{"id":150541,"date":"2025-09-17T14:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/150541\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T14:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:22:07","slug":"a-wnba-star-is-being-born-in-front-of-our-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/150541\/","title":{"rendered":"A WNBA star is being born in front of our eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Dominique Malonga<\/a> checked into the fourth quarter of Tuesday\u2019s playoff game between the Seattle Storm<\/a> and the Las Vegas Aces<\/a>, the Aces had a 97.5% chance of winning, per ESPN Analytics<\/a>. The Storm, facing elimination, were down by 10 and seemed unlikely to get over the hump against the Aces, who had won 17 consecutive games.<\/p>\n

But, he 19-year-old immediately made an impact, swatting Jackie Young\u2019s shot and securing the rebound in her first play of the period.<\/p>\n

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By the end of the night, she was the hero.<\/p>\n

Malonga, drafted by the Storm second overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft, had an up-and-down rookie season. In May and June, more than 20 rookies<\/a> averaged more minutes per game than she did.<\/p>\n

But, her impact and opportunities increased as the season went on, and on Tuesday night, Seattle needed the French phenom to deliver to keep their season alive. A few possessions after blocking Young\u2019s drive, she blocked three-time MVP A\u2019ja Wilson<\/a>\u2019s jumper.<\/p>\n

Then, with 31 seconds to spare and the Storm trailing by 2, Malonga converted an and-one fastbreak layup. In turn, she became the youngest player in WNBA playoff history with a game-tying or go-ahead field goal in the final minute of the 4th quarter or overtime.<\/p>\n

Malonga finished Tuesday\u2019s game with 11 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks \u2014 but the statline doesn\u2019t really capture her impact on Tuesday\u2019s win. In her 23 minutes, the Storm were a +11, the highest plus\/minus of any player in the game.<\/p>\n

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Dominique Malonga helped contain A\u2019ja Wilson in the win<\/p>\n

In the second half, Malonga helped hold Wilson to just 5 points. Wilson was scoreless for the entire last 6-minute stretch of the ball game, with Malonga defending her.<\/p>\n

Seattle\u2019s win was the result of several big-time Storm performances, as well as some uncharacteristic late-game decision-making by the Aces.<\/p>\n

Skylar Diggins<\/a> finished with a game-high 26 points (10-20 FG) and 7 assists, including a clutch-floater with seconds to spare that gave Seattle a three-point lead. Nneka Ogwumike<\/a> tallied 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists. Erica Wheeler<\/a> was massive off the bench, scoring 11 points \u2014 all of which came in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

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But Diggins, Ogwumike, and Wheeler are vets. They\u2019ve been in big moments before. They\u2019ve played in this league for a long time, matched up against the Aces All-Star on countless occasions.<\/p>\n

Malonga is a teenager. On Tuesday, she also saved Seattle\u2019s season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Dominique Malonga checked into the fourth quarter of Tuesday\u2019s playoff game between the Seattle Storm and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4662,49,48,40528,4656,1161,4661,3460,4653,1611,4647,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-150541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-aja-wilson","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-dominique-malonga","12":"tag-erica-wheeler","13":"tag-espn","14":"tag-jackie-young","15":"tag-las-vegas-aces","16":"tag-nneka-ogwumike","17":"tag-seattle-storm","18":"tag-skylar-diggins","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}