Tyler again! The standings are largely a blob right now but after last night’s hoops I do think we are getting a clearer picture of team identities and where teams might stand in the tiers of the WNBA.

I dive into it all in today’s newsletter!

We dove into the early returns of Angel Reese in Atlanta and if the matchup vs the Aces showed that the Dream are ready to be true contenders!

Last night the Valkyries faced their toughest competition of the season yet as they traveled to New York…and they dominated the Liberty (during an incredible jersey matchup I must add).

To put the domination into context of this early season, in the Liberty’s first four games of the season they averaged 100 points per game. The Valkyries held them to just 70 on the Liberty’s homecourt. Could it have been some early season stat padding against bad teams for the Liberty? Sure. But that doesn’t have anything to do with how stifling the Valk’s defense was.

This isn’t anything new from Golden State in terms of their defensive prowess, but you can say it has advanced to a new height with the offseason moves made. Gabby Williams is certainly the highlight and when you talk about the best defenders across the league you must include her in the conversation, but how about Kiah Stokes?? Stokes is currently leading the WNBA in blocks per game with 2.3!

I say all that about the defense to say that what truly makes Golden State terrifying is the three point shooting. The volume has been there since the franchise’s debut last season. Now the defense has amped up even more and when they are hitting like they did last night, 13-35 (37%) which isn’t even the craziest percentage we have seen, they just seem so scary.

The defense controls the floor for the Valkyries and the outside shooting will control how high the ceiling is. We will see if they can make another statement tonight with a matchup against the Fever on the second night of a back-to-back.

When I am writing, you get superhero references, so sorry. This week you get two Batman references in the newsletter.

In Batman, Two-Face will flip a coin to decide between who he kills and who he lets live

I feel like this is going to be the Toronto Tempo experience this entire season with Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes leading the charge offensively.

You will have games where the coin flip is in the Tempo’s favor and the magnet ball will be on full go, like against Phoenix a couple days ago for example. But I do think we are going to see a fair few nights where the flip goes the other way, like it did against Minnesota last night.

Both Mabrey and Sykes are taking over 14 shots a game, while nobody else on the team is shooting more than seven. They are both currently at sub-40%. It is the most live or die by hoops across the WNBA right now. Will the odds be in favor of the Tempo is what we will have to wait and see.

The Mercury’s season opening win over the Aces might turn out to be one of the funniest results of the season with the rate we are currently going at. You know the “MIIIIIIGHTY MERCURY!” you hear during the games? Yeah I don’t know man……

I feel like I do this every year in some font when it comes to Alyssa Thomas teams, but I am not seeing the vision here, and I think this version of Phoenix might have peaked in year one.

I can understand sticking with the same strategy that got you a WNBA Finals appearance last year, I mean…it got you to the Finals! But I think we might have seen a double-down that could come up empty.

The defense hasn’t been there for Phoenix much at all this season, which showed again last night against the Sparks, and the scoring output has been toward the middle of the pack.

It feels like the loss of Satou Sabally in free agency is going to, unsurprisingly, be a major one over the course of this season. Supplementing three stars with your high level scouting is one thing, doing it with two might be too tall of a task. But hey, Alyssa Thomas has led teams and proved me wrong before.

Fire Burning: Inside Portland’s two-decade journey to bring the WNBA home again, by Tom Friend (Sports Business Journal)

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