It’s Week 13 in the WNBA and WNBA Weekly Update hosts Caroline Fenton and Cassandra Negley break down a packed slate of storylines — from the league’s first-ever Rivalry Week to injury updates and playoff races.
We debate if Rivalry Week was a hit or miss, analyze how the Minnesota Lynx keep winning without Napheesa Collier, and look at why the LA Sparks are suddenly one of the league’s most dangerous teams with Cameron Brink back. Plus, Alyssa Thomas makes history, the Indiana Fever face devastating injuries, and the playoff race gets even tighter.
0:00 – WNBA Week 13 Fast Five
4:01 – WNBA Rivalry Week review — great idea, poor execution?
10:29 – Lynx beating Liberty without Napheesa Collier
21:45 – Valkyries chasing history in playoff hunt
25:45 – Indiana Fever lose both Sydney Colson & Aari McDonald
33:07 LA Sparks surging toward playoff contention
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What is up everybody? We are back with another WNBA update. She’s Cassandra Negley. I am Caroline Fenton on today’s edition of the program. We are talking WNBA rivalry week. We are talking the Los Angeles Sparks. Don’t look now, but are they a team to watch? And we are talking Liberty Links and the back and forth and back and forth and back and forth matchups that we are getting between two of the best teams in the league. So, let’s dive into it. And before we tip off the first quarter of today’s show, we start how we always do with our fast five. The five storylines that you may have missed this past week in the WNBA. Let’s get into it. Number one, it’s the WNBA’s first ever rivalry week. This is the first time ever that they have scheduled what they are calling a rivalry week. And that all started this past Saturday night with the Indiana Fever Chicago Sky matchup which is an obvious Caitlyn Clark Angel Reese rivalry that started back in college that they’re continuing in the W. We also had the Dream Mercury on Sunday and this week we will see Liberty Sparks Dream Storm which is in Canada which is awesome now that we’re setting the table for the Toronto Tempo to come into the league and a few other key matchups over the next couple of days. So, do we like that the WNBA is doing this with rivalry week? How do we think that it could be better for rivalry week? We will get into much more of that later on in the podcast. But let’s move on to number two. Nefisa Collier has missed three games after spraining her right ankle on Sunday night against the Las Vegas Aces. Now, the Lynx still remain comfortably at the top of the league standings in first place, and they’ve won their last five games, two of which included beating the New York Liberty without Nfisa Collier in a WNBA Finals rematch from last season. The latest update is that Collier hopes to return to the court within the next week. That’s the latest that we’ve heard. We’ll keep you updated, but for now, it’s wait and see on the MVC. Number three, Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas makes history with her third triple double in a row. She had 11 uh excuse me, she had 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. She became the first ever WNBA player with three straight triple doubles in their win over the Fever on Thursday night. This is her 19th 19th career triple double. Now, mind you, no other WNBA player in history has had more than four, and she’s had 19. Just let that sink in. Huge accomplishment. Big credits to Alyssa Thomas who does not get enough love for the things that she’s been doing throughout her entirety of a career and this season as well. Let’s move on to number four. Vital Indiana Fever point guard Sydney Coulson and Ari McDonald who have done so much in picking up the pieces in Caitlyn Clark’s injury absence suffer season ending injuries of their own. Uh they lost to the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday night. That’s when they both left with injuries. Sydney Coulson tore her left ECL and McDonald broke a bone in her right foot. So this now leaves the Indiana Fever with a big old zero goose egg healthy point guards as we go into such a critical point in the regular season. That brings us to the last but certainly certainly not least number five. Asia Wilson makes WNBA history. She became the first ever player with 30 points and 20 rebounds in a single game. She put up 32 in the Aces routing of Connecticut and also adding 20 boards just for fun. Uh the Aces are now on a four-game winning streak and they sit at number six in the standings. But if Asia keeps playing like this, could the Aces make a push as we head into the end of the season? That was this week’s fast five. Everything that you may have missed in the WNBA, but let’s get into it. We will start with game time. our first quarter first ever WNBA rivalry week. We have Liberty in Minnesota. We had the Sky and the Fever, which is, you know, a fun take on the WNBA embracing some of these college rivalries cast. But yeah, I’m very plugged in to the league. Obviously, we talk about the league every single week. I love the WNBA. I follow every possible social media account there is. Not a whole lot of buzz for Rivalry Week. So, in my opinion, really