WNBA Power Rankings: A New No. 1 Is Crowned
The Connecticut Sun split the two-game battle in Vegas, and that win against the Aces started a stretch of three road victories in four days. It was enough to move the Sun into our top slot, previously held by Las Vegas. Last season’s MVP Jonquel Jones had a career week, averaging 19.3 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks in four games, earning the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Vegas’ Kelsey Plum earned Western Conference Player of the Week honors, averaging 24.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists over the Aces’ three games.
In addition to the greatness displayed by the top two teams, two seven-game losing streaks were broken. How did the Liberty and Mercury get out of the losing column? Who moved up and who fell in the latest edition of our rankings? Find out below.
12. Indiana Fever (3-10) (↓ 4 Spots)
1 of 12
The Indiana Fever have lost three straight, and the rookie-laden roster has touched down to a spot closer to preseason expectations. While Kelsey Mitchell has continued her All-Star-caliber season and is third overall in scoring, putting up 19.5 points per game, the Fever struggled to get consistent production from someone else during their three-game slide. They finished with a 36.1 field-goal percentage across their three losses, the worst percentage this past week across the league.
A question I have for interim head coach Carlos Knox is when his team is struggling to shoot the ball, why has he hesitated to put 2022 No. 6 overall pick Lexie Hull into games for extended minutes to see what she has? In the Fever’s past three games, Hull has played over three minutes, then not at all and then under three minutes on Sunday against Atlanta. Knox has opted to go with veteran wing Tiffany Mitchell, who’s in a contract year. Knox is competitive and wants to win, but sitting Hull won’t give the franchise the information it needs to move forward.
11. Phoenix Mercury (3-8) (No Change)
2 of 12
The Mercury snapped their seven-game losing streak, but that’s not enough to move them up a spot. While their first two losses of the week were against two of the best teams in the league in the Chicago and Connecticut, the Mercury had trouble holding onto late-game leads. Against the Sky they controlled the fourth quarter until the final three minutes. And then a few days later at home against the Sun, Phoenix lost its fourth-quarter lead with 1:25 left in regulation. But against the Sparks, the Mercury figured out how to finish a game and shot 43.8 percent in the fourth quarter to LA’s 26.7.
It should be a comfort to Mercury fans that after being ejected against Chicago, Diana Taurasi has looked a little bit more like herself since. Against the Sun she put up 32 points on 10-of-19 shooting followed by a 19-point and seven-assist performance in Los Angeles. But Tina Charles has been out for two games with a shoulder injury. This is something worth monitoring, especially if the return timeline becomes longer than just day-to-day.
10. New York Liberty (3-8) (↑ 2 Spots)
3 of 12
The Liberty also snapped their seven-game losing streak with a 13-point win over the Indiana Fever. It came on a day when the team found out that All-Star Betnijah Laney would be out for two months after getting surgery on her right knee. New York got double-digit scoring from four of its starters, including a 23-point and seven-rebound performance from Sabrina Ionescu and a 16-point and seven-assist showing from center Stefanie Dolson. The Liberty kept their momentum in a gritty game against the Washington Mystics that had 10 total lead changes. New York won its second in a row on more defensive intensity and by out-rebounding its opponent.
Before the Lynx’s matchup with the Liberty on Sunday, Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve explained how she felt New York has improved defensively this season under Sandy Brondello amid offensive struggles and injuries. “Their opponent field-goal percentage, particularly in the last few games, under 40 percent, and that’s a hallmark of a Sandy Brondello-coached team,” she said pregame. Though the Liberty lost 84-77 to the Lynx, they continued to limit their turnovers. They had just 11 on Sunday and 35 in three games, the third-least total from the week.
9. Minnesota Lynx (3-8) (↑ 1 Spot)
4 of 12
The Lynx continue to improve, but what continues to hold them back is how often they turn the ball over. In their 84-76 loss to the Dream, a game where Sylvia Fowles had a 16-point and 20-rebound double-double, the Lynx turned the ball over 26 times, allowing the Dream to score 13 points off those turnovers. While their sample size is more limited this week after only playing two games, the Lynx finished the week with a 25.2 turnover percentage, the worst in the league.
