2025 WNBA Regular Season

[Bigboote]

I can't say I expected her to be this wildly successful but I had confidence she would make a career out of it. I think people thought, of the guards on that team, that Kaela Davis would have a more prolific career. There were a lot of great players on that championship team who have dabbled in the W...A'ja Wilson, Allisha Gray, Kaela Davis, Alaina Coates, Ty Harris, Kiki Herbert-Harrigan.

I'm with you on Allisha. People forget that she played 2, 3, and 4 in college, and IIRC, mostly 4 her senior year. So a player with a not-particularly-beefy 6-foot frame was going up against bigger forwards in the SEC and coming out ahead. Plus she's always struck me as a great teammate, always team-first. I'm glad to see her getting more attention this year.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Interesting game. Minny was roasting NY early. Lib fought back into it by halftime, then took the lead early in Q3 and held it most of the rest of the game. But Lynx surged back ahead at the end. Huge game for C. Williams. A. Smith was also really impactful on both ends of the floor. Minny scared their fans w/ a bunch of missed FTs at the end, but it didn't matter. Lynx own the Lib this year, w/ and w/out Collier.

 

[Geew1992]

Outside of Minnesota everyone else just needs to get their players healthy. New York, Phoenix, Atlanta, have had injuries to multiple players.

Why shouldn’t Minnesota get healthy?

 

[Dillon77]

Interesting game. Minny was roasting NY early. Lib fought back into it by halftime, then took the lead early in Q3 and held it most of the rest of the game. But Lynx surged back ahead at the end. Huge game for C. Williams. A. Smith was also really impactful on both ends of the floor. Minny scared their fans w/ a bunch of missed FTs at the end, but it didn't matter. Lynx own the Lib this year, w/ and w/out Collier.

Smith was particularly impactful, in my view, on the defensive end with the three blocks and excellent weak-side help.
But she had help up front in fellow forward, Jessica Shepard, who had 17 points on 5-7 from the field and 10 rebounds. Eight of those were defensive and then she turned and fired those Kevin Love-like outlet passes. It's quite a duo and makes one realize how strong the Lynx front line with the three-person rotation will be when 'Phee comes back (oh, 2 1/2-person roatation, considering how little Collier comes out). One other thing those two do well, particularly Shep , is set screens for Willams to work off of. I've been seeing that since her college days.

Even though the Lynx only outrebounded the Liberty by one, it felt like more. Or maybe they got to a few more 50/50s.
They're just a different kind of team without Stewie...a good one that is well coached, but missing a bit of the intuitiveness that Stewie brings. Plus, other teams are double-teaming Ionescu.....

 

[baggerbob]

Why shouldn’t Minnesota get healthy?

Outside of Collier they are healthy. They have been all year.

 

[cancontent]

Interesting game. Minny was roasting NY early. Lib fought back into it by halftime, then took the lead early in Q3 and held it most of the rest of the game. But Lynx surged back ahead at the end. Huge game for C. Williams. A. Smith was also really impactful on both ends of the floor. Minny scared their fans w/ a bunch of missed FTs at the end, but it didn't matter. Lynx own the Lib this year, w/ and w/out Collier.

This stood out to me today. Didn't the announcers say that FTs have been an issue lately? This isn't typical of a Minnesota team from what I recall.

 

[nwhoopfan]

This stood out to me today. Didn't the announcers say that FTs have been an issue lately? This isn't typical of a Minnesota team from what I recall.

McBride is right behind the league leader for FT percentage, around 94%, but went 8-12 today including some misses at the end that could've helped ice it. The announcers kept saying how poor Smith and Shepherd's FT% are (unbelievably only 41 and 57). Also Carrington is only hitting 55% since she's been with them.

Smith hit 71, 68 and 75 in the 3 previous seasons, so how in the world is she shooting so poorly from the charity stripe this season?! 🤔

 

[Geew1992]

Outside of Collier they are healthy. They have been all year.

Collier?? The MVP candidate?? How about hopefully all teams are fully healthy. Even the lynx

 

[Dillon77]

McBride is right behind the league leader for FT percentage, around 94%, but went 8-12 today including some misses at the end that could've helped ice it. The announcers kept saying how poor Smith and Shepherd's FT% are (unbelievably only 41 and 57). Also Carrington is only hitting 55% since she's been with them.

Smith hit 71, 68 and 75 in the 3 previous seasons, so how in the world is she shooting so poorly from the charity stripe this season?! 🤔

If one rounds up a smidge, K-Mac is at 90% for her WNBA career, so gosh knows what got into her today.
Shep, while at Notre Dame, was pretty much a 70% FT shooter, which was pretty much her average in the pros up to this year.

Expect K-Mac to get back to usual and the Lynx would be overjoyed for Shepard to get back in the 66%+ area.

 

[nwhoopfan]

If one rounds up a smidge, K-Mac is at 90% for her WNBA career, so gosh knows what got into her today.
Shep, while at Notre Dame, was pretty much a 70% FT shooter, which was pretty much her average in the pros up to this year.

Expect K-Mac to get back to usual and the Lynx would be overjoyed for Shepard to get back in the 66%+ area.

Smith shot 66% in college and 64% as a pro, so her shooting this year is truly mind boggling.

 

[jdote33]

I pretty much agree. Veronica Burton is like Davion Mitchell with talent. Jk. I actually like Mitchell. But she reminds me of Nika. I think I got slandered about this when I said this months ago. But I moreso mean fearless and stout on the defensive side of the ball. I remember one of the first times seeing Nika play in person and I thought she looked massive. Like a legit 5'10 and strong/athletic. I think Burton is like that in that she's not necessarily a small guard which I somewhat miscategorized her as when coming out of college and is physical on both sides of the ball. I think Natalie Nakase is doing an amazing job.

 

[JstVisiting]

…Plus she's always struck me as a great teammate, always team-first.

Kinda makes you wonder about the 2024 and 25 Aces if they’d had the 2017 #4 pick instead of #1.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Kinda makes you wonder about the 2024 and 25 Aces if they’d had the 2017 #4 pick instead of #1.

Well they did win 2 Championships with that #1 pick playing a big role. So there's that.