The Guru’s WNBA Report: Mitchell Leads Indy Which Rallies to Hand New York 4th Straight Loss; 2nd Place Golden State Tops Washington for 9th Straight Win; Minnesota Stays in Front by a Game

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Indiana (16-10) followed up on Caitlin Clark’s 45-point performance one night later by rallying from 13 down Saturday and winning 108-88 over New York (13-12) before a Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd of 17,274 in Indianapolis, handing the Liberty their fourth straight loss, eight of ten, and fifth straight on the road in one of three games on the WNBA card.

Streaking the other way, second-year Golden State (19-7) trailing 57-52 entering the final period outscored visiting Washington 22-12 and went on to a 74-69 victory over the Mystics (12-12) to move into second place with their ninth straight triumph extending the Chase Center sellout in San Francisco of 18,064 at every Valkyries home game since their inaugural debut last season.

Minnesota (20-6) stayed a game in front in first winning 101-93 over expansion Portland (11-15) before a Target Center home crowd of 12,101 in Minneapolis.

Defending champion Las Vegas (17-7) is third at two games behind the Lynx and one in front of Dallas (16-8).

Mitchell Keeps 20+ Streak Going as Fever Top Liberty

Four-time All-Star Kelsey Mitchell collected a season-high 33 points, becoming the seventh WNBA player in history to reach 20 in 10 straight games, and the second Indiana player to collect at least 30 in two straight, while Clark came alive in the second half to finish with 17 and Indiana used a 30-12 third quarter to take control of the Liberty, which is now seventh just a half-game in front of Washington, which is holding the last playoff spot two games in front of Los Angeles and expansion Portland.

Indiana is fifth a game behind Dallas and 1.5 ahead of Atlanta (15-10), which is two in front of New York.

The winning margin was the Fever’s third largest after being down by double digits.

“Quiet dominance is a good word,” Mitchell, a former Ohio State standout, said. “I’m not even a talker. For me, it’s about the game, man. If we ain’t talking about anything that got to do with basketball, then we ain't talking at all.

 “That's just my mentality. I don't have time to be talking to nobody and celebrating and stuff like that, man.”

A play that wowed the crowd was when Mitchell went up to connect from distance and the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart on a late reaction hit her in the head, sending her to the floor as the ball dropped into the net for what became a four-point play.

“Kelsey’s insane,” said Fever center Aliyah Boston, who will be in Saturday night’s All-Star game with Clark and Mitchell at the United Center in Chicago (8:30 p.m., ABC). “She gets tough shots like that and she gets up and she’s like calm, cool and collected.”

Mitchell shot 52% scoring 30 in Friday night’s win in which Clark overshadowed her with her performance.

On Saturday, she moved to the front of the attention line shooting 71.4% and connecting with four triples. Mitchell, who has reached 30 four times this season to match Indy’s all-time best, also outscored New York 14-12 in that third quarter.

Clark also had seven assists, and they are the league’s first duo to each reach 60 points in a two-game span.

Boston had 15 points and seven boards, Sophie Cunningham and Tyasha Harris offthe bench each scored 11 points.

Fever coach Stephanie White praised Mitchell, saying, “She’s just a hooper. She just wants to play. She doesn't care. She doesn't care about the numbers. She doesn't care about anything but winning, and that's just who she is.”

New York, two seasons removed from their first title in a history that dates to the WNBA launch in 1997 and in the contender talk back in May, have injury problems and on this trip Thursday’s game in Dallas, who the Liberty have dropped two in Brooklyn, was moved to Monday night due to mechanical problems with their charter flight, keeping them home an extra day.

It’s the first time New York has allowed 100 points this season, and yielded 63 in the second half, the most the Fever have scored this season.

Stewart scored 26 with eight boards while Marine Johannes and Sabrina Ionescu each scored 12 points.

