The Guru’s WNBA Report: Third-Quarter Outburst Carries New York Over Phoenix; Expansion Duo Toronto and Portland Victorious; Minnesota and Washington Cruise to Wins

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Quite the night on the WNBA five-game card Wednesday beginning with New York (4-4), who checked its three-game home slide at the expense of struggling Phoenix (2-6) with an 84-74 victory thrilling the crowd of 14,995 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with a 23-0 eruption in the third quarter.

The two expansion squads, bringing the league total to 15 teams this season, each gained another victory – Toronto (4-4) in a high-scoring affair won 111-104 at Chicago (3-4) in front of 6,209 at Wintrust Arena while Portland (5-3) came off the road and Monday’s rally on New York by winning 71-61 over Connecticut (1-8) delighting a crowd of 11,945 at the Moda Center in Oregon.

In a game at the high end of the standings Minnesota (5-2) continued to succeed while awaiting the return of Napheesa Collier from ankle surgery in the offseason winning 96-81 over visiting Atlanta (4-2) before a Target Center crowd of 9,912 in Minneapolis.

Washington (3-3) after losing at Seattle (3-5) on Sunday stopped a Storm home sweep with a 78-64 win before 9,202 at the Climate Pledge Arena.

Liberty 23-0 Explosion Playing Short-handed Cools Mercury

Meeting for the first time since Phoenix ended New York’s one season reign as WNBA champions in the first round last fall before eventually advancing to the finals, the Liberty tossed some revenge despite missing Sabrina Ionescu with back problems and free-agent signee Satou Sabally from the opposition who didn’t play in Monday’s loss to Portland due to illness and was a late scratch Wednesday against her former team.

Marine Johannes scored 21 points and Jonquel Jones collected 17 for the winners who did get back Betnijah Laney-Hamilton from a brief absence for personal reasons and Leonie Fiebich recently returned from European ball winning the Spanish championship.

The Mercury seemed on the way to continue last fall’s mastery of the Liberty leading 55-49 with 6:09 left in the period.

New York first-year coach Chris DeMarco then inserted Laney-Hamilton and the home team erupted with a 23-0 run to the end of the quarter with 10 points coming from Jones.

Phoenix was forced into eight turnovers, three committed through offensive fouls, and went on to drop its fourth straight.

 The Liberty slide had been its longest slide since 2022.

Philly native and Rutgers grad Kahleah Copper scored 19 for the Mercury who went just under seven minutes without a point during New York’s explosion.

“Obviously, the third quarter was really good for us,” Jones said. “Our defense was the biggest catalyst for us being able turn them over, being able to get up and press.

“I think it shifted the trajectory of the game; it gave us momentum. It was good to play a defensive night like that tonight.”

DeMarco said Sabally wanted to play but couldn’t go and likely may miss Friday’s game when the two teams play again in Brooklyn.

Of Laney-Hamilton, “We needed her veteran presence, we needed her tenacity, she gave us incredible minutes tonight.”

On the other side, Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said, “That run was on me. I should have called a timeout. I let our team down tonight.”

Expansion Toronto and Portland Gain Wins

In Toronto’s win in Chicago Nyara Sabally was 11 of 14 from the field and had a career-high 29 points and the Tempo’s Marina Mabrey scored 24 with seven assists.

The Sky rallied within a basket 98-96 with 3:33 left in regulation but the Tempo regained control.

Toronto had 12 makes from deep, three each from Sabally, Mabrey and reserve Maria Conde, who collected 12 points.

Brittney Sykes added 20 points and rookie Kiki Rice off NCAA champion UCLA had 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Chicago rookie Sydney Taylor had a season-best 27 points while Skylar Diggins scored 23 points with nine assists and Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud scored 18 with nine dishes.

“Love playing with her and hope this is just one of many,” Marbrey said of Sabally’s performance.

“Let me clue you in – I made my half-court shot today,” Sabally said of her shoot around ahead of the game.

“My teammates did a very good job of finding me. They kind of made it easy.”

First-year coach Sandy Brondello, let go after New York lost in the playoffs, said it was a “no brainer and show everybody what she was capable of,” taking Sabally from the Liberty in the expansion draft.

Out in Portland, the Fire won their third straight as Connecticut, which will relocate to Houston next season under new ownership, is off to a second straight tough start.

Carla Leite scored 20 points for the Fire and Bridget Carleton had 13 while Aneesah Morrow had 13 for the Sun, which ended a five-game road trip.

Connecticut was up 55-50 early in the fourth and then the Fire’s Teja Oblak made two straight buckets, and Frieda Buhner completed an 8-0 run with a layup to regain the lead and one more shot.

Brittney Griney, with a right rib injury, continues to be sidelined for the Sun, a point away from career number 6000.

“I think ‘culture’ is a buzz word and for us it’s something more tangible,” said Portland coach Alex Sarma prior to Wednesday’s game. “It’s about the collective values and behavior with the group. It’s not about me going in there with rah rah speeches.

“Every day and practices and we hold each other accountable achieving high standards.”

Lynx Top Dream

Minnesota had its own third-quarter outburst going on a 13-0 run to move from a slim 44-40 lead to handle Atlanta 28-19 and go into the final period up 70-56.

Courtney Williams scored 25 with seven assists for the Lynx and Natasha Howard had 22 points with eight rebounds.

The five starters for the home team all reached double figures on the scoreboard; rookie Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick last month and native of Central New Jersey scored 16, Nia Coffey had 14 points and Kayla McBride scored 12.

The winners had a season-high 26 assists on 40 field goals and were 60% from the field.

“I felt in training camp once we established our core, they kind of took off, chemistry wise,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star from South Jersey, about her starters.

“Collectively, this group, it’s been impressive to watch.”

In Atlanta’s first season road loss Allisha Gray scored 21 propelled by five distance makes, Naz Hillmon scored 15, Angel Reese added 10 points and eight boards and Rhyne Howard scored 10.

“A tough game, a disappointing game today, give Minnesota credit,” said Atlanta second-year coach Karl Smesko. “They took it to us early. They were outstanding offensively.

“They created a lot of layups and every time we tried to make a comeback we would have another breakdown based on great execution on their part.”

Mystics Calm Storm

Washington’s Shakira Austin scored 18 points with 13 boards and five assists while Michaela Onyenwere, an assistant to Cori Close at her alma mater and NCAA champion UCLA, had 14 points as the Mystics reversed from three losses in their last four games.

Second-year pro Kiki Iriafen had 13 points and nine rebounds while Alicia Florez Getino, signed earlier this month as a developmental player, had nine points, five boards, three assists and a pair of steals.

The Mystics bolted to a 12-2 start and stayed in front the rest of the way and led 48-29 at the break.

Seattle’s Jade Melbourne scored 15 points while Mackenzie Holmes had eight points and a personal best 10 rebounds.

The Storm’s Dominique Malonga has now missed five games in the concussion protocol.

Looking Ahead

On Thursday, the weekly Amazon Prime doubleheader has Las Vegas at Dallas at 8 p.m. and Indiana at Golden State at 10 p.m.

All four Friday night games will be handled by ION and League Pass: the second Phoenix at New York game this week, 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 later in the week when the in-season Commissioner Cup intra-conference schedule of games, the only time those designated standings are relevant, begin Monday in the West with Seattle at Dallas at 8 p.m. on USA and Minnesota at Phoenix at 10 p.m.

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.

Also, on Thursday and Friday in the new four-team UPSHOT league, which is available free on YouTube, Charlotte is at Savannah at 7 p.m.