Another bright spot for Minnesota was Aerial Powers’ most complete and efficient offensive performance of the season. The wing scored 27 points on 11-of-22 shooting and racked up seven rebounds and two assists in the Lynx’s win in New York. Cheryl Reeve put on a coaching clinic, making sure that her team attacked the Liberty’s weaknesses. Since New York is without three players who can defend the perimeter, that’s where the Lynx found their success via Powers and also by means of Rachel Banham’s height advantage over Crystal Dangerfield.
8. Los Angeles Sparks (5-7) (↑ 1 Spot)
5 of 12
While the Sparks played only two games this week, both games were close. LA won at home against the Wings and then lost on the road in Phoenix. In the Sparks’ 93-91 win, LA had 60 points in the paint. Without Tina Charles available for the Mercury, the Sparks won the battle in the paint again 46-26. But against Phoenix, however, LA’s lack of defensive intensity and versatility were exposed.
Skylar Diggins-Smith lit the Sparks up, exploding for 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three. Lexie Brown and Jordin Canada, who returned after missing a couple of games with a hamstring injury, both struggled staying in front of Diggins-Smith. After this week, the Sparks now hold the worst defensive rating in the league (107.2), taking that unceremonious title away from the Mercury.
7. Seattle Storm (5-5) (↓ 1 Spot)
6 of 12
Seattle has lost two straight. One came in a blowout against the Dallas Wings, and the other came against the hottest and most battle-tested team of the week, the Connecticut Sun. What continues to be concerning for a Seattle team with so much talent is its true shooting percentage and overall field-goal percentage. This past week, the Storm had the third worst true shooting percentage (48.2), and overall they have the third worst field-goal percentage (40.5).
Em Adler of The Next believes that Seattle needs to examine how to get its bench open shots. And she’s correct because against Connecticut, the Storm got two three-point attempts from the bench trio of Stephanie Talbot, Briann January and Epiphanny Prince. After the loss against the Sun, Sue Bird urged that the Storm have no reason to panic. She acknowledged how turbulent these first 10 games have been for Seattle with players being in and out of the lineup. “But I feel like, given the push-and-pull of the first 10 games, the word I use is 'encouraged,’” she said.
6. Atlanta Dream (7-4) (↑ 1 Spot)
7 of 12
If the season were to end today, I would vote for Atlanta Dream head coach Tanisha Wright as the 2022 Coach of the Year. The last time the Dream were over .500 11 games into the WNBA season came in 2018 under the guidance of Nicki Collen, who that year would also go on to win the Coach of the Year honor. All of their losses have come against teams who sit in the top five of the standings. How has Wright done this? The Dream have the best defense in the league with a 89.4 defensive rating. That’s 5.4 points ahead of the Chicago Sky, the team with the second-best defense.
So what has been the Dream’s ultimate Achilles’ heel? They lead the league in the turnover department, turning it over 18.8 times per game and have a 22.9 turnover percentage. The rationale for this is the Dream have one of the newest rosters in the W and a lot of their pieces haven’t played together before training camp this past April. But that’s no excuse. If the Dream want to continue to shock the world this season, they’ll have to take better care of the ball.
5. Washington Mystics (7-5) (↓ 1 Spot)
8 of 12
Following the Mystics’ 87-75 win over the Fever in Indiana, it’s gone downhill for Washington. The two games following that win were played without head coach Mike Thibault and assistant coach Shelley Patterson since both landed in health and safety protocols. The Mystics could have used Patterson especially, who was in charge of scouting against the Liberty after having worked with most of that roster last season. Against the Liberty, the Mystics didn't shoot the ball as well, only making five of 21 attempts from three along with only making 40 percent of their total shots.
Against the Sky, the shooting woes continued. Chicago held Ariel Atkins to only seven points on 3-of-12 shooting and Natasha Cloud to two points on 1-of-6 shooting. Associate head coach Eric Thibault, who was filling in for his dad, explained after the loss to the Sky on Sunday that the Mystics weren’t executing out of timeouts and failed to bring the necessary energy coming out the half. The Mystics were only down 36-34 before the third quarter. Washington will get another crack at the Sky coming up on Wednesday at home and hopefully with a full coaching staff.