“We don’t like where we’re at right now, but we are. We’re f—-ing there,” Stewart said. “We’re in the trenches, and we can either keep sinking or we can dig ourselves out.”

After Monday New York finishes at home Wednesday hosting Connecticut before league play resumes after the All-Star break the following Tuesday, beginning the stretch drive to the playoffs.

But first-year coach Chris DeMarco said the urgency must start now.

“Like Stewie said, we’re present. We understand these two games coming up are super important to us.”

Williams Powers Valkyries Over Mystics

Following Washington’s lopsided loss to Portland at home Thursday coach Sydney Johnson said it was important for his team to get back to their A game on the weekend pair of games against Golden State out West.

It was going that way early until the Valkyries took over late.

All-Star Gabby Williams hit a pair from deep in the final six minutes and ended with 18 points for Golden State, while Veronica Burton had 11 points, 11 assists, and five boards.

The Valkyries connected on a barrage of threes down the stretch; Williams’ make with 5;55 left closed the deficit to three, Kiah Stokes tied it at 65, Kayla Thornton put the home team in front by three with 4:14 left, and Burton with 2:14 left made it 71-65 closing out a 15-4 run.

Golden State, which last season set expansion records for wins and playoff qualification besides the attendance mark as Natalie Nakase became coach of the year, has won 13 of 15, of which 11 have come at home.

Washington’s Shakira Austin scored 18 and equaled her career best with 16 boards, Sonia Citron scored 12 while missing part of the game late after taking a hard fall contesting a rebound in the third quarter.

The Mystics lead the league in rebounding and grabbed 37 against the Valkyries after grabbing 45 in the Portland loss with 19 on the offensive glass.

 Nakase had said her team needed to do better as the aggressor and after trailing by eight late in the opening period, her team exploded with a 23-6 to go up 33-28 at the half.

“Good team effort,” she said of the fourth quarter takeover, “We understand at certain points they’re very tall, physical and big inside. It’s just being active with our bigs and our shifts. I thought the five we finished with had great synergy, where that ball was moving.

“It was beautiful down the stretch, so I thought our last five minutes were huge.”

Washington’s Johnson said, “We’ll probably hurt on this one a little bit longer – until about midnight. They’ve really set a bar for themselves. It’s been fun to see their growth and expectation.

“But there were things we had a good account of ourselves against a team very tough to beat at home.”

McBride Leads Lynx to Fifth Straight

While Napheesa Collier still hasn’t been activated yet, rehabbing from two ankle surgeries last winter, Minnesota continues to move along at the top of league where the Lynx were a year ago heading to the All-Star break.

Kayla McBride had 24 against the visiting Fire and moved inside the WNBA top 20 career list at 5,846, eclipsing by five points now Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon, who played in New York and before the franchise moving to ‘Vegas at San Antonio.

In her sixth straight game of 20+, McBride shot 9-of-14 from the field with four makes from deep.

Natasha Howard had 16 points and rookie sensation Olivia Miles had 14 points and 10 assists, while Courtney Williams scored 15 and reserve Dorka Juhasz had 12 points.

Portland’s Bridget Carleton, a former Lynx standout, had 22 points  while Carla Leite and Sarah Ashlee Barker each scored 21 points.

Miles’ make from deep near the outset snapped a 4-4 tie and Minnesota led the rest of the way.

Carleton’s three brought the Fire close at 53-50 with 6:11 left in the third quarterand then Nia Coffey and McBride struck right back from distance and the Fire never threatened the rest of the game.

“Right now, we’re not good defensively,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the South Jersey native who played at La Salle and last month was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville. “We’re outscoring people. We’ll take those wins when we can get them but that’s not a recipe for success or success at the highest level.

“We’ve got to find our way defensively these last two games before the break.”

Reeve, now the all-time winningest coach in the WNBA with four league titles and an Olympic gold medal off the 2024 Paris Games, will coach one of the All-Star teams Saturday with Hammon handling the other.

