The Guru’s WNBA Report: Minnesota Holds Off Phoenix On the Play of McBride and Miles; Atlanta Rallies Over Los Angeles

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Two days after suffering the third worst lopsided loss in WNBA, dealt at defending champion Las Vegas, the Phoenix Mercury (8-17) gave front running Minnesota (18-6) a strong challenge Monday night but ultimately the combo of Kayla McBride and rookie sensation Olivia Miles enabled the Lynx to prevail 104-100 before a crowd of 10,221 at the Target Center in Minneapolis and move the needle slightly forward to a one-game lead over Las Vegas (17-7) and second-year Golden State (17-7) who were idle.

In the other game on the night’s card, Atlanta (14-10) won 101-92 over Los Angeles (10-12) before a home crowd of 3,592 at the Gateway Center in suburban College Park, pushing the Sparks slightly more behind eighth-place Washington (11-10) at 1.5 games for the last playoff spot and just a half-game ahead of the two expansion teams Toronto (10-13) and Portland (10-13).

Atlanta is in sixth a half-game behind Indiana (14-9) and a game in front of New York (13-11).

Up in Minneapolis, McBride scored a season-best 37 points, helped seal the win in the tightly fought contest with her sixth make from deep for a 101-98 lead and Miles gained a new personal best at 33 points.

The rookie also had eight assists and with the Lynx up 101-100 she fed Natasha Howard inside to make it 103-100 with 21.1 left.

Going for a tie Phoenix had the ball stolen by Courtney Williams and Miles hit one of two chances from the line for the final score.

There were 23 lead changes and 13 ties, the Lynx receiving help from 24 of 26 free throws in a game both teams shot 55%.

McBride missed her personal best by a point set in 2018 while Miles, the No. 2 overall pick in the draft in April behind Dallas taking UConn’s Azzi Fudd, became the fastest in league history to have 400 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists, coming in her 22nd game.

Rutgers grad and native Philadelphian Kahleah Copper had 26 points for Phoenix while Maryland grad and Harrisburg native Alyssa Thomas had 19 points with eight rebounds and12 assists.

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the South Jersey native and former La Salle star who last week became the winningest regular season coach in the league is now at 382 while already holding marks for playoff wins and tied for titles at four in her 17-year career.

On Monday night’s game, the newly minted Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer said, “Our defense wasn’t helping us very much, so we went into a mind set, ‘we gotta score.

“We found a couple plays we liked and made some great reads, great plays. Miles is doing this and shouldering so much – basically the entire team,” said Reeves, who expects perennial MVP candidate Napheesa Collier’s return very soon after rehabbing since having surgery last winter on both ankles. “The success of the team is on her shoulders and that is impressive how she’s handled it.”

After the massacre in ‘Vegas ended, Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts predicted his team’s next game would say a lot.

“I’m glad that we didn’t have to sit on that game very long,” he said Monday night. “That was disappointing for our whole organization, our fan base.

“We're better than that, we showed that tonight. But we got a tough road ahead, and we're going to have more games like this. And we got to keep fighting to make that push for that eighth seed.

“We had some really good performances. DB (DeWanna Bonner) maybe got into the top five as far as steals in the league. Sami (Whitcomb) set a WNBA record for most threes off the bench (3-4), and then Kah and AT just really tried to will us to a victory.”

Phoenix next gets to host the last place Connecticut Sun Friday and Sunday.

Reese Leads Dream Over Sparks

Third-year pro Angel Reese, who was 7-11 from the field and made all eight shots from the line as she got a league-leading 16th double-double scoring 23 points with 13 rebounds in Atlanta’s victory while Allisha Gray had 20 points.

A 9-0 run late in the game carried the Dream rally.

Reese didn’t play in Saturday’s loss to expansion Portland.

Jordin Canada had 16 points and Rhyne Howard scored 11 in the Dream’s first win off a recent 1-6 slide.

Los Angeles continues to miss Cameron Brink, out for eight straight games with a left ankle injury while Kelsey Plum, the league’s leading scorer when she suffered a lower left leg injury, has missed six straight games.

Erica Wheeler scored 20 points while Nneka Ogwumike scored 19, and Rae Burrell 18.

Atlanta had trailed since early in the second period before retaking the lead on Dearica Hamby’s driving layup with 4:21 left in regulation.

“It’s just time to start stringing it together,” Gray said with an eye to next going to Toronto. One win is just not enough. It’s time to lock in and string it together.”

“Good win for us, we played a really good first half,” said Atlanta second-year coach Karl Smesko. “Fourth quarter was rough, but we made some big plays down the stretch. Angel, obviously, had some huge plays for us.

“In the beginning of the fourth quarter, everything that could go wrong kind of did.”

From the visitors, Los Angeles second-year coach Lynne Roberts said “ball movement” and “player movement” were keys to the two wins prior to Monday.

Noting Atlanta leading in steals, “if we’re casual with anything it’s going to turn into points.

 “The season's not over, and were not walking around like, ‘oh man. No. We’re one game out of making the playoffs that's the goal that's the plan. We'll get healthy,” she continued.

“I'm not buying the narrative that we're having some brutal season. We're not. It's a process. We've had adversity. We have new players, new All Stars. They're fitting in. It takes time, and I know we're not in a patient industry, but I'm not going to buy into, ‘oh what's wrong.’

“We're just going to keep plowing. We're going to get healthy. We are only halfway through.”

Looking Ahead

Tuesday will see Portland at Connecticut, 11 a.m. on League Pass, while Washington is at Toronto at 7 p.m. on NBA TV.

On Wednesday Seattle is at Chicago at noon on League Pass, while Los Angeles is at Minnesota at 1 p.m., also on League Pass, and Golden State is at Indiana at 8 p.m. on USA.

Portland is at Washington at 7 p.m. on NBA TV Thursday, while New York is at Dallas at 9 p.m. on Amazon Prime.

Friday on the ION and League Pass package, Seattle is at Indiana at 7:30 p.m., while Los Angeles at the same time is at Chicago, and 10 p.m., Connecticut is at Phoenix.

Saturday has a three-game card, New York at Indiana at 8 p.m. on Paramount+ and CBS at 8 p.m., the same time League Pass has Portland at Minnesota, while at 8:30 p.m. on League Pass Washington is at Golden State.

Finally, Sunday, to give you the whole week, has Los Angeles at Dallas at 1 p.m. on ABC, Chicago at Atlanta at 4 p.m. on Paramount+ and CBS, and Connecticut at Phoenix at 7 p.m. on Disney + and ESPN.