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      W.N.B.A. Season Preview: New Talent Is Here, but an Absence Looms

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      The league will honor Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner, who remains in custody in Russia, as its new season begins Friday.The longest W.N.B.A. season in league history will begin on Friday. For the first time, teams will each play 36 regular-season games as the next step in the league’s plan for incremental growth — a plan stifled for the past two seasons by the coronavirus pandemic.As the league enters its 26th season, new sponsors and some increased engagement from team ownership is inspiring some optimism about the state of the W.N.B.A. Growth in viewership at the college level means more buzz for graduating players aiming to become professionals, while new broadcast deals and a heavier emphasis from the league’s primary partner, ESPN, have made games more accessible.Looming over all that optimism, though, is the continued absence of one of the league’s best players, Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia — where she also plays professionally — since February on drug charges. An image of Griner and her jersey number No. 42 will be on each team’s court throughout the season.“We are keeping Brittney at the forefront of what we do through the game of basketball,” W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement.Here’s what to expect from the 12 W.N.B.A. teams this season.Seattle StormThis could be Sue Bird’s final season. The Seattle Storm drafted her No. 1 overall in 2002. She turns 42 in October.Matt York/Associated PressNo matter what happens, this season will likely mark the end of an era for the Storm and for women’s basketball. After contemplating retirement last season, Sue Bird announced in January that she would return and with the hashtag #1moreyear suggested this season would be her last. When she was drafted No. 1 overall by Seattle in 2002, the franchise had played only two seasons; four championships later, won in part by Bird’s consistency, the Storm have become one of the most dominant teams in W.N.B.A. history.The 41-year-old’s farewell tour will inevitably include many teary tributes and gaudy highlight reels, but the Storm will aim for its final stop to be a champions’ parade. The team is playing its first season in the new Climate Pledge Arena, which the Storm are sharing with the N.H.L.’s Kraken. The Storm will still have Breanna Stewart, who met with the Liberty in the off-season before signing a one-year deal, and Jewell Loyd, who also met with the Liberty before re-signing for two years. Bird, Stewart and Loyd form the team’s core, and the likelihood of playing without them in the near future makes the team’s quest for a league-leading fifth title more urgent than ever.Los Angeles SparksNneka Ogwumike will have some offensive reinforcements on the Sparks this season with the additions of Liz Cambage, Jordin Canada and Chennedy Carter.Michael Conroy/Associated PressA host of new faces crowd the Sparks roster, as Los Angeles looks to reignite this season. The team struggled last year in the wake of Candace Parker’s departure and the fallout from a legal battle with Penny Toler, the team’s former general manager.The Sparks had an excellent season defensively in 2021 but fell short of the playoffs for the first time since 2011 because of their woeful offense. This year, they’ve added starpower designed to boost their scoring with the flashy young guards Chennedy Carter and Jordin Canada and center Liz Cambage, who owns the single-game scoring record and is looking for a fresh start after promising seasons in Las Vegas that still ended short of titles. The question is how all those talents will fit together under Coach Derek Fisher: There aren’t many role players on this Los Angeles team, so sorting out responsibilities could prove challenging.Those players will join Nneka Ogwumike, still the team’s best chance at filling that Parker-size hole, as well as the veterans Brittney Sykes and Kristi Toliver as they chase a new kind of chemistry befitting the franchise’s storied legacy.Indiana FeverNaLyssa Smith, a rookie out of Baylor, could be the difference-maker for the Indiana Fever, as it rebuilds.Adam Hunger/Associated PressFor the sixth year in a row, the Fever will try to return to the playoffs — or at least not be the worst team in the league yet again. Without a modicum of success to show for years of high draft picks, Indiana was compelled to nearly start from scratch this year. The team amassed four picks in the first round alone after cutting Kysre Gondrezick, their top pick in the 2021 draft at No. 4 overall.A gaggle of rookies, then, will join the veterans Danielle Robinson, Bria Hartley, Tiffany Mitchell and Kelsey Mitchell, as Lin Dunn, the interim general manager, tries to right the ship.NaLyssa Smith, Indiana’s top 2022 draft pick at No. 2 overall, was dominant at Baylor and enters the W.N.B.A. with something to prove after an underwhelming senior postseason. She’s been clamoring to compete at the professional level and, at 6-foot-4 with impressive athleticism, Smith could well prove to be the difference-maker the Fever desperately need.Dallas WingsArike Ogunbowale, the sharpshooting All-Star, has been the center of Dallas’s offense.Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesLast season, the Wings had one of the youngest rosters in the league. Though they seem to have found some stability, having made only one non-draft addition, the 6-foot-7 center Teaira McCowan, there’s still some uncertainty about how the team will balance all that potential. Dallas has a lot of depth but few clear front-runners who can define the team’s core.Arike Ogunbowale is one exception to that rule. The sharpshooting All-Star has been the centerpiece of Dallas’s offense, and she signed a multiyear extension in the off-season. She had help from guard Marina Mabrey, her former Notre Dame teammate; they work together so well they have earned the moniker Marike.This season, the second-year Wings Coach Vickie Johnson, will try to take the team past the first round in the playoffs for the first time since 2015 by finding consistency in the frontcourt. Forward Satou Sabally, with her refined footwork inside and ability to find high-percentage shots, seems like the perfect balance for Ogunbowale’s pull-up-from-anywhere mentality — the Wings just have to make sure she’s touching the ball.Minnesota LynxLynx center Sylvia Fowles won the Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2021. She has said this will be her last season.Andy Clayton-King/Associated PressThe four-time champion Lynx will lose the final piece of their last two title-winning squads at the end of this season with the retirement of the 6-foot-6 center Sylvia Fowles, who was playing at a near-M.V.P. level last season despite being 35 years old then.Fowles’s continuing dominance could push Minnesota back into position to win in the postseason. However, she and Coach Cheryl Reeve will face the added challenge of competing without forward Napheesa Collier, the team’s leading scorer last season, who is pregnant and likely to miss most or all of the season.The five-time All-Star Angel McCoughtry, who injured her knee last season, will join Fowles in the effort to push the Lynx back to the playoffs for the 12th consecutive year. The veterans Kayla McBride and Aerial Powers round out a Lynx roster that could, once again, outperform expectations, thanks to Reeve’s consistent coaching and the team’s experience.Las Vegas AcesA’ja Wilson led the Aces to the brink of the championship series last season.Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesThe story of the Aces centers on one crucial off-season move: the introduction of Becky Hammon as the highest-paid head coach in the W.N.B.A. Combined with the construction of a shiny, new Aces-specific practice facility in Henderson, Nev., Hammon’s hiring was part of owner Mark Davis’s efforts to flaunt his investments in the team so far. All that’s left is for the team to finally win its first title.Hammon will undoubtedly be in the spotlight — perhaps even more so than her players — after returning to the W.N.B.A., where she first flourished as a player, and passing up what many saw as a likely shot to become the first female head coach in N.B.A. history.In her first head coaching role, the longtime San Antonio Spurs assistant will try to retool the Aces following the departure of center Liz Cambage and forward Angel McCoughtry, veteran talents who accounted for much of the team’s production. Last season ended with an ugly upset loss to the Mercury in the playoffs, one game away from the championship series. This year, Hammon will work with A’ja Wilson, the 2020 M.V.P., to take the talented team to the next level, relying on guards Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum to amp up the Aces’ offense.New York LibertyBetnijah Laney made her first All-Star team in 2021, helping lead the Liberty to the playoffs.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesThe Liberty’s 2021 season was a surprise: It was Betnijah Laney who took the reins to lead the team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2017 and not Natasha Howard, the former defensive player of the year who missed most of the season with a knee injury or the highly-touted guard Sabrina Ionescu.This season, they’ve added Stefanie Dolson from the reigning champion Sky and hired a new coach, Sandy Brondello, to put all the pieces together. The team is full of potential but a complete mystery as far as chemistry. Despite losing 10 of their last 12 games at the end of the 2021 regular season, the Liberty were two points shy of upsetting the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of the playoffs — a confusing outcome consistent with their unpredictability last season.If Brondello, who led the Mercury to a championship in 2014, can find consistency among a group of veterans who have found a lot of success on other teams, the Liberty might be able to make a deeper run in the playoffs.Phoenix MercuryThe Mercury will try to claim the franchise’s fourth title behind veterans like Skylar Diggins-Smith, right, and Tina Charles, center.Rebecca Noble for The New York TimesThe Mercury begin the season under a particularly large shadow: the continued detention of their star center, Brittney Griner, in Russia, where she has been held since February. Her indefinite absence leaves a huge hole in the team and league, on and off the court. Until she returns, the Mercury will have to figure out how to play without one of the most dominant centers in W.N.B.A. history for the first extended period in nearly a decade.An esteemed group of veterans will also be fighting for another title. Skylar Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi were joined by Tina Charles in the off-season, sparking much discussion about so-called superteams in the W.N.B.A. Coach Vanessa Nygaard, in her first year, has been charged with getting the team into shape to try to claim the franchise’s fourth championship. Phoenix made it to last season’s championship series before losing in four games to the underdog Chicago Sky.Taurasi, who will turn 40 years old in June, insists that she’s not planning on retiring anytime soon. But she — the league’s career leading scorer — has had nagging injuries over the past few seasons, making the Mercury’s pursuit of another deep postseason run even more pressing than usual.Connecticut SunJonquel Jones is back for Connecticut after winning the league’s Most Valuable Player Award last season.Sean D. Elliot/The Day, via Associated PressThe Sun have been nothing if not consistent over the past few seasons, both in their regular season dominance and in their inability to finally secure the franchise’s first championship. If they were ever in win-now mode, though, this would be the time, having re-signed Jonquel Jones, last season’s M.V.P., in the off-season.Jones rejoins Alyssa Thomas, Jasmine Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones — one of the league’s most consistent core groups. While other teams around the league are working out their rotations, the Sun and their longtime coach, Curt Miller, will look to refine a long-established dynamic. Even their biggest move of the off-season — securing the return of guard Courtney Williams — was to bring a team veteran back into the fold after her brief stint with the Atlanta Dream.Connecticut can nearly take for granted the fact that this group will reprise one of the better defenses in the W.N.B.A., with its veterans who seem to summon unfathomable energy to stifle opponents year after year. The trouble comes when the shots stop falling for the physical team. Williams, and perhaps some offense-minded young players coming off the bench, will have to close that gap.Atlanta DreamAtlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 draft, fights for the ball during a preseason game against the Sun.Sean D. Elliot/The Day, via Associated PressThe Dream seem like they have been in rebuilding mode for several seasons now, winning single-digit games in each of their past three seasons and facing turnover at the coaching and ownership tiers.But this season, Atlanta will attempt to actually start fresh, with the first-year head coach, Tanisha Wright, and a slew of young talent joining Tiffany Hayes and Monique Billings, who have stuck with the Dream through all those losses. Aari McDonald, whom the Dream drafted with the third overall pick last year, will be joined by the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, Rhyne Howard — whom Atlanta traded up to snag — and Kristy Wallace, who spent the past few years honing her skills in an Australian professional league. The veterans Erica Wheeler and Nia Coffey, both of whom last played for the Sparks, round out the upstart group, which will aim to outperform expectations and make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2018.Chicago SkyKahleah Copper had a breakout season with the Sky in 2021 and was named M.V.P. of the finals.Paul Beaty/Associated PressAfter winning their first championship as underdogs in 2021, the Sky return as contenders to become the first W.N.B.A. team to win repeat titles in two decades. Many core members of last season’s team are back, including Candace Parker; Kahleah Copper, last year’s finals M.V.P.; and the veteran guards Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot. The team added center Emma Meesseman, who was the finals M.V.P. when the Mystics won the 2019 championship.The Sky must have been certain that this group would be enough when they traded away all of their 2022 draft picks, relying instead on their veteran squad and the talents of Coach James Wade to lead them to another deep postseason run. Copper in particular, who stuffed her 2021 finals highlight reels with circus shots and tough layups, will look to continue her breakout run this season.Washington MysticsThe Mystics’ season could hinge on whether Elena Delle Donne has fully recovered from a back injury.Nick Wass/Associated PressSince winning the W.N.B.A. championship in 2019, the Mystics’ fate has revolved around one variable: whether Elena Delle Donne, who has played just three games in the past two seasons, can get and stay healthy. Delle Donne sustained a back injury in the 2019 W.N.B.A. finals that required multiple surgeries, left her with lingering back issues and has taken extensive therapy and conditioning work to overcome.If Delle Donne and Alysha Clark, who missed last season with a foot injury, can stay on the court, Washington’s roster suddenly looks a lot more solid. Ariel Atkins, Natasha Cloud and Myisha Hines-Allen are all settled well into Coach Mike Thibault’s system, and Elizabeth Williams, a new addition, can provide support in the post if Delle Donne isn’t ready to go. More

