Episode 9 - Temperatures Rising

WNBA Records Update, Fever–Mercury Drama, and Team Ratings Breakdown

Sylvia and Madeleine open with corrections and new WNBA records: Marina Mabrey ties the single-game scoring record with 53, Dominique Malonga becomes the youngest to score 30+ with 37 at age 20, and the Tempo set a regulation team scoring record with 125; they also note the Mystics–Fire four-overtime game (124–123, 3:35) with four players fouling out and mention Camila Cardoso’s 13-for-13 shooting and Cheryl Reeve tying the regular-season coaching wins record at 379. They recap Wings results (win vs Seattle in OT; losses to Aces and Lynx) and Fever games, including a 6-point first quarter, multiple technicals, Caitlin Clark’s back injury, and Alyssa Thomas receiving a postgame Flagrant Two and suspension, alongside discussion of racist language in fan discourse. They review other notable games, standings changes (Valkyries up to third), explain offensive/defensive ratings, assess Wings player strengths/weaknesses, preview upcoming games and the Commissioner’s Cup, and close with swish list items including Kelsey Mitchell’s Puma deal.

00:00 Welcome to Double Drivel

00:08 Records and Corrections

01:17 Four Overtimes Madness

02:32 Episode Roadmap

02:59 Wings Week Recap

06:23 Fever vs Mercury Chaos

11:39 Flagrant Two Breakdown

15:21 Racism and Fan Discourse

19:37 Fever vs Sparks Without Caitlin

24:07 League Records Roundup

24:53 Liberty Beat Aces Preview

25:50 Concussion Protocol Concerns

27:01 Concussion Updates

27:25 Week Recap Lynx Mystics

27:48 Valkyries Statement Wins

29:26 Defense Rating Breakdown

31:56 Offense Rating Leaders

33:41 Wings Net Points

35:52 Player Strengths Fixes

46:34 Standings Shakeup

47:13 Week Ahead Picks

48:36 Commissioners Cup Talk

50:39 Swish List Wrap

Transcript

0:00

Hello, and welcome to Double Drivel, a mother-daughter podcast about the WNBA. I'm Sylvia, and I'm the mom. I'm Madeline. Wanted to start out with a few notes or updates to our Two Truths and a Drivel segment that we did last week. It was drivel that a player had previously scored over 60 points in a game, and we shared that the record of 53 points was jointly held by A'ja Wilson and Liz Cambage. It is now a three-way tie as Marina Mabrey scored 53 points against the Sparks last Thursday. So just wanted to give her credit for joining the ranks of record holders for points in a game. So before it was true that a player 21 and under was the youngest player to score over 30 points, which was Kennedy Carter, who was 21 and 266 days. But Dominique Malonga has since bested this by scoring 37 points against the Wings last week at 20 years old. And then it was also true that the team scoring record in a game was 127 points, but that was with a double overtime. The new record in regulation was set by the Tempo of 125 points against the Sparks last week, which was driven by Mabrey's 53 points that we just mentioned. What we didn't cover in the two truths and a Drivel that is still notable is that the record number of overtimes is four, which has happened only twice, which both involved the Mystics and happened for the second time on Sunday when they were playing the Fire. The game lasted a total of three hours and 35 minutes, and the Mystics eventually won 124 to 123. The previous instance of four overtimes was the Mystics defeating the Storm 72 to 69 in 2001, which is very low scoring for four overtimes. Yeah, I mean, that's basically a whole extra half of a game. So maybe the defense was really on point back then. And then, because of the length of the game, obviously four players fouled out in yesterday's game. We're recording this on Monday, so Sunday's game. Kiki Iriafen was the only one for the Mystics, and Emily Engstler, Bridget Carleton, and Megan Gustafson fouled out for the Fire, so three of their five starters. Yeah, I also found it weird how everyone was like, "Oh, this person has a career high, this person has a career high." Like, I feel like they better have their career high. Like if they don't, like, what are they doing? Yeah, if you get 20 extra minutes of play, that is, a good occasion to have your career high, for sure. Okay. So yeah, just wanted to call out those notable facts before we got into the meat of the podcast. We'll go through our usual game highlights and standings. Madeline's gonna give a little, diagnostic on the Wings players and what she thinks they're good and not so good at. We'll talk about offensive and defensive ratings by the teams and who's standing out on both sides of the ball, and then close out with our usual Couch Picks and swish list. Okay, so starting with the Wings, they have won one game and lost two since our last episode. They beat Seattle 112 to 110 in overtime. Again, another one of those very much like Paige really, like, had to clutch and they eventually were able to win yeah, so she did end with 27 points. I actually think she... I was gonna say in recent games, not the last two, but before that, it seemed like in the games where they're going into overtime especially, it seemed like she's been starting off having not very good games, and then it feels like in the fourth quarter or even near the end of the fourth quarter, especially when she needs to be, like, clutch for the team, she gets a lot of points. So she did end with 27. AZ ended with 26. Jessica ended with 14. AZ also had four steals that game. And then Azzi James also ended with 18 points. So there's quite a bit of injuries still on the wings, I would say. So it's... there's not much of a... I feel like there could be a stronger rotation. I think a lot of people are hurt, especially, like I mean, technically not bigs, but Allana Smith and Alicia Clark are both technically bigs even though Alicia Clark isn't actually big. Unfortunately the Aces finally beat the Wings 99 to 84 on Thursday. They were dominant in the first and fourth quarter, and Dallas sort of found a way to come back in the second and third, but weren't able to pull off the win. And then they also lost 85 to 77 against the Lynx on Sunday. I would say they definitely made a good comeback and a good fight. I definitely wasn't expecting a win from them against the Lynx anyhow. I think everyone that's, making fun of them for that is weird. The Lynx are quite literally the best team in the league, and I hate everyone trying to compare Olivia Miles and Azzi again. That's very annoying. But, Azzi also did