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.”