4. Dallas Wings (6-5) (↑ 1 Spot)
9 of 12
While the Dallas Wings lost two games this week, they move up a spot because of their strength of schedule, how they clobbered the Seattle Storm and stayed quite competitive with the Las Vegas Aces, falling 84-78. An argument could be made that both opponents weren’t at full strength, but the Wings played well this week on both ends of the floor. In their three games, they maintained a top-three defensive rating (96.2) and a top-five offensive rating (100.4).
The ultimate low point for the Wings came at the beginning of the week when they fell to the Sparks 93-91. Arike Ogunbowale could have tied the game with 0.8 seconds left with two made free throws, but after missing the first, she illegally faked the second to try to create a lane violation. That resulted in a turnover and no second free-throw attempt. She took out her anger on the Sparks’ scorers table.
Do I start believing in how real the Wings are? While Dallas has a full 12-player roster with no injuries and illnesses as of now, the Wings’ rotation is incredibly inconsistent. Against the Storm on Friday, head coach Vickie Johnson used a seven-player rotation with the other five playing for less than eight minutes or not playing at all. Depth matters in the W, and the Wings can’t neglect 41 percent of their roster.
3. Chicago Sky (7-3) (No Change)
10 of 12
Why no change for the second week in a row for the defending champions? The Sky had a much weaker schedule than the two teams ahead of them. While Chicago went 3-0 this week, two out of those three teams have obvious areas of exploitation. Though the Mercury dug themselves out of a 12-point deficit to give themselves a chance, Diana Taurasi clearly doesn’t play her best at Wintrust Arena. Between the ejection this week and her episode with the locker room door last October, there’s something about her and Chicago. A few days later, the Sky held the Dream (the team with the second-worst offense in the league) to shooting 34.7 percent from the field. Also, it looks like Finals MVP Kahleah Copper is finally settling in after a slower start to her regular season. This week she put up 21 points and eight rebounds against the Dream.
The most impressive win of the Sky’s week was against the Mystics. Though Elena Delle Donne’s absence made defending Washington easier, there’s something about how disruptive and defensively talented the Sky’s posts are, which is why Chicago has the second-best defense in the league. Expect the Sky’s sixth-ranked offense to get a lot better in the coming days when they add Belgian point guard Julie Allemand to the fold.
2. Las Vegas Aces (10-2) (↓ 1 Spot)
11 of 12
The two-game set against the Connecticut Sun this week was an excellent litmus test for the Las Vegas Aces. That mini-series had an immediate playoff vibe, and Connecticut's adjustments and physicality at times overwhelmed the Aces defensively. But losing a game to the Sun wasn’t the worst part for the Aces. It was losing Jackie Young to an ankle injury.
While head coach Becky Hammon noted she expects Young to be out around a week, this will be the first of many tests for the very talented but not as deep Aces. In Vegas’ 84-78 win at home against the Dallas Wings, Kelsey Plum put up a season-high 32 points not only in the absence of Young but also on an afternoon when A’ja Wilson only played 24 minutes and fouled out. This strategy won't cut it going forward, especially if Young isn't out for just a week.
Who on that Aces bench will take this opportunity? Let's wait and see.
1. Connecticut Sun (9-3) (↑ 1 Spot)
12 of 12
The Connecticut Sun achieved a difficult feat this week. They won three out of four games in the span of six days. That’s right: four games in six days. The Sun also began the week without head coach Curt Miller and top assistant Brandi Poole. Their only loss came to the Las Vegas Aces in game one of the battle between the best teams in the league. So how did the Sun not only adjust in game two against Vegas but find enough energy to also rally to beat the Mercury and Storm on the road?
Simple, 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones. In the first game against the Aces, Jones got only four shot attempts in the Sun’s 89-81 loss. Two days later, the Sun adjusted and ran their offense through Jones, who scored 20 on 7-of-9 shooting. But my worry about the Sun is their backcourt defense. Against the Mercury on Friday, Diana Taurasi was way too comfortable and scored 32 points on 19 shots. Courtney Williams having to guard her is a major mismatch, and Taurasi, being the savvy player she is, took advantage of that every time she could. That’s when you really feel the loss of Jasmine Thomas. Coach Miller will have to tinker with how to counter that going forward.
.jpg?w=480 "49ers Eagles Football")
