The Weekly Roundup: Atkins, Plum, and Mabrey Drop Career Highs Plus the End of Futility at the Free Throw Line
Appreciating this trio of standout performances and examining the W’s stellar performance at the charity stripe
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The Los Angeles Sparks and the New York Liberty faced off at the Great Western Forum 24 years ago in the WNBA’s first game on June 21, 1997. It’s amazing to see how this ambitious venture has grown into the world-class product that entertains us today. I can think of no better way to celebrate this anniversary than to recognize the phenomenal play in the W this past week.
Game of the Week: Depleted Mystics pull a rabbit out of the hat against Atlanta
No Elena Delle Donne. No Tina Charles. No problem? Well, not exactly, at least not during the first half after Myisha Hines-Allen went down with a left patellar tendon strain early in the second quarter. When the Washington Mystics entered the locker room at halftime trailing the Atlanta Dream 46-38 Thursday night, they had turned the ball over ten times leading to 17 Atlanta points. Theresa Plaisance’s 14 first-half points kept the deficit manageable in the early going, but a result like Washington’s embarrassing blowout loss last Sunday against Atlanta, where the Dream converted 17 Mystics turnovers into 27 points, seemed inevitable.
“We had everything going against us and we just said play free, play together, share the ball, have fun, and play as hard as you can,” Mystics coach Mike Thibault said. “Sometimes when you just free your mind up and just play, amazing things can happen.”
That amazingness took the form of Ariel Atkins, Theresa Plaisance, and Natasha Cloud. Atkins, who started the contest 1-for-5, drained nine of her next ten field goals en route to a career-high 32 points. A mind-boggling 24 of those came in the final 15 minutes. Theresa Plaisance entered Thursday night’s game averaging 4.2 points per game for her career. Continuing her Tina Charles impression in the second half, the eight-year veteran finished with a career-high 25 points. Natasha Cloud (10 points, 11 assists, nine boards), whom Thibault said could barely walk due to injury three days earlier, narrowly missed a triple-double.
The trio of herculean performances transformed a 14-point third-quarter deficit into a nip and tuck affair that saw six lead changes and five ties in the third quarter alone. The Mystics, clinging to an 88-87 lead with under a minute left in the fourth, isolated Plaisance through its Horns set for a critical turnaround jumper. After free throws by both teams, an Odyssey Sims three-point moonshot pulled the Dream to within one, 94-93, with 4.4 seconds remaining. Cloud calmly drained two free throws on the ensuing possession, and Aari McDonald’s desperation heave at the buzzer missed its mark giving Mystics coach Mike Thibault his 350th career coaching victory in the WNBA.
Washington (6-6) followed this up with an 82-77 win over Indiana Saturday night. The Mystics travel to Seattle for their next game tomorrow night. Atlanta (5-7) hosts Minnesota Wednesday night.
Fifteen feet of futility? The WNBA begs to differ.
To paraphrase one of the country’s Founding Fathers, there are only three certain things in life: death, taxes, and the constancy of free-throw percentages. Ok fine, Benjamin Franklin never referenced basketball; he missed the game’s invention by a good hundred years.
More to the point, the rate of made free throws has moved startlingly little in the NBA. In the last fifty years, success at the charity stripe has reliably hovered around the 75% mark based on data from Basketball-Reference.com. A similar story of invariability applies to men’s and women’s NCAA Division I basketball. As chronicled in Nick Greene’s fascinating book How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius, Dr. Larry Silverberg and Dr. Chau Tran, professors of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, have studied this issue and even calculated the ideal backspin, launch angle, launch speed, and aiming point for a free throw. With all this information at our fingertips, the stagnation in free throw percentages has been a bit perplexing.
Enter the WNBA. From 71.2% in its inaugural year to 80.4% this season (through Saturday’s games), the W’s near double-digit increase in regular-season free throw percentage over a 25-year period is unprecedented for an NCAA or American professional basketball league. To be sure, one could argue that the NBA and NCAA (men’s and women’s) have exhibited very modest improvements over the last half-dozen years. That’s fair, though neither has matched the WNBA’s consistent upward trajectory in charity stripe success.
