WNBA Preview: Commissioner's Cup 101, Mercury/Lynx lead key matchups for the week

NBC Sports

2 days ago

The Commissioner's Cup, the WNBA's mid-season competition, officially tipped off this past Sunday. For those who need a refresher, the Commissioner's Cup was established in 2020, which came from the league and the players union's latest Collective Bargaining Agreement. The intent was to provide players with more opportunities to earn money while also developing conference-based storylines and potential rivalries especially since the WNBA playoffs don't take conferences into account. With a global pandemic jolting the entire world in 2020, the Cup didn't officially debut until 2021 when the Seattle Storm defeated the Connecticut Sun 79-57.
The formatting for the WNBA Commissioner's Cup is as follows: each team plays one game against each team in their conference, and whichever team has the highest winning percentage makes it to the Commissioner's Cup Final. With the Golden State Valkyries now in the fold as the WNBA's 13th team, Western Conference teams by default will play six Cup games rather than five, and teams in the Western Conference will have an even three-game split of road and home Cup games. While teams in the Eastern Conference will play fewer games, some will have fewer home games than others. For example, the Atlanta Dream will play three of their five Cup games on the road while the Indiana Fever will play three of their Cup games at home.
If teams are tied by the time the Cup games are completed, the WNBA has three tiers of tiebreakers. The first is decided by the average point differential in all Cup games which the league tracks, and then the second tiebreaker is determined by head-to-head matchups. For instance, if the Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces are tied in overall winning percentage, but the Lynx defeated the Aces during one of previous Cup games, then the Lynx break the tie and advance to the Final. The third tiebreaker is a coin flip, which hasn't yet been used in the four-season history of the Cup.
What makes the WNBA's Commissioner's Cup unique from the NBA's in-season tournament the NBA Cup is how each WNBA team is partnered with a local charitable organization of their own choice and with each Commissioner's Cup game a team wins, money is awarded to the team's chosen partner.
This season some franchises have chosen their local ACLU branches, while other teams have chosen organizations that aim to tackle issues such as youth criminalization, mass incarceration, women's mental and physical health and hate speech. Charities are awarded $3,000 for each team's Cup wins, $1,000 for each Cup loss and then an additional $10,000 is provided to the Cup Final's winner, while the runner-up's charity receives $5,000 in addition to all the other earnings that were accumulated from the previous Cup games.
Natalie Esquire,
Teams that make it to the final, which will be held on July 1, will be hosted by the team with the highest winning percentage will have the chance to win a $500,000 prize pool in addition to $120,000 in cryptocurrency that includes $5,000 for each player in the Commissioner's Cup Final.
Last week ended with some early Commissioner's Cup victories for the Minnesota Lynx, Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury and the New York Liberty, who had a historic 100-52 beatdown of the Connecticut Sun. Starting on Tuesday night teams like the Washington Mystics, Fever, and the Dallas Wings will begin their Cup games while the Dream and the Sky will start them more toward the end of the week.
The Dream are riding a four-game winning streak, only second to the 7-0 starts of the Liberty and Lynx. The Los Angeles Sparks, Seattle Storm and Fever have all struggled last week and are currently riding three-game losing streaks.
The month of June has brought multiple hardship contracts into the league as teams have dealt with unforeseen injuries and will continue to deal with more absences as players leave for FIBA tournament EuroBasket. The following matchups to watch below this week are all Commissioner's Cup games, and all games through June 17 will also have that designation.
(Tuesday June 3 at 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV)
The Indiana Fever have been without star point guard Caitlin Clark for just two games and as a result the Fever have lost both contests. In the first against the Washington Mystics, the Fever had zero fastbreak points, a key part of their offensive identity that's usually spearheaded by Clark. And then days later lost to the Sun 85-83 in a game where both Sophie Cunningham and Sydney Colson left the game with leg injuries. Cunningham re-injured her right ankle that she banged up previously in a May 10 preseason game. She won't play on Tuesday. Now with veteran guard Aari McDonald signed on an emergency hardship contract, the Fever will have a two-way point guard who can play with pace and can put pressure on the rim. While Colson will play on Tuesday night after she too left the Sun game with a leg injury, the Fever can use her as a 3-and-D guard rather than a floor general. How will McDonald fit on the Fever? For that uncertainty alone this game is worth watching.
(Tuesday June 3 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN3)
The Mercury lost 74-71 to the Lynx at home on May 30 at almost the last second on a clutch three-pointer from Natisha Hiedeman. Now Phoenix gets another crack at the Lynx on the road this time but now the stakes are even higher as both teams are looking to stay undefeated in the Western Conference for Commissioner's Cup play. With MVP front-runner Napheesa Collier playing in the rematch after missing the first game with a knee injury, how will the Mercury's much-improved defense adapt? And without Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper and Natasha Mack available, does latest addition Haley Jones get more run? How does Megan McConnell, who Phoenix signed after waiving guard Sevgi Uzun because of her EuroBasket commitments, do after re-joining the roster? McConnell, a former Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year in college, was with the Mercury in training camp and the preseason.
(Friday June 6 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ION)
The Sun were absolutely embarrassed this past Sunday by the Liberty, and star guard Marina Mabrey is still embarrassed after posting the worst plus/minus in league history. Mabrey told Lynx guards Courtney Williams and Hiedeman on a Twitch livestream how she's still embarrassed by the loss. 'Do you know how embarrassing that was?,' she told Williams and Hiedeman. 'That s*** hurt the inside of my soul. I'm still angry.' How angry will Mabrey and her team be when they play the Dream, the third-best offense in the league, four days after being blown out by New York? Atlanta also attempts the third-most threes in the league behind Golden State and New York. That will be a lot to handle for the Sun, although the Dream also have the sixth-worst defense in the league. I expect this one to be much closer with pride on the line.
(Saturday June 7 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
The Aces are getting on track after an embarrassing 102-82 loss to the Seattle Storm on May 25. Since then the Aces have won two straight including a 96-81 beatdown of the Sparks, spoiling Kelsey Plum's return to Las Vegas for the first time since she was traded. A'ja Wilson scored 35 points, had 13 rebounds and six assists in a performance that earned her a Western Conference player of the Week award, the 23rd time she's won the award. The Aces sought their revenge on the Storm a couple of days later, defeating them narrowly 75-70.
While the Valkyries have lost three straight, this will be the first time head coach Natalie Nakase faces off against her former team and mentor in Aces head coach Becky Hammon. Nakase knows how the Aces play like the back of her hand, and I expect the Valkyries to be hungry for a third win. Golden State consistently plays hard regardless of the outcome and could give the Aces some trouble in their first game playing in the Bay Area.
(Saturday June 7 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS)
While Caitlin Clark probably still will not play in this game, it's still worth watching to see how Chicago can take advantage of a more vulnerable Indiana team. Rivalries are built by history rather than just by individuals. One of the key moments of Liberty and Aces rivalry was when the Aces prevailed and won in a Game 4 of the 2023 WNBA Finals when two of their starters couldn't play. How does Angel Reese continue to find her way after a rough start to the season averaging a 10.2-12.3 double-double while shooting 31.1% from the field? Courtney Vandersloot has returned to more of her expected self, averaging 12 points and 6.2 assists in six games played so far. Vandersloot made Chicago Sky history on May 29 when she became the Sky's all-time leading scorer, passing her wife Allie Quigley in the process. Can the Sky get their third win or will this banged up Fever team begin figuring themselves out without Clark on the floor?
Brad Thomas and Vaughn Dalzell examine the best odds for the WNBA Commissioner's Cup, where the New York Liberty are clear favorites to hoist the in-season tournament trophy.