WNBA All-Star Weekend has come and gone, and game action will be resuming on Tuesday night. All-Star Weekend saw Azzi Fudd become the first-ever rookie to be crowned Three-Point Champion, Jonquel Jones win MVP, and plenty of off-court action play out in real time, courtesy of the Studbudz 72-hour livestream.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, with the season more than halfway over, let\u2019s take a look at where things stand heading into the second half, and which five teams have looked most formidable up thus far.<\/p>\n
The Lynx are 22-6, owners of the league\u2019s best record. They\u2019ve outscored opponents by an average of 8.7 points per game, by far the best point differential in the WNBA. And they won 7 straight games entering the break.<\/p>\n
The best part? Napheesa Collier has only played one game. The perennial MVP candidate made her season debut on July 22nd after recovering from two offseason ankle surgeries, and poured in 24 points and 10 rebounds in her first game back.<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll now join a lineup that includes two All-Star starters (Olivia Miles and Natasha Howard), an All-Star reserve in Courtney Williams, and, in truth, probably the biggest All-Star snub in the league in Kayla McBride. Collier will look to be the boost the Lynx need on the defensive end, while Miles continues a scorching-hot Rookie of the Year-turned-Most Valuable Player campaign.<\/p>\n
No matter how you slice it, the Lynx are the team to beat right now.<\/p>\n
The Aces have the league\u2019s third-best record (18-8), but they get the bump because that\u2019s what happens when you\u2019ve won three titles in the last four seasons. (The Aces dropped two of their last three games pre-break, but the titles make up for that skid, at least in my mind).<\/p>\n
A\u2019ja Wilson has once again played like a consensus MVP, averaging 26.1 points (league-best), 9.5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 1.6 steals.<\/p>\n
Jackie Young has been an elite No. 2, averaging 16.7 points and 6.8 assists. Chelsea Gray is adding 12.6 points and 7.4 assists per game, but the team\u2019s fourth option \u2014 Chennedy Carter \u2014 is no longer on the roster after being waived earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The Aces sometimes put up some duds (see: a 34-point loss to the Indiana Fever earlier this month), but their postseason pedigree is incomparable. It\u2019s gotten to the point that the regular season feels like a formality to get to the part of the season in which it tends to all come together.<\/p>\n
3. Golden State Valkyries<\/p>\n
The Valkyries won 9 straight games before dropping their final game before the break, and they\u2019ve looked like one of the best teams in the league all season. Golden State is 19-8 (owners of the league\u2019s second-best record) and have the easiest strength of schedule remaining, so they\u2019ve done it against stiff competition so far.<\/p>\n
The Valkyries have been led by Gabby William, who was named an All-Star starter for the first time in her career while averaging 14.8 points and 1.7 steals.<\/p>\n
Janelle Salaun (12.8 points, 4 rebounds) and Veronica Burton (11.9 points, 5.5 assists) have also both been key contributors, while Kaitlyn Chen has enjoyed a breakthrough year off the bench, averaging 7.7 points in 14.7 minutes per game.<\/p>\n
Golden State, on paper, doesn\u2019t have the star power that some other contenders do. But they have lots of great two-way basketball players, a list that includes Kayla Thornton, Cecilia Zandalasini, Tiffany Hayes, and more. They also have a clear defensive identity and one of the best coaches in the league in Natalie Nakase.<\/p>\n
The Wings are 18-9 and have the second-easiest schedule left. Paige Bueckers is having an MVP-caliber season, averaging 20.9 points and 6.2 assists per game. All the while, Jessica Shepard has gone from a standout bench contributor in Minnesota last year to an All-Star starter in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Arike Ogunbowale is still dealing with some efficiency woes, but Azzi Fudd has poured in 13.2 points per game while shooting 38.7% from beyond the arc in 26 contests so far.<\/p>\n
The Wings might be a year or two away from true championship contention, and it remains to be seen how their regular season success will translate into the playoffs. But Dallas has enough to compete with the very best.<\/p>\n
The Fever have the league\u2019s fifth-best record (17-10) and second-best point differential (+5.9). They have a harder remaining schedule than the other teams on this list, except for the Las Vegas Aces. But there\u2019s a collection of talent on this roster that is hard to ignore.<\/p>\n
Caitlin Clark is having the best season of her career, averaging 21 points and 7.9 assists per game. Kelsey Mitchell keeps getting better and better \u2014 she\u2019s tallying a team-high 23.3 points per game while shooting 42.5% from three \u2014 and Aliyah Boston is pulling her own weight, averaging 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Outside of the Big 3, Sophie Cunningham, Mo Billings, Lexie Hull, Ty Harris, and Myisha Hines-Allen have all been key contributors, among others.<\/p>\n
Can the Fever defend at a high-enough level to win it all?<\/p>\n
That\u2019ll be the million-dollar question entering the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Honorable mentions: The Atlanta Dream (16-10) and New York Liberty (15-12) <\/p>\n
The Dream are right in the mix, but took a hit in the power rankings after a 5-game losing streak earlier this month. They currently have the 6th-best record in the WNBA and are tied for the 5th-best point differential, while having the third-easiest remaining schedule. Rhyne Howard, Angel Reese, and Allisha Gray were all deservingly named All-Stars, and Brionna Jones made her return from injury right before the break.<\/p>\n
The Liberty, meanwhile, have had an underwhelming first half to the season, amid a litany of injuries to key players. They may make a dramatic midseason turnaround like last year\u2019s Aces team, which transformed from a .500 team to WNBA champions in the blink of an eye. But consistency has been lacking so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WNBA All-Star Weekend has come and gone, and game action will be resuming on Tuesday night. All-Star Weekend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-787311","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\/787311","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=787311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}