Hello, hoopheads and happy day after the U.S. men’s soccer team got its World Cup off to a great start if you’re into that sort of thing, or else I’m sorry that happened! The two Commissioner’s Cup games on Friday’s WNBA schedule ultimately ended up providing quite a bit more drama than the soccer game, at least as far as the outcome being uncertain was concerned. The Washington Mystics held off the Toronto Tempo’s comeback thanks to a Sonia Citron buzzer-beater and Lauren Betts’ career-high 18 points while the Golden State Valkyries escaped from Seattle with a win over the Storm after sleepwalking through the fourth quarter, which they finished with just 10 points and one field goal. Tonight’s WNBA schedule is twice as busy as last night’s with four games on tap, including one of the biggest so far this season when the Minnesota Lynx (10-2) take on the Las Vegas Aces (9-3) (8:00 ET, CBS/Paramount+). In addition to Las Vegas potentially pulling into a first-place tie in the WNBA standings, the winner of this game will take the inside track to the Commissioner’s Cup championship game, where the New York Liberty will most likely await on June 30. Each team enters 4-0 in Cup play and will have two games left after this, with Minnesota able to clinch the title game spot with a win tonight and in either of its remaining games while Las Vegas could do it with a win tonight and in its next game at Dallas on Monday. A Vegas win tonight and loss in Dallas would most likely leave Minnesota back in the driver’s seat heading into Wednesday’s Cup finales.
We can’t start talking about this year’s Aces and Lynx without talking about what happened last year, because this is one of the rare instances when I believe that what happened between the teams last year actually matters. Minnesota won the first three of their four regular-season meetings in 2025 by increasingly large double-digit margins, starting with a 76-62 home win in June, then beatdowns by margins of 109-78 and 111-58 within a nine-day span in July and August. The last of them was the second-largest margin of victory and largest road win in WNBA history, a 53-point humiliation that famously spurred A’ja Wilson to tell the Aces’ group chat, essentially, to get their shit together or not bother showing up to the gym the following day. The message was, of course, received, as Las Vegas won its final 16 regular-season games, starting the following day, and eventually claimed its third championship in the last four seasons to cement the WNBA’s latest dynasty. There was one more meeting with Minnesota in that regular-season-closing win streak, a 97-87 Aces home win in early September, so this won’t be their first meeting or Minnesota’s first trip to Sin City since the infamous thrashing, but you’d have to think there’s a bit of a different energy in the building tonight after the way the 2025 postseason played out.
The Lynx come in having won eight straight games since a 2-2 start, most recently taking the court in a 24-point shellacking of Dallas on Tuesday, their second straight 20-point win and fourth in the last five games. Minnesota is No. 1 in the WNBA in both offensive rating (109.8 points per 100 possessions according to Her Hoop Stats) and defensive rating (93.3 points allowed per 100 possessions),while the Lynx also lead the league at both ends of the floor in field goal percentage, 2-point percentage, effective field goal percentage and points per play. They’re atop the league in 3-point percentage, too, but rank a mere 3rd in opponent 3-point percentage. So, ya know, things are still going pretty well despite being without Napheesa Collier! Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles led Minnesota with 24 points on 7-for-10 from the field in the win over Dallas while Kayla McBride had 22 points and also went 7-for-10 and Natasha Howard had 21 points on 8-for-10 from the field. That made them the first trio of teammates in WNBA history to score at least 20 points while making at least 70% from the field in a game. They were also already the fourth set of teammates to do that in a game so far this season, which is twice as many as there were all of last season and a pretty large number given there have only been 56 total instances of 20+/70% teammates in WNBA history, including playoffs. A fifth such game this season would tie the 2010 and 2017 seasons for the most in a season all-time.
The Aces haven’t been on quite the roll that Minnesota has, but they’re on a five-game win streak of their own since consecutive losses dropped them to 4-3, with four of the five wins coming by at least 10 points. The latest was a 16-point win at Portland on Thursday night behind Wilson’s second straight 30-point game (32 points, 10-for-20 from the field, 11-for-13 at the line) and Chelsea Gray’s WNBA record-tying 9-for-13 effort from deep en route to 29 points. Gray was the sixth different player to make 9 triples in a WNBA game, joining Rhyne Howard (twice), Gray’s Aces teammate Jewell Loyd as a member of the Seattle Storm, Kelsey Mitchell, Arike Ogunbowale and Kristi Toliver, who did it both first and in the playoffs. Wilson had her 10th straight 20-point game, the eighth time a player has had 10 straight 20-point games in the regular season (including multi-season streaks). Wilson is halfway to her own WNBA record for those streaks, a 20-game run spanning 2023 and 2024, and joins Ogunbowale (with streaks of 11 and 12) as the only players to have two streaks reach double-digits. The other double-digit streaks belong to Diana Taurasi (13), Breanna Stewart (12), Cynthia Cooper and Maya Moore (11 each). The GOAT has also made at least half of her shots in the last five games in a row, which is tied with a whole bunch of streaks, including four others of her own which ended at five, for the 7th-longest streak of 20/50% games in the regular season. This is actually a record Wilson doesn’t own, as her best was a seven-game streak that’s one shy of Lauren Jackson’s record eight straight 20/50% games in June 2006. Wilson would tie that record 20 years later to the month if she carries this run through Wednesday’s Cup finale.
