The Guru’s WNBA Report: The Mighty Fall as New York and Las Vegas Swept 3-0 in Semis by Atlanta and Golden State

 

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

NEW YORK – As WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is about to oversee her last league playoff finals after the longest gap following the semifinals before heading into retirement when the lights in Times Square over in Manhattan signal the arrival of 2027, as she departs two teams of a newer mold will compete in the best of seven series starting Saturday, each for the right to their first title concluding the 30th anniversary season.

In a historic Friday night in league history two titan franchises in terms of branding in the now 15-team and growing league, the New York Liberty here in front of a sellout crowd of 17, 991 in Brooklyn’s Barkleys Center and defending champion Las Vegas, with trophies three of the last four years in front of a Micheloeb ULTRA Arena crowd of 10,218, each in narrow outcomes ended up whisked in two 3-0 sweeps.

Atlanta set the tormenting off at the end of the season following the break for the FIBA World Cup when a tight race for seeding in the eight-team field saw the Dream win the last two games here in Brooklyn that gained a fourth seed and home court advantage over Washington in a 2-0 first round sweep.

That also provided home advantage and doomed New York to an eight seed, which unwittingly helped the Atlanta cause because Minnesota, which owned the regular season, drew the toughest obstacle to advancement, and got wiped by the Liberty 2-0, removing a tough obstacle in the Dream storyline.

For the moment, New York, which struggled through injury and had consistency issues in its 44-game season, following the dispatch of the Lynx, temporarily gave the Liberty faithful hope their team might return at the end to the aura of two seasons ago winning their first crown in their then 28-year history, the last charter team still around that hadn’t got to spray champagne.

When the semifinals playoffs launched, Atlanta was still dominating and then came Game 2 won by the Dream 101-98 in overtime after New York had forced the extra period as regulation ticked off but then in the final game seconds confusion reigned whether the Liberty had ignored using a reset to create a better shot for Breanna Stewart than the one she missed.

That led to Friday when New York rallied and then the Dream grabbed a slim lead back and held on, Stewart missing an easy bunny, and Atlanta, which launched as an expansion unit in 2008, prevailed 85-83.

For the losing home team, it was seen as a missed opportunity, and in New York, the body wasn’t even cold when the media crowd began seeking player evaluations of first-year coach Chris DeMarco, hired from the staff of the NBA Golden State Warriors, seeking comment over strategy.

Just 12 months earlier the locals were stunned here when the popular Sandy Brondello, two years removed from guiding the Liberty to the title, was let go, after players gave strong endorsements when asked if she should be retained.

Friday night, not so much, when similar comment was sought, but the podium trio of Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu, and Breanna Stewart, the core mainstay of the roster, refused to bite.

“That’s not our say,” remarked Jones. “Our job’s to go out and play basketball, represent the fan base well, and our families, and I think we do a good job of focusing on that, and it is what it is.”

Next up was Ionescu, who remarked, “Obviously, that’s not our decision, and we’re thankful for everything he’s done this year … through the ups and downs of the season.”

Then Stewart replied, “It’s just tough to talk or think about that right now. My focus and what I’m thinking about right now is just like: missed opportunity. You know what I mean?

“Yeah, we went to the Finals two years in a row and haven’t gone since. But it’s really hard to get to the finals. It’s really hard to win a WNBA championship.

“I’m not going to tell you exactly what we need, because I don’t think it’s appropriate. But defense. People say defense wins championships. It’s f***king true.”

Long before Saturday’s daylight broke, multiple stories were headlining “DeMarco expects to return.”

Back in the stone age era of the WNBA, successful collegiate coaches treated the league like a plague finding better things to do in their offseason summers, only paying more attention if their individual alumni players had made rosters.

Oh, and routinely uttering two sentences of “I appreciate the call but no, thanks,” when the pro teams came their way seeking hires resulting in a trend of NBA DNA stock in multiple coaches roaming the sidelines.

But heads were turned two years ago by the Dream, beginning the road to becoming a nightmare opponent when they landed Florida Gulf Coast coach Karl Smesko, whose team was a perennial conference champ in the ASun making annual NCAA appearances, including one on the Main Line in 2023 in the Philly burbs when Villanova led by senior star and future WNBA first round pick Maddy Siegrist eliminated his group in the NCAA second round.

He followed Tanisha Wright, who this season is at her alma mater as the new coach at Penn State.

The Atlanta path accelerated this season off a deal with Chicago when Atlanta acquired Angel Reese, yes that Angel Reese who with her LSU teammates topped the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa Hawkeyes for an NCAA title, setting off a must-see rivalry that changed the face of both the collegiate and pro women’s hoops worlds with millions of eyeballs drawn to TV and in person.

It’s going to be hard to swallow for the Clark fans but that’s twice now that Reese, four wins from a WNBA crown, has been a key to advancing further in season play, including Friday when Reese scored 22 points.

Rese recalled frustration sitting home watching the title round on TV when she was on a Chicago squad that was nonproductive, although this year Reese rose to be voted defensive player of the year.

