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.”