Friday night’s three-game WNBA slate was one of the few so far not to feature a single game whose outcome was in question in the final minutes, and the only day not to feature a single win by a road team. Perhaps it’s fitting, with a new Star Wars movie in theaters, that home teams finally struck back. Only time will tell if the weekend’s theme continues to be the revenge of the home teams of if we get back to the rise of the road teams, but for now, here’s what went down on Friday:
Indiana Fever 90, Golden State Valkyries 82
The Fever welcomed Caitlin Clark back from her much-ballyhooed one-game absence, and she got right back to filling up the box score with 22 points, 9 assists and 6 turnovers while pacing Indiana to a third straight win since a 1-2 start. Credit where it’s due, the Fever have been much better defensively over this three-game stretch than they were in the first three, holding all three opponents to offensive ratings under 96 points per 100 possessions after letting two of their first three opponents score at rates of 111 points per 100 possessions or better. It hasn’t hurt that the last three games were all at home and against Seattle, Portland, and Golden State on the second night of a back-to-back, but the end result remains a 4-1 record over a five-games-in-10-days stretch. Indiana will now be off until next Thursday, when it runs it back with Golden State at Ballhalla. Clark, for her part, tied the longest streak of 20-point/7-assist games in WNBA history with a fifth straight, equaling her own mark. She’s also the owner of three of the four such streaks to run at least four games.
Golden State led by eight points at halftime, but whether it was a result of Indiana adjustments or the Valkyries simply ran out of steam playing for the second straight night, the offense dried up after the break. The Valks hit 50% from the field and 4-of-10 from deep in the first half, but those numbers dipped to 25% from the field (9-of-36) and 3-for-12 from deep after halftime. Not even a 17-for-19 effort at the free throw line after the break could offset all of those bricks, as Golden State sent Indiana to the line 26 times in the second half (Fever went 19-of-26). The Valkyries finished with an offensive rating of 95.3 points per 100 possessions according to Her Hoop Stats, better than only their mark of 79.7 in their previous loss to the Chicago Sky, while their rating has been above 110 in all three of their wins so far.
Atlanta Dream 86, Dallas Wings 69
Dallas erased a 13-point halftime deficit to briefly lead in the fourth quarter, but the Dream slammed the door with a 26-5 run after falling behind 64-63 with 7:35 to play. Rhyne Howard returned to the lineup from concussion protocol and led the way with 25 points, with the only surprising part being that she did it while taking only three shots from deep, as her big nights tend to feature a bunch of makes from downtown. Howard added 8 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks to her 7-for-12 effort from the field and 9-for-9 night at the line, and she led the Dream with 7 points in the decisive fourth quarter while Allisha Gray had 6 of her season-low 16 points in the final frame. The Dream’s season started in earnest tonight, as this was their first of 15 games in a span of 37 days after having played just three times in the season’s first 14 days.
Dallas was denied a three-game win streak, falling back to .500 at 3-3, and probably won’t want to spend too much time thinking about this one. The trio of guards who ostensibly make up the core of the team — Paige Bueckers (7 points, 3-for-13 FG), Arike Ogunbowale (2 pts, 1-for-11) and Azzi Fudd (7 points, 3-for-9) were held to 16 points combined on 7-for-33 from the field. The rest of the team contributed 53 points on just over 50% from the field (21-for-41), but you’re not gonna win many games when all three of your star guards are ice cold.
Seattle Storm 77, Connecticut Sun 59
The Storm took control during an 18-7 second quarter and never relinquished it, getting their lick back after giving Connecticut its only win of the season on Wednesday. Flau’jae Johnson had easily the best game of her young career (a less generous assessment might be that it was her first good game), scoring 17 points on 7-for-12 from the field including 3-for-6 from deep while adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists, although she also committed 5 turnovers, and Zia Cooke had a game-high 25 points on 7-for-14 from the field off the Storm bench.