The Guru’s WNBA and UPSHOT Reports: Indiana, Phoenix and Seattle Take the WNBA Saturday Card; Jacksonville Sweep of Charlotte Opens Wide UPSHOT Lead

  By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Indiana (11-8) minus Caitlin Clark with a back injury overcame the absence of her 21.2 points and 8.2 assists averages to deliver a 111-87 wipeout Saturday of Los Angeles (8-10), that is without Kelsey Plum (23.29) for four weeks with a left leg injury, before 16,016 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Phoenix (7-13) was missing Alyssa Thomas, serving a one-game suspension off an after-game assessment by the WNBA of committing a Flagrant 2 foul for putting her fist on Clark’s throat in the Mercury’s recent game with Indiana but the team was able to win 89-80 at expansion Toronto (9-10) with visiting coach Nate Tibbetts expressing displeasure with the ruling before playing the Tempo.

Meanwhile, Seattle (5-15), which recently stopped an 11-game slide, won its second straight with a 105-90 upset of visiting Atlanta (12-7) before 13,643 at Climate Pledge Arena in the Northwest.

On Friday, in a high-scoring battle before a home crowd of 7,228 at Wintrust Arena, Chicago (6-12) won 124-94 over expansion Portland (8-11) as Kamilla Cardoso had a WNBA record shooting night with a perfect 13-for-13 for 30 points.

Connecticut (4-15) at home in Uncasville won 68-57 over Washington (8-9) before 7,789 at the Mohegan Sun Arena while Golden State (12-7) continued its perfect two-year record of sellout crowds of 18,064 at the Chase Center in San Francisco winning 78-75 over Atlanta, which went on to lose the next night on a back-to-back and now saddled with a three-game losing streak.

Mitchell Leads Fever Over Sparks

Indiana coach Stephanie White expressed Clark may not be out for long but in the interim Kelsey Mitchell 26 for the winning Fever, while Los Angeles set a dubious record allowing 110-plus points in consecutive games.

The Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike scored 17 points and Dearica Hamby scored 15.

Mitchell was deadly shooting 4-of-6 from deep and 9-of-13 from the field overall, while Aliyah Boston had 17 points and seven boards, Monique Billings was 6-for-10 for for 15 points with six boards, Tyasha Harris had 16 points shooting 5-for-8 from the field, and Sophie Cunningham had nine points off the bench.

Indiana connected overall at 55.2% and 10-of-19 from long range.

“Winning is fun,” Billings said. “We had a lot of fun. We all felt pretty free out there.”

 “I thought our energy was pretty good,” said Indiana coach Stephanie White. “Our activity was good. We played well together. We celebrated one another. We played with joy. You can see each other we play together when we play with joy.”

Mercury Tops Tempo

Moving to a bigger arena, host Toronto drew 15,687 at Scotiabank Arena in the loss to Phoenix.

Rutgers grad and Philly native Kahliah Copper scored 37 points shooting 10-for-15 from the field. Off the bench, rookie Valeriane Ayayi scored 20 points with six boards, while Lexi Held scored 16 and Dewanna Bonner scored 13.

Toronto’s Nayara Sabally scored 14 points and Kia Nurse and Isabelle Harrison each scored 12 and Julie Allemand scored 11 with 10 assists.

Indiana’s White had called the play that got Thomas, a Maryland grad out of Harrisburg, suspended, cheap.

“L’d like to hit on my disappointment in the suspension process by our league and our leaders in the W,” Tibbetts said. “This was not a thorough investigation in my opinion,” complaining he didn’t hear from the WNBA, nor team security, nor Thomas.

“The people in this league know who AT is,” Tibbetts said. “She’s a competitor, she’s a winner, and she’s tough. The one thing she is not is cheap.”

Copper added after the game, “We’re with AT. “We just wish it would have been handled the right way. We wish somebody also called her and checked on her and made sure that she was OK. I don’t think it played out how it should have professionally.”

Held said there were “a lot of naratives going on that were false and untrue.”

Tibbetts said it was important “to clean up our game,” but “let’s not base it off veterans or younger players, or white players or Black players, or international players. If this is the standard, make this the standard, even if the roles were reversed in this situation.”

Storm Extend Dream to Three Straight Losses

Seattle never trailed as Flau’jae Johnson had 24 points and 11 boards as a rookie out of LSU while sister newcomer Awa Fam had 21 points.

Johnson had 9 of 12 shots connect from the field, while Fam was 8 for 9 and from deep went 5 for 6.

The 11-straight losses had been a franchise record.

Natisha Hiedeman had 20 for the winning Storm, with six assists, and Dominique Malonga had 16 points with 11 boards. Jade Melbourne had 10 points and five assists.

Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard scored 27 with four makes from distance, while Angel Reese had 17 points and nine boards, Allisha Gray had 15 points, and Jordin Canada had 10 assists to go with eight points.

“We’re a young group, so we’re just learning to play together in real time,” Johnson said, “And when it got close, we had some real accountability conversations.”

Valkyries Beat Dream

On Friday night in Atlanta’s loss at Golden State, the Valkyries’ Gabby Williams scored 13 straight for the home team in the fourth quarter to add to the three she had while Kiah Stokes and former Princeton and UConn star Kaitlyn Chen each scored 13.

Stokes had seven blocks, while Chen shot 5 for 9 off the bench and Tiffany Hayes had 12 points and Northwestern grad Veronica Burton had 10 points.

Atlanta’s Canada scored a season-best 23 points, Reese had her 12th double-double with 15 points and 12 boards, Howard scored nine and left on the trip Saturday to Seattle in third on the franchise scoring list with 3,631 points.

