The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Another Standings Playoff Tremor Off Sunday’s Five-Game Results: Wins to Atlanta, Phoenix, Indiana, Washington and Las Vegas - Tough Losses by Golden State, Seattle, and Los Angeles

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

As anticipated, once again the standings involving the nine teams for the remaining seven spots in next month’s WNBA playoffs rattled once more following Sunday’s five-game results though the one team whose concerns rattled the most pending the viewpoint would be the only one of the nine that had the day off.

That would be the defending champion New York Liberty who is getting a heavy dose right now of the Minnesota Lynx it beat 3-2 in games last October emerging at the end of overtime in the decisive Game 5 to gain its long-sought quest for a title in the 28-year history of the franchise dating to the WNBA inaugural summer of 1997.

New York (21-13) had started the season basically eye level with the Lynx (28-5) that included a best-ever 9-0 start before injuries began taking their toll that, by the time the entire four-game series arrived July 30 to be played over a compacted two-week period, instead of being nearly dead-even, the Liberty had dropped way below Minnesota just above the rest of the league.

Following Saturday’s loss in the final seconds to drop to 0-3 to Minnesota ahead of Tuesday’s 7 p.m. game (NBA TV) with the Lynx home in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York slipped a half-game behind Atlanta (22-12) in third place.

A day later on the eve of a contest that is must-win for New York, now a game behind Atlanta, Liberty concerns involving the implications of the playoff pairings to be finalized Sept. 11 have increased.

For Minnesota, which is one-game behind the 2023 champion Las Vegas achievement of best record over 33 games, after being first last week to make the postseason field, the Lynx magic number is two for clinching one of four home advantages in the best-of-three opening rounds and five for the overall No. 1 seed that if held to advance to the finals will gain home court in the newly expanded best-of-seven series.

New York is trying to avoid being stuck with a tragic number of not only being on the downside of a best-of-five semifinals series but now also not being stuck similarly in the openers.

In Sunday’s games, Atlanta went a full game up on New York in second by winning decisively 79-63 at Golden State (18-16), which snapped a four-game win streak in front of a WNBA record continuing season-long sellout crowd of 18,064 in the Chase Center it shares with the NBA Warriors in San Francisco.

The Valkyries, which already holds a WNBA record for most wins in an expansion season, is also targeting to be the first newbie to make the playoffs in its debut.

The loss dropped Golden State to seventh 1.5 games ahead of Seattle (17-18) and just two ahead of Los Angeles (16-18) and Washington (26-18) who are below the cutoff and who met Sunday in the nation’s capital with the home team Mystics pulling even with the Sparks in beating them 95-86 in front a packed crowd of 4,200 in CareFirst Arena.

The duo now sit just a half-game behind Seattle, which had snapped a six-game losing streak, but on Sunday lost at home in another narrow setback, this one 85-82 to Phoenix (20-13) before a crowd of 14,169 in Climate Pledge Arena.

Prior to the game the retired Storm great Sue Byrd became the first WNBA player to have a statue likeness in her honor erected by a league member.

A statue exists for reigning MVP A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas (21-14) but that is at South Carolina in her hometown of Columbia where the former national player of the year led Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks to the first of three NCAA titles.

The Phoenix win plus Las Vegas’ seventh straight triumph, a 106-87 win at home over 11th-place Dallas (9-26) before a crowd 10,418 at Michelob ULTRA Arena, has the duo in a statistical fourth-place tie just a half-game behind New York and two in front of sixth-place Indiana (19-16).

The Fever, combined with Golden State’s loss, rallied from a 21-point deficit for a franchise record at last place Connecticut (6-27) and moved to sixth place a half-game over the Valkyries with a 99-93 victory over the Sun in overtime before a sellout of 8,910 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville near New London.

The win came as Indiana, whose reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark (groin) missed her 13th straight game, lost Sophie Cunningham with a knee injury in the second quarter after point guards Sydney Colson (ACL) and Aari McDonald (foot) were lost for the season in a recent loss at Phoenix.