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      Liz Cambage Is Done ‘Living Someone Else’s Dream’

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      LOS ANGELES — Liz Cambage strutted through the Sparks practice facility like it was her own home. There was a grin on her face. Her arms swayed back and forth with each step.After a recent practice there, Cambage, the team’s new star center, lounged in a black folding chair in a back corner of the basketball court, waving at teammates who passed by on their way out. One teammate offered to cook her a meal sometime soon, an invitation Cambage happily accepted.“I think I’m the most sound and relaxed that I’ve been in a long time,” Cambage said, her legs crossed comfortably. “I’m where I want to be. I’m surrounded by the people I want to be surrounded with, and we’re working hard.”During practice, she was focused, yelling “Execute!” during team drills, and chiming in when Sparks Coach Derek Fisher addressed the team afterward.Cambage’s fire on and off the court has defined her unique career. Few W.N.B.A. players have her size, mobility, unapologetic confidence and candor, though with time, Cambage said, she’s becoming less vocal and reactive.That drive allows her to pull down rebounds and score easy baskets in the post against double and triple teams. It carried her through a dark rookie year and stressful Olympics stints, and through a difficult mental health journey on which, on her bad days, she struggled to get out of bed or take a shower.Entering her sixth W.N.B.A. season, Cambage will begin the final leg of her playing career, which has included four All-Star selections, a runner-up finish in Most Valuable Player Award voting and a single-game scoring record, but never a championship.Cambage, 30, signed with the Sparks in the off-season, after Los Angeles missed the W.N.B.A. playoffs last year for the first time since 2011. Adding Cambage to a frontcourt that has Nneka Ogwumike, who is a former M.V.P., and Chiney Ogwumike, a former No. 1 overall pick and rookie of the year, could lift Los Angeles back into championship contention.“We don’t necessarily feel like it’s going to happen overnight,” Fisher said at Cambage’s introductory news conference in February. “Greatness does take time. But we do feel like we’re farther ahead than where we were last year when we started overhauling our team.”Her one-year deal is worth $170,000, well below the super-maximum salary she earned in her last stop, as a member of the Las Vegas Aces. To Cambage, relocating was worth the pay cut.“I’m at a point where I’m too old to be in places I don’t want to be,” Cambage said, adding, “I’ve got into a place where I make so much money off the floor that I can take a pay cut to wherever I want to be here in the league.”‘I wanted to wake up and not be here.’In the 2019 Body Issue of ESPN The Magazine, Cambage posed with a long, sleek dark ponytail, a silver basketball and only her tattoos covering her body.“I love my whole body,” Cambage said during the shoot. “I’m proud of my whole body, every inch. My soft, soft skin. My big lips. My crazy hair. I just love me.”Signed to the talent agency IMG, Cambage has modeled sportswear for Adidas and is a brand ambassador for Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie line.“You wouldn’t necessarily see a 6’8” woman model lingerie — they don’t show that,” said Kaila Charles, a guard/forward who recently played for the Connecticut Sun. She added that seeing Cambage so comfortable in her skin gave her the confidence to love her own body after being picked on as a young girl.Cambage’s love for fashion and modeling come through on game days, when she typically wears suits because that’s what she saw her mother wear to work every day when she was younger.“I’m not trying to impress anyone,” Cambage said. “I dress for me. My fashion is for me.”Bethany Mollenkof for The New York Times“It’s just powerful to me,” she said. “I’m not trying to impress anyone. I dress for me. My fashion is for me.”Cambage’s confidence in herself and her body are as much of a calling card as her moves in the post. But it took a while for her to feel that way.Born in London to a Nigerian father and a white Australian mother, Cambage grew up in the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne after her parents split up. There, she was bullied for not fitting in at all in the majority-white environment. She was too tall. Her feet were too big. Her eyes weren’t blue.“I was made to feel like a freakish monster for being tall and a person of color,” Cambage said.When she was 10 years old, Cambage came home from school one day and told her mother, Julia Cambage, that she didn’t want to live anymore. The bullying and isolation were too much.“It hurts me to still speak on that because I know how much pain that put my mother through,” she said. “No mother wants to hear that.”She added, “But just having the notion of the idea, the motive, that I wanted to wake up and not be here since 10 years old, that’s a lot.”Searching for options that could help her daughter make friends, Julia forced Liz to go to a basketball practice one Sunday.Cambage had never been interested in sports. She had played the violin and piano, but her mother had to sell her piano when they moved to Melbourne, effectively ending her musical exploration. She fell in love with basketball, though she couldn’t even run or dribble properly at first.“I was just surrounded by really lovely girls,” Cambage said. “I was just supported and loved and I really grew to love the game from that.”As she became serious about basketball, she accelerated quickly and by age 17, she was a member of the Australian junior women’s national team. Two years later, in 2011, she was drafted second overall by the W.N.B.A.’s Tulsa Shock, a struggling franchise that hoped to build its roster and future success around the 19-year-old Cambage.“I think it wasn’t until I moved to America when I was 19 that I really loved who I am,” she said. “And as a woman of color, as a bigger woman, those two things are really embraced here in America.”As big of an impact as the culture made on her, transitioning to the W.N.B.A. was rocky early on. Tulsa won just three games during Cambage’s rookie season, and she struggled to adjust in a new place that felt like an alternate universe. In Melbourne, she was able to vote, drive and party as freely as she wanted to. In Tulsa, she was considered underage, and felt like she was treated like a child.Foundering on and off the court, and thousands of miles from her support system, Cambage said the Shock’s veterans players told her she should pack her bags and leave if she didn’t want to be there. Her agent at the time told her to suck it up and stay.“I cried every day,” Cambage said.Elizabeth Cambage shoots against Brittney Griner during a game in 2013.Shane Bevel/NBAE, via Getty ImagesThings only got worse. She dominated playing in China and Australia, where she won the Australia’s Women’s National Basketball League’s M.V.P. Award in the 2010-11 season. But she still felt isolated as she missed birthdays, weddings and baby showers to play in games.Cambage sank deeper into depression as her body and mind were battered. She sat out the Shock’s 2012 season, returned in 2013, then tore her Achilles’ tendon in 2014. By the 2016 Olympics, she was one of the best-known athletes in Australia playing for the lauded women’s national team, but privately, Cambage was ready to walk away from basketball. Her team did not medal for the first time in six Olympics.Cambage needed a sports psychologist just to make it through the games. Most of the time, she coped by partying, drinking and self-medicating.“It’s a vicious cycle that you don’t really realize you’re caught up in until you’re burned out from Valium or Xanax,” she said. “But that was my toxic way of dealing with just feeling too much.”She leaned on her mother’s support and the encouragement of Fred Williams, then the Shock’s head coach, who persuaded her to come back to the Shock in 2018, after the team had relocated to Dallas and rebranded as the Wings.“If I didn’t have Coach Fred reminding me who I am and how great I am every other day and trying to get me back to Dallas in 2018, I probably wouldn’t have come back,” she said.Cambage averaged 23 points per game that season and finished second in M.V.P. voting behind the Seattle Storm’s Breanna Stewart. Her 53 points against the Liberty in July 2018 were the most ever scored in a W.N.B.A. game.‘I speak on it.’By the time Cambage joined the Las Vegas Aces in 2019 after demanding a trade out of Dallas, she was one of the most dynamic and outspoken players in women’s basketball. She wore her 6-foot-8 height proudly, even though she said referees struggled to officiate someone her size. Last season, the head coach of the Connecticut Sun, Curt Miller, was suspended for one game after he made a comment Cambage said was disrespectful about her weight as he tried to persuade referees to call a foul on her.She has spoken loudly about racial and gender equity issues, even when people on social media told her to be quiet.“Liz is a force on and off the court,” Chiney Ogwumike said during the Sparks’ media day last month. She added: “I think a lot of people don’t understand how much she wants to win and dominate and be great.”Liz Cambage handles the ball against the Atlanta Dream in 2019.Scott Cunningham/NBAE, via Getty ImagesOn New Year’s Eve, Las Vegas announced it had hired as head coach Becky Hammon, the former W.N.B.A. star and a longtime San Antonio Spurs assistant who many assumed would eventually become the N.B.A.’s first female head coach. Hammon’s contract was reportedly worth around $1 million dollars a year in salary, about four-times the league’s 2022 maximum salary of around $230,000 for top veteran players, a number that rankled Cambage.“Ahhh yes the @WNBA, where a head coach can get paid 4X the highest paid players super max contract,” Cambage wrote in a Twitter post.Player salaries in the league are collectively bargained, unlike coaches’ salaries, and Cambage said her comment was meant to be a critique on the league’s pay disparities, not an attack on Hammon.“I don’t understand how you have a C.B.A. for teams and a salary cap that’s $1.4 million, but a coach can get millions,” said Cambage, who had led the Aces to the W.N.B.A. semifinals in 2019 and 2021.W.N.B.A. contracts have been a hot topic since February, when Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner was detained on drug charges in Russia, where she and many other women play in the off-season because the contracts are much more lucrative than stateside.Last year, the league fined the Liberty $500,000 for secretly chartering flights to games during the 2021 season; the collective bargaining agreement only permits teams to fly commercially in premium economy. The fine drew criticism from many players, including Cambage, who said she has to pay to upgrade her seats on team flights to have more leg room. Charter flights are common for professional male athletes.Cambage has continued to be vocal about equity issues that persist in women’s sports because she wants to make it easier for the generation that follows her.“I don’t think I’m going to get a million-dollar contract in the W.N.B.A. tomorrow,” she said, “but I speak on it because right now it’s like, I wouldn’t want my daughter to play in this if my daughter was in college right now.”Cambage has spoken out about racial and gender equity issues.Bethany Mollenkof for The New York Times‘This has always been my dream.’After the recent Sparks practice ended, Cambage stayed afterward to get up extra shots. Some from the corner or the wing, some closer to the basket.She has been living in an apartment in West Los Angeles, close to the water. Sparks fans have already used the term Liz Angeles to term this new chapter, which begins Friday against the Chicago Sky, the defending champions.“I think everyone knows who I am, the player I am,” she said. “I’m loud, I’m vocal, and that’s the energy I bring right from the jump.”It has been a long journey for Cambage to get to this point: She loves what she sees when she looks in the mirror. She’s excited to wake up and come to work every day, to chase a championship with the Sparks.“I had been living someone else’s dream, chasing that for a minute,” she said. “But now I’ve realized that this has always been my dream, being here in L.A. and playing here.” More

