The Guru’s WNBA Report: Golden State Rallies to Down Dallas and Hosts Las Vegas While Atlanta Hosts New York in Semifinals Play Sunday

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Near the middle of last month, the WNBA Golden State Valkyries’ Gabby Williams was seen the poster woman of displeasure after her French team had just lost to the United States in the FIBA World Cup gold medal game two years after likewise happened by just a point in the Olympic gold medal championship at the Paris Games.

In the latter she was just inside the 3-point mark scoring the last basket of the game that otherwise would have forced overtime.

That was then, this is now, as in Friday night when the former UConn star led a double comeback, and first series win 77-73 for the second year and second-seeded Valkyries over the seven-seed Dallas Wings and 2025 rookie of the year Paige Bueckers, last season’s number one overall pick out of UConn, the game played before the continuing perfect sellout crowd of 18,040, including Star Wars producer George Lucas, at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

There hasn’t been an empty home game seat since Golden State first took the floor last season in becoming the first expansion team to win the most games and also the first to qualify for the playoffs.

The rocking atmosphere has led to the ambience in the shared home with the NBA Warriors referred to as Ballhala.

On Sunday, Golden State will host defending champion Las Vegas, which would have had home-court advantage in the best-of-five series had Dallas prevailed. Tip-off is 4 p.m. on NBC after eight-seed New York and four-seed Atlanta open their series at 2 p.m. on ABC at the larger State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA Hawks instead of the smaller arena in the Atlanta suburbs where the Dream play most of their games.

The Aces continued defense of their championship Wednesday by winning 94-83 the decisive Game 3 at home Wednesday, eliminating Indiana and third-year pro Caitlin Clark as A’ja Wilson scored 36 points with 10 rebounds.

Wilson is expected to win her fifth MVP award from the WNBA nationwide media panel after already claiming a third-straight MVP from The Associated Press panel.

Atlanta completed a 2-0 sweep of fifth-seed Washington 93-75 in the nation’s capital on Wednesday a day after New York became the first eight seed to knock out the No. 1 when the Liberty claimed a 2-0 sweep of Minnesota with an 87-71 victory over the Lynx before a selllout crowd of 17,000+ at home in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Williams, who had been benched earlier in the game by coach Natalie Nakase and having scored just two points in the first half, finished with 19 points and put Golden State in front to stay with 1:17 left in Game 3 regulation.

The Wings had evened the series Wednesday night 108-100 in overtime in Texas as Notre Dame grad Arike Ogunbowale extended the game with a game-tying three-pointer at the end of regulation and finished with a WNBA playoff record 45 points.

Dallas rode that momentum Friday into the third quarter building a 16-point lead before Golden State launched its first comeback to go ahead in the fourth before the Wings grabbed the advantage back and went up by seven points.

After regaining the lead, moments later with 13.1 left in regulation Williams grabbed her own missed shot jumping back inbounds on a play originally ruled for Dallas, but Nakase won a challenge just after falling to her knees and helped back up.

The first Asian American in the WNBA and former Las Vegas assistant who played at UCLA left the court after the win during the team’s celebration holding her face and escorted by a staff member, but the team later said she was ok, though assistant coach Kasib Powell handled the Valkyries’ Golden State postgame press conference normally led by Nakase.

“Natalie’s fine, obviously it’s a quick turnaround, we play again on Sunday. She wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Powell said, adding she was laughing back in the locker room.

Veronica Burton added 16 points with 10 boards and six assists, the former Northwestern star getting the team’s first playoff double double. Reserve Tiffany Hayes, yet another UConn alum, scored 18 points while ex-Huskie Kiah Stokes grabbed 13 rebounds. Kaliah Charles, a Maryland grad, scored 10 points.

“Big shot Gabby,” Hayes said of her sister alum and Golden State teammate. “She’s our dog, she’s out leader and she’s the one we go to, and she showed you exactly why. We’ll do it again and again, and over and over … That’s Gabby f—ing Williams.”

Williams had a career-high 36 points in the loss to Dallas. She came to the Valkyries in the offseason from Seattle, saying after Friday’s game, “I wanted someone to believe in me in the league. I never quite got that belief in the W from a staff or teammates … the fact they trust me to have the ball in my hands, it’s not even about making the right shot, just making the right decisions. I’m able to do that because we have four people that can go off on the floor.”

