Hello, hoopheads! Sunday was a pretty uneventful day in the WNBA as far as the on-court action went, with all four playoff teams in action taking care of business against teams who won’t be participating in the postseason. With any luck, the most impactful on-court development of the day won’t turn out to be the apparent non-contact knee injury suffered by Las Vegas Aces forward NaLyssa Smith, because hopefully it will turn out to be no big deal and the Most Improved Player candidate will be able to get back to being one of the league’s most underappreciated players in no time. As an aside, that award should be called Breakthrough Player of the Year, but I’ll save my full rant about why “Most Improved” makes the award a backhanded compliment for another day. Three of the four victorious playoff-bound squads were led by 30-point scorers, as Paige Bueckers had 32 points to lead the Dallas Wings (22-16), Shakira Austin had a career-high 31 to lead the Washington Mystics (22-15) and both Caitlin Clark (37 points) and Kelsey Mitchell (30) had 30-burgers for the Indiana Fever as they bounced back from Saturday’s loss in Brooklyn. Mitchell’s 30 points extended her WNBA-record 20-point scoring streak to 23 straight games while Clark had her fifth 30-point/10-assist game, which is four more than anyone else in WNBA history has had, including playoffs. Somewhat amusingly, the only top scorer on a winning team who didn’t score 30 yesterday was the GOAT A’ja Wilson, who is still four 30-point games ahead of anyone else with 11 this season.
Unfortunately, none of those things is what’s got the WNBA in the headlines today, because it is yet another day in 2026 when it is instead a story that has nothing to do with basketball. This time, a washed up and genuinely pathetic former MNBA player, whose only goal in “declaring himself eligible for the WNBA draft” is to demean women, got himself escorted from a WNBA game by security after trying to step onto the court during a screaming match with Chicago Sky guard and hall-of-fame human being Natasha Cloud. Shocking though I know this may be, the Sky’s visitors yesterday were the traveling circus known as the Indiana Fever, and it wasn’t a coincidence that this idiot’s antics occurred at a Fever game. That is, of course, the team which employs someone else whose name I don’t feel compelled to use, whose own demonization of trans women inspired this schmuck’s transphobic charade. Both of them purport to be trying to protect the WNBA from a threat that literally does not exist, but really they’re useful idiots for people whose goal is to criminalize the existence of all transgender people. One thing I picked up on in history class is that no one ever wants to criminalize just one group of marginalized people (not that it would be okay if they did). I’m not going to join the chorus saying that this shitbag never should have been let in the building in the first place, because I think a preemptive ban would have done nothing but fan the flames of the culture wars. There’s absolutely no question, however, that his behavior yesterday warrants a lifetime ban from all WNBA arenas. It would happen to me in the blink of an eye if I violated the WNBA Fan Code of Conduct in the same manner at a Liberty game. If the WNBA and its commissioner truly condemn bad-faith actors using the league as a political football, the league should frankly jump at the opportunity to get this bad-faith actor out of its arenas forever.
Perhaps it’s fitting that the two most prominent people who are actually part of the WNBA to come out in support of transgender athletes this year — Golden State star Gabby Williams and Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve — will take center stage tonight as the Golden State Valkyries (25-11) visit the Minnesota Lynx (31-7) (8:00 ET, USA Network/local broadcasters). It’s definitely fitting that the Lynx would wrap up the top seed in the WNBA playoffs with a win tonight, given that the Valkyries are the only team left who can catch them. With a magic number of two and five games left after this one, there is really no doubt that the Lynx will clinch sooner or later, even if the Valkyries manage to knock them off for the first time in franchise history tonight. Minnesota swept four meetings during the 2025 regular season, a pair in a first-round playoff series, and the first three so far this season for a 9-0 mark against Golden State all-time.
A third straight loss wouldn’t be a first in Golden State’s brief history, but it would be a first for the Valkyries this season. Of course, a three-game skid during which two of the losses were against the Lynx would come with a tiny asterisk, but the other one was just Golden State’s fifth loss in 30 games this season against teams other than the Lynx and Aces. The common thread in both of the losses was that Golden State was absolutely awful on the offensive end, putting up ratings of 83.5 and 83.3 points per 100 possessions according to Her Hoop Stats. The Valks have also had sub-100 offensive ratings in three straight games (including a win over Dallas) after having put up six straight marks of at least 109 points per 100 possessions and 11 straight triple-digit ratings. Those peaks and valleys on offense have been the norm for the Valks throughout the season, which is probably to be expected for a team that leads the league in 3-point attempt rate (40.1% of scoring attempts) and ranks 14th in 2-point percentage (48.3%). The Valkyries are generally either going to make a bunch of 3s or not score much at all since they can’t rely on getting it done inside the arc. With tonight being their last game against Minnesota or Las Vegas and a 25-5 (.833) record against everyone else, one would think the Valkyries should still coast to the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, but a loss would leave them just one game up on the Aces in the loss column. Golden State will head from Minnesota to a back-to-back which starts on Wednesday at Connecticut (9-27) and finishes on Thursday in Brooklyn against the suddenly healthy New York Liberty (23-15). I still think Golden State’s a very tough matchup for the Libs, but my favorite squad won’t have played since beating the Fever on Saturday and four days of rest is a huge advantage against a team playing for the second night in a row and the third time in four nights. A loss tonight and a loss on Thursday (or in any other remaining game) would open the door for the Aces to tiebreak the Valkyries with wins in their final five games, which are all against non-playoff teams.
As has been the case for seemingly the entire season, the Lynx enter on the longest active win streak in the WNBA at six in a row. It hasn’t even been a week since I laid out all of the reasons why I think the Lynx are a particularly bad matchup for the Valkyries, but they were on display when the teams played last Wednesday and I certainly wouldn’t be mad if you gave that day’s newsletter a look for a refresher course. The Lynx followed up their 77-66 win at Golden State with a 94-84 triumph at Washington on Friday to finish off a 4-0 road trip. Strange as it may sound, it’s actually been a good bit easier to beat the Lynx when they’re at home (where they’re 14-5, .737) than when they’re on the road (17-2, .895). Only the Liberty have welcomed the Lynx into their building without suffering a loss so far this season, although Atlanta and Indiana will have chances to add themselves to the list in their lone visits from the Lynx later this season. The other home team to beat the Lynx, Las Vegas, is 1-1 when hosting Minnesota. I bet Alanis Morisette would have something to say about a team that wins so much on the road that it gets stuck playing at home in the playoffs! Bad elder millennial jokes aside, it would be nice if the Lynx wrapped up the top seed tonight in front of their adoring fans, but they’ll have to do it without Courtney Williams, who’s been ruled out with a foot injury suffered in the closing minutes of the win at Washington. Sounds like more assists for Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles to me.
Tonight’s only other game sees the Atlanta Dream (24-13) visit the Los Angeles Sparks (13-24) (10:00 ET, Peacock/NBCSN/local affiliates) looking for a fourth straight win which would keep them tied with Las Vegas and ahead of Indiana in the loss column. The second win in Atlanta’s streak was a 124-88 thumping of the Sparks on Thursday which was the Sparks’ sixth straight loss at the time, although they’ve since snapped that streak in a win over Connecticut. Angel Reese led Atlanta with 20 points on a perfect 9-for-9 from the field against the Sparks on Thursday and scored a career-high 31 points on 14-for-21 (66.7%) from the field on Saturday at Phoenix, her ninth double-double in her last 11 games (all of which were double-digit rebounding games). That’s 51 points on 23-for-30 (76.7%) from the field over the last two games for mathematically disinclined.