fun idea. I love embracing rivalries. Not the best execution. Yeah, they first announced it in a press release. I think announcing the schedule maybe or announcing just kind of like big picture ideas for the season. Uh, and it was kind of buried a little bit in there. I put it in the news or at the time, also forgot about it. Haven’t thought about it since. I’m on board with you. I love the idea of rivalry weeks. you know, talking to Commissioner Kathy Angleberg and people in kind of um leadership roles in the W, this is what they’ve been talking about. This is how you grow the league, how you grow interest. These are games of consequence in August. You love to see it. I just don’t think it was executed very well. Because a big reason I think we haven’t heard about the rivalry week is because we’ve talked so much, for example, about how New York and Minnesota play their three or four games within like 10 days of each other on like these really wacky scheduling issues, which doesn’t really lend to fun rivalry games. And you had already mentioned like Sky Fever is a rivalry. It’s a historic rivalry. It also has that college aspect to it with Kaitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Neither one of them played on Saturday. And that’s where injuries obviously it’s the, you know, the obvious thing that’s going to show up is when you have injuries like to to Caitlyn Clark and to Angel Ree. Obviously that hurts those respective teams and hurts the intrig intr to the games but also hurts that the really foundation of that rivalry at least what has come to surface over the last couple of years between Angel Ree and Caitlyn Clark just doesn’t exist anymore but in my opinion that’s now the responsibility of the WNBA because there are probably a lot of new WNBA fans that don’t realize how deep and how historical that Fever Sky rivalry is. Educate the new fans. educate the new people that are now paying attention to this league. And I I don’t feel like we’ve gotten that. And I think that Fever Sky and this Caitlyn Clark, Angel Reese rivalry is it’s a big one, right? We talked about it ever since LSU won the national championship and Angel Ree was pointing to her ring finger after the national championship and it was the number one topic of conversation on ESPN, on Yahoo Sports, and every national news media outlet. But what else? like what other rivalries have organically unfolded because I think the last thing that we want to see is trying to say the league like force a a rivalry that’s not there that I think fans can feel that fans can feel how it’s a little bit forced in uno organic but there are so many rivalries that exist in this league that may not be as publicized or as obvious as Caitlyn Clark versus Angel Ree and the Seaver team and this guy team. So, I would love for the league to take that next step forward of marketing its players, not just marketing the league itself, not just marketing the growth of the league, which is wonderful and very well reported, rightfully so. I want to see more of this. And rivalry week is a good idea, but dig a little bit deeper. Pull the layers back a little bit. It feels so just slammed in. Um, I’m old school, so let me bring over my notebook because I went down rivalry week. You and me both. Cass, nothing like a good pen and paper. I like it so much better. Uh, so let’s go down where I wrote rivalry week. Uh, New York has three rivalry opponents on this schedule. Uh, you have Los Angeles, which is kind of like the cross country rivalry. I can get into that, right? LA versus New York. People talk about it all the time. Totally. Uh, New York and Las Vegas. Obviously, like short memory here. Don’t have a short memory. That was an incredible uh final series a couple years ago. Then the semi-finals last year. And then you have New York, Minnesota, which uh I don’t know if I would call that a rivalry. I think there has to be like some sort of uh intense history here. And this is very recent. But also like they’ve called it a rivalry already kind of like I think Courtney Williams said it. But that’s not my point. My point is New York is playing three rivalry games in the span of like what nine days or something. That’s absurd. Just like pick some. Like not every rivalry that you feel strongly about has to be in this week because I think it’s hurting the product. And if it’s hurting the product, do I really want to watch? And that’s why like look, I have no problem that we’re getting New York Minnesota. None at all. I’m I have an issue with the fact that we had to wait until July 30th to get the first matchup between these two. But when you have something good, you don’t need to cram it all within this one little span and try and market it as something with a bunch of all of these other games, you know, like let it breathe a little bit. Let the games market themselves and have it in its own standalone window and then do the marketing for maybe some of these these games that aren’t as obvious on paper as being really really good in heated matchups, especially coming off of the WNBA finals this past season. So, I love the idea. I want to see more of it. I’m so glad that the W is embracing