Hello, hoopheads! The first week of the WNBA season wrapped up last night with two more road wins, bringing visitors to 16-4 this season. You can catch up on my the Lynx’s win in Dallas and my Liberty becoming the first team to three wins while making some history in the process here. The season rolls on, however, and we’ve got four WNBA games on tap tonight to fill the void left by the new Maisie Peters record being pushed from today to next Friday.
There are just two undefeated teams left in the WNBA, one of which is in action tonight as the Chicago Sky (2-0) visit the Phoenix Mercury (1-2) (10:00 ET, ION/local affiliates). Chicago’s latest win wasn’t one of the prettier games of the season, a 69-63 rock fight at Ballhalla on Wednesday, but it gave the Sky consecutive road wins for the first time since the 2024 season nonetheless. A win tonight would give Chicago its first three-game road win streak since 2023 and just the 13th such streak in franchise history (none has gone longer than four). Rickea Jackson is the Sky’s leading scorer with 37 points through her first two games with the team after being acquired in a trade for Ariel Atkins last month. She scored a Sky-high (see what I did there?) 18 points on Tuesday while adding 5 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and 2 blocks, and can tie the longest streak of her three-year career by scoring at least 18 points again tonight. She’ll probably have plenty of opportunities as the Sky will remain shorthanded with DiJonai Carrington, Azurá Stevens and Courtney Vandersloot all set to miss a third straight game to start the season.
Phoenix has dropped two in a row since throttling the Aces to open its campaign, most recently falling to the Lynx by an 88-84 margin in Tuesday’s home opener. The Mercury have at least had consecutive days off since a grueling (and kinda ridiculous?) three-games-in-four-days stretch out of the gate against three 2025 playoff teams. Kahleah Copper’s the leading scorer so far with 18 points per game, although that’s mostly a byproduct of a 30-point outing on Tuesday after she’d scored 24 in the season’s first two games combined. That big game was also largely a byproduct of 13 trips to the line (where she scored 10 points), as Copper is still struggling to find her range from deep (2-for-7 on Tuesday, 3-for-16 this season). Alyssa Thomas isn’t too far behind Copper’s scoring lead at 16.3 points per game (five fewer total points than Copper), but finished with just 10 points on 2-for-10 from the field on Tuesday. She added eight assists, her third straight game with at least that many, which is tied for the third-longest such streak to start a season in WNBA history. Shoni Schimmel and Dawn Staley each opened seasons with four-game streaks with at least eight helpers while AT has matched a streak of Vandersloot’s at three in a row.
There are, I am sure, those who believe that the first half of ION’s doubleheader is the night’s marquee game as the Washington Mystics (1-1) visit the Indiana Fever (1-1) (7:30 ET, ION/local affiliates). That belief stems from their deeper-held belief that Caitlin Clark’s presence makes any game the main event, but I respectfully disagree with that assertion. Clark is coming off of a very strong effort in Indiana’s win at Los Angeles on Wednesday, however, with 24 points and 9 assists on 9-for-17 from the field (8-for-10 inside the arc). Despite that outing, Clark is 3-for-16 from deep this season and my guess is we’re only one or two more rough games for Clark from beyond the arc from getting into some incredibly annoying discourse. For that reason alone I’d love it if she went 6-for-9 from deep tonight and proved her signature skill hasn’t disappeared. The Fever are opening up a four-game homestand, with their first three visitors (also Seattle and Portland) expected to finish near the bottom of the league, but the Mystics have proven plucky so far. They took my Liberty to overtime in their latest game on Sunday afternoon and look to be every bit as competitive as they are young so far. Second-year superstar Sonia Citron scored 43 points in the season’s first two games, but went 0-for-6 from deep en route to her 17 points against the Liberty after putting up 26 points and going 3-for-6 from beyond the arc in the opening win at Toronto.
Speaking of Toronto, the Tempo (1-1 will play their first game within the borders of the U.S. when they visit the Los Angeles Sparks (0-2) (10:00 ET, ION/local affiliates). Canada’s team is coming off of its first win in franchise history after pulling away from the Seattle Storm on Wednesday night. Leading the way is Marina Mabrey, who’s tied for the WNBA lead averaging 26.5 points per game after the season’s first week — and after leading Unrivaled in scoring in the winter. Mabrey’s 26-point effort on Tuesday made her the sixth player ever to score at least 26 points in the first two games of a WNBA season, joining Maya Moore (first four games in 2014), Arike Ogunbowale (three in 2023), Elena Delle Donne (three in 2015), Breanna Stewart (two in 2021) and Sheryl Swoopes (twice, two in 2000 and two in 2005). The Sparks have gotten off to a pretty miserable start, only superficially avoiding a blowout with a late run on Wednesday after being actually blown out by the Aces on Sunday. Los Angeles has borne little resemblance to the elite offensive team that went on a tear over the second half of 2025 while still struggling just as much on the other end of the floor, and it will be without Ariel Atkins tonight as she works her way through concussion protocol. The Sparks desperately need a spark, and you better believe I intend the pun.
The only game that isn’t being carried by ION tonight sees the Las Vegas Aces (2-1) visit the Connecticut Sun (0-3) (7:30 ET, local affiliates/League Pass), which is really an act of goodwill on ION’s part. The Aces waltzed past the Sun, and presumably also the slot machines directly outside of Mohegan Sun “Arena” en route to a 98-69 thumping on Wednesday behind A’ja Wilson’s 22-point double-double and Chcnnedy Carter’s 27 points off the bench. The best thing about this game is that the Sun will only disgrace our screens 40 more times after tonight!