Category: Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA)

Sami Whitcomb came off the bench to sink six 3-pointers and score a team-high 18 points as the Seattle Storm opened a three-game road trip with an 83-69 win over the host Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday.

Seattle (2-6) came into the contest on a two-game losing streak, but the Storm jumped ahead of the Mercury early and never trailed.

The lead grew to 11 points in the first quarter, then 17 in the second when Whitcomb sank one of her 3-pointers. She shot 6-for-10 from beyond the arc, and she missed her lone 2-point attempt of the night.

Phoenix (2-6) cut the deficit to single digits a little more than four minutes into the third quarter, but Whitcomb hit from deep on two of the next three Seattle possessions to quash any hope of a Mercury comeback.

Seattle failed to top 66 points in any of its three games preceding Tuesday, but the Storm had 50 by halftime in Phoenix.

Storm star Jewell Loyd, who came into Tuesday leading the WNBA in scoring at 26 points per game, finished with 17 points. She led the Seattle starters, all five of whom scored at least eight points.

Ivana Dojkic scored 14 and shot 3-for-7 from 3-point range. Rookie Jordan Horston finished with 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds for her first career double-double. Ezi Magbegor added nine points, and Kia Nurse scored eight points.

Phoenix’s Sophie Cunningham led all scorers with 21 points, while Sug Sutton added 15 points and Michaela Onyenwere finished with 10 points. Shey Peddy came off the bench to contribute nine points and seven assists.

Mercury center Brittney Griner scored two points in just nine minutes, coming out in the second quarter with an apparent hip injury. Diana Taurasi went scoreless on 0-of-6 shooting.

–Field Level Media

AD Durr scored 13 points against her former team, helping the visiting Atlanta Dream to an 86-79 win over the New York Liberty on Tuesday night.

The Dream (3-5) snapped a three-game losing streak. Atlanta had six double-figure scorers, led by Allisha Gray’s 16 points.

Durr, New York’s first-round pick (second overall) in 2019, made 5 of 12 shot attempts on Tuesday.

Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard, the league’s reigning Rookie of the Year, scored 12 points but made just 4 of 11 shot attempts.

The Liberty (6-3) were without star guard Sabrina Ionescu, who has a left hamstring injury.

Marine Johannes, filling in for Ionescu, scored a game-high 18 points, making 4 of 10 3-point attempts. She also had four assists.

New York’s Breanna Stewart, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week after averaging 28.5 points in two games, struggled with her shooting, making just 1 of 14 attempts. Stewart finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and four blocks. She had game highs in all of those categories except points.

The Dream used a 7-0 run to end the first quarter on top 24-20. Atlanta shot 60 percent from the floor in the opening period.

New York shot just 42.1 percent in the first quarter, missing its last seven shots. Liberty center Jonquel Jones played just two minutes in the period after picking up a pair of fouls. Prior to that, she was 2-for-3 from the floor.

There were 12 lead changes in the first half, but the Liberty closed the second quarter on a 12-4 run, taking a 46-41 lead into intermission.

Durr led all players with 11 first-half points.

In the third, Atlanta held New York to 14 points. Dream guard Haley Jones hit a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to tie the score, 60-60.

The Dream then used a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to take control of the game, and Atlanta held off a late Liberty charge.

–Field Level Media

Rookie Aliyah Boston notched a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds and Kelsey Mitchell followed with 19 points to lift the Indiana Fever to an 87-66 victory against the Washington Mystics on Tuesday in Indianapolis.

After losing five of six to open the season, the Fever have won two of three. Indiana (3-6) shot 47.1 percent from the floor compared to 33.3 percent for the Mystics.

Queen Egbo grabbed 10 rebounds to go with six points off the bench for the Fever, helping the hosts to a 46-27 advantage on the glass.

Elena Delle Donne paced Washington (5-4) with 17 points and was the team’s lone scorer in double figures as the Mystics were unable to stretch their winning streak to three games.

Delle Donne and Brittney Sykes tied for the team lead with six rebounds. Sykes was Washington’s second-leading scorer with nine points.

Boston, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft out of South Carolina, was coming off a career-low scoring output of four points in Sunday’s 85-82 loss to Phoenix. She now has scored in double figures in seven of her nine career games.

Boston has three double-doubles in her past four contests.

Mitchell passed Katie Douglas and moved into second place all-time on Indiana’s career scoring list with a layup that beat the first-quarter buzzer.

Lexie Hull, NaLyssa Smith and Kristy Wallace scored eight points apiece for the Fever.

The second quarter transformed into a game of runs, with Indiana gaining momentum to build on its two-point edge after the first 10 minutes. The Fever thrived behind Boston, who showed little reluctance in moving through the paint, including two straight possessions in which she fought through challenges from Washington’s Shakira Austin on the way to a layup.

