The Guru’s WNBA Report: It’s Bottoms Up as No. 8 New York Sweeps No. 1 Minnesota 2-0; Clark Leads Indiana to Tie Defending Champ ‘Vegas; 76ers Exec Introduced as Sparks GM

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

NEW YORK - On first glance, it was a history-making stunner Tuesday night here at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in the second of a pair of Game 2 first-round WNBA playoffs where No. 8 New York completed a two-game sweep of the top-seeded and postseason favorite Minnesota Lynx 87-71 before a 17,593 roaring sellout crowd.

What Minnesota was unable to do, stay alive and get back to the Target Center in Minneapolis where the Liberty stole Game 1, six-seeded Indiana didn’t have a lot of difficulty in the earlier game at home before a crowd of 16,298 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis where the saga of third-year pro Caitlin Clark offered another impressive performance as the Fever downed defending champion Las Vegas 99-89 to send that series back to casino land Thursday night.

That will come after Wednesday night’s pair of ESPN-televised games when fifth seed Washington will attempt to even the score with fourth seed Atlanta at 7 p.m. in CareFirst Arena in the nation’s capital to keep New York in suspense over which the Liberty will meet in one of the best-of-five semifinal openers Sunday before second-year Golden State at 9 p.m. will be in Texas at College Park Center in suburban Arlington trying to close out Dallas and second-year pro Paige Bueckers.

The winners of those two series will meet in Sunday’s other semifinal opener.

As for Tuesday night, let’s take last things first, where New York became the first eight seed to beat the top seed in the 30-year history of the WNBA.

Minnesota, which has a record-tying four crowns gained the last decade, has now gone three straight seasons as a top two seed without anything to show after New York here in 2024 in a penultimate fifth game in overtime prevailed at the end to win the Liberty’s first title in what was a league-matching 28 seasons of existence.

Last fall, as a No. 1, the Lynx were upset in the semifinals by Phoenix, a series that saw perennial MVP candidate Napheesa Collier, who missed a large chunk of the second half of the season with an injury, get hurt again early against the Mercury on a play that resulted in Hall of Fame coach Cheryl Reeve, a native of South Jersey in the Philadelphia suburbs who starred at La Salle, draw a suspension after going after officials when Collier went down.

Jonquel Jones, a past league MVP, graduate of George Washington, and adopted daughter of Temple coach Diane Richardson, on Tuesday scored 21 points with 13 rebounds to lead New York, which struggled with injuries and other situations all summer.

“It feels good, we understand who we are as a team,” Jones said afterwards. “We’re not listening to outside noise, we understand that we can do a lot of great things.

“We feel like we can play with anybody and beat anybody. That’s the mindset we have moving forward,” she continued.

“It feels good to make history. It had to be done for us to advance. It’s nice to say it’s been accomplished, but we have a lot of work to do.”

Though it’s the first No. 8 winner over a No. 1, several things need to be considered with the achievement.

Through it’s history, the WNBA has had many playoff formats as it has grown, so 8-1 matchups didn’t first happen until 2022 when everyone in the eight-team field played in the opening round.

As the league grows from 15 teams this season with the addition of Toronto and Portland to 18 in 2030 when Philadelphia completes the latest round behind Cleveland (2028) and Detroit (2029), the playoffs will evolve again with issues as field size and format being the main topics moving forward.

The next thing, which the Liberty (26-18) proved this year, is there are times the bottom team is not necessarily a terrible contingent.

Consider that New York may have been eighth, but that finish occurred by losing the last two season games at home to Atlanta and they were just two games out of fifth and those two Atlanta losses enabled the Dream to land in fourth, four games ahead of the Liberty.

While Minnesota had the best record, they finished just one game ahead of Golden State and struggled the last month while New York’s roster in a nearly three-week break for the FIBA World Cup built strength with a slew of players on various national teams.

One of those was Breanna Stewart, the native of Syracuse and former UConn four-time Final Four MVP, who led USA to its fifth straight World Cup title earlier this month, scored 34 in Sunday’s 91-75 game in Minneapolis, and scored 21 Tuesday night.

“She’s the ultimate winner,” said Reeve, who coached Stewart on the USA Olympic Gold Medal winners in 2024 in Paris and who earlier this week won her fifth WNBA coach of the year from the league’s nationwide media panel while second overall draft pick Olivia Miles by the Lynx was the unanimous choice for rookie of the year.

Reeve, who had legitimate complaints on the Lynx’s last two exits, tipped her hat to New York on this one, knowing beforehand the Liberty were going to be a fearsome 8-seed.