Bueckers for Dallas had 17 points with six assists, being perfect at the line with 10 makes but a mediocre 3-14 from the field.

The Wings had used a 9-0 run to reach the 16-point advantage and overall 20-0 burst that begun in the second quarter. Ogunbowale was 11-for-21 with 30 points, while Jessica Shepard, voted the most improved player by the WNBA panel, scored 12.

Villanova alum Maddy Siegrist, who started, was scoreless with six boards in 10 minutes. The overall third choice in 2023 by Dallas becomes a restricted free agent in the offseason, a period that may see more movement than the end of last winter when teams had a few weeks to get ready after the lengthy CBA negotiations concluded.

If the Wings lost, Siegrist was going to try to make Sunday night’s Hoop Mania at the Finneran Pavilion on the Main Line for the men’s and women’s teams highlighted by an appearance by the ‘Nova Knicks trio of the NBA champions who are in town for Monday night’s preseason game in South Philadelphia when Lebron James makes his 76ers playing debut.

The long Golden State drought during the Wings surge ended when Burton hit a 26-foot-high arcing 3-pointer over Bueckers.

“Once we all saw that go in, we all said, `OK, we saw one go in and now it’s our time to get going,” Williams said. “It was all about getting stops from there.”

The Valkyries cut the deficit to five at the end of the third off a responding 14-4 run and outscored the Wings 23-14 in the final period.

Bueckers, who spurred Dallas from a 10-win in her rookie season in 2025 to 27 this summer, was emotional in the postgame press conference after going scoreless the final period.

Dallas had to finish the regular season from late August without overall No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd, another former UConn star, who got injured.

“Paige is taking this hard. We only get to this point because of Paige,” said first-year Dallas coach Jose Fernandez, who left a long, successful run coaching South Florida. “She’s a first team All-WNBA player. She takes ownership in carrying the load. The great ones do.

“This series shouldn’t have any inkling on the kind of season she had for us.”

Ogunbowale also complimented her teammate, saying, “She willed us throughout the whole season. Should be first team.”

Clark Reflects

“I’m proud of this group,” Caitlin Clark said in Las Vegas after the Aces eliminated the Fever for the second straight season after Clark had missed most of the action due to injuries in 2025. “We weathered a lot. There’s always much outside noise, a microscope on how we perform every single day.

“A lot of really good moments. A lot of tough moments, too, where we felt we probably gave a lot of opportunities away. It’s what hurts a little bit. We could’ve put ourselves in a better spot going into the postseason.”

Indiana, in contention for home-court advantage in the postseason opening round, slumped to 4-4 down the stretch.

In Game 3 she got a bloody mouth after a shot to her face, but no foul was assessed after she pleaded her case to the officials.

“Your guess would be as good as mine,” she said in the postgame press conference as to why no foul was called on the play.

She had 11 points in the opening period but was 2-for-11 the rest of the way and scoreless on six attempts from deep after going 3-for-6 to start the game.

“They made it difficult, but we’ve made a lot of those shots througout the year, too,” she said. “At the same time, we were right there despite some poor shooting.

“We’ve got to give credit to the Aces. I thought they played well. I thought they were ready to go. That’s what championship teams do.”

It was all business for Wilson Thursday in the win after not handed a suspension for an altercation with a fan in Tuesday’s loss in Indianapolis, the league saying she did not leave the court and go up in the stands.

“I have my moments because I’m human,” she said. “But after a while, I understood I didn’t want that to be a distraction to myself and my team, and I knew what we had to do coming into tonight. So, I put it behind me. I prayed a lot. I cried a lot.”

Chelsea Gray added 23 points to the Aces attack and Jackie Young had 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Having Hurdled New York Once, Atlanta Needs to Do It Again

The Dream helped their cause down the stretch of the regular season in sweeping the Liberty the last two games in Brooklyn, gaining the fourth seed and home court advantage, though it was not needed, playing Washington, while New York might have been the one team in the bottom five that was going to be the toughest matchup for Minnesota, which has now fallen short three straight seasons after being second seed in 2024 and first in 2025 and this summer.

“Maybe it’s we overachieve in the regular season and don’t have the makeup for the playoffs,” mused Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, a native of South Jersey who starred at La Salle.

New York appeared to be in the best shape of its roller coaster season when playing Minnesota and it will be quite the series starting Sunday.