A 17-5 Fever run pushed the hosts’ advantage to nine points, but Washington responded with a 9-3 run to pull within 41-38 at halftime. Delle Donne, Li Meng and Kristi Toliver scored six points apiece to boost the Mystics, while Boston paced the Fever with nine points and six rebounds.

The Fever led 61-53 after three quarters and dominated the fourth, doubling up the Mystics 26-13 in the period.

–Field Level Media

Both the Dallas Wings and Los Angeles Sparks will look to put tough losses behind them when they square off on Wednesday afternoon in a Commissioner’s Cup game in Arlington, Texas.

The Wings head home after a 102-93 loss in New York on Sunday that snapped a two-game winning streak. Arike Ogunbowale led Dallas (5-4) with 25 points (13 in the first quarter) while Satou Sabally racked up 17 points and 11 rebounds, Natasha Howard added 14 points and Kalani Brown had 10.

Dallas led by six points at the half but was outscored 34-17 in the third quarter, in which the Liberty made 13 of 17 field-goal attempts.

Part of the Wings’ success has been the play of rookie Maddy Siegrist, who has been a real competitor and a “glue” player in her first nine games. Dallas will need all of that to beat the Sparks.

“I don’t care if she plays two minutes; I don’t care if she plays 11 minutes, 15 minutes — she is going to be ready,” Wings coach Latricia Trammell said. “She knows that she’s a rookie, but she already has impacted our team and our game, and she’s going to continue to be a great professional player.”

The Sparks (4-4) travel south after a 91-86 loss at Minnesota on Sunday in which they coughed up an 11-point lead in the final 3:38 of the game. Los Angeles was up 83-72 after a 3-pointer by Lexie Brown but scored just three points the rest of the way as Minnesota rang up a 17-0 run, aided by four Sparks turnovers.

Nneka Ogwumike scored 27 points to pace the Sparks, with Brown adding 21 and Jordin Canada tallying 18 points. Los Angeles was outrebounded 38-26 and had just two offensive boards in the loss.

Ogwumike expects her team to bounce back as the new-look Sparks acclimate to coach Curt Miller.

“We all fight in our own ways, and I think there’s also an aspect to us that we have a standard that we want to uphold,” Ogwumike said. “So keeping ourselves up in a way that allows us the grace to make mistakes but also understand our value (is important).”

–Field Level Media

The Atlanta Dream head to New York to face the Liberty on Tuesday with at least one stat in mind.

The Liberty have scored more than 100 points in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. They defeated the Dream 106-83 in Atlanta on Friday and topped the Dallas Wings 102-93 at home on Sunday.

New York leads the WNBA in 3-point percentage (37.7), total 3-pointers (81) and assists per game (24.5).

Much of this is due to the addition of three stars who joined the Liberty this season: 2018 league MVP Breanna Stewart, six-time WNBA assists leader Courtney Vandersloot and 2021 league MVP Jonquel Jones. All three of them are four-time All-Stars.

Stewart, a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, ranks second in the league in scoring (24.9), third in blocks (2.1) and third in steals (1.9).

Vandersloot leads the league in assists (9.3).

Then there’s Sabrina Ionescu, the first overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft by the Liberty. She leads the league in 3-pointers made (27) and scored a career-high 37 points on Friday when the Liberty defeated Atlanta.

Ionescu made a franchise-record eight 3-pointers in that game as the Liberty (6-2) are starting to mesh.

“As this group has come together,” Stewart said, “we’re having an awareness of where one another is, the spots.”

The Dream (2-5), meanwhile, enter Tuesday on a three-game losing streak.

Atlanta has wasted an early season schedule that was heavier on home games (1-4) than road contests (1-1), and will play its next four on the road.

The Dream are led by wing Rhyne Howard, power forward Cheyenne Parker and guard Allisha Gray.

Howard, the league’s first overall pick in 2022 out of Kentucky, averaged 16.2 points last season and was named the WNBA Rookie of the Year. This year, she is averaging 16.7 points, and she became the first WNBA player to get to 100 career 3-pointers in 40 or fewer games on Friday.

“Okay, I made history,” Howard said after the loss to New York. “But I don’t think about that during a game.”

Parker, a New York City native, will be making a homecoming. She is averaging 16.9 points, which puts her on career-high pace.

–Field Level Media

The Phoenix Mercury seek consecutive wins for the first time this season as they welcome the Seattle Storm on Tuesday in a Commissioner’s Cup game.

Phoenix (2-5) snapped a three-game losing skid on Sunday, rallying from down eight points at the start of the fourth quarter in an 85-82 road win over the Indiana Fever. All five Mercury starters scored in double figures, led by Britney Griner with 29 points.