a lot of these rivalries. Rivalries are good for sports. They’re good for women’s sports. They’re good for sports in general, and they are so fun and organic, and they happen naturally in this league, and I am so on board for celebrating that. But let’s celebrate it. Let’s truly allow these games to be kind of standalone and celebrated in of themselves. Yeah, could not agree more. Um, so I think like ending kind of capstone here, this is a great idea. I love that the WNBA is finally leaning into things like this. Yeah. Uh, but I think like many things, you know, it it needs to continue to evolve and get better in the ensuing years to really be what they want it to be. No doubt. We live and we learn that. We’ll put that one in the little uh suggestion box of the WNBA office. I’m sure they appreciate our feedback. Uh, let’s go on to the second quarter. We just mentioned it. Liberty links, a rematch of this past year’s WNBA finals. It was chippy. It was back and forth. It was close. And we have gotten uh several of these matchups over the last couple of weeks. But the Lyns are up. They’ve got the advantage two nothing now that we are two games into this four game essentially series uh between these two teams. Now the Lyns were able to take down the Liberty with no Nefisa Collier. Important to point out also that the Liberty without were without Bana Stewart, but the Lynx being able to take down a stacked Liberty team without their, you know, likely MVP of the league, without their key cog and the motor that keeps everything running, you know, because after the Lynx took that first game, one of my big questions was, is the difference between the Lyns and the Liberty just that the Lynx have Nisa Collier and the Liberty don’t? like I it could be as simple as that, but they didn’t have a Nefisa Collier to fall back on in that second matchup and they were still able to take that game. What have you noticed from this link squad and how they’ve been able to pick up the pieces without Nisa Collier? I do want to come back to the New York of it all, but when it comes to the links playing without Fee, they have always for two years now talked about their chemistry and I think that really does matter in a moment like this. It can even be extrapolated out to Dane Carrington, which I know you want to talk about soon here, too. But D Jane was in that backcourt with Natisha Heidman and Courtney Williams when they played in Connecticut and they made it to the finals. And that was a team, I don’t know if it was that specific team, but it was the era of like the underdog. Like everyone overlooks Connecticut because they didn’t have necessarily a star-like fee. Even though they had Alyssa Thomas, they did not have this like marketing star, you know, MVP caliber player like Fee. They were all just quote unquote role players. So, I think everyone’s stepping up without Fee. You know, Jessica Shepard playing some more minutes. Alana Smith is really doing a good job as an undersized center. And I think uh Cheryl Reef had said the other day like this was a player who when she was in Chicago, Fee had said, “I really don’t like playing against her.” which is an incredible compliment. And so to bring her in and have her play those quality minutes is important. I don’t think it’s, you know, a long-term solution to go without fee cuz she is an MVP contender and and in the lead for that and just the crux of everything that they do. But they can certainly find ways to win without her. And I think that’s what gives me even more confidence about this Lings team being a legitimate championship contender. As if I needed any more confidence. I mean, they are the best team in the league. But being able to do it and now on a fivegame winning streak, being able to take down another legitimate contender without your superstar, I think just proves the depth of this team and the way that they’re able to kind of to bounce back even without Nfisa Collier and doing it so quickly. Finding ways to win games by any means necessary, I think is the true kind of marquee of a championship contending team. I do want to get to the Liberty side of it all, but you brought it up. DJ Carrington, the Lynx made a move before the trade deadline, traded for DJ Carrington. In your opinion, what you saw from her, what has she added to this lineup? Cuz in that game against the Liberty, she comes off the bench with 15 points, and then you supplement that with Kayla McBride who had 18, Courtney Williams with 14 in that game. I mean, any three of them have the ability to go for the high teens 20 plus point games. And having that in Neisa Collier’s absence is what you need to kind of keep you going. Obviously, you can’t have that for the entirety of the rest of the season or into the postseason. Like, obviously, you know, they’re going to need to get Nisa Collier back at some point, but I think the addition of Dja Carrington just gives this already stacked team yet another weapon. Dane Carrington, when we first talked about her last week, we said defense, defense, defense. And I think that is still very true. Courtney Williams, and I think Kayla McBride talked about it, too. The freaking luxury of