When the final buzzer sounded on Team USA’s defeat in the 2024 WNBA All-Star game , former UConn superstar Breanna Stewart felt an immediate sense of déjà vu. The three-time Olympian was taken back to three years ago, to a nearly-identical loss against another team of WNBA stars eager to knock Team USA off its pedestal as it prepared for the Tokyo Games.
“I think that everyone knows this is not what we do with USA Basketball, and realizing the amount of pride and pressure that comes along with that,” Stewart said. ” … It’s just locking in, keeping the main thing the main thing, and making sure that anytime you come off a loss, you grow, you improve, and you get better.”
Team USA fell 117-109 to Team WNBA at Footprint Center in Phoenix on Saturday despite a team-leading 31 points and 10 rebounds from Stewart. Stewart would have tied the scoring record for a WNBA All-Star game set by fellow Olympian Jewell Loyd in 2023, but Arike Ogunbowale set a new standard leading Team WNBA with 32 points, shooting 10-for-20 from the field and 61.5% on 3-pointers. Every one of Ogunbowale’s points came in the second half, earning her second All-Star MVP honors.
Ogunbowale receiving the MVP trophy was another moment of history repeating itself: The Dallas Wings star first earned the honor in 2021 when the league debuted its Team USA vs. Team WNBA All-Star format ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
But repeating history might not a bad thing for Team USA as it prepares to take on teams far less talented than the WNBA All-Stars in Paris. Seven of this year’s Olympians were also on the squad that lost the All-Star game in 2021, and that group went on to win a seventh consecutive gold medal in Tokyo while outscoring opponents by an average of nearly 18 points.
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“This was our first test, and I’m glad we got tested,” Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson said. “This is something that we needed to do, same as a couple years ago. It’s difficult, but at the same time we’re pros. We’re great at what we do, and we know how to adapt and adjust at any moment, so we’re going to get there. It’s different, but we’re still 12 of the greatest in the world, so we’re gonna get the job done.”
Stewart is the reigning Olympic MVP and knows she and Wilson will bear much of the burden of leadership for Team USA on and off the court. Wilson, who logged 22 points, six rebounds and three steals in the All-Star game, was the MVP when the U.S. won gold at the 2022 FIBA World Cup, and she and Stewart are appearing in their second Olympics together in Paris.
“I think throughout this entire trip A’ja and I are going to continue to find our voices more in the locker room,” Stewart said. “It’s not time to panic, but it is time to learn and grow and figure out how we can be our best together. We have a group of very unselfish players. Everybody wants to succeed and win … The parity of women’s basketball is continuing to grow year after year, so it’s going to be tough, but that’s what you want as a player.”
The 2024 All-Star game marked Team USA’s first time playing together since the roster was unveiled on June 11, and the squad now heads immediately to London for another tune-up game against Germany. National team coach Cheryl Reeve said she attributes most of her squad’s struggles versus the All-Stars to a simple lack of experience together, and she expects to see quick improvement as player adjust to the USA system coming from their respective WNBA playbooks.
“You certainly don’t want to make excuses, because we’ve all played basketball for a long time, but I’m big into muscle memory. The muscle memory of a lot of our players is playing for their existing teams that they just finished playing for,” Reeve said. “Then you come in and you spend two days, you’re not going to be able to instinctively get to those places if it’s different than what you’ve been doing. So we’ve got to very, very quickly replace some things that that they do for other teams.”
Though the roster is veteran-heavy, Team USA also features five first-time Olympians in 5×5 basketball, including Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas. Thomas logged four points, five rebounds and two assists plus a block in 17 minutes of playing time, and she led the U.S. on the offensive boards with three. Former UConn star Napheesa Collier also played her first minutes since July 4 on Saturday as she recovers from a lingering foot injury, and Reeve said she plans for Collier’s usage to ramp up in the next exhibition.
“Everything that (Collier) has done was to put herself in position to be ready for us, and this was the next step of getting her in a game,” Reeve said. “We certainly didn’t want to overdo it as we’re really aiming for (July) 29 to make sure that we’ve got the group as we want it. But I think that you’ll see, the next time we play, you’ll see a lot more of Phee, so she’s doing well.”
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