Phoenix also got 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds from veteran Diana Taurasi, who was playing on her 41st birthday.

“Great, great team effort,” Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard told the team after the victory. “We had our backs against the wall, had people out, we’re on the road, all those things, y’all stepped up.”

The Mercury were without Moriah Jefferson, who was limited to six minutes with an ankle injury in Friday’s loss to Dallas. She is listed as questionable for Tuesday.

Seattle (1-6) limps into Phoenix having lost its last two after it snapped a season-opening, four-game skid.

The Storm beat the Los Angeles Sparks 66-63 last Tuesday, showing a grind-it-out defense in a comeback victory. The win kicked off a three-game stretch in which Seattle has not allowed more than 73 points — however, the Storm have the WNBA’s lowest-scoring offense and failed to produce more than 66 in any of the three.

That resulted in 73-66 and 71-65 losses to the Washington Mystics on Friday and Sunday, respectively. The losses marked the Storm’s fourth and fifth single-digit defeats of the season.

“We just haven’t been in these moments enough as a unit to know just taking care of the ball and how we need to execute and just kind of be sharper,” Storm coach Noelle Quinn said. “But this is the growth that is happening, will happen, needs to happen for us to get over the hump.”

Jewell Loyd has done her part to bolster Seattle’s league-low 73.6-points-per-game output, averaging a WNBA-high 26.0 points per contest. After Ezi Magbegor’s 14.0 ppg average, however, no other Storm player is producing more than 7.1 points a contest.

Seattle played Friday’s contest without Loyd due to a foot injury. She returned to the lineup on Sunday and scored 16 points, leading four Storm scorers in double figures.

–Field Level Media

The Washington Mystics got to see Sunday what they look like when they play at their best.

For two quarters, anyway.

Now the trick is to carry that over into a full game, beginning with their Tuesday trip to Indianapolis to meet the Indiana Fever.

Washington (5-3) is coming off a weekend sweep of the Seattle Storm, including Sunday’s 71-65 win in which it took a 46-21 halftime lead and then expanded it to 28 points before a near collapse. They Mystics were outscored 23-8 in the fourth quarter but hung on to get the win.

“You can see what our offense is capable of looking like,” said Mystics coach Eric Thibault. “We moved the ball. We set good screens. We didn’t get up against the shot clock. For two quarters, we did a lot of the things we really want to see offensively.”

Washington got a season-high 19 points, plus five assists, from point guard Natasha Cloud. Ariel Atkins added 12 points and Shakira Austin posted 11, plus nine rebounds. The Mystics played without leading scorer Elena Delle Donne (neck tightness), who missed her first game of the season.

Meanwhile, Indiana (2-6) missed on a chance to score consecutive wins Sunday when it dropped an 85-82 decision at home to Phoenix. The Fever took a 67-59 lead to the fourth quarter but were outscored by 11 points.

Wasted in the loss was a monster effort by second-year forward NaLyssa Smith, who pumped in 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds. Erica Wheeler added 17 points and eight assists.

Rookie center Aliyah Boston struggled against the Mercury’s Brittney Griner, scoring only four points and landing in foul trouble. But Boston is still contributing 13.6 points and 7.1 rebounds. Kelsey Mitchell (16.8) and Smith (15.0) are the team’s other double-figure scorers. Smith also averages 10.8 rebounds per game.

The Fever lost all four matchups with Washington last year by at least 12 points, allowing 87.0 points per game.

–Field Level Media

Phoenix Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard said the team will make travel adjustments to upcoming road games after center Brittney Griner was confronted by a YouTube personality on Saturday at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

However, Nygaard declined to reveal details, citing safety concerns.

The situation is a hot topic after Alex Stein, a Dallas-area YouTube personality, filmed Griner at the airport and attempted to ask her questions.

On Saturday, Stein posted a photo on Twitter, saying “I just met my favorite WNBA player Brittney Griner. Video coming soon,” and later posted an 11-second video of him shouting toward Griner as she walked through the concourse.

“Do you still want to boycott America, Britney?” Stein asks Griner as she walks by. Some security officials get physical with Stein at this point before he asks, “What about the merchant of death, Brit?”

Griner spent 10 months in a Russian jail after being detained for marijuana possession in February 2022. In December, she was released in a deal in which the United States agreed to release imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Stein, 36, aired the entire 93-second video on YouTube on Sunday.

“Was it a fair trade for the merchant of death?” Stein asked Griner multiple times.

Nygaard didn’t like what transpired at the airport as the Mercury were leaving Dallas to get to Sunday’s road game against the Indiana Fever.

“No one should be a victim of targeted harassment,” Nygaard said before the game. “I’m grateful that our team and our staff are physically OK. Most of all, I’m grateful that BG has been back here in the United States for 185 days now. If her being home makes some people mad, I think that obviously says more about them than it does about her.”