now being able to say, “Hey, Dane, you’re going to guard their best player is incredible because it also takes offensive pressure off of, for example, Kayla McBride. She can focus a little more on offense rather than taking all of her energy to defend, you know, the Liberty’s best player.” And the thing that I always keep in mind was that final play by Sabrina in game three uh that won it in Minnesota on the last play hits that three-pointer quiets the crowd. Kayla McBride was the one guarding her. And Kayla did a good job. This is not like Kayla didn’t do a good job. She even said after the game like I guarded her a full 40 minutes. But guarding a player like Sabrina a full 40 minutes is exhausting. And so now you have an additional player and a very very good player who can do that and as you said come off the bench and do that. I think the offense is also a luxury. Um that’s maybe wasn’t like the focal point, right? It’s this added benefit and when they get feedback it’s going to be an even more added benefit. Oh my gosh. When they get feedback it’s like how in the world are we supposed to one stop this team and two score on this team? And that kind of brings us brought up the defensive, you know, addition that kind of brings us to the Liberty from what we’ve seen. I mean, in that matchup, Sabrina Yianescu is held to four for 15 from the field. Natasha Cloud 6 for 11. Emma Misman five for 11. I mean, this team, this Liberty team whose calling card is dropping threes and very highscoring games and just kind of like a very highflying offense, like Golden State Warriors type of offense. They the Lynx were able to do what I think is incredibly difficult and that’s take Superman’s cape away from him. That’s exactly what they did to the Liberty. But what really stood out to you about this team and maybe what needs to change in order for the Liberty to kind of get their look back against this Lynx team? I think the Liberty did themselves in a little bit. Uh 20 turnovers is one of their season highs. They just looked sloppy. The entry passes at times seemed incredibly difficult. I think Sandy Brondello said afterward there just weren’t people open and they kept trying to force that kind of right as soon as they got across half court. Uh the turnovers need to be cleaned up and I think they will. Uh but they also talked about effort and like a grit and I think if you look at we’re going to see obviously two more of these matchups but if you look at the first two matchups the Liberty come in they are severely injured. They still don’t have front court depths even though they do have Emma, but they come into that game and they actually play pretty well for the situation that they’re in and they’re proud of that, right? But then the Lynx are uh I don’t know, still motivated or what have you. And they come into this one, it’s their first time in New York since they lose the finals that they feel like they should have won. And as you said, like get their lick bat, dominant win. you know, New York can’t really get anything going. I’m excited now to see what’s going to happen in game three and game four because I don’t think New York’s going to play like that again, even if they are still without Stewie, uh, Kennedy Burke, and Naravi. I just think, you know, if you are a Liberty fan, you are now sitting in a really uncomfortable position of we just came off a game where we looked tired, sloppy, we’re injured, and then you look down at this schedule. You have a West Coast road trip at LA, next day at Vegas, and then you have a game at Minnesota and then back at home against Minnesota as well. Whereas Minnesota and when the uh the Liberty have that West Coast road trip, Minnesota’s off. Mhm. So, it’s just kind of adding salt into the wound that we are exhausted. We’re at the point in the season now where it has been an absolute grind. Everybody’s hurt. Everybody’s exhausted. We’ve been traveling, you know, with this kooky schedule and it doesn’t get any easier anytime soon. So, I don’t know where the Liberty are supposed to find any sort of reprieve once they have that that next backto back against the links. I think I just heard my dog like deliver an incredibly deep sigh just listening to this again because he knows how exhausting it is to have a a WNBA schedule in 2025. He understands. He’s like, “You need naps. You need rest.” He knows. But I think it’s super interesting or intriguing. We were just talking kind of about uh stories coming up and what we’re focused on. By the time these four games are done, there’s a real possibility that we look at them and say, “What can we really take out of this? Should these two teams meet again in the playoffs?” Because even though players are going to say, “It’s not an excuse, you know, that we didn’t have Fee. It’s not an excuse that we didn’t have Stewie. It’s not an excuse our schedule, everyone goes through the same schedule, whatever, it’s still fair to say it impacts you.” like there is an impact. And Leo Fee actually told the New York Post in an exclusive that they had last week that this is probably the toughest, most tired she’s ever been. And now she played in Euro Basket. Um, plays