The Guru’s WNBA Report: Third-Quarter Outburst Carries New York Over Phoenix; Expansion Duo Toronto and Portland Victorious; Minnesota and Washington Cruise to Wins

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Quite the night on the WNBA five-game card Wednesday beginning with New York (4-4), who checked its three-game home slide at the expense of struggling Phoenix (2-6) with an 84-74 victory thrilling the crowd of 14,995 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with a 23-0 eruption in the third quarter.

The two expansion squads, bringing the league total to 15 teams this season, each gained another victory – Toronto (4-4) in a high-scoring affair won 111-104 at Chicago (3-4) in front of 6,209 at Wintrust Arena while Portland (5-3) came off the road and Monday’s rally on New York by winning 71-61 over Connecticut (1-8) delighting a crowd of 11,945 at the Moda Center in Oregon.

In a game at the high end of the standings Minnesota (5-2) continued to succeed while awaiting the return of Napheesa Collier from ankle surgery in the offseason winning 96-81 over visiting Atlanta (4-2) before a Target Center crowd of 9,912 in Minneapolis.

Washington (3-3) after losing at Seattle (3-5) on Sunday stopped a Storm home sweep with a 78-64 win before 9,202 at the Climate Pledge Arena.

Liberty 23-0 Explosion Playing Short-handed Cools Mercury

Meeting for the first time since Phoenix ended New York’s one season reign as WNBA champions in the first round last fall before eventually advancing to the finals, the Liberty tossed some revenge despite missing Sabrina Ionescu with back problems and free-agent signee Satou Sabally from the opposition who didn’t play in Monday’s loss to Portland due to illness and was a late scratch Wednesday against her former team.

Marine Johannes scored 21 points and Jonquel Jones collected 17 for the winners who did get back Betnijah Laney-Hamilton from a brief absence for personal reasons and Leonie Fiebich recently returned from European ball winning the Spanish championship.

The Mercury seemed on the way to continue last fall’s mastery of the Liberty leading 55-49 with 6:09 left in the period.

New York first-year coach Chris DeMarco then inserted Laney-Hamilton and the home team erupted with a 23-0 run to the end of the quarter with 10 points coming from Jones.

Phoenix was forced into eight turnovers, three committed through offensive fouls, and went on to drop its fourth straight.

 The Liberty slide had been its longest slide since 2022.

Philly native and Rutgers grad Kahleah Copper scored 19 for the Mercury who went just under seven minutes without a point during New York’s explosion.

“Obviously, the third quarter was really good for us,” Jones said. “Our defense was the biggest catalyst for us being able turn them over, being able to get up and press.

“I think it shifted the trajectory of the game; it gave us momentum. It was good to play a defensive night like that tonight.”

DeMarco said Sabally wanted to play but couldn’t go and likely may miss Friday’s game when the two teams play again in Brooklyn.

Of Laney-Hamilton, “We needed her veteran presence, we needed her tenacity, she gave us incredible minutes tonight.”

On the other side, Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said, “That run was on me. I should have called a timeout. I let our team down tonight.”

Expansion Toronto and Portland Gain Wins

In Toronto’s win in Chicago Nyara Sabally was 11 of 14 from the field and had a career-high 29 points and the Tempo’s Marina Mabrey scored 24 with seven assists.

The Sky rallied within a basket 98-96 with 3:33 left in regulation but the Tempo regained control.

Toronto had 12 makes from deep, three each from Sabally, Mabrey and reserve Maria Conde, who collected 12 points.

Brittney Sykes added 20 points and rookie Kiki Rice off NCAA champion UCLA had 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Chicago rookie Sydney Taylor had a season-best 27 points while Skylar Diggins scored 23 points with nine assists and Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud scored 18 with nine dishes.

“Love playing with her and hope this is just one of many,” Marbrey said of Sabally’s performance.

“Let me clue you in – I made my half-court shot today,” Sabally said of her shoot around ahead of the game.

“My teammates did a very good job of finding me. They kind of made it easy.”

First-year coach Sandy Brondello, let go after New York lost in the playoffs, said it was a “no brainer and show everybody what she was capable of,” taking Sabally from the Liberty in the expansion draft.

Out in Portland, the Fire won their third straight as Connecticut, which will relocate to Houston next season under new ownership, is off to a second straight tough start.

Carla Leite scored 20 points for the Fire and Bridget Carleton had 13 while Aneesah Morrow had 13 for the Sun, which ended a five-game road trip.

Connecticut was up 55-50 early in the fourth and then the Fire’s Teja Oblak made two straight buckets, and Frieda Buhner completed an 8-0 run with a layup to regain the lead and one more shot.

