WNBA Notes of the Night, May 15: Mystics Stun Fever, Sky Take First Loss

The second Friday of the WNBA regular season marked yet another day on which road teams recorded at least a .500 record — as they have every day of the season so far. The tide may have begun to turn, however, as home teams held on for the last two wins of the night. So, as you might expect, the visitors have called a timeout. Saturday is one of just six days without a game this season excluding the All-Star and FIBA breaks, with just four remaining after this. Here’s everything that went down on Friday:

The Mystics overcame an early double-digit deficit, then survived a game-tying 3-pointer by Caitlin Clark in the final seconds of regulation and the heartbreak of a potential game-winning halfcourt heave by Sonia Citron being just after the buzzer before eventually holding off the Indiana Fever in overtime to improve to 2-1 on the season. Citron led the way with a career-high 30 points on 10-for-14 from the field to go with 6 rebounds and 4 assists, but it was really the entire “big three” which put the Mystics over the top on this night. Citron’s fellow second-year star Kiki Iriafen had 25 points, 13 boards, 2 assists, a steal and a block while making 11-for-17 from the field and 25-year old center Shakira Austin — ancient for this team — added 19 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks and went 7-for-11. Put it all together and those three racked up 74 points, 28 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals and 5 blocks while making 28-of-42 (66.7%) from the field. 

Indiana, on the other hand, wasted a virtuoso performance from Clark, who had 32 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds while hitting 7-of-17 from beyond the arc. Her legend is such that her shot to force overtime will probably be remembered for ages while the fact that it came in a loss probably won’t, but the Fever have to figure out how to play defense either way, even if that means asking Picasso to improve at it. Indiana is 11th in defensive rating (108.2 points allowed per 100 possessions), 14th in opponent field goal percentage (55.0%) and 14th in opponent effective field goal percentage (60.2%) according to Her Hoop Stats. Over the first two games of the season, Indiana had a 108.1 defensive rating in the 62 minutes Clark spent on the floor according to WNBA.com (which hasn’t ingested the on/off data from tonight’s game as of writing), so, almost identical to where HHS has it for the season. That plainly is not good enough for the Fever to attain their goals. I’m not pinning this all on Clark, to be clear — the Fever had a 112.9 defensive rating in the 28 minutes Lexie Hull spent on the floor in those two games and she is a “leche” specifically known for her defensive prowess.

The Mercury bounced back from consecutive losses to even their record at 2-2 and hand the Sky their first loss of the season behind 27 points from 28-year old first-year WNBA player Jovana Nogić on 5-for-8 from beyond the arc and 10-for-11 at the line. If the broadcast was right, and spat it out correctly, that was the highest-scoring game in WNBA history by an undrafted European rookie, but given the number of qualifiers and the player’s age, I’m more inclined to just say holy shit can this rando shoot. She’s now hit a silly 13-for-20 (65%) from beyond the arc to start her WNBA career, the third-most 3-pointers over a player’s first four games (trails Ruthie Bolton’s 16 as a 30-year old in the inaugural season and actual rookies Rhyne Howard and Diana Taurasi with 14) and the best percentage for a player with more than 10 attempts from deep in their first four WNBA games. Those nuggets are courtesy of Sports Reference and I’m running out of different stat portals to cite.

The Sky fought hard despite trailing by 10 points at halftime and losing Skylar Diggins to a first-half eye injury, but ultimately came up short of a 3-0 start. Rickea Jackson led the way with 29 points, the second-most in a game in her WNBA career (one shy of the 30 she scored in a win at Las Vegas last June as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks). Chicago needs to start getting some good news on the injury front, however, as Diggins now joins DiJonai Carrington, Azurá Stevens and Courtney Vandersloot on the list of Sky players whose availability for Sunday’s game at Minnesota isn’t clear.

Toronto mounted a late rally that included a good look for the tie by Marina Mabrey in the final 30 seconds, but the Tempo couldn’t erase LA’s once-20-point lead in their first road game in franchise history. The previously-winless Sparks were led by 27 points and 9 assists from Kelsey Plum while Nneka Ogwumike added 20 points, Dearica Hamby scored 10 and the team made 63.8% from the field. That was tied for the 16th-highest mark in a game in WNBA history (including playoffs) and was the highest by any team in a game since the Aces hit 64.1% against the Phoenix Mercury in the the 2022 playoffs. 

And last but most certainly not least, A’ja Wilson scored 45 points to carry the Aces past the Sun, who, to their credit, made things more competitive than in Wednesday’s 29-point thumping. If you include playoffs in these things, which I generally do unless there’s a specific reason not to, the GOAT tied Breanna Stewart for the WNBA record with her fifth 40-point game, extended her record for 35-point games (18, now three clear of Diana Taurasi’s previous record) and moved one closer to Taurasi on the 30-point games list (Wilson now has 48, Taurasi had 62 in 313 more games than Wilson has played). The Sun are 0-4.