Perhaps there’s a timeline in which WNBA home teams went 3-0 today, doing so for the second time in three days after going two weeks without a day with a perfect record. It isn’t this one, however, because my beloved New York Liberty dropped a second straight game at Barclays Center without putting up much of a fight. Here’s what went down on Sunday.
Atlanta Dream 82, Phoenix Mercury 80
I’ll be perfectly honest and admit that I stopped following this game from the Barclays Center stands with Phoenix leading 75-66 and under three minutes to play, opting to focus all of my energy on being annoyed with what was happening in front of me. Silly old me, forgetting that the 2026 Dream are harder to kill than a horror movie villain. They immediately went on a 13-0 run after I gave up on them, turning that nine-point hole into a 79-75 lead and eventually a second straight win. My picks to win the WNBA title haven’t come close to playing to their best yet on the offensive end, but this is the third time they’ve overcome a sizable lead in their four wins. The Dream clearly believe that they’re never out of a game and have the ability to push through a slow start and sprint to the finish line. In my opinion, there are perhaps no better traits for a team to possess. Rhyne Howard was Atlanta’s top scorer for the second straight game, putting up 21 points on 7-for-15 from the field including 6-for-12 from deep (a much more typical Howard line than last game when she had 25 points and only attempted two 3s). Allisha Gray scored 18 points, her second straight game under 20 after averaging 25 in the first three (but she’s still had at least 16 points in every game) and Angel Reese had her third double-double in five games with the Dream with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The loss was Phoenix’s fifth in six games since starting with a 33-point rout of the Las Vegas Aces. There’s just not a ton of firepower on this roster beyond Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper, who each had 20 points today. That’s going to make it very tough for the Mercury to win games if they don’t start playing much better defense. As it stands, Phoenix is 10th in the WNBA in defensive rating after finishing last season 5th, while the Mercury are actually one spot higher in offensive rating (6th) than they finished last season (7th). That slide on defense is almost entirely to blame for Phoenix currently being 9th in net rating after finishing 4th in 2025.
Dallas Wings 91, New York Liberty 76
The Libs didn’t go away quite as early as they did on Thursday against the Golden State Valkyries, but it was another performance that was just far too reminiscent of the worst of 2025. The Wings took control early in a third quarter that they would eventually win by a 28-17 margin to take a 10-point lead into the final frame. Azzi Fudd scored 17 of her career-high 24 points in that third quarter, equaling the Liberty’s output in the period all by herself. Paige Bueckers also scored 24 while Arike Ogunbowale added 19 and hit five shots from deep (Fudd hit six). The Wings improved to 4-3 and won for the third time in four games since being called out by coach Jose Fernandez in a postgame presser, pulling their record above .500 for the first time in almost exactly two years (since starting 3-2 in 2024).
The Liberty fell to 3-3 and lost for the third time in four games since a 2-0 start. It’s still very early and the Libs are still just trying to get all their players on the floor together, but so far there’s no evidence that new head coach Chris DeMarco has any more answers for this extremely talented team’s tendency to spend prolonged periods of time with seemingly no fucking clue what it’s trying to accomplish on offense than Sandy Brondello had. It also didn’t help that New York went 1-for-11 from deep after starting the game 7-for-15, but the quality of those attempts declined steeply when the team’s ability to execute any sort of cohesive offensive gameplan disappeared. Thankfully, he said with maximal sarcasm, the Liberty don’t have to wait long to get back on the court, as they host the Portland Fire tomorrow night.
Seattle Storm 97, Washington Mystics 85
The Storm won their second straight game behind 24 points from Natisha Hiedeman and a career-high 17 from rookie Flau’jae Johnson. Seattle also got 10 points from the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft Awa Fam Thiam in her WNBA debut. The game really wasn’t as close as the final margin, as Seattle led by as many as 25 in the third quarter before a late Mystics run superficially improved the score. The young team from the nation’s capital took a second straight one-sided loss since winning a thriller at Indiana in overtime last Friday, but I think some fairly extreme highs and lows are something you have to live with if you’re going to be as young as these Mystics.