Plus, everything that went down on Friday night — including Napheesa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx toppling Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.
Good afternoon, WNBA fans! There’s just about two weeks left in the regular season, and the race for playoff seeding has intensified. A Minnesota Lynx win (over the Indiana Fever) and a Connecticut Sun loss (to the Las Vegas Aces) shook up the standings, with the Sun dropping to the third seed.
Tonight is a single-game slate, with the 7th-seeded Phoenix Mercury taking on the 5th-seeded Seattle Storm at 9pm ET.
First, let’s start with Friday’s game results:
It’s been a somewhat disappointing year for the Mercury, who hover below .500 and have dropped five of their last seven games. Phoenix has been led by Kahleah Copper (21.9 points on 44.3% shooting), Brittney Griner (18.1 points on 57% shooting, 6.4 rebounds), and Diana Taurasi (15 points), Natasha Cloud (11.6 points, 6.8 assists).
The Storm also haven’t been great since the break — they’re just 3-5 since the Olympics — so this one is a battle between two talented teams who have somewhat underachieved. Skylar Diggins-Smith has been the Storm’s leading scorer in three of the last four games, while Jewell Loyd (20.1 points per game) has been the leading scorer this season. Still, it’s Nneka Ogwumike who’s arguably had the best season of the Storm trio — the 2016 league MVP has averaged 16.8 points on 50.6% from the year and 41.3% from three.
Tonight, both teams will look to secure a much-needed win. They’ve faced off twice so far, with each team coming out victorious once.
We saw some movement in the standings last night, with the Lynx surpassing the Sun for the #2 seed. Here’s where everything stands with two weeks left to play:
Saturday’s matchup between the Mercury and Storm will be streamed on WNBA League Pass and NBA TV.