To celebrate the opening of the league’s 22nd season, the WNBA scheduled all 12
teams to be in action on Sunday, May 20 for #WNBAAllDay.
So make sure to use Saturday to finish your weekend chores – wash the car, clean
the house, go grocery shopping, do the laundry, whatever you have to do in order
to have Sunday free – because from 1:00 p.m to 11:00 p.m. ET it’s time to watch
some hoops.
Not only does #WNBAAllDay give fans the opportunity to see every team in action
as the season gets underway, it also features a must-see marquee matchup: a
Finals rematch between the 2017 champion Minnesota Lynx and the 2016 champion
Los Angeles Sparks at 5:00 ET on ESPN2.
“WNBA All Day is a chance for fans to see maybe their favorite team play, but
then also stay tuned … you might be able to see some other teams that you don’t
always get to watch,” said Seattle’s Sue Bird. “So it’s a good way to start the
season off and just make sure you stay up for the nightcap.”
To get you ready for the day here’s a quick viewers guide for #WNBAAllDay with a
look at each game, when and how to tune-in and what to watch for.
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1:00 PM ET
Indiana Fever at Washington Mystics (NBA TV) Capital One Arena (Washington, DC)
Las Vegas Aces at Connecticut Sun (Twitter) Mohegan Sun Arena (Uncasville, CT)
#WNBAAllDay begins with a doubleheader, so make sure your television is tuned
into NBA TV for the Washington Mystics hosting the Indiana Fever, and have your
secondary device (laptop/tablet/phone) locked into Twitter for the Connecticut
Sun hosting the Las Vegas Aces. And while you’re on Twitter, make sure you’re
using the #WNBAAllDay hashtag to impart your takes on the game with fellow WNBA
fans.
“That’s awesome,” Elena Delle Donne said of the Mystics opening up #WNBAAllDay.
“That kind of reminds you a little bit of NCAA Tournament time when all day long
you’re just watching it. It’s fun that we get to be that first impression
because first impressions are everything, so keep everybody locked in and ready
to watch.”
Delle Donne and the Mystics are coming off a successful season that saw them
reach the playoff semifinals; they will look to build off that momentum in 2018
and it begins with their season-opener against Indiana. The Fever are looking to
bounce back from their first non-playoff season in a dozen years. They have a
trio of rookies – Kelsey Mitchell, Victoria Vivians and Stephanie Mavunga – that
will look to make a strong first impression of their own in their WNBA debuts.
While the Fever and Mystics battle it out on NBA TV, the Las Vegas Aces will
play their inaugural WNBA game on Twitter when they visit the Connecticut Sun.
The Aces have stacked the deck with young talent, including A’ja Wilson – the
No. 1 pick in April’s draft – who will make her pro debut against a formidable
opponent in the Sun. Connecticut was the breakout team of 2017 and Jonquel Jones
was the breakout star. The 2017 Most Improved Player just announced that she is
back in Connecticut and ready for the home opener after spending recent days in
the Bahamas attending to family issues.
This game also features the return of Chiney Ogwumike after she missed all of
2017 rehabilitating a torn Achilles. Her return makes the Sun – who made the
playoffs last season after a four-year absence – an even more difficult team to
compete with every night. For the Aces, not only is this the debut for Wilson,
but for head coach Bill Laimbeer as he takes over his third WNBA squad. After
finishing at the bottom of the standings in each of their final three seasons in
San Antonio, can 2018 be the year that the team begins its ascension? A win on
opening day would be a great sign toward the affirmative.
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3:00 PM ET
Atlanta Dream at Dallas Wings (Twitter) College Park Center (Arlington, TX)
The Aces-Sun matchup is just the first of four matchups that will be streamed on
Twitter on #WNBAAllDay, so make sure you’ve got your device fully charged and
have a backup battery ready to go so you don’t miss a thing. Especially the 3:00
p.m. matchup between the Dream and Wings, which features a pair of returning
stars in Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry and Dallas’ Liz Cambage. Sunday’s meeting
will be the season opener for the Dream, but the Wings will already have a game
under their belt as they face off with Phoenix to open the season on Friday.
“I’m happy we’ve got two games on [opening weekend],” said Wings All-Star guard
Skylar Diggins-Smith. “We’ve got the first game and it’s Brittney Griner and
Liz, it’s a matchup people are going to be talking about. We’re playing against
Diana [Taurasi] and DeWanna Bonner’s returning, there’s a lot of emotion that’s
going to be in that first game.
“But the fact that we get two games in that weekend, it’s great to open up the
season like that. That’s something that we were all excited about when we saw
that. Obviously, we’re excited about the potential of our team and things like
that, but just seeing that we’re going having two games on opening weekend, I
know our fans are excited about that and people want to see what our team is
going to look like.”
Cambage was the second overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft, but after two
seasons, she returned to her native Australia to play professionally and for her
national team. After a four-year hiatus, she is back in the WNBA and raises the
ceiling for a young Wings team that is ready to make some noise. McCoughtry
returns to the Dream after sitting out the 2017 season in order to rest after
nearly a decade of playing year-round basketball. A refreshed McCoughtry is back
in Atlanta and looking to bring postseason ball to the city once more, she’ll
get to take the first step on Sunday.