overseas, you know, in the WNBA offseason. Like these players go year round. Kayla McBride can say the same thing. But it is exhausting at this point. And I do wonder what will come into play should these two meet in the playoffs that we’ve already seen in these in these matchups. And that’s true. It’s not an excuse. Every player in every coach in any sport in America will tell you that your schedule is not an excuse. But sometimes it can be an explanation for how a a certain team looks. If they look, you know, totally jetlagged and sluggish and hurt and worn down. That makes sense because there’s not a a sport in the world in which scheduling is created equal. You’re always going to get, you know, the someone’s going to have to have the short end of the stick. There’s going to be one team or several teams that travel cross country more than any other team. And when you’re an East Coast team like New York, your West Coast travel is inevitably going to be more difficult than maybe some of these Midwestern, Chicago, Indiana kind of teams. So, no, it’s not an excuse, but it does explain maybe some late season, mid-season skids that we could be seeing from some of these teams. I think the Liberty are an example of that. So, we’ll continue to keep an eye on that. The Liberty, like we said, an absolute grind of a schedule over the next couple of weeks, but we will get a rematch with Minnesota and New York on August 16th. So, that’s this upcoming Saturday. We’ll give you a full uh kind of a breakdown of all those games that you’re going to watch o want to watch over the next couple of weeks, but that’s one that I for sure will be keeping an eye on. Before we head into the rest of our game first, it’s halftime. All right, before the third quarter, let’s take a breather. Let’s go into halftime. Um the Golden State Valkyries are hatching an egg. Uh, this article, the headline is mysterious oversized violet speckled egg, which is a a sentence I don’t think I’ve ever said in my life. It’s not every day that you get to say something that you’ve never said. Love that. Thank you for that, Golden State Valkyries. Um, it appeared to in front of Thrive City in San Francisco and it is believed to be from a quote undetermined bird species. Lot of mystery happening at uh at Balhalla Casp. What’s going on? What’s going on with the Valkyries? Uh you know, continuation of their great marketing. Uh we’re expecting a mascot to come. Uh I don’t know much else. My favorite part about this, we just looked into this. So when they did this, they said that they had had a wildlife expert out to look at the bird. I believe his name is Kenny Elen. Uh, and so I’m kind of thinking like, is this guy real or is it just like I don’t know, you made up some name, right? He’s real. He’s a freelance falconer. Um, and they have like involved him in coming out to look at the egg and see what’s going on. Like they are going so deep into this. I love love love the commitment. I think like if you grow up a Valkyrie fan or you are a part of this, you know, like you’re gonna have kids one day, whatever, nieces, nephews, like you’re telling them about this weird little piece of lore about how you got a mascot, if it is a mascot. And if you are in the Bay Area, like how fun would that be to go take the kids over to see the big purple egg in front of the arena? Um, first of all, I did not know that Falconers could freelance. Uh, I guess I just didn’t know that there were freelance gigs. available out there, but you learn something new every single day. I give so much credit to this Valkyy’s marketing team for playing so much into the colors and the camaraderie and the themes and playing into, you know, what they’ve built, like the the brand that they have built for that team. Like, good for them for going all in on the theme. I think that the rest of these expansion teams in the WNBA can probably take a a page out of their playbook. You know, obviously we were waiting on Portland colors and mascot names for a very long time, but I think now they’re really starting to play into it to play into some of the themes and the roses of the city of Portland. Uh I just I love this. Like I’m all for thetick. I am all for the anticipation. And it is going to be like a really cool wingage creature, right? Like it’s that’s the mascot. I I would think so. I would think so. But I’m here for the anticipation. I will act surprised. All right. Um, I hope it’s like the birthday cakes, you know, and like there’s someone in the egg in a mascot uniform just like popping out. Or what if it’s like an animatronic thing? I don’t know if I like that. Okay, fair, fair, fair. Too far. Uh, way too far. Yeah, I guess we’re writing in notebooks, Caroline, and you want an animatronic. Like, is this like old school Chuck-E-Cheese? This is like old school, new school. Well, yeah, of course. You know, like the little the animatronic guys that would play the Toy Story. Yes. Yeah. Why not? I’m like it. I like I’m thinking like the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios, you know, like the pterodactyl that comes out and you hear the dinosaur noises. Like that’s what I’m picturing. We want people to come