have a good defensive performance that game as well. She had four steals and one block, so I really think for everyone who insists on comparing her and Olivia Miles, I think she's way better on the defensive end anyways, and that's really, what she's been contributing for Dallas, so. But Olivia Miles was having a pretty good game. She's had 21 points. Natasha Howard also had 21 points. Courtney Williams actually had a pretty quiet night. I think she m- she was missing a lot of shots. She was 5 of 16, but she had 12 points, and then Kayla McBride had 17. Also, on the Wings side, I think it was a pretty quiet game for Jessica. She only had eight points, and then Awak only had two. I don't think she usually is, like, a very high scorer though, she's mostly there for defensive purposes. And then Arike also had a very quiet game with only five points. But Madi did also have a good game, and she had 12 points, so. Okay, yeah. Less than ideal showing, but they did lose to two of the best teams in the league. Yeah. So you can't hang your head in shame about that result too much. Okay, so the Fever were two and one. They split two very chippy games with the Mercury, which we will talk more about as we talk through the games. Record-wise, you would have hoped they would have beat the Mercury both times, but, we'll get into those details. So on Monday, they beat the Mercury 86 to 77. The first quarter was atrocious for the Fever. Lexie got a fast three right as the game started, and then the Fever didn't score again until there was less than a second left in the quarter. I had said yikes to you about the Wings only scoring seven points in a quarter last week, and then the Fever had to go and do even worse than that with six points. So both of their- Well, they both had six points, but they were very close to only having three points as well. You're lucky Kelsey Mitchell even scored that. Exactly, and they were two of 18 shooting in that quarter, so that was very atrocious. I did have to go look up what the WNBA record was for the fewest points scored in a quarter after that, and the record is one point- By the Chicago Sky in the fourth quarter of a 59-49 loss versus the Liberty in 2011. So- Yikes one free throw, I guess, right? So it could be worse, and that was also an extremely low-scoring game. But the Fever came back quickly in the second quarter. Caitlin had back-to-back long threes, and they were tied at the half at 41. And then the Fever came out strong in the third and dominated that quarter 30 to 11. They were 71-52 at the end of the third, and then early in the fourth there was a big Kerfuffle, for lack of a better word, that started when Caitlin and DeWanna Bonner had their arms entangled, and by the end of it, five technical fouls had been issued to Caitlin, Myisha Hines-Allen, DeWanna Bonner, Alyssa Thomas, and Sophie Cunningham. Sophie and DeWanna Bonner's technicals came from what I've seen some people online refer to as a pointing contest, where I think DeWanna pointed at Sophie first, and then Sophie pointed, I read somewhere that it was for 22 seconds, that Sophie kept pointing. Why are people touting that? I do not know. I don't really understand the technical for that, but okay. I guess they thought it was kind of taunting and instigating. So it's kind of an amusing reason to get a technical. But there were five issued then, and then Myisha Hines-Allen got a second technical, which leads to an automatic ejection very shortly after that when, she made a hard push on Alyssa Thomas. So a lot of activity in that game. Ultimately, the Fever prevailed 86 to 77. They had brought some bench players in later in the game, which allowed Phoenix to catch up a little bit. But outside of the first quarter, overall was a pretty dominant performance by the Fever. And then on Wednesday, they played the Mercury again in Indianapolis, and they led in Q1 and they were even in Q3, but the Mercury outscored them slightly in Q2 and Q4. So they won the game by two points, but the referees were really horrible in this game, especially considering all the drama that happened in the prior game, and they really should've been a lot more on top of things to avoid any issues. There were a couple of improper calls that probably would've swung the outcome of the game. There was a reckless closeout by Ayayi on a three-point attempt by Caitlin in the second quarter. Being in her landing space should be an automatic flagrant one, but they only called it as a common foul, and then the officials reviewed it for possible upgrade on Caitlin because her arm made contact with Ayayi when she was coming down because Ayayi was too close to her and was in her landing space. They didn't end up upgrading it to give Caitlin a flagrant, but even after reviewing it, they didn't give Ayayi the flagrant one for being in her landing space, which was a big mess. And Caitlin ended up flaring up her back in this, game and ended up leaving the game in the third quarter and not coming back. She's had the back issue kinda listed as something and sat out one game for that already this season. Hopefully it was just a slight flare-up and it won't keep her out for too long. So that play when she went down from that landing space foul may be what really flared that up again. It's hard to say for sure And then also in the second quarter during a scramble for a loose ball, Alyssa Thomas fell on Caitlin and had her knee in Caitlin's groin, which of course, is an injury that she missed a lot of last season with. And then also when she went to stand up, she pushed off of Caitlin with her fist on Caitlin's neck. There was no call on this play. White brought it to the attention of refs at halftime, and nothing was done, and Stephanie White went off in the post-game press conference about it. Obviously, the Fever filed a complaint with the league for review. The league then assessed Thomas with a Flagrant Two foul and a suspension from the Mercury's next game. There's been a ton of discourse about this. Normally, a Flagrant Two is an ejection from the game. Obviously, since it wasn't called in the game, Alyssa Thomas was not ejected. If it had been, that probably also would've changed the course of the game. The Fever would've gotten to shoot two free throws and also gotten possession of the ball. But also not having their best player or second-best player d- to- depending how you rank Kahleah Copper versus Alyssa Thomas, on the floor for half the game