Looking Ahead

Sunday 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.

On Monday, the New York-Dallas game is 8 p.m. on League Pass, the same time that Las Vegas is at Toronto on NBCSN and Peacock.

Washington in its second day at three days remains at 10 p.m. to play Golden State on League Pass while at the same time Minnesota is at Seattle on USA.

On Wednesday Phoenix is at Los Angeles at 3 p.m. on League Pass and Minnesota at the same time remains in Seattle to play the Storm on League Pass.

Chicago is at New York at 7 p.m. on League Pass and Las Vegas is at Washington at 7:30 p.m. on League Pass, while at 8 p.m. Connecticut is at Indiana on USA and at 10 p.m. Dallas is at Portland on CNBC and USA.

The six-game slate, heaviest daily of the season, is to jam games in since the only thing that follows is the Saturday All-Star game at 8:30 p.m. on ABC before play resumes on Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru WNBA & UPSHOT Reports: Clark Explodes With 45 Points and 10 Assists in Narrow Indy Win Over Seattle While Connecticut Downs Phoenix; 1st Place Jacksonville Wins Again in UPSHOT

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

On Thursday, Indiana’s Caitlin Clark was being defended at the Game Plan Summit, presented by CNBC and Boardroom, by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, saying the superstar graduate from Iowa and third-year pro in the WNBA has become a “political football” in the conversations about officiating and physical play in the women’s league, he helped found.

Twenty-four hours late a nationwide audience watching on the ION network Friday night and a home crowd of 17,274 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis saw Clark transform into a statistical weapon of mass destruction becoming the first WNBA player to have a game scoring 45 points, a career-high, and dish 10 assists as the Fever (15-10) produced a 110-107 victory over the Seattle Storm (6-21).

Clark also became the fastest player in the 30-year history of the league to make 200 career 3-pointers, doing so in 74 games shattering the existing mark of 81 set by Katie Smith.

The All-Star starter next week in Chicago having finished second in the fan/media/player voting to reigning Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers of Dallas also blocked two shots and grabbed four steals.

Kelsey Mitchell added 30 for the Fever and Monique Billings had 16, while Seattle lost its fourth straight wasting 28 points from second-year pro Dominque with 14 rebounds.

In the three other games on Friday night’s card, Atlanta (15-10) having reversed direction with two straight wins triumphed 111-92 at expansion Toronto (10-15) before a crowd of 8,210 in Coca-Cola Coliseum in Ontario, Canada as Naz Hillmon led the way on a perfect outing, shooting 8-for-8 with four 3s plus four more scores from the line for 24 points.

Chicago (9-16) at home in Wintrust Arena in front of a Windy City crowd of 8,123 won 96-82 over Los Angeles (10-14) spoiling a Sparks night in which former Stanford great Nneka Ogwumike scored 18 with 12 rebounds to reach 7,703 points passing Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie with 7,703 to become the franchise all-time career scorer and also passing former Tennessee sensation Candace Parker into third in the league with career boards at 3,472.

Leslie had led the Sparks at 6,263, which Ogwumike tied by the end of L.A,’s Wednesday loss in Minnesota.

The Connecticut Sun (7-18), which had been on a recent upswing, continued winning 96-83 over Phoenix (8-18) as Leila Lacan had a personal best 26 points before a Mercury home crowd of 10,321 at Mortgage Matchup Center in Arizona and will stay in town to play Phoenix one more Sunday.

 On Thursday in the only game played, due to New York at Dallas postponed to Monday after having mechanical problems with their charter flight to Texas, expansion Portland (11-14) held host Washington (12-11) to 29% shooting in a 75-56 wipeout before a CareFirst Arena crowd of 4,200 in the small venue.

Clark Had a Pregame Vibe on Her Performance

Clark also scored the go-ahead basket near the finish with 39.1 seconds left, getting away from Seattle rookie defender Flau’jae Johnson out of LSU and hitting “nothing but twine,” as ESPN’s Kareem Copeland described the shot in his report.

