{"id":762627,"date":"2026-07-14T15:47:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762627\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T15:47:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:47:43","slug":"five-things-i-like-week-eight-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762627\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Things I Like: Week Eight 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It feels unfathomable, but the player to monitor for a near-nightly triple-double is not Alyssa Thomas \u2013 it\u2019s Jessica Shepard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sixth-year veteran forward is hitting her stride in a major way with the Dallas Wings this season, posting three triple-doubles so far this season. That\u2019s good for the most in the league so far this year, outdoing even Thomas, who\u2019s known for easily hitting that benchmark thanks to her playmaking and rebounding abilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shepard\u2019s been a key cog to the Wings\u2019 dominance in year two of the Paige Bueckers era, and it\u2019s in major thanks to her that Dallas is on a five-game winning streak as we head towards the All-Star break. <\/p>\n

This, and five other things, really caught my eye from week eight of WNBA action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commissioner\u2019s Cup Hangover<\/p>\n

After the New York Liberty took out the Las Vegas Aces for another Commissioner\u2019s Cup title, it felt like perhaps they\u2019d start to hit their stride ahead of the All-Star break. A nice streak could set them up for a comfortable spot atop the league standings and keep them afloat despite a very slow start from the team and their stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, New York has once again become inconsistent on offense and is struggling to get stops when it matters. They\u2019re right in the middle of the league in three-point percentage (34.5) despite having shooters like Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Marine Johann\u00e8s in tow, and are averaging just 87.8 points per game. That\u2019s close to the output from teams like the Connecticut Sun, Portland Fire, and Chicago Sky.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That, coupled with very little rim protection, average rebounding, and a third-lowest 6.3 steals per game, New York is lacking pop on either side of the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since beating the Aces, the Liberty have lost three of their last four games. It feels like they have some identity issues to once again work out with a new head coach in tow, and with another new-look bench that doesn\u2019t seem prepared to back up the starting unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indiana Fever Surging
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

The Indiana Fever huddle during the game against the Phoenix Mercury<\/p>\n

The Fever had two key contests this past week: road games against the Phoenix Mercury and the Las Vegas Aces. The Aces present the largest challenge on paper to the Fever, with A\u2019ja Wilson being a thorn in the side of any team that doesn\u2019t have an experienced big ready to challenge her in the paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, Indiana did not have to worry too much about that, with Kelsey Mitchell simply putting the team on her back in both games. The star guard averaged 28.3 points per game over Indiana\u2019s games this past week, along with shooting ridiculously efficiently from behind the arc. Despite a slower start to the year for the Fever, it seems like they\u2019re beginning to pick things up thanks to Mitchell, the return of Caitlin Clark more consistently to the floor following a back injury, and star center Aliyah Boston honing in on her defensive stalwart-ness this past week. They\u2019re sitting in 5th place now, just behind the Wings, and are proving they can make even the sharpest teams look silly with their core of Mitchell, Boston, and Clark. Consistency will be key for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tempo Trip to Montreal<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of venturing across the border to go watch the Tempo\u2019s two games hosted at the Bell Center over the weekend as part of their Cross Canada series, and they gave fans two exhilarating games against the Wings and Liberty. While they went 1-1 on the \u201croad\u201d trip, you couldn\u2019t really tell that was the case. Fans were unbelievably supportive of the squad during both games, and, of course, Marina Mabrey put on a show against Dallas and New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mabrey, a first-time All-Star this year, averaged 32 points over the weekend, in addition to shooting 9-17 from three across both games. Her step backs in both games just always seemed like they were going to find the net, and more often than not, that was the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some underrated performances from the Tempo\u2019s Maria Conde and Laura Juskaite deserve flowers, as well. Both played as excellent co-stars to Mabrey\u2019s offensive explosion over this past weekend. Conde was confidently letting it fly from three, while Juskaite seemed to keep finding all of the Liberty\u2019s pain points on her drives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toronto did a great job of feeding off the energy from the Montreal crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valkyries Continue to be a Brick Wall
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Veronica Burton #22 of the Golden State Valkyries<\/p>\n

The Valkyries scored 62 points against the Washington Mystics on July 6. That\u2019s 20 points lower than their season average of 82, and typically the kind of offensive output you\u2019d see from the losing team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, they held the Mystics to just 49 points to secure the win, anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Golden State has been the best overall defensive unit in the WNBA this year, and that\u2019s a huge testament to the work of Veronica Burton as one of the league\u2019s best two-way guards. She\u2019s the head of a snake that is neck and neck with the Minnesota Lynx in defensive rating (100.4), and while also allowing the least amount of points in the paint per game in the league (31.8 per game).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burton is also one of the league leaders in defensive win shares, which measures how much an individual player impacts their team\u2019s wins on the defensive end of the floor only.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite not being the flashiest team when it comes to their defense \u2013 they aren\u2019t hauling down rebounds or getting blocks at a huge clip \u2013 their collective effort on the floor to make life miserable for opponents on defense is what\u2019s helping land Golden State right in the conversation for contention ahead of the All-Star break.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Juhasz\u2019s Return Comes with Huge Reeve Milestone<\/p>\n

Dorka Juhasz had been out all season with a foot sprain suffered overseas, keeping her out of the Lynx\u2019s lineups until July 6. The forward, while missed, wasn\u2019t necessarily returning to a downtrodden team. Minnesota\u2019s been one of the best stories of the season so far, with rookie Olivia Miles helping lead the Napheesa Collier-less team to a first-place record and a stronghold on the standings. So, Juhasz\u2019s return was a welcome addition to Minnesota\u2019s frontcourt depth, but the team has been managing just fine in her absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, her contributions as a stretch 4 who can rebound efficiently and operate in the pick and roll with Miles are great for the Lynx, and even without Miles on July 9, Juhasz flashed all of that ability in the Lynx\u2019s win over the Sun. That win carried head coach Cheryl Reeve over the hump to get the league record for most regular-season wins by a coach in history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was also a clutch three from Juhasz that sealed the victory for Minnesota, on a night where the team was unbelievably shorthanded thanks to Miles\u2019 calf injury and the ramp-up for Collier still ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As if the Lynx needed to get any scarier, Juhasz\u2019s ability to keep up this level of play off the bench could end up being huge for Minnesota as they seek to gain 100% health by the second half of the season. Minnesota\u2019s bench play could use some work \u2013\u00a0 their second unit is averaging a league-low 15.7 points per game, along with just 8.7 rebounds per game, 4.2 assists, two steals, but is holding the best net rating (4.7).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Juhasz can, at a minimum, be the remedy for their rebounding and bench shooting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It feels unfathomable, but the player to monitor for a near-nightly triple-double is not Alyssa Thomas \u2013 it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-762627","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\/762627","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=762627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}