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.”