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      Career Night for Diana Taurasi Gets the Mercury Back on Track

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      The Phoenix Mercury tied their semifinal series against the Las Vegas Aces at one game apiece thanks to long-range sharpshooting from Taurasi.Diana Taurasi grimaced on the court as her Phoenix Mercury teammates carefully pulled her to her feet late in the third quarter of Game 1 of the W.N.B.A. semifinals.On the preceding play, she’d bumped into Las Vegas Aces forward Dearica Hamby while trying to dribble, skidding awkwardly to the floor. Taurasi limped up and down the court in the fourth quarter, favoring the left ankle that had kept her out of the last four regular-season games and the first round of the playoffs. She clenched her teeth and flexed the ankle on the Phoenix bench during the first part of the fourth period. Still, Taurasi finished with 20 points and six assists in the game, a 96-90 loss to the Aces.Afterward, when asked how her ankle felt, Taurasi’s answer was brief.“Great,” she said.Her proof? A 37-point, eight-3-pointer onslaught 48 hours later in the fifth-seeded Mercury’s 117-91 rout of the No. 2 Aces at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday. The best-of-five series now heads to Phoenix tied 1-1. Game 3 is on Sunday.Despite Taurasi’s lingering health concerns, the Mercury charged through the first two rounds of the playoffs, knocking off the Liberty — in a game Taurasi missed — and the Seattle Storm, the defending champions, in single-elimination games. Their next assignment is a high-powered Las Vegas offense with A’ja Wilson, last season’s Most Valuable Player, and a bevy of other scoring threats.The Aces earned a double-bye to start the playoffs after a 24-8 regular-season record, the league’s second best. They’d held off the Mercury in Game 1 with potent shooting from guards Kelsey Plum, who won this season’s Sixth Player of the Year Award, and Riquna Williams.Before Thursday’s game, Mercury center Brittney Griner told reporters that she was treating it like a single-elimination game.“You’ve got to win this game to stay alive. It is a series, but you definitely don’t want to drop two going back home. You’ve made it a lot harder for yourself,” she said.The result was a 25-point performance. She had 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in the first quarter.“Brittney’s a beast. We’ve asked her to do so much this year,” Taurasi said on the TV broadcast after the game, likely referring to Griner’s ability to handle double teams and take on tough defensive assignments.Griner finished second behind the Connecticut Sun’s Jonquel Jones in the M.V.P. voting this season, averaging a career-high 9.5 rebounds per game along with 20.5 points per game. She’s the Mercury’s defensive anchor, with a 7-foot-3.5 inch wingspan, a height and an athleticism that make her nearly impossible to shoot over.Griner’s responsibility this series has been to guard Aces center Liz Cambage, whose dominance in the post and rim protection seems rivaled by only Griner’s.Cambage terrorizes opponents with her ability to pivot, score and pull down rebounds in the post as defenders hack at her body. And the way she can alter shots on defense was one reason the Aces never allowed more than 99 points during a regular-season game this season. The tandem of Cambage and Wilson in the frontcourt had many people sure at the beginning of the season that Las Vegas was primed for another deep playoff run.Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner has had to fight through swarming defenses all season. She averaged a career-high 9.5 rebounds per game during the regular season.David Becker/Associated PressHaving been swept by the Storm in last year’s finals, the Aces had the motivation to cruise through the regular season with seven players who averaged double figures. They were without Cambage for a stretch after she tested positive for the coronavirus, but now, at full strength, the Aces are pushing to claim the title that eluded last year’s injury-ravaged team.But they have to get past a Mercury team that is equally determined to make a finals appearance. Phoenix is at its best when its core players of Griner, Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith knock down shots from all over the floor the way they did Thursday night. Griner made a handful of midrange jumpers. Diggins-Smith scored at all three levels, and as for Taurasi, well, the W.N.B.A.’s leading career scorer did what she typically does.Taurasi said after the game that after an aggressive, physical outing from the Aces on Tuesday, the Mercury responded in kind in Game 2. They built a 17-point lead in the first quarter and never relinquished it, unlike in Game 1 when their early lead fizzled before the end of the first period. Taurasi said that with so many shots going in, “it makes the game easier for you. It was a big test for us in a lot of ways, and I think we played the right way.”Aces Coach Bill Laimbeer told reporters afterward that the team couldn’t give Griner open looks outside the post.“In the post, she’s going to do her thing. That’s who she is,” he said. “But the open shots that she made tonight hurt us a lot. We’ll take that shot at times, but they went in. And we’ll take some of Taurasi’s shots some nights, too, but they went in. That’s who they are. They’re great players, and when they’re going like that, that’s what makes Phoenix’s team.”Even when it appeared that the Mercury couldn’t sustain their high-percentage shooting, they added free throws to their arsenal. Their first miss from the free-throw line didn’t come until the third quarter, and they made 23 of 24 free throws.Wilson said after the game that Las Vegas wasn’t “locked in at all to our assignments.” She added: “It seems as if we were a step behind. You can’t do that against a good Phoenix team.”The Aces, with one of the best defenses in the league, had no way of stopping Taurasi on the perimeter. Her eight 3-pointers were a playoff career high.After the game, Ros Gold-Onwude of ESPN asked Taurasi how she felt about going 8-for-11 from 3-point range.Taurasi’s reply, again, was succinct.“I only shot 11?” she said. More

