Indiana Fever 91 – Atlanta Dream 84 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN

Aaliyah Boston tied her career high with 27 points and a double-double while silencing all of the haters who seem to be growing louder every day. I actually think Boston is the heart of this team. She consistently brings the crew together with her aggressive play and ability to create her own shot (needed with the sometimes spotty point guard play by the OTHER #1 pick jkjkjk CC fans). She also has some of the best pressers in the business. She is never frustrated and always remains calm and well spoken. I almost love Aaliyah’s interviews as much as I love her hooping. She was even a bit critical of herself in the postgame presser noting that she was “dominant in the first half” but came down a bit in the third quarter and had to close the game out in the fourth.

Speaking of interviews, last night was Katie Lou Samuelson’s birthday and the birthday girl scored 11 points on 3 of 4 shooting from 3 providing her usual hardcore minutes (28 tonight) coming off the bench. After the game, Katie Lou said that she took the right shots “for her” tonight and that she had been spending time in the gym over the past week “preparing for this moment.” She even mentioned that she had changed her lifting routine which has been helping. Pretty cool that it happened on such a special day. Happy Birthday Katie Lou!

Ultimately Katie mentioned that they were “really playing like a team” and expounded that “the ball was moving” and we were “celebrating each other. You could see it in the buckets we were getting.” I know the Fever are taking a lot of heat right now, especially Coach Christie Sides, for not involving Caitlin Clark and her three point game but they were doing that at the beginning of the season and it wasn’t really working. I would like to see Caitlin involved more in the offense and if she is not, they sure are not going to get a win like this every night – especially against a decent, if not dominant, team like the Atlanta Dream. But I do think that whatever is happening is a process of involving the team, calibrating the team and their strengths, and finding their groove with Caitlin. Unfortunately, that is upsetting a lot of fans – however unjustly.

Seattle Storm 92 – Dallas Wings 84 at College Park Center somewhere in Dallas, TX

Imagine for a minute Page Bueckers in a Dallas Wings uniform! We are on our way. Right now the Wings have the second worst record in the league and are just a loss out of the #1 seed in the WNBA lottery. The Wings have lost six in a row after starting 3-2 and looking like a pretty decent team. I was in the building to see one of those wins and you can read about in my game report HERE.

But weeks have passed and now this Dallas team looks like a shadow of its early season self. It is suffering from injuries to key players Natasha Howard and Satou Sabally but the team has talent, including its current Big 3: Arike, Teira McCowan, Monique Billings. Add to that Maddy Siegrest who is having a HECK of a sophomore season. And they even have a barely tapped Jacy Sheldon sitting on the bench (BTW can you imagine a back court of Bueckers and Satou Sabally with Siegrest and Sheldon coming off the bench?) In fact, I just tweeted that the Wings were my league pass last weekend when they lost to the Phoenix Mercury in double overtime – my early frontrunner for WNBA game of the year.

And that starts to get to the heart of it. The good news: the Dallas Wings have been competitive throughout their extended losing streak with just two double digit losses and that aforementioned double-OT loss. Maddy Siegrest had 16 last night. And Arike scored 24 on 55% shooting from the 3pt line. Oh and she sunk a half court shot that was a SportsCenter highlight. This team is right there. But there might take a while.

Because the bad news is that this streak might not end for a few more games because the Wings play the Connecticut Sun tomorrow and the Minnesota Lynx on Monday. The streak could reach eight – easily. They then face the Chicago Sky late next week but even a W there is not a given.

The other piece of good news: Natasha Howard should be back by July 1st. That is some much needed reinforcement that will give the Wings a shot in the arm. And if Sabally is back by August, I don’t think this Wings team will still be in the Paige Bueckers conversation. But that would be a pretty sick back court.

Las Vegas Aces 100 – Phoenix Mercury 99 at Footprint Center, Phoenix Arizona

The Las Vegas Aces scored just 12 in the first quarter before rallying back with a massive 88 points in the ensuing three quarters to end their three game losing streak by beating the Phoenix Mercury on the road. This was a nice win and saw A’ja Wilson turn in a dominant 32 point performance and honestly, the team looked great.

I have a feeling that the Aces are a “turn it on” team that will “turn it on” when the playoffs come around in a few months but also might coast for a little while during the regular season. More losing streaks might be in order. But nobody, and I mean nobody, thinks that they are going to be on the sidelines for the playoffs. They might not have as good of a record as last year but they will be there. Becky Hammon is just too damn good of a coach.

Speaking of Hammon, I guess the Kate Martin experiment is over, or at least on ice. She was a great shooter, but like I said, had some defensive liabilities. My guess is that Hammon is taking this experiement back in the lab, now limiting her minutes to only 10 a game since her start on Sunday night and the ensuing loss – while working on her defense and off-ball movement. I think she will be back in the starting line-up before the season is over but it might not happen again on a regular basis until after the all-star break. Still – I hope she is back soon, I know the team struggles geling with her (as is happening with A LOT of rookies – see the Fever story above) on defense but her offense and energy provides so much for this team. If Hammon uses her correctly, she can be this team’s Jordan Poole – and lay the groundwork for a three-peat.