Hello, hoopheads! The WNBA regular season is back in full swing following a brief pause for the Commissioner’s Cup final, with home teams having won two of three games last night to get Act II of the season underway. The most notable of those wins belonged to the Washington Mystics (10-9), who climbed above .500 for the second time this season by handing the Atlanta Dream (12-8) a fourth straight loss. Shakira Austin had 21 points and 9 rebounds while Kiki Iriafen had 14 points and 10 boards, and those two combined to hit 14-of-22 (63.6%) from the field for a Mystics team which was playing without Sonia Citron (knee soreness following 52+ minutes in Sunday’s 4OT win) and which lost the first matchup with the Dream by 32 points last month. The other victorious home team last night was the Phoenix Mercury (8-13), which throttled the Seattle Storm (5-16) by a 90-67 margin for a fourth win in five games while denying Seattle a third straight since a franchise-record 11-game losing streak. Elsewhere, the Dallas Wings overcame a seven-point deficit entering the final frame to win the Connecticut Sun’s final home game in Hartford, CT by an 86-83 margin, but the home fans didn’t seem the least bit upset about it. They were mostly there to see current Wings and former UConn stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, after all. Thursday’s games brought home teams to 78-69 (.531) this season, including 71-48 (.597) since road teams started the season by winning 21 of the first 28 games.
I’ll certainly be hoping that home teams continue to enjoy success in at least the first of tonight’s games, because it would really be annoying to venture into NYC’s infernal heat just to attend a loss when the Minnesota Lynx (15-4) visit my beloved New York Liberty (12-8) (7:30 ET, ION/League Pass). Tonight will be the first of three meetings in the regular season between the teams who memorably clashed in the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup final, won by the Lynx on Long Island, and WNBA Finals, won by the Liberty in overtime of the winner-take-all Game 5 at Barclays Center, which would obviously be hosting Taylor Swift’s wedding tonight if it wasn’t busy with a Liberty game. The Libs and Lynx looked to be on a collision course for a Finals rematch last season before both of their seasons ended up derailing in rather different ways, although I think most of us already sensed that something was amiss with the Liberty by the time the teams finally met. The Lynx won the first three meetings of the 2025 series before the Liberty took the last one in Minnesota’s last visit to Brooklyn, with all four games occurring during a 21-day span from July 30 through August 19. They also featured zero appearances by New York superstar Breanna Stewart (who was out with a bone bruise in her knee) and only one by Minnesota superstar Napheesa Collier (who missed the last three with the first of two ankle injuries she had surgically repaired in the offseason). Phee remains out tonight according to the overnight injury report, but her 2026 debut appears to be drawing near after the Lynx announced her return to practice earlier in the week. The Liberty could also become the first WNBA team to face Dorka Juhász since she became the youngest EuroLeague MVP in the spring, as she’s listed as questionable after missing the first two months of the season while recovering from a mid-foot sprain.
The Lynx are looking for a third straight win after heading into the Commissioner’s Cup break with an 85-77 win at Dallas, their 13th triumph in 15 games since a 2-2 start to the season. This will be Minnesota’s first game since rookie point guard Olivia Miles and veteran center Natasha Howard were named All-Star starters, the latter making me a prophet after I said she’d make her first All-Star appearance since 2022 just three games into the season. The two of them have certainly been vital to each other’s astonishing success thus far this season, with Howard having been the most frequent recipient of Miles’ assists (by a 35-to-23 margin over Nia Coffey in second) according to Her Hoop Stats’ Assist Network. Those 35 dimes from Miles represent exactly a quarter of Howard’s 140 total field goals this season, and I’d guess, having watched them operate the pick-and-roll to perfection, that they were Howard’s 35 easiest buckets so far. The well-oiled machine that is the Lynx offense is second in the WNBA posting 108.7 points per 100 possessions according to Her Hoop Stats, trailing only Las Vegas, which is largely why Minnesota’s been pretty close to unbeatable (and is unbeaten) when holding teams to offensive ratings below 100 points per 100 possessions according to HHS. Minnesota is 12-0 when its opponents fail to post a triple-digit rating, but 3-4 when they do so. The Lynx are also the one team against whom I would tell you to disregard everything I’ve ever said about this season’s offensive explosion and 105 points per 100 possessions being the new 100. The old 100 is still 100 when it comes to the Lynx defense.
