time hosting Los Angeles on NBA-TV while also at the same time Dallas hosts Atlanta.

No games are scheduled for Monday.

Las Vegas Stops Slide to Move in a 7th Place Tie Ahead of the Fever

Caitlyn Clark, who was a career low 0-7 in attempts from deep in her last game, was only a 1-10 touch warmer for the visiting Fever and scored 19 with 10 assists while the Aces showed the firepower that brought two titles in 2023-24 with reigning MVP A’ja Wilson scoring 24 points with seven boards, Jackie Young with 19 points with seven boards, Chelsa Gray collected 18, rookie Aaliyah Nye out of Alabama had 11 off the bench and Jewell Loyd scored 10.

Indiana’s Aliyah Boston had 26 points with 10 boards while Kelsey Mitchell scored 20.

Still, it was competitive most of night with a 69-69 tie in the fourth when the Aces reeled a 9-2 run to seal it.

Las Vegas is on a 5-0 run dating to last season with the Fever ahead of two games ahead in Indianapolis.

Fever coach Stephanie White returned to the bench having missed her last game for personal reasons but DeWanna Bonner, also for personal reasons, missed her fourth game.

Golden State Continues to Sparkle at Connecticut’s Expense

Earlier in the season as Golden State started making its debut around the league with a strong dose of international players, former ‘Vegas assistant coach and UCLA player Natalie Nakase, the first Asian American coach in the WNBA, guiding the Valkyries, said a plan was in place when the foreigners would be taking time off going overseas to play for their country.

So far, so good, though Golden State might have been favored any way in this one playing a Sun team that lost five starters and 10-of-12 players last season.

Coach Stephanie White also left and returned to a second tour in Indiana.

Still, the team’s success to date already has Nakase in the buzz as a leading coach-of-the-year contender.

In this one, the Valkyries hit the Sun with their sixth straight loss as Kayla Thornton scored 21 with eight boards, while Tiffany Hayes scored 14.

Laeticia Amihere had her first double double with 10 points and career best 12 rebounds as Golden State has won five of its last six games.

The Connecticut output was the lowest Valkyries yield of the season.

Chloe Bibby was also in double figures with 11 points, Veronica Burton added 10 while Stephanie Talbot had 10 boards with six points and four assists.

The home folks erupted for a franchise quarter best with 36 points in the second while holding the Sun to 12.

Rookie Aneesah Morrow had 14 points for the visitors and Jacy Sheldon scored 10.

Golden State hosts New York Wednesday night at 10, the same time Connecticut visits Las Vegas, the only two on Wednesday’s slate while that one is on NBA-TV.

Washington Nips Dallas in Overtime on Citron 3-Pointer

The Wings came to the nation’s capital with overall No. pick Paige Bueckers out of UConn’s 12th NCAA champions and a two-game win streak, but it was on days like this that Notre Dame grad Sonia Citron who was the third overall pick could end up winning rookie of the year.

In a Mystics best for a rookie performance, Citron had 27 points off 9-13 from the field, 11 boards and was 4-7 from deep including the game-winner with 12.2 left in overtime.

“It’s a great feeling,” she said. “I was mad at myself because I thought that I could have ended it in regulation with my missed free throws.

“So kind of just happy that I ended it. I didn’t want to go in double overtime.”

Shakira Austin added 21 points while rookie Kiki Iriafen, who was picked in April right behind Citron, continued to impress with 19 points, seven boards and a personal best six assists shooting 7-12 from the field and also a career best five steals.

Having been unhappy with her play in recent games, Iriafen said, “I tried to hone in on my defense, honestly, more today and not allow things to flow on offense. Just doing more. Just not being one dimensional.

“Taking a page out of (Cintron’s) book and let me play both sides of the ball. There's so much more I can do.”

Sug Sutton scored 15 points, a perfect 4-4 from the floor, including 3-3 from deep, had 15 points while Brittney Sykes, who has led most nights, was the only starter not in double figures, missing out with eight points.

Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale, a former Notre Dame sensation with two buzzer-beaters in the Final Four the last decade and one of the league’s past top scoring threats scored 27 with three from deep, while Bueckers scored 20 with nine boards and seven assists.

Aziaha James added 11 points.

Bueckers tied it with one from deep with 11 seconds remaining in regulation.

The game had several swings, washington bolting to a 16-point lead in the first while Dallas rallied to move ahead by 10 early in the third before Washington reduced it.

Bueckers, on a team with 12 losses that’s one short of her entire collegiate career, said, “It's been fun. It's been a journey in itself.

“Like everything in life, it's a challenge and a test and it's a learning process. We've been learning together as a team. I've been learning as an individual. It's a lot of new here, so we're all doing it together. But it's been a fun journey and rewarding overall.”

While she’s on a new team, Dallas is under a new coach that has injury issues such as three-year pro Maddy Siegriest, who won’t need knee surgery but will be sidelined extensively past the all-star break.”

Atlanta Tops Chicago

The winning Dream got 22 points from Rhyne Howard, while Allisha Gray scored 19, and Brionna Jones had 13 points and 11 boards as Atlanta stayed among the league leaders chasing Minnesota after New York fell back among them.

Te-Hina Paopao out of Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad hit a personal best from three of five collecting 16 points while Naz Hillmon scored 12.

The Dream has won five of six and nine of 11.

Chicago’s Angel Reese had 10 points, 19 boards, four assists and three steals, while Ariel Atkins had 29 points and Elizabeth Williams had 16 points.

Late in the game off a four-minute span, Atlanta went nine points up making five shots from deep.

The lead went above double digits in the last minute off Howard’s easy three from the corner and two from the lane from Jordin Canada.

The Sky has now lost three straight and six of seven.