The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Minnesota Clinches No. 1 Seed; Golden State Ousts Washington; Phoenix Wins NY Series; Seattle Beats Chicago

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Delayed a game earlier in the week by blowing a 21-point lead to Seattle for Minnesota’s second home loss of the season, the Lynx (31-8) easily bounced back on the road Saturday night with a dominating 94-70 thrashing of 11th place Connecticut (10-29) before a sellout Mohegan Sun Arena crowd of 8,910 in Uncasville near New London to set a franchise win record and clinch the top seed and home advantage through all three rounds of the playoffs that begin in two weeks on Sept. 14 with all four opening games (ABC/ESPN) in Round 1 of a revised 1-1-1 forward.

The Lynx, who are 5.5 games in front of Las Vegas (25-14),  on that date at their Target Center in Minneapolis could see any of a now reduced four teams fighting for three spots at the bottom of the standings but that group no longer includes 10th place Washington (16-24), which was eliminated with its sixth straight loss, falling 99-62 at eighth place Golden State (20-18) in San Francisco.

The winning Valkyries, who have set an expansion season record for wins, continued their other record, selling out all 18,064 seats at every home game of the Chase Center that’s shared with the NBA Warriors.

What remains is the pursuit of the prized third record becoming the first expansion team to make the eight-team playoffs whose pairings will set on Sept. 11 when the WNBA record 44-game regular season concludes.

The Valkyries swept all four games with the Mystics, who, with elimination, join Connecticut, Chicago (9-30) and Dallas (9-31) in the draft lottery five-team pool that offers the overall No. 1 pick in what will be an expanded 15-team night next April when Toronto and Portland launch their seasons.

Golden State sits 2.5 games in front of Los Angeles (17-20) with six games remaining.

The Sparks, part of the WNBA’s two-game package Sunday, host Washington, arriving on the second of a back-to-back to be played at 8 p.m.

The Valkyries, also on a back-to-back, in Sunday’s other game, host sixth-place Indiana (21-18) at 8:30 p.m.

The Fever are in a virtual tie with Seattle (22-19), both 10 games behind Minnesota, 2.5 in back of WNBA defending champion New York, and a half-game up on Golden State and three in front of Los Angeles, which has seven left.

Seattle, in Saturday’s third of four games, snapped a five-game home losing streak, beating Chicago 79-69 before a crowd of 12,500 in Climate Pledge Arena.

The Storm overall have won six of their last eight, including road upsets of Atlanta (25-14) and this week Minnesota, after a six-game slide, five of the losses by four points or less, falling from contending for one of four home-court advantages in the first round to the tight battle just to make the playoff field.

Phoenix Tops New York

In Saturday’s last game and battle for a home-court, Phoenix (25-14), to the delight of a crowd of 13, 253 at PHX Arena, beat New York 80-63 to win the series 3-1, dropping the Liberty (24-16) 1.5 behind the Mercury in fifth and moving into a dead-even third-place tie with Atlanta a half-game behind Las Vegas.

A second-place finish secures the other home-court advantage with Minnesota if gaining the best-of-five semifinals.

The finals are being expanded by two games to a record best-of-seven series.

In the win by Phoenix, Rutgers graduate Kahleah Copper out of North Philadelphia scored 22 points as the injury-riddled Liberty suffered yet another fourth-quarter meltdown outscored 25-14 by the Mercury and 43-24 overall in the second half after leading 39-37 at the break.

Copper was 7-15 from the field, dominating on 5-10 makes from distance.

Alyssa Thomas, the Maryland grad out of Harrisburg, scored 14 points with nine assists, while Satou Sabally also scored 14 points, and Natasha Mack had 10 rebounds to go with her 8 points. Reserve DeWanna Bonner had 9 points and seven rebounds.

“With what is at stake in the standings, it was a big win just to get that tiebreaker,” said Phoenix first-year coach Nate Tibbetts. “Obviously, you can’t get too high in this league. There’s a good chance we see New York in the first round. Really pleased with our defense in the second half. They were missing a key piece.”

