The Guru’s WNBA Playoff Roundup: Thomas’ Triple Double Helps Phoenix Oust Defending Champion New York and Advance to Semifinals at Minnesota

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

On opening night back in May at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai reflecting on the thrilling championship finish of her team ending their long WNBA winless drought declared, “It may have been our first, but it won’t be our last.”

The Liberty then took off to a franchise-best 9-0 start keeping pace with the Minnesota Lynx they edged in overtime in the decisive Game 5 at the finish to claim the trophy.

Soon thereafter New York got hit with a slew of injuries and slid all the way to a tie for fourth but fifth seed in a 3-1 series loss to Phoenix and on Friday night after getting crushed by the Mercury to tie the best-of-three opening round, the opposition finished the job in the closing minutes for a 79-73  victory before a sellout crowd of 13,104 in PHX Arena to move on to one of Sunday’s best-of-five semifinals traveling to the top seed Lynx at the Target Center in Minneapolis at 5 p.m. on ESPN after two-seed Las Vegas having barely escaped Seattle hosts six-seed Indiana at 3 p.m. on ABC.

Triple-double diva Alyssa Thomas, the former Maryland star out of Harrisburg, hit New York with her fifth playoff edition of her specialty scoring 20 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dealing 11 assists.

Though Saint Joseph’s Natasha Cloud became a first-round victim, North Philadelphia’s Kahleah Copper, the former Rutgers standout who was a title winner with Chicago in 2021, is still alive facing a Lynx juggernaut coached by Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star out of South Jersey.

Copper had 12 points and nine boards in this one, behind 23 points and 12 rebounds from Satou Sabally, while Sami Whitcomb, a former Liberty player, scored 13.

DeWanna Bonner, who was picked up by Phoenix after her move from Connecticut to Indiana was short-lived, had eight rebounds to pass retired all-timer Candace Parker with the most playoff career boards at 614.

Thomas, whose entire career had been in Connecticut, has five of the seven triple doubles in the postseason and more in regular season play.

Two-time MVP Breanna Stewart, who sprained the MCL in her left knee of what became New York’s last hurrah, winning Sunday’s opener at Phoenix in overtime, scored 30, including the last 14 and Sabrina Ionescu contributed 22 but the rest of the Liberty were held in check.

New York’s brief claim regaining home advantage for Wednesday was shredded in some of the worst playoff outcomes in history.

“We didn’t live up to our expectations that we set out for ourselves being the defending champions,” said New York coach Sandy Brondello, who previously coached Phoenix to a title and is also coach of the Australian olympians.

Houston (4 straight), Los Angeles (two) and Las Vegas (2) are the only teams with consecutive crowns.

It was a close game through the first three quarters with five ties and 13 lead changes and Phoenix up 60-59, where they stayed pulling away from another one-point advantage 65-64 with 6:51 left in regulation as Thomas reached her latest triple double, her ninth of the season, with a basket, two assists and a rebound as Phoenix dashed to a 72-64 lead just over a minute later.

Thomas is one of five season MVP finalists from the WNBA national media panel, but the award is likely to go to the reigning one, Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson, who already won this year’s Associated Press award, or Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier.

Wilson also tied Minnesota’s Alanna Smith for the WNBA’s defensive player of the year.

Stewart, who was a four time Most Outstanding Player in four straight UConn NCAA championships, gave New York hope with two foul shots to move within three at 76-73 with 1:10 left but like many setbacks during the season the last minute became empty with a turnover and three missed shots.

“I’m really proud of this group,” Stewart said. “This team is more than resilient with all the sh-t that we’ve gone through this season, and we left it all out.”

The Liberty were 7-32 from deep and 1-17 in the second half.

Jonquel Jones, last season’s Finals MVP, was 1-10 scoring three points.

“We went through a lot of adversity, a lot of injuries, a lot of rotation changes, a lot of next- woman up mentality, but I'm proud of our resilience,” Cloud said. “I don't think a lot of teams even get to this point with the type of season that we had.”

New York’s slide to five could be found in being the only team among the top five during the season with at least one loss each to Connecticut, Chicago, and Dallas, who finished far away from the cutoff for the eighth and last playoff spot.

They were 1-3 each to Minnesota and Phoenix.

“It’s tough,” Stewart said. “Only one team gets to feel good at the end of their season and this year we weren’t that team and it really, really hurts and I think it’ll continue to hurt for days, weeks, months from now on.”