WNBA Notes of the Night, May 29: Lynx Win Fourth Straight, Dream Pull Away from Fire

The second sixth of the WNBA season is underway, and off to a very similar start to the first sixth after road teams took three out of four games on Friday night. Here’s what went down:

The Lynx notched their second relatively easy win in Chicago in a seven-day span, pulling away from the reeling Sky during a 31-16 third quarter. The win was Minnesota’s fourth straight, the longest active streak in the league, and made the Lynx the first team to six wins despite having played without Napheesa Collier or Dorka Juhász and losing rookie Emma Cechova to a torn ACL. Nia Coffey led Minnesota with 20 points while hitting 6-of-9 from deep on a night when the Lynx made just 39% from the field as a team and 29% of their 3-pointers, but held Chicago to even worse marks (29% and 17%, to be exact). 

The loss was Chicago’s fourth straight since a 3-1 start, with the skid coinciding with the absence of Rickea Jackson, who was lost to her own torn ACL in Chicago’s third win (which, somewhat ironically, was at Minnesota). The skid also coincided with a four-game homestand following four straight on the road to open the season. There’s no need to dig deep to figure out what’s wrong with the Sky — they just can’t match most WNBA teams’ talent as long as Jackson, DiJonai Carrington, Courtney Vandersloot and most recently rookie standout Gabriela Jaquez are watching from the sidelines.

The Dream bounced back from their second loss of the season and snapped a three-game Fire win streak which had been tied with Minnesota’s for the longest active entering the day, pulling away from Portland in the fourth quarter after the Fire had cut a double-digit deficit down to 6 points to end the third. Angel Reese led the way with 18 points and 12 rebounds, her fourth double-double in seven games with Atlanta, while Rhyne Howard and Naz Hillmon each added 14 points and at least 5 steals (Hillmon had 5, Howard had 6). They were the first pair of WNBA teammates in a dozen years and seventh in history with at least 14/5 in a game, and the Dream became the first franchise to have two such games. They specifically have the last two, as the previous pair to do it were Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry and Sancho Lyttle in August 2014.

The loss denied Portland the outright best nine-game start by an expansion team, but it’s still tied with several others at 5-4. The Fire were notably without their best player, Bridget Carleton, who missed the game due to back spasms. Post Presence favorite Sarah Ashlee Barker led the way with 14 points on 6-for-9 from the field while emerging two-way star Emily Engstler had 10 points and added to hear league-best total with 3 blocks. The two of them also combined for 9 of Portland’s eye-popping 28 turnovers, the most in a WNBA game in over a year (since Washington had 29 last May 25).

The Liberty pulled back above .500 for the season with a second straight win over the reeling Mercury, who lost for the seventh time in eight games. It wasn’t the prettiest game by either team, as the Liberty won fairly easily while scoring at a rate of just 94.9 points per 100 possessions (Phoenix mustered an offensive rating of just 87.2). Rookie Paulie Astier was the Liberty’s top scorer with 16 points while Betnijah Laney-Hamilton added 13 and was the only other Liberty player in double digits. Astier’s fellow starters Breanna Stewart (9 points, 4-for-11 FG), Jonquel Jones (9 points, 2-for-9), Leonie Fiebich (3 pts, 1-for-6) and Marine Johannes (6 pts, 2-for-5) combined to score just 27 points on 9-for-30 (30%) from the field. On the plus side, the Liberty absolutely dominated the glass, outrebounding Phoenix 40-23 and holding the Mercury to just 3 offensive boards. New York had a 91.7% defensive rebounding rate, the highest in the WNBA this season. 

Phoenix has notably been on the wrong end of three of the four instances of a team posting a DREB rate of at least 91% so far, with the boards being one of many areas in which the Mercury are losing on pretty much a nightly basis. Phoenix is 13th in offensive rebounding rate and 11th in total rebounding rate to go with 9th in offensive rating, 10th in defensive rating, 12th in effective field goal percentage and 11th in opponent effective field goal percentage. Last year’s runners-up sit 14th out of 15 teams in the standings, ahead only the miserable Connecticut Sun, who they’re closer to than the teams in 13th. 

The Sparks won their first game since Kelsey Plum was lost for at least a week to an injury suffered in practice, holding off the Mystics behind Erica Wheeler’s team-high 21 points, Nneka Ogwumike’s 20-point, 11-rebound double-double and big games from Cameron Brink (16 points, 5-for-7 FG) and Dearica Hamby (14 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals). LA won for the fourth time in five games since a miserable 0-2 start, posting a fifth straight offensive rating of at least 110 points per 100 possessions in the process (they were held to marks under 95 in those first two losses). 

Washington lost for the third time in its last four games, although it was at least competitive in this one after suffering blowouts at the hands of Wings and Storm. The Mystics fell to 0-4 when allowing opponents to post offensive ratings of at least 110 while they’re 3-0 when holding opponents under that mark.