Hello, hoopheads! That sound you heard last night was executives at every streaming service and TV sports channel in the known universe — aka the WNBA’s broadcast partners — sharing a collective gasp when the Indiana Fever announced that Caitlin Clark would miss the team’s game against the Portland Fire. However, in the words of one of my current musical obsessions, Genesis Owusu “one thing about life is it just keeps going,” and so did the Fever in routing their visitors. You can check out some notes on that Fever win and the rest of last night’s action here, but there are three games tonight to look ahead to, including one I’ve been waiting for rather impatiently.
It’s been a week since my New York Liberty (3-1), who host the Golden State Valkyries (2-1) (8:00 ET, Prime Video/local affiliates), last took the court, and eight days since Golden State was in action, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a bit of rust evident in both teams at the start. Or perhaps I’ll just tell myself that’s the problem if the Liberty come out slow, surely not that the Valkyries are an elite defensive team. New York certainly hasn’t been slow at the offensive end so far, putting up offensive ratings of at least 110 points per 100 possessions in all four games — granted against the decidedly not elite defensive squads from Connecticut (13th in defensive rating), Washington (9th) and Portland (14th; faced twice, including a loss). New York’s rating of 115.9 points per 100 possessions for the season is five points clear of any other team in the WNBA (Dallas is next at 110.9) and eight points clear of everyone else except Toronto (107.9). It’s early, but it’s still impressive, particularly because it’s all come without the services of Sabrina Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich or Satou Sabally. All of those players are nearing their returns, and I may even witness two of them at Barclays tonight, as Ionescu and Sabally are both officially listed as questionable following full participation in practice over the last two days. Fiebich doesn’t have an official timetable for a return yet, but the recently-crowned back-to-back Spanish league champion’s season wrapped up on Sunday, so I would imagine she’s not too far away. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s availability is also questionable tonight, although not for medical reasons, after she missed the last two days of practice tending to a personal matter. So I might also see the Liberty at their most shorthanded yet. There is no earthly way of knowing which direction the Libs status report is going!
The Valkyries have also had their share of availability concerns in the early part of the season, most notably losing starting center Iliana Rupert to a matter that is both medical and personal (pregnancy). On the plus side for the basketball team, it appears Golden State will be getting Tiffany Hayes back in the lineup for the first time since the season opener. Cecilia Zandalasini and incoming rookie Justė Jocytė will remain sidelined. No matter who’s on the floor, the Valkyries defense should certainly pose the biggest challenge of any opponent the Liberty have faced so far, with Golden State ranking third in the WNBA in defensive rating (99.1 points allowed per 100 possessions) and first in opponent points per game (76.0). The latter is at least in part because Golden State plays at the WNBA’s slowest pace (78.2 possessions per 40 minutes), which is a fairly stark contrast to the Liberty (fifth-fastest pace in the league averaging 84.1 possessions per 40). Leading the way and dictating that tempo like a world-renowned conductor is Veronica Valkyrie (Burton), who’s averaging 15 points and 7.3 assists per game while continuing to have started every game in Valkyries history. This will be the 50th including the playoffs, for anyone who’s not counting at home. Janelle Salaün edges Burton out for the team-high scoring average with 15.7 points per game despite exclusively coming off the bench so far.
Starting simultaneously with the Liberty and Valks are the Toronto Tempo (3-2) and Minnesota Lynx (2-2) (8:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass), and obviously everyone correctly predicted which team would have the better record coming into this game. The Tempo have won two in a row behind a pair of 30-point games from Brittney Sykes — more specifically a career-high 38 two games ago and 31 points the last time out. Marina Mabrey also had a 30-burger in the latest Toronto win, making them the first pair of expansion teammates to score 30+ points in a game. Minnesota fell to 0-2 at home in a loss to the Chicago Sky on Sunday, still looking for its first victorious electric slide of the season. Kayla McBride led the way with 20 points in the loss to Chicago and is the top scorer with 16.3 points per game (65 points), but that’s subject to change by the minute as Natasha Howard, Courtney Williams (63 points each, 15.8 ppg) and Olivia Miles (62 points, 15.5 ppg) are all within a 3-pointer of McBride’s lead. Those four will have to continue doing the lion’s share of the work for the time being as Dorka Juhász remains out with a mid-foot sprain and MVP runner-up the last two years Napheesa Collier is still at least a couple weeks away from her return from dual ankle surgery.
Finally, the second half of the BezosVision doubleheader sees the Los Angeles Sparks (1-3) visit the Phoenix Mercury (2-3) (10:00 ET, Prime Video/local affiliates). The good news here is that Phoenix and LA are among the healthiest teams in the league, and that will particularly be the case should LA get Ariel Atkins back from concussion protocol tonight as expected (she was not on yesterday’s status report). Unfortunately, good health hasn’t stopped both from being among the five teams with losing records through the season’s first 10%. They’re joined in that group by Portland, Connecticut and Seattle, who I think would be ranked 13th through 15th in the league in some order on 100% of ballots cast by ball knowers, the only question being what order you put them in (Connecticut is last, I have no strong opinion on the others). Rough starts for their teams aside, it’s hard to find a matchup in this league that isn’t worth watching, and it certainly isn’t the one that pits the Alyssa Thomas-led team against the Kelsey Plum-led team.