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      WNBA Playoff Preview: The Sun Are Ready to End the Storm's Reign

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      Connecticut has the league’s best record, but Seattle has the best track record. But none of that may matter if the Las Vegas Aces hit their stride.Had the Connecticut Sun not saved their fan appreciation night for the last game of the W.N.B.A. regular season, Coach Curt Miller may have preferred to forfeit.Already comfortably holding the No. 1 seed, Connecticut (26-6) wanted a win — but didn’t need one. The Sun just needed to stay healthy. Connecticut got the win — a 20-point blowout of Atlanta for its 14th victory in a row — but lost DeWanna Bonner for the game because of back tightness in the first quarter.The sight of her hobbling toward the locker room was anxiety-inducing for a fan base with high expectations. With everyone on the court, the Sun believe this is their year to bring the franchise’s first championship to Connecticut.But A’ja Wilson, last season’s most valuable player, and the second-seeded Las Vegas Aces (24-8) believe it is their year to win. After all, Wilson took the Aces to the finals in 2020, despite Las Vegas being without several key players because of injuries and medical exemptions. The Aces were swept by the Seattle Storm at the league’s Florida bubble. But now the All-Star center Liz Cambage is back, and Las Vegas’ formidable and explosive starting backcourt of Chelsea Gray and Riquna Williams has dominated and the team has gotten key contributions from the second-unit firecrackers Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young.A finals pitting the league’s best offense (Las Vegas) against the league’s best defense (Connecticut) would make for a fun battle for the W.N.B.A.’s 25th title crown. But when playoff action begins Thursday, with two single-elimination games, six other teams will be out to disrupt any potential storybook endings.Here’s what to expect.First Round: Single EliminationNo. 5 Phoenix Mercury (19-13) vs. No. 8 Liberty (12-20)The Liberty ended the regular season the way it began: with a glimmer of hope that the franchise can reclaim its bygone glory. A hot start earned Sabrina Ionescu honors for player of the week and Walt Hopkins the season’s first award for coach of the month, but the success did not stick.Before defeating the Washington Mystics in their final regular-season game, the Liberty had lost eight consecutive games. And while the win kept their playoff hopes alive, the Liberty’s ticket to the postseason came down to losses by two other teams on the final day of the season. Now, the Liberty must overcome a bleak 5-11 road record to win against a Phoenix team that thrives when cornered and happens to be peaking at the right time.The Mercury compiled a 10-game winning streak after the Olympic break but dropped their last three games with Diana Taurasi sidelined by an ankle injury. Yet even in its season-ending loss, Phoenix turned in one of its best performances of the season on the steam of role players like Sophie Cunningham and Shey Peddy.But Phoenix would be remiss to overlook the Liberty.The Liberty can force the Mercury into a scrappy battle if: Natasha Howard, the Liberty’s rebounding leader, can get the team second-chance scoring opportunities and involve Sami Whitcomb, the Liberty’s best 3-point shooter; Betnijah Laney, the team’s leading scorer; Michaela Onyenwere, the leading candidate for the Rookie of the Year Award; and Jazmine Jones, who can own the paint. A Liberty win is unlikely but not impossible.No. 6 Chicago Sky (16-16) vs. No. 7 Dallas Wings (14-18)Led by a combustible duo known as Marike — Marina Mabrey and Arike Ogunbowale — the Wings battle harder and smarter than their upside-down record indicates. Coach Vickie Johnson, in her first season, has persuaded players to buy into her rotation experiments. The result is a young and tough squad that fears no foe and has picked up wins over Chicago, Phoenix and Seattle.Candace Parker, a six-time All Star, won a championship with the Los Angeles Sparks. She’s the second-leading scorer, and top rebounder, for the Sky.Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesCandace Parker has made an undeniable impact in her first year in Chicago, helping the team to a seven-game winning streak in June. But the team has since limped to the finish. For the postseason, the Sky will be evenly matched with the Wings, though they play two different styles of basketball — with Dallas strong on the outside, and Chicago at its best inside. The Wings rank second in the W.N.B.A. in second-chance points per game (12.3) and lead the league in offensive rebounds per game (10). To win, the Sky will need to play better defense.Second Round: Single EliminationNo. 3 Minnesota Lynx (22-10) vs. Lowest-Seeded Winner in First RoundMinnesota achieved a level of success that seemed impossible after a series of injuries and absences left Coach Cheryl Reeve relying on multiple players on seven-day contracts. Minnesota started the season on a four-game losing streak that ended with the arrival of Layshia Clarendon from the Liberty in late May.Aerial Powers averaged 18 points per game in September, including a 27-point outburst in the season-closer against Washington. So, if Clarendon remains healthy, Sylvia Fowles continues her double-double ways and Powers stays hot, the Lynx should be able to handle whichever team advances to play them.A true title run, however, depends on Napheesa Collier finding the consistency that has thus far eluded her.Jewell Loyd scored 37 points in the Storm’s final regular-season game, a welcome close to an up-and-down post-Olympic run for Seattle.Lindsey Wasson for The New York TimesNo. 4 Seattle Storm (21-11) vs. Highest-Seeded Winner in First RoundEven amid personnel changes — Alysha Clark, Natasha Howard and Sami Whitcomb departing in free agency before the season and Noelle Quinn assuming head coaching duties with the season already underway — Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd let the rest of the league know just how serious they are about winning a third title in four seasons.But the Storm were not the same after the Olympic break, losing six of their 11 games, including a 32-point blowout to Chicago at home.Seattle was without Stewart (foot) for its last two matchups. And Loyd, in the season-ender, poured in 37 points. The Storm’s title chances improve with Stewart in the mix. But if she can’t play, or plays hobbled, Quinn has a deep well of talent to draw from — starting with Loyd.Semifinals: Best-of-FiveConnecticut’s Jonquel Jones, left, and A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas, right, could find themselves facing off for a championship soon. Each has lost in the finals.Dana Jensen/The Day, via Associated PressNo. 2 Las Vegas Aces (24-8) vs. Highest-Seeded Winner in Second RoundWilson and Cambage may be recognized as the team’s biggest stars, but they are not alone. Coach Bill Laimbeer has stacked his roster deep with superstars calling themselves a second unit. When Dearica Hamby, a two-time winner of the Sixth Woman of the Year Award, comes off the bench alongside a pair of gritty, former No. 1 draft picks at guard, Plum and Young, play intensifies, pace quickens and momentum shifts. Understanding Wilson and Cambage’s tendency to draw a lot of defenders, Laimbeer expects his second unit to feast on the scoring opportunities this presents.And they have — Plum, in particular. Her frenetic energy on defense has worn down offenses and her willingness to compile 30-point shooting performances when needed has kept the Aces in games. If Las Vegas makes a return to the finals, it will be because of its second unit and the steady, sometimes unsung, contributions of Williams and Gray.No. 1 Connecticut Sun (26-6) vs. Lowest-Seeded Winner in Second RoundIf Plum is the secret weapon for the Aces, the Sun’s is Brionna Jones: a 6-foot-3 forward who showcased a range of talent in increased minutes in 2020 that inspired Miller to keep her in the starting lineup. Remarkably light on her feet, Jones has sharp court awareness and quick hands that allow her to be at the right place at the right time for collecting rebounds and scoring on putbacks.And while Jones dazzles with the best spin moves in the game, Jonquel Jones keeps her head down, coolly carving up defenses and thwarting offenses. Their performances have been fostered by a complete team approach and riding the hot hand. Any player, whether Bonner, Briann January or Natisha Hiedeman, could go off for big buckets at any time. But Connecticut’s quest for a franchise-first title runs through the Joneses. More