Other marks into the Clark resume in the win, her scoring a franchise best, she’s the third WNBA player this season to reach 45 points and it was her fourth career game with 30 points and 10 assists.

“Some nights, like, you know, you have it — even before the ball tips,” Clark said. “I felt like it was going to be one of those for me.

“I feel like you just have to believe you’re going to have those type of nights, and you have to visualize having those type of nights. And I feel like that’s what I did.”

Clark, who has been on a minutes restriction because of back problems, became the first in league history to score her 45 in less than 30 minutes.

She had six threes in the game and besides the four 30 points, 10 assists, there are only four other occurrences in the entire WNBA history of having to occurred.

Aliyah Boston, who missed the game with a right lower leg situation, is expected to play Saturday when New York visits.

Center Makayla Timpson, who started in place of Boston, said of Clark’s night, “Just greatness right here, man. She does some crazy stuff out there on the court, man.”

Clark said there was no way she was coming out down the stretch despite the restriction.

“(Coach Stephanie White) knows better than that. Trainers know better than that. … Didn’t matter. I would play with one leg.”

Teammate Mitchell is on a franchise-record nine straight games scoring 20-points, achieved by eight others in the league’s history.

The two guards became the first teammates to score 40 and 30 in the same game.

Rookie Awa Fam scored 16 with nine boards for Seattle and hit her first four attempted shots from deep, becoming the youngest ever in the WNBA to connect from distance four times in the same quarter.

“It’s incredible,” White said of her star player. "I mean, it’s special. She does things that we haven’t seen. She had a lot of bounce early. You could tell she was felling better. She was feeling good, and in the moment, sometimes it’s surreal to see.

“I look down at the stat sheet at the end of the game, and it’s like, holy s—t, 45 and 10. I feel like today, she did a great job of taking what they gave her. So, early in the game, she was attacking the rim. She was getting to the free throw line.

“So that loosened the defense up. So, in the game, they’re going to be loose. They’re going to be on their heels and that’s when they get those incredible threes. And she makes big time shots.

“I think there were three possessions by her the last three minutes by her that were huge for us.”

Clark expects to play Saturday against New York.

“I still feel like I can play better,” she said. “It’s one of the hardest things, coming back from an injury and being out of the groove and having time off. You just have to continue to kind of continue tobelieve in yourself and believe in the work you put in. This is great, but we have another really difficult test tomorrow, so gotta get ready for that.”

Connecticut Looking to Continue to Rise

The Sun are still way down below in 14th next to last but are two games up on Seattle and would move a half-game in front of Phoenix winning Sunday.

Chicago is 12th, 10 games behind first-place Minnesota and four behind Washington, which is in the last playoff spot at eighth.

Portland has moved to ninth, within two of the cutoff, the Sparks are now 2.5 back in 10th, followed a half-game behind by Toronto, which is a game in front of Chicago.

The Sun are 3-3 this month, but have lost the three by three points at home to Dallas, six to Minnesota, and 15 to second-year Golden State, which is in second and the only game in that group which Connecticut was out of reach from trying to win.

Lacan shot 10-of-13 against the Mercury, which was the league runnerup in the playoffs to Las Vegas last season in a surprising run.

The Sun, who will relocate to Houston next season under new ownership, are 5-3 in their last eight and now have won two straight twice.

Kennedy Burke added 13 points, Brittney Griner and Aaliyah Edwards each scored 12 and Diamond Miller had 11 points for the visitors.

Rutgers grad and Philly native Kahleah Copper scored 21 in what was the fifth straight loss to Phoenix. Alyssa Thomas, the Maryland grad out of Harrisburg, had 15 points, eight boards, and six assists, while Valeriane Ayayi had 13 points, and DeWanna Bonner had 10 rebounds and eight points.

In the second quarter the Sun went on a 10-0 run building a 19-point lead.

