The Guru’s WNBA Report: Second-Year Golden State Wins at Indiana For Eighth Straight and Move to Second; Minnesota Tops L.A. and Chicago Beats Seattle; All-Star Sides Named
By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux
Following a sensational season for rookie franchises in the WNBA out in San Francisco where Golden State set records for wins and reaching the playoffs along with a non-stop run from day one and continuing to sell out every home in the 18,000+ seat Chase Center shared with the NBA Warriors, the Valkyries have thrown aside any notion of a sophomore slump.
The team, whose ownership predicted a championship within five years when the franchise came into existence, are proceeding at a more rapid pace.
Highlighting Wednesday’s three-game card, Golden State (18-7), which has already topped last season’s win total, won its eighth straight, completing a 5-0 road trip with an 88-75 win at Indiana 14-10 in the Gainbridge Center home of Caitlin Clark before a crowd of 17,014, to move into sole possession of second place a half-game up on defending champion Las Vegas (17-7) and a game behind Minnesota (19-6) which continued to roll, winning at home 96-87 over Los Angeles (10-13) before a camp day crowd of 16,410 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
The other game of the day saw Chicago (8-16) at home before 9,025 at Wintrust Arena beat last-place Seattle 95-90 in a scoring slugfest that dropped the Storm (6-20), at 15th, a game behind idle Connecticut (6-18), which will play two games Friday and Sunday at lowly Phoenix (8-17).
The day’s other news off court saw honorary general managers Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon, stars of the early era of the WNBA’s 30 seasons of existence, fill their All-Star rosters from a poll of 10 starters named by a combination of fans, media, and players, and 12 reserves picked by the league’s coaches, for the league’s summer classic next Saturday at the NBA Bulls’ United Center.
Back in Indianapolis, the Valkyries eight-game streak is tied with previous runs by New York and Minnesota for the longest of the season.
Golden State had six players in double figures, led by All-Star starter Gabby Williams with 16, while Kaitlyn Chen, the former Princeton and UConn standout who a year ago found herself a surprise draft pick by the Valkyries when she had gone to the proceedings to support Huskies teammate and overall No. 1 Paige Bueckers.
“We’ve got to be the only team that has like multiple six player of the year options,” Williams said. “It’s insane.”
Kayla Thornton with 11 points and eight boards and Cecilia Zandalasini with 10 points joined Williams as three starters in double digits while reserves Janelle Salaun with 12 and Tiffany Hayes with 13 joined Chen to do likewise off the bench.
All-Star Kelsey Mitchell scored 20 for the host Fever, while Aliyah Boston had 15 points and seven boards, and Clark in 26 minutes scored 13 with six assists and three boards with Sophie Cunningham adding 10 points off the bench.
“They’re probably the best defensive team in the league,” Clark said of Golden State. “They’re really good at that. I thought I finally played with a little more pace and a little more burst, especially down the stretch in the fourth.”
Despite the success, the Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase, the reigning coach of the year for her work last season after hired away from Becky Hammon’s staff in Las Vegas, is not resting on any laurels.
“We’re really trying to prepare down the line,” she said. “We have to get better.
“We did not do the defensive game plan, so we have a lot to get better at rather than looking at a streak right now.”
Drama continued with Clark, who missed three games recently with back problems, and was on restricted minutes in three others.
A non-call midway through the second quarter ignited her to make a straight approach to an official.
Going for a layup, she was on the floor after contact with Kiah Stokes. The shot went in but there was no and-one call.
“The ref can ‘t miss that … then I have to play with a contusion on my leg the rest of the game,” she said after the game, reported by ESPN’s Kareem Copeland.
“It’s ridiculous …” she said said citing the ref telling her she initiated contact. “Which is fine, but you can’t knee me in the leg. Knock me over.”
She then quipped about the leg, indicating she there was no problem with a new injury after missing most of last season with various problems.
“They said Caitlin initiated the contact,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “That’s all they said. She seems to always be initiating the contact. I’m trying not to get fined. Again, all I’ll say is that we keep asking for consistency.”
McBride Leads Lynx Over Sparks
Minnesota’s Kayla McBride had 24 points in the win over Los Angeles, her fifth straight game of 20 points, while Courtney Williams added 19 points in the Lynx’s fourth straight win while still awaiting the return of perennial MVP candidate Napheesa Collier, who hasn’t been active since the playoffs after offseason surgery on both ankles, but she is practicing with the team.
The Lynx exploded on a 19-3 run, scoring on 10 straight possessions, and went up 63-56 with 2:36 left in the third quarter.
Late in the game with on back-to-back possessions McBride and Nia Coffey scored 3-pointers for an 11-point lead.
Missing 11 straight shots from distance before the half, the Lynx bounced back going 8-for-14 in the second half with six different players involved in the long-range connections.
