The Guru’s WNBA and UPSHOT Reports: Idle Minnesota Re-Takes First as Indiana Tops ‘Vegas With Clark and Wilson Sidelined; Jacksonville Still Has Grip on UPSHOT
By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux
Injuries — short term and long — are playing havoc with figuring out exactly where things are in the WNBA race nearing the midway point, especially based on results on the two-a-day, three-day holiday slate over the weekend.
Heading into Monday in the overall standings 4.5 games over the first eight teams, the number that qualifies in September for the playoffs, separate the top from the bottom and then there’s a three-game spread over the next four teams that include the two new expansion squads in Toronto and Portland.
Golden State (14-7), sitting in third 1.5 games out of first, is showing the record-setting run the Valkyries made last season arriving in the league was no fluke.
On Sunday, in the two games, Indiana (12-8) as shown last year, when she missed all but 13 games as a second-year pro, again was able to win without Caitlin Clark, missing her third straight game, but defending champion Las Vegas (15-6), which fell to the Fever 84-68 before a home crowd of 17,796, moved to T-Mobile Arena, struggles without four-time and reigning MVP A’ja Wilson, who missed her second straight game with an ankle injury.
It was a caution move on the part of the host Aces, head coach Becky Hammon saying Wilson would have played had it been the playoffs.
Clark missed her third straight with a back injury but was at practice this week.
Both are expected to be back later this month as starters in the All-Star game in Chicago.
Dallas (13-8), bad enough last season to earn a second-straight No. 1 pick despite gaining UConn’s Paige Bueckers, the reigning rookie of the year, continues to make good with the addition of Azzi Fudd, her former Huskies teammate, winning Sunday 89-76 in Toronto (9-11) before a crowd of 8,210 at the Coca-Cola Coliseum to jump to fourth tied with New York (13-8), who they visit a second time this season Tuesday guided by former Liberty coach Sandy Brondello.
On Saturday, Portland (9-12) had the schedule benefit on July 4th to play at lowly Seattle (5-17) and win narrowly 77-72 before a crowd of 10,251 at Climate Pledge Arena in Washington to finish a road trip 1-4.
For all the talk about Atlanta (12-9), in Saturday’s other game Golden State on the road completed a season sweep of the Dream, which has had players in-and-out of the lineup all season, with an 88-83 victory and the home team suffering its fifth straight loss before a crowd of 3,596 at the Gateway Center in suburban College Park.
Starting the July 4th weekend Friday, New York followed up Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup home conquest of Las Vegas, winning 99-86 at home at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn before a crowd of 15,345 over Minnesota (15-5), knocking the Lynx temporarily out of the overall lead of first, though by Sunday they were back on top courtesy of the Aces’ loss.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, an inductee last weekend at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee, with the loss was temporarily deprived of passing former Connecticut/Washington coach Mike Thibault for the most career wins in WNBA history, though she already holds the playoff game and combo mark.
The two New York wins with a healthier lineup, though Satou Sabally was still out in the concussion protocol, against the 1-2 punch of the moment in the standings was a turnaround from a horrific June.
Friday’s other game saw Las Vegas, the benefit of playing lowly Chicago (6-14) before 15,837 at the T-Mobile Arena, was still forced by a Sky rally to go into overtime before winning 98-90.
Multi-coaches in Play to head All-Star Squads
Last week the ten All-Star starters were announced with the reserves voted by the league’s coaches to be made public this week, however after this past weekend, quite the race is going on for coaching honors out of the two conferences determined by the best records after Friday’s games.
In the East, New York under first-year coach Chris DeMarco has the best mark (13-8) but hosts Dallas Tuesday while Saturday’s game at Minnesota is one day after the deadline.
Indiana (12-8) under Stephanie White, is a half-game behind and could steal the slot considering the Fever visit Los Angeles Wednesday and Phoenix Thursday in back-to-games before heading Sunday to Las Vegas.
Atlanta (12-9) hosts Seattle Thursday before hosting Portland Friday a day after the deadline.
