Friday night in the WNBA was as good as it gets, and I have to take a moment to speak glowingly about it. We had a five-game slate, which featured everything from outstanding rookies going against veteran teams, to noteworthy matchups between teams fighting hard not to give up ground in the race for the postseason.<\/p>\n
Sparks vs. Wings gets my vote for the best game of Friday\u2019s early time slot, as Dearica Hamby<\/b>, Kelsey Plum<\/b>, and the Sparks put on an offensive clinic for much of the game before a trio of Dallas newcomers (Paige Bueckers<\/b>, Aziaha James<\/b>, and JJ Quinerly<\/b>) led a fourth-quarter charge that fell a missed game-winning shot shy of a 16-point comeback win. Farther east, the Mystics actually did complete their comeback, as they erased a 13-point deficit and outscored the Fever by six points in the fourth quarter to register an 88-84 victory. Over in Vancouver, the Storm completely gave away a 15-point second-half lead before eventually closing the game on a 9-2 run to eke out a two-point win over the Dream and end their six-game slide. And finally, the Aces and Mercury delivered a fantastic 40 minutes of basketball, which concluded with a vintage Chelsea Gray<\/b> fourth quarter to give the Aces their sixth consecutive win.<\/p>\n
Only the lopsided contest between the Valkyries and Sky at Wintrust Arena fell short of the level of competition and entertainment that the others provided on Friday. However, it still wasn\u2019t enough to rob me of a fantastic viewing experience.<\/p>\n
THE EBBS AND FLOWS OF THE SEASON<\/b><\/p>\n
As last week\u2019s games came and went, I realized how different some of these outcomes were from earlier in the WNBA season \u2014 what was true as recently as two weeks ago or as long as two months back is now outdated and invalid information. For example, teams like the Sparks and Aces appeared to be down and out, only to hit their stride in the final month of the season. Los Angeles couldn\u2019t win a close game, but it is suddenly performing like one of the great clutch teams in the league this season. And now the Aces own the league\u2019s longest winning streak. Conversely, some teams have fallen on hard times after impressive starts to the season. Seattle had a stretch from early June to early July in which it\u2019d won nine of 12 games, including multiple three-game winning streaks. Yet, the Storm have lost seven of eight games and needed a come-from-behind win to earn that lone victory.<\/p>\n
The same constantly-changing information that applies to teams also applies to players. New candidates have emerged to challenge the frontrunners for some of the major regular-season awards \u2014 Napheesa Collier<\/b>\u2019s recent injury has opened doors for players like Alyssa Thomas<\/b> and A\u2019ja Wilson<\/b> to enter the MVP conversation, and the calls for Sonia Citron<\/b> to be included in Rookie of the Year conversations have gotten louder.<\/p>\n
The bottom line is this: The WNBA season is long. And with a few weeks left in the regular season, it\u2019s possible that enough could happen between now and then to reshape the lay of the land.<\/p>\n
THE WEEK AHEAD<\/b>Minnesota Lynx at New York Liberty<\/p>\n
(Tuesday, August 19 at 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV)<\/p>\n
Tuesday will mark the third time in Minnesota\u2019s past three games that it will have faced New York! I can only speculate that this late-season trio of games was intentional on the part of the schedule-makers, teasing WNBA fans with a mini-series of sorts in preparation for a potential Finals rematch come postseason time. And with the two teams occupying two of the top three spots in the standings, the anticipation that both would be championship contenders at this point of the season ended up working out well as far as scheduling goes. Yet, Napheesa Collier<\/b> and Breanna Stewart<\/b> haven\u2019t shared the floor in either of the previous three matchups due to injuries, which may be the case again on Tuesday. The Lynx haven\u2019t lost to the Liberty this season, but the upcoming matchup at Barclays Center should still be a total coin flip.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m looking forward to the game, but am hoping it is the last time these two teams compete against each other without healthy rosters.<\/p>\n
Phoenix Mercury at Golden State Valkyries<\/p>\n
(Tuesday, August 19 at 10 p.m. ET on WNBA League Pass)<\/p>\n