New York got starters Jonquel Jones and Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud back after missing Thursday’s home win over Washington, but Sabrina Ionescu remained sidelined with a toe injury.

Emma Meesseman scored 17 and Breanna Stewart scored 14, while Cloud collected 13 points but New York only got eight points from its bench.

“They were very physical,” said New York coach Sandy Brondello, who won a previous WNBA title at Phoenix, and we started turning the ball over and defensively we weren’t very good. The A.T. ball screens exploited us in a lot of areas. Tough game all around.”

“We’re just trying to figure out what sets work best. Who has the mismatch when we have three post players,” Stewart said of the various lineup changes New York has undergone trying to navigate all the injuries after the Liberty kept pace with Minnesota with a best-ever 9-0 start before they began to occur.

“We need to be better,” Stewart said. “Obviously, this is a learning opportunity, but we’re running out of opportunities for growth at this point, but actually we need to be better.”

New York has four games left, at Golden State, Tuesday, and at Seattle Friday before hosting Washington and traveling to Chicago.

The Liberty, with a magic number of one but who were denied clinching a playoff spot with a loss, are in danger having to be at home disadvantage throughout the postseason trying to defend their first-ever title.

Phoenix next hosts Indiana Tuesday at 10 p.m. at home on NBA TV and then visits Washington, and Connecticut, hosts Los Angeles, then visits Dallas to finish.

Minnesota Romps at Connecticut

Alanna Smith and DiJonai Carrington each scored 18 points in the Lynx clincher for top seed.

The Lynx new win record came in their 39th game, one more than in last season’s 40th game. The league expanded the slate to 44 this season, which is free of dealing with either the FIBA Cup or Olympics.

Napheesa Collier, contending with reigning MVP A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas for this year’s honor, had 17 points and nine boards, while Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride each scored 15 points with Williams grabbing eight rebounds and McBride dealing six assists.

Williams also scored her 4,000th career point.

Connecticut’s Tina Charles and Marina Mabrey each scored 14 points and newly acquired second-year pro Aaliyah Edwards scored 11.

Minnesota hosts Dallas at 8 p.m. on Monday on NBA TV, while Connecticut hosts Atlanta the same day at 1 p.m.

“Obviously, with Courtney and (Natisha Hiedeman) having played here, it’s fun to see them come back here and see the love (Sun fans) have,” said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star out of South Jersey who won four titles with Minnesota the last decade.

Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, who were part of those teams, are being inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend, as is former Seattle great Sue Bird, who with Moore, in separate eras played on NCAA champions at UConn.

“I don’t know how the players are, but we've never really look at our record,” said Reeve, who also guided USA to its record eighth straight Olympic title in Paris last summer. “When you clinch and you look at the record, you go, `holy cow we have 31 wins.’

“What does it mean? That this group is really special. In two years, they’ve won 61 games together. That’s a really, really special group. Just happy for them. They work so hard. The believe%gż in themselves. The way that they do it,” Reeve said.

“We have a scenario now, if we win our home games we win a WNBA championship. That was one of our goals and I’m happy we achieved it.”

Golden State Stays in Playoffs Pursuit and Ousts Washington

Five Valkyries players scored in double figures while eliminating the Mystics, with the youngest roster, from the playoff hunt.

Reserve Carla Leite scored 19 with six assists for Golden State, which snapped a two-game home losing streak. Veronica Burton scored 15, Janelle Salaun had 20 points and six boards, and Kaila Charles scored 16.

“When we do get rest, we had two to three days, people had off,” said Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase. “So, I think there’s a time you can recover mentally and physically, and you can execute a game plan.

“When they’re tired, that’s when it becomes sort of a struggle. Every point guard kept us organized. Kaila brings a certain kind of energy. She doesn’t get tired. She’s instant energy and keeps going.

 “Defensively, we were on a string tonight,” Nakase noted. “We were communicating, we had each other's back, we were switching sometimes where we don't normally switch, so it was cool to see us just being super connected.

“Tonight was one of our best defensive games, which is really great to say at this point in the season. It was a key we won the rebounding battle because we wanted to limit offensive possessions.