very likely would've changed the result as well. So because she wasn't ejected from the game, the league ended up suspending her from the Mercury's next game On the face of that, that seems reasonable to me since they weren't able to eject her during the game. She was suspended from the next game to miss playing time instead. There definitely are past incidents where a lot of incidents of flagrant twos that people bring up, some of which involve Alyssa Thomas, including when she kinda clotheslined Angel Reese around the neck in her rookie season. She was ejected from that game and given a flagrant two. I've seen a lot of people saying it wasn't intentional, but that's not part of the definition of a flagrant foul. It doesn't matter if it was intentional. And just to clarify definitions here, so a flagrant one is for contact that is deemed unnecessary but not excessively dangerous. The penalty for that, if called in game, is the fouled player gets two free throws and their team gets possession of the ball. A player is not automatically ejected for a flagrant one, but if they commit two flagrant ones in a game, they are disqualified. A flagrant two is for contact that is both unnecessary and excessive, like a severe elbow in the head, fighting, dangerous midair body checks, again, two free throws and the team gets to keep the ball that was fouled, and then the player is immediately ejected and disqualified from the remainder of the game. So she meets the definition. Obviously, pushing up on someone's neck is excessive, not a basketball play, not necessary, could cause serious harm. Thomas does have some history of being overly physical and reckless. I'm not going to say what is intentional and what is not. Again, that's not part of the definition, but it's definitely reckless to push off of somebody's neck to stand up. A lot of the other examples that people bring up in terms of flagrant two, like I mentioned, the play on Angel her rookie year. Sophie had a headlock of J.C. Sheldon last season. She was given a flagrant two and was ejected from the game. Although that being said, in that same game where Sophie put J.C. in the headlock last season, Marina Mabry rammed into Caitlin and pushed her down. And that was upgraded to a flagrant two after the game, and she was not suspended. So there has been inconsistency with the way the league has handled this in the past when there's upgrades post-game. And the league does really need to have a clear policy around this so that everybody knows what's happening and why. There's a lot of people that think that this only happened and she was suspended because it was committed on Caitlin Clark, because people saw the still shots of her fist on her neck, which made it look a lot worse, I don't know exactly what caused their decision to make the suspension versus not. But clarity and consistency from the league is obviously something that would avoid a lot of discourse in this future. And even more so, making sure that those plays are called in-game so those decisions don't need to be made after the fact. Unfortunately, at times there are people who purport to be Caitlin Clark fans who use her as an avatar for their racism and like to attack other players in a racist manner. I Would not be at all surprised if that is happening to Alyssa Thomas, and comments are being made online right now that should absolutely not be happening. The foul being called, et cetera, in an appropriate way is all that should be happening. There is no excuse for anybody attacking anybody in a racist way whatsoever. Yeah, and I was actually gonna say something about that before because I know when you originally told me about it, I went to look it up, like, on YouTube, and there's just, like, multiple thumbnails. It's just, like, has, like, a photo of Alyssa Thomas and just, like, the caption, like, "Dirty thug." And it's really, like, that has... Like, race has nothing to do with it. I mean, I would say there are plenty of other very physical and occasionally dirty players. Like, I would say J.C. Sheldon can be like that, and no one's ever calling her a dirty thug, or Marina Mabrey, right? Yeah. And we just talked about that example. And I don't like the use of the word thug at all. I think it carries racist tones. I've seen a lot of discourse, unfortunately, in Fever fan groups, where they're quick to call Black players thugs, and it's extremely rare I ever see that word used about a white player. Then they'll try to claim if you call them out on it, like, "Oh, no, in the definition of the word, they meet it." And I'm like, "Okay, but show me where you've ever called a white player that." And there's definitely white players you could say exhibit the same behavior. So I'm very mindful about that, what language used, gets used about people. It's very important to make sure that, Nobody is feeding into those racist tropes and we're only talking about basketball. Yeah, and I was also gonna say, I'm not sure, maybe you could tell me, but I feel like also I think Caitlin hasn't addressed that nearly enough. I'm pretty sure she's made maybe, like, a couple comments here and there, but I definitely think that's something she should be doing much more often because a lot of her fan base really is just, like, a bunch of crazy racists. And I know it's not her fault, but it's also something I feel like she's sort of not been addressing as much as she probably should be. She's addressed it a few times. It's always in kind of a formal interview post-game or her time interview. I do wish that she would speak about it a bit more aggressively and denounce it more directly than she has at times in the past. I agree she can't control what people are out there saying. I know at one point she said, aren't fans, those are trolls." And I do think that's often the case. But regardless of what these people are, and undoubtedly some of them are bots, but there's definitely real people out there saying these things as well, and it's completely unacceptable. And although she can't control what people do, I do wish that she would speak on it more directly and thoroughly denounce it. I don't think that means that she is racist. I understand she lives with a lot of pressure and spotlight. But, you know, with that spotlight I also think comes a responsibility. And hopefully as she grows and matures, we'll see a bit more of that from her. But, I guess we'll leave that there. So moving on, Caitlin did end