“When Sophie went down, it was another blow, it was another gut punch,” said Indiana coach Stephanie White. “It took us a little bit, fortunately we were able to come into halftime and regroup and re-emphasize that we have to do the things that allow us to be successful, and it starts on the defensive end, make sure we’re locked into our scout, it allows us to get in transition and our players just made great plays.”

Clark went down on July 15th at the end of a win over Connecticut at TD Garden before a sellout of 19,156 in the NBA home of the Celtics in Boston just before the All-Star attraction the following weekend in Indianapolis in which she was to participate in the 3-point shooting contest and serve as a team captain for receiving the most fan votes selecting the pool of ten starters.

The former Iowa star who was injury-free her collegiate career and her rookie season after being the number one overall pick has missed 22 games overall and additionally the Commissioner’s Cup championship won at Minnesota due to quad and left groin injuries.

On Sunday she said she hopes to return before the end of the season.

Indiana is 6-7 on her recent absences.

The tight race has the Fever, projected back in May as a title contender, just 2.5 on the front end of a spread between themselves and Los Angeles and Washington.

Knowing Clark would not play, a sellout still occurred, perhaps, showing loyalty in the wake of a two-bidder fight in sale of the team for a record $350 million between one group wanting to move the team to Boston and the other to nearby Hartford.

Reports have the league, which has final say, desiring a relocation to Houston, a recent runner up to the expansion winners in Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030), all of which set the previous record at $250 million.

New York’s Radar

As for New York, where this overview began, sitting just a half-game in front of fourth also places the Liberty in danger of losing home court in the openers.

Yet to clinch a slot, the magic number is five over Washington and Los Angeles.

The Liberty following last week’s win has a 2-1 tiebreaker over Los Angeles and is 2-0 over Washington with two remaining, the first on August 28 at home.

Against Atlanta, they are 2-1 with one more on Saturday on the road.

 Since losing the championship to Las Vegas in 2023, the Liberty have owned the Aces in the regular season and also winning a semifinals last fall resulting in a 2-1 record to claim that series despite last week’s loss.

Against Phoenix they are 1-2 with one more on the road against the Mercury August 30.

Finishing fourth would mean a potential semifinal facing Minnesota instead of in the finals.

Minnesota and New York are each missing a main star in front-running MVP contender Napheesa Collier with a sprained ankle who has been out the past two weeks with the Lynx, who have continued to win, and Breanna Stewart on New York sidelined for over a month with a bruised right knee.

Both are expected back soon.

Ahead of the trading deadline Minnesota acquired DiJonai Carrington while New York on a free-agent signing brought in past WNBA standout Emma Meesseman.

Looking Ahead

Before getting into game detail, with another five-game slate Tuesday, besides the last Lynx-Liberty tilt of the season, Washington hosts Connecticut at 7:30 p.m.; Seattle is at Chicago at 8 p.m.; in a major one, Atlanta is at Las Vegas at 10 p.m. on NBA TV; and in another key contest Phoenix is at Golden State at 10 p.m.

There are no games on Monday.

Third Quarter Outburst Carries Atlanta Past Golden State

Following a 25-25 tie at the half, the Dream erupted 28-17 over the next period to stay ahead and down the Valkyries to inch ahead by a game in second over New York, though still 6.5 games behind Minnesota, who they’ll host Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Starting Tuesday over the next two weeks before a letup, Atlanta is at Las Vegas Tuesday; hosts Minnesota Thursday; hosts New York Saturday at 2 p.m. on CBS; and then hosts Las Vegas a week from Wednesday.

Rhyne Howard had 14 points in Sunday’s win with six assists and five boards, while Brionna Jones scored 13 with nine rebounds. Allisha Gray on a bad shooting night still collected 13 points.

The Dream surge went into the final period for a 30-8 run overall.

Golden State’s Veronica Burton scored 16 with five assists, the loss only the  third in the last ten for the Valkyries.

Illiana Rupert on the home team went down early in the third quarter, didn’t return, and the Valkyries said she had been placed in the concussion protocol.