There were 13 lead changes.

Golden State swept the two-game series with the Dream as Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase praised her team’s deep rotation and small-ball adaptations against Reese.

“Gabby came in and finished strong. She’s developing into our closer. She’s building a difference kind of confidence I haven’t seen. She’s the most humble star I’ve coached.”

Sky Douse Fire

Besides the big night from Cardoso for Chicago, also grabbing eight boards, the Sky’s two-game streak is their first since back in mid-May at the start of the season.

The hosts set a franchise record for scoring, with rookie Sydney Taylor adding 29 points, putting her in second for newcomers with four 20-point games besides Minnesota’s Olivia Miles, who has seven.

Azura Stevens had 12 points, while Skylar Diggins and Courtney Vandersloot, making her season debut now recovered, each scored 10 points.

It was over after one quarter with the Sky leading 29-17 and staying in front the rest of the way.

Portland’s Bridget Carleton had 20 points while Carla Leite had 18 as the Fire connected with nine deep makes.

Sun Upset Mystics

Connecticut has won consecutive games for the first time this season in a contest in which associate head coach Roneeka Hodges took the place of her boss Rachid Meziane, who was ill.

Leila Lacan and Olivia Nelson-Ododa each scored 12 points and reserve Kennedy Burke scored 11 while Nelson-Ododa also grabbed nine boards and Lacan had four thefts.

Brittney Griner and Charlisse Leger-Walker each had 10 points.

The Mystics dropped their second straight committing three turnovers down the stretch.

Georgia Amoore scored 14 for Washington while second-year pros Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen each scored 11.

Looking Ahead

On Sunday, newly Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame head coach Cheryl Reeve rejoins her Minnesota Lynx in Dallas for a 2 p.m. tip on CBS and Paramount+ looking to tie retired coach Van Chancellor, formerly with Houston, for most wins in league history excluding playoffs in which she already has the combo lead.

Washington hosts Portland on League Pass at 3 p.m., Chicago hosts defending champion Las Vegas at 4 p.m. on CBS and Paramount +, while New York finishes its West swing visiting Golden State at 7 p.m. on ESPN and Disney+.

The league is idle Monday and outside the regular schedule Tuesday, New York hosts Las Vegas at 7 p.m. in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Commissioner’s Cup championship after winning the respective East and West competition to attain the game.

UPSHOT Roundup – Jacksonville Sweep of Charlotte Increases League Lead

The Charlotte Crown came surging to Florida with a six-game streak to threaten first-place Jacksonville Friday and Saturday, but the Wave swept to 100-98 and 82-78 wins, first home and then away, in the four-team developmental league to surge to a to a 4.5 lead as the visitors dropped into a second-place tie with the Savannah Steel at 7-8.

The Greensboro Groove were also swept both days, losing 91-82 and 79-58 at Savannah in Georgia to fall to 5-11 seven games behind Jacksonville and 2.5 behind the middle teams of of Charlotte and Savannah.

In the two games involving the first two significant 1-2 showdowns on the 40-game schedule, in Friday’s game, Jacksonville jumped to a 30-18 lead in the first period, then was outscored 22-17 and 31-24 by Charlotte before nipping the visitors 29-27 in the final period for the narrow, high-scoring 100-98 win.

Ariel Hearn scored 26 points with five boards and five assists for the Wave, Northwestern grad Lindsay Pulliam scored 19 with nine rebounds, Adut Bulgak scored 15 with six boards, former Tennessee star Rennia Davis had 13 points and eight boards, Khayla Pointer scored 11, and Taylor Soule was the sixth player in double figures with 10 points.

Former North Carolina and Oregon collegiate star Deja Kelly scored 32 for Charlotte, while Reigan Richardson scored 25 with six boards, LeLe Grissett had 20 points and eight boards, Ugonne (Michelle) Oniyah had 15 points and Schaquilla Nunn grabbed 14 rebounds.

In the game in Charlotte, Jacksonville, coached by Philly native Jess Bogia, winning the first quarter 28-20 and then losing the next 19-13, took the two quarters in the second half, 27-25 and 30-22 to gain a solid advantage at the top of the standings.

Hearn had 23 for Jacksonville with 10 boards, Shyanne Sellers had 21 points, Soule scored 15 with seven boards, Pulliam and Davis each scored 23 points and Jasmine Walker scored 11.

Charlotte’s Kelly and Richardson each scored 17 in the second game with the Wave, Asia Durr, who starred at Louisville, scored 12, while E’lisia Grissett scored 11 with seven boards.

Former Saint Joseph’s star Chloe Welch had three and five points in the two games for the Crown.

In the Greensboro/Savannah games, both played in Georgia, Savannah, with a 25-15 first quarter and 27-19 in the third, was led by former Harvard star Harmoni Turner with 29 points and 20 boards in the first game, Lasha Petree scored 14, Lauryn Taylor had 10 points and nine boards, while Greensboro’s Diamond Johnson scored 24 points, and Jessica Timmons and Sahara Jones each scored 20.

Saturday’s game saw a dominating Steel performance with Olivia Cochrane with 15 points, Zee Spearman with 13 points, Turner with 10 points, and Taylor with 8 points and eight boards.

Additionally, Quanniecia Morrison had seven points and 11 boards.

Greensboro’s Timmons and Jones each had 18 points, Ceara Pryor scored 10.

The league is off until Friday when when Charlotte goes to Jacksonville at 7 p.m. trying to reclose the gap, and at the same time Greensboro is at Savannah.

Jacksonville and Charlotte play again in Florida Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. while Greensboro is at Savannah at 3 pm.

All UPSHOT games are available free on the league’s YouTube Channel.