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      5 W.N.B.A. All-Stars to Know

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      5 W.N.B.A. All-Stars to Know Alanis ThamesWatching hoops in Florida 🏀Abbie Parr/Getty ImagesAhead of the Olympics, the W.N.B.A.’s best players will face off in the All-Star Game in Las Vegas on Wednesday.Here are five players who could steal the show → More

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      Sugar Rodgers Is Rewriting Her Life Story Through the W.N.B.A.

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      Rodgers used basketball, and later her writing skills, to forge a brighter path after a painful childhood. The former All-Star is now an assistant coach for the Las Vegas Aces.For much of Sugar Rodgers’ life, her job was survival: staying alive, healthy and out of jail in her Suffolk, Va., neighborhood, where the pop of bullets nearby forced her inside and away from the basketball hoop she loved.When many eighth graders were buckling down on schoolwork and extracurricular activities, or skipping school to hang out with friends, Rodgers was truant for other reasons: to babysit her nephew while his mother was at work, or to feed and bathe her bedridden mother, who was dying of lupus.“‘What goes on in this house stays in this house,’ ” Rodgers said her mother told her. “So, I couldn’t reach out and ask people for help and do certain things because that always stemmed in the back of my mind.”Still, Rodgers said, she finished eighth grade on time by doing extra assignments, and stayed on track academically throughout high school. She was recruited to play basketball at Georgetown, and graduated as the career scoring leader. The Minnesota Lynx selected her in the second round of the 2013 W.N.B.A. draft, and she helped them win a championship that year.She played the next five seasons with the Liberty, where she became an All-Star and won the Sixth Woman of the Year Award in 2017. Now, after two seasons playing with the Las Vegas Aces, Rodgers has matriculated into the coaching ranks as an assistant for the team.Rodgers ended her time at Georgetown as the school’s career scoring leader.Jessica Hill/Associated Press“I’m just going to bring whatever it is that they need me to do,” Rodgers said. “Just like as a player — whatever they needed me to do, I did. Whatever sacrifices they needed me to make, I did those, for the betterment of the team. And I’m willing to do that as a coach as well.”A recent graduate of Georgetown’s masters’ program in sports industry management and the author of “They Better Call Me Sugar,” a young adult memoir about her childhood, Rodgers, 31, spoke to The New York Times about her childhood, the sanctity of writing and the perspective she brings to the sideline.This interview and has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.Your parents forced you to stay back in second grade. How did that impact your education journey?My mom said, like, “You’ll be fine. This is where you belong because you’re not learning at the pace that they are pushing at.”As a kid, you don’t look at it that way. You just look at it, like, “All my friends are going to be in the next grade and I’m going to get picked on because I was left behind.” And in my mind, like, it’s a reminder that I have failed, and because of that failure, I just have been, like: “I can’t fail again. I can’t fail again.”I’ve always tried to put myself in a position to be successful, so using basketball as a tool to get out of my situation, that’s what I’ve done.How did you find time while playing in the W.N.B.A. to pursue a master’s degree at Georgetown?When I wasn’t in the gym working on my game, I was at home working on my degree. It was a little bit of a struggle, especially because I started in 2019 during the playoffs. Can you imagine? I’m just starting school, and we’re in the playoffs, and just having to find that balance in between the two. I really wanted to go back to school, so I know it’s something I really wanted to accomplish and I just made time. I just made it work, whether it was some nights I stayed up a little bit later, or I got up a little bit earlier.Do you feel a shift is happening to include more women and women of color in W.N.B.A. head coaching and front office roles? And how did you know you were ready to move from center court to the sidelines?For me, I do see it changing. I do see more African American women are, you know, coming on the sidelines and taking it, especially former players. I also think for me, I just woke up and didn’t want to work out anymore. So, I just knew mentally, spiritually and physically it was time for me to look into something else.I actually kind of wanted to retire like two years ago.“It’s some things that I can say to players because I’ve actually been through it,” Rodgers said of coaching.Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesWhat made you postpone your retirement and go to Las Vegas and play for your old coach Bill Laimbeer again?Once the Liberty decided to trade me, I was like, at this point, a little exhausted with basketball and how long I had been playing. Mentally, it was having an impact on me and I wanted to just be able to take a break from basketball.Bill and them, they traded for me. So, I was like, yeah, I’ll come out. They’d be a great organization.It seems that the Liberty’s move in 2017 from Madison Square Garden to the Westchester County Center in White Plains was a low point for the franchise. Would you agree?It was just, like, ‘Oh man, oh man.’ Like, a lot of people is not going to commute that far. You know, the die-hard fans are going to come, but we had a great fan base here in the city. I think that was kind of the devastating part of it, not being able to play in front of our fans and keep them coming back to the games and excited about the seasons.Fast-forward to 2021, and the Liberty is a very different franchise, with a new owner in Joseph Tsai, a new arena in Brooklyn’s Barclays and a hot start to the season. To what do you attribute this massive turnaround?I think they have a great owner. I think it started there when they were like, OK, we’re going to go play in the Barclays, and we’re going to treat you like A-1 class athletes. And that put them in a position to be able to get players to come play in New York.Throughout “They Better Call Me Sugar,” you write about your mother wanting you to put golf first and basketball second, or not at all. As an adult looking back, do you have an understanding of why she held this view?I just know golf was her thing, and maybe because back when she played basketball, there wasn’t opportunities for women. Because my mom was a basketball player, but way back in the day, it wasn’t opportunities like how it was for men. But now, looking at it, the W.N.B.A. is 25 years old. And just to be a part of that, it shows the W.N.B.A., can grow, the salaries can get there. It just takes one step at a time.How did you begin writing about your childhood, and has writing been a source of healing for you?When I was at Georgetown, I had a coach who suggested that I go to therapy and I’m just like, I’m not going to therapy. It’s for white people. But I was just ignorant to the fact because therapy, it’s taboo in the African American community.I really didn’t like talking, and I went to therapy and I wouldn’t talk and I remember [the therapist] was like, “Well, just write it down.” And I would just write these stories and he would read them when I came in, because I didn’t like to talk. And, you know, I was like, man, these stories could become a book. It can help somebody in a situation that’s like mine or worse than mine.Writing is therapeutic for me.What do you feel like you bring that’s unique to coaching?I just bring life experience in itself. There’s some things that you can’t teach that I just bring naturally. It’s some things that I can say to players because I’ve actually been through it.You get a lot of coaches who players cannot relate to, and I think sometimes you need that balance on the coaching staff. But if you have players who cannot relate, those players don’t fit because they feel like nobody understands them. And I just feel like I bring a lot. More