The Mercury traveling party was eventually escorted into a room at the airport to get away from the heckling.

“That’s obviously nothing no one wants to deal with, especially on a business trip for work,” Phoenix center Brianna Turner said. “We’re representing the league, we’re representing the city of Phoenix, our organization and in times like that we don’t want to cause a big scene.

“We don’t to like throw phones or say some things. I guess the lesson is you live and learn but I don’t know what you do if it happens again.”

While the WNBA said it has been working to keep Griner and all the players safe, the players union said Saturday that the league needs to do a better job of providing charter flights.

New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, who is a member of the union’s executive committee, is all for Griner flying however she wants.

“I think that, you know, that there needs to be extra precautionary measures taken and you know, I don’t think anyone is against BG having charter flights whenever she wants, so that she can be herself and travel and be comfortable and be safe,” Stewart said. “Because that’s the last thing we want is what happened yesterday.”

Griner scored 29 points as the Mercury posted an 85-82 win over the Fever on Sunday.

–Field Level Media

Bridget Carleton hit consecutive 3-pointers to give the Minnesota Lynx the lead for good as they rattled off 17 unanswered points in a three-minute stretch of the fourth quarter on Sunday night to stun the Los Angeles Sparks 91-86 in Minneapolis.

Carleton connected with 1:10 remaining to put Minnesota (2-7) ahead at 84-83, then canned another trey with 32 seconds left for a four-point lead. Teammate Tiffany Mitchell added four straight free throws around a 3-pointer from Los Angeles’ Nneka Ogwumike to seal the outcome.

Napheesa Collier scored 24 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out six assists for the Lynx. Mitchell added 17 points, while Kayla McBride tallied 13 and reserve Nikolina Milic hit for 10 points.

Ogwumike fired in a game-high 27 points for the Sparks (4-4), while Lexie Brown scored 21 and Jordin Canada contributed 18 points and eight assists. Brown’s 3-pointer with 3:38 left gave Los Angeles an 83-72 advantage but it committed four turnovers during the game-changing run.

Minnesota earned a 38-26 rebounding advantage, ceding only two offensive boards, and canned 24 of 25 free-throw attempts.

On the night Minnesota retired the No. 34 of Sylvia Fowles, the Lynx played like she was still on the floor, at least early. They established a 13-4 lead just over five minutes into the game before Los Angeles finally found a rhythm and cut its deficit to 22-20 after a quarter.

Minnesota maintained the lead most of the second quarter, pushing it up to six on multiple occasions, before the Sparks wiped it out in the final two minutes of the half. Ogwumike sank a free throw with 24.1 seconds left to tie the score at 43 at intermission.

A 12-2 spurt midway through the third quarter gave Los Angeles its biggest lead of the period at 58-53 on a 3-pointer by Canada. The Lynx responded with a late surge, getting a runner from McBride in the last minute to draw within 64-62 going into the fourth.

–Field Level Media

Brittney Griner poured in 29 points and was clutch down the stretch as the visiting Phoenix Mercury pulled out an 85-82 victory against the Indiana Fever on Sunday in Indianapolis.

Diana Taurasi provided 18 points and seven assists and Sophie Cunningham made all three of her 3-point baskets in the second half on the way to 13 points for the Mercury (2-5), who snapped a three-game losing streak. Michaela Onyenwere’s 11 points and 12 rebounds and Sug Sutton’s 10 points and seven assists also helped the Phoenix cause.

NaLyssa Smith cranked in 29 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for the Fever (2-6). Erica Wheeler supplied 17 points and eight assists and Kelsey Mitchell posted 12 points as Indiana failed to capture its second close-margin victory in three days.

It was a struggle for Fever rookie forward Aliyah Boston, the No. 1 overall pick in this spring’s draft, as she was limited to four points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes.

Griner’s two free throws put the Mercury ahead 80-79 with 2:06 to play. Her basket in the lane provided Phoenix an 82-80 edge on the team’s next possession, and Cunningham’s 3-pointer with 50 seconds left gave the Mercury some breathing room.

Smith scored off an offensive rebound to keep the Fever in it. The Mercury milked the clock before Taurasi missed a jumper. The Fever’s bid to tie failed on Wheeler’s missed 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

The Fever surged to a 10-point lead in the third quarter and led 67-59 going to the fourth. But Cunningham hit two 3-pointers during an 8-0 run in the first 56 seconds of the fourth quarter as the Mercury pulled even at 67-67 to set up a tight finish.

The Mercury went up by nine points in the first quarter but briefly trailed during a back-and-forth final few minutes of the first half. Phoenix held a 43-42 edge at the break, boosted by Griner’s 14 points. Smith had 15 for Indiana in the first half.

–Field Level Media