The Guru’s WNBA and UPSHOT Reports: Dallas Rallies Over ‘Vegas in Azzi First Start; Golden State Moves to 1st Place Tie Edging Clark and Indy; Savannah Rallies to Overtime Win on Charlotte

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

The number of games combined in both the WNBA and new UPSHOT Leagues Thursday night may have been small at three, but all were loaded with thrills and upsets.

Starting in the WNBA, the card got under way with overall No. 1 draft pick Azzi Fudd out of UConn making her first start and pouring 22 points helping to lead host Dallas (5-3) to rally to a 95-87 win over defending champion Las Vegas (4-3) before a crowd of 6,251 in suburban Arlington as the Aces have gone from a four-game win streak after losing the season and home opener to a two-game slide.

Then in the night cap the perfect sellout history of 18,064 at the Chase Center in San Francisco continued as the two-year old Golden State Valkyries (5-2) gained a 90-88 edge to stop the three-game run by Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever (4-3) and tie Minnesota (5-2) for first by a half-game over Atlanta (4-2).

The 30th season of the now 15-team WNBA got under way three weeks ago Friday night and 11 teams are bunched at .500 or better two games apart in the loss column above Chicago (3-4), which has gone from a 3-1 start to a three-game slide, Seattle (3-5), finals runnerup Phoenix (2-6) on a surprising four-game slide, and Connecticut (1-8) which is off the same mediocre start as last season.

Meanwhile in the four-team UPSHOT League which launched two weeks ago, the Savannah Steel (2-3 ) beat visiting Charlotte (1-3) winning 81-76 in overtime before 1,687 in Georgia as Lauryn Taylor, a Florida Gulf Coast graduate, hit a pair three-pointers near the finish overcoming a 12-point deficit in a game with 17 lead changes and 12 ties.

The league, similar to NBA G-League teams, is using smaller venues at the outset though next season could be interesting when expansion to markets in Nashville and Baltimore occurs.

Co-founders Donna Orender, who was the second president of the WNBA, and Andy Kaufmann are targeting an eventual growth to 30 teams providing pro-opportunities to more women to showcase skills that could provide eventual landings on WNBA rosters.

Wings Down Aces

Besides Fudd’s night, Jessica Shepard had her second triple double this season with 20 points, a career-high 20 rebounds, and 10 assists with 11 of her points in the third quarter to tie at 72 at the period’s finish.

Shepard then scored to start the fourth and gain the first Dallas lead 74-72 since 17-16 early in the game.

Shepard’s rebounds and assists combination were a first in the WNBA and she’s the first in Dallas franchise history with two triple-doubles.

Reigning rookie of the year Paige Bueckers, last season’s overall No. 1 pick and Fudd’s Huskies teammate, scored a 3-pointer for a 12-point lead near the end of regulation, scoring 20 points overall with six assists, while Awak Kuier collected 12 points, and Villanova grad Maddy Siegriest, the overall No. 3 pick in 2023, started and scored eight points, including a pair of shots from deep on three tries, and seven boards in 17 minutes.

That was one minute less than teammate Arike Ogunbowale, who scored just a point and left due to illness.

The Aces won all five over Dallas last season.

Four-time and reigning MVP A’ja Wilson scored 21 with seven rebounds for Las Vegas, whose coach Becky Hammon took issue with the free-throw disparity, her team 7-12 at the line vs. Dallas going 19-22.

Jackie Young added 15 points and reserve Chennedy Carter had 14 points, 12 in the first half.

The Wings dominated the second half 50-34.

“Defensive rebounding,” Shepard said of the difference in the two halves. “In the first half they were kind of getting whatever they wanted on the offensive end and that makes it hard on our offense, so we did a better job taking away what they wanted to get to.

“If you knew how I felt in warmups, this is a shock,” she said of her performance. “For me, these things din’t matter much. I came here to help this organization win and take the next step.”

“I can’t remember a time when it’s gotten that loud and that electric,” Bueckers said of the crowd reaction to the Wings surge in the fourth quarter and recalling her short time in Texas. “To feel the crowd like that, it gave us a lot of momentum and a lot of energy.

“We really moved the ball, got a lot in transition, got a lot of buckets that way.”

Fudd said of being announced as a starter, “It’s amazing. Any time you can step on the floor with this group, it’s an honor and I don’t take it lightly. So, any time whether it’s being on the floor or coming off the bench, super grateful.”

“‘Vegas is tough to guard because they can get down hill,” first-year coach Jose Fernandez said of defending the Aces. In Wilson’s 10-24 night he added, “She had a great first half. She’s not going to have those kinds of nights. I think our length bothered her a bit.

“I felt there was incredible energy in the building in the second half and that’s what you want at home.”

On the other side, Hammon said, “l think our defense sucked. Gave up 50 points in the second half. Did a nice job in the first quarter. Then you have slippage. Then that slippage compounds. And we don’t have enough time outs to stop the bleeding.

“And then we stopped moving the ball. We started taking some uncharateristic shots. Until we play defense for 40 minutes we’re going to continue to take these lumps on the chin.”

Valkyries Edge Fever

Northwestern grad Veronica Burton had 25 points, six rebounds, and a personal best five blocks while Gabby Williams added 19 points with six boards and six assists for Golden State.

Indiana’s Aliyah Boston, who went first overall in 2023 out of South Carolina, put the Fever ahead under four minutes left in regulation, following a 3-pointer from Clark on the previous possession.

But the Valkyries went up three and Clark faltered with a turnover with 1:32 left in regulation, and again at 1:06, followed by a missed 3-pointer with 40 seconds on the clock.