Brittney Griney, with a right rib injury, continues to be sidelined for the Sun, a point away from career number 6000.

“I think ‘culture’ is a buzz word and for us it’s something more tangible,” said Portland coach Alex Sarma prior to Wednesday’s game. “It’s about the collective values and behavior with the group. It’s not about me going in there with rah rah speeches.

“Every day and practices and we hold each other accountable achieving high standards.”

Lynx Top Dream

Minnesota had its own third-quarter outburst going on a 13-0 run to move from a slim 44-40 lead to handle Atlanta 28-19 and go into the final period up 70-56.

Courtney Williams scored 25 with seven assists for the Lynx and Natasha Howard had 22 points with eight rebounds.

The five starters for the home team all reached double figures on the scoreboard; rookie Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick last month and native of Central New Jersey scored 16, Nia Coffey had 14 points and Kayla McBride scored 12.

The winners had a season-high 26 assists on 40 field goals and were 60% from the field.

“I felt in training camp once we established our core, they kind of took off, chemistry wise,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star from South Jersey, about her starters.

“Collectively, this group, it’s been impressive to watch.”

In Atlanta’s first season road loss Allisha Gray scored 21 propelled by five distance makes, Naz Hillmon scored 15, Angel Reese added 10 points and eight boards and Rhyne Howard scored 10.

“A tough game, a disappointing game today, give Minnesota credit,” said Atlanta second-year coach Karl Smesko. “They took it to us early. They were outstanding offensively.

“They created a lot of layups and every time we tried to make a comeback we would have another breakdown based on great execution on their part.”

Mystics Calm Storm

Washington’s Shakira Austin scored 18 points with 13 boards and five assists while Michaela Onyenwere, an assistant to Cori Close at her alma mater and NCAA champion UCLA, had 14 points as the Mystics reversed from three losses in their last four games.

Second-year pro Kiki Iriafen had 13 points and nine rebounds while Alicia Florez Getino, signed earlier this month as a developmental player, had nine points, five boards, three assists and a pair of steals.

The Mystics bolted to a 12-2 start and stayed in front the rest of the way and led 48-29 at the break.

Seattle’s Jade Melbourne scored 15 points while Mackenzie Holmes had eight points and a personal best 10 rebounds.

The Storm’s Dominique Malonga has now missed five games in the concussion protocol.

Looking Ahead

On Thursday, the weekly Amazon Prime doubleheader has Las Vegas at Dallas at 8 p.m. and Indiana at Golden State at 10 p.m.

All four Friday night games will be handled by ION and League Pass: the second Phoenix at New York game this week, Los Angeles at Washington, and Minnesota at Chicago all at 7:30 p.m.; and Atlanta at Portland at 10.

League Pass has two of Saturday’s three-game slate – Seattle at Toronto at 1 p.m. and Los Angeles at Connecticut at 6 while in the evening at 8 p.m. CBS and Paramount+ will air Indiana at Portland.

The Connecticut game is being played in Hartford at the PeoplesBank Arena, formerly the XL Center, the off campus larger second home of UConn, for the first time since 2003 as part of the Sun farewell season before the NBA Houston owners take over and bring the team to Texas in 2027.

The week and first month of the WNBA’s first season wraps up with a single game Sunday on NBC and Peacock at 3:30 p.m. when Las Vegas plays at Golden State.

We’ll get to the June start later in the week when the in-season Commissioner Cup intra-conference schedule of games, the only time those designated standings are relevant, begin Monday in the West with Seattle at Dallas at 8 p.m. on USA and Minnesota at Phoenix at 10 p.m.

For those new to paying attention to the WNBA, the league standings regarding playoff and seeds are combined without regard to the best teams in the East and West.

As expansion continues the rest of the decade with the additions of Cleveland (’28), Detroit (’29) and Philadelphia (’30) along with the Sun relocation to Houston, while labor peace is firmly in place – the final step of the transformative CBA in what will become an 18-team league recently announced on the weekend – attention will have to be paid to playoff format in terms of field size which also could change the non-qualifying draft lottery number of designated squads and also perhaps an alteration to in-season standings configuration establishing intra-conference divisions or as in the NBA, place the lowest qualifying seeds into opening play-in rounds.

Also, on Thursday and Friday in the new four-team UPSHOT league, which is available free on YouTube, Charlotte is at Savannah at 7 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s UPSHOT Report: Jacksonville Quickly Heads to the Top With a 3-Game Weekend Sweep

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Weekend two is now in the books of the new four-team UPSHOT women’s pro basketball league operating in the South in Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina under commissioner Donna Orender, the former second president of the WNBA, and now that some flesh and blood have become available on the recent action and the WNBA idle Tuesday we can wrap up UPSHOT games.

