Saturday’s four-game slate went about as expected, with the two best games on paper both delivering thrillers while arguably the league’s two best teams so far dominated in the others. In the end, home teams took all four games, although not without both New York and Las Vegas having to overcome fourth-quarter deficits. That makes home teams 12-5 so far in June (aka in the Commissioner’s Cup) and brings the league’s collective home record to 38-42 (.475), including a 31-21 record (.596) since road teams won 21 of the season’s first 28 games. Here’s what went down on Saturday:
Las Vegas Aces 84, Golden State Valkyries 79
The reigning WNBA champions won their third straight game thanks to a 12-3 game-ending run after Golden State pulled ahead 76-72 with just over three minutes to play, their second time beating the Valkyries on broadcast TV during this streak. All 12 of those Aces points in the final minutes came from either A’ja Wilson, who had 28 points and 14 rebounds, or Jackie Young, who had 27 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 turnover while making 6-of-8 from beyond the arc. Young became just the fourth player in WNBA history to have 25/5/5 with at least a half-dozen triples and no more than one turnover in a game, joining Sami Whitcomb, Rhyne Howard and Sabrina Ionescu (who’s done it twice, both against the Aces). Wilson had her eighth straight 20-point game, tying the 12th-longest regular-season streak of all-time, with three of her own streaks among the eight streaks that have previously ended at eight games. She’s only gotten past eight straight once, when she had a WNBA-record 20 straight regular-season 20-point games spanning 2023 and 2024.
The Valkyries lost for the third time in four games, but in fairness, it was their fourth game in seven days in a third different city, including a pair of games against the Aces (who hadn’t played since Tuesday) and a hard-fought road loss on Thursday at league-best Minnesota. That the Valkyries were in a position to win this game on the champs’ home court at all speaks to the quality of team they are. Gabby Williams led the way with a career-high 27 points while adding 6 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals. Golden State will have two days off between each of its next three games, all of which are against teams tied for 12th in the standings or worse — vs Phoenix on Tuesday, at Seattle on Friday and then vs Los Angeles next Monday.
New York Liberty 83, Indiana Fever 75
The Liberty didn’t lead from the before the first media timeout until after the last one, but overcame a miserable long-range shooting night thanks to a 29-18 edge in the fourth quarter, beating the Fever for an eighth straight time at home and 13th time in the last 15 meetings. New York finished the game 2-for-18 from beyond the arc, only the second time it’s taken at least 18 shots from deep in a game, made fewer than 3 of them, and won the game in its 30-season franchise history. The other win was the most important in those 30 seasons, Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals against the Minnesota Lynx, when the Liberty clinched their only title. This game was reminiscent of that one not only because the Liberty could’ve built Ellie a house with all their bricks, but because Breanna Stewart getting to the line was ultimately what saved the Liberty. She went 18-for-21 at the charity stripe en route to her 30 points in this instance, just the seventh time a player has attempted 20 free throws in a WNBA game. Those numbers were also 9 more makes and 6 more attempts than Indiana had in the game, and my advice to the Fever would be stop fouling if you don’t like it.
Indiana fell to 5-5 on the season, the fourth time it’s hit .500 in five opportunities so far, which is enough times for me to mention that this was a thing last year as well. The 2025 Fever hit the .500 mark on nine of their first 10 opportunities last year, also skipping 3-3 like they have this time, with the key difference being that this year’s Fever skipped it by starting 4-2 while last year’s did so by starting 2-4. Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 21 points, but went 7-for-21 from the field, while Aliyah Boston scored 13 points on 6-for-15 from the field, Caitlin Clark finished with just 10 points on 4-for-14, and the three of them combined for 12 assists and 11 turnovers (Clark, to her credit, had 9 assists and 3 turnovers while both Boston and Mitchell had 4 giveaways). That’s a combined 44 points on 17-for-50 (34%) from the field for the Fever’s big three, and credit for a job well done is due to the Liberty, who significantly amped up their defensive pressure after giving up 25 points in the first quarter and held Indiana to 50 points in the final three.
Minnesota Lynx 88, Seattle Storm 68
Atlanta Dream 109, Washington Mystics 77
There’s no real need to break down how these two games specifically became blowouts beyond “much better team did what it’s supposed to at home,” but here are a couple of notes:
Minnesota won its seventh straight game since a 2-2 start, led by a season-high 27 points from Natasha Howard and a 19-point, 6-rebound, 6-assist, 1-turnover outing from rookie Olivia Miles. Those two combined to hit 21-of-30 (70%) from the field while the other three Lynx starters had 28 points (one more than Howard) and went 10-for-31 (32.2%) from the field.
Atlanta got 18 points and 17 rebounds from Angel Reese, who went 4-for-9 from the field and 10-for-10 at the line en route to her fourth straight double-double, while Rhyne Howard led the way with 19 points and 6 steals while going 4-for-7 from deep. Howard had her seven game with 4 triples and 6 steals in just over a week (also May 29 at Phoenix), the 10th and 11th such games in WNBA history. She’s the only player on that list twice, let alone with two games in such a short span.