Sophie Cunningham scored for the visitors on an uncontested layup with 24.8 remaining and Williams went 1-2 at the line on the next possession, but Boston failed to connect with a turnaround jumper in front of the game’s end.

Clark, who became the fastest ever in the WNBA to deal 500 assists and reach 1,000 points, was off all night from the field, shooting 3-for-12 and finishing with 16 points, six assists and four rebounds in a game in which Indy started 0-for-8 from deep and was 3-for-12 at the half.

Golden State’s reserve Janelle Salaun had 19 points and seven boards while Kiah Stokes had four of the home team’s 11 blocks.

Off testiness between the two teams a week ago, the Golden State faithful booed Clark, who was at the baseball Giants game Wednesday at nearby Oracle Park, every time she handled the ball.

“(Burton’s) leadership really took a big leap today,” said Natalie Nakase, the coach of the year last season when Golden State set expansion records with attendance, wins, and making the playoffs their first season. “She really controlled the tempo. Started off, poof, just attacking, attacking, attacking, that was part of the game plan.

“We followed it to a tee. There were times we talked about attacking. There were times about staying composed and she was composed and fearless every moment and then at the defensive end, it was ‘just let me stay organized,’ we got the matchups we wanted, and an amazing job. Just amazing footwork, she has. I’m very proud of her.”

From the Fever’s side, in which rookie and first round pick Raven Johnson had a season best 16 points, “l thought they were both good looks,” coach Stephanie White said of the finish and missed shots. “They’re a really good defensive team. You get an opportunity to get some clean looks, it’s important. They just didn’t go down.”

“They’re big. They’re pretty long. In some of those traps, they were able to get in the passing lanes a little bit.”

WNBA Looking Ahead

All four Friday night games will be handled by ION and League Pass: the second Phoenix at New York game this week in which the Liberty are going for a sweep, Los Angeles at Washington, and Minnesota at Chicago all at 7:30 p.m.; and Atlanta at Portland at 10.

League Pass has two of Saturday’s three-game slate – Seattle at Toronto at 1 p.m. and Los Angeles at Connecticut at 6 while in the evening at 8 p.m. CBS and Paramount+ will air Indiana at Portland.

The Connecticut game is being played in Hartford at the PeoplesBank Arena, formerly the XL Center, the off campus larger second home of UConn, for the first time since 2003 as part of the Sun farewell season before the NBA Houston owners take over and bring the team to Texas in 2027.

The week and first month of the WNBA’s first season wraps up with a single game Sunday on NBC and Peacock at 3:30 p.m. when Las Vegas plays at Golden State.

We’ll get to the June start more extensively later in the weekend when the in-season Commissioner Cup intra-conference schedule of games begin Monday in the West with Seattle at Dallas at 8 p.m. on USA and Minnesota at Phoenix at 10 p.m.

It’s the only time conference standings are relevant in the overall picture, though they also come in play for the WNBA’s weekly awards.

For those new to paying attention to the WNBA, the league standings regarding playoff and seeds are combined without regard to the best teams in the East and West.

As expansion continues the rest of the decade with the additions of Cleveland (’28), Detroit (’29) and Philadelphia (’30) along with the Sun relocation to Houston, while labor peace is firmly in place – the final step of the transformative CBA in what will become an 18-team league recently announced on the weekend – attention will have to be paid to playoff format in terms of field size which also could change the non-qualifying draft lottery number of designated squads and also perhaps an alteration to in-season standings configuration establishing intra-conference divisions or as in the NBA, place the lowest qualifying seeds into opening play-in rounds.

UPSHOT Shootout Goes to Savannah Over Charlotte

A 10-0 run in the fourth period brought the host Steel back into contention against the Crown, though it took an extra five minutes to get the job done.

Savannah managed to prevail by offsetting Charlotte’s 42-24 paint advantage doubling 24-12 on second chance points and also with depth on 30-19 in bench points.

Notre Dame’s Iyana Moore scored 18 points to lead the winners while Taylor shot 5-for-6 and scored 16 points with eight rebounds.

Former Louisville star Olivia Cochran scored 14 and Purdue grad Lasha Petree scored 13 and each pulled down six boards. So did Harvard standout Harmoni Turner with nine points while recent Duquesne star Megan McConnell had nine rebounds, including several key ones to close, with her six points.

“So proud the way the ladies executed the late game situation,” said Savannah coach Coretta Brown. “It was obviously a focus point this week. The three losses we’ve had were by a total nine points.

“It’s good to see the execution and focus we’ve bern harping on in practice come to fruition. We’re excited on that moving forward.”

Of having to play without several post players, who are injured, she said, “Everybody’s gotta be ready. We’ve been preaching since training camp, ‘we’re going to have 11 ball players. It’s not a one-woman show.

“That was the counter. All 11 women ready to go when they’re number is called. Being locked in. Being a fist as we like to call it. They finally bought into it. We didn’t execute it for 40 minutes. But we executed enough to get the W.”

Charlotte’s Reigan Richardson out of Duke led the team with 16 points, former North Carolina and Oregon player Deja Kelly scored 15, Michelle Oniyah out of Cal-Berkeley scored 12 points with 14 boards, and South Carolina’s LeLe Grissett had 11 points.

Saint Joseph’s grad Chloe Welch had two points and three boards in 17.27 minutes.

The two teams play again Friday night at 7 with the game available free on the league’s YouTube channel.

Later on the weekend, the Jacksonville Waves (3-1) visit the Greensboro Groove (3-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday in North Carolina while Savannah and Charlotte switch sites to North Carolina at 7 p.m. and on Sunday Jacksonville and Greensboro stay in place 24 hours later for a 2 p.m. tipoff.