The first week of the 2026 WNBA season is complete, and for my money the biggest story so far is the dominance of road teams. Home fans have gone home happy just four times in the season’s first 20 games, with both of tonight’s games going the way of the visitor. Here’s what went down on the season’s first Thursday:
Minnesota Lynx 90, Dallas Wings 86
Former Wing Natasha Howard scored 19 of her team-high 26 points in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter on a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, to help push the Lynx past the Wings and to a second straight win. Dallas led throughout most of the game’s first 35 minutes and was up 79-74 with six minutes to play, but Minnesota scored 16 of the game’s final 23 points from then on. Eight of those 16 points came from Howard, including three of the team’s final four buckets. Two of those late layups came off of assists by rookie Olivia Miles, who was the other Lynx player with a bucket in the final two minutes and finished with 15 points, 6 assists and 3 turnovers while going 7-for-12 from the field. Courtney Williams scored 21 points on 9-for-10 from the field, with her 13 first-half points having been a large part of the reason why Minnesota wasn’t down more than eight at the break. One note of concern for the Lynx was the apparent non-contact knee injury suffered by promising rookie forward Emma Cechova, who left the game in the third quarter.
Dallas dropped a second straight game since winning the opener at Indiana, but got 27 points and 8 assists from Paige Bueckers on 7-for-13 from the field in defeat. Maddy Siegrist added 17 on 7-for-11 from the field, but got a little bit lost in the shuffle in the second half after putting up all of her points before the break. Siegrist played just 5:11 after the break with one field goal attempt following 11 minutes and 10 shots in the first 20 minutes. Dallas also seems to be struggling to figure out how to best deploy marquee free-agent signing Alanna Smith. The reigning co-Defensive Player of the Year has scored just 14 points on 6-for-20 from the field in her first three games with the Wings while committing more than twice as many turnovers and fouls (7 and 9, respectively) as she has steals and blocks (4 and 3, respectively). That said, Dallas has lost its last two games by a total of nine points and had a real chance to win both. The road from consecutive No. 1 picks to contention is long, but being competitive is a good place to start.
New York Liberty 100, Portland Fire 82
My Libs bounced back nicely from their first setback of the season and became the first WNBA team to three wins this season in doing so. They finished with 32 assists on 34 field goals, a 94.1% assist rate which ties the highest in WNBA history for a team with at least 30 field goals in a game, and they’ve also become the first WNBA team to average 100 points through the first four games of a season. Breanna Stewart scored a game-high 22 points on 8-for-14 from the field, her third time scoring 20+ points in four games this season (the Liberty’s three wins). Liberty rookie point guard Pauline Astier also continued to impress, scoring 20 points on 7-for-12 from the field after putting up 24 in Tuesday’s loss. She’s the 12th first-year WNBA player to have consecutive 20-point games within her team’s first four games of a season, joining a list that is so comically good I almost feel like it’s inappropriate for me to put Astier next to it, but that’s sure as shit not gonna stop me. Astier joined: Ruthie Bolton, Cappie Pondexter, Diana Taurasi and Nikki McCray (who each had three straight) as well as A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Mitchell, Elena Delle Donne, Nneka Ogwumike, Seimone Augustus, Tamika Catchings and Cynthia Cooper. I told you it was a ridiculous list. The Fire lived by the 3-pointer on Tuesday, hitting 15-of-33 (45%) in their first win, and died by it tonight, going just 9-for-31 (29%).