Copper Got Plum's All-Star Spot, and Burton Is Out

The WNBA named Kahleah Copper as Kelsey Plum's injury replacement on Wednesday night, closing the door Veronica Burton had waited two weeks for. The break still handed Golden State second place, and the team the Valkyries are chasing just got Napheesa Collier back. Two Valkyries head to Chicago for the weekend.

The door closed Wednesday night

The WNBA named Phoenix guard Kahleah Copper as Kelsey Plum's injury replacement on Team Coop on Wednesday evening (Arizona Republic, July 22). Copper is a five-time All-Star averaging 20.5 points, seventh in the league, with 14 games of 20 or more this season.

Plum withdrew voluntarily. She posted to her Instagram Story that she was "close to being ready to go" but "it's best to give my spot to an athlete who's going to play," and called Copper "so deserving" (EssentiallySports, July 23). Plum has been out since June 17 with a lower-left leg injury, averaging 23.9 points in her 12 games, second in the league.

That was the slot Veronica Burton was positioned for. The day before, a FanSided piece called Burton "the guaranteed Plum replacement," with Brittney Sykes stepping in only if Paige Bueckers sat (FanSided, July 21). The league went the other way. Burton's case was real: the lead point guard on the league's stingiest defense, an 11-point, 11-assist double-double in the home opener, and 17 with six assists at Connecticut, enough that NBC listed her among the summer's top snubs. The commissioner's office chose the established five-time All-Star over the first-timer.

Burton is effectively shut out now. Bueckers started and played 37 minutes in Dallas's 101-97 win at Portland on Wednesday, 21 points on 4-of-7 from deep, which closes that path (ESPN, July 22). The only sliver left is Angel Reese, who left Sunday's game with a knee injury and has had no update since, with Atlanta off through the break. But Reese is a forward, and the conventional replacement there is Alyssa Thomas, who just posted her 20th career regular-season triple-double on Wednesday. Unless Reese withdraws and the office reaches for a guard, Burton's 2026 All-Star case ends here.

The break put Golden State back in second, and the Lynx got Collier back

Golden State moved from third to second in the West without playing. Las Vegas blew a 91-82 lead with 3:59 left and lost 100-99 in Washington on Wednesday, the final night before the break, when Shakira Austin converted a putback three-point play with 12.8 seconds left for the Mystics' only lead of the fourth quarter (News & Observer, July 22). A'ja Wilson scored 38 and still lost, reaching 30 points for the eighth time this season. It was the same late-collapse shape as the Valkyries' own Monday defeat, when they led 80-73 with 3:32 left and were outscored 17-2 the rest of the way.

The standings at the break, per the league's own updated board (WNBA.com): Minnesota 22-6, first, on a seven-game winning streak. Golden State 19-8, second, 2.5 back. Las Vegas 18-8, third, 3 back. Dallas 18-9, fourth, 3.5 back. The Valkyries are 9-1 over their last 10, the best 10-game mark in the league, and they sit half a game up on the Aces with the same number of losses.

The race got harder anyway. Napheesa Collier made her season debut in Minnesota's 86-76 win at Seattle, 24 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes, her first game since tearing three ligaments in her left ankle in last year's playoffs and having surgery on both ankles in the offseason (TSN, July 22). Cheryl Reeve tempered it: "This is an evolution. We're not at the end of this. There will still be ups and downs." The first-place team, already 22-6, just added a perennial MVP contender on a minutes restriction. Golden State's next meeting with Minnesota is August 20 at Chase Center.

Two Valkyries head to Chicago this weekend

Golden State has two representatives at All-Star weekend for the first time, per the club's own preview (Valkyries, July 22).

Friday, July 24: Janelle Salaun in the State Farm 3-Point Contest at Wintrust Arena, 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) on ESPN, Disney+, and the ESPN App. She is the first Valkyrie ever in the event, with 67 made threes (fifth in the WNBA and the most by any reserve) on 39.4 percent shooting (WNBA.com). The field is Rhyne Howard, Marina Mabrey, Azzi Fudd, Bridget Carleton, Natisha Hiedeman, and Salaun.

Saturday, July 25: Gabby Williams starts for Team Coop at United Center, 5:30 p.m. PT (8:30 p.m. ET) on ABC, Disney+, and the ESPN App. It is her second straight All-Star selection and her first start, a career-high 14.8 points on a career-best 34.3 percent from three this season, and it lands her back in Chicago where her WNBA career began with the Sky. Becky Hammon coaches Team Coop, Cheryl Reeve coaches Team Spoon, and the 30th-season teams wear the league's original 1997 red and blue (WNBA.com rosters). The Shooting Stars event, in the same Friday window, pairs WNBA legends Elena Delle Donne, Lauren Jackson, Rebekkah Brunson, and Deanna Nolan with active players Jessica Shepard, Courtney Williams, Shakira Austin, and Flau'jae Johnson (Yahoo Sports). The WNBA Live fan festival opens Thursday evening at McCormick Place and runs through Saturday.

Film room: the rack that decides Salaun's night

The 3-point contest is a two-round, timed shootout with five racks around the arc. Four racks hold four balls plus one oatmeal-colored "money" ball worth two. The fifth rack is all money balls, five of them worth two apiece, and each shooter picks where to place it. Two pedestals at the logo hold balls worth three each, and a made logo shot triggers a State Farm donation to Girls Who Code (Valkyries, July 22). The top two first-round scores advance to the final.

For Salaun, the all-money rack is the lever. She is a catch-and-shoot reserve who takes roughly two-thirds of her field-goal attempts from beyond the arc, 39.4 percent on the season, with four games of five or more threes. Her game is built on arc volume, not logo range, so the 10 points available on a single well-placed rack matter more to her than the two three-point logo balls. The contest rewards exactly her skill, repetition from a fixed spot, more than her season role does. If she places the money rack on a comfortable wing and cleans the standard racks, she can stack a round quickly.

Tracking

Next game: Golden State is off until July 29 at Phoenix, 7 p.m. PT. The Mercury beat the Sparks 86-82 on Wednesday for their second straight win behind Alyssa Thomas's 20th career regular-season triple-double (19 points, 15 assists, 11 rebounds) and 21 from the newly minted All-Star Copper (ESPN, July 22). Phoenix sat at 9-18 two weeks ago. It arrives at the break at 10-18 on a modest streak, with Copper saving the franchise from its first All-Star-less season in over two decades and a triple-double engine finding form.

Collier timeline: Minutes restriction in effect. Minnesota's next game is July 28 at home against Toronto, giving Collier five days to rest before her second appearance (Star Tribune, July 22).

Reese: No update since Sunday's knee injury. Atlanta is off through the break. Her All-Star status is the last unresolved roster question heading into Saturday.