The Guru’s WNBA Report: The Playoff Gridlock for Slots Continues as ‘Vegas Ruins Brink’s Return at L.A.; Citron and Iriafen Power Washington, and Golden State Downs Atlanta at the Buzzer. Minnesota and New York meet at last while Indiana hosts Phoenix

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

When the time came for the opening tip to the last of Tuesday night’s three-game package in the WNBA, 10th-place Los Angeles hosting seventh place Las Vegas (14-13) had momentum with a five-game win streak closing in on the last playoff slot in the standings with little over a month until the postseason.

The Sparks had the crowd: 12, 449 fans in Crypto.com Arena, formerly the Staples Center.

And after more than a year when second overall 2024 pick Cameron Brink out of Stanford had her rookie season vanish in Game 15 with an ACL, significant depth was back on the roster.

Despite all this, 40 minutes later the visiting Aces (14-13) were the ones who had the game, winning 89-74 after blasting out of the gate for a 31-18 lead after a quarter trailing idle and sixth-place Indiana (14-12) by a half-game, as All-Star Jackie Young had her first triple double with 18 points, 11 boards and 11 assists, and reigning MVP A’ja Wilson had 34 points and 10 boards.

Omens loomed early against the home team, moving across the country before L.A.’s turn, that the basketball Gods weren’t wearing Sparks jerseys bsed on the results from the other two games.

 Expansion Golden State (12-13) in Atlanta tossed the Dream (15-11) a nightmare 77-75 in a home setback delivered 3.9 seconds before the buzzer as Cecilia Zandalasini’s 17th and 18th point gave the visiting Valkyries a 77-75 victory.

That gave Golden State a mood change from dealing with the recent season-ending injury to All-Star Kayla Thornton to show hope might still be realized to become the first WNBA team to make the playoffs in their first season of existence as they hold ninth place, a half-game behind eighth and a game behind the Aces.

For Atlanta, the loss heading to the second of a back-to-back in Dallas Wednesday (8 p.m., ESPN3), wiped Sunday’s uplifting gain dealing first-place Minnesota its first home loss following a 14-0 Target Center start as the Dream dropped 1.5 games behind third-place Phoenix (16-9), and back into fifth a half-game behind Seattle (16-11) and just one game in front of Indiana (14-12).

A crowd of 3,265 fans attended the game in the Gateway Center in suburban College Park, Ga.

The third game of the night coupled with the Los Angeles loss to come saw eighth-place Washington (13-13) take advantage of an injury-riddled lineup from 11th-place Chicago (7-19) for a 103-86 powerful win to the delight of the 4,200 fans at home at CareFirst Arena that not only kept the Mystics in the thick of the tight race for the lower berths while opening a two-game lead on the Sparks.

The win also shone a bright spotlight on the franchise future with the careers-best tandem rookie performances from third pick Sonia Citron with 28 points for the former Notre Dame standout while fourth pick Kiki Iriafen, both who made the All-Star team, scored 22 from the former Stanford and Southern Cal notable.

Brittney Sykes, also on the recent All-Star roster, added 18 points as the Sky in their sixth straight loss got bench crushed 21-7 from Washington.

Chicago did get some help as second-year pro Angel Reese suited up from a two-game absence with back problems. The native of nearby Baltimore out of LSU and before that Maryland, had 22 points and 13 boards, while sister pro sophomore Kamilia Cardoso out of Oregon and South Carolina had 21 points and 10 rebounds. Rachel Banham gave the visitors 19 points.

Washington saw a 19-point lead from the third reduced to eight with 3:22 left but the Mystics countered as Jade Melbourne and Citron shared six points equally and Iriafen scored two in the middle of that run to lock up the win.

The home team shot 51 % with 10 makes from deep.

The two newbies are the first in franchise history to each score 20 plus points in a game.

“First and foremost, just how lucky we are to have them in a Mystics uniform,” said first-year coach Sydney Johnson, who once was in charge of the men’s squad at Princeton. “To come to this league and really want to be great and open to coaching through the highs and lows, through the pressure defense and officiating and the different scheme…I don’t know what to tell you.  But the future’s really great with the pair — it’s just clear as day.”

Citron was 5-for-6 from deep while Iriafen had 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals.

“It’s a very unforced friendship that we have, which is why we’re able to be so successful on the court,” Iriafen said of their relationship and bonding after April’s draft.

“And, truly, I want Sonia to succeed so much. When she makes a three, to me, I made the three. So, I just feel super happy whenever she does well.”

Off the bench, Collegeville’s Lucy Olsen, a second round pick out of a combo collegiate career at Villanova and Iowa, played 11 minutes shooting 2-for-4 from the field and collecting six points.

Olsen recently signed to play pro in Australia this winter.

The lower gridlock playoff wars out of this game continue this week with Washington hosting Golden State at 7:30 on Thursday night on Amazon Prime, the only game on the league slate, and then Chicago gets the Valkyries Friday on a traveling back-to-back, part of a five-game slate on Ion, four of them at 7:30 p.m., that also has Indiana at Dallas, Phoenix at Atlanta, and New York at Connecticut, while the late night attraction has Seattle hosting Los Angeles.