‘These are must win games. Tomorrow is a must win game,” Nakase referenced the playoff chase, and what’s ahead with four home games in seven days, with three opponents being Indiana and New York, still chasing spots, and Minnesota.

Washington’s Sug Sutton scored 17, rookie Sonia Citron scored 11, and rookie Lucy Olsen, the Collegeville native out of Villanova and Iowa, in 20 minutes scored 13, shooting 5-13 from the field with one shot made from beyond the arc.

Seattle Beats Chicago

The Storm swept the four-game series with the Sky, Saturday’s win important to stay in front of ninth place Los Angeles and right behind them Golden State.

Six players scored in double figures led by Nneka Ogwumike with 20 points, while Ezi Magbegor collected 13 points, Skylar Diggins and Gabby Williams each scored 12, and Erica Wheeler and Brittney Sykes both scored 11.

In Chicago’s fourth straight loss, and 17 of the last 19 games, second-year pro Angel Reese aded to her double-double compilation with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Michaela Onyenwere scored 11 and Kamilla Cardoso grabbed 11 rebounds.

The Sky threatened an upset moving within five points at 57-52 early in the fourth period but Diggins then set off a 7-0 run off her three-point play to secure the win.

The contest was the first of a four-game homestand, continuing with Los Angeles visiting Monday at 10 p.m. on NBA TV, New York on Friday, and Golden State next Tuesday.

“We’ve been viewing our season as an 800-meter sprint, so this is the end of our last 200 and being able to utilize our schedule for focus and discipline has been important,” Ogwumike said. “We've been more successful on the road, and we want to be able to show we can bring the momentum, especially with all the tight games we’ve been playing in August and turning that around into wins and hopefully create what will be a four-game winning stand going into the playoffs.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Atlanta Beats Depleted Dallas and Joins the Playoffs With Phoenix; Indiana Nips Los Angeles

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

In what has become the most compelling finish that will arrive by Sept. 11 ending the WNBA record 44-game regular season, there were only two games Friday night, but those results set off several things in what has become the playoffs to the playoffs.

Third place Atlanta (25-14), after dropping back, off the earlier showdown this week with Las Vegas, took advantage of hosting depleted and last place Dallas (9-31), beating the Wings 100-78 before a crowd of 3,268 at the Gateway Center in suburban College Park as the Dream officially punched their 11th ticket to the postseason in franchise history.

Soon thereafter on the West Coast, the injured side prevailed as Indiana (21-18) nipped Los Angeles 76-75 before a Crypto.com Arena crowd of 15,419 as the Fever moved into sixth place a half-game in front of idle Seattle (21-19), while the ninth-place Sparks (17-20) slipped two games behind the eighth place and expansion Golden State Valkyries (19-18).

That result enabled idle Phoenix (24-14) to also earn a playoff ticket, filling half of the eight-team field in the postseason that will begin Sunday, Sept. 14, with all four opening games (ABC/ESPN) of the best-of-three first round that has been revised to a 1-1-1 format.

The higher seeds will have home-court advantage and thus will get to return for any Game 3s, if necessary, in series that would be tied 1-1.

“We just gotta take it one at a time,” Los Angeles coach Lynne Roberts said before the loss. “I like that we have eight games left, a lot of teams have a lot less. With more games, yes, there's more fatigue or whatever, but there's more opportunities.

“We have to play with an urgency and, as I've said before, not focus on what we're not good at, but at this point, really hone in on what we're great at, and enforcing that and getting to that, and seeing how we can make those things happen.

“Eight games left, we just got to go one at a time. It's still in front of us, it's an uphill climb, but it's right there.”

Four games are set for Saturday night, of which the first three all involve heavy favorites.

Leading off, first-place Minnesota (30-8) is at 11th place Connecticut (10-28) at 7 p.m. on NBA TV, the visiting Lynx arriving from a blown 21-point lead to Seattle for just their second home loss.

