Hello, hoopheads! Home teams finally had their first perfect day of the 2026 WNBA season on Friday, going 3-0 in pretty decisive fashion headlined by the Indiana Fever coming back and then pulling away from the Golden State Valkyries in the second half. Road teams still have a 26-14 (.650) record this season, but they’re 5-7 since starting 21-7, and there’s still about 88% of a season to play. You can catch up on all of last night’s action here, but now it’s on to another three-game slate, featuring a pair of games on my former employer’s various platforms and one which is just for us League Pass sickos (and people in Portland and Toronto). None of them really stands out as more compelling than the others, although I do love the narrative hook of the first Portland-Toronto matchup. Chronological order, on the other hand, has the benefit of sorting the games from the smallest-to-largest point spreads and also putting the only matchup of winning teams first. I’m not convinced that Toronto should really be favored by three more points over Portland at home than Minnesota is at Chicago, but I’ll give this one to the space-time continuum and stick with good ole time order, just like back in my CBS days.
With no disrespect to the hosts, I actually think it’s a bit disrespectful to the visitors that the Lynx (3-2) are only favored by 2.5 points at the Sky (3-2) (1:00 ET, CBS/Paramount+), if only because the Sky remain extremely banged up. There’s at least some movement in the right direction, as Azurá Stevens is officially listed as questionable to make her season debut, which I believe marks the first time that she, DiJonai Carrington or Courtney Vandersloot hasn’t been ruled out in advance of a game this season. The Sky are, of course, without Rickea Jackson for the rest of the season after she suffered a torn ACL. Their lack of depth — or more accurately, the need for their depth players to take on outsized roles because of injuries to the stars — was on display in a 99-89 home loss to Dallas in the first game after Jacksion’s injury, as Chicago played just eight players and got only 17 combined points from four of them. That the Sky are 3-2 despite it all is admirable, but they’re going to need the veterans on the floor sooner or later or the losses are going to start piling up.
Minnesota is also 3-2 despite having suffered its fair share of injuries, but the Lynx were at least able to prepare for Napheesa Collier missing the start of the season (granted part of that preparation was signing Emma Cechova, since lost to her own torn ACL). They also have the best coach in WNBA history, four-time champion Cheryl Reeve, guiding a roster that’s still replete with plenty of veteran talent. They’ll remain without Phee and Dorka Juhász for a while, and Anastasiia Ola Kosu is also out after suffering a concussion last game. Still, the Lynx looked very much like their old selves in Thursday’s 28-point thumping of the Toronto Tempo, their third win in four games and first home win this season. Maya Caldwell scored 16 points off the bench, 5 more than she’d scored in her first four games with Minnesota combined, and the stalwart quartet of Natasha Howard, Kayla McBride, Olivia Miles and Courtney Williams all scored in the 13-to-15-point range. Those four players are now separated by just two points for the team lead, which is shared by McBride and Willaims (78 points, 15.6 ppg) while Miles and Howard are hot on their heels (76 pts, 15.2 ppg). Again, it’s no disrespect to Chicago, but I see two shorthanded teams relying on four starters to shoulder as much of the load as possible, and I will take the Howard/McBride/Miles/Williams quartet over Chicago’s counter of Kamilla Cardoso/Natasha Cloud/Skylar Diggins/Gabriela Jaquez every time.
While the Sky-Lynx game features the better teams, I do think the second game of the day boasts both the best built-in narrative and the closest on-paper matchup when the Portland Fire (2-3) visit the Toronto Tempo (3-3) (6:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass) for the WNBA’s first meeting of expansion teams since the year 2000. It’s been so long since there were two expansion teams, in fact, that the last time it happened was when the original Portland Fire — who folded 24 years ago — had their inaugural season alongside the Fever, Seattle Storm and dearly departed Miami Sol. The Tempo had won two in a row behind consecutive 30-point games from Brittney Sykes and one from Marina Mabrey before losing at Minnesota, but those two combined for just 9 points on 3-for-16 from the field against the Lynx. Portland has alternated losses and wins through its first five games, most recently getting blown out at Indiana on Wednesday to start a three-game trip which wraps up Monday in Brooklyn. The Fire also had a notable 3-for-16 (their line from beyond the arc) in their loss at Indiana, and have made fewer than a third of their 3-pointers in every game except for their memorable 15-for-33 (45.5%) effort in their first win against my beloved New York Liberty last week. As always, this is not a gambling newsletter, it’s me spilling my thoughts so my brain doesn’t explode, but if you put a gun to my head I’m picking the Lynx to win by more points today than the Tempo.
Wrapping up the day’s action, the Los Angeles Sparks (2-3) visit the Las Vegas Aces (4-1) (8;00 ET, CBS/Paramount+), who haven’t lost since being blown out by the Phoenix Mercury to open the season. Thei four-game win streak started in the Sparks’ season-opener a 27-point beatdown despite the Aces playing the night after being beaten by 33 points at their own ring ceremony. Chennedy Carter led the way for the champs with 22 points in that win and her 97 points so far are easily the most in WNBA history through five games by a player who hadn’t made a start. She’ll only need six points in this game to claim the six-game record, assuming she comes off the bench, of course. Jackie Young led the Aces starters with 20 points in the first meeting with LA while A’ja Wilson had 19. Their former longtime (and two-time championship) teammate Kelsey Plum led the Sparks with 27 points while Nneka Ogwumike had 19 points and 10 boards and Dearica Hamby — another former Ace with more history than I can fit between em-dashes — had 12 points and 5 boards. Suffice to say there are always storylines when these teams meet up, but it doesn’t look like a particularly fair fight on paper. Los Angeles has at least gotten its offense going, putting up three straight offensive ratings of at least 115 points per 100 possessions since a miserable 0-2 start. Unfortunately, none of the offseason moves to improve the defense have paid dividends yet, as the Sparks have allowed all five opponents to put up offensive ratings of at least 104.8, including a pair in the 120s. LA seemingly still has to score at an elite level just to have a chance on a nightly basis and I’m not sure there’s a worse team to try and go bucket for bucket with than these Aces, given the number of walking buckets they can put on the floor at any time.