Hello, hoopheads! Last night’s lone WNBA game saw the Golden State Valkyries (25-9) continue their dominant run over every team other than the Minnesota Lynx (against whom they’re 0-2) and Las Vegas Aces (0-3), improving to 25-4 (.862) against everyone else by beating the Dallas Wings (20-16). That was the Valks’ sixth straight win overall and pulled them within three games of Minnesota for the top spot in the standings, but as I explained yesterday, it’s possible that the Valkyries could finish the regular season on a 16-game win streak — including a pair of wins against the Lynx, one of which would come tomorrow — and still end up behind Minnesota in the playoff bracket if the Lynx don’t drop a game to anyone else. All the Valkyries can do, however, is win as many games as possible and see what happens. Last night’s win was never really in doubt at all, but certainly not after Golden State went on an 18-3 run over the final six minutes of the first half, turning a back-and-forth start into a 44-28 edge at the break. Gabby Williams led the Valks with 23 points on 8-for-20 (40%) from the field while hitting 3-of-8 (37.5%) from deep and adding 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals (although she did have 5 turnovers). That was somewhat surprisingly her first 20-point game in her last 14 outings after having five of them in her first 18 games as a Valkyrie, but Golden State is 14-1 during the span bookended by her last two 20-point games, so I doubt anyone is complaining.
Dallas lost for the eighth time in its last 11 games overall, with the eight losses also being its last eight games against playoff teams. The Wings now sit two losses behind the Washington Mystics (20-14), who have the tiebreaker on the Wings, and two games back of the New York Liberty (22-14), who the Wings have the tiebreaker on. The good news for the Wings is they have only one game left against a playoff team, Thursday’s rubber match with the Indiana Fever, but they’re going to need a couple games of help even if they don’t lose again. The other good news was that Jessica Shepard returned from a two-game absence last night, although she had only 4 points in 25+ minutes of action while adding 7 rebounds and 2 assists. Truth be told, no one did a whole lot for the Wings on the offensive end other than Paige Bueckers (21 points, 8-for-18 from the field), Arike Ogunbowale (17, 5-for-13) and Alanna Smith (13, 6-for-9), with the rest of the team combining for 19 points on 7-for-18 (38.9%) from the field. That’s not the ugliest “everyone else” percentage that I’ve ever seen, but the combined output is certainly indicative of a team that is struggling to find consistent producers around Bueckers.
With the obvious exception of the upcoming FIBA World Cup break, last night was the last night of the WNBA regular season without multiple games on the schedule. Exactly one third of the 21 remaining gamedays — of which there are 13 before the World Cup and eight after — feature two games, but the other 14 all have at least three on the schedule. In other words, it’s gonna be pretty chaotic from here on out (except for the three weeks or so when it’s silent). The mad dash to the finish line begins with four games tonight, the headliner of which sees the Atlanta Dream (21-13) visit the Las Vegas Aces (24-12) (9:00 ET, ESPN), who will be facing their final playoff opponent of the regular season before finishing up with seven in a row against the bottom seven teams in the standings. That schedule gives the Aces a fairly strong chance to hold on to their current position as the No. 3 seed in the playoffs, despite being just a half-game up on the Indiana Fever, who have the tiebreaker and have a significantly tougher remaining schedule. The Aces are looking to avoid a second straight loss which would drop them to 9-8 since a 15-5 start to the season, but in fairness to the reigning champs, the latest loss came by a five-point margin against the Lynx, and the previous two games were well-played wins over the playoff-bound Mystics. Still, the upcoming cakewalk to the finish could also prove to be a double-edged sword given the Aces haven’t been at their best for a while and their opponents won’t be bringing anything resembling playoff intensity after tonight.
The Dream’s footing is a good bit less stable than the Aces, in part because three of their final five games will come against playoff teams, including consecutive games in Brooklyn against my beloved New York Liberty to close out the regular season which seem destined to determine both teams’ playoff position, if not the entire bottom half of the bracket. The Dream have also done themselves no favors while losing seven of their last eight games against playoff teams. The only win in that span came against the similarly-reeling Wings, who had to collapse down the stretch in order for Atlanta to steal that game. The Dream have managed to avoid falling further in the standings thanks to seven straight wins against non-playoff teams, but basically all of the playoff teams have been doing that of late, leaving wins over each other as the only means for upward mobility. If you’re this deep in one of my posts, you know that I’m not just saying that playoff teams have universally been handling their business for effect, but I can also easily provide receipts and even a handy link to show you that playoff teams have won 11 straight against non-playoff teams since the Minnesota Lynx dropped a game to the Los Angeles Sparks, and they’re 41-4 (.911) against non-playoff teams since July 13. The top eight teams were dominant against the bottom seven before then as well, going 69-19 (.784) through July 12, but it has clearly ratcheted up to a different level as each loss has become more costly.
Two of tonight’s other three games feature playoff-bound teams looking to extend that dominance over the other seven. The first of those two ganes sees the Indiana Fever (23-12) visit the Toronto Tempo (10-23) (7:00 ET, ESPN/local affiliates) looking to stay at worst a half-game behind Las Vegas for the No. 3 seed, and potentially leapfrog the champs should they fall to the Dream. Indiana has won four in a row and nine of its last 11 games after coming back to steal a win from the Dream in overtime on Saturday, while Kelsey Mitchell is of course riding a WNBA-record 18-game streak scoring 20+ points. Toronto has lost 10 straight games and 14 of its last 15, but it could have star guard Brittney Sykes in the lineup for the first time in two months, as she’s listed as probable. Tipping off at the same time as the Aces and Dream are the New York Liberty (22-14) and Chicago Sky (13-22) (9:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass), who also have star guards potentially returning to the lineup, as both New York’s Sabrina Ionescu (who has thus far missed one game with her latest injury) and Chicago’s Sydney Taylor (who’s missed two weeks) are both listed as questionable. The Liberty have won nine of their last 11 games and are 2-0 against the Sky thus far, with a fourth meeting coming up in Brooklyn on the 29th. Chicago snapped a three-game skid in Saturday’s two-point win at Seattle and is looking to improve to 5-4 over its last nine games.
Rounding out the night’s schedule are the Los Angeles Sparks (12-22) and the Connecticut Sun (8-25) (7:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass), who will be commencing the final quarter-season of their march to the garbage can of WNBA history before becoming the Houston Fauxmets. I spent a while trying to think of anything else to say about this game, but I’ve got nothing. I’ll have a screen on it anyway, however, because the lowest-quality WNBA game is still some pretty damn high-quality basketball.