 The Lynx lead the rest of the 13-team league by five games ahead of second-place Las Vegas (26-14) while at the bottom, Connecticut, Chicago (9-21) and Dallas have already been eliminated and are in the draft lottery pool with two more that soon will be added.

Minnesota gets its second straight chance in Saturday night’s game to clinch top seed and overall home court advantage by advancing to the best-of-five semifinals, and record best-of-seven finals where the Lynx last October in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center fell at the finish in overtime in decisive Game 5 allowing New York to win the series 3-2 for its first title in the 28th season of the Liberty franchise dating to the WNBA inaugural summer of 1997.

In the second game of the night Golden State (19-18) hosts 10th-place Washington (16-23) at 8:30 p.m., the Mystics arriving on a five-game losing streak and sitting on the edge of the elimination cliff.

A loss would put Washington five back with four left thus making the Mystics the fourth team in the draft lottery group.

Golden State has set a record selling out every home game in the 18,000+ seat Chase Center in San Francisco shared with the NBA Warriors.

The Valkyries, who have set an expansion season win record, are also trying to be the first to make the playoffs in their league debut.

A win will put them 2.5 games up on Los Angeles with six remaining – hosting Indiana Sunday in a back-to-back and then finishing by playing New York, Dallas, Minnesota, at Seattle, at Minnesota.

The third game Saturday night has Seattle hosting Chicago at 9 p.m.

When the month began the Storm were in a fourth-place battle with a chance to finish higher before experiencing a six-game slide, five by four points or less, that took them down to just chasing a postseason participation ticket.

Finally halting the streak, Seattle has won five of seven games, two over Atlanta and the recent game at Minnesota and one of them a blowout loss at Indiana.

In Saturday’s game against the Sky, Seattle has lost five straight at home this month.

An upset loss could mean a potential exchange with the Valkyries, pending Golden State’s result, 2.5 in front of Los Angeles with three games left to play.

A win moves Seattle in a tie with Indiana.

After Saturday, the Storm finish by hosting Los Angeles in a huge contest Monday at 10 p.m. on NBA TV and then hosting New York and Golden State with a lot of rest in between all three.

While mathematically at this hour, the overall picture is a six-for-four fight to complete the playoff field, the three game differential between New York and Indiana makes it at the low end a five-for-three, with one fading fast, competition just for access, while at the high end the 1.5 games spread between second and fifth make it a four team fight for three remaining first-round home advantages and a four for one battle to see who earns the same perk that Minnesota has for the semifinals.

All of that brings us to Saturday night’s marquee game at 10 p.m. when fifth-place New York visits fourth-place Phoenix on NBA TV.

The defending champs’ magic number to become the fifth playoff team is one with a 2-1 series win over Los Angeles to hold the tiebreaker.

Phoenix has a 2-1 series lead on New York so besides clinching it with a win, the Mercury moves into a third-place tie with Atlanta a half-game behind Las Vegas and 1.5 in front of New York.

The Liberty with a win moves in front of Phoenix, virtually tied with Atlanta, which won the series and a game behind Las Vegas and owning the series.

Phoenix after Saturday has five left: hosting Indiana, visiting Washington, hosting Los Angeles and visiting Dallas.

New York will have four to play: at Golden State, at Seattle, hosting Washington and visiting Chicago.

The Liberty on Thursday won over Washington without starters Natasha Cloud (nose), Jonquel Jones (illness) and Sabrina Ionescue (toe), and ongoing reserve Nayara Sabally (knee) but did get back reserve Isabelle Harrison for the first time in over two weeks from a concussion and she made a major contribution to the win.

Atlanta Playoff Bound After Beating Depleted Dallas

The Wings’ injury situation got so bad the team had to scramble to sign a pair of players to short-term hardship deals to make the roster availability minimum requirement of eight players.

In the win, Rhyne Howard scored 24, propelled by six 3-pointers, with a personal best six blocked shots, as the Dream took the series 3-1.

Atlanta was in the playoffs last fall, eliminated in the first round by eventual champion New York. Whoever the Dream play in one of the four openers in two weeks, they’ll be looking for their first postseason win since 2018.

