Another night of the WNBA season is in the books, and this being 2026, that means some more fans went home unhappy. Road teams racked up a 3-1 mark on Wednesday, bringing their record to 14-4 on the young season. Here’s everything that went down:
Toronto Tempo 86, Seattle Storm 73
Canada is on the board after the Tempo’s first win in franchise history, making Wednesday the second straight night an expansion team earned its first win. This one wasn’t quite as dramatic as the Portland Fire’s last-second triumph over my New York Liberty last night, with Toronto taking control during an 18-6 third-quarter run before pulling away in the final frame. Marina Mabrey led the way with 26 points after scoring 27 in the opener, just the seventh time a player has scored more than 25 points in the first two games of a WNBA season. The only other players to do that are Maya Moore (four straight in 2014), Arike Ogunbowale (three in 2023), Elena Delle Donne (three in 2015), Breanna Stewart (two in 2021) and Sheryl Swoopes (twice, two in 2000 and two in 2005). Dominique Malonga scored 21 points for the second time in three games, but ironically those are the Storm’s two losses while their lone win came in the game when she scored just six points.
Chicago Sky 69, Golden State Valkyries 63
The Sky improved to 2-0 after outscoring Golden State 15-9 in the final six minutes of a game that was tied at 54. It was far from an offensive clinic, with Chicago hitting 36% from the field and Golden State a ghastly 29% while the teams combined to miss 33 shots from beyond the arc, but it was an encouraging road win for the newish-look Sky nonetheless. I say newish-look because Chicago still hasn’t gotten a look at two of its key offseason acquisitions in Azurá Stevens and DiJonai Carrington, nor Courtney Vandersloot in her return from a knee injury suffered early last season. One of the other offseason acquisitions, Rickea Jackson, led the way with 18 points tonight while adding 5 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and 2 blocks. Half of those 14 points came in the third quarter, during which she was 4-for-6 from the field. Golden State got 18 points from its own big offseason acquisition Gabby Williams and 16 from Veronica Valkyrie (Burton), although she did have an uncharacteristic five turnovers. That said, Burton had a +5 plus-minus rating in her 36 minutes on the floor while every other player on the team had a negative rating. The Valks were minus-11 on the scoreboard in the four minutes Burton was off the floor.
Indiana Fever 87, Los Angeles Sparks 78
The Sparks nearly made things interesting with a late run and ultimately won the fourth quarter by a 26-19 margin, but Indiana built up a 20-point lead in the third and largely cruised to its first win of the season. Caitlin Clark led the Fever with 24 points on 9-for-17 from the field (8-for-10 inside the arc) while dishing out 9 assists, although she also committed 6 turnovers. Kelsey Mitchell added 23 points on an identical 9-for-17 from the field while Monique Billings had 9 points and 8 rebounds in her Fever debut. Aliyah Boston notably went without a field goal for the first time in her career, getting just three attempts up before fouling out in 23 minutes of action. The Sparks fell to 0-2 on the season and have thus far looked to have just as hard of a time on the defensive end as they did last season while also seeming significantly less potent on offense. They were also dealt a blow tonight when Ariel Atkins had to leave the game with a head injury after taking an inadvertent elbow to the face. As always, I believe that should play should have been called a flagrant foul, even if it was reviewed and ultimately reversed, if only to bring attention to the player on the receiving end. As it was, the play wasn’t whistled at all. LA’s four-game homestand continues with a pair of games against the expansion Tempo over the weekend, and if those don’t produce the team’s first win…I’ll just leave it at yikes for now.
Las Vegas Aces 98, Connecticut Sun 69
I’m kinda annoyed by this one, because I had a great nugget lined up for a potential 30-point Aces win, but they had to go and take it by 29. It was nonetheless their second straight win since being thumped by the Phoenix Mercury to open the season, led by A’ja Wilson’s 22-point, 11-rebound double-double and Chennedy Carter’s 27-point effort off the bench on a sparkling 13-for-16 from the field. Carter has scored 59 points through three games, the third-most ever by a player exclusively coming off the bench at this point in a season (Monique Currie and Angel McCoughtry each scored 62 points in the first three games of a season off the bench). Only 41 games left until the Connecticut Sun are gone forever!