All three games on Tuesday’s WNBA slate could accurately be described as back-and-forth affairs, and I think we’ll be in for quite a lot of those over the course of the season. Road teams went 2-1, bringing them to 11-3 on the season, but the only home win was a team’s first ever, so that’s where we start.
Portland Fire 98, New York Liberty 96
The rekindled Fire earned Portland’s first WNBA win in 24 years and the first win by either of this year’s expansion teams in dramatic fashion when Sarah Ashlee Barker’s putback of Bridget Carleton’s (badly) missed 3-point attempt beat both the buzzer and the Liberty, sparking off a celebration reminiscent of the best of March Madness. Portland’s pair of Fires are now 3-2 against their brethren in flame logos all-time. The game-winner came moments after a critical blunder set Portland up to take the last shot when Liberty rookie point guard Pauline Astier was called for a three-second violation as Breanna Stewart attempted to milk the clock with the game tied and about a three-second differential between the game and shot clocks. Despite Astier’s oopsie, both of the young French point guards were fantastic throughout the game and scored career-highs, Leite with 21 points on 8-for-14 from the field while Astier had 24 on 10-for-14. Bridget Carleton led Portland with a career-high 26 points, continuing a career-long trend of torching the Liberty — all three times that Carleton has scored more than 17 points in her 246-game WNBA career have come against New York. It was the second straight game that (very shorthanded) New York couldn’t put away a seemingly inferior opponent down the stretch, although the Libs did get away with it in Sunday’s overtime win at Washington. They won’t have to wait long to try and get some revenge, as the teams will go at it again in Portland on Thursday night.
Minnesota Lynx 88, Phoenix Mercury 84
The Lynx gained a tiny measure of revenge for last season’s semifinal loss, spoiling both the Mercury’s home opener and a 30-burger by Kahleah Copper by scoring 11 of the final 14 points to steal the win. Copper scored a game-high 30 points on the nose in 35 minutes while going 9-for-21 from the field and 10-for-13 at the line, but the rest of the Mercury made just 30.9% of their shots and none of Copper’s teammates other than DeWanna Bonner (16 points) scored more than 10. The Lynx didn’t have a player score more than 14 points, but all five starters scored at least 11 and the team hit 50% from the field. Veteran forwards Natasha Howard (14 points, 11 rebounds, 6-for-9 FG) and Nia Coffey (13, 10, 5-for-7) bounced back nicely with a pair of double-doubles and combined 11-for-16 effort from the field after being dominated by the Dream frontcourt on Saturday. They keyed a 43-31 edge for Minnesota on the glass, a swing of 37 net rebounds from the minus-25 margin the Lynx suffered in the opener. Valeriane Ayayi joined the Mercury starting five after more than 10 years away from the WNBA — the second-longest gap between appearances in league history — but may have messed with early-season surprise sharpshooter Jovana Nogić’s mojo in the process. She went 0-for-6 from downtown in her first game off of the bench. It’s impossible to say just yet whether Nogić is exclusively an 80% 3-point shooter on the road or as a starter, but she went 4-for-5 each of the times those things were the case and 0-for-6 the one time they weren’t, so I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s one or the other. (Never take me seriously)
Atlanta Dream 77, Dallas Wings 72
My picks to win the WNBA title haven’t gotten many shots to fall from deep through their first two wins of the season, but they’ve made enough to get the job done both times. Atlanta had a 19-13 edge in the final frame to hold off a much-improved Wings team, led by 26 points from Allisha Gray and 19 from Jordin Canada. Angel Reese added 12 points and 16 rebounds for her 51st career double-double in just 65 games, continuing to blow away all previous standards for both double-doubles and rebounding in general. Atlanta also had a solid effort defensively, holding Dallas to 38% from the field (the same as the Dream made) and 4-for-26 from deep. The less pretty side of it is that Atlanta players other than Gray (9-for-20 from the field), Canada (8-for-15) and Reese (4-for-8) went just 5-for-26 (19.2%) from the field, however, and 2-for-16 (12.5%) from beyond the 3-point arc. I’m fairly confident, as I’m sure are the Dream players and coach Karl Smesko, that the likes of Naz Hillmon (0-for-3 from deep), Rhyne Howard (1-for-9) and Te-Hina Paopao (0-for-3) aren’t going to have many more nights where they combine to go 1-for-15. If anything it’s just a great sign for the Dream that they got a win when that was the case.