In Atlanta’s win over Washington Wednesday, the host Mystics made a late run in the third quarter 14-2 to move within three points 65-62, having self destructed in the first half with 11 turnovers.

But the Dream responded with a 13-0 outburst ending Washington’s first postseason appearance since winning its lone title in 2019.

Allisha Gray had 22 points for the visitors at CareFirst Arena, the Mystics unable to move downtown to the NBA sister home due to a concert. Jordin Canada had 13 of her 19 points in the final period in leading the Dream to their first playoff series win since 2018.

“I thought we were good enough to win last season,” said second-year coach Karl Smesko, who previously guided a perennial NCAA tournament entry in Florida Gulf Coast.

Canada also had 11 assists and seven boards while Rhyne Howard finished with 15 points. Angel Reese, traded in her third season from Chicago to Atlanta, had 15 points and Naz Hillmon added 10.

The Dream near the end of the season added DeWanna Bonner, the Phoenix Mercury letting her go in what may be a final effort to be on a WNBA champion.

Smesko said even if Bonner may be off statistically from day one without knowing Atlanta sets and plays, there were many things she would point out at practice for the team to improve itself.

Washington’s Sonia Citron scored 25 points and Kki Iriafen had 15 points and 16 boards, the Mystics’ first player to have a first-half double-double in the playoffs.

  

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s WNBA Report: Playoff Openers See No. 8 New York Upset No. 1 Minnesota; No. 2 Golden State, No. 3 Las Vegas, No. 4 Atlanta Also Win; ‘Vegas’ Wilson Wins 3rd Straight AP Award

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

The Minnesota Lynx after dominating play the last two regular seasons and just missing a third are in danger of not finishing the job again, thanks to the 8th-seeded New York Liberty that clipped them in the finals in overtime in a penultimate Game 5 in overtime in Brooklyn in 2024 that brought the home team its first championship in an existence at the time that matched the 28-year history of the WNBA.

All four pairings in opening round action got under way Sunday and the first of the quartet offered a stunner with New York led by Breanna Stewart scoring 34 points with 12 rebounds, six assists, and pairs of steals and blocks as the Liberty won on the road over the top-seeded Lynx 91-25 before a Target Center crowd of 12,339 in Minneapolis.

The Liberty struggled down the stretch in a tight race for seeding finishing 26-18 while the Lynx were a league best 33-11.       

And while New York, which sent almost its whole roster to varying national teams to the World Cup in Berlin, Germany, during the earlier part of this month creating a break that made the Liberty look rusty in losing both home games to Atlanta at the end of the season, being eighth wasn’t so terrible since Minnesota is the one team that New York seems to give the Lynx fits.

In the other three games, second-year and two-seed Golden State (32-12), that was in the hunt for top seed until the final two games, won its first-ever playoff contest, routing seventh-seeded Dallas 104-80 continuing its lifetime sellout streak in its two seasons of 18,064 at the Chase Center in San Francisco that is also the home of the NBA Golden State Warriors.

A year ago, the Valkyries were routed in Game 1 in the opening round at Minnesota and then lost to the Lynx by a point.

The team’s success brought former Las Vegas assistant Natalie Nakase, the first Asian American mentor in the WNBA, coach of the year honors.

Dallas (27-17) finally turned things around this season after back-to-back acquisitions of No. 1 overall picks out of UConn in 2025 rookie of the year Paige Bueckers and teammate Azzi Fudd, the latter recently lost for the end of the season with an injury.

Golden State has the look of potentially beating big time ownership prediction of a title in five seasons when the team was officially introduced as the first of what is a line of expansion teams that saw Toronto and Portland added this season, Cleveland and Detroit, two former WNBA cities, activating in 2028 and 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030 bringing the membership total to 18 teams.

Next season, Houston, winner of the first four titles from 1997 to 2000, is back in the fold, acquiring the Connecticut Sun, whose last game after 24 seasons ended Thursday night at home.

But before anyone gets too excited, defending champion Las Vegas (31-13), winner of three of the last four trophies, showed in its first contest the third-seed Aces aren’t going to give the hardware away easy in thumping the Caitlin Clark-led sixth-seeded Indiana Fever 102-85 at home before a crowd of 10,207 at home at the Michelob ULTRA Arena as A’ja Wilson, on track to repeat as regular season MVP, which would be her fifth, scored 38 points with 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.