Allisha Gray Scored 19 points for Atlanta, while Brionna Jones collected 16, Te-Hina Paopao scored 14 and reserve Brittney Griner had 11 as as the winners gained 32 assists on their 38 made field goals.

Villanova grad Maddy Siegrist scored 23 for Dallas, while overall number one draft pick Paige Bueckers, who missed the last game because of illness, had 16 points and 10 assists. Additionally, Myisha Hines-Allen and Amy Okonkwo, the latter zwho signed a new seven-day deal, each scored 11 for the visitors.

“I give Dallas a lot of credit,” said Atlanta first-year coach Karl Smesko. “They’re battling a lot of injuries and added people at the last minute. They came out, they competed, they took care of the ball, they got good shots, I thought they really made things difficult on us.

“At the same time, it's good for us, it made us have to play a fourth quarter and execute and I thought in the fourth quarter we really did a great job getting good shots and our defense was much better in the fourth quarter,  so a lot of encouraging signs there.”

Dallas has lost seven straight and next plays at Minnesota Monday at 8 p.m. on NBA TV while Atlanta begins its remaining five-game slate at Connecticut Monday at 1 p.m. before hosting Los Angeles twice later in the week and then finishes on a home-and-home with Connecticut.

“We have bigger goals than just making the playoffs, but you can’t reach those goals unless you make the playoffs, so it’s a step in the right direction,” Smesko said. “Obviously, we’d like to be in the best position at the end of the regular season in terms of hosting as much as we can, and there’s a whole bunch of teams super tight, so it was an important game for us and I was glad we had the fourth quarter that we did.”

Boston Leads Indiana to Narrow Win at Los Angeles

Down a bunch of players, including the now 17-straight game absence of reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark, who has only played in 13 this season due to two groin and one quad combined injuries, Indiana has stayed in the playoff hunt with two key triumphs following the Seattle victory by preventing Los Angeles from moving closer to the field of qualifiers.

Before this season, Clark had not missed a game in college at Iowa or her rookie WNBA debut in 2024, when she was the overall No. 1 pick.

South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston, taken overall No. 1 in 2023 by the Fever a year ahead of Clark, scored 22 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dealt four assists, and had a career high six steals, one coming with 1.9 seconds left in regulation to clinch the win.

Odyssey Sims, who had played earlier with the Sparks and was signed after the Fever earlier this month lost guards Sydney Colson (ACL), Aari McDonald (foot), and Sophie Cunningham (knee) to season-ending injuries, scored 21.

“At the end of the day the goal was to come here and get the ‘W.’”, Sims said. “It wasn't pretty, but we got the ‘W’, so we're moving on.

‘I’m with a good group, from the owners to the players to the coaching staff, everybody pours into each other more than I’ve seen on any other team I’ve been in on. And that speaks volumes for situations like this,” Sims continued.

“It’s not about, ‘Oh, I want to shoot the last shot.’ Or ‘Oh, we got to get the ball here.’ It’s about making plays like ‘Coach told us earlier today, ‘At the end of the day, play great now or make something happen, just make it happen. So, I’m excited. I’m just happy we got this win tonight, my next focus is, go to sleep.”

In the closing minute, Los Angeles went up 75-74 with 31.6 seconds left after Azura Stevens was fouled on a putback attempt and went to the line making one of two free throws.

Sims got the lead back on the next possession scoring after an offensive rebound with the clock showing 13.6.

The Sparks called time and then on the inbounds play the Fever trapped Rickea Jackson, who then found Kelsey Plum, but she lost control, and Boston grabbed it for a steal as Los Angeles committed its 22nd turnover.

Kelsey Mitchell went to the line and missed both attempts with 0.4 left but Los Angeles couldn’t get a shot off to reverse the outcome.

Mitchell, averaging 20.7 points, was held to 12 but Boston joined retired Fever Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings as the second franchise player scoring at least 15 points with 10 boards and five steals as Indiana prevented a Sparks sweep in the four-game series.

“I’m incredibly proud of the defensive effort,” Indiana coach Stephanie White said. “To hold Jackson and Plum scoreless in the second half is huge for this group. Their discipline in those moments was really good.