How has the WNBA pulled this off? I don’t have any solid leads at the moment. Blake Ahearn, the NCAA’s leader in career free throw percentage (94.6%), admitted that many coaches neglect having their teams practice free throws in favor of working on offensive and defensive schemes. Perhaps WNBA teams emphasize the importance of free shooting slightly more than other leagues. Whatever the factors may be, it will be interesting to observe whether the WNBA can continue these positive trends and if other leagues can replicate the W’s success from fifteen feet out.
Three Stars of the Week
Last week I mentioned that there had been six non-Tina Charles 30-point games this season. That number grew by 50% this week largely because of two players who went off for career highs. Not to be outdone, Tina Charles posted her league-leading fifth 30-point game. While these three had the best single-game performances of the week, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few other outstanding efforts. I know I have flip-flopped more than a pandering politician on whether or not to include an honorable mention section, but these performances were just too good not to call out.
Honorable Mention:
Natasha Cloud: The Mystics point guard was just one rebound shy (10 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds) of the league’s eleventh triple-double in Washington’s thrilling win over Atlanta Thursday night.
Brittney Griner: The double-double machine has accomplished the feat a league-leading eight times this season, the latest a 30-point, 10-rebound game in Phoenix’s loss Wednesday night at Los Angeles.
Marina Mabrey: The Wings guard was the epitome of efficiency in Dallas’ 95-77 win over Minnesota Saturday night, scoring a career-high 28 points on 9-13 shooting from the field and 5-8 from behind the arc. Did I mention she did this in just under 18 minutes of action? Her 28 points tied the league record for most points scored in under 20 minutes.
Courtney Vandersloot: Take your pick: Sloot’s four-category Pareto game (i.e., one where no player has ever recorded a better combination of the statistics in question) of 10 points, 13 assists, four steals, two blocks in Chicago’s win Tuesday night at Minnesota or her 18-point, 11-assist, and five-rebound effort in the Sky’s victory over Connecticut Saturday afternoon.
Breanna Stewart: In another round of “take your pick,” Stewie’s two double-doubles against Indiana (20 points/12 rebounds/five assists and 21 points/15 rebounds/three assists) were equally impressive.
Third Star: Tina Charles - 30 points, 15 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists on 6/19 vs. Indiana
Entering this week, no WNBA player had posted a 30-point, 15-rebound game in a regular-season contest since 2018. No WNBA player had ever put up a stat line of at least 30 points, 15 rebounds, three steals, and three assists. Tina Charles changed that Saturday night in Washington’s 82-77 win against Indiana. Sure, the fact that this came against the league’s worst defense plus Charles’ 17 missed field goals and five turnovers knocked her down a spot or two on this list. However, I fail to see how the short-handed Mystics escape with a victory without Tina Charles’ unprecedented performance.
Second Star: Kelsey Plum - 32 points (11-16 FG), 5 rebounds on 6/15 vs. New York
Here was the list of players entering Tuesday night who had scored 30 points in a game while posting an effective field goal percentage of at least 75.0% in the 2020 and 2021 seasons: Arike Ogunbowale, Diana Taurasi, and Jonquel Jones. Kelsey Plum joined that elite list with a career-high 32 points leading Las Vegas to a 100-78 thrashing of the New York Liberty. Whether it be a nasty dribble hesitation, running the fast break, or her deadly three-point shooting, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer was firing on all cylinders at the Michelob ULTRA Arena.
First Star: Ariel Atkins - 32 points (10-15 FG) on 6/17 vs. Atlanta
On a team missing Elena Delle Donne, Tina Charles, and Myisha Hines-Allen (the latter for all but 10 minutes), the Mystics desperately needed Ariel Atkins to shoulder the scoring load Thursday night against Atlanta. The three-time All-Defensive Second Team member responded by dropping a career-high 32 points, including 24 points in the final 15 minutes. Remember that short list of efficient 30-point performances that Kelsey Plum joined on Tuesday? Ariel Atkins also joined that club shooting 10-15 from the field, including 3-for-5 from behind the arc. Teammate Natasha Cloud has previously stated that Atkins is the best two-guard in the league. While some, particularly those in the Pacific Northwest, might opt for Jewell Loyd, games like this lend credence to Cloud’s emphatic proclamation.