In the other game, fifth-seed Washington (28-16), the surprise team of the year in making the postseason, took an 11-point lead on four-seed Atlanta (30-14), but the Dream rallied for a 92-77 victory as Rhyne Howard scored 26 points with five steals and Angel Reese, the third-year pro who arrived in a trade with Chicago, had 13 points and 12 boards in her playoff debut before a crowd of 9,766 in the State Farm Arena, the game moved to the home of the NBA Hawks from its smaller venue played most of the season in the suburbs.

The opening round is a best-of-three affair so while Sunday’s winners look to close out and move on, the losers will attempt to force Game 3s as Tuesday’s games feature Minnesota at New York at the Barclays Center at 8:30 p.m. on USA Net/CNBC after Indiana at 6:30 p.m. at home in Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis airs on Amazon Prime Video.

On Wednesday ESPN airs both games, Washington hosts Atlanta at 7 p.m. in its CareFirst Arena in the nation’s capital, followed by Golden State visiting Dallas at 9 p.m. at the College Park Center in suburban Arlington.

Games 3, if necessary, return to Sunday hosts on Thursday and Friday.

The best of five semifinals opens Sunday at the higher seeded hosts with the Minnesota/New York winner facing the Atlanta/Washington winner while the Dallas/Golden State winner faces the Las Vegas/Indiana winner.

A year ago, the finals expanded to a best-of-seven format but was not needed with Las Vegas in four games sweeping Phoenix, which was a surprise qualifier.

This year’s finals get under way Oct. 17, a Saturday, on NBC, and could last until Oct. 31, one day before the collegiate season begins in Rome with the men and women of Notre Dame and Villanova facing each other, the latter, nearby in the Vatican, being the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV, a native of Chicago.

It’s the first time since the early days if the league ESPN will not air the finals, a result of the mega dollar deals struck in the current TV deals with the WNBA.

New York Thumps Minnesota

The visiting New York leader Breanna Stewart and Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, the 2024 defensive player of the year, are the best of friends, each out of the UConn powerhouse, co-founders of the Unrivaled League loaded with WNBA players in the winer, and recent teammates on the USA Gold Medal-winning FIBA Cup, which Stewart had a major role in the triumph by the Americans.

But all that was parked Sunday as Stewart made a shambles of Collier guarding her.

“She’s a walking mismatch,” jested Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu, who contributed 13 points. “You can always rely on her. She’s everywhere. She keeps up poised out there and her versatility, her ability to score from really anywhere on the court just helps.”

Stewart was 11-for-18 from the field.

“We did a solid job in the first half and then we just fouled, fouled, fouled,” said Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve, who’s attempt to break a tie for a record fifth crown has yet to occur. “We can’t give her 12 free throws. Fouling at the end of the shot clock is just not smart.”

Reeve, who was inducted to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., in June, and will be eligible for a similar honor next year at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., guided USA to its record eighth straight Olympic title at the Paris Games in 2024 and hails from South Jersey in suburban Philadelphia and starred at La Salle, a member of the City’s Big Five.

The Liberty were hot from outside shooting 13-for-25 from beyond the arc, and Stewart missed the franchise postseason scoring mark by two points. She’s second in WNBA history for postseason scoring average, having also won titles with the Seattle Storm, and four NCAA crowns with UConn, earning four MVP Final Four honors.

Leonie Fiebich was 4-for-5 from distance finishing with 16 points for the winners.

“We knew the shots that we were going to get,” Stewart, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., said. “We had a few days to really practice that and be intentional, and whenever we were able to draw two — kick it to the open person and shoot it with confidence.”

The Liberty and Minnesota each had a jump of a day on the rest of the league knowing their matchup would be against each other while the rest of the seeds were still undetermined heading into the final day of the regular season on Thursday.

Reserve Nia Brodie scored 16 to lead the Lynx, while Kayla McBride scored 14, but took a while to heat up, missing her first five shots from deep. Collier and Natasha Howard, each fouled out and Olivia Miles, the prohibitive favorite for rookie of the year, was limited to 11 points, shooting 3-for-12 with just one assist.

“I thought we even struggled in the first half even though we had a lead,” Reeve said. “It was a little too much grinding. I think there’s some easier things we can do.”

In 2024 Minnesota was on the brink of elimination in Game 4 but forced the finals to go the limit back to Brooklyn and the finish was controversial, Reeve upset with officiating at the close of the game.