Reserve Te-Hina Paopao scored 10 and the Dream are now on a 7-1 run after the recent win streak at six was stopped in the previous game.

“Give credit to Atlanta,” said Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase. “They saw what we were doing offensively, and they just did a good job crawling into our guards, not allowing them to get into the paint and when we can’t get into the paint, it doesn’t allow us to spray our threes.

“I’m still going to vouch for (Tiffany Hayes) though, because she plays so fast, her speed, when she does get hit, that should be a foul.

“But I’m going to look at it again because those layups were key.”

Nakase said Rupert was fine after the game.

 Mitchell Leads Indiana in Scoring Fest at Connecticut

Kelsey Mitchell, who has become a prime Indy scorer in the wake of  Caitlin Clark’s absences, came to life in the second half with 34 of her career-tying high 38 points while Lexi Hull hit a key shot from deep in the corner with 44.9 left to enable the Fever to survive in overtime.

“Speechless,” Indiana’s White said of the comeback and Mitchell’s performance. “She just put us on her back. She made big play after big play. She stayed aggressive and she just willed us.”

Of the team’s resiliency, “First and foremost, they’re good human beings. They’re selfless, they’re tough, they don’t care who gets the credit, they don’t care who … they’ve got something inside of them that you just can’t teach.

“It allows us to go through these incredible tough times we’re going through, and it always gives us a chance. I’m incredibly proud of them for continuing to believe, for continuing to pull together, for continuing to step up,” White continued.

“Every single person on this roster impacts winning for us and every single person is valued for how they impact winning.”

Odyssey Sims, recently signed to a hardship deal after Indiana’s player losses, scored 19 points and dealt 7 assists, while Natasha Howard scored 18, and Aliyah Boston filled the stat sheet with 14 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, two steals and two blocked shots.

After the tie in regulation, Mitchell scored all the fever points in a 10-4 run to go ahead in the extra period before Hull’s shot made  it 97-90.

Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey scored 27, Tina Charles collected 21, while rookie Saniya Rivers scored 15 with a personal best five blocks. Sister rookie Aneesah Morrow double doubled with 10 points and 11 boards and rookie Leila Lacan out of France dealt 14 assists to go with her seven points.

Early in the third the Sun, who have a stunning win over New York among its few victories, went up 54-33 and were still ahead 74-60 with 6:25 left in regulation.

Boston’s shot near the end completed the regulation comeback to force overtime.

Washington Rookies Star Over Los Angeles in Game of Playoff Fence Sitters

Though through recent trades dealing leading scorer Brittney Sykes to Seattle and 2024 first-round pick Aaliyah Edwards to Connecticut as signs of more emphasis on the franchise future, Washington’s dynamic rookies are keeping the league’s youngest roster battling in the present.

Sonia Citron, the third overall pick out of Notre Dame, tied a personal best with five makes from distance and scored 24, while Kiki Iriafen, taken right behind Citron out of Southern Cal, double-doubled with 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to enable the Mystics to tie the Sparks and move closer to Seattle, which suffered another close loss.

“I don't think I'm impressed anymore - she does this every game,” Iriafen said. “It's what we expect from her.  Soni’s just super consistent. She's just a silent assassin. She doesn't even hunt her shots; They kind of just flow.”

Iriafen Has compiled 12 double doubles this season and set a Mystics rookie record for most games (six) with at least 15 points and 10-plus rebounds.

Shakira Austin scored 14 points and Jade Melbourne scored 11.

Washington, basically, led from the outset after Alysha Clark, who came in the Sykes deal, got a  3-pointer for a 12-9 lead that was never yielded.

Midway in the fourth quarter Dearica Hamby scored six straight of an 8-0 run that put the Sparks within three at 82-79 but Citron scored next and at the 4:12 mark her shot from beyond the arc made it a nine-point lead.

“Tonight was hard and you have to give credit to Washington,” said Sparks coach Lynne Roberts. “I thought (Washington) played well, they executed well, it took us that first half to really get going. So that's disappointing, but we got to move on.