All the contests can be seen free on the league’s YouTube channel.

Day-to-day operations are under former ABL and WNBA standout Taj McWilliams-Franklin, who played here on the Philadelphia Rage in the ABL.

In a preseason press conference, UPSHOT co-founder  Andy Kaufmann of Zawyer Sports & Entertainment, said the league begins with a $40 million investment from the likes of Hall of Famers Cheryl Miller, Tamika Catchings, and Ann Meyers-Drysdale among 90 investors and financial partners and next year teams in Baltimore and Nashville are being added with a long-range goal of 30.

Kauffman is Zawyer’s CEO overseeing an array of minor league hockey teams and a minor-league baseball team in Gastonia, N.C.

The Jacksonville Daily Record quoted him describing the league’s revenue model primarily based on sponsorships and ticket sales “based on sustainability” as compared to models driven by media rights deals, merchandise sales and other streams.

Described in multiple media coverage as a developmental product in the manner of the NBA G-League as the 76ers’ associate team down in nearby Wilmington, Del., Orender emphasizes UPSHOT as one of opportunity that could see players get picked up by the WNBA 15 squads as needed beyond the recent transformational CBA settlement that grew roster sizes to 12 players with an additional pair of developmental ones allowed to play in 12 games.

That didn’t cure everything as evidenced by some hardship signees in the early season due to injuries and late arrivals off international competition.

Off of that information, some investigation is occurring whether a Philly team in 2028 and 2029 could be viable as a run-up to 2030 when the 76ers/Comcast WNBA team becomes active.

 Enough places in the area exists in summer competition without the potential UPSHOT team’s need to play in the 76ers/NHL Flyers home in South Philadelphia.

Having launched on May 15, the UPSHOT roots took hold in January 2025, and the league rosters recently attracted some late WNBA player cuts before that season got under way.

Saint Joseph’s alum Chloe Welch made a roster in Charlotte and Hawks coach Cindy Griffin reported her former player expressing excitement.

Right now, the teams are playing 40-game schedules half home and half on the road.

Opening weekend drew sellout crowds in the smaller venues where games are played.

Standings-wise, the Jacksonville Waves, coached by Philadelphia native Jess Bogia who also was involved with the AAU Philadelphia Belles, are off to a 3-1 start after dropping their season and home opener the first night.

The Greensboro Groove are a half-game behind at 3-2 having beaten the Charlotte Crown (1-2) Monday 89-73 concluding the span of days that began Thursday night.

The Savannah Steel is fourth at 1-3 and coached by Coretta Brown, who was Georgia’s 1999 player of the year in high school.

Greensboro is coached by Janice Washington who recently coached in the area here at Lincoln University in the western suburbs while Charlotte is headed by Trisha Stafford-Odom, a former WNBA player who was on the staffs at UCLA, Duke and North Carolina and at the helm at North Carolina Central.

Recaps of the Holiday Span

On Thursday Jacksonville paid Charlotte back ruining the Crown home opener 98-86 paced by Memphis grad Ariel Hearn, a 5-9 guard, with 23 points and 10 rebounds while Maryland grad Shyanne Sellers scored 21 ahead of four other players in double figures including former Tennessee star Rennia Davis with 12 points and 10 boards.

Former Oregon and UNC star Deja Kelly and Duke standout Reigan Richardson each scored 17 for Charlotte while Louisville great Asia Durr scored 12 and South Carolina’s E’lisia Grissett scored 11.

Saint Joe’s Welch scored 5 with three boards in 15 minutes.

Being the busiest of the league quartet, Jacksonville was back home on Saturday picking up a tight 80-76 win over Greensboro in which the Waves jumped to an 18-7 start before dominating the next period 28-15 and then had to withstand a second half rally outscored 24-17 in the third period and 30-17 in the fourth.

Hearn led Jacksonville with 14 points while former Northwestern star Lindsey Pulliam scored 13 and Jasmine Walker, who played at Alabama, scored 12 points with Davis bolstering the attack with 11 points and 11 boards.

Greensboro’s Diamond Johnson, the Philly native who played at Rutgers, North Carolina State and Norfolk State, and Michigan State’s Kamaria McDaniel each scored 24 points.

The Waves then went back on the road to Georgia Sunday beating Savannah 78-75 in another close one as Hearn poured in 20 points, Davis scored 18, Pulliam had 17 and Sellers scored 12.