up leaving the game in the third quarter with a back injury and did not return. So the Mercury ultimately ended up prevailing in the game. Aliyah Boston had a strong game with 23 points, nine rebounds, and five assists. Kelsey Mitchell had 30 points and six as- six assists. Caitlin Clark, before exiting the game, already had 19 points and eight assists. On the Mercury side, Alyssa Thomas had 24 points, four rebounds, eight assists. Kahleah Copper had 28 points as their high score Okay, and then in the final game of the week, the Fever beat the Sparks 111 to 87. Caitlin did sit out of this game with a back injury. Ty Harris stepped up as the starting point guard and had a strong game with 16 points, five rebounds, and three assists. And Mo Billings also had a good game with 15 points, six rebounds, two assists, and two steals. I've been happy to see that, she seems to be gelling with the team a little bit more lately, so happy to see that. And Kelsey was the high scorer with 26 points, and Aaliyah also had 17 points. I think it's good to see Ty Harris doing well, especially since she really did not play at all for the Wings last year, I'm pretty sure, unless she played a couple times in the first game. I'm not sure what it would've been like if she was still on the Wings, but I was just gonna say it's good to see her doing good since she basically, I'm pretty sure, did not play all season last year. Yeah, and she had been the starting point guard, on the Sun when Stephanie White was coach there, so obviously they have some history together. Was definitely happy to see she was able to step up with Caitlin out. Some people were upset that Raven Johnson didn't get the start. She's been playing backup point guard actually more than Ty Harris has been this season, which is kind of interesting. But I completely understand why they wanted a vet with more experience- starting games to start the game. I think Raven still got, let's see, 19 minutes. Sorry. I was looking at the Phoenix game. Raven had 21 minutes, and Ty Harris had 30, so she's still got a lot of minutes there. On the Sparks side, Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink did not play. Kelsey has a lower leg injury and is expected to miss at least four weeks, and Brink has an ankle sprain and will be out for at least two weeks. On the Sparks side, Nneka was the high scorer with 17 points. DeNoia had 15, Rae Burrell 11, and Ariel Atkins 12. Fever pulled that one out. Sparks without Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink was a good matchup to have if Caitlin was gonna be sitting out, and obviously the Sparks are struggling even with Kelsey Plum, yeah, do you know what the Sparks record is right now? Because either way, I know they're not doing very well. I'm pretty sure they're one of the last five teams, unless I'm wrong about that. But, either way, I think I would say I feel like when they have Cameron Brink and Kelsey Plum, I do feel like from the outside, they seem like they should be a much better team than they are. But I do feel like they probably need more like weapons on like the bigs' side, 'cause they have Kelsey Plum, and obviously, you know, she's very good. She's definitely the best player on their team, yeah, they're eight and 10. Oh, okay. That's not too bad I feel like they're one of those teams that on paper seems like they should be a good bit better than they are. So they added Nneka. Oh yeah, I did for- forget. Yeah, so they should definitely be better, and they have De'Erica, who is a good player. I mean, Cameron Brink normally comes off the bench right now, I think. Yeah, I do feel like Cameron Brink, I'm not sure, do you know, I forget, what number was she drafted? It was pretty high. Two. Yeah. So I do feel like she so far hasn't been doing the best. I think I do remember whenever you kind of watch her, I feel like, I'm not sure if it's she doesn't take a lot of shots or she might miss a lot. So I'm not sure. Yeah. To be fair, she tore her ACL- Yeah I think in June of her rookie year, and had been doing pretty well up until then. And then obviously ca- I think came back in July-ish last year on kind of limited minutes at first, et cetera. So she's yet to play a full season equivalent. Yeah. She's had a mask on. I know we've... I think she's done better with her mask than Elena probably has. But, Yeah, and you know, now that also Elena's now injured again in the face, I think she should just honestly not even play. Like I feel like she should be listed as out until her nose is completely healed, because this is the third time this has happened. Like luckily this time I don't think she has re-injured her nose, but just another head injury in general. It's like this mask, I don't even know if it's really doing anything, honestly. Yeah. She definitely needs to do some healing. Okay. So in terms of records this week, we already talked about Marina tying the scoring record and the Fire and Mystics tying the overtime record. And then Camila Cardoso also set the record for most shots without a miss with 13 And she was 13 of 13 in that game. Yeah. So that's very impressive. And then Cheryl Reeve tied the WNBA record for career coaching wins, for regular season victories at 379. She already owns the record for playoff wins. And then for those regular season victories at 379, she tied Mike Thibault. Okay, moving on to other notable games that we called out in Couch Picks last week. The Liberty beat the Aces 87 to 76 on Tuesday, which is sort of a preview of the Commissioner's Cup Championship, which will be when this episode is released. Jackie Young was the high score for the Aces with 19 points, four rebounds and assists, so it's good to see her sort of getting back to normal after she'd been in a slump for a bit. A'ja was held to only 16 points, but she did have nine rebounds and five assists. For on the Liberty side, Stewie had 20 points. Sabrina had a double double with 16 points. I think a couple games, yeah. Okay, yeah. So it's good to see her doing well again. I know the first time she came back she wasn't really doing very well, so it's good to see that. She also had 10 rebounds, which I feel like is pretty rare for a guard. Then Jonquel Jones had 14 points, Fibich had 12, and also, I don't wanna say her name wrong, is it Han Xu? Is that how you say her name? Yeah, I think so. She also had 12 points. And Satou only played eight minutes. NaLyssa Smith's arm hit her head, and she is