SCHEDULE: Check out the full WNBA on NBC, Peacock slate of games<\/a><\/p>\n\u25b6 HEATING UP\ud83d\udd25Marina Mabrey, G, Tempo<\/p>\n
At its core, basketball is about getting buckets; something Mabrey has certainly built her reputation on. She\u2019s consistently operated with a degree of swagger in the way that she gets those buckets, using her handle to create separation and often deliver tough off-the-dribble jump shots. And with Brittney Sykes\u2019 recent injury, more of said shot-making has been required of Mabrey \u2014 she\u2019s delivered in a big way. In the two games without her backcourt running mate, she\u2019s totaled 60 points and 12 three-pointers, highlighted by a career-best 37 points and nine three-pointers in a 101-97 win over the Connecticut Sun. And even before the two most recent games, the veteran Mabrey had tallied at least 18 points and multiple made three-pointers in three of her last four appearances. She\u2019s averaging 19.4 points per game, a clear high for any of her eight WNBA seasons. I\u2019d expect more of the same from Mabrey while she has the keys to the Tempo offense.<\/p>\n
Paige Bueckers, G, Wings<\/p>\n
You sometimes have to ride the back of your superstar player to win basketball games. For the Wings, they\u2019ve done exactly that in their recent victories. On Tuesday, Bueckers scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and in overtime in a thrilling win on the road over Seattle, which came on the heels of a double-digit-scoring final quarter in a one-point, come-from-behind win over Chicago, in which she scored 10 of Dallas\u2019 final 13 points. The former No. 1 pick is averaging 20.3 points and 7.0 assists over the last three games and recently became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 1,000 career points and 250 career assists. Bueckers continues to trend in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Sonia Citron, G, Mystics<\/p>\n
Want to know how Washington won three straight games recently, all on the road, with wins over New York and Minnesota? You don\u2019t have to look much further than Citron\u2019s recent stat lines to find the answer. The second-year guard performed exceptionally on both ends of the floor during the streak, posting averages of 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.0 steals. The winning streak ended on Wednesday in a rematch with the Lynx, but Citron logged one of her high-scoring games of the season, going for 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting with four three-pointers. The three-point shot falling on Wednesday was a great sign for the sophomore guard, who has been surprisingly inefficient from deep this season on the heels of a supremely efficient rookie year and four-year college career. Assuming she returns to form as a three-point shooter, Citron has a chance to see her impact and overall numbers hit another level.<\/p>\n
\u25b6 COOLING DOWN\u2744\ufe0fSabrina Ionescu, G, Liberty<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a tough year for the former first-overall pick of the 2020 WNBA Draft. She\u2019s spent most of her seventh professional season on the sideline dealing with injuries. But even in the six games she\u2019s appeared in thus far, her numbers look vastly different than her past and most-recent All-Star quality seasons. Of course, the constant starting and stopping, thanks to injuries, have left Ionescu unable to truly find her rhythm, which is important for any player, but especially for a scorer. However, she is fresh off a season-best 16-point performance against the Aces on 5-of-12 shooting, to go along with 10 boards. I\u2019m looking forward to her stacking more games to build the mental and physical reps that will allow her to look more like the version of herself that showed up in Las Vegas than the injury-riddled one that struggled to produce earlier on in the season.<\/p>\n
Veronica Burton, G, Valkyries<\/p>\n
In Burton\u2019s last three games, she\u2019s totaled only 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting from the floor and has committed more turnovers than made shots over that stretch. She\u2019s also getting to the charity stripe at a much lower frequency than previously and has gone back-to-back games without a three-point make for the first time all season. Simply put, the reigning Most Improved Player is struggling on the offensive end, which has led to Golden State \u2018s offense struggling altogether as of late. The Valkyries could really use a bounce back from Burton sometime soon. They need her to perform at a high level if they want to improve on last season\u2019s finish.<\/p>\n
Aneesah Morrow, F, Sun<\/p>\n
If one were to look at only Morrow\u2019s stats from the first 11 games of the season, that person could jump to a conclusion that the second-year forward was one of the WNBA\u2019s most promising up-and-coming forwards. The stretch to open the season included eight double-doubles (two streaks of four straight), while putting up 12.7 points and 10.4 boards per game. Her rebounding has remained consistent over the last five games, but inefficient shooting and, at times, fewer minutes, have caused her scoring output to dwindle. Morrow has shot above 40.0 percent from the field just once in the last five games, which was the only time she made it out of single digits as a scorer. There\u2019s a crowded frontcourt in Connecticut \u2014 not many in it, including Morrow, has been able to establish a clear role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sample sizes continue to grow as we hover around the midway point of the WNBA\u2019s final 44-game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-725351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}