Washington can’t make up ground three back with one game on the slate.
In the West, Minnesota (15-5) moved back in front a half-game ahead of Las Vegas (15-6) hosting Connecticut Monday before hosting New York a day after the deadline while the Aces go to Portland Thursday before hosting Phoenix Saturday a day after the deadline, while Golden State is at Washington Monday and Toronto Wednesday and Connecticut Friday.
Mitchell Leads Indy Over Las Vegas
Two of the Fever’s three All-Star starters were enough to get the job done against the league champs, Kelsey Mitchell scoring 27 while Aliyah Boston had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Mitchell was 7-of-18 from the field and 10 of 12 on the line, while Boston had her sixth double-double this season.
The Aces had their lowest scoring game this season with Jackie Young leading the way with 15 points, while Jewell Loyd scored 12, and Chelsea Gray had 10 points and six boards.
The duo and Sophie Cunningham for the visitors each nailed three makes from deep, while Mitchell also made all three shots from the line after being fouled behind the arc.
Indiana had been on a long break before beginning the current road trip.
“We’re just taking it one day at a time,” White said. “For us, we just want to get better.
“” Thought our resilience was really good. I thought our execution on defense was outstanding. It just shows the growth of our group.”
Hammon said from the Aces side, “I thought we ran out of gas. We looked tired.”
Bueckers Leads Wings Over Tempo
Paige Bueckers had 22 points with seven assists for Dallas in the win over Toronto, making 9 of 16 from the field that included one 3-pointer. She was three short of extending four straight games reaching 25 points.
Azzi Fudd scored 17 with long-range accuracy of 5-for-11 from deep while Jessica Shepard had 14 points and 15 boards for her 12th double-double coming after being named an All-Star starter last week.
The Wings’ Arike Ogumbowale added 10 points with six rebounds as did Awak Kuier.
Toronto’s Marina Mabrey, who missed the Tempo’s last game a week ago after scoring 53 against L.A. prior to that one, had 19 points while Nyara Sabally had 14, Isabelle Harrison scored 13 and Kia Nurse off the bench had 12 points fueled by three triples.
Entering ahead 71-59 at the outset of the fourth quarter the Wings were never threatened the rest of the way.
“We’ve talked about we need to get off the better starts, I thought we got off to a really good start. Didn’t close the second quarter,” said first-year Wings coach Jose Fernandez, whose team is looking for a second straight win in New York.
“You know a four-game road trip, we have to find a way to rest our top five, six guys, which we weren’t able to do.
“Winning in this league or any league on the road is tough,” he said. “So, we got two down on a four-game road trip, we’ll get to New York and then we have this team again in Montreal.
“I thought we did a good job finding Azzi. I thought she was assertive. She put the ball on the deck and also got to the rim.”
Of Bueckers, Tempo coach Sandy Brondello said recalling coaching against her last season, “She’s really good. She’s a generational player and going to keep getting better and better.”
Valkyries Whip Dream
In completing a season sweep Saturday of the Dream, Golden State’s Veronica Burton had 21 points and All-Star starter Gabby Williams had 14 of her 19 points in the second half.
The Valkyries have won four straight games.
Off the bench, Janelle Salaun had three makes from deep while scoring 14 points overall.
Atlanta’s Allisha Gray scored 22, Angel Reese had her 14th double-double on the season with 17 points and 13 boards and Rhyne Howard had four threes with 19 points overall and Madina Okot scored 11.
The Dream held a 77-74 lead with 3:16 left in regulation.
Then Golden State erupted with an 8-0 run to stay in front the rest of the way and finished with a season-high 15 steals.
“Our roster is strength in numbers and that’s going to be to our advantage,” said Golden State coach Natalie Nakase, voted coach of the year last season. “But the only way it’s going to be to our advantage is if we empty the tank.
“We talk about playing the five hardest minutes of our lives. We finally came to our fruition with that. That’s really come to fruition the last few games. We’re focusing on ourselves. We’re holding each other accountable and we’re focusing all our energy to hold each other accountable.”