WNBA schedule this week (All times Eastern)
Here is a full listing of this week’s games, start times, and where you can catch the action.
Adam’s Power Rankings
Check out the Her Hoop Stats Twitter page (@herhoopstats) tomorrow for our latest power rankings! Based on the criterion of who would win if teams played tomorrow on a neutral court, here is my contribution to those rankings:
Her Hoop Stats content in case you missed it
Becky Hammon, Teresa Weatherspoon, Kara Lawson, and Dawn Staley have all been linked to recent NBA head coaching openings. In the latest episode of Courtside, Gabe Ibrahim and Christy Winters-Scott discussed why the time has come for a woman to lead an NBA team. Gabe and Christy also talked about which sub-0.500 WNBA teams are likely to turn things around.
In a two-part series, Aneela Khan broke down each team’s performance through the first third of the WNBA season. Part 1 covers the Fever, Storm, Aces, Sun, Sky, and Dream; Part 2 analyzes the remaining teams.
Entering this past week, she averaged 13.7 points and 7.1 assists per game; knocked down 41.5% of her threes, had the first triple-double in Liberty franchise history; and was a critical component in New York’s surprising 5-1 start. Despite the impressive start to Sabrina Ionescu’s sophomore season, Kim Doss outlined some opportunities for improvement in the New York guard’s game.
In WNBA Dissected, Richard Cohen analyzed how Tina Charles and Courtney Williams have improved their efficiency numbers this season. Richard also provided his thoughts on the All-Star Game voting system.
In the WNBA Minute, Gabe Ibrahim analyzed a couple of areas where reigning MVP A’ja Wilson has upped her game this season.
Taking the “under” in back-to-backs has been a profitable strategy this season. For this and other WNBA betting insights from Calvin Wetzel, check out the Wetz Betz on Twitter @herhoopstats and follow along as Calvin tracks how his picks have performed.
Other recommended content
For Power Plays, Lindsay Gibbs investigated the difference in the quantity and quality of media coverage received by white and Black WNBA players.
The documentary Game Changers tells the story of Tanya DePass, a Chicago-based African-American gamer who strives to make the professional gaming industry a more inclusive space. Directed by Tina Charles (yes, WNBA leading scorer Tina Charles), the film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival Thursday night and aired on BET as part of the channel’s Juneteenth celebration.
For The Athletic, Richard Deitsch hosted a roundtable of openly LGBTQ+ sports media members and discussed their experiences in the industry.
For GQ, Tyler Tynes interviewed South Carolina and U.S. Olympic team head coach Dawn Staley about recently losing her brother to COVID and also what motivates her to continue coaching.
From the WNBA to the women’s College World Series, TV viewership numbers for women’s sports have exhibited impressive growth. For The Athletic, Bill Shea wrote about these positive trends while also touching on the “chicken or the egg” dilemma faced by women’s sports leagues when it comes to attracting more coverage.
Women’s professional basketball trivia questions of the week
The answers to last week’s questions will be posted on Twitter @herhoopstats. We’re going to try something a tad different this week. Each of the following refers to a number, and your objective is to determine their sum. Good luck!
Ranking of Sue Bird on the career three-point field goals made list
Seimone Augustus’ jersey number with the Minnesota Lynx
Rebekkah Brunson’s jersey number with the Minnesota Lynx
Number of the amendment featured on the piping of the Mystics’ Nike Rebel Edition jerseys
Number of non-Brittney Griner dunks in WNBA regular-season history
The percentage of free throws Elena Delle Donne has missed in her career (rounded to the nearest whole percentage)
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.