The Guru’s WNBA Roundup: Atlanta Uses Explosive Second Quarter to Down L.A., Move Alone into 2nd; Chicago Snaps Four-Game Skid by Beating Connecticut

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

By virtue of just a two-game schedule Wednesday night in the WNBA, Atlanta (27-14) broke out of a three-way second place tie and grabbed the spot by a half-game all alone over idle Las Vegas (26-14) and Phoenix (26-14) as a result of an 86-75 victory over ninth-place Los Angeles (19-21) before a home crowd of 3,365 at Gateway Center in suburban College Park.

By winning, the Dream put Golden State approaching the playoff runway with a reduced magic number of one to become the first expansion team to make the playoffs in league history.

The next Valkyries win, which could come Thursday night hosting 13th and last place Dallas at 10 p.m. or, if necessary, loss by Los Angeles, which could come Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on ION, will make sixth-place Golden State the sixth team with a ticket punched for the postseason.

Golden State, which has the series-winning tiebreaker with Los Angeles and which clinched a .500 season Tuesday by beating defending champion New York (24-17), has already set a phenomenal attendance record selling out all 18,064 seats in the Chase Center in San Francisco for every home game in the building shared with the NBA Warriors.

The other game Wednesday had two of the four eliminated teams meeting each other with Connecticut (10-31) at Chicago (10-30) and the hometown Sky prevailed 88-64 enabling them to jump over the Sun into 11th place before a crowd of 7,195 in Wintrust Arena.

The Los Angeles loss to Atlanta wasn’t fatal, though the Sparks are still near the elimination cliff trailing eighth place Indiana (21-20), in the cutoff spot, by 1.5 games and seventh place Seattle (22-20) by two games with four games left on the Sparks’ schedule.

The record 44-game regular season ends a week from Thursday on Sept. 11 when the pairings will be set.

Minnesota (32-8) wrapped up the top seed last Saturday to own home-court advantage in the best-of-three first round, revised in a 1-1-1 format, with all four opening games to air Sunday, Sept. 14, on ABC and Disney.

If advancing, the Lynx also have home advantage in the best-of-five semifinals and expanded by two games in the record best-of seven finals.

On Thursday, Phoenix will be at Washington at 7:30 p.m. on Amazon Prime Video, which will also air Minnesota at Las Vegas at 10 p.m.

The last time they met at the same place at the beginning of August, the Lynx delivered a 111-55 blowout in Sin City to the Aces, who have not lost since and are on a 12-game winning streak.

The ION triple header on Friday at 7:30 p.m. has Indiana hosting Chicago, which snapped a four-game losing streak on Wednesday; the L.A. at Atlanta game at the same time; and New York at Seattle at 10 p.m.

Howard Leads Atlanta over Los Angeles

In the first of hosting the Sparks twice over three days, Rhyne Howard scored 19 for the winning Dream, while Brionna Jones had a double-double, her 12th, scoring 16 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Atlanta has won 5-of-6 and after the second L.A. game, Friday, the Dream next week will finish with a home-and-home playing Connecticut.

Naz Hillmon added 15 points to the Dream attack, Maya Caldwell scored 14, and Jordin Canada, who recently came off an injury, had her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 assists.

The Sparks’ Dearica Hamby scored 21 points with nine boards and four assists, while Kelsey Plum collected 18 points and dealt seven assists, and Rickea Jackson scored 15.

The outset of the game made it appear the outcome was headed in a different direction as Los Angeles opened on a 10-0 burst taking advantage of Atlanta missing its first seven shots.

The Dream then rallied, however, closing the quarter on a 12-3 run to go up by a basket 26-24.

Atlanta kept it going, taking off on a 15-3 run to dominate with a 41-27 and settling for a 53-41 advantage at the break.

“Good win for us, for sure” said Atlanta coach Karl Smesko. “I thought we had a really good second quarter, we pushed the pace. Obviously, a tough start, but we kept our compsure and knew we had a lot of time left.”

“I thought that, defensively, we gave up some easy buckets, scouting report-wise,” said Sparks coach Lynne Roberts. “And those are things we can control, you know?

“That first quarter, I thought we were off to a hot start, but it was a great pace, and we were moving the ball. That second quarter, that really did us in, and we really couldn’t catch up after that,” Roberts said.

“I thought in that second quarter, what hurt us was either not a great shot or a turnover, and they converted all of them. They’re fast and they can score quickly.”

Reese Leads Chicago over Connecticut

Second-year pro Angel Reese had her 23rd double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 boards for Chicago, which is 6-15 at home.

One all-time UConn star eclipsed another one who is retired on the WNBA career charts as the Sun’s Tina Charles was 8-for-13 scoring 19 points and passing Diana Taurasi for most made field goals at 3,347.

Rookie Saniya Rivers added 16 points.

Chicago’s Kia Nurse, yet another alum, added 12 points, while Rachel Banham and Elizabeth Williams each scored double figures with 10 points.

Banham’s two 3-pointers moved her into second on the career season charts with the Sky at 82, seven behind Marina Mabrey, who now plays for the Sun.

Until Wednesday night, Connecticut had been successful in the Windy City in the series winning five straight since 2023.