back to games. But like a cute one, like a cute purple little pterodactyl looking guy with a cute little screech, not a scary one. Us Valkyries. We’ll see. I’m not a marketing expert, but we’ll see. Okay, let’s get into the third quarter. We mentioned it a little bit earlier in the show in our fast five, but Sydney Coulson and Arya McDonald are out for the season. Sydney Coulson tore her left ACL. Ari McDonald broke a bone in her right foot, and both Fever point guards will be out for the remainder of their season. Now, the Fever have won six of their last eight games. They have been red freaking hot cast. But no Cindy Coulson, no Ari McDonald for right now, for the foreseeable future. No Caitlyn Clark. And we don’t have an update of when we might see Caitlyn Clark. How sustainable is this winning when the Fever don’t have a single healthy point guard? Yeah, they played the Chicago game without a point guard and certainly they have players who can handle the ball. Kelsey Mitchell, Stephanie White actually uh pointed out Aaliyah Boston as someone who could initiate their offense. Uh they did sign Odyssey Sims uh the day after on a on a hardship end of season I think contract. This is just brutal for Indiana. Like I don’t know of a team in recent memory that has had such realistic championship hopes just continuously like knocked down. And this is a team too that like what was it a month ago won the Commissioner Cup championship and we were saying like oh wow this is still a championship contender. Like get Caitlyn back. What kind of team are they going to be? A week ago like same thing. We were talking about how much Arie McDonald has meant to this team being able to step in and just flawlessly run the offense and like I’ve talked to Sydney Coulson, you know, way back eve of the season just about the importance of veteran leadership and what that means to a locker room and and what it means to have her doing that which is clearly mattered. Indiana feels like just cannot catch a break in luck. I hope whatever is going on with Caitlyn Clark, they do not rush her back. I don’t think they will. Um, but I do wonder, you know, last time she came back, she was on a little bit of a minutes restriction. And so, what does that look like if you really don’t have a point guard who’s been with you all season? Odyssey Sims is a consmate professional, a veteran in this league, has played with a lot of different teams. You know, I I trust her, but she hasn’t been with this team until, you know, there’s four weeks left in the season. And you don’t just insert new player, new point guard here and expect it to be a seamless transition. You know, obviously that’s the idea, but that’s not realistic. And some might think bringing Caitlyn Clark back now makes more sense now that you are, you know, without a a a point guard, a healthy point guard. But I would say cast like now even feels like there’s less of a push maybe even less pressure to bring back Caitlyn Clark because without Ari and without Sydney Coulson you know will adding in a Caitlyn Clark all of a sudden make a massive difference like is the risk of bringing Caitlyn Clark back from injury even on a minutes restriction worth the reward that you may or may not get and frankly I say no when it comes to Caitlyn Clark I think it is wise of the Indiana fever to air on the side of caution, to air on the side of we’ll look ahead to the future and mortgage the right now if we feel like we’ll be better in 2026 and beyond because of it. Because at this point, you’re sitting in a really tough pack of teams just literally battling it out every single night for positioning. And maybe you feel like, okay, if Caitlyn’s ready to go in a couple weeks and we can ramp her up, you know, we like this first round matchup that it looks like we’re getting, but also like if you’re playing a team that’s really physical or is going to throw, you know, that blitzing and hedging at Caitlyn and make life difficult and you don’t have, you know, another point guard who’s been in your system, another AR McDonald, like again, like has been so important to them, like you said, do you want to risk it? Do you feel like you can win a championship this year? Because I think if you’re being realistic given the situation you’re in with injuries, specifically that situation, maybe you feel like this is just the links or the liberties year. I mean, anyone can get hot. I don’t want to take that away, but to your point, there is so much risk it feels like in doing this with a player who is the face of the franchise and can bring you multiple championships. Like Caitlyn Clark, Aaliyah Boston will still be signed next year even under the new CBA because they are on rookie contracts. you’re going to have a bunch of money to spend um on almost whatever player you can bring in because most of them are free agents. I don’t know. It’s I think also it’s hard for us to say because we don’t know exactly what’s going on with Caitlyn Clark. They’ve been very cy about all of that. They canled some shootarounds last week. We’re not sure how healthy Caitlyn is, how close she is. Only the front office knows that. Uh it will be interesting to see