Atlanta second-year coach Karl Smesko said, “I thought both teams were playing at a very high level, both teams playing at a very high-level defense, unfortunately they were able to get some open looks those last couple plays to take the game at the end.
“I don’t think it’s anything drastic, a play here, a play there,” he said of common fourth quarter collapses during the slide.
“A call here. A call there. It’s a big difference when you’re up two and the end and they got to foul you then you’re down two and you got to foul them tonight.”
Leite Leads Expansion Fire Over Storm
Carla Leite had 20 points for Portland winning in Seattle, shooting 4-for-8 from the field and going a perfect 12-for-12 from the line while dealing four assists.
Bridget Carleton scored 14 with seven boards, while Megan Gustafson scored 10 with nine boards in Saturday’s win.
Seattle’s highly touted rookie of last season, Dominique Malonga had 22 points, while Natisha Hiedeman had 15 points, rookie Awa Fam had 12, and rookie Flau’jae Johnson out of LSU was held to just one point.
The Fire were just up 32-30 at the half before erupting in the third quarter to stay up the rest of the way.
Stewart Explodes For Liberty in Win Overe Lynx
In New York’s high-scoring win Friday over Minnesota, Breanna Stewart followed her MVP performance in the Cup win over Las Vegas with 36 against the Lynx.
Earlier in the day Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said she thought the attention on the brink of her breaking the regular season win record was a distraction.
Though not back yet, perennial MVP Napheesa Collier and Dorka Juhasz are practicing with the team.
Reeve is at 379 with Chicago visiting Monday night where a win could put her in position to add another All-Star coaching stint to her resume that shows four WNBA crowns and an Olympic Gold Medal.
On Friday after Stewart got off to a hot start for the Liberty, Jonquel Jones added to the pace with with 14 points and 15 rebounds, while Ionescu had 17 points.
Things were going the Lynx’s way late in the first half and then the home team erupted on a 13-2 run.
Minnesota’s Kayla McBride scored 18 to top the visitors while Courtney Williams scored 18.
“It’s amazing. You want to find ways to keep her going. I’ve seen her do it a number of times now,” Jones, the adopted daughter of Temple coach Diane Richardson said of Stewart’s night.
“We’re just really connected right now, when we’re in the halfcourt, we really believe in our defense,” New York coach DeMarco said of holding Lynx rookie Olivia Miles, the number two overall pick, in check.
“When we’re playing the right way, we’re a very hard team to stop, obviously,” Jones said. "I think when we’re locked in the way we were tonight; games are going to go our way.”
“Not good enough against this team,” Reeve said of losing to New York, which in 2024 beat the Lynx in overtime in a close finish in Game 5 to win the Liberty’s first title in what was then the team’s 28th season dating to the WNBA inaugural summer of 1997.
“Certainly, this team puts you in challenging positions. I thought we were pretty easy to play against tonight.”
Aces Survive Sky Rally in Overtime
In Friday’s other game, Las Vegas got 29 points and eight boards from NaLyssa Smith and Chelsea Gray made two key shots in the extra period in which the Aces exploded on a 10-0 run.
A successful challenge with 1:08 left in the overtime took Chicago points off the board that would have put the Sky within two of a tie.
Gray then scored to extend the ‘Vegas lead.
She finished with 18 points, Jewell Loyd scored 19, and Jackie Young scored 16, while Smith was 11-for-14 from the field and 7 of 10 at the line in what was A’ja Wilson’s second miss of what is now three games.
Skylar Diggins scored 19 for the Sky and Kamilla Cardoso had 16 points and 10 boards.
Additionally, Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud had 15 points and Courtney Vandersloot and Azura Stevens each scored 11 points.
A 12-0 run in the fourth quarter brought Chicago back into contention.
Looking Ahead
Two of three games on Monday’s card are on League Pass with Golden State at Washington at 7:30 p.m., Connecticut at Minnesota at 8, the game that could put South Jersey’s Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star, as the all-time regular season wins leader and stay in contention to coach the West in the All-Star game.
