The Guru’s WNBA Report: Dallas Goes to 7-3 After Beating Los Angeles; Chicago Halts Slide Beating Connecticut; Phoenix Minus Harris and Copper Nips Expansion Portland

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

Three games featuring mostly likes meeting each other Friday in what was night five of the first week of intra-conference Commissioner’s Cup action resulted in single-digit differentials across the board.

The highlight was Dallas (7-3) continuing to be above the doormat status of last summer with its sixth win in the last seven games – a 104-98 victory at Los Angeles (4-6) before 12,828 at the Crypto.com Arena.

Chicago (4-6) got its first home win before 6,594 at Wintrust Arena snapping an overall five-game losing streak made possible in part that the 85-80 victory came over the visiting Connecticut Sun (2-10).

Phoenix (4-8) won its second straight game after ending a six-game skid, the 78-72 road triumph coming before a Moda Center crowd at expansion Portland (6-6), which is now 0-2 in early June after closing May in its first WNBA season at 4-1.

Wings Defeat Sparks

The rebuilt Dallas attack continues to shine after getting offseason help for reigning rookie of the year Paige Bueckers out of UConn with a new coach in South Florida’s Jose Fernandez, adding Azzi Fudd, her Huskies teammate, as the overall No. 1 pick in April, signing free-agent Jessica Shepard, and keeping Arike Ogunbowale, who six 3-pointers and 30 points against Los Angeles.

Bueckers had 18 points and a personal best 14 assists while Shepard double-doubled with a career-high 22 points and 15 boards with five assists. The assists tied Ogunbowale’s franchise record.

Villanova’s Maddy Siegriest had 10 points in the final period and 16 for the game while Fudd scored 11 and Dallas had  25-plus assists for the fourth time this season bringing the Wings their best 10-game start since relocating from Tulsa in 2016 and before that originated in Detroit.

The Motor City is getting a new WNBA team in 2029 a year after Cleveland returns in 2028 as an expansion unit and before Philadelphia brings the WNBA to 18 teams in 2030.

The win ruined the return of L.A.’s league-leading scorer Kelsey Plum, who missed the three prior games with an ankle injury and scored 27 points while Ariel Atkins collected 16 points.

Additionally, Dearica Hamby scored 15 points, Nneka Ogwumike had 13 points, 10 boards and five assists while reserve Cameron Brink scored 10 off the bench.

“There were some big plays in that fourth quarter,” Fernandez said. “Big deflections, big rebounds, total team effort. Good win. We have to rest up and see who will be available next week.

“Paige is such a great decision maker. We talk at timeouts about things we want to go to. Down the stretch I have total trust in her putting us in position to go to the things we want to go to.”

Off the season start and turnaround, he said, “I don’t think anybody in the country or around the league thought we’d be 7-3 right now. I did. Our staff and locker room did. It’s a credit to we learn from wins and we learn from those three losses, we had leads in the fourth quarter.”

Off the loss, Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said, “It’s ironic, right? Last year, all we talked about was how we’re going to get better defensively, and we have. Now, it’s what’s wrong with the offense, which is the process.

“This will only be our second game where we have our whole roster, and while it’s not an excuse, it is a variable. So that will help. In terms of process, I went to see us play with more pace, and our spacing has to be better,” Roberts continued.

“In the last four minutes, they willed it to happen, and we didn’t. That’s unfortunate, but there are positives to take from it… Offensively, we can build on it. I think we were better (offensively), 25 assists on 36 shots, that’s good. Too many turnovers, especially in that fourth quarter. They just had some really timely… What I call 50-50 plays that could go either way but went their way and they capitalized on it.”

Sky Shine Over Sun

In Chicago’s win Skylar Diggins had 18 of her 24 points in the first half while on the back end Elizabeth Williams made two key shots in the final minute.

Tied following Diggins’ three-point play and the Sun’s Saniya Rivers’ make from deep to answer, Williams scored to make it 82-79 with48.9 left in regulation and her hook score with 14.5 made it a five-point lead.

Diggins then clinched it from the line.

Azura Stevens scored 13 for the Sky with 10 boards and Saint Joseph’s Natasha Cloud had 13 points, while Williams finished with all 10 of her points in the second half.

South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Connecticut’s Diamond Miller and Brittany Griner each scored 16 points while Rivers had 14 points and Aneesah Morrow scored eight and grabbed 17 boards.

“It was one of those quarters, but I was proud of the way we continued to fight back,” Chicago coach Tyler Marsh said of the Sky held to 11 points in the first quarter and then reversing with 32 in the next.

“It feels great,” Diggins said of the win and her changed approach in this one.. “Obviously it’s been a journey the last five games. The crowd’s been amazing. The city keeps showing up and Chicago really loves their sports. “The last few games we went down, I don’t like being down, and I wasn’t aggressive.”

Mercury Douse Fire

Playing without key starters Maryland grad Alyssa Thomas out of Harrisburg due to a left calf injury and Rutgers grad Kahleah Copper out of North Philadelphia due to a left hip condition, Phoenix was still able to handle expansion Portland with DeWanna Bonner getting a season-best 19 points and Natasha Mack scoring 16 points.

The game’s outcome was undetermined most of the night until Jovanna Nogic’s score with 2:46 left in regulation flipped the lead back to the visitors, who held on the rest of the way.

The line was key for the Mercury who was 19-for-22 and in the final three minutes five were 10-of-12 with Bonner perfect at 4-for-4.

Noemie Brochant and Monique Akoa Makami each scored 11 points for Phoenix.

Portland’s Sarah Ashlee Barker scored 15 with seven boards while Karlie Samuelson got off to hot start making her first four attempts from distance to account for most of her13 points.

The Fire, committing 20 turnovers, also got 11 points from Teja Oblak.

“It was a good opportunity for everybody to get some confidence and get some reps in,” Bonner said of missing Thomas and Copper. “Everybody stepped up. I think our bench can match everybody in the league. We just have a lot of great players.”

“We were consistent all night,” said Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts. “One of our goals was try to keep people under 20 points. Everyone who played contributed in a certain way, especially on the defensive end.

“And that’s what it takes. Our two leading scorers are out. We had to guard at a high level. It’s been a tough start. You need this kind of win. We did a great job sharing it as the game went on.”’

Looking Ahead

On Saturday, ABC will air two West games in the afternoon: Seattle at Minnesota at 1 p.m. and Golden State at Las Vegas at 3 p.m. while in the East at night League Pass will air Washington at Atlanta at 6 p.m. followed by CBS and Paramount+ carrying Indiana at New York at 8 p.m.

Sunday League Pass will air Chicago at Toronto at 3 p.m., while NBA TV at 7 will air Portland at Los Angeles.

Week two beginning Monday at 7 p.m. has League Pass airing New York at Connecticut while at the same time NBCSN and Peacock will air Indiana at Washington.

At 10 p.m. USA will telecast Seattle at Las Vegas.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m., ESPN will air Atlanta at Chicago, while League Pass will televise Dallas at Minnesota at 8 p.m., and at 10 p.m. Phoenix at Golden State.

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.

The second and last game of this week in the new UPSHOT League airs at 4 p.m. Saturday with Charlotte hosting Savannah on the league’s free YouTube channel.