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      W.N.B.A. Suspends Coach for Body-Shaming Liz Cambage

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      Cambage, the Las Vegas Aces center, said Connecticut Sun Coach Curt Miller had made disrespectful comments about her weight during a game on Sunday.The W.N.B.A. suspended and fined Curt Miller, the head coach of the Connecticut Sun, after he was called out by Las Vegas Aces center Liz Cambage for body-shaming her during a game on Sunday.The fine is $10,000, and the one-game suspension will keep Miller out of Connecticut’s matchup with the Seattle Storm on Tuesday.“If there is one thing about me, it’s that I will never let a man disrespect me,” Cambage said in an Instagram video on Sunday. “Ever. Ever. Ever.”Though Cambage did not refer to Miller by name — “Little sir man, I do not know your name,” she said — in the video she said “the coach of Connecticut” had tried to appeal for the referees to call a foul by saying, “Come on, she 300 pounds,” in a reference to her.Cambage, who is listed at 6-foot-8 and 216 pounds on the Aces’ roster, said in the video that she is 235 pounds and “very proud” of her body.Connecticut Sun Coach Curt Miller said he “made an inappropriate and offensive” comment about Cambage that he regretted.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressMiller apologized Monday morning in a statement from the Sun. His suspension was announced in the evening. “During last night’s game, while arguing a call with an official, I made an inappropriate and offensive comment in reference to Liz Cambage’s height and weight,” Miller said. “I regret what I said in the heat of the moment and want to sincerely apologize to Liz and the entire Aces organization. I understand the gravity of my words and have learned from this.”In her call-out of Miller, Cambage spoke about how the uneven power dynamic between players and coaches made the situation difficult for her. She described Miller’s comments as “protected abuse — because we can’t do nothing back.”This is Miller’s sixth year coaching the Sun, who are undefeated in five games this season and have the best record in the W.N.B.A.Cambage is a three-time All-Star in her fifth W.N.B.A. season and second with the Aces. The Tulsa Shock, now the Dallas Wings, selected her with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2011 draft. She’s averaging 13.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game this season for the Aces, who lost last year’s finals to Seattle. Cambage opted out the 2020 season for health reasons. More

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      W.N.B.A. Preview: Don’t Bet Against the Aces in the West

