Hello, hoopheads! Friday’s highest-profile WNBA game featured a track meet between the Dallas Wings and Los Angeles Sparks that ended up looking a lot like I told you it would, with Dallas ultimately coming out on top — unlike that other Texas hoops team that played last night. You can catch up on that Wings win and Friday’s other two games here, but now it’s on to the previews as we’ve got a busy four-game slate on tap. With three games airing on broadcast networks and six of the top seven teams in the standings taking the floor, it should be a fantastic showcase as the season enters its second month. Two of today’s games feature a pair of teams with winning records, but lest anyone accuse me of being a homer, a part of the Caitlin Clark Industrial Complex (CCIC) or biased in favor of my former employer (I’m only biased in favor of my friends there, hi friends!), I am not going to start with the Fever-Liberty game airing tonight on CBS. Instead, we start with the Golden State Valkyries (6-4) and Las Vegas Aces (6-3) (3:00 ET, ABC), which also happens to be the earlier of the two games in question. Say what you want about the tenets of using chronological order among games I plan to spend about equal time on, at least it’s an ethos.
This is the second game of the afternoon overall and also the second time the Valks and the reigning champs have had a broadcast network slot on a weekend afternoon in a seven-day span, which is something I’d probably be making a lot of noise about if I was them. The Aces won 91-81 over the Valkyries on Sunday at Ballhalla behind 28 points and 15 rebounds from the GOAT A’ja Wilson while she added 4 assists and 4 blocks (and 4 turnovers). She’s scored at least 20 points in seven straight games — including 25 in a 10-point win over the Sparks on Tuesday — since opening the season with consecutive 19-point outings, giving her the 39th 20-point streak of at least seven games in WNBA regular-season history, six of which are hers. Arike Ogunbowale (four seven-game 20-pt streaks) has the next-most while Lauren Jackson, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi are the only other players with three such streaks in the regular season (including multi-season streaks). Jackie Young added 23 points in Sunday’s game against Golden State and has scored at least 15 in three straight games since having consecutive scoreless outings while, as she put it, “playing with a heavy heart.” J-Yo is averaging 18 points per game and has hit 42.6% from the field including 44.4% from deep (8-for-18) during this resurgence, which features her three highest field goal attempt totals of the season. The Aces will, however, be without super-sub — it’s almost World Cup time, gotta sprinkle in a footie term — Chennedy Carter for a second straight game due to a left leg injury, while Jewell Loyd is questionable.
The Valkyries are playing for the fourth time in seven days, having bounced back from the loss on Sunday by routing the Portland Fire on Tuesday before falling to the Minnesota Lynx by three points on Thursday in what was probably the best game of the season so far. Emerging star Janelle Salaün scored 17 points on 6-for-11 from the field and has pulled into the team lead with 14.2 points per game despite having come off the bench in every game. History tells me that Salaün will most likely make some starts this season, but for what it’s worth, her 14.2 ppg would be the third-highest total for a player who didn’t make a single start over the course of a complete season, behind Chamique Holdsclaw’s 15.0 in a 25-game 2006 season and Kelsey Plum’s 14.8 during a 26-game campaign in 2021. The aforementioned Carter is also notably on pace to beat both of those marks, averaging 17.5 ppg in eight games off the bench. If we set the minimums at 25 appearances and a maximum of 10 starts, Salaün’s pace would put her fifth all-time behind Candice Wiggins (15.7 ppg in 30 games/1 start in 2008) and Riquna Williams (15.6 in 27 games/6 starts in 2013) in addition to Holdsclaw and Plum. The second-year French forward has scored at least 16 points in four straight games, hitting at least three triples in each of them (14-for-27 from deep in that span, 51.9%).