back in concussion protocol- Yikes which is not what you wanna hear. Yeah. And I think it was also NaLyssa Smith who, has... Is it Cameron Brinks' nose that she's hit twice, or who was it? I, I know it was... I don't know. You might be mixing up... I mean, maybe you're not, but I do know that it was Asia that hit, Elena Smith's nose twice. Yeah, I thought I had heard that Napheesa Smith, like, broke Cameron Brink's nose twice or something. Oh, I don't know. I, I don't know. I would have- Not sure on that I would have to fact-check that. Obviously none of it on purpose, I'm sure. Yeah. How long was Sa- Satou in concussion protocol? So it happened in the, Like- playoffs, and so she was out the whole off-season. She missed all of Unrivaled, and she was- Oh out at the beginning of this season. I don't know if that was still concussion related or if- Right it was a different injury. Oh. Oh, oh, so yeah. I didn't realize that that would be so long. Does that mean basically Elena Smith might be out for quite a while depending- Well, it just depends- on how bad it is? Yeah I think. Yeah, it just depends how long the symptoms are lingering. So for Satou, I think she had, like, a quite serious concussion in the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't doubt that Elena Smith probably... I'm not sure if it's that severe, but I wouldn't doubt that she has... It's n- it's not mild, I wouldn't say, especially after she got hit in the head, like, twice back to back in, like, back to back plays, so. Okay, and then the Lynx beat the Mystics, 78 to 76 on Wednesday. So very close game. They're able to come back after losing to them, though. Sonia Citron had 28 points. Kiki and Shakira both had double doubles, and then Natasha Howard and Olivia Mills also both had 21 points, and Howard had 15 rebounds. That's a lot of rebounds. And then the Dreams and the Valkyries played twice... Dream, rather, not Dreams, w- played twice this week. The Valkyries won both of those games. On Wednesday, they won 77 to 66. The high score for the Valkyries was Gabby Williams with 23 points, and Rhyne Howard was high score for the Dream with only 12 points. And then Valkyries won again on Friday 78 to 75. And then another Valkyries game was the one versus the Liberty on Sunday. The Valkyries actually won this game 76 to 67. This was a strong week for the Valkyries, winning three games against strong opponents. I would also say that I do feel like the Valkyries can be very, like, underrated. Like, I wouldn't say there's no way they're getting to the finals. Are they in the same conference as the Lynx or no? They're in Western, but that actually doesn't matter for the playoffs. It only matters in the Commissioner's Cup. Oh, okay. So I'm honestly already sold that I think the Lynx are going to the championship. I'm not like, "I don't see anyone else besides them getting there," but I definitely wouldn't throw the Valkyries out of the mix, even though I'm not sure what they're ranked right now, okay. Well, I definitely wouldn't say there's no chance that they wouldn't make the playoffs, even though there are teams that are technically doing stronger than them in terms of wins. Yeah, but I mean, they beat three strong opponents, well, two opponents that they beat twice, this week. I would be very surprised if they didn't make it to the playoffs. It's just a question of the highest seed, but they are definitely on the rise. Which brings us, to our next segment, where we're gonna talk about defensive and offensive ratings to see how the teams are stacking up on both sides of the ball. We'll start with a little bit of a definition for these ratings for anybody that might not be familiar with them. So the defensive efficiency rating, also just known as the defensive rating, measures the number of points a team or player allows per 100 possessions, so it's a tempo-free metric to evaluate defensive performance. So a lower score is better because that means you're allowing fewer points by your opponent. So we'll talk through which teams are ranked the best and the worst here. Okay, so number one is Minnesota, which I wouldn't say is too surprising. I, even though I'm not sure I was that aware of their defense, but considering they are the number one team, you have to be good on defense to be good anyways. It can't just be offense, so. And then obviously the Valkyries are second. Honestly, from when the Wings have played them, I would say they're first, but they're not. But they do have a really good defense. Atlanta is third. The Mystics are actually in fourth. New York is fifth. Dallas is sixth, which I find kind of surprising. I feel like they're really not good at defense at all, I am similarly surprised that Indiana is seventh, so they're both kind of middle of the pack. I feel like Indiana's defense is pretty horrible as well, I'm not sure. I guess if you're also adding in Dallas' perimeter defense, sometimes I feel like they're really bad on that and much better in the paint, but recently I think they just can't prevent any scoring in the paint really. So maybe it's just all their perimeter defense allowing them to have such a high defensive rating. Yeah, and what's surprising is that Vegas is in 10th considering how good their record is overall. Yeah, and what's even more surprising to me is that Connecticut is in eighth and Seattle is in ninth. So I guess that would just mean more so their defense is clearly not the problem. It's their offense because both the teams do not have a good record. Yep, and we're gonna talk about that next. Just to call out the teams that are at the bottom, a lot of it is obviously teams that are at the bottom, of the overall standings, but in last place are the Sparks. Portland is 14th, Toronto 13th, and Phoenix 12th. Okay, moving into offensive rating The definition of this is how many points a team scores per 100 possessions. So again, it's a tempo free metric since we're looking at it for 100 possessions. And it takes total points scored divided by total possessions used, multiplied by 100. And so it's the quality of scoring output and lets you know how lethal the team is when they have the ball. Yeah, so unsurprisingly in first are the Aces. Honestly, surprisingly in second to me is the Fever. And honestly, seeing as they're not that low in defensive rating and they're so high in offensive, I would say they should be much better. They should be ranked a bit higher. And then third is the