Though the momentum has swung to the Liberty, Stewart cautioned, “This doesn’t mean relax. When you’re a lower seed, you want to steal one.

“And doing that today, we kind of harped on it. This team is exceptionally talented. And on Tuesday they’re going to through everything they got at us. And we’re going to be ready for it.

“We did this in Phoenix last year and then we got smoked on our home court.”

Firstd-year Liberty coach Chris DeMarco praised the team’s defense in the second half. “We were locked in; I could hear us talking. We covered for each other. I just loved our aggressiveness; we came out strong in the second half.”

Golden State Blasts Dallas

Cecilia Zandalasini scored 22 for the Valkyries and Gabby Williams poured in 22 more against the Wings to go in front in the series, holding a dominating lead at the half.

Bueckers had 21 for the Wings, shooting 9-for-10 from the field with six rebounds, stalling the Dallas finishing momentum of the regular season with a 7-1 stretch record.

Villanova all-time scorer Maddy Siegrist, the third overall pick in 2023 by the Wings, in her playoff debut started, played 21 minutes, shooting 4-for-9 from the field, 1-2 from deep with three boards, scoring 11 points.

After the Valkyries were activated and with their success last season, the crowd which has packed the Chase Center every game has caused the atmosphere to be labelled “Ballhalla.”

“Ballhalla’s” part of us, Nakase said of the crowd.

It’s the most points ever scored by Golden State in its short history.

Tiffany Hayes, who came out of retirement to join the team, scored 21 off the bench and Veronica Burton added 10 points. Zanalasini was 7-for-11 from the field and connected on four shots from deep.

It was the Valkyries’ first true home playoff game, a year ago, an event, the Laver Cup tennis showcase in the Chase Center that was scheduled long before the franchise was awarded forced Golden State to play its game 50 miles away in the NHL San Jose Sharks’ SAP Center.

As to the grounding of the Wings, Nakase said, “When we’re awake, we’re ferocious on defense.

The Valkyries are 4-0 on Dallas this season and also finished 7-1 narrowly missing upending Minnesota for the top seed when they fell to Phoenix last week in overtime.

“We didn’t get stops and they got whatever they wanted offensively,” Bueckers said. “A 37-point quarter is insane work,so it was just not sticking to our game plan, not locking in defensively. It starts with me, so I gotta be better, I know that.”

 

Said the Valkyries’ Williams, “Yeah, obviously we wanted to start well and set the tone for the rest of the series. I think what was great about tonight was watching every single person contribute and seeing everyone get going.”

Wilson Leads Las Vegas

Former South Carolina star A’ja Wilson matched her playoff high while shooting 15-for-19 from the field.

“She understands the stakes fully,” said Aces coach Becky Hammon. “She was a clinic tonight. She was, I mean, it was all over. She was all over the court, every way.

“Defensive end, offensive end, blocks, steals, boards, scoring, I mean, there was nothing she couldn’t do tonight.”

Noted Las Vegas point guard Chelsea Gray of her teammate on having that kind of performance the best thing to do is “get out of the way. It’s a blessing to be able to see this every single day. I say this all the time, you can’t wait till a person retires to appreciate greatness.

“You’ve got to appreciate it while it’s happening.”

Jackie Young double doubled for the winners with 21 points and 10 assists, Gray had 14 and eight assists, and Jewell Lloyd scored 10.

Gray is second in career playoff assists with 397, eclipsing Chicago’s Courtney Vandersloot (390) for second in league history.

Indiana’s Aliyah Boston, another product of Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks program, had 18 points for Indiana (28-15), which was 2-1 against the Aces in the regular season, while Caitlin Clark, who missed the playoffs her second season a year ago, had 15 points and 10 assists, while Kelsey Mitchell, recently unhooked from her WNBA-record 27 straight 20+ games was held to 12 points on 4-for-16 from the field, her second straight below the 20-point plateau after the record.

“Give Vegas credit,” said Indiana coach Stephanie White. “They’re defending champions for a reason. They understand the moment. They understand the playoffs require a different level of intensity and urgency, and they came with it.”

To not to White’s liking were the 28 points the home team got off 17 Fever turnovers, while Clark graded her side with an “F” for defense, and offensively, they were the cause of their breakdowns.

“I thought our actions were sloppy,” Clark said. “I thought what we were running wasn’t great and nobody got an easy open look.”