I could easily keep going on about the Lynx and Aces for another thousand words, but we’ve got three more games to cover if I’m going to fulfill my mission of previewing all 330 in the regular season. First up among them, and the only one of the remaining trio on a national platform, is the Indiana Fever (7-5) visiting the Connecticut Sun (2-12) (6:00 ET, Peacock/NBCSN/local affiliates). To be honest, the most compelling thing about this game to me is that it provides scientific proof that programming executives love Caitlin Clark more than they hate the Connecticut Sun and their miserable casino basement arena. That’s probably a good instinct on their part as far as ratings are concerned, and it’s not like the Lynx and Aces are being kept off national TV to air this — have a good broadcast, CBS friends! — but there are certainly two better games later in the evening for me and the rest of the League Pass sickos to watch. Clark and Aliyah Boston each scored over 30 points, albeit in overtime, in Indiana’s win over the freefalling Chicago Sky on Thursday, and Clark recorded her third career 30-point/10-assist game. That’s only one shy of the combined total of 30/10 games in the rest of WNBA regular-season history, although it’s worth noting there have also been three of them in the playoffs. It was also Indiana’s second straight game playing to the level of, and to the wire against, one of the WNBA’s worst teams. I don’t really feel like doing the whole of Clark’s value again so soon after I did it last, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Brett Favre also had a milestone 300-yard/3-touchdown game while throwing a couple interceptions in a much closer win than was necessary. By that token, the WNBA’s walking Rorschach test also had 5+ turnovers for the seventh time in 11 games this season on Thursday, a 63.6% rate which is on pace to join her own 2024 season (73.8%) as the only times a player has had 5+ turnovers in at least half of their games in a complete season, while Indiana allowed a moribund Sky offense to put up a rating of 108.2 points per 100 possessions.
A half-hour after the Lynx and Aces, the Dallas Wings (8-4) visit the Portland Fire (6-8) (8:30 ET, local affiliates/League Pass) in the third game of the night. The Wings are looking for a second straight win after bouncing back from their thumping at the hands of the Lynx by cruising past the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday. Dallas got 31 points from Paige Bueckers on a sparkling 14-for-20 from the field to go with 6 rebounds, 5 assists and just 2 turnovers, which made her the 10th player to post 30/5/5/70%, while Thursday was the 13th instance. Bueckers joined Collier, Stewart, Taurasi (each did it twice), Veronica Valkyrie (Burton), Brittney Griner, Sabrina Ionescu, Candace Parker, Cappie Pondexter and Wilson (they all have one such game). That was too many names to list, but I loved the list too much not to share it. Portland has lost four in a row and five of six since a 5-3 start which, unfortunately, always felt a little bit like smoke and mirrors as the team sat in the bottom third of the league at both ends of the floor in efficiency ratings. That continues to be the case, with Portland currently 11th in offensive rating (100.0 points per 100 possessions) and 14th in defensive rating (107.9). On a more positive note, Sarah Ashlee Barker has continued to play well as Fire coach Alex Sarama has acquiesced to my ongoing demands for more Sarah Ashlee Barker, which I suppose can now cease given she’s started the last three games and played 29:10, 27:40 and 29:30. I’m not trying to run her ragged!
Last up on tonight’s schedule, the Los Angeles Sparks (6-6) visit the Phoenix Mercury (4-10) (10:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass), with Los Angeles trying to win a third straight since a three-game skid and go back above .500 for the second time this season. The Sparks would probably tell you their defense has been better over the last couple games, and if you strictly look at the numbers — 84.7 and 102.5 points allowed per 100 possessions, compared to their dead-last season mark of 108.8 — that’s true. I’m just fairly dubious that it means anything given the opponents were Portland and Seattle, who rank among the league’s worst offenses. On the other hand, those two games were also the first two times the Sparks offense has had a rating under 110 with Kelsey Plum in the lineup since its 0-2 start, and if my suspicion that the defense is going to remain atrocious when it faces decent offenses is correct, offensive ratings of 108.5 and 106.0 like the last two games, while perfectly fine, will lead to a lot of Sparks losses. The good news for LA tonight is that Phoenix has shown no signs of possessing a decent offense. The Mercury are 12th in the league with a rating of 99.7 points per 100 possessions and haven’t put up a rating in the 110s since blasting the Aces by 33 points in the opener. That one game leaves Phoenix tied with Washington, Connecticut and Seattle for the fewest 110+ ratings in the league so far. By contrast, seven teams (Las Vegas, Dallas, Minnesota, Los Angeles, New York and Golden State) have at least six such games (Las Vegas leads the way with seven of them).