For official purposes, the Liberty come in having lost two in a row and four of their last five games. That is, of course, not the whole story, as their Commissioner’s Cup final win on Tuesday will both have boosted the team’s morale and also extended what’s already a long streak without a real break. Including Tuesday’s game — which certainly does count when it comes to accumulated fatigue and wear-and-tear, even if it doesn’t count in the standings and stats — this will be New York’s 13th game in a 31-day span without more than two consecutive off-days, during which time the Liberty are 8-4 and won the Commissioner’s Cup. Not bad! The schedule finally lets up for a bit after tonight, with just one game over the next seven days, although it might feel like a road game when Bueckers, Fudd and the UConn faithful roll into town with the Wings on Tuesday.
Stewart is the Liberty’s lone representative among the All-Star starters, leads the team averaging 19.2 points per game to go with 8.5 rebounds per game (second to Jonquel Jones) and was the MVP of Tuesday’s win over Las Vegas after finishing with 25 points and 11 rebounds to go with 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 3 turnovers. She also abided by the Breanna Stewart 3-Point Challenge I laid out on Tuesday, taking only one shot from beyond the arc (a miss). I can only assume that was a tacit acceptance of my challenge, which, as a reminder, states that Stewart, a 25% 3-point shooter since the start of the 2023 WNBA playoffs, gets to shoot 3-pointers until she misses one, and after that it’s all inside the arc for the rest of the game. Stewie’s excellence in everything other than 3-point shooting and choosing favorite books supporting trans rights aside, I’d argue that Sabrina Ionescu should’ve been the MVP on Tuesday after having easily her best performance in her first nine games this season, tallying 26 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 turnovers to go with a game-best +19 rating (Stewie was +13 in the 93-85 win). The more salient point than who was the rightful MVP, however, is that the Liberty will be in great shape any time that Stewart and Ionescu play the way that they did on Tuesday. It didn’t happen much over the last 12 months, so it was pretty nice to be reminded that it’s still on the table.
Tonight’s second game sees the Chicago Sky (6-13) visit the Las Vegas Aces (14-5) (10:00 ET, ION/League Pass), who are either looking for their third straight regular-season win or to bounce back from Tuesday’s loss to the Liberty, depending on how you choose to view reality. I’m a fan of objective truth, so it’s the bounce-back angle for me. Regardless of the angle you choose to use in framing this game, the reigning WNBA champs could well be without four-time MVP and GOAT A’ja Wilson again after she missed Tuesday’s win due to a rolled ankle suffered early in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s matchup between these teams in Chicago. Wilson returned to that game and finished with an unprecedented 30 points, 15 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocks, but she’s listed as questionable on the overnight injury report, which was the same status that ultimately led to her being ruled out on Tuesday morning. The Aces didn’t become a dynasty just by having the GOAT, of course. Jackie Young, who’s plenty capable of assuming the role of alpha scorer when needed, had 31 points in Wilson’s stead on Tuesday, with 26 in the second half as Las Vegas fought back from a double-digit deficit. Young has scored at least 19 points in her last six games (including Tuesday) and had 28 points when these teams played on Sunday, even with Wilson scoring 30.
The Sky have been a significantly improved offensive team since the emergence of rookie guard Sydney Taylor, who’s averaging 19.9 points per game over the last seven games, including her first six starts. They largely traded baskets with the Aces on Sunday, with the only real exception coming in the second quarter, when the champs locked in on defense and used a 30-19 edge to create the separation necessary to keep the Sky at arm’s length the rest of the way. Chicago was no worse than -2 on the scoreboard in any of the other three quarters, playing Las Vegas to a +3 margin in that span. My takeaway from this is that the Aces should do everyone a solid and play no more than 10 minutes of defense tonight, preferably doing it in the fourth quarter, such that we can all derive maximum entertainment from the game.