WNBA Opening Weekend: Day 2 recap and Day 3 schedule

Connecticut Sun video tribute to Margo Dydek

Today’s Schedule:

• New York @ Atlanta, 3:00pm, TV:SPSO, Streaming: Live Access
• Los Angeles @ Minnesota, 3:30pm, TV: FSNN-MIN PRIME, Streaming: Live Access

Previews

• Liberty-Dream Preview (AP)
• Sparks-Lynx Preview (AP)

The second day of WNBA opening weekend began with the reigning champs, the Seattle Storm, receiving their rings before handily beating the Phoenix Mercury 78-71. Camille Little led the Storm with 18 points and nine rebounds.

The Connecticut Sun paid tribute to Margo Dydek in a heartfelt and tearjerker pre-game video presentation then beat the Washington Mystics 89-73. Tina Charles led the Sun 18 points and six rebounds

Pokey Chatman made her debut as a WNBA coach but her Chicago Sky could not trump the Indiana Fever. Veteran Katie Douglas led the Fever with 19 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Tangela Smith added 16 points.

“Chicago was very competitive from the start and we knew they would be,” said Fever head coach Lin Dunn. “ We did a good job defensively.  Tammy Sutton-Brown did a great job on [Sylvia] Fowles.  It’s good to win the boards.  We were a little out of sync with our open shots.  We did a good job executing offensively, little disappointed in missing so many open shots.  I bet Phoenix wishes they still had Tangela Smith.”

The Fever built an early lead and Chicago had to dig themselves out of a hole to get back into the game.

“I’m the kind of coach that’s going to look at the glass as always half full,” said Chatman. “I told the girls that to hold a team to 65 points and 29 percent shooting from the field is a good thing.  We have to clean up the turnovers.  We didn’t really put ourselves in position to be successful in the second half with the turnovers.  We need to clean up the basketball things and get the ball inside more.”

For Douglas, the Fever’s fast start was key even as Chicago began to make a comeback and close the gap.

“We talked about getting off to a quick start,” said Douglas. “We wanted a high octane offensive team.  We know there are peaks and valleys.  We got away from what was working for us.  Then we wanted to expose what they were doing.”

It was the Fever’s sixth win in a row against the Sky. Indiana leads the all-time series with Chicago, 17-4.

In Texas, Tulsa visited San Antonio and made a third quarter comeback to avoid a complete rout at the hands of Silver Stars who still beat them by 20 points. Sophia Young had 20 points and Becky Hammon contributed 18. Other Silver Stars in double figures included Jia Perkins with 17 and Ruth Riley with 12. Guard Tully Bevilaqua had four assists on the night and is now eight assists shy of becoming the first player in WNBA history with 800 assists and 500 steals.

San Antonio head coach Dan Hughes said he expected Tulsa to mount a run in the third quarter after trailing at the half by 25 points. San Antonio led at the break 51-26.

“I expected them to make a run,” said Hughes, “I was glad to see us answer their run. The league is good enough, they are going to make runs on you. You’re not going to play with that comfort level in our league.”

Tulsa’s woes was largely due to turnovers, nearly 30 in the game.

“We didn’t play very well,” said Shock head coach Nolan Richardson, “particularly in the first half. The thing that is hurting us quite a bit is the turnovers. We had like a total of 28…and many of them were unforced. We’re just not taking care of the ball and not being as sharp at this time of year. I was impressed with us going to the boards. We had a total of 40 [rebounds], which we don’t normally get that many. Of course, they didn’t miss that many shots either so there were not a lot of rebounds for them to get.”

He attributed the team’s youth as a factor.

“Well, we’re very young. I think we have five rookies on our team, we only have four from last year returning, and we got one lady that is out. We only have one point guard, and that was Latta and she can’t really play that many minutes.”

The 93-73 win against Tulsa marked the San Antonio’s first season-opening victory since 1996. The crowd of 12,406 marked the largest crowd for a home opener at the AT&T Center since the Silver Stars made their San Antonio debut in 2003. It was also marked the largest crowd at the arena since July 20, 2010.

Sunday features a rematch between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx. The Sparks beat the Lynx Friday night in Los Angeles to open the season. The Sparks traveled to Minnesota and face the Lynx at 3:30 p.m. ET at the Target Center.