“One thing that often goes missed is the character of these women,” White addressed the team’s resiliency through all the adversity. “Especially this group, that’s been here, that’s gone through all of this, the people we brought in. These are women who care about winning. These are women who care about one another. These are women who sacrifice every single day.

“We have a deep team, a lot of our players on our team who could be playing and they’re not, and that’s a tribute to our depth. The selfless nature of this group can’t be overstated and that’s why we’re able to be in positions like this.”

Stevens scored 17 for Los Angeles, while Plum and Rae Burrell each scored 12.

“The game just comes down, as I always say, to chances,” Sparks coach Roberts said. “They had 15 offensive rebounds, and we had 22 turnovers, and we struggled with those two things earlier in the season. We've been a lot better tonight.

 “Indiana did a great job, and we had 56 field goals attempts, they had 81. And so, for us to only lose by one, it's actually pretty statistically amazing. We shot the ball well. We just gave them too many chances. And I think that's what the game comes down to.”

The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Depleted New York Handles Washington; Seattle Stuns Minnesota With 21-Point Rally; Phoenix Tops Chicago

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

NEW YORK — Give New York coach Sandy Brondello credit for maintaining an upbeat personality and keeping the defense of the Liberty’s first WNBA title on track while the wheels of the talented roster have continually come off this season through a slew of injuries.

On Thursday night three days after All-Star Breanna Stewart returned from a 13-game absence due to a bone bruise in her right knee Brondello opened her pre-game media briefing here at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn announcing three starters would not be available for the Liberty’s game with the 10th-place Washington Mystics (16-23).

Point guard and Saint Joseph’s graduate Natasha Cloud, who on Monday Brondello said was likely to return from a fracture in her nose, was being held out for not feeling good to go; Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, who was out with a knee injury from mid-June to mid-July, was sick, and Sabrina Ionescu’s toe off the foot injury that kept her out of Saturday’s loss in Atlanta, was acting up, having hurt it in practice.

“Welcome to the New York Liberty,” she smiled referring to a season in which others had also been nicked up.

Would the Liberty’s misfortune be good news for first-year Washington coach Sydney Johnson, whose Mystics arrived on a four-game slide.

“That’s not us,” he said in terms of the task made easier.

He was correct and now with less than two weeks until the record 44-game regular season ends following an 89-63 loss to New York (24-15), the Mystics are four games behind the playoff cutoff slot with five remaining.

That position is held by eighth-place Golden State (19-18) whom Washington visits Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. in San Francisco which set a record for wins by an expansion team and is trying to be the first newcomer in WNBA history to land in the postseason.

Talk about timing on a schedule because a loss Saturday night will send Washington officially over the cliff joining Connecticut (10-28), Chicago (9-29) and Dallas (9-30) in the consolation draft-lottery pool of eliminated teams with a chance to land the overall No.1 pick in next April’s selections, which will see the arrival of Toronto and Portland growing the WNBA to 15 franchises.

That number will reach 18 in the next five years with the arrival of Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029), and Philadelphia (2030).

Back in the immediate presence, when the night began, the playoff pool had a chance to reach the halfway total with two more to join first place Minnesota (30-8) and second-place Las Vegas (26-14).

Set to happen the way the three-game night started, it did not because in a stunning rally, Minnesota’s champagne party for clinching overall No. 1 seed when the opening four-game best-of-three first round series begins Sunday, Sept. 14 (ABC/ESPN) was kept on ice by a comeback 93-79 victory by Seattle (21-19) as the Storm lived up to their name and moved to a virtual sixth-place tie with idle Indiana (20-18) a half-game in front of Golden State and two in front of ninth-place Los Angeles (17-19) which hosts Indiana Friday night at 10 p.m. on the second game on a two-game package on ION that opens with third-place Atlanta (24-14) hosting Dallas at 7:30 p.m.

Seattle can keep its momentum going in the Storm’s next game hosting Chicago at 9 p.m, part of Saturday night’s five game package.

