This Week in the Wubble: July 27 - August 2
Looking back on the week that was in the WNBA
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The first full week of WNBA basketball is behind us, and in a regular season that’s only seven weeks long, every week is crucial. So let’s get to it — here’s what’s happened in the last seven days in the WNBA.
Sylvia Fowles became the WNBA’s all-time leader in rebounds
In Minnesota’s first game of the week, Sylvia Fowles pulled down her 3,357th career rebound, moving into first place on the WNBA’s career rebounding list. Even more special? The one she passed was former teammate and current Lynx assistant coach Rebekkah Brunson.
Injuries
Fowles’ record was the lone bright spot for the Lynx on Tuesday. In a 24-point loss to the Storm, insult was added to literal injury as Karima Christmas-Kelly was lost for the season. Three days later, New York suffered a huge blow when phenom Sabrina Ionescu went down with a severe ankle sprain. Whether she will be able to return this season is uncertain — the current timeline of one month would put her return in the second-to-last week of the season, but the Liberty may be cautious with their franchise player as they are unlikely to be in the playoff picture at that point.
Déjà vu for Connecticut
In their opener, the Sun looked strong for three quarters, leading the Lynx for much of the game before running out of steam in the fourth quarter. On Saturday, in the rematch, it was more of the same. Connecticut took a double-digit lead early on, but again was unable to close. It’s not time to jump ship on the 0-4 Sun as a playoff team just yet — all four of their losses have been by single digits — but with a shortened season, they will need to start closing out wins ASAP if they want to salvage the season.
The Sky kept their fans on the edge of their seats
There have been three games decided by fewer than three points so far. They’ve all been Sky games. After opening the 2020 season in dramatic fashion with a late comeback win over the Aces that was capped off by an Allie Quigley game-winner (just look at the end of that win probability graph!), Chicago nearly did it again against the Lynx. Trailing by seven with just over a minute to play, the Sky somehow found themselves with three chances to send the game to overtime on their final possession. They came up just short, but they rebounded in their next game to take down the defending champion Mystics — the last remaining unbeaten — in another down-to-the-final-horn thriller.
Everyone lost
Not only did no teams reach 4-0, but no one even went 3-0 in the past week. That may be a theme this year — with so many games coming on one day’s rest it will be difficult for anyone to make it through a week unscathed. For now, the teams have settled into three tiers in the standings, with four teams sitting at the top at 3-1. That parity doesn’t seem likely to go away anytime soon, so don’t expect anyone to pull away from the pack.
More players returned
Courtney Williams and Glory Johnson made their Dream debuts, Megan Walker made her WNBA debut, and Sydney Colson and Briann January arrived at the Wubble. Some teams are still waiting on one or more players — notably, we have yet to see Lauren Cox and Erica Wheeler take the court for the Fever. Lindsay Gibbs has been doing an excellent job of keeping track of the statuses of players, so follow her on Twitter for more updates as the season progresses.
All stats are compiled from WNBA.com and are updated through games on Sunday, August 3.
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. You can also buy Her Hoop Stats gear, such as laptop stickers, mugs, and shirts!
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