I would love to keep going on about Golden State and Las Vegas, but we’ve got so much time and so little to see — strike that, reverse it — so it’s on to the first encounter this season between the Indiana Fever (5-4) and my beloved New York Liberty (6-4) (8:00 ET, CBS/Skydance+). Indiana is coming off of a cathartic 12-point home win over the Atlanta Dream (my picks to win it all) on Thursday following consecutive losses and, if you ask me, a truly ridiculous round of discourse manufactured by the aforementioned CCIC. If you’re lucky enough to have missed it, I won’t ruin that for you. Clark, who I’m pretty sure is gonna be “probable (back)” on every status report from now on the same way that Tom Brady was listed as probable evey week, had an appropriate reaction to that discourse at halftime of her 17-point, 7-rebound, 8-assist outing, but it was Kelsey Mitchell who let the way with 25 points on a highly efficient 11-for-15 from the field and 3-for-4 from deep. Aliyah Boston had 19 points and 7 rebounds while going 6-for-12 from the field, but the rest of the team combined to make just 7-of-19 (36.8%) from the field. Perhaps most importantly, the Fever held Atlanta to an offensive rating of 85.5 points per 100 possessions in the 83-71 win, improving to 5-0 when their defensive rating is under 100, 105 or 108.4, depending on how much you care about round numbers, while they’re 0-4 when allowing opponents to hit any of those thresholds. Looking ahead to the matchup with the Liberty and their propensity to play “What The Fuck?” offense, Indiana’s in the middle of the pack when it comes to forcing turnovers (8th in opponent turnover rate, 15.7% of plays).
The Liberty haven’t played much WTF offense during the three-game win streak they carry into tonight’s game, however, even in a fairly ugly and high-turnover (19, matching their season-high) win over the Phoenix Mercury last Friday in the streak’s middle win. I could at least understand why most of those turnovers happened, whereas when the WTF offense takes hold, there’s really no evidence that the Liberty know why they’re doing anything on the offensive end, thus the question I find myself asking repeatedly. The latest win was, in my opinion, the Libs’ best performance of the season so far on Wednesday against the Toronto Tempo. Perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that New York had four days off going into that game after having no more than two days off between its previous five games, or that the Liberty were as healthy as they’ve been at any point this season against the Tempo. Whatever the reason, they cruised to a 15-point win while matching their season-low with 12 turnovers committed at a rate of 13% of plays, their second-lowest rate this season. New York is 12th in the league in turnover rate at 17.2%, but it’s 4-1 when its rate is below that mark in a game compared to 2-3 when it’s at 17.2% or higher. Jonquel Jones took charge early against Toronto and led the way with 22 points and 17 rebounds, her third double-double in four games after going without one in the season’s first six contests. Her first double-double this season, which came in the Liberty’s most recent loss against the Portland Fire, was the first one she’s had in a regular-season loss as a member of the seafoam squad (they’re 36-1 in those games). As for the Liberty’s health, there remains a chance that New York will have its full complement of full-time roster members for the first time this season, as Sabrina Ionescu is questionable with back soreness (which, given it’s kept her out of four straight games, seems more legitimate than the “don’t investigate us next time Caitlin has a planned rest day” strategy I suspect the Fever are employing). That’s the same status she’s had for the last couple games, but the latest word from coach Chris DeMarco indicated this was the game being targeted for her return.
That’s nearly 1,450 words about the day’s two best games, which means we’ve blown over 200 years worth of words past the signing of the Magna Carta and I’ve blown past anything resembling a human being’s bedtime. As a result, I’m engaging Ludicrous Speed for today’s other two games. First up, the Seattle Storm (3-8) visit the league-leading Minnesota Lynx (8-2) (1:00 ET, ABC), who will look to extend their win streak to seven straight and send the Storm to a fifth straight loss. Those things are probably gonna happen, but it’s a great day for Seattle anyway, because 20-year old rebuild-centerpiece Dominique Malonga is off of the status report after missing eight games with a concussion. The injury report isn’t as sunny for the Washington Mystics (4-4), who visit the Atlanta Dream (6-3) (6:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass). Both Sonia Citron (left foot) and Lauren Betts (illness) are listed as questionable for the young Mystics as they look for consecutive wins for the first time this season. Atlanta is trying to avoid its first consecutive losses after seeing its season-long pattern of two wins followed by one loss extended by the Fever on Thursday.