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The Liberty's loss to the Sparks this week, which was sandwiched around nice road wins over the Mercury and Storm, was one of the most surprising by any team this season. Even so, they maintain a comfortable lead in the race for the No. 1 seed. Perhaps the best news for the Liberty lately is that Breanna Stewart seems to have rediscovered her 3-point shot. She's at 44.1% post-Olympic break, up from 22.9% prior. |
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The Sun were the latest team to learn that the Fever are much better than they were early in the season, but that loss remains their only one in the last six games. DiJonai Carrington, who has made her case for Most Improved Player largely on the defensive end, stepped up on offense this week. She averaged 16.7 points on 52.9% shooting to give the Sun a major boost on that side of the ball. |
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The Lynx's seven-game winning streak, which was their longest since 2021, came to an end against the Wings, but they did bounce back with a win over the Sky. Courtney Williams took them home in that one by burying a succession of mid-range jumpers down the stretch. To this point, 227 of her 361 field goal attempts have come in that zone, and her 6.9 attempts per game are the most by any player in a season since she herself took a staggering 10.4 per game in 2021. |
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Three more wins for the Fever this week, including a big one over the Sun, to run their winning streak to four games. That's their longest since 2015, and this run has carried them over .500 for the first time since June 2019. Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark are second and third in the league, respectively, since the Olympic break, and during that run are averaging a combined 51.3 points, 9.1 rebounds and 11.4 assists. |
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A'ja Wilson continued her phenomenal campaign with two 40-point games this week, though one of them came in an upset loss to the lowly Wings. Wilson is now tied with Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart for the most 40-point games all-time with four, and is averaging 27.5 points per game, which would be the highest single-season average in league history. |
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Seattle's lackluster return from the Olympic break continued with two more losses this week, notably to New York and Connecticut. That continued a worrying trend that makes it hard to believe in the Storm as a legitimate title contender. For the season, they are now 3-8 against the top-four teams. Their next two games are also against the Sun and Liberty, and will be major tests. |
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Three games, three defeats for the Mercury this week, who continue to struggle post-Olympic break. They are now just 2-5 since play resumed, and that slump has left them in seventh place. To make matters worse, they'll be without Diana Taurasi and Natasha Cloud for their next game -- a crucial one against the Dream -- after they reached the technical foul limit for the season, which comes with a one-game suspension. |
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The Dream followed up their three-game winning streak with a four-game losing streak that prevented them from taking advantage of the Sky's collapse. Even with their recent win over the Sparks, they are still stuck in ninth place due to the tiebreaker. The problem for this team continues to be on the offensive end. They are shooting 40.5% from the field post-Olympic break, which is the worst mark in the league. |
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The Wings' last-gasp push for a playoff spot was halted, at least momentarily, by the Fever on Sunday in a game in which Arike Ogunbowale tied the record for most 3-pointers with nine. They had won three in a row prior to that defeat, and are finally starting to look like the team they were last season. This week they play all three of the teams ahead of them in the race for the No. 8 seed. |
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A loss to the Sun on Saturday ended a season-best three-game winning streak for the Mystics, who are suddenly only two games out of the eighth and final playoff spot. They'll likely run out of time, though, and find it difficult to continue stacking wins with Shakira Austin once again on the sidelines. The third-year forward, who has been limited to 11 games this season, hurt her ankle in their win over the Storm and hasn't played since. |
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Angel Reese continued her historic rookie season this week by surpassing Sylvia Fowles for the all-time single-season rebounding record, and also claimed the marks for most offensive rebounds in a season and most double-doubles by a rookie. Unfortunately, those accomplishments have not translated to wins for the Sky, who have now lost six in a row and only hold the final playoff spot over the Dream via a tiebreaker. |
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Just as everyone predicted, the Sparks ended their seven-game losing streak by knocking off the league-leading Liberty. Interestingly enough, they are 3-5 against last season's finalists, the Liberty and Aces, and 4-20 against everyone else. Rickea Jackson continues to excel and on Sunday joined Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike as the only Sparks rookies to score 400-plus points. |
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