Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

You see what the Washington Mystics did to the New York Liberty on Friday night and you think, is there not as clear a division between the top teams? Then you see what the Liberty and Aces did the rest of the weekend and you think nah the top are the top, at least until proven otherwise.

Though Friday’s result of the Washington Mystics defeating the New York Liberty 80-64 could be seen as a sign that there’s a top team we maybe weren’t talking enough about, the results of the rest of the weekend show me different.

My biggest takeaways from the opening weekend of WNBA regular season action came from the Dallas Wings, Washington Mystics and Connecticut Sun. Washington and Connecticut to me set themselves as the next best two well-rounded teams behind Las Vegas who took their one game this weekend and handed Seattle a 41 point loss without head coach Becky Hammon, and New York who bounced back from their opening loss with 45 points from Breanna Stewart and a dominant win over Indiana.

Natasha Cloud is very quickly becoming my favourite player in the league with how she plays, the energy she has and how she’s not afraid to let everyone know who they are, incase anyone forgot. Elena Delle Donne is without question one of the greats and Shakira Austin gives them everything they could need from a single player.

The Sun are now 2-0 with a convincing win over Indiana and a narrow victory over Washington and their depth shined throughout. Alyssa Thomas putting up a 14 point, 16 rebound double-double in their win over Washington, DeWanna Bonner putting up 21 and Brionna Jones matching the double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. They can beat you in many different ways and they are definitely in my upper echelon of teams going into this season and a contender for an upset come August and September.

The third team that I would put into that category that really impressed me is the Dallas Wings, and their ability to light up teams in a second. In a 85-78 win over the Atlanta Dream, Arike Ogunbowale was a unstoppable bucket. 27 points, 3 steals and countless mind blowing possessions. Alongside Arike, Natasha Howard and Satou Sabally both had 20+ points (20 and 25 respectfully), and I don’t know how that trio will be contained throughout the season.

Also this past weekend we saw the return of Brittney Griner to the Phoenix Mercury, and though they came out of the weekend 0-2, Griner and Diana Taurasi are getting back to that level of one of the elite duos in the league, and i’m excited to see that teams progression throughout the season.

One of the teams Phoenix lost to was the Chicago Sky, who finished the opening weekend 2-0 defeating the Mercury and the Minnesota Lynx. If you mention the Sky, you have to mention Kahleah Copper and now playing without Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot, Copper will need to, and has, moved to centre stage for this Sky team.

On Tuesday (May 23) we have a rematch between the Washington Mystics and Connecticut Sun, and the Atlanta Dream looking to bounce back against the Minnesota Lynx. Later on in the week the Aces travel to LA to take on the Sparks who put on a three-point shooting clinic against Phoenix, and the Mercury host the Lynx, both looking to get their first win of the season.

The season has just started but the storylines are budding. Let’s hoop.