“Sat at home the last two years and watched it,” she said. “I texted (Rutgers grad and Philly native Kahleah Copper), just get me one game in the playoffs.”

“The job isn’t done. Happy where we are right now. We’re not satisfied.”

Atlanta was able to prevail despite the absence of leading scorer Allisha Gray, who suffered a finger injury in the semifinals opener.

Jordin Canada scored 19 with 11 assists for the Dream, while Rhyne Howard, a graduate of Kentucky, had 21 points, while another key was the late season addition of DeWanna Bonner, released by Phoenix to give her a chance to play for a championship contender late in her career.

Unwittingly, that move could suggest that Phoenix stuck it to the Liberty two years straight, last season when they eliminated New York and now through the move that got Bonner to Atlanta.

She finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Just like when the NCAA committee considers total body of work, all credit to Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Cheryl Reeve, the South Jersey native who played at La Salle, but if it comes to executive of the year, a strong move should be in the direction of executive Dan Padover.

And in the Philly area, pending what the 76ers do with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley about involving her at the ownership level, as former UConn star Renee Montgomery is with the Dream, keep an eye on Podover as a possible executive candidate when the time comes to put together the future Philly WNBA squad on the road to 2030.

Why?

The GM and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations with the Dream is a native of Somers Point, N.J., was a video coordinator for C. Vivian Stringer’s Rutgers squads, also did work at UConn, had various roles with the Liberty before moving to Las Vegas when Bill Laimbeer was coaching the squad.

He’s already won Executive of the Year in 2020, 2021, and 2025.

And he was a 76ers intern in the video department.

By the way, it was recently announced that the Dream are moving from their small suburban facility to the State Farm Arena, home of the NBA Hawks next season.

Atlanta played this series in the arena.

The Dream became a WNBA squad as an expansion unit in 2008, the last new squad in the league until the current cycle, and made the playoffs, the first time, losing in the opening round in 2009, then finishing fourth in 2010 and knocked off New York like Friday night to reach the finals, being swept by Seattle.

The addition of former Louisville star Angel McCoughtry helped reaching those levels.

They were back in the finals the following year, losing as Minnesota won its first title with rookie and UConn great Maya Moore.

In 2013 it was back to the finals, the last time until this coming weekend.

All of which brings us to Friday night’s other big story as Golden State completed the sweep of Las Vegas, coming in the Valkyries’ second season after ownership. when introduced ahead of last season, called for a championship within five years.

Back in New York, Smesko had expressed the desire to beat in New York in a sweep and not letting a win occur to start gaining momentum.

Out West, after winning two games as the No. 2 seed, just one seed behind Minnesota when the playoffs started, and one ahead of the Aces, Golden State had the same idea about keeping the opposition supressed.

Last year, the team under former Aces assistant Natalie Nakase, the first Asian American coach in the WNBA, became the first to make the postseason as an expansion squad and produced the most first-year wins.

All that got blown away this season, culminating in Friday’s 87-77 win in overtime, the first two-year group to reach the Finals.

Kayla Thornton, Williams, and Tiffany Hayes scored all the Valkyries overtime points and finished with 18, 16, and 11 points, respectively. Kiah Stokes added 11 points with 10 boards and three blocks.

“Big Dreams. This is a dream come true to be going to the Finals in our second year,” Nakase said. “I told them I was proud of our whole team,” Nakase said. “I saw another level of fight tonight. We really left it all out on the floor. We emptied the tank.”

“It feels special because this is a special group,” said former UConn star Gabby Williams, a member of the French squad runner up to USA by a point in the Olympics in Paris in 2024 and last month by more in the FIBA Cup.

“We are going to get some bandwagoners because we weren’t getting no love all season. Honestly, no one believed in us, but it honestly made us smile. All we need each other.”

The team also has former Princeton star Kaitlyn Chen, who was at UConn as a graduate and scored six points.

Golden State outscored the Aces 16-9 in the extra period.

Janelle Salaun, voted sixth player by the WNBA panel, was held to three points.

Just 24 hours earlier, the Aces’ A’ja Wilson, the South Carolina great, earned a record fifth overall and third straight MVP honor and went on to score 21 points with 10 boards, while Jackie Young scored 18.

“I feel like we have created a culture and a standard that if we don’t do what people want us to do and what they’ve seen us do all the time, they’re like, ‘Well, what’s wrong with you?’” Wilson said. “And I don’t think we get enough grace when it comes to that, because we’re still human. We’re still players, we’re gonna miss shots, so we may not look like ourselves every single day.”

“She had her club playing at a super high level all year,” Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said of Nakase, her former assistant. “If you want to be a WNBA champion you have to be a top three or top four defense and we weren’t this year. We had moments but we weren’t good enough to be at championship level.”

“Obviously, have to make some adjustments, make some moves. It’s a hard question to ask right now. I saw us not scoring and it affected our defense.”

 

 

 

       

 

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.