Hello, hoopheads! A relatively uneventful night one of the WNBA season has come and gone (you can catch up on what happened here), but business is about to pick up on a four-game Saturday loaded with marquee matchups and storylines. Just one team will be left to make its debut in the WNBA’s 30th season by the end of the night, the Los Angeles Sparks, as the once-330-game regular-season slate shrinks to 323.
The first Saturday of the season tips off with the Dallas Wings visiting the Indiana Fever (1:00 ET, ABC/Disney+), which of course means another matchup between the Wings’ Paige Bueckers and the Fever’s Caitlin Clark. The two megastars have squared off three times in either college or WNBA settings, twice in the NCAA Tournament (Bueckers and UConn won in the 2021 Sweet 16, Clark and Iowa won in the 2024 Final Four) and once last season in the WNBA. The Fever won 102-83 in that matchup and Clark had 14 points, 13 assists and 5 steals, the fourth such game in league history including two of her own. That game, last July 13, was Clark’s second-most recent WNBA action, as she’d go on to miss the entire second half of the season following the first-half finale against the Connecticut Sun two days later. Bueckers, on the other hand, went on to win Rookie of the Year, and joined Clark during her 2024 Rookie of the Year campaign as the second first-year player in WNBA history to average 19 points and five assists per game (Clark, it’s fair to note, averaged over eight assists per game, while Bueckers averaged 5.4). Those are also two of just 13 individual 19/5 seasons in all of WNBA history.
Clark’s return to the floor and the continuation of her rivalry with Bueckers are clearly the headlines, but not to be forgotten is that this will also mark the debut of the Wings’ latest No. 1 overall pick, Azzi Fudd, who won a national championship with Bueckers at UConn and made over 40% in each of her three healthy seasons as a Husky. It looks like last year’s co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith will also be making her Wings debut, as she’s listed as probable with a face injury. She and former Minnesota Lynx backup Jessica Shepard both joined a rejuvenated Wings franchise which also brought back Arike Ogunbowale in the offseason and has its eyes on getting Bueckers and Fudd to their first postseason. Indiana’s marquee free-agent signing, Monique Billings, is listed as questionable with an ankle injury, but the Fever will be thrilled to have Clark back on the floor after making an improbable run to last year’s semifinals in her absence. Three of the four 44-game stalwarts of that injury-plagued campaign return in Clark’s “big three” brethren Kelsey Mitchell (20.2 points, 3.4 assists per game last season) and Aliyah Boston (15 points. 8.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists per game).
After the Wings and Fever comes a WNBA Finals rematch when the Phoenix Mercury visit the Las Vegas Aces (3:30 ET, ABC/Disney+). The reigning champs from Sin City bring back all of their key pieces as they look to win a fourth WNBA title in five seasons, most notably four-time MVP/the GOAT A’ja Wilson, fellow future Hall of Famer Chelsea Gray, another player I’d guess is heading to Cooperstown in Jackie Young, and I’d dare say a fourth likely honoree in Jewell Loyd. The Aces also have a Hall of Famer on the sideline in Becky Hammon, who will go in a second time as a coach one day and become the first woman and sixth person enshrined as both player and coach. The Mercury also bring back at least one future Hall of Famer in Alyssa Thomas (the WNBA’s triple-double queen six times over) and probably another in DeWanna Bonner — the first time those names have ever been mentioned together, I’m pretty sure — as well as a third player who could get there with enough success in her 30s in Kahleah Copper. The Mercury are, however, moving on without a key piece of last year’s Finals run in “the Unicorn” Satou Sabally, who signed with the New York Liberty in free agency. That is unfortunately also how they ended the Finals, which the Aces swept 4-0, as Sabally suffered a concussion in Game 3 and missed Game 4.
The day’s third game is the only one that isn’t on national TV, but if it was happening a little later in the season the Atlanta Dream’s matchup with the Minnesota Lynx (8:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass) would easily be the most exciting matchup of the day to me. As it stands, I still can’t wait to watch the Dream — my picks to win the WNBA title — play a meaningful game with their blockbuster offseason acquisition Angel Reese in the fold. Atlanta exceeded all expectations en route to a 30-win season and tie for second in the standings last year in head coach Karl Smesko’s first WNBA season, and I really believe that Reese is the perfect addition to Atlanta’s mix. They’ll be particularly happy to have Reese early in the season, as fellow frontcourt All-Star Brionna Jones recovers from a recent knee surgery. Minnesota can relate, as it will be without the MVP runner-up the last two seasons Napheesa Collier for at least the first month or so while she recovers from dual ankle surgery. Dorka Juhasz, who is coming off of a breakout EuroLeague campaign and could potentially fill some of the Phee-shaped void, will also miss the start of the season with a mid-foot sprain. And that’s why I’m not quite as jazzed as I’d otherwise be for this one, although I’ll still be watching intently.
Last up is the WNBA’s return to Oregon as the Chicago Sky visit the Portland Fire (9:00 ET, NBA TV/local affiliates), who share a name and arena but no official connection with the team who played in the W from 2002 through 2002. This iteration of the Fire look like a work in progress, to put it kindly, but there’s every reason to believe they’ll have longer to put it all together than the previous iteration given the trajectory the league and sport are on. The Sky are hoping to get back to respectability and the playoffs after a couple of miserable seasons, and I do think they’ll put a better product on the floor than last year despite my belief that letting Reese slip away will haunt the franchise for the next decade. That relationship deteriorated after an interview in which Reese questioned Jeff Pagliocca for signing then-36-year old (and then-injured) point guard Courtney Vandersloot to return to Chicago, so obviously what Pagliocca did after trading Reese was sign a 35-year old point guard (Skylar Diggins) and a 34-year old point guard (Natasha Cloud). With Vandersloot’s return, that will give Chicago three of the top nine assist totals in WNBA history and a combined 107 years on the planet at the point guard position alone. Pagliocca also went back to the well of bringing back members of the Sky’s 2021 championship team when he signed Azurá Stevens to a three-year, seven-figure deal, and brought in DiJonai Carrington and Rickea Jackson. Of the players I just mentioned, only Diggins and Jackson will be on the floor for tonight’s opener, so the Sky will have to wait a bit longer before seeing their full new/old look.