Rookie sensation Olivia Miles had 18 in 26 minutes for the home team but was gone with 6:03 left in the game after appearing to roll her ankle.
Miles is the only rookie named to be an All-Star game starter next weekend.
Minnesota forced Los Angeles into 20 turnovers good for 30 points.
The Sparks’ Rae Burrell scored 24 points, Nneka Ogwumike scored 23 with 12 boards and five assists. Cameron Brink was finally back from injury, having not played since June 15, and scored 10 points but Kelsey Plum, the league’s leading scorer when she was sidelined the middle of last month with a left leg injury still was out of action.
“Defensively, I thought we were pretty solid,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, the South Jersey native who played at La Salle and was recently inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville.
“These are our future leaders, so it’s one of the more important days we have in our league,” she said of the youthful crowd who filled the building, bringing lots of “energy” to the venue.
She had no word on Miles’ condition, while on McBride’s current run, Reeve said, “We had the number one offensive for a while without ‘Mac getting to where she is now. What I have great appreciation for is she’s something more than a three-point shooter.”
Of Brink’s return, Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said, “She was on a 15-minute restriction. We got her right there, 14 minutes, 50 seconds, so we utilized all those minutes. I thought she did a good job, considering she hadn’t played in a few weeks.
“We’re right there with these top teams. It’s not a moral victory, but in terms of the process and us improving, I’m proud of that.”
Standings-wise, though, Los Angeles fell to 2.5 games behind Washington and New York, holding the last two playoff spots, besides being just a half-game in front of the expansion duo of Portland and Toronto.
Stevens’ Start Powers Chicago
Azura Stevens had 18 of her 20 points in the first half for the host Sky in the win over Seattle.
Chicago dodged a late 9-0 Storm run that got the visitors within two points after rookie Flau’jae Johnson out of LSU nailed a make from deep.
But the Sky stayed in front the rest of the way.
Saint Joseph’s grad and free-agent signee Natasha Cloud clinched it for Chicago from the line, while Chloe Bibby in her Sky season debut had 14 points and Cloud finished with 13 points and six assists. Rookie Gabriela Jaquez, one of a record six draft picks from NCAA champion UCLA scored 10 points.
Johnson had 25 for the Storm, while Dominique Malonga had 16 points and 12 boards and rookie Awa Fam had 14 points.
All-Star Teams Rosters Picked
Though in recent seasons the top two vote getters became team captains and did the roster drafting for the WNBA All-Star pool of candidates, in a salute to the 30th season, honorary GMs Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon did the choosing Wednesday afternoon and then the picks were revealed on the ESPN All-Star Draft Show.
The game a week from Saturday will air at 8:30 p.m. on ABC from the United Center in Chicago with skills events the previous night at the Wintrust Center, which is the Sky’s home court.
A coin flip ahead of the broadcast determined which GM would get the leading vote getter, which was Dallas’ Paige Bueckers, the reigning rookie of the year, and it went to Cooper, followed by runnerup Caitlin Clark going to Weatherspoon, who got to pick first from the starters while Cooper got the first choice of the 12 reserves.
Weatherspoon picked Las Vegas’ reigning four-time MVP A’ja Wilson, while Cooper picked New York’s Breanna Stewart.
Team Spoon got rookie sensation Olivia Miles, the sole starting newcomer, out of Minnesota, Indiana’s Aliyah Boston, Dallas’ Jessica Shepard, Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray, New York’s Jonquel Jones, the adopted daughter of Temple coach Diane Richardson, Minnesota’s Courtney Williams, and Washington’s Kiki Iriafen, finalized with Los Angeles’ Nneka Ogwumike.
Team Cooper, which got assigned Bueckers, then picked Stewart, Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell, Minnesota’s Natasha Howard, Golden State’s Gabbie Williams, Atlanta’s Angel Reese, Toronto’s Marina Mabrey, Seattle’s Dominique Malonga, Los Angeles’ Kelsey Plum, whose been injured, Las Vegas’ Jackie Young, and Washington’s Sonia Citron.
The choices were made in taking turns fashion.
Becky Hammon of Las Vegas and Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve, whose teams had the best two records, tied, on July 10th will be the two coaches, Hammon getting the first selection on a head-to-head win and will coach Team Coop since Bueckers was the leading fan attraction in the balloting, while Reeve will coach Team Spoon.
Looking Ahead
On Thursday, Portland is at Washington at 7 p.m. on NBA TV, while New York is at Dallas at 9 p.m. on Amazon Prime.
Friday on the ION and League Pass package, Seattle is at Indiana at 7:30 p.m., while Los Angeles at the same time is at Chicago, and 10 p.m., Connecticut is at Phoenix, the first of two this weekend in the Arizona desert city.
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.
posted by Mel Greenberg | 7:15 AM
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