Seattle is at Los Angeles at 10 p.m. on USA.
On Tuesday, a key game has Dallas visiting New York at 8 p.m. on ESPN, while at 10 Chicago is at Phoenix on League Pass.
Wednesday’s tripleheader has Golden State at Toronto at 7 p.m. on League Pass, Minnesota at Connecticut at 7:30 p.m. on USA, and Indiana at Los Angeles at 10 p.m. on CNBC and USA.
The Amazon Prime doubleheader on Thursday has Seattle at Atlanta at 8 p.m., Indiana at Phoenix at 10 p.m., while also on League Pass at 10 p.m., Las Vegas is at Portland.
Friday’s tripleheader on ION and League Pass, the deadline day for determining who coaches the All-Star game but none of the contenders are involved that day, Golden State is at Connecticut at 7:30 p.m., Dallas is at Toronto in Montreal the same time, and Chicago is at Los Angeles at 10 p.m.
UPSHOT League Recaps – Jacksonville Still in Front
The new four-team UPSHOT developmental league had everyone in play Friday and Sunday with the same matchups and sites both days.
At home in Florida, the first-place Jacksonville Wave (12-4) coached by Philly native Jessica Bogia, had a commanding lead over its Charlotte (8-9), its nearest pursuer so that a win streak over the Crown went to three before ending Sunday, the setback was easy to withstand.
The Greensboro Groove (6-11) got closer to the Savannah Steel (7-10) trailing by a narrow 1.5 deficit after a road sweep in Georgia.
On Friday Jacksonville temporarily increased its league lead further winning 98-89, the difference a 29-17 second quarter and 50-35 halftime advantage to sustain a 54-48 deficit over the second half.
Ariel Hearn had 29 points and five assists for the winning Wave, while Lindsey Pulliam scored 13 points, as did Shyanne Sellers, while Rennia Davis had 11 points and seven boards while Taylor Soule also scored 11 with six boards.
Charlotte’s Deja Kelly scored 23, LeLe Grissett scored 19 with nine boards, while A.D., formerly known as Asia Durr, scored 13.
On Sunday, the Crown, which had bolted upwards with a six-game win streak until stopped by Jacksonville, came back winning 90-82 this time the visitors owning the first half 46-36 and splitting the second half and outscored 46-44.
Kelly led Charlotte with 22 points, while Richardson scored 21, Nunn and UGonne (Michelle) Oniyah each had 13 points with Nunn grabbing 12 boards, and Dunn had 11 points.
Hearn had 16 for Jacksonville, while Sellers scored 15, Pulliam and Khayla Pointer each had 13.
Meanwhile, in the other series, on Friday, Greensboro won big 92-78 at Savannah as the visiting Groove exploded for a 36-14 differential in the third quarter.
Kahlya Jones had 17 points, helped by four makes from deep, and 10 boards while Sarah Jones scored 15 with eight boards and Christeen Iwuala also scored 15, and Ny’Ceara Pryor scored 14.
Savannah’s Harmoni Turner scored 17, Zee Spearman scored 11 as did Alisia Jenkins.
The Groove also took Sunday’s game by double digits 89-76, though the Steel won the season series 3-2.
Greensboro exploded in the first quarter shooting 63.2% for a 26-17 lead that became greater by the half at 49-33.
Savannah was 24-of-27 from the line but was only 4-of-16 from deep.
Jessica Timmons scored 18, one of five Greensboro players in double figures, while Kayla Jones off the bench scored 14, Sarah Jones scored 12, and Sydney Shaw and Pryor each scored 11.
The Grove bench dominated 40-24 when it came to depth and had a 34-26 mark inside the paint while 11 oboards led to 19 points.
Looking to the week ahead, Savannah hosts Jacksonville Wednesday at noon, Friday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m.
The North Carolina battles this week have Greensboro hosting Charlotte at 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday at 4 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m.
posted by Mel Greenberg | 3:20 AM
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