In the Golden State win, Brittney Griner missed a shot to try to tie it at the end after the Valkyries’ score.

The visitors’ Tiffany Hayes scored 15 points, while reserve Caria Leite had 12 points and Veronica Burton scored 10, while their bench outscored the Dream 39-16.

Atlanta’s Jordin Canada scored 21 with eight assists, Naz Hillmon had 14 points and eight boards while Alyssa Gray scored12.

Back out West, Brink, whom first year Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said Monday would be on restricted minutes on her return, scored five points in 13 of the 40.

She last played on June 18 a year ago.

The Aces shot their way to a 31-18 lead after a quarter in which Wilson made all eight of her attempts.

Besides Young’s triple-double for Las Vegas, Dana Evans scored 10, while Wilson had 10 boards, and Chelsea Gray dealt nine assists.

All-Star Kelsey Plum scored 22 for the Sparks, while Rae Burrell scored 17, and Dearica Hamby scored 15.

Los Angeles’ high-powered scoring act during the win streak ended after collecting 90+ points, a team mark, over the five games.

Looking Ahead

The Sparks are off until the Friday game at Seattle while the Aces are off until hosting Minnesota Saturday at 3 p.m. on ABC and ESPN+ and then have another game Sunday.

The Lynx on Wednesday will be greeting New York at 8 p.m. on ESPN, the two meeting for the first time since the Liberty last October won at the finish in overtime in the decisive Game 5 of the finals at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the franchise’s first WNBA title in their then 28-year existence, matching the length of the league’s history.

“We expect both teams to come out swinging,” Minnesota’s coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star out of South Jersey, said at Tuesday’s practice. “Common sense says the two teams should have played earlier in the season but the Rubik’s Cube that is the WNBA schedule is not solvable.

“Certainly, there’s challenges, but I think it’s a big miss for sure.”

At one point, with New York’s best team start at 9-0 and the Lynx keeping pace, this game loomed as a potential battle of unbeatens considering if the two met earlier in the Commissioner’s Cup, almost none of it, including the win and loss, is associated with the regular season other than home court goes to the team between the Eastern and Western representatives with the best record.

Things took a downturn beforehand with the Liberty when Jonquel Jones, the Finals MVP for New York, went down with an ankle injury, not returning until last week.

Minnesota kept winning, going 14-0 at home until Atlanta’s win Sunday in the Target Center, though Indiana won the Commissioner’s Cup despite Caitlin Clark not playing at the time.

On Saturday, All-Star Breanna Stewart went out of the game early for New York with a lower leg injury in what what became a one-point loss to visiting Los Angeles.

The Liberty lost again Monday at Dallas but still hold second four games behind Minnesota and a game in front of Phoenix, which they rallied to beat at home Friday night after two prior losses in the series.

Stewart is on the trip, and the Associated Press citing an anonymous source, said imaging showed no serious injury.

Both teams have come out passively in recent games, but Reeve said this one gets each other’s attention.

“That’s what you expect. Both teams, obviously, we have high aspirations. They do; we do.

“Playing each other, right? Will it bring it out the best of one another and so sits should be, you know, the intense battle that we all anticipate,” Reeve continued.

Referring to Sunday’s game when the Lynx were down early and then rallied, but failed to get the win, Reeve noted, “Obviously, a very slow start. We got it together.

 “It’s 55-51 and (Napheesa Collier) doesn’t get a touch, as good as she was, you know, obviously as good as she was.

“So just then when we got ourselves back in it, we just didn’t have, maybe, now the mental focus of what we needed to (execute what) happen next. So missed opportunity for us to win the game.”

The Liberty did have big news right after the All-Star game announcing the free agent signing of Emma Meesseman, who hasn’t played recently in the WNBA but in 2019 off the bench she became the first Finals MVP in WNBA history as a reserve when Washington won its lone title beating Connecticut in five games.

The other game Wednesday is alsoa key one as Phoenix visits Indiana at 7 p.m. on ESPN3.

Clark, suffering her second groin injury, and third overall including a quad early in the season, has continued to be listed as out for the Fever.

After being injury-free her entire collegiate career as well as rookie pro season in 2024 after being the overall No. 1 pick, Clark will be missing her 14th contest.

 Additionally, she’s missed the Commissioner’s Cup the team won, nor participate in the 3-point contest at the All-Star weekend hosted by the Fever or suit up for the game of which she was one of the captains as the leading vote getter ahead of Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier.

The Fever, however, have been a little more solid since the break and Sunday won at Chicago to go 3-0 in the series between the two as the game was still a sellout of 19,000+ in being moved to the larger United Center, home of the NBA Bulls.

The earlier game between the two in the Windy City was also at the arena and was also a sellout with Clark on the bench but on Sunday Kelsey Mitchell made up for her teammates’ absence by scoring 35 points.