“I’m super excited,” said Dream center and University of Texas alum Imani
McGee-Stafford. “Dallas is great young team; it’s a great place to play, I
really enjoy the arena and obviously I have a lot of Texas fans driving down, so
it’s going to be a fun opener and it’s going to be a great game.”
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5:00 PM ET
Los Angeles Sparks at Minnesota Lynx (ESPN2) Target Center (Minneapolis, MN)
After three games to whet your appetite, it’s time to get the popcorn ready and
tune-in to ESPN2 for the marquee matchup of the day.
Lynx. Sparks.
What else needs to be said about this rivalry? In the past two years, they have
finished 1-2 in the regular season and gone on to meet in the WNBA Finals, where
they have had two epic five-game series that came down to the final seconds to
determine a champion.
Over 2 seasons' (including 2 Finals) worth of games, the @LA_Sparks & @MinnesotaLynx are separated by THREE points.
A week from today, they'll reignite the rivalry as part of #WNBAAllDay! pic.twitter.com/OR5qFseyCo
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 13, 2018
The Sparks got the best of the Lynx in 2016 thanks to Nneka Ogwumike’s
game-winning putback with 3.1 seconds to play, but the Lynx struck back in 2017
as they overcame a 2-1 series deficit to claim their fourth WNBA title in the
past seven seasons. In a rather ironic twist, the Lynx will receive their 2017
championship rings prior to Sunday’s game against the team that they defeated in
the Finals.
“I just think its interesting that you lose in the Finals and then the next year
we’re the ones that have to watch people get their rings,” said Sparks forward
Candace Parker. “I don’t think I need any more motivation from watching that
than I would have already going into the season.”
Parker is one of four league MVPs that will be featured in this matchup: Parker
(2008 and 2013), Maya Moore (2014), Nneka Ogwumike (2016) and Sylvia Fowles
(2017). In the 2018 WNBA.com survey of the league’s general managers, they
picked the Sparks as the 2018 title favorites and Moore as the MVP favorite
heading into the season.
“We’re just looking forward to playing, no matter who it is,” said Sparks guard
Essence Carson. “I know from the fan perspective it’s always good to watch L.A.
and Minnesota play, but as a player you want to approach every game with the
same focus and respect each opponent. We all know that Minnesota is a great
team, so we have to come to that game well prepared physically and mentally. So
it’s exciting, its an exciting time of the year.”
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7:00 PM ET
New York Liberty at Chicago Sky (Twitter) Wintrust Arena (Chicago, IL)
After catching your breath from another epic clash between the Lynx and Sparks,
it is time to get back on Twitter and tune-in for the New York Liberty taking on
the Chicago Sky in the Sky’s new home – Wintrust Arena in Chicago’s South Loop
neighborhood.
“I’m so excited; I think it’s going to be huge for us to get downtown,” said Sky
All-Star center Stefanie Dolson. “It’s closer to a lot more families and a lot
more people than up in Rosemont, so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve seen the
arena and it is gorgeous.”
Dolson and the Sky open the new arena against a formidable opponent as they
welcome Tina Charles and the New York Liberty on Sunday night. While the Sky
open their season on Saturday in Indiana, Sunday’s game will be the season
opener for the Liberty and the head-coaching debut of Katie Smith.
The recently announced Hall of Famer takes over for the departed Bill Laimbeer
and will look to lead the Liberty into a deep playoff run after early exits in
each of the past three seasons despite finishing as the top team in the Eastern
Conference.
In addition to Smith, Sunday marks the debut for Liberty rookie Kia Nurse as she
will face her former UConn teammate Gabby Williams, who is one of three lottery
picks (Diamond DeShields and Alaina Coates) making their pro debut this weekend
for the Sky.
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9:00 PM ET
Phoenix Mercury at Seattle Storm (Twitter) KeyArena (Seattle, WA)
How do you cap off a day filled with wall-to-wall hoops? How about a matchup
between longtime friends, teammates and competitors Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi
as Bird’s Seattle Storm open their season against Taurasi’s Phoenix Mercury to
close out #WNBAAllDay.
This game not only features the WNBA’s all-time points leader (Taurasi) taking
on the all-time assists leader (Bird), but features five No. 1 overall picks in
the WNBA Draft: Bird (2002), Taurasi (2004), Brittney Griner (2013), Jewell Loyd
(2015) and Breanna Stewart (2016).
These teams last met in the first round of the 2017 WNBA Playoffs, when the No.
5 seed Mercury ousted the No. 8 seed Storm in a single-elimination game, 79-69,
behind 23 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks from Griner. Stewart, who
finished as the runner-up to Griner for the league scoring title in her second
season, also had 23 points in the loss.
The Mercury would advance to the semifinal round of the playoffs, but both
Phoenix and Seattle enter 2018 with aspirations for a playoff run late into the
summer months. The Mercury added a few new pieces in point guard Briann January
and forward Sancho Lyttle and welcome back DeWanna Bonner, who missed 2017 after
giving birth to twins. The Storm not only added Courtney Paris as a free agent,
Natasha Howard via trade and drafted Jordin Canada, they also hired a new head
coach in Dan Hughes, who makes his Storm debut to close out #WNBAAllDay.
“You obviously want visibility for the league, so anytime you can have it all
day and have people tune in at any time of day, its awesome and its going to
help with the growth,” said Loyd. “And, obviously, anytime you play Diana
Taurasi or any of the greats it’s always a good game and we always have a good
matchup with them every time we play them.”