The host Steel got 15 points from Purdue’s Lasha Petree, 12 each from Florida Gulf Coast’s Lauryn Taylor and Notre Dame’s Iyana Moore, while Tennessee’s Zee Spearman scored 11.

On Friday, Savannah at home got their first win beating Greensboro 85-67 as Petrie scored 24, Harvard star Harmoni Turner scored 17, and Taylor collected 11 points and 10 boards.

Greensboro’s Johnson had 16 points to lead the Groove, with LSU’s Amiya Joyner scoring 13, Colorado grad Mya Hollingshed scored 12 and McDaniel scored 11.

The Greensboro roster includes UConn’s Christyn Williams and North Carolina’s Maria Gakdeng.

The Groove came back Monday in the easy win at Charlotte as McDaniel and Williams each scored 21 points while Charlotte was balanced in the loss, Richardson and Kentucky’s Dazia Lawrence each with 14, Durr scored 11, Kelly had 10 as did Cal-Berkeley’s Michelle Oniyah while Grissett pulled down 15 rebounds.

Welch in 14 minutes had two points and three boards in 14 minutes.

UPSHOT LOOKING AHEAD

The WNBA’s weekly schedule look ahead can be found in Monday’s wrapup at the bottom under this report.

Play in UPSHOT resumes Thursday as Charlotte visits Savannah at 7 p.m., on Friday the two play again in Georgia also at 7 p.m., while Saturday has Jacksonville at Greensboro at 4 p.m. and Savannah at Charlotte at 7 p.m. with Sunday wrapping up with Jacksonville at Greensboro at 2 p.m.

        

 

 

 

     

 

The Guru WNBA Report: Late Rally Carries Expansion Portland to Win in New York and Owning the Three-Game Series; Golden State Routs Visiting Connecticut as the Perfect Home Sellout Streak Continues

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

NEW YORK – On Monday night for the third straight time in less than a week here in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, home of the WNBA Liberty, the scene on the way to the visitors’ postgame press conference area was repetitive and akin to the approach in small town America at a railroad crossing in which the gates are lowered to create a standstill while a freight or passenger train goes roaring past on the way to its destination.

In this case foot traffic from press row to the designated interview area was halted shortly after the game’s end while the opposing participants went flying by on the way to the locker room all giddy offering celebratory exchanges with their respective traveling entourage personnel after prevailing as underdogs over the New Yorkers and 1997 WNBA charter members who are one season removed from winning their first championship.

On Thursday it was second-year Golden State who last summer became the expansion poster child for success selling out every home game at the 18,000+ seat Chase Center in San Francisco, while adding another record for total newcomer wins and one more as a playoff squad in their first year of existence in which the Valkyries just missed advancing to the next round.

On Sunday afternoon it was being on the wrong side of the deadly 3-point shooting Dallas Wings, who were bad enough a year ago for the second straight time to win the draft lottery ball drop and claim former UConn sensation Azzi Fudd, who had a breakout performance alongside Paige Bueckers, the reigning rookie of the year out of UConn, who matched Fudd’s 24-point total.

A date later on Monday night, proving a recent road trip loss in their first-ever meeting with newcomer Portland (4-3) in Oregon was no fluke, New York (3-4) after a go-ahead rally in the third quarter, completely fell apart in the next period, yielding a 65-60 lead held  at the midpoint  by way of a 12-0 run keyed by reserve Sarah Ashlee Barker with all seven of her points as the Fire triumphed 81-74 before a crowd of 13,881 and won the series 2-1.

It’s the first time since 2022 that the Libs have suffered a three-game home losing streak.

Off a back-to-back, All-Star Sabrina Ionescu, who played for the first time Sunday for New York after being hurt in an exhibition game, sat this one out.

Satou Sabally, the major free agent attraction previously with Phoenix, was in foul trouble early, then went to the locker room feeling ill and did not return.

 Prior to the game, first-year Liberty coach Chris DeMarco, a former longtime NBA Golden State assistant, noted that while injuries, adding new players, a brand-new system, new coaching staff, could be used as excuses for the uneven start to the season, they are not to be used as a crutch.

Veteran Breanna Stewart, who had 25 points, said of the team’s status, “It’s a learning experience for everyone. My message to the players in the locker room is like, ‘Nobody expected this.’ Not to say we thought it was going to be easy, because we definitely didn’t. But it’s going to take time. It’s going to be highs and lows.

‘While it seems, we’re in the lows right now, eventually we’ll get to a place where everybody’s really confident and comfortable with what’s going on. I’m happy it’s happening early and not late.”

