The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Atlanta Avoids Getting Upset by Connecticut and Moves to Second Alone for the Moment

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

The grand finale and last week of the WNBA record 44-game regular season got off to a slow start Monday night with just one game heading to much more Tuesday night, Wednesday’s encore from Monday, and Thursday’s finish to complete the pairings of the eight-team playoff field, though part of that could be completed in the next chapter in the remaining battle for the final spot between eighth place Seattle (22-21) and ninth-place Los Angeles (20-22), which sits 1.5 games outside the fence behind the Storm.

Both teams have their work cut out for them in Tuesday’s five-game card.

If Seattle in the 10 p.m. game, it’s last, beats visiting Golden State (23-19), the first expansion team in league history ever to make the playoffs, wins, it’s over and the Sparks (20-22) join, in standings order, Washington (16-27), Connecticut (11-32), Chicago (10-32), and Dallas (9-34) in the draft lottery to determine winner of the overall No. 1 pick next April.

It also could be decided in the parallel game at 10 p.m. on NBA-TV if Los Angeles loses at 4th-place Phoenix (27-15), which at worst stays there if Los Angeles wins, or if the Mercury win, has an outside chance to move into the 2-3 best-of-five semifinals matchup away from a potential earlier meeting with top-seed Minnesota (33-9), which is at seventh place Indiana (23-20) at 7:30 p.m. on Espn/ESPN+/Disney+.

On Monday, Atlanta (29-14) briefly moved again into sole possession of second by winning 87-62 over visiting Connecticut before a crowd of 3,319 at Gateway Center in suburban College Park.

The two meet again at the Mohegan Sun Arena Wednesday at 7 p.m., the only game on the night’s card.

First and second, if those teams advance, each hold home advantage rights in the semifinals.

Atlanta is shortly likely to have company again since Las Vegas (28-14) also at 10 p.m. will be carrying a 14-game win streak when Chicago comes visiting.

Tuesday’s other game has defending champion New York (25-17) at 7 p.m. on ESPN3 hosting Washington in the Liberty’s final regular season home game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

New York sits in 5th place and can make no further movement in either direction.

In Atlanta’s win, Karl Smesko set a triumph record for a first-year coach though purists will argue the total was reached in the four games added to everyone’s schedule.

That game total will be in flux through the end of the decade as the WNBA adds Toronto and Portland next season followed by Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029), and Philadelphia (2030).

Rhyne Howard scored 18 for the winning Dream, while Allisha Gray scored 15 points.

Connecticut, for a while, tried to repeat its spoiler act from last week when the Sun upset Phoenix to blunt the Mercury’s shot at a finish in second place.

The Sun trailed by only three points at 52-49 with 5:56 left in the third quarter when the Dream erupted on a 16-3 run and ended up limiting the visitors to nine and 10 points in the two quarters after the half.

Naz Hillmon added 14 points, five boards, four assists to the Atlanta attack, while Maya Caldwell added 11 points and Brittney Griner scored 10.

The Sun’s top two performers were rookies with Saniya Rivers out of N.C. State scoring 16 points and Aneesah Morrow out of DePaul and LSU collected 13 points and 14 boards. Veteran Tina Charles scored 12 as Connecticut finished 4-18 on the road.

Rivers also set a franchise season rookie record with 42 3-pointers.

Michael Cooper at Los Angeles held the previous first-year win record at 28 in 2000.

“Those types of things don't have a lot of meaning for me,” said Smesko, hired from a successful long run coaching Florida Gulf Coast University just before Los Angeles plucked Lynne Roberts out of the collegiate ranks from Utah.

“The meaningful part is coming up:  are we going to be the best prepared for the playoffs? Everybody did a lot of work so far this year to get us where we are. We want to make sure that we have the right finish to a great season.”

The playoffs get under way Sunday on ABC and ESPN with all four openers in the best-of-three first round, in a revised format of 1-1-1 guaranteeing the under seeds one home game each,=.