The Guru’s WNBA Report: History Sunday as Minnesota’s Coach Reeve Ties Regular Season Mark; Washington Wins in 4 OTs; Wilson Sets More Stats Notables in ‘Vegas Win; Golden State Hands New York Another Setback

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Coming out of induction to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee, provided the magic touch in two of four WNBA games Sunday as South Jersey’s Cheryl Reeve tied former Washington coach Mike Thibauldt for regular season career triumphs at 379 with her Minnesota Lynx (15-4) winning 85-77 at Dallas (11-8) before 6,251 fans at College Park Center in suburban Arlington.

Retired great Elena Delle Donne, the 3,000 career-point scorer out of Wilmington at Delaware, had her former Washington (9-9) team tie the league record for the longest game in history winning a 124-123 marathon four-overtime encounter over expansion Portland (8-12) before a crowd of 4,200 in the nation’s capitol at the small CareFirst Arena.

In the other two games, in one the duo-recent struggle of New York (12-8) and success of second-year Golden State (13-7) continue, the Valkyries winning 76-67, the perfect franchise and WNBA record home sellout of 18,064 still intact at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

Defending champion Las Vegas (14-5) won a 107-99 scoring fest at Chicago (6-13) before 11,476, the game moved to the United Center, home of the NBA Bulls and next month’s WNBA All-Star game.

The league is idle Monday while on Tuesday ‘Vegas heads to New York’s Barclay Center in Brooklyn for the Commissioner’s Cup championship at 7 p.m. on Amazon Prime Video.

The two met in Sin City last Tuesday in a regular season game becoming the Liberty’s only win since June 17th.

The Aces have won three of the last four titles, the other in 2024 being New York’s first title in its long history dating to the WNBA inaugural summer of 1997.

Lynx Clip Wings

Natasha Howard had 21points and 14 boards and rookie sensational Olivia Miles from Central New Jersey also had 21powering Minnesota to a 2-0 mark on Dallas this season.

Prior to Sunday’s triumph Reeve already had the combo league winning record including playoffs of which Minnesota is tied at a record four titles with the former Houston team which is returning next summer being acquired by a different NBA ownership from the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut.

Miles, with 64 points in her last three games, was 8-for-8 from the line, while Howard was 9-for-17 from the field.

Kayla McBride added 17 points powered by four makes from deep while Courtney Williams collected 12 points.

Reigning rookie of the year Paige Bueckers had 25 points on 10-for-17 from the field for Dallas while her former UConn teammate Azzi Fudd, following her as this year’s No. 1 overall pick in April, one ahead of Miles, scored 21 points and Jessica Shephard grabbed 16 boards and Villanova all-time scorer Maddy Siegriest had 12 points off the bench, shooting 3-for-4 with five rebounds.

Reeve, owning the playoff wins record, can grab the regular season record Friday when Minnesota visits New York.

“(Miles) has learned a lot in recent games, so many approaches teams are taking with her,” Reeve said. “Howard has been terrific. She’s been a tremendous recipient of the pick and roll game from Courtney and ‘Liv.”

Citron Gives Mystics Last Word

Second-year pro Sonia Citron 32 points and the go-ahead basket in the last of four overtimes with 21.4 seconds left as Washington and Portland tied the marathon mark set by Washington winning 72-69 over Seattle on July 3, 2001.

Michaela Onyenwere, also an assistant coach at her UCLA team, the reigning NCAA women’s champion, scored 30 and second-year pro Kiki Iriafen scored 27, the first trio in WNBA history to reach 27 each in the same game.

Lucy Olsen out of Villanova and Iowa had four points in 14 minutes and this past weekend Delle Donne, who serves as a consultant with her former team, credited the way she’s developing her game and role.

Portland’s Carla Leite scored 32 for the Fire and got the game going into extended play with a 3-pointer with 0.4 left in regulation. Sarah Ashlee Barker added 25 points and Megan Gustafson scored 20.

There were 21 ties and 21 lead changes in the game lasting 3 hours and 35 minutes of real time.

“Anyone have dinner plans? You might have to cancel,” Washington coach Sydney Johnson quipped of the game that began in the afternoon. “This is history and a new one for me. A good number of our players are going through firsts, and I was right there with them.”

Johnson has also coached the Princeton men.

“Loved the resiliency, both teams played incredibly hard and I have to give Portland credit as well. I have to give our Mystics credit. It was easy to get discouraged and they didn’t.”

Eight players overall each played 45-plus minutes to set a game record and Washington leads with five wins by three or less points.

In the 30-year history WNBA history there were only three times teams have reached 120 points and now there are four, all in the past four days.

The combined 247 points trails 251 in a double overtime game between Phoenix and Minnesota in double overtime during the 2010 regular season.

Valkyries Hold Liberty to Their Lowest Scoring Half

Leading 41-29 at the half, Golden State expanded the advantage to 64-48 over the next period to withstand being held to 12 in the final quarter.

The winners’ depth dominated with the bench holding a 39-11 advantage.

Kaila Charles tied her season best with 13 of those huge points while Kayla Thornton scored 11, and Janelle Salaun and Cecilia Zandalsini each scored 10 for the hosts.

New York’s Jonquel Jones scored 21 with seven boards, Breanna Stewart had 15 and Sabrina Ionescu, scoreless in the first half, finished with nine as Golden State used its defense to extend the home win streak to three.

“We should we want to fight each quarter,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said of the first half, so attention to detail, they did a great job punching with that effort. We talk about emptying the tank. So, we did a great job with that.

“Sometimes when we slipped, we did a great job with our communication covering for each other.”

Stewart criticized the New York play of late, saying, “You can't play with heart and play with effort just when things are going good. It's really the moments when you're at the lowest. And this team - we're obviously not a finished product - but this wasn't a great showing, especially coming off of a loss.”

The Liberty fell at Seattle, which ended an 11-game losing streak, longest in franchise history.

“We have to learn to turn it on,” said New York coach Chris DeMarco after the team had a season low overall and both games trailing 20 or more have been at the hands of Golden State. “When we’re down, we have to make our own run.”

More History for Wilson in Aces Win

A’ja Wilson was her own tornado in the Windy City with 30 points, 15 boards, four steals and three blocks, the first in WNBA history with those game stats gained in beating the Sky.

She was 8-for-14 from the field, 13-for-16 from the line, and now has 99 games of at least 20 points and 10 boards trailing only the recently retired Tina Charles at109.

Jackie Young added 28 points and eight assists to the winners’ total shooting 9-for-14 from the field with four makes from deep. Chelsea Gray had 18 points, six rebounds, and eight assists while reserve Chennedy Carter scored 11.

Chicago, which was tied at 31 after one quarter before the Aces broke loose, got 24 each from Azura Stevens and Kamilla Cardoso, who shot 10-for-15 from the field with eight boards while Stevens had three connects from distance.

When New York hosts Las Vegas Tuesday, the Liberty will face an Aces squad 4-1 in recent games and 8-2 on the road.

“I think they’re still in information gathering,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said of New York’s ongoing struggles after tabbed a preseason contender. “New system. New coach. It’s not the end of the world (for either team)win or loose.

“We just played them last week. We should have a good feel. I thought we shot pretty bad that game. Some of that was their defense. Some of that was us. So, we got to learn to help ourselves in situations, but I think the fans, the media, love it a lot more than the two teams.”