Hello, hoopheads! Sunday proved to be a historic day in the WNBA, as the single-game record for 3-pointers by a player fell for just the sixth time in league history and the third time since the inaugural season in 1997. The initial record of two triples, accomplished by Ruthie Bolton, Tammi Reiss and Tina Thompson, stood for exactly one day in 1997, as did the subsequent mark of three, set by Bridget Pettis in the Phoenix Mercury’s inaugural game. Bolton pushed the bar to six as part of a 27-point effort in a loss on the league’s third day of existence, and that mark would stand for one day shy of a month before Elena Baranova made seven triples in July of 1997. It took nine years for that record to fall, during which time it was matched on 10 occasions before Diana Taurasi made eight threes during a triple-overtime game in June 2006. Taurasi’s mark would stand for 11 years, matched twice by herself (in regulation-length games) and once by Riquna Williams before Kristi Toliver raised the bar to nine during the 2017 postseason. Toliver’s record was matched on eight occasions, including three times earlier this season and twice last season, with Kelsey Mitchell (2019), Jewell Loyd (2023), Arike Ogunbowale (2024), Rhyne Howard (twice in 2025), Chelsea Gray (in June) and Marina Mabrey (twice in June) all claiming shares of it before Kayla McBride finally broke the seal on double-digit triples in a WNBA game yesterday, going 10-for-14 (71.4%) from beyond the arc as part of a career-high 43-point effort.
Making McBride’s record-setting day all the more impressive was the fact that it came in the second half of a back-to-back, which saw the Minnesota Lynx (27-7) finish off a four-game season-series sweep of the Dallas Wings (19-14). Unfortunately for Dallas, its recent struggles — including a 1-9 record against playoff teams since June 17 — mean that it might not be done with the Lynx just yet, as the Wings now occupy the No. 8 seed in the prospective playoff bracket. Minnesota’s cushion for the top spot in the standings remains at 3 games with 10 left to play, thanks to the Golden State Valkyries (23-9) tallying their 13th win in 15 games. The Valks are now 23-4 against teams other than Minnesota and Las Vegas, but that of course also means they’re 0-5 against the two biggest obstacles in the way of their championship dreams.
The Lynx gained a game over the Las Vegas Aces (22-11) for the second straight day after beating them on Saturday, as the Aces all but forfeited their own quick-turnaround game against my beloved New York Liberty (20-13) by resting A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young. The Libs took care of business exactly as you’d hope under the circumstances, which included having had three consecutive days off, and tallied the third-largest win in franchise history (111-71) while winning for the seventh time in eight games. The Aces may have decided that this loss was baked into the schedule, and I can’t say I blame them, but the standings nonetheless reflect that the Liberty are now two games behind the reigning champs and have clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker. They’ve also clinched the tiebreaker over the Washington Mystics (19-12), who won a seventh straight game on Sunday to move within a game of their franchise-record win streak. The Mystic Babies remain in a virtual tie with New York, as well as in an actual tie with Atlanta (19-12). Those three teams are all a half-game behind the fourth-place Indiana Fever (20-12), who host the Liberty on Tuesday in a game that could somehow make the standings even tighter.
Tonight should be fairly uneventful in the W, if only because three of the four teams involved in tonight’s two games are destined to miss the playoffs. The lone exception are the Atlanta Dream (19-12), who host the Toronto Tempo (10-21) (8:00 ET, Peacock/NBCSN/local affiliates) looking to avoid falling to 1-3 in August after finishing out July with five straight wins. One of the wins in that streak came against tonight’s opponent, as did two of the wins during Atlanta’s previous season-long four-game win streak in June. Those three wins over the Tempo came by a combined margin of 51 points, although the one of them which took place in Atlanta was the only one decided by single digits (a 94-87 Dream win on June 22). The latest meeting, a 111-92 Dream win on July 17, saw Atlanta put up an offensive rating of 135.4 points per 100 possessions, its second-best mark in a game this season. Suffice to say, the series has decidedly gone Atlanta’s way so far.
The Dream are coming off of a 79-74 loss at Washington on Friday in which they posted a season-low offensive rating of 79.6 points per 100 possessions. That snapped a streak of three straight games scoring at a rate of at least 104.8 points per 100 possessions, something Atlanta had also done in seven of its previous eight games. It also dropped the Dream to 1-7 when held to double-digit offensive ratings and 0-6 when held to ratings under 95 points per 100 possessions. Stinkers are going to happen, but the Dream have been pretty streaky this season, so it’s fair to worry that the latest one foreshadows another offensive slump on the horizon. Of course, it’s just as fair to note that Washington is one of the league’s best defensive teams and Toronto is one of its worst. Allisha Gray scored 26 points on 11-for-23 (47.8%) from the field in the loss at Washington, her second 20-point game in a row and eighth in her last 11 games. That’s more times than she scored 20+ in her first 20 games this season (seven times). Toronto has lost eight straight games and has gone 6-16 (.273) since starting its existence 6-5.
Tonight’s second game sees the Chicago Sky (12-20) visit the Seattle Storm (6-28) (10:00 ET, USA Network/local affiliates), who will play their second game since becoming the first team eliminated from playoff contention. The first one was actually a highly entertaining 100-93 loss to the Portland Fire on Saturday, although the Storm dropped an 11th straight game nonetheless. That tied the longest skid in franchise history, which came earlier this season. Making matters worse, Saturday’s loss also saw rookie Flau’jae Johnson suffer an ankle injury which has her listed as questionable tonight. Chicago Sky rookie guard Sydney Taylor has already been ruled out with a groin injury, meaning this game might not feature either half of what could’ve been a tantalizing matchup of young bucket-getters in the backcourt. Thankfully, it’ll still feature Seattle’s young unicorns, but a Taylor-Johnson battle would’ve been fun to watch.