Lynx. Fourth is actually the Tempo. Fifth is Illiberty. Sixth is the Wings. Seventh is the Dream. And then the rest of the teams, the Sparks are in eighth, Valkyries in ninth, Mercury in 10th, Fire in 11th. I'm not sure what the Fire's record is, but they seem very low on both offensive and defensive. But I feel like they're not doing that horrible, so. Well, I think they started off better and have- been tanking a little bit lately. I'm not sure. I haven't checked recently. But- And then in last place are Sky in the t- in 12th, and Storm in 13th. And I think we're missing the actually 14th and 15th that got cut off here. But anyway, I'm not super surprised the Fever are high up there. They have a very overall high performing offense, especially when you've got Olivia Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, and Caitlin Clark on the team. But yeah, if you look at that combined with their defensive rating, you'd think that should average out to being rated a little bit higher. But, okay. So moving on to the Wings' strength and weaknesses. I know you put in the, the, the net points for each Wings player, but I also just wanna talk about what I personally think they're good at, and also maybe some things individually and maybe team-wise they need to improve on, but I can talk about net points first. So actually, let me see. So six of Dallas' players are in the negatives on offense, which I feel like isn't too bad. Paige's offensive net points is 63. Jessica Shepard's is 46. AZ's is 17. Isaiah James is 14. Maddie Sirosis is 19. Yeah. Leah Rue's is one, and then everyone else's is in a negative. Technically not counting JJ Quinerly since she's not on the team anymore, but Awak Kuier's offensive rating is negative nine. Alicia Clark's is negative seven. Odyssey Sims is negative eight. Also, she hasn't been playing recently. And then Elena Smith is negative 19, which again, she hasn't been playing recently, but I just wanted to throw that out there. Then for defensive ratings, only three players on the wings are in positives in defensive net points, which is sup- I guess even though only three players are in positives for that, It's enough that they're rated higher in def- in defense anyways. But, Paige is negative seven in defense. Drusilla Shepherd is negative 21. Mighty Segrest is negative seven. Arike is negative 21, also along with Drusilla Shepherd, and Alana Smith is negative eight. The three players in the positives are AZ, Azia, and Ewok, which isn't surprising to me. I wouldn't have thrown Azia in the mix. But I do feel like she's not too horrible on defense. I think she also is able to draw a lot of offensive fouls, so maybe that's part of the reason why her rating is up. But AZ is rated a six, Azia is also rated a six, and Ewok is rated a five. So honestly, I would have already said that AZ and Ewok would have been the top defensive players anyway, but I didn't recognize Azia for that, so good for her, I guess. And then I was also gonna talk about what I personally think each player is good at. Notably what I personally just like mostly been thinking about, obviously AZ is very good on defense. Recently, I feel like in her last, I don't know how many games, but She's had like four steals a game recently, and then sometimes she's able to get blocks, but she's very good on the steals I also think she's very good at, like, getting a pass and then quickly releasing to get a three, so I do think that's, like, a good asset. Jessica Shepard is obviously very good on just getting in the paint and also definitely connecting with Paige. I think that's a big, connection on the wings. I think that happens very often. She's able to sort of mislead, players on the other team and kind of direct other players and then just pass to Paige in the paint. I definitely would say something I've noticed recently is that Azia, even though I sometimes I'm like, "Eh," 'cause I feel like sometimes, like I've said, she can be a little selfish with the ball. I feel like I haven't seen much of that recently. I know Jose doesn't like selfishness in the locker room. So he might have talked to her about it, or maybe she realized and corrected herself. But I definitely think she's a huge spark off the bench. She's very good at driving in the paint and, drawing fouls. I think that's something she's very good on. I'm not sure how many, free throws she averages per game, but I know she's very good at, coming into the game and immediately drawing a foul. She's... Honestly, last year I feel like she's, wasn't too bad on the threes. This year, she's been in, a huge slump on the threes. I'm not sure why, 'cause that's part of, what people were saying was kind of selfish on her part is she kept trying to take threes. And it's one thing if you can make them, but she wasn't making them, so I'm not sure if she also realized that herself. Maybe she's working to kind of fix that or I'm not sure what the issue with that would be. Maddie's also definitely a spark off the bench. She's definitely a player that can come in, She was a starter at one point. I'm definitely not mad with a walk starting. I think she deserves a starting spot, but she's definitely someone who can, easily go on the floor and play as if she was a starter. Then walk is definitely very good on defense. I would say she definitely needs to improve on the offensive end. I don't think that's the purpose of why Jose puts her on the floor, but I don't think it would hurt her, to maybe try and drive in the paint more often. She's very good on defense, but it definitely would not... It would help the team a lot more if she's a starter, and not only is she good on defense, but she can easily score. I do feel like she's been very low scoring, like two or three points a game. I noticed she hasn't been getting as much minutes even though she's starting recently, so maybe that's something she should be improving on. Moving on to Lee, she's also a spark off the bench. She's definitely someone you can put in and kind of trust to... I think she's able to, you know, create... I should have said this about Maddie as well, Well, I don't think Awalk can really is much of a threat in the paint, I would say, considering she doesn't score that often. But I would say she's also something to worry about beyond the perimeter, and I would say that with, Maddie and Lee as well. Unfortunately, I haven't seen Lee make a few threes in a bit, but she also hasn't had too much playing