“The message we learned today is we can't come out and think it's going to be easy. I thought in the first half, they were anticipating more than we were. They were executing better than we were. They were rebounding better than we were. They had 35 rebounds. We had 15.

“That's a direct correlation to effort. We have to come out with the intensity it takes, especially to win on the road. We can't panic or think that the sky is falling and we've had tough losses before, and we always bounce back,” Roberts continued.

“… So we've got to regroup. We have a couple days off to practice, which is amazing. We will be fine.”

Hamby finished with 26 points and seven assists while Kelsey Plum scored 25 with six assists, Rickea Jackson scored 17, and Rae Burrell scored 10.

Washington had season bests 59.3% from the field (35-59) and 30 assists.

Citron eclipsed the rookie mark set in the Mystics’ first season in 1998 by Tennessee great Chamique Holdsclaw in reaching 29 games in double figures.

Rookie Lucy Olsen, the Collegeville native out of Villanova and Iowa, played 18 minutes off the bench and went 2-5 with four points and three assists.

Phoenix Edges Seattle

It was the high end and low end of playoff targets in this one and the Mercury put the Storm back in the danger zone while helping themselves in the high end with the victory.

Alyssa Thomas was back doing her triple double damage for Phoenix with her fifth of the season and 16 overall outside of four in playoffs performances with 19 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.

The Maryland grad out of Harrisburg has half the ten triple doubles this season on 20 overall of the 50 in WNBA history. Thomas came to Phoenix this season from her previous league career all at Connecticut.

The win kept the Mercury tied with Las Vegas for fourth.

That spot gets home advantage in the opening series but a finish in third, while it means disadvantage in the best-of-five semifinals, it also means dodging Minnesota until the finals should both teams advance.

Rutgers grad Kahleah Copper out of North Philadelphia scored 17, Sami Whitcomb had 15, Satou Sabally scored 11 with 10 boards, and DeWanna Bonner had 10 points.

“We stayed together,” said Phoenix first-year coach Nate Tibbetts. “We’ve played some really good teams lately, and haven’t really finished the way we wanted, so I’m just proud of the group. We had some different rotations, and we competed.

“It was a really good win.”

 

Seattle’s Nneka Ogwumike scored 24, Skylar Diggins had 14, Gabby Williams scored 13 with seven assists, and Rutgers’ Erica Wheeler scored 11.

The home team never led until Wheeler’s make from deep with 2:20 left in regulation.

But in the last minute Thomas found Copper wide open inside and then she scored again driving inside before Thomas made it 83-78 with 21 seconds left.

Las Vegas Takes Seventh Straight by Handling Dallas

As Napheesa Collier remains sidelined at Minnesota, A’ja Wilson is making a strong case to continue her MVP honor at Las Vegas.

Jonquel Jones, then at Connecticut, has the most missed games at five in an MVP season while Collier missed her seventh against New York Saturday.

Wilson, meanwhile, scored 34 against visiting Dallas, shooting 11-16 from the field and 11-14 from the line as the Aces continued to streak and stay even in the games-behind column with Phoenix in fourth just behind New York.

Aces coach Becky Hammon earned her 100th regular season win, third fastest to reach that number.

“My reaction is I’ve been blessed with having really good players to coach. Not only are they really phenomenal basketball players, but they’re phenomenal people. I have great relationships with them,” Hammon said.

Overall Las Vegas has won 9 of 10 and reached 100 points for the fourth time this season.

Kierstan Bell scored 18 for the Aces fueled by a career-high six from distance on seven assists. NaLyssa Smith scored 14, while Jewell Loyd made half her eight attempts beyond the arc and finished with 12 points.

On the Wings, Maddy Siegrist, the Philadelphia area all-time women’s scorer out of Villanova, had a career-high 23 points for the Wings, shooting 11-for-15, while overall first round pick Paige Bueckers out of NCAA champion UConn scored 18.

Siegrist was the third overall pick by Dallas in 2023.

Bueckers, the fastest to 500 in a WNBA career, has scored in double figures in all games she has played with Dallas.