Commissioner’s Cup play is officially underway for 2026, but a couple of teams are already in pretty deep holes with regards to the all-important point differential tiebreaker after getting their asses handed to them on Monday night. That said, there’s not much reason to expect either of Monday’s losing teams to be in the mix for a spot in the Cup title game given the first month of the season. Here’s what went down on Monday:
Minnesota Lynx 111, Phoenix Mercury 77
Minnesota improved its league-best record to 7-2 and league-best win streak to five in a row after dominating the Mercury from wire to wire in the season’s second rematch of last year’s contentious semifinal series (won by Phoenix). The 34-point beatdown marked the second-worst home loss in 540 Mercury home games all-time, beaten by only a 42-point loss to Becky Hammon and the 2012 San Antonio Silver Stars. It was just the fourth time Phoenix has lost at home by a margin of more than 25 points. The loss was Phoenix’s sixth straight and eighth in its last nine games since opening the season with a 33-point win over the Las Vegas Aces that was the most-lopsided margin this season prior to tonight.
Courtney Williams led the Lynx with 30 points on 13-for-20 from the field, her fifth career 30-point game and first in a Minnesota uniform (she had one with the Connecticut Sun and three with the Atlanta Dream prior to joining the Lynx). Rookie point guard Olivia Miles, who I’ll once again say should be named Rookie of the Year tomorrow just to get it over with, set the tone with 7 of Minnesota’s first 14 points and finished with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals while hitting 7-of-9 from the field. You can honestly throw a dart at the Lynx box score and have a very good chance of hitting someone who had an efficient game, given that the team hit 64% from the field and 10-of-17 from beyond the arc. That 58.8% mark from downtown was the highest allowed this season by a Mercury defense which was already dead last in the WNBA in opponent 3-point percentage, despite Minnesota being in the bottom third of the league in 3-point percentage coming in (it jumped up to 10th after seeing the Mercury, so is now just inside the second third).
Dallas Wings 79, Seattle Storm 56
Dallas has won three straight for the first time since August 2024 after pulling away from the punchless Storm despite Seattle’s best efforts on defense. Seattle didn’t muster more than 15 points in a quarter until the fourth, which it entered trailing by the number of points it would explode to score in the frame (19). The Storm just couldn’t make enough buckets to keep up despite holding what had been the WNBA’s most efficient offense to 36% from the field and 20% from beyond the arc. Flau’jae Johnson (16 points) and Natisha Hiedeman (11), who combined to go 7-for-21 from the field, were the only Storm players in double figures. The other Seattle starters put up 9 points combined while hitting 4-for-19. Dallas didn’t get more than 10 points from a starter, as Paige Bueckers led the group with 10, but the other four each scored exactly 9 points while Bueckers added 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Aziaha James scored a game-high 18 points in 18 minutes off the Dallas bench, singlehandedly outscoring the Seattle bench, which had 16 points. The other four Wings bench players almost matched the Storm’s bench output despite James’ big night, as Alysha Clark, Alanna Smith, Li Yueru and Odyssey Sims combined for 15 points.