“Coming on the road and having a game like this against the number one team gives us confidence plus the momentum we've been searching for,” said Seattle coach Noelle Quinn. “This type of game at this juncture of the season — this was a good one for us. We showed a lot of resiliency, being down, having 34 points in the quarter, going on a run in the second-half. The defense was connected and there was execution offensively.

“Their resilience, their fight, their will — they didn’t say die. There never was a point where we felt deflated or defeated,” Quinn continued. “We took care of every possession, improved every possession and walked away with a victory.”

New York’s win kept the Liberty alive to land home advantage in the first round of an altered 1-1-1 format a half-game behind Phoenix (24-14), which won Thursday’s other game, an 83-79 victory over Chicago before a home crowd of 10,445 at PHX Arena.

The Mercury moved into a third-place tie with Atlanta one behind Las Vegas, which is still a distant five games behind Minnesota, which will be heavily favored to pop the champagne corks Saturday night at Connecticut (7 p.m., NBA-TV).

New York, which drew a crowd of 15,015, is at Phoenix Saturday night at 10 p.m. where a win ties the series 2-2 and flips them into at least fourth place that carries the last home advantage in the opening round.

Because of Seattle’s win, the Phoenix magic number is still one to earn a playoff ticet.

The Liberty can still get more beyond fourth, trailing Las Vegas by 1.5 games and owning the series with the Aces.

Second place carries the other home advantage in the best-of-five semifinals.

Harrison and Johannes Star in New York’s Revamped Lineup

In what has been an ongoing turnstile in and out of the medical ward for New York, whose stars stayed healthy for the Liberty’s first championship season last summer, reserve Isabelle Harrison helped fill the void by coming out of the concussion protocol returning from a two-week absence to score a season-high 16 points with a pair of makes from distance while Marine Johannes scored 14.

“I think you know what it meant for me having her back and just having more post depth,” Brondello said of Harrison. “Just her aggressiveness at the rim. She played great, playing 20 minutes and pushing through.”

“It feels great,” Harrison said. "Especially having JJ out, I just wanted to bring more aggressiveness and just the effort.”

The magic number for New York to officially clinch the playoff field is two.

Overall, the New York bench came through producing 35 points with Stephanie Talbot scoring 11 points and Rebekah Gardner with eight.

Stewart had 12 points and grabbed nine boards while Emma Meesseman, a past WNBA standout who signed this month as a free agent, scored 15.

The Belgian, who was Europe’s top player the last several seasons, had brief reunions pre-game with some of the Washington personnel still around from the Mystics’ 2019 WNBA champions when Meesseman became the first reserve named Finals MVP.

The two Washington rookies continued to shine with Sonia Citron, taken third, scoring 18, most in the first half, and Kiki Iriafen, taken fourth, scoring 16, off 7-11 from the field while Citron was 7-14 and 4-7 on made 3-pointers.

They are the first rookie duo in WNBA history to to each pass 500 points.

Citron has tied the late Nikki McCray’s franchise rookie record of 16 straight games scoring 10 or more points, though McCray had previous pro experience in the ABL, and last week Citron broke the franchise rookie season scoring record set by Chamique Holdsclaw in 1999.

Rookie Lucy Olsen, the Collegeville native out of Villanova and Iowa, where as a senior she filled the point guard vacancy left by the graduated Caitlin Clark, played 17 minutes, shooting 4-8 with a 3-pointer and scoring nine of which seven came in the first.

Citron was playing in New York for the first time close to her suburban hometown White Plains, where the earlier NBA owner Knicks exiled the Liberty from Madison Square Garden a pair of seasons trying to sell the team eventually bought by the NBA Nets ownership.

Diggins’ Second-Half Surge Carries Seattle to Comeback Upset of Minnesota

Their team up 21 points and ready to celebrate a regular season title, the crowd of 9,810 at the Target Center in Minneapolis had their night ruined by Seattle’s Skylar Diggins, who scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half as Seattle handed the Lynx just their first home loss in 20 games.

The Storm back in June were the first team to beat Minnesota, which had a 9-0 start.