“This is how it goes sometimes,” DeMarco said. “We had a lead. We let it get away, Turnovers hurt us. I do think we made it a few strides defensively tonight. Our biggest thing is we’re going to have confidence going into the Phoenix game. Will be ready to play.”

New York hosts the Mercury, Wednesday and Friday.

Marine Johannes was 5-for-9 from deep for the home team, finishing with 17 points and Jonquel scored 12 with 11 rebounds.

Portland was all energized off its early deeds after Carla Leite, who is in her second season with a team from nowhere after playing with the Valkyries, scored 18 points, Bridget Carleton scored 10 as did rookie Teja Oblak in her second-ever WNBA game.

Former Iowa star Megan Gustafson was 5-of-8 off the bench for 11 points with one make from deep.

“We just spoke in the locker room about the resiliency we’ve shown throughout the season,” said Portland coach Alex Sarama. “We have a chip on our shoulder trying to prove everyone wrong.

“We feel in that locker room we have something special in Portland going on. Three of these wins have been in the clutch in very close games. That’s one of the things I’m proudest about just in terms of in those games, not only coming from down 12 points like tonight but the way they closed it out was just incredible.

“We talked about (Emily Engstler) getting four steals and four blocks, she really set the foundation of our defense tonight. How we can force turnovers (19 leading to 23 points). They executed the game plan perfectly. Great win for us, we want to carry this one into the next game.”

Sarama was hired out of the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers organization where things did not go well at the same time for his former employers, who finished at home getting swept 4-0 in the Eastern Finals 130-93 by the New York Knicks – thrilling a large watch party crowd in Madison Square Garden, pouring out of the arena afterwards yelling “Knicks in four.”

Valkyries Dominate Sun

In the other WNBA game later out west, last year’s expansion Cinderella Valkyries (4-2) routed the Connecticut Sun 97-70 the perfect sellout total of 18,064 continuing watching the latest demise by the visitors (1-7), who will be relocating next season in the league’s former city Houston where the first four league titles were won by the former Comets, whose name will be restablished by the current NBA owners who bought the team.

That same thing happened to the new Portland team.

Former UConn star Gabby Williams, acquired in the offseason out of Seattle, scored 16 points fueled by 6-of-10 makes from deep for Golden State, while Kaila Charles had 12 points and seven boards.

The Sun’s Aneesah Morrow off the bench scored 11 with 10 rebounds for the visitors.

“I wasn’t sure who I was gonna play,” said the Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase, who was voted coach of the year last season, about her squad returning to full strength.

“Just by the way we started, I didn’t think we were locked in with our defensive execution, again we gotta be better, but we did, we took a deep breath and we started to lock in.”

Looking Ahead

The league is dark Tuesday night but Wednesday becomes busy, USA airing the New York game with visiting Phoenix at 7 p.m. and Atlanta at Minnesota at 9 p.m., while League Pass has Toronto at Chicago at 8 p.m., and at 10 p.m. Connecticut is at Portland and Washington at Seattle a second time after Sunday’s loss.

On Thursday, the weekly Amazon Prime doubleheader has Las Vegas at Dallas at 8 p.m. and Indiana at Golden State at 10 p.m.

All four Friday night games will be handled by ION and League Pass: the second Phoenix at New York game this week, Los Angeles at Washington, and Minnesota at Chicago all at 7:30 p.m.; and Atlanta at Portland at 10.

League Pass has two of Saturday’s three-game slate – Seattle at Toronto at 1 p.m. and Los Angeles at Connecticut at 6 while in the evening at 8 p.m. CBS and Paramount+ will air Indiana at Portland.

The week and first month of the WNBA’s first season wraps up with a single game Sunday on NBC and Peacock at 3:30 p.m. when Las Vegas plays at Golden State.

We’ll get to the June start later in the week when the in-season Commissioner Cup intra-conference schedule of games, the only time those designated standings are relevant, begin Monday in the West with Seattle at Dallas at 8 p.m. on USA and Minnesota at Phoenix at 10 p.m.

For those new to paying attention to the WNBA, the league standings regarding playoff and seeds are combined without regard to the best teams in the East and West.

As expansion continues the rest of the decade with the additions of Cleveland (’28), Detroit (’29) and Philadelphia (’30) along with the relocation to Houston, while labor peace is firmly in place – the final step of the transformative CBA in what will become an 18-team league recently announced on the weekend – attention will have to be paid to playoff format in terms of field size which also could change the non-qualifying draft lottery number of designated squads and also perhaps an alteration to in-season standings configuration establishing intra-conference divisions or as in the NBA place the lowest qualifying seeds into opening play-in competition.