So far, this WNBA season, the rest of the league has been living in the world of the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks. Both teams are undefeated still with the Lynx at 12-0 and the Sparks at 11-0.
Bring on Tuesday.
Because that is when the league’s two undefeated teams finally face each other this season when the Los Angeles Sparks host the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday afternoon at the Staples Center.
When playing a great team such as the Lynx or Sparks, even if you outplay them for one quarter it feels as if you really did not do much. Ask the Seattle Storm who seemingly dominated Minnesota in the first quarter of their game against the Lynx but only outscored them 26-23.
Despite 21 points from Breanna Stewart and 20 out of Jewell Loyd, the rest of the game was all Lynx as the final score was 96-84. Thirty assists for the team were a big reason for this victory along with four players in double-digits for points—including 18 for Maya Moore and 16 each for Natasha Howard and Sylvia Fowles.
The Sparks’ margin of victory was smaller than that of Minnesota’s, but it was still a victory over the Phoenix Mercury as they dealt Phoenix its seventh defeat of the season. It was a 77-71 game and at one point there was only a four-point margin but the Sparks managed to hold off Phoenix and go into tomorrow without a blemish on their record.
Helping their cause was 24 points from Candace Parker along with 11 rebounds.
It was not all about the two undefeated teams, though. Earlier last week, the Washington Mystics went three overtimes with the Connecticut Sun, but still managed to defeat Connecticut 109-106. For the second time in a week, a WNBA game went into triple overtime—this time it was in Phoenix with the Mercury playing the Dallas Wings.
Dallas managed to force overtime despite at one point being down by 17 points. They also managed to force overtime and win despite 38 points from the Mercury’s DeWanna Bonner. Britney Griner, Candice Dupree, and Diana Taurasi all fouled out of the game.
Skylar Diggins finished with 27 points while three other Wings players had 18.
There currently are two teams with the same identical record of 8-4 atop the Eastern Conference. One of those teams is the Atlanta Dream—previously 7-3 and now 8-4, they defeated the Chicago Sky, 101-97 at home (also in overtime). Angel McCoughtry, Layshia Clarendon, Elizabeth Williams, and Tiffany Hayes each played at least 36-plus minutes and combined for 75 of those points. Elena Delle Donne finished with 26.
Atlanta did not have the same fortunes on the road in Washington that they did back at Philips Arena. The Mystics—previously 0-5 at home, creamed the Dream by a final of 95-65. Washington shot a robust 52 percent from the field and also managed 12 steals.
The aforementioned Sun did not need three overtimes to defeat the San Antonio Stars as they earned only their third victory of the season via a 93-90 win over San Antonio. Alex Bentley led the way with 29 for Connecticut while Kayla McBride had 25 for the Stars. San Antonio led by seven at the end of the third quarter.
The beat has on for the Stars for much of the season. It was the case against Connecticut and was so as well against Indiana as well as the Fever defeated the Stars by a final of 84-75. The Fever had a 42-29 at the half before it became tied at the end of the third quarter. The Stars were hurt by only making three of 11 from behind the three-point arc.
Did somebody say something earlier about overtime games? The New York Liberty also took part in one over the weekend against those same Fever. The Liberty held the Fever to only four points in the third quarter only for Indiana to give their fans in the Hoosier State a little bit of free basketball.
Whenever a missed shot was taken, there typically was someone in a Liberty jersey to grab the ensuing rebound. They picked up 46 rebounds for the game and also got a 26 point, 15 rebound outing courtesy of Tina Charles.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