time. But she's definitely able to make those, and I do think that's a plus for her. I would say something she definitely needs to work on is her defense. Like I've said to you, I know she's very tall, so sometimes she can kind of get away with it. But usually her defense just kind of consists of her throwing her hands up and hoping for the best. And I really like her, so I do think if she's able to improve on that, she can be a really big asset for the Wings. And then Sug, we haven't had her very long. She's not rated, Positively in either offense or defense, but I actually do think she's not been very bad. I don't think she's, a huge defensive player. She wasn't played that often, but I do think she's good at being able to switch to point guard when Paige is still on the floor, so Paige can switch to shooting guard, and she's able to also lead the team. I also have noticed she's good at, making tough shots from threes, so that's something that could be a plus. Odyssey, she hasn't played much. I don't have much to say on her. I do think, just like Arike, she can be very, inconsistent at times when she has played. I can't say too much on her, especially she's been out for a few weeks now, so she's missed quite a few games. I'm not sure if she's going to come back this season. I'm pretty sure it was. Or they might just say left ankle, but I'm not sure. I would say if it's sprained, she should be able to come back, but she also hasn't been traveling with the team, so I'm not sure how long it will be until she comes back. But I definitely think she could work on being more consistent. I mean, I know that's something you can't really control, but I don't know what tips I would give for being more consistent. Whatever tips there are, I would also give it to Riquex. She can be so on fire and so amazing for the Wings when she is doing well. But then there are definitely multiple games where she really just isn't having a good game. I would say with the Lynx and in the Aces, I don't remember what game it was, she only had five points. I know she didn't play that much that game, but she played a decent amount. I don't know what tips I would give for being more consistent, but maybe that's something she needs to talk about with coach. Maybe he has talked to her about it. That's why she's definitely been getting less minutes recently, for sure. So I'm not sure, what advice I'd really give on that, but that's definitely one of her biggest faults. Also, I never really thought about it before, but definitely based on this defensive rating, she's really not good at defense. I don't expect that much from her. I know guards, you should still be good at defense, but I would say that's more on the bigs to be good at defense. But she definitely needs to be good at defense. I don't think I've ever really seen her make a defensive play before, not like that. But like I've never like notably been like, oh yeah, she's getting like a steal a game. Like I feel like she's not really averaging any kind of defensive Move in a game, which sometimes can, not really matter when she's having a really good offensive game, but especially those games where she's not doing well offensively and she's also not very good on defense, it's just kind of like detrimental to the team. And then Elena, again, she also hasn't been playing much recently. Like I- but I would definitely say she's not as bad on defense as I thought based on the defensive ratings, but also considering she was, like, the, the co-defense player of the year last year, I do think that's something she needs to work on. Again, I don't know if it truly is the mask like people are saying. I do think she just needs to rest and sit out. I also do feel like, just like I've said about a couple other players like Alicia, I feel like she doesn't take as many shots as she probably should be. Again, she hasn't played in a bit, so I, I'm just going off the top of my head. And then I also didn't say anything on Jessica Shepard I did say she's good on, you know, driving the paint, making passes to the paint, but I didn't say she definitely needs to work on her defense. Just like Arike, she's negative 21 in defense. Usually, again, that doesn't really matter because she's very good offensively, so she's good enough where her effect on the defense isn't really needed. But in games where she isn't doing very well, or just in general when they're playing a team that is also very good, offensively, that's definitely something that should be improved. I do think their defense by their bigs besides Awaak just really needs to be improved in general. I mean, I definitely know it's hard to guard especially bigger players. I know Lee is definitely tall, but the rest of their bigs, I mean, they're normal size for bigs, but when you're going against like Camila Cardoso it's like they really could not do anything. Jessica did say in that game they felt they were doing a better job of guarding her and kind of stopping her in the second half, which I do think is true, but I definitely think she's also sort of like Lee. She just kind of throws her hands up and hopes for the best. I would say Lee, even though it doesn't say it, 'cause technically she's had less playing time than Jessica, but I would say considering also her time on the team last year, I would also just say in general I think Lee, like that's always been sort of an issue for her. Like she's very tall, so I think she should be definitely more expected to be better on defense. I do think sometimes she's scared of getting fouls, and obviously that's something you should be concerned about when it's a close game, but I feel like there's a difference between that and sometimes she almost just like steps away from the person scoring the ball, just hands up and like they really just have a clear shot at the basket. So I definitely think that's something she needs to work on. I would assume most of it comes from like a fear of not wanting to get called for foul, but- But to be defaulting to that when you're not even in foul trouble is- Yeah, I do think that's- not what you wanna see something she needs to work on again. Also, Jessica, I think she makes more of an effort on defense, I just don't think she's very good at it. I also think she gets called for fouls when she is trying on defense, so again, ev- all the bigs besides Awaak, because she is good on defense, sort of need to reevaluate how they're... because I know Madi at times