Hello, hoopheads! I hope this Monday finds you doing better than WNBA home teams, who went 1-3 again yesterday. You can catch up on all of those games, including an outstanding one between two teams I think could play for the WNBA title, and also find a couple of nuggets on the success of road teams so far here. After finishing up that recap, I started wondering just how weird it is for road teams to be off to a start like they are at 21-7 (.750), so of course I started looking up the answer. Over the last five years, road teams were 11-15 (.423) through the first 10 days last season, 9-14 (.391) in 2024, 10-10 (.500) in 2023, 12-10 (.545) in 2022 and 14-8 (.636) in 2021. It’s tedious enough pinning down the date ranges and results that I stopped after going through a decade, but I can tell you that the records stopped improving each year once I got pre-Wubble, and this is the best record road teams have had through 10 days since at least 2016. I don’t think it’ll mean much in the long run, however, other than a fun nugget for people like me to throw around. Home teams rebounded from their 8-14 start to finish 103-89 (.536) during the 2021 regular season and had a 118-108 (.546) record in 2022 after a losing first 10 days. Given there are over 100 more games this season than there were in those two, I have little doubt that the advantage of being at home — someone should really give that a name — will eventually bear out this season as well. If the oddsmakers have it right, home teams are set to go 2-0 tonight, perhaps starting a run like the one my Phillies are on while having gone 15-4 since starting 9-19 and ritually sacrificing their manager.
The first half of tonight’s doubleheader features the Washington Mystics (2-1) and Dallas Wings (1-2) (8:00 ET, Peacock/NBCSN which doesn’t stand for NBC Sports Network anymore and I don’t know what it is but they keep listing it/local affiliates), a pair of teams who’ve been on hard times in recent seasons but look to be heading in the right direction after hitting enough home runs in the draft to give Kyle Schwarber a run for the NL lead. The Mystics are flying high after starting their four-game road trip by knocking off the Indiana Fever in Friday night’s showcase game. Washington had to survive a 32-point, retroactively-10-assist performance from Caitlin Clark which included a game-tying 3-pointer with under 5 seconds to play, as well as pick itself up from the letdown of Sonia Citron’s own halfcourt heave being having been let go just after the buzzer, but eventually prevailed by a 104-102 margin in overtime behind a fantastic combined performance from Citron (30 points, 10-for-14 FG), Kiki Iriafen (25 points, 13 rebounds) and Shakira Austin (19 points, 9 rebounds). I’ve always been pretty high on the Mystics’ talent, but I’ve been impressed by this team’s competitiveness in all three of its games, which include a win in the first WNBA game at Toronto, a tough loss in overtime in the home opener against my New York Liberty and Friday’s win at Indiana. Citron (24.3 points, 4.3 rebounds per game, 60.5% from the field), Iriafen (19 ppg, 13.7 rpg, 59% FG) and Austin (17.7 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 51.4% FG) have been at the heart of all of it. I think it goes without saying that those three can’t stay this hot, but the Mystics also haven’t really needed any of their army of promising rookies to contribute much yet, and I think most if not all of them will do so in time.
Dallas is finishing up a three-game homestand and playing for the first time since coach Jose Fernandez’s eyebrow-raising “selfishness in this locker room” press conference. I’m very curious to see how the team reacts to being called out publicly by their head coach, not to mention excited to pore over the box score and see if I can decipher any individuals who may be feeling Fernandez’s wrath and thus presumably were the targets of his comments. It’s not the most toxic thing I could be speculating about where the 2026 Dallas Wings are concerned! Last year’s No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers has picked up right where she left off as a rookie, already looking like one of the best offensive players in the league while averaging 20.7 points and 5 assists per game and hitting 57.1% from the field including 6-of-11 (54.5%) from beyond the arc so far. She was sensational in the Wings’ four-point loss to Minnesota on Thursday — their second straight close loss to a top-five team in the WNBA, I might add — finishing with 27 points, 8 assists and just 3 turnovers while hitting 7-of-13 (53.8%) from the field and 3-for-4 from deep. If Fernandez was calling Bueckers selfish, it would be a first and honestly pretty fucking funny after years of hearing Geno Auriemma and an army of UConn alumni in the media beg her to shoot more as a Husky. Her 2025 national champion UConn teammate and fellow member of the No. 1 overall draft pick club Azzi Fudd’s career has gotten off to a slower start, although Fudd’s second game (an 8-point effort on 4-for-7 from the field) on Friday was an improvement over her first (a 3-point showing in the opener) and also marked her return from a one-game absence. The Wings are also still waiting to see any notable production from their marquee free-agent signing, reigning co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith.
Tonight’s second game sees the lowly Connecticut Sun (0-4) visit the Portland Fire (1-2) (10:00 ET, League Pass/local affiliates). Connecticut has been alternating beatdowns with relatively competitive outings through its first four of what will be many losses this season, so if the pattern holds, the Fire should be in for an easier time than in their franchise’s only win so far. That one came on a putback by Sarah Ashlee Barker at the buzzer in the first of a pair against my Liberty, who blew the Fire out in their second meeting on Thursday. Another loss tonight would give Connecticut its fourth separate losing streak of at least five games since the start of last season. Before 2025, the Sun hadn’t lost five in a row during a single regular season since 2020. I’d say they might have four more five-game skids coming this season, but that would require them to win four games and…yeah, I dunno about that.