Observed Wilson, “I think we just showed up to work, and that’s what we need to do moving forward.”

The 62 points in the first half were a point short of the playoff record they got off Phoenix in 2022.

Wilson is the first in league history in the postseason to have multiple 30 points, 15 rebounds games, and leads with 11 games of 30-point, ahead of New York’s Stewart, who reached nine on Sunday.

White noted the difference in experience as a contributor to the way it played out for the Fever.

“Certainly, there’s no substitute for experience,” White said. “Some got it a year ago. But oftentimes, you have to be humbled first, right? Like I mean, that’s life, right? You don’t always learn from the successes.

“You learn from being humbled. We know we felt the difference in the intensity level. That doesn’t always mean that we weren’t playing hard or we weren’t competing hard. Sometimes, it’s how you execute. So it’s mostly in details. Because I thought our team competed.”

Atlanta Rallies on Washington

For a while the Mystics, with the youngest roster in the league, appeared they would excel above the expectation, holding a three-point lead at the half, as they did to earn a playoff berth.

But then Rhyne Howard and Angel Reese rallied the Dream in the second half.

Atlanta got 27 points off 22 turnovers by Washington and set a team playoff record with 16 steals, just under the 18 Indiana grabbed in 2009.

“I think we were just playing with a lot of nerves,” Atlanta’s DeWanna Bonner, the recent beneficiary of a release from Phoenix to enable her to pursue a championship the Mercury couldn’t deliver this season in not making the playoffs.

“I think the second half, (Dream coach) Karl (Smesko) settled us down,” Bonner explained.

Allisha Gray added 22 for the Dream, and Jordin Canada scored 10 with 11 assists.

Washington’s Sonia Citron scored 25, sister second-year pro Kiki Iriafen had 15 points and 14 boards, nine on the offensive end, and Shakira Austin had 12 points and 16 rebounds.

“In the first half we did a good job of just making everything hard for them and then in that third quarter we just let some of our discipline slip,” Citron said.

Like Stewart with New York, Smesko isn’t ready to say the Dream are moving on.

“This is just round one,” he said. “We feel good about how we set the tone for the first game, but there is a lot more work to be done and I think everyone in our locker room is aware of that.”

This is Washington’s first postseason appearance since 2023, but last won a playoff game in 2019, which was the championship over Connecticut.

“Playoffs are the biggest stage,” Iriafen said. “This is the stage we want to be on. It was our first time being here, not that that’s an excuse, but now we know what it looks like.

“We have a taste for it. We’ll be better prepared for our game on Wednesday.”

Associated Press Awards

The AP Sunday afternoon announced its postseason WNBA awards from its 17-member panel which determines in-season rankings and weekly honors (I’m not one).

The WNBA has a larger national media panel for awards that will be announced during the playoffs.

For the third straight year Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson is its national player of the year, a record for the the honors that were launched in 2016.

She received 15 of the 17 votes for first place ahead of Minnesota’s Olivia Miles and Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell.

Overall, Wilson has four AP awards, snapping a tie with three also held by Breanna Stewart.

Atlanta’s Angel Reese replaced Wilson as defensive player of the year, the latter gained that honor three of the previous four seasons.

No surprise, Minnesota’s Miles was unanimous as rookie of the year, drafted in April second overall behind Azzi Fudd of Dallas. The Central New Jersey native passed Caitlin Clark’s rookie record for points.

AP’s All-rookie team was Miles, Dallas’ Azzi Fudd, Chicago’s Sydney Taylor, Seattle’s Flau’jae Johnson, New York’s Pauline Astier and Toronto’s Kiki Rice.

The AP All-WNBA first team included Wilson, Clark, Mitchell, Miles and Stewart, while Reese, Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard, Dallas’ Bueckers, Las Vegas’ Jackie Young and Golden State’s Gabby Wilson made the second team.

Minnesota’s Chery Reeve was coach of the year for the third time, while Golden State’s Natalie Nakase, and Washington’s Sydney Johnson also received votes.

Clark, who missed most of last season, earned comeback of the year, an award the WNBA does not issue. Washington’s Georgia Amoore and Chicago’s Courtney Vandersloot also drew votes.

Dallas’ Jessica Shepard was most improved player, ahead of Washington’s Shakira Austin and Seattle’s Dominique Malonga, while Golden State reserve Janelle Salaun was Sixth Woman ahead of Marine Johannes with New York.