Only 2.5 games separate the Mercury (No. 4 seed) from the Valkyries (No. 7 seed) at the time of this writing. Golden State will enter as winners of seven of its last 10 games, while Phoenix has a 5-5 record over its most recent 10. The two teams\u2019 most recent matchup was a thriller in San Francisco, with a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double for DeWanna Bonner<\/b> off the bench being the standout performance in the Mercury\u2019s nail-biting 78-77 win. But that was a long time ago \u2014 before the WNBA All-Star Break \u2014 and that mid-July matchup will look different on Tuesday. For the home team, the season-ending knee injury to Kayla Thornton<\/b> means they\u2019ll be without arguably their best player. At the same time, the Mercury will have Satou Sabally<\/b> and Kahleah Copper<\/b> available this time around. Both teams need wins to prevent potentially dropping in the standings, making Tuesday\u2019s showdown an anticipated one.<\/p>\n
Dallas Wings at Los Angeles Sparks<\/p>\n
(Wednesday, August 20 at 10 p.m. ET on WNBA League Pass)<\/p>\n
Less than a week after the Sparks\u2019 exciting 97-96 victory over the Wings in Dallas, the trilogy will take place in Los Angeles as the sensational rookie, Paige Bueckers,<\/b> gets to take center stage in Wednesday\u2019s lone contest. The Wings aren\u2019t mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, but their path to a postseason appearance feels unlikely. Meanwhile, the Sparks are tied in the loss column with the Mystics and Storm, and still find themselves on the outside, looking in, even after a strong push following the All-Star Break. They\u2019ve rotated between wins and losses over their last six games, however, and will want to recapture the magic they\u2019d had from mid-July through early-August over the final quarter of the regular season. Dallas has offered one of the worst defenses in the league after the All-Star Break, while Los Angeles\u2019 offensive rating trails only Minnesota\u2019s over that same period. Viewers should be treated to an entertaining game, if nothing else.<\/p>\n
Phoenix Mercury at Las Vegas Aces<\/p>\n
(Thursday, August 21 at 10 p.m. ET on Prime Video)<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve discussed the Mercury and where they stand, but here\u2019s a bit more on the Aces: they are winners of seven-straight games, are getting MVP-like numbers from A\u2019ja Wilson<\/b>, and appear to have unlocked Jewell Loyd<\/b> by bringing her off the bench over the past 10 games. The Aces just recently defeated the Mercury in Arizona, as mentioned earlier, but will have to do it again in the Las Vegas desert if they want to inch closer to a top-four seed and potentially home-court advantage. Phoenix is also receiving MVP-caliber performances from Alyssa Thomas<\/b>, and although the Mercury have been up-and-down of late, they\u2019re as talented as any team in the W. Expect fireworks in this one.<\/p>\n
Seattle Storm at Washington Mystics<\/p>\n
(Sunday, August 24 at 3 p.m. ET on WNBA League Pass)<\/p>\n
The fifth and final game to circle on this week\u2019s calendar has to be Storm-Mystics. All it takes is a quick peek at the WNBA standings to understand why this game is an important one \u2014 both teams have the same number of losses, but the Storm\u2019s extra win leaves them in the eighth seed while the Mystics are sitting at 10th. Diving deeper, Seattle has lost seven of its last eight games and is sliding down the standings with each loss. Conversely, Washington has won three of its last four games, including two consecutive big wins over Indiana and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Maybe the biggest storyline, though, is that this final meeting between the Storm and Mystics will mark the first following the recent trade between the two teams that sent Alysha Clark<\/b> to the nation\u2019s capital for her second stint with the Mystics, and Brittney Sykes<\/b> to the Pacific Northwest to join a veteran roster with intentions of winning now. The trade has yielded better results for Washington, but there\u2019s still a lot of season left. Nevertheless, the outcome of Sunday\u2019s game would not only provide the winner with bragging rights but also a needed win during a tight playoff race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday night in the WNBA was as good as it gets, and I have to take a moment…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":156013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-156012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}