Breanna Stewart leads Liberty past Mercury, rebounding from poor WNBA performance

Breanna Stewart rebounded from one of the worst games of her career with a stellar effort, scoring 28 points with 14 rebounds and seven assists to lift the New York Liberty to an 89-71 win over the visiting Phoenix Mercury, who were playing without an injured Brittney Griner on Sunday.

"I wanted to make an assertive effort to be aggressive," Stewart said. "Especially at the start of the game and hopefully have everyone follow. Sometimes the ball doesn't fall in the basket and that's what happened last game. Law of averages, things kind of even out a little bit."

Griner missed her second straight WNBA game with a hip injury she suffered against Seattle on Tuesday. The all-star centre received a warm standing ovation from the crowd when a video was played of her at the first timeout.

With Griner potentially playing in her first game in New York since returning to the U.S. after being detained for 10 months in Russia last year, the Liberty drew a sellout crowd of 9,278.

Phoenix (2-8) was also missing Diana Taurasi because of a hamstring injury.

New York had its own injury issues with Sabrina Ionescu missing her second straight game with a hamstring injury. Even without Ionescu, the Liberty (7-3) had more than enough to handle the Mercury.

Phoenix cut a 19-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to 72-64 with 6:01 left as Sophie Cunningham scored nine points during an 11-0 run.

Stewart ended the drought for New York by hitting a free throw and then Betnijah Laney made a jumper to restore the double-digit advantage. Phoenix never threatened the rest of the way.

"Our players just don't quit," Phoenix head coach Vanessa Nygaard said. "They had a lot of pride. They're really talented basketball players and it doesn't matter who's available for us, we're going to battle."

Cunningham finished with 27 points to lead the Mercury.

Delle Donne, Sykes power Mystics past Sky

Elena Delle Donne scored 20 points and Brittney Sykes added 16 to fuel the host Washington Mystics to a 77-69 victory over the Chicago Sky on Sunday.

Delle Donne sank all nine of her free-throw attempts to propel the Mystics (7-4) to their sixth win in eight games. Washington began that stretch with a 71-69 victory in Chicago on May 26, a game that was highlighted by a 25-point performance from Delle Donne.

Sykes, who scored 14 of her points in the first half, finished Sunday's game by making 6 of 8 shots from the floor. She also joined Delle Donne with a team high-tying six rebounds.

Shakira Austin added 12 points for the Mystics, who took advantage of 21 turnovers by the Sky (5-7). Washington also made 22 of 26 shots from the free-throw line, as opposed to a nine-for-14 performance by Chicago.

Chicago's Morgan Bertsch sank four three-pointers to highlight her 16-point, seven-rebound performance off the bench. Marina Mabrey scored 11 points and Elizabeth Williams added nine for the Sky, who have dropped four in a row.

Austin had five points and Delle Donne drained a three-pointer to highlight that sequence for the Mystics.

Bertsch sank consecutive three-pointers to cut Washington's lead to 54-44 before Ariel Atkins answered by connecting from beyond the arc. Chicago kept within earshot, with Bertsch's three-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining in the third cutting the Mystics' advantage to 63-55.

Washington, however, strengthened its grip by scoring 10 of the first 12 points of the fourth quarter. The Mystics were not seriously threatened the rest of the way.

Gray, Howard lead Fever over Dream

Allisha Gray scored 25 points on nine-of-13 shooting, Rhyne Howard added 21 points and the visiting Atlanta Dream beat the Indiana Fever 100-94 on Sunday.

Cheyenne Parker had 15 points, seven rebounds and four steals for Atlanta (5-5). Nia Coffey made 3 of 4 from three-point range, finished with 11 points and tied a career high with six assists.

Aliyah Boston, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA draft, made 10 of 15 from the field and led Indiana (4-7) with 25 points — tying her career best — and a season-high four blocks. The six-foot-five forward out of South Carolina is averaging 22.3 points and 9.3 rebounds over the past three games since she scored a career-low four points in an 85-82 loss to the Phoenix Mercury last Sunday.