Nneka Ogwumike added 12 points and nine points in Seattle’s Thursday win, while Gabby Williams collected 16 points and rookie Dominique Malonga and Erica Wheeler each scored 13 points.

It ties the second largest comeback in the history of the team, having trailed 39-18 midway through the second quarter.

The Lynx’s Kayla McBride scored 20, propelled by five three-pointers, while Napheesa Collier, whose front-running MVP chase has recently been caught by reigning MVP A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas, scored 18 as did Courtney Williams, who also dealt 10 assists.

After Minnesota dominated the first half, Seattle in the third erupted on a 25-6 run to close the period with 34 points, one more than in the first half.

The Storm shot 12-19 in the third, including 7 of 11 connects from beyond the arc.

“We know this team never loses at home, and they rarely lose. It was just about us staying together,” Seattle’s Quinn said. “That 34-point third quarter was a big deal. But the most impressive thing was defensively holding them to 17 and 16 in the third and fourth.”

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star out of South Jersey, said of the loss, “It wasn’t just the one quarter. We got beat by 27 in the second half. We only won one quarter, that was the first quarter.

“The turn started happening in the second quarter, to be honest with you. Could feel it at half time coming in. Trying to convince your team you're going to have to play the first five like it's the last five.

“And then I thought (Seattle) ratcheted up pressure. And then we wanted foul calls, and foul calls weren't happening. We didn't have the level of aggression that Seattle had,” Reeve said.

 “They made their own breaks, and they played off of them. And we allow them to do that, and we didn't provide resistance at the other end, and they kicked our ass.”

Copper Leads Phoenix Over Chicago

Rutgers grad Kahleah Copper out of North Philadelphia scored 28 on the day she turned 31, while Natasha Mack had her first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds as the Mercury beat the Sky to stay ahead of New York, who’s up next, and move into a virtual tie with Atlanta, who will move out of it in either direction, pending the Dream’s outcome in their game Friday night.

Alyssa Thomas added 15 points and nine boards to the joy of the 15th sellout by the Mercury, who has won three straight and five of six and can claim the series and thus head-to-head tiebreaker beating New York, if the two teams finish deadlocked in the final standings.

Defensively, Phoenix had 17 steals on Chicago, five by DeWanna Bonner, and 11 blocks.

The Sky’s Kia Nurse had five from distance and shot 6-8 from the field. Second-year pro Angel Reese had 15 points and 20 rebounds, eight on the offensive glass, while second-year pro Kamilla Cardoso scored 15 points.

Reese has already reached the top five for career rebounds on Chicago.

Ball handling cost the Sky, committing 20 turnovers yielding 20 out of them to Phoenix.

It was a tight game with lead exchanges throughout with the score tied at 71 with 3:34 to play in regulation.

A foul call on Thomas down the stretch was won on a challenge enabling Phoenix to go ahead 75-71.

Chicago was another case in the last week of eliminated teams making the contenders work for their victories.

“Chicago is a team in the last five games that has really competed against some really good teams, and we had some chances to really put them away,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said afterwards. “They kept hanging around and I give them a lot of credit for continuing to fight.

 “You just got to figure out a way to win and our group did that. We went with a little bit different lineup down the stretch with some size.”

As for the tight chase for inclusion and seeding in the playoffs, Tibbetts said before playing Chicago, “We talked a little bit today as staff where we’re headed. We still have some more games. I think it’s a little too far out to start narrowing it down.

“The playoffs are always on our mind but you kind of want to focus what’s in front of you. I feel like (the standings) have been tight for two weeks so every night, every game matters, I think if you’re with the Mercury every night you have to look at other scores but we just have to keep focus on us, there’s a lot of basketball left to play.

“I do like how we’ve been playing lately. I feel like we’re headed in the right direction. But you can control only what you can control. You need help along the way. Some of that is with health. Some of that is with upsets. The cool thing with this league is even the teams that are out of it, they compete every night, so you might be walking into game, you think it’s going to be an easy one and it just doesn’t happen.

“With our league, I’ve been impressed with that.”