how they handle it. And I I think for right now at this point it is so dayto-day or at least that’s what the vibe is from the front office. And if the front office has decided, hey, we’re shutting Caitlyn down for the season. I do feel like an announcement would have been made and maybe this is a business decision on behalf of the Indiana friendly. It’s all posturing at this point. Like at this point, it’s all just guessing on our part. I don’t think they would have announced if Caitlyn were out for the rest of the season unless it was an entry that we like saw. Yeah. Um Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, like, why announce that your star is going to be out for the rest of the season and basically announce to everybody like, “Hey, if you came to see Caitlyn, don’t worry about coming cuz she’s gone.” Like, that is a very fair point. But also tip off to other teams that your star player is not coming back. I don’t know. I just I think I think we’ve seen W teams um get into this game of like the mind game almost. Uh we see it with injury reports which seems to be tightened up a little bit lately. Uh I think it’s just a game. I don’t know if she’ll come back or not, but I don’t think they would say honestly. Yeah, you’ve completely changed my mind. Why in the world would they announce it? Yes. Yeah. Great job, Pass. We’re very persuasive. And that’s another thing like right now that’s probably the ultimate tool that the Fever have in their back pocket is forcing opposing teams to have to know do some sort of game planning for Caitlyn Clark because it is so you know ambiguous about what her status is that if you have that leverage you will hold on to that leverage as long as you possibly can. So, yeah, 1,00%. We will be watching The Fever moving forward of how they are able to overcome even more injuries because they’ve done a really masterful job of overcoming Caitlyn Clark’s injury, but something’s got to give at some point. And the more and more the injuries keep piling on, the more and more difficult it gets to contend in this kind of mucky middle of the WNBA where everybody is jocking for positioning. Uh, but let’s move on to the fourth quarter because as we’re talking about positioning, don’t look now. Fourth quarter. LA Sparks. Should we be keeping an eye on the Sparks? They’ve won four of their last five. They’ve won nine of their last 11. Cameron Brink comes back from an ACL tear that she suffered last season. We have Kelsey Plum averaging 20 points a game. We have Deca Hami averaging 18 points a game. The LA Sparks have been on freaking fire. Pass. Should we pay more attention to them? Yes, because I think they can come up and steal a playoff spot a month after we thought they were dead in the water, for lack of like a better term there. Uh, they’re also one of the most exciting offenses. So, let me bring my notebook back out. Get it, girl. Uh, 28 WNBA games this year have been over 100 points. So, a team has scored over 100 points. Uh, five by Los Angeles, which ties Minnesota for the most. But Los Angeles has done them all since July 24th. They had backtobacks and then they lost a game and then they had three in a row of a hundred. I think everyone is stepping up in different ways. Kelsey Plum doesn’t have to facilitate the offense as much. She had talked about that this pass game I think. Um and also talked about like she thinks she’s better when she attempts fewer shots. Um Cameron Brink coming back like the rim protection. That’s really I think what’s going to make the difference for LA if they are to get into the playoffs is defense because that has been a struggle and I think having Cameron Brink back as she ramps up to minutes is going to be so important. She is an elite rim protector. I think her first game back it was like five blocks in 10 minutes or something like her efficiency and the minutes that she’s playing is absolutely bonkers. And so when you look at some of these teams without star players, well, Los Angeles now has one of their star players back and even when in the first couple of games back from injury, Cameron Brink was on a little bit of a pitch count. Look, rightfully so. You don’t want to rush her in after she’s been off the court for the last year. But she made her presence known even in just the 15 give or take minutes that she played in her first few games back. Like it was highlight reel type of plays. So, why not pay attention to the Los Angeles Sparks at this time? Because looking at the standings, of course, you have the Lings at the top. You have the Liberty and the Dream and the Mercury at the top and they’ve kind of, you know, kind of shifted between two and four. But you have the Sparks right up there with the Golden State Valkyries, the Seattle Storm. They’re ascending, taking themselves out of the gaps of the standings, and now they’re putting themselves in position to be one of those postseason teams. So, if they keep up this trajectory and this momentum, there’s no reason to believe why the Sparks won’t be in the conversation. And as we’re talking about postseason and West Coast teams, we’ll go into a little bit of an overtime, give you a little extra