Griner left Phoenix after her first 11 years in 2024 and this was just her second game back.

The losing stretch saw a WNBA third-worst ever blowout loss a week at defending champion Las Vegas, but two days later, there was hope with a competitive loss at Minnesota, which went to the wire.

“We’ve been consistently inconsistent,” said Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts. It’s to dig a hole like that. Again, the turnovers in the first half just killed us with our defense.

“I just think overall disappinting. We all feel like we’re still playing for something.”

Taylor Leads Sky Over Sparks

Sydney Taylor had 19 points for Chicago, propelled by four three makes from distance, while Kamilla Cordoso had 13 points and 11 boards with a pair of blocks, and Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud, a free-agent signee after not kept by New York from last season, scored 15 with nine boards.

Jacy Sheldon added 4 points and Azura Stevens scored 12.

Los Angeles’ Dearica Hamby scored 18 while Rutgers grad Erica Wheeler scored 14 in what was the team’s third straight loss.

Ogwumike was the overall No. 1 pick by L.A. in 2012, played the last two in Seattle, and returned this season.

All-Star pick Kelsey Plum, who may be doubtful next weekend forcing commissioner Cathy Engelbert to name a replacement, continued to be sidelined with a leg injury while Chicago’s Skylar Diggins has been out five straight with a knee injury.

“I’ve been telling you guys the last two seasons, our locker room does not get down,” said Chicago coach Tyler Marsh. “They get upset. They get frustrated, but that’s because they’re competitors. You don’t get to see everything behind the scenes, but our locker room is together.”

“I just think we did a good job of keeping the main thing, the main thing tonight,” he said, over his team not getting upset over perceived missed calls by officials.

Cloud was scoreless in the first half.

“She did whatever the team needed tonight,” Marsh said of Cloud’s overall play.

Dream Take Third Out of Four Beating Tempo

Besides Hillmon’s big night, Angel Reese had 23 points with 12 boards for Atlanta, which is fifth tied with Indiana, 1.5 behind Dallas, and 1.5 in front of New York.

Allisha Gray and Jordin Canada each added 18 points for the visitors in Toronto.

The Tempo’s Marina Mabrey scored 26 points.

“We just weren’t very locked in,” Toronto coach Sandy Brandello said of how a close game in the first half got away. “We had a very good first half. But the second half, we were just struggling, they were the aggressor.

“They were getting fouls. We didn’t get many fouls, rightly or wrongly.”

Fire Defends Mystics

In a game Portland held down Washington to 29% shooting, driving the Mystics back to eighth in the last playoff spot, Serah Williams added 12 to the Fire attack while Sarah Ashlee Parker scored 10 in a revenge win for the quadruple overtime loss to the opposition on June 28 last month.

Portland was 10-for-35 from deep with Frieda Buhner going a perfect 3-for-3.

Washington’s Shakira Austin had 19 points with nine boards, but the Mystics’ overall dismal shooting included 2-for-21 from beyond the arc besides committing nine turnovers.

The game was decided quickly with the Fire blazing from the outset 28-13 and on to 43-20 midway in the second period.

“The theme of tonight was two things,” said Portland coach Alex Sarma. “I felt the half-court offense execution was excellent, the scout was excellent. The game plan was very, very clear.

“The concerning thing is the rebounding. I keep thinking if we could be better rebounding defensively, it would be incredible to see what we can do. I’m thinking tactily, we’re doing everything we can do but, it’s blow bys, its offensive rebounds, those are the things which have been hurting us.

“Aside, those two things, we were really, really, good, we just have to keep improving in those two areas,” Sarma said.

Sonia Citron was held to eight points.

“I was really excited about our offensive rebounding all game long,” Washington coach Sydney Johnson said. “It took a lot of guts out there.

“We held them to 28 points in the second half. But we really struggled to shoot. It was our season low. You got to get two stops and two scores. We would get two stops. But we wouldn’t get two scores,” he said.

