Monday’s three-game slate delivered pretty much exactly what it promised on paper, at least if that paper was my Roundup. Here’s what went down tonight:
Indiana Fever 78, Washington Mystics 76
Indiana avenged a two-point overtime loss to Washington earlier this season thanks to a game-winning Caitlin Clark 3-pointer in the final seconds. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because Clark hit a 3 to tie the first meeting with the Mystics before the Fever ultimately came up short in overtime. Indiana pulled back above .500 at 6-5, avoiding a fourth loss in the last five games and improving to 6-0 when holding opponents to offensive ratings under 100 points per 100 possessions (0-5 when opponents reach triple digits). The Indiana offense didn’t have a great night, however, posting a meager offensive rating of 87.6 points per 100 possessions, with their “big three” of Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell having a second straight low-scoring game with a lot of turnovers. They finished with 48 points tonight after combining for 44 against the New York Liberty on Saturday, while they’ve hit 39.1% from the field and turned the ball over 22 times collectively in that span (exactly 11 giveaways in each game, including 5 each by Clark and Boston tonight). The win is the most important thing, particularly this early in the season, but the Fever certainly didn’t expect to be 9th in offensive rating a quarter of the way into the season.
Washington lost a second straight game and for the fifth time in seven games since a 2-1 start that culminated in its previous win over Indiana. The Mystics’ only wins since then came against the freefalling Seattle Storm and Chicago Sky, but the Mystics’ rebuild still seems to be progressing fine to me. They’ll certainly be hoping that the injury second-year star Kiki Iriafen suffered tonight wasn’t serious, but it’s hard to get too worked up about the wins and losses when talking about one of the youngest teams in WNBA history.
Las Vegas Aces 101, Seattle Storm 91
The Aces trailed by a bucket after a quarter, but took over in the second quarter and kept Seattle at arm’s length the rest of the way en route to a fourth straight win. A’ja Wilson had an absolutely massive game, as she often does, with 34 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 blocks against just 2 turnovers, while Jackie Young also stayed scorching with 29 points and 6 assists. They each went an identical 10-for-19 from the field, with the biggest difference being Wilson went to the line 13 times while Young did so five times. Wilson had 20+ points for the ninth straight game since starting the season with consecutive 19-point outings, making this the outright second-longest regular-season 20-point streak of the GOAT’s career and tied for the 8th-longest ever (she owns the record at 20 straight, spanning the 2023 and 2024 regular seasons, and seven games longer than any other streak).
Seattle lost a sixth straight game, but its 91 points were 23 more than it had scored in any other game during this skid, which is…something?
New York Liberty 89, Connecticut Sun 80
New York led by just 3 points at halftime after Jonquel Jones was a late scratch due to an illness, but created separation early in the third quarter and never let the Sun meaningfully threaten the lead again on the way to a fifth straight win since a three-game losing streak. Breanna Stewart led the way with 28 points, giving her 58 in the last two games, while going 9-for-17 from the field (8-for-13 inside the arc) and 9-for-9 at the line. I’ll also note that I spent halftime of this game tallying up Stewie’s 3-point shooting from the start of the 2023 WNBA playoffs through tonight, including Unrivaled and overseas play, and I have her at 25.6% (127-for-496) in that span including her 1-for-4 effort tonight. As such, I would like to again repeat my plea for her to just stop shooting 3-pointers.
Connecticut lost a third straight. One game closer to being gone forever!