Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago where we were all caught in the glow of Team USA winning its sixth consecutive gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio?
That unofficially put a conclusion to the Olympic break as many players who competed in Brazil all of a sudden went back to action for their respective WNBA teams.
Not only that, but something else was also not too far away…playoffs!
With the new playoff format where the top eight teams in the entire W get in regardless of conference, teams could no longer scoreboard watch only other teams in the East or West.
Currently as it stands the Minnesota Lynx, Los Angeles Sparks, and New York Liberty are the only three teams that have clinched playoff berths. The Sparks and Lynx both have 24-5 records while the Liberty stand at 20-9.
And only the San Antonio Stars have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. So, we have seven teams battling for the final five playoff spots.
One of those teams is the Chicago Sky. If the playoffs started today, the Sky would be the four-seed. It was also a special occasion as the Sky signed a local children’s hospital patient to a one-day contract for the game at home vs. the Seattle Storm.
With 24 points from Tamera Young and 22 from Elena Delle Donne, the Sky prevailed in what became a nail biter against the Storm by a final of 92-88.
Jewell Loyd, who recently signed a contract to play overseas with a team in China, led Seattle with 23 points. She came two assists shy of a triple-double with ten rebounds and eight assists. Sue Bird and Ramu Tokashiki put in 15 each.
The Sky’s fortunes continued to trend upward on Sunday at home against the San Antonio Stars, a team that has had a well-documented tough season. In spite of the Stars keeping it close for the first half, Chicago proved why they were the better team in the second half as they outscored San Antonio by 20 en route to a 97-73 win at Allstate Arena. This ran their winning streak to four consecutive.
There was just too much EDD for the Stars to handle. She scored 35 points on 12-of-20 from the field and 20 of those points came in the second half. Young, Imani Boyette, and Cappie Pondexter also added 10 each. Monique Currie had 20 points for the Stars, but was only four for 11 from the field.
On the subject of the Storm, they are one of those teams in contention for one of those playoff seeds. Chicago defeated them, but they traveled to Atlanta and picked up a big win against the Dream on Sunday.
The Storm led by 24 at the end of the 3rd quarter and still managed to claim victory by only nine points, but a win is a win and Seattle got it, 91-82 over the Dream.
Seattle’s “big three” displayed exactly why they were that as they provided plenty of highlights for ATL’s Highlight Factory. Bird and Breanna Stewart (who also added eight rebounds and six assists) each had 23 and Loyd added 17.
The Dream got 32 from Angel McCoughtry and 20 via Tiffany Hayes. Seattle would be in the playoffs if they started today with the eighth and final seed.
Back at the top of the standings are the Minnesota Lynx and LA Sparks, the two teams that started the season undefeated. Minnesota, this weekend, ran its winning streak to three by virtue of two wins they picked up over the weekend.
The first was at home against the Washington Mystics by a final of 75-69. Maya Moore’s 27 and a double-double by Sylvia Fowles (15 points, 17 rebounds) turned out to be the differences in the Lynx win over Washington. Also paying dividends was less-than-stellar free throw shooting by Washington as they missed six of 20 from the charity stripe.
If they made those six, we may have been talking about a game that went into overtime—or one won by the Mystics. They did get 15 points from Tayler Hill and 13 from Leilani Mitchell.
The Lynx concluded their homestand with a 93-79 dispatching of the Connecticut Sun, another team that has endured a relatively tough 2016.
In spite of the fact that the Sun had five players that finished in double-digits in points scored, including Alex Bentley who had 16 and Jonquel Jones and Chiney Ogwumike who had 14 each, they also were in double-digits in another category…turnovers. They had 18 to be exact.
The other side of the ledger saw Moore, the league’s fourth-leading scorer, drop another 24. Fowles also contributed 18 points and Rebekkah Brunson added 13.
As for the Sparks, they managed to keep pace with the Lynx with a pair of wins of their own over this past weekend. The first was on the road in North Texas as they faced the Dallas Wings by a final of 87-79.
The difference in this game turned out to be three-point shooting. Dallas struggled from downtown for much of the game as they only mustered a 20-percent three-point shooting performance. The Sparks’ was 47 percent.
Kristi Toliver alone made just as many threes as the entire Wings team did with four. She overall had 24 points. Nneka Ogwumike led LA with 28.
Having Toliver on your team nine times out of 10 does wonders for a team’s performance from behind the arc…and it showed again back in Tinseltown when the Sparks faced Tamika Catchings and the Indiana Fever. Ogwumike (21), Candace Parker (19), and Toliver (18) combined for 58 of the Sparks’ 88 points they scored in their 88-81 victory over the Fever. Toliver made another four three-pointers, going four for seven from downtown.
Erica Wheeler finished with 20, Shenise Johnson added 19, and Catchings concluded with 16 in her final game in Los Angeles.
One team that had a rougher go of things than usual was the Phoenix Mercury. Given their current standing in the playoff picture as one of those seven teams battling for those final berths, every game is a must-win for them.
The Mercury will be glad to put this Labor Day weekend behind them as it began on Friday with a loss to the Connecticut Sun. Despite 29 points from Brittney Griner (including a dunk of all things) plus 14 each from DeWanna Bonner and Penny Taylor, 22 from Chiney Ogwumike along with strong first and third quarters propelled Connecticut to an 87-74 victory against the Mercury.
Phoenix did not only have a tough go of things in Uncasville. On the southern end of the New Haven Metro-North Line is New York City where the Liberty call home. On Saturday at Madison Square Garden, Tina Charles reached a lofty milestone when she reached the 4,000-point plateau in the Liberty’s 92-70 win over the Mercury. She had 23 for the game and Sugar Rodgers and Brittany Boyd each added 19.
Marta Xargay had 16 and DeWanna Bonner added 15, but Griner and Diana Taurasi had uncharacteristic off nights. Griner was only one for six from the field and Taurasi went 0-for-six from three-point range. She did have 10 points for the game.
As for the Mystics and Wings, Washington did manage to return to the win column after defeating Dallas 88-83 on the road in Arlington.
The team representing the Nation’s Capital can thank Tayler Hill and her three-point shot as well as near-perfect free-throw shooting for this victory. Hill had 25 points for the game including going 4-for-7 from three-point range. The Mystics as a team shot 92 percent for foul shooting.
Skylar Diggins led Dallas with 25 points. Aerial Powers had 21, Odyssey Sims added 16, and Plenette Pierson concluded with 15. Dallas did not do itself plenty of favors by turning the ball over 17 times.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
