Hello, hoopheads! Last night’s Women’s Sports Sunday showcase may not have featured A’ja Wilson and Catilin Clark, as was surely the vision when the matchup was selected for ESPN airwaves, but it did deliver a long-awaited win over a top-six team for the Clark-less Indiana Fever (12-8). They held the Wilson-free Las Vegas Aces (15-6) to just 27 points in the second half, turning a one-point game at the break (42-41) into a relatively stress-free 84-68 win over the reigning champions, albeit without their best player. That was Indiana’s first win over a team in what was previously the top six in the standings in just over a month, since beating the Atlanta Dream in early June. The Fever’s win pushed them into sixth place, a half-game ahead of the Dream, and improved their record to 3-5 against the top seven teams (aka those who are more than a game above .500). The Aces had a three-game regular-season win streak snapped, although that was also interrupted by their loss to my beloved New York Liberty in last week’s Commissioner’s Cup final, so it wasn’t much of a streak to begin with. The good news coming out of last night is that the broadcast’s endless extensive discussion of the absent stars included reports that both are expected to return to the floor within the next game or two.
Tonight’s three-game slate marks the start of a seven-day stretch featuring 21 total games and six days with at least three of them. Among those 21 games will be the official midpoint of a season that feels like it just started, as the first game to wrap up on Friday night will be the 165th game of 330 on the regular-season schedule in total. Tonight’s first game is the most compelling matchup of the evening almost by default when the Golden State Valkyries (14-7) visit the Washington Mystics (10-9) (7:30 ET, local affiliates/League Pass) for their first encounter this season. I mean no disrespect to the Valkyries and Mystics, for the record, but you’ll understand why I say it’s the best matchup by default when we get to the rest of tonight’s schedule. This is still a solid matchup in its own right and one between two of the hotter teams in the league of late. The Valkyries come in on the longest win streak in the WNBA at four straight while the Mystics have won two in a row and five of their last seven. What it probably won’t be is high-scoring, as the teams are second (Valkyries, 99.2 opponent points per 100 possessions) and third (Mystics, 100.1) in defensive rating at Her Hoop Stats. Meanwhile, neither team ranks in the top half of the league in offensive rating, although Golden State has a significant edge, sitting in eighth (104.4 points per 100 possessions) while Washington is 13th (98.6). Still, this feels like one of those times when I tell you that two teams are good at defense and not so good at offense (because it’s true) and they go out and play a game that finishes with a score along the lines of 103-101 (because the Researcher’s Curse is to constantly say things that are true and watch them become lies).
The teams also share a common thread in that they’ve both had the good fortune of most recently facing the free-falling Atlanta Dream, whose five-game skid includes three losses to the Valkyries and one to Washington. Golden State’s third win over Atlanta in an 11-day span was also the more recent of these two teams’ most-recent games, an 88-83 win on Saturday which probably marked the last time that the Valkyries will be invited to the Dream’s 4th of July cookout. Veronica Valkyrie (Burton) led the way with 21 points on a nice and economical 6-for-9 (66.7%) from the field, although it didn’t hurt that she went to the line eight times, erasing some missed shots from that shooting line. She’s averaging 12.6 points, 5.3 assists and just 1.8 turnovers per game for the season, on pace to record the seventh season of at least 10/5/fewer than 2 turnovers in league history. Wings forward Jessica Shepard’s 2026 pace is included among those seven seasons, while Natasha Cloud did it last year, but before that, only Sue Bird and Lindsay Whalen had authored such a season, each doing so twice. Washington’s win over Atlanta was also by a five-point (81-76) margin on Thursday, with this set to be just the Mystics’ second game in an eight-day span since its quadruple-overtime win over the Portland Fire last Sunday. The good news for Washington coming into this one is that second-year star Sonia Citron, who led the way with 32 points in the marathon, is listed as probable to return from knee soreness accrued in that triumph after missing the win over Atlanta. Shakira Austin (21 points, 9 rebounds) and Kiki Iriafen (14 points, 10 rebounds) led the way against Atlanta in Citron’s absence while combining to hit 13-of-22 (59.1%) from the field. The double-double was Iriafen’s eighth this season, fifth-most in the league behind only Angel Reese (14), Shepard (12), Aneesah Morrow and A’ja Wilson (9 each).
Tonight’s second game looks something like ritual slaughter, as the detestable and league-worst Connecticut Sun (4-16) visit the league-leading Minnesota Lynx (15-5) (8:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass). Having mentioned Whalen in the last paragraph, I feel compelled to note that these were the only two WNBA teams she played for during her Hall of Fame career, although I doubt that the Hutchinson, MN native, University of Minnesota alumnus, four-time WNBA champion with the Lynx, former University of Minnesota head coach and current Lynx assistant’s loyalties are divided. Her heart will obviously always lie with the WNBA team that drafted her, the Sun! Kidding aside, in addition to being a matchup of the league’s best and the league’s worst, the Lynx are presumably coming in angry after getting beaten pretty handily on Friday night by my Liberty (just their third loss in 16 games since a 2-2 start, so I hope they’re not TOO angry). They’re also potentially getting healthier, as forward Dorka Juhász is listed as probable to make her season debut after missing the first 20 games while recovering from a mid-foot sprain suffered in the EuroLeague playoffs, which put a small damper on a season in which she was named the youngest-ever EuroLeague MVP. Napheesa Collier is still out, however, and while her return appears imminent, it is notable that if she doesn’t make it back for Minnesota’s next game, she’ll have officially missed half of the season. That’s mostly notable for the purposes of storytelling and awards/all-WNBA voting, but it’s still notable. Minnesota may also be without rookie sensation Olivia Miles, who left Friday’s loss with the Lynx down 10 points early in the fourth quarter due to what was described as a cramp by head coach Cheryl Reeve in postgame. Miles is listed as questionable with a right calf injury. The Sun will be without Morrow due to personal reasons.
Last and least on tonight’s schedule, although I’ll absolutely still watch, are the Seattle Storm (5-17) and Los Angeles Sparks (8-10) (10:00 ET, USA Network/local affiliates). It wasn’t particularly thoughtful of the league to make Seattle the team with the fastest first half, given how young it is, how much roster turnover it had and the presence of a first-year and first-time WNBA head coach, but the Storm will nonetheless become the first team to play their 23rd game tonight, thus beginning their second half. They’re looking to avoid a third straight loss, but more so probably just hoping to look a little bit less dysfunctional on offense than the last two games, when they had ratings of 89.3 and 82.8 points per 100 possessions in losses to the Phoenix Mercury and Portland Fire. Those losses came on the heels of three straight games with ratings of at least 116 and an eight-game stretch featuring five ratings over the 105-point-per-100-possession threshold that I now consider approximately average (seven teams are above it and eight are below it for the season), so the Storm do have the ability to get hot. There’s no one better to do that against than the Sparks, who are last in the WNBA allowing 112.1 points per 100 possessions and gave up marks of 143.7 and 130.6 in their last two games according to Her Hoop Stats. They haven’t played in nine days since being dogwalked by the Indiana Fever by a 111-87 margin, but will remain without Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink for the foreseeable future, which you could argue leaves them without their players who have the potential to make the biggest impact on each end of the floor. I don’t think it’s even a question that Plum is the team’s best and most explosive offensive player, but now I’ve stated the obvious just in case. Brink isn’t consistent enough yet to be called the team’s best defensive player, but she’s the Spark I think is most likely to take over a game on defense in 2026 if anyone is going to do it. It’s a bad scene without them, something Hollywood knows quite a bit about.