is actually, she also tries on defense, but again, she can be called for foul pretty quickly, so. Yeah, they're definitely lacking a real rim protector, and maybe that's what Elena was supposed to be, which hasn't worked out that way so far, but Yeah, and I would say a lock can be that. I actually would say that is sort of what she has been for the team. Not so much recently, but AZ is definitely defensive on the steal end. A lock is usually on the block end. I don't really see her making steals that often, so she's definitely good on blocks. But also sometimes she can be called for a foul with that, and you have to be very careful with that kind of thing, 'cause if you make any contact with their hand when you're blocking, it's like immediate foul, yeah. That's definitely a skill to, that everyone should be able to improve. Anyway, that's all I have to say for that. All right. Thanks, Coach Madeline. Okay, moving on to the standings. The Lynx and the Aces remain in first and second, but with those three wins last week, the Valkyries have jumped from sixth to third. Oh, okay. So I was saying I think they should be higher, which they are now. Yeah. They made a big jump, especially because the teams they were beating are teams that had been ahead of them in the standings. So that helped them jump up. So the Dream, Liberty, and Wings each move down a spot due to Valkyries moving up to third. So the Dream are now fourth, Liberty fifth, Wings sixth, and the Fever remain at seven, and the Mystics at eight. And the bottom half remains the same, except the Tempo and the Sparks switched places. Okay, in terms of couch picks for the week, it's kind of a quiet week in terms of games because of the Commissioner's Cup- on Tuesday. And obviously when they set the schedule at the beginning of the year, they don't know which teams are going to be in the Commissioner's Cup, so they also have to leave Monday and Wednesday free from games so that whoever is in the Commissioner's Cup has time to travel. Yeah, so the Wings are playing right after Wednesday. They're playing the Sun, which I hope they should definitely be able to win that. They have been playing difficult teams, like their last, two games, they've been playing difficult teams. They played the Aces and then they had to play the Lynx. I mean, I know usually they were beating the Aces, but again, they're a difficult team to play, so I'm glad to see them playing, an easier team. And then they are playing the Tempo on Sunday, which I'm a little scared about. I really hope they can kind of hold Marina Mabrey to not many points. So... and then the Fever are off pretty much the whole week. Their only game is against the Aces on Sunday. That will be the best team that they have played all season, so hopefully they can, rise to the occasion for that. I think it is good news, given Caitlin's back injury, that they're off all week, so she'll have a lot of rest. Hopefully that means that she will be ready to play by Sunday, but we shall see. And then in terms of other games, Tuesday is the Commissioner's Cup. That'll be the Aces versus Liberty, a rematch of last week's game. The Lynx is also playing the Liberty on Friday, which will be interesting since depending on how the Commissioner's Cup championship goes, they could be playing the champs of the Commissioner's Cup, depending on who wins. I'm not too confident in the Liberty. I feel like the Aces will win, but you never know, but either way, the Liberty is another higher ranked team, And this also will be the first time there is a repeat- champion, well not back to back repeat, but somebody that's won the Commissioner's Cup twice. The Commissioner's Cup has only been around for a few years, and that hasn't happened yet, but both the Aces and the Liberty have won it before. So one of them will get their second title. Yeah, and actually I was gonna say, I was thinking about this earlier, it's not really re- re- too related to what we were talking about, but I was gonna say, I feel like maybe you've made this comparison before, but I really just... The Aces are so annoying. Like, it's just like that whole like Patriots Super Bowl era. Everyone besides like I mean, besides Patriots fans hated the Patriots. I almost feel like that about the Aces. I'm like, "Oh my God, they're so annoying." Like- Yeah. I think my comparison was more A'ja Wilson to Tom Brady, but yeah. Yeah. Same, same vibe. Obviously you have to respect the greatness of A'ja and the Aces organization, and of Becky Hammon as a coach. But- Yeah if that's not your team, it gets a little bit sickening- Yeah for sure. And then also another, notable game is the Valkyries versus the Dream on Saturday. I haven't even been keeping up with what's been happening with the Dream since the Wings have already played them either two or three times. We haven't played them recently, so I haven't been keeping up with them, so I'm not sure how... I know they're doing well, but I'm not sure how well, so I guess that should be interesting to see. Well, we just talked about that in the standings. They are in fourth. They're 12 and 7. But the Valkyries beat them twice last week, so I'm sure the Dream will be looking to avenge those losses. Closing out with swish list. Swish list. Hmm. I would just say that they're playing the Sun now because watching those two games was like, I almost had a little bit of hope that they could beat the Lynx after they came back and it was only like a single point deficit, but they didn't. And I was like, "Oh, these are kind of hard games to watch," 'cause I was, unfortunately hoping they would beat the Aces 'cause they had destroyed them the rest of the year, but then they didn't. And then I wasn't expecting them to beat the Lynx, but then they sorta gave me a little hope, and then they didn't win anyways, so just be good to see them hopefully have a win. And if they don't have a win, then I'm gonna be angry. Okay. My swish list is that Kelsey Mitchell has a shoe deal with Puma that was just announced under Tyrese Haliburton, who is a player for the Pacers, which is the brother team to the Indiana Fever, same ownership, his Puma Halibline. So no signature shoe involved that's been announced, just, you know, she'll be wearing their shoes, probably have some player exclusives that she'll get to use. So glad to see Kelsey getting that kind of recognition. All right. That's it for this week of Double Drivel. Bye. Bye. see you next time.