The first three games of the WNBA season provided a little bit of everything. There were blowouts, dominant performances by stars, a close contest and a franchise making its inaugural debut.
This was just the beginning of what will be a 44-game season for every team, but if Friday night was any indication, Year 30 of the WNBA will be an exciting one.
Here are all the key moments that occurred on the first night of the season.
Toronto makes history as Washington gets the win
Regardless of the result, Friday was a win for Toronto.
The Tempo had their
very first home game, and the sold-out crowd of 8,210 packed the Coca-Cola Coliseum for their matchup against the Washington Mystics.
The basketball wasn’t pretty. Toronto shot 27 percent from the field and had 16 turnovers and the game was low scoring with neither team cracking 70 points.
But when Brittney Sykes made the first basket in Tempo history, the crowd erupted as if it were a game-winning basket.
The Mystics led for the majority of the contest, but the Tempo stayed within striking distance. Then Toronto went on a 5-0 run late in the game and tied it up on a Skyes triple with under two minutes to go.
The rest of the game became a free throw contest as neither side could convert on their field goal attempts. The Mystics sealed the result thanks to Shakira Austin scoring the game’s last four free throws.
In the 68-65 Mystics win, Sonia Citron dominated with a team-high 26 points. Austin had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. For the Tempo, Sykes finished the game with 14 points, and Marina Mabrey had a game-high 27.
Stewie shows off MVP form in Liberty domination
It might be the start of the year, but Breanna Stewart is already giving peak performances.
Stewart scored 31 points, went 10-for-17 from the field, and made 11 of her 12 free throws. Offensively, her only shortcoming was her 3-point shooting. She went 0-for-4 from deep, but the scoring inside was elite, with nine of her makes coming from the paint.
Thanks to Stewart’s efforts, the Liberty cruised to a 106-75 victory over the Sun.
Stewie shined brightest, but she wasn’t the only one who played well for New York. The Liberty had four of their five starters in double figures, and Julie Vanloo dominated off the bench. She flirted with a triple-double with 12 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists. For Connecticut, Diamond Miller led the way with 16 points, and Brittney Griner ended the night with 13 points and six rebounds.
In this first game, the Liberty looked like a team poised for a big season, while the Sun seemed like a team in a transition period. It’s just one contest, but Connecticut has to find a way to still compete and keep their spirits high, despite a move to Houston looming. If they don’t figure out how to optimize their talent, then this could be a lame-duck season, and things can get very dark, real fast.
Sharpshooting Golden State secures victory in Seattle
If people thought the Golden State Valkyries’ first season was a fluke, well, the start of their second year certainly threw cold water on that theory. Once again, they were humming like a well-oiled machine offensively.
They beat the Seattle Storm 90-81 and did it off of some incredible 3-point shooting performances.
Janelle Salaün came off the bench and scored 20 points, knocking down five 3s. Kaitlyn Chen joined her as an explosive reserve, scoring 14 points while shooting 50 percent from the field.
As a team, the Valkyries knocked down 41 percent of their 3s with nearly half of their field goal attempts coming from beyond the arc.
For Seattle, this season is about the future, and that future is Dominique Malonga. She was incredible in this game, establishing her presence at the rim and scoring 21 points. Malonga also had eight rebounds and a pair of blocks. She is now the youngest player in WNBA history to reach 200 rebounds. Not bad.
It’s early, so things can change at a rapid pace this WNBA season. There’s no need to overreact to the good or the bad, but as the data comes in we’ll be analyzing where things stand.
So far, the Mystics, Valkyries, and Liberty got off on the right foot, and the Storm, Tempo, and Sun have work to do so that they can rack up their first wins.