Kelsey Mitchell added a season-high 24 points, Kristy Wallace scored 13 and NaLyssa Smith 12 for the Fever.

Atlanta set season highs for single-game scoring and field-goal percentage (56.1 per cent). The Dream shot 37 of 66 overall, made seven of 15 from three-point range and hit 19 of 24 from the free-throw line.

The win was the Dream's third consecutive on a four-game road trip. They beat the Connecticut Sun 92-88 in overtime Thursday behind 27 points and 10 rebounds from Gray. They beat the New York Liberty 86-79 on Tuesday.

Atlanta plays at the Dallas Wings on Tuesday before returning home for a rematch with New York on Friday.

Indiana plays at the Seattle Storm on Thursday.

Sun defeat Sparks in Los Angeles

DeWanna Bonner had 20 points and nine rebounds, Alyssa Thomas added 16 points, 12 assists and five steals, and the visiting Connecticut Sun beat the Los Angeles Sparks 83-74 Sunday.

Brionna Jones scored 17 points on eight-of-12 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds for Connecticut (9-3), which rebounded from a 92-88 loss to Atlanta last time out to win for the third time in the last four games.

Thomas moved past Taj McWilliams-Franklin (3,019) into third on the Sun's career scoring list with 3,027 points, behind Asjha Jones (3,336) and Nykesha Sales (3,955).

Karlie Samuelson hit a jumper for that made it 74-all with three minutes to play but the Sparks shot zero for six the rest of the way. DiJonai Carrington hit two free throws with 2:48 remaining to give Connecticut the lead for good and spark a 9-0 closing run. Jones added a layup almost a minute later and Los Angeles coach Curt Miller was called for a technical foul with 1:27 to go. Bonner made the free throw and added a layup before Carrington hit two free throws to cap the scoring with 38.1 seconds left.

Miller, who signed with Los Angeles in the off-season after eight seasons with Connecticut, led the Sun to two Finals appearances (2019 and 2022) and was named WNBA's coach of the year in 2017 and 2021.

Nneka Ogwumike had her sixth double-double of the season and led Los Angeles with 19 points, a season-high 15 rebounds and five assists. Jordin Canada added 14 points and six assists, Azura Stevens scored 12 points and Samuelson finished with 11.

Ogwumike. who went into the game needing eight rebounds to move past Crystal Langhorne (2,454) into 15th in WNBA history, has 2,461 career rebounds.

Lexie Brown (non-covid illness) missed her second consecutive game for the Sparks.

Aces cruise past Lynx

Jackie Young scored 24 points, Kelsey Plum made eight of 11 from the field and scored 21 points, including four three-pointers, and the Las Vegas Aces beat the Minnesota Lynx 93-62 on Sunday night.

Chelsea Gray scored 17 points and five assists and Candace Parker added 11 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals for Las Vegas (10-1). A'ja Wilson had her streak of 34 consecutive games scoring in double figure snapped, finishing with eight points on four-of-14 shooting but grabbed a season-high 14 rebounds and tied her season best with four blocks.

Young made a driving layup with 1:55 left in the first quarter that made it 22-20 and gave the Aces the lead for good. Napheesa Collier scored to trim Minnesota's deficit to 45-41 with 2:11 remaining the second quarter but Plum was fouled as she hit a floater in the lane and made the and-1 free throw, Young made consecutive buckets for Las Vegas and Gray made a jumper at the buzzer to make it 54-41 at halftime.

Collier made a jumper to open the scoring in the second half but the Aces responded with an 18-3 run — including two 3s by Plum — to blow the game open.

Las Vegas, which went into the game as the league's highest-scoring team at 91.8 points per game, have scored 90-plus points in nine of 11 games this season.

Bridget Carleton of Chatham, Ont., had six rebounds, three points and three assists for the Lynx.

The Lynx made 3 of 21 (14.3 per cent) from the field in the third quarter and shot 24.3 per cent (nine of 37) in the second half.

Diamond Miller, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2023 WNBA draft, missed her sixth consecutive game (ankle) for Minnesota.