“We’ve been gone at it. But this is the W. This is our third game in five days. It’s been a grind. Most of our shots were really good shots, but we just didn’t have it. Sometimes, you got to roll and keep playing. I thought we did a good job of keep playing. It’s really, really hard. We just didn’t get enough to get ourselves back in the game, he continued.

“It’s really, really hard to win in this league. The coaching and playing is all top notch. I think we know we didn’t have our A game and Portland had something to do with that. So sometimes you have to have you’re a game and roll with it.”

Looking Ahead

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.

Sunday 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.

On Monday, the New York-Dallas game is 8 p.m. on League Pass, the same time that Las Vegas is at Toronto on NBCSN and Peacock.

Washington in its second day at three days remains at 10 p.m. to play Golden State on League Pass while at the same time Minnesota is at Seattle on USA.

On Wednesday Phoenix is at Los Angeles at 3 p.m. on League Pass and Minnesota at the same time remains in Seattle to play the Storm on League Pass.

Chicago is at New York at 7 p.m. on League Pass and Las Vegas is at Washington at 7:30 p.m. on League Pass, while at 8 p.m. Connecticut is at Indiana on USA and at 10 p.m. Dallas is at Portland on CNBC and USA.

The six-game slate, heaviest daily of the season, is to jam games in since the only thing that follows is the Saturday All-Star game at 8:30 p.m. on ABC before play resumes on Tuesday.

UPSHOT – Jacksonville Keeps Rolling; Charlotte Leads Rest by 3.5 Games

The first-place Jacksonville Wave (16-4) in the new four-team UPSHOT League tacked on another win Friday night, winning 83-67 at home over the Savannah Steel (7-14) to stay up 5.5 over the Charlotte Crown (11-10), which completed a two-game sweep so far winning 85-75 at the Greensboro Groove (8-14) in North Carolina, following Thursday’s 85-75 win in Greensboro.

On Sunday, the current weekend set of series ends at 2 p.m. for both games with Savannah at Jacksonville and Charlotte at Greensboro, all games can be seen on the league’s YouTube channel.

Charlotte, which struggled early in the season, went on a six-game streak before stopped by Jacksonville, and leads Greensboro by 3.5 games and Savannah by four on the 40-game schedule.

Next year Nashville and Baltimore come online as the league looks to continue to expand.

In Thursday’s win by Charlotte, the visitors won three quarters.

Reigan Richardson scored 25 for Charlotte, while Ugonne (Michelle) Oniyah had 12 points with 11 boards, Deja Kelly also had 12, while Schaquilla Nunn had 11 points and 16 boards, and A.D., formerly known as Asia Dunn, also scored 11.

Philadelphia native Diamond Johnson scored 22 for Greensboro, Jessica Timmons had 14 points, Kayla Jones had 13 points with nine boards and Amiya Joyner scored 11.

In Friday’s encounter. Charlotte used s dominating 25-12 third quarter and was led in this win by the Crown by A.D. with 22 points, while Nunn had 14 points and eight boards, Richardson and Kisten “KK” Deans each had 13 points as did Kiki McGill Jefferson, while Richardson also dealt nine assists.

Though Jacksonville, coached by Philadelphia native Jess Bogia, is dominating through wins, many outcomes were by narrow margins.

On Friday night, a ten-point 27-17 third quarter was ticket for the Wave, who got 16 points from former Tennessee star Rennia Davis with seven boards, while Ariel Hearn had 15 points and nine boards, and Adut Bulgat and Khayla Pointer each scored 12 points.

Savannah’s Quanniecia “Que” Morrison scored 17 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the field with five assists, Lasha Petree scored 16, Allisha Jenkins scored 11with a 3-pointer off a 1-for-11 overall from the field but a perfect 8-for-8 on the line, while Olivia Cochran scored 10.

Petree also had six steals.