Courtney Williams, who led the Lynx Tuesday with 18 points, was on the same page as Reeve, saying, “New York is a great basketball team. You dig a hole for yourself and try to get out of it. We wanted to go on a run, they had answers for everything.”

Collier and Kayla McBride each scored 14 for the visitors.

Sabrina Ionescu added 18 points to the New York attack.

Reeve earned this year’s award because no one back in May expected much of the Lynx with Collier still recovering from surgeries for last season’s injuries, a rehab that lasted until mid-summer. The Lynx also lost a bunch of their core to free agency after the landmark CBA was negotiated.

But Miles, who starred at Notre Dame and TCU, was sensational all season until defended this week by New York, on Tuesday being held to five points on a 1-for-7 effort in 17 minutes from the field.

Reeve afterwards related the pep talk she gave her rookie.

“As I told her, ‘When was the last time a rookie led the first-place team?’ Never happened before. That’s what we shared with her. This hurts for her.”

While Reeve credited New York for handling Miles she also noted a bunch of other teams tried and failed.

Reeve pointed fingers at herself saying she needs to get the help and elixir to get over the hump when the playoffs begin.

Clark and Mitchell Power Indiana to a Series Tie With Las Vegas

The 2024 rookie of the year helped Indiana to live for at least one more game, scoring 27 points and grabbing 15 assists, while also delivering a strong defense of the reigning league champs and setting a playoff record in the first half with 14 points and 11 assists for the first-ever WNBA playoff double-double in a half with points and assists.

Kelsey Mitchell, who recently set a record with 27 straight 20-plus games, was back on track after Sunday’s blowout loss in Las Vegas, scoring 26 points while the full house continued to chant “M-V-P,” according to several media reports.

“I thought her energy from start to finish _ I mean a double-double in the first half – was pretty incredible,” Indiana coach Stephanie White said of Clark’s effort. “The way she moved the ball, attacked from multiple positions.

“You always expect to be able to make shots and facilitate. But I thought how she managed the game was really good and her defensive energy I thought was terrific. It’s what we need from her.”

Once again, however, another incident marred the night when prohibitive MVP favorite A’ja Wilson, who has a record four such trophies, got into it with a fan, though as she walked to the stands, two Aces teammates and an assistant coach and security got everyone separated.

Wilson was assessed a technical for leaving the court but stayed in the game while the male fan was escorted out but later allowed to return after the Fever said he did not violate the fan code of conduct policy.

The incident occurred midway through the fourth quarter with 4:10 left in regulation.

“If I’m just walking because I got the foul and I’m just chilling, and I see a man coming at me taking steps toward me, pointing at me, I don’t give a damn what you said,” Wilson said.

“I don’t give a damn how you said it, the tone, that is unacceptable. I’m not going to put up with that (expletive) at all, excuse my French and God bless. But that is unacceptable.”

Wilson had 22 points and nine boards in the game after scoring 38 with 16 boards Sunday.

Las Vegas looked on the way for a sweep, going up 11 in the second quarter, but Indiana took over early in the third period and stayed ahead the rest of the way.

Wilson said she apologized to her team for the technical, but coach Becky Hammon gave her a pass.

“I didn’t exactly see what happened,” she said. “I kind of saw the aftermath. I’ve never seen A’ja Wilson go like that so whatever was done I can tell you she felt very disrespected in that moment.

I’ve never seen her really react like that ever, so whatever it was, it doesn’t have any place. I don’t think in an arena.”

76ers Executive Introduced as New GM in Los Angeles

Ariana Andonian, a 31-year-old native Californian and graduate of Southern Cal and Duke (MBA), was introduced Tuesday as the new general manager of the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks, who missed the playoffs again in a drought dating to 2020 and last week fired coach Lynne Roberts after being hired two seasons ago from her collegiate head coaching position at Utah.

She most recently on the 76ers was general manager of the Delaware Blue Coats, the team’s G League entry in Wilmington and was announced earlier this month.

“This is a dream come true and I don’t take the responsibility lightly,” Andonian said. “To Sparks fans, I know you know what success looks like.”

She was also a fan of all-time great Lisa Leslie, who she recently got to meet.

Andonian was hired by former 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer reporting the hire. She also interned in Houston when he worked there.

She also worked for the NBA Memphis Grizzilies and grew up a fan of the Lakers and the late Kobe Byrant, who died with a daughter and several others several years ago in a helicopter crash.