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      The return of Liz Cambage and Kelsey Plum makes Las Vegas even more formidable. Did we mention it still has A’ja Wilson, the reigning M.V.P.?The W.N.B.A. begins its 25th season on Friday with the returns of some big-name veterans and the debuts of promising rookies.“Rosters are stacked with incredibly talented veterans, and the last few rookie classes are bringing a whole new element to the fierce competition within the league,” W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The New York Times.Below, our reporters tell you what to expect this season in the Western Conference. (And here’s what to expect in the East.)Las Vegas AcesA’ja Wilson of the Aces won the Most Valuable Player Award in 2020 and led them to the finals.Mike Carlson/Associated PressA medical exemption (Liz Cambage) and torn Achilles’ tendon (Kelsey Plum) kept two of Las Vegas’s key players out for the 2020 season. In their absences, A’ja Wilson (Most Valuable Player Award) and Dearica Hamby (Sixth Woman of the Year Award) notched award-winning seasons. Angel McCoughtry, in her first season with the franchise, added playmaking and veteran poise, and the Aces made it to the finals.Cambage and Plum are back, along with JiSu Park, but little else is familiar.Kayla McBride, a fan favorite, signed with the Minnesota Lynx in free agency, and Las Vegas brought in the former Los Angeles Sparks’ guards Chelsea Gray, as a starter, and Riquna Williams, in reserve.Plum will come off the bench.Gray, who had been playing overseas, joined the Aces just 36 hours before the Aces’ preseason game against her former team, so there’s an acute need to develop chemistry. Coach Bill Laimbeer set forth simple goals heading into their regular-season start on Saturday: Get to know one another better, stay healthy and improve conditioning.Simple goals, but not easy ones.McCoughtry tore an anterior cruciate ligament on Saturday, and is expected to miss the season. McCoughtry’s absence will slow the chemistry-building process, as will Plum’s: A member of the U.S.A. Basketball 3×3 team, she will miss a week at the end of May while competing in an Olympic qualifying tournament.Dallas WingsDallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale was the league’s leading scorer last year, averaging 22.8 points per game.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressAs the first W.N.B.A. team ever to have the top two picks in the draft, the Dallas Wings had a unique opportunity to fortify an already young, developing group.They added Charli Collier of Texas, who was the consensus No. 1 pick, and Awak Kuier, a 6-foot-4 center from Finland. One of Dallas’s biggest weaknesses last season was interior offense. Wings Coach Vickie Johnson told reporters last week that Collier’s scoring in the paint had stood out, and that should earn her playing time.She will be a good scoring punch alongside forward Satou Sabally, last year’s No. 2 overall draft pick, and guard Arike Ogunbowale, who almost led Dallas to the playoffs last season as the league’s leading scorer, averaging 22.8 points per game.Moriah Jefferson played just nine games a year ago but will be a part of the regular rotation this season now that she’s healthy, and Tyasha Harris earned valuable experience overseas and is expected to contribute more than her 6.9 points per game from last season.Then there’s the fifth-year veteran Allisha Gray, who may be the glue for the roster of third- and second-year players.Los Angeles SparksWith the departures of Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray, Nneka Ogwumike, right, is expected to fill a leadership role.Mike Carlson/Associated PressFor the first time since 2007, the Los Angeles Sparks will be playing without Candace Parker, who led the team to their third championship in 2016. Parker, a free agent, signed with her hometown Chicago Sky in the off-season, but the Sparks have a fair amount of star power on deck to attempt the unenviable task of replacing her. The sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike will be joined by the free agency acquisitions Amanda Zahui B — whose job will be to help fill the Parker-size hole in the paint — Erica Wheeler and Kristi Toliver, both veteran guards.Beyond that, the Sparks will look to make the most of what seems like a transition season. Young guards like Te’a Cooper and the second-round draft pick Arella Guirantes will undoubtedly find strong mentorship in Toliver, a W.N.B.A. champion and recent N.B.A. assistant coach. Nneka Ogwumike will be compelled to step into a leadership role with the departure of not only Parker but the Sparks’ 2020 second-leading scorer, Chelsea Gray, and fourth-leading scorer, Riquna Williams. Guard Brittney Sykes will also be returning to the team as one of just a few familiar faces to help ease the transition, but Ogwumike is the centerpiece of the new-look Sparks.Third-year Sparks Coach Derek Fisher hasn’t been able to capitalize on his team’s impressive regular-season records in the postseason. With so much change on this year’s roster, it seems unlikely that Los Angeles will make a deep run in 2021. But the Sparks have the talent — both veteran and up-and-coming — to challenge any team in the league.Minnesota LynxSylvia Fowles is returning to the Lynx lineup this season after being sidelined by a calf injury last year.Chris O’Meara/Associated Press“She just looks like a coach that knows how to win,” forward Rennia Davis said of Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve. That assessment will be put to the test right away, though Reeve is used to challenges early in the season.Jessica Shepard, picked 16th overall in 2019, was clicking beautifully with Napheesa Collier, that year’s sixth overall pick, when Shepard went down with a knee injury six games into her pro career. Now Davis, the ninth overall pick in this year’s draft, is out indefinitely with a foot injury.But after missing the rest of the 2019 season and all of 2020, Shepard is back.Sylvia Fowles is back, too.After setting the career rebounding record in 2020, Fowles was sidelined by a calf injury that forced her to miss most of the season. Yet the Lynx persevered, nearly upsetting the Seattle Storm in Game 1 of the semifinals before losing the series in a sweep. Reeve said she will restrict Fowles to roughly 24 minutes per game and diversify offensive schemes so that her title-winning veteran doesn’t have to carry the load.But with Collier and Kayla McBride, who signed on as a free agent, arriving late from playing overseas, Reeve will have to improvise once again. So far, forward Natalie Achonwa, who joined in free agency, has made herself irreplaceable to a team seeking to shore up its defense beyond Fowles. Aerial Powers, who won a championship with the Washington Mystics in 2019 and averaged 4.9 rebounds per game last season, is expected to help that effort.Seattle StormBreanna Stewart is hoping to lead the Seattle Storm back to the W.N.B.A. finalsChris O’Meara/Associated PressThe reigning champions had a surprisingly eventful off-season, headlined by their decision to trade their starting center Natasha Howard to the Liberty for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft. They then flipped that pick to the Dallas Wings in exchange for the third-year forward Katie Lou Samuelson and a 2022 second-round pick. They also lost starting guard Alysha Clark, who, along with Howard, was key to Seattle’s success on defense during their 2018 and 2020 title runs. Clark signed with the Mystics in free agency.But the finals M.V.P. Breanna Stewart, the star shooter Jewell Loyd and perhaps most impressively Sue Bird have all returned to the Storm to compete for the W.N.B.A.’s first back-to-back titles since the Sparks won in 2001 and 2002. Bird will be in her 18th season, a feat of longevity unmatched by any of her peers currently competing — although Candice Dupree, who signed with the Storm in the off-season, also has double-digit seasons under her belt.With Stewart, the Storm don’t need to find another once-in-a-generation player among their young talent. They do, however, need to figure out who in that pool will best recreate the alchemy of their title teams, positioning Jordin Canada as the point guard of the future and finding a go-to center in either Mercedes Russell or Ezi Magbegor. If they can do that and keep Stewart, Loyd and Bird healthy, the Storm have a better chance than most teams to make history as the only five-time W.N.B.A. champions by the end of this season.Phoenix MercuryThe Phoenix Mercury have the triple threat of, from left, Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressBrittney Griner’s back. Skylar Diggins-Smith is back. And Diana Taurasi, often referred to as the GOAT, is too.Sprinkle in teammates like Brianna Turner and Bria Hartley, and newcomers like Kia Nurse and Megan Walker, and the Phoenix Mercury are focused on returning to their championship-winning ways.“You just see all these pieces,” Taurasi said, adding, “And if we can all get on the same track and on working toward the same goal, I think we can do some special things this summer. But that’s just all nonsense if we don’t come in and put the work in every day.”The Mercury finished with a 13-9 record last season, losing to the Minnesota Lynx in the second round of the playoffs. With an eye toward a deeper playoff run, they acquired guard Nurse and Walker in an off-season trade with the Liberty. Hartley, an eighth-year guard, is working her way back after a knee injury, and more offense could come from Turner.But the biggest impact is likely to come from the Big 3 — Griner, Diggins-Smith and Taurasi — who accounted for much of the Mercury’s scoring last season. Taurasi averaged 18.7 points and 4.5 assists per game; Diggins-Smith averaged 17.7 and 4.2; and B.G. averaged 17.7 points and 7.5 rebounds in 12 games.“We have pretty good chemistry,” Coach Sandy Brondello said. “We grew a lot together as a team last year. Hopefully we can continue to build on that.” More