something, a little land yap topic for you. We still have plenty of basketball left to be played before we enter the postseason. But the Golden State Val are a team that I just named that are in contention for that conversation. and they’re sitting right at 500 15 and 15 just below Seattle and just above LA. Now, if the Valkyries did make the postseason, they would be the first expansion team ever to make the postseason in their debut year. Again, we have time. There’s a lot of basketball left to be played, but your impression on the Valkyries at this point. Is what they’re doing sustainable until the end of the season? I want to talk about schedule. What I will say about Golden State though is them staying able to win without Kayla Thornton and with everyone they’ve had in and out of the lineup. Just so impressive. Like such a good job in Golden State. I think they are going to make the playoffs. But one thing to pay attention to for both Golden State and Los Angeles is their schedule down the stretch. They’re kind of in that pack of the middle of easy schedules. Golden State has a little bit of a tougher schedule because they’re going to have to play Minnesota twice, New York once, Atlanta once. When you look at Los Angeles, the interesting thing about them is they’ve already completed their Minnesota series. Uh the one series they haven’t completed, like the big one is Dallas. And especially if Paige Beckers is not available for Dallas, that’s looking pretty good for LA. So like Golden State, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, uh maybe even like Indiana in there. It’s going to be nightly. Nightly these standings are going to change. And they already have. I mean, it’s been great that two through five, two through six kind of area and the standings have shifted so much. Expand that field even more for the Sparks, the way that they’re playing in the Valkyries and how consistent they have been. I think that’s a very important point you bring up though when we talk about in any sport championship contenders or you know a team that you can trust the schedule is so pivotal in that especially because we just highlighted the gruesome schedule truly that the Liberty have over the next couple of weeks. If I have to put, you know, stake into a team, I’m going to be looking at a team that’s getting hot at the right time and that has a much more manageable manageable upcoming schedule versus a team that’s getting injured and is sliding and has an even more difficult schedule upcoming. So, very smart point by you that we have to look at some of these schedules and what’s facing some of these teams when the margins of difference are like razor thin, razor razor thin. Um, all right, we got a ton of those matchups coming up this week. week. We’ve got a blast of a week in the WNBA. Rivalry week is coming up on Tuesday. We have New York and LA. New York at LA. So, 10:00 Eastern time. Yawn late. I’ll be watching it, but still. Um, back to the East Coast, Caroline. Yeah, Eastern time zone is kicking my butt, Cass. I I just moved from the central time zone in Nashville to Charlotte, the Eastern time zone. Like, yeah, I guess it’s great that things start later in the morning, but like your girl needs her beauty sleep. Okay, so maybe 7:00. A nice healthy 7:00 start would be much much appreciated. Um I know that everybody, you know, is on my schedule. On Wednesday the 13th, we’ve got the Liberty at Las Vegas. That’s that West Coast road trip that we were just talking about. 9:30 Eastern time start. And then of course we’ve got Seattle at Atlanta. The WNBA’s first regular season game in Canada. That game will be in Vancouver. So nice little setting of the stage, little building of a foundation for the Toronto Tempo that are joining the league. How’s your thoughts? WNBA in Canada. A I’m excited for Toronto. Um WNBA has always or at least lately done really well in Canada. Those preseason games packed. People get excited for it. I think it’s just a continuation of the expanding of the league. Not necessarily in terms of teams, but in terms of fandom and bringing these players to different places. Also, the Toronto Tempo have talked about kind of traveling around their country and playing in different areas. not just their, you know, 22 games or whatever in Toronto. So, this is a way to start that. Also, a lot of Canadian players in the W. Build that Canadian fan base. Look, I’m I’m here for it. We’ve seen so many other leagues do it. The NFL playing games in Rio and S. Paulo and Mexico City and Germany and London. They’re going global. The NBA is doing the same thing. There’s no reason why the W shouldn’t be doing that, too. and continuing to build, you know, the local United States fan base across the world. Why not? Especially when you’ve got Toronto joining the league and here in just a few short months, Cass, it’s been a blast. Always a blast. We are here every single week keeping you up to date with the latest in the WNBA standings, the latest in terms of movement in the WNBA injuries. Unfortunately, the injury bug has been biting this league. So, we’ll keep you up to date every single week. to commit right here with Yahoo Sports.
