Valkyries Restart in Phoenix Tonight, Three Games Out, With Gabby Williams Questionable

Minnesota won its eighth straight and brought Napheesa Collier home last night, stretching the lead to three games while Golden State sat idle. Williams is a game-time decision for the 7 p.m. PT restart on USA and CNBC, and the trade deadline lands Sunday.

The lead grew while Golden State waited

The second half started without the Valkyries on Tuesday night, and the standings moved anyway. Minnesota beat Toronto 100-93 at Target Center for its eighth straight win, with rookie Olivia Miles going for 24 points, six rebounds and eight assists and Kayla McBride adding 18 (ESPN, Star Tribune). Napheesa Collier played her first home game since offseason ankle surgery, scoring 15 with six rebounds in 24 minutes, and the Lynx improved to a WNBA-best 23-6.

So Golden State returns from a nine-day layoff 19-8, still second, but now 3.0 games back after sitting 2.5 behind when the break began. The team the Valkyries are chasing just got its MVP back and kept winning. Golden State is 9-1 over its last 10 and still owns the league's stingiest defense at 76.4 points allowed per game (CBS Sports). The restart is also the first test of whether that defense travels: both wins over Phoenix this season came at Chase Center, and tonight is the first meeting in the desert.

We're going to bounce back and we're going to be ready.

Kaitlyn Chen, who scored a career-high 20 in the July 20 loss to Washington, on the restart (CBS Sports)

Williams is a game-time decision

The one lineup note that matters: Gabby Williams is questionable for tonight, listed as a game-time decision the team calls "reconditioning" and that is not injury-related (FOX Sports, ESPN). She started the All-Star Game on Saturday, went for 18, five and six with zero turnovers, and entered the break healthy. If she sits, a Golden State offense scoring 81.9 points per game, 12th in the league, loses its leading scorer at 14.8 per game. Juste Jocytė is day-to-day with a foot issue and Iliana Rupert remains out for the season (pregnancy); otherwise the roster is intact (Bleacher Report).

Film room: the Copper clamp

Both Valkyries wins over Phoenix this season turned on the same thing: Kahleah Copper could not get loose. In the 95-79 home opener on May 10, Copper shot 4-of-15 for 11 points. In the 87-81 win on June 9, she went 3-of-11 for nine. Add it up and the Mercury's 20.5-point-per-game scorer was 7-of-26, 26.9 percent, against Golden State, barely half her usual output and well under her 42.8 percent season mark (Basketball-Reference, ESPN box score).

Alyssa Thomas still generated offense, with 19 points and 11 assists in the first meeting and 22 with nine assists in the second, but Golden State won the turnover battle both nights and forced 17 Mercury giveaways in the opener. The league's best defense zeroed in on the primary scorer and lived with Thomas's playmaking. The question tonight is whether that containment holds on the road, and whether the offense can function if Williams watches from the sideline.

Tonight: how to watch, and what Phoenix is playing for

Tip is 7 p.m. PT, 10 p.m. ET, at the Mortgage Matchup Center on USA and CNBC, with the regional feed on KPIX+44 and KMAX31. Golden State is a 5.5-point favorite with a 155.5 total (Bleacher Report). The Valkyries are 2-0 against the Mercury this season and riding a five-game road win streak.

Phoenix is 10-18, 13th, but won its final two before the break and is angling for a belated playoff push behind Alyssa Thomas, who posted a triple-double in the Mercury's last win before the break. Coach Nate Tibbetts sees an opening.

We've just been waiting for some momentum. The last two games we've played with better energy, better belief, better trust.

Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts (CBS Sports)

Copper, the All-Star replacement who took Kelsey Plum's Team Coop spot, put it more bluntly: "We definitely know we're fighting for something. We want to grow and build on every game" (CBS Sports).

The race, and four days to the deadline

The standings after Tuesday's restart games: Minnesota 23-6 (first, W8), Golden State 19-8 (second, 3.0 back), Las Vegas 18-8 (3.5 back, with games in hand), Dallas 18-9 (ESPN). Washington, the team that snapped Golden State's nine-game streak on July 20, beat Connecticut 92-84 for its third straight win and improved to 15-12, nudging into the 8-seed picture behind 22 points from Sonia Citron and 20 and 10 from Kiki Iriafen (ESPN).

The trade deadline is Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, four days out (WNBA). The closer question from earlier this week still frames Golden State's calculus: the league's best defense and deepest bench, but an offense that ranks 12th and a 0-5 record against Minnesota and Las Vegas against 19-3 versus the rest of the league (SF Chronicle). As Dallas general manager Curt Miller put it this week, it is "much harder to make trades than people realize because of the salary cap," and the post-break schedule leaves "almost no opportunity to practice" and integrate a new player (Dallas Hoops Journal). The Valkyries restart tonight, then have four days to decide whether this roster is the one they take into August.

Tracking

• Collier's home debut: 15 and six in 24 minutes Tuesday, after 24 and 10 in her season debut at Seattle. The Star Tribune's read is that Minnesota now has "two MVP-caliber players on the court" in Collier and Miles, and the Lynx visit Toronto again Thursday before Golden State sees them Aug. 19 at Chase (Star Tribune).
• After Phoenix: Golden State is home for Toronto on Aug. 2 and Aug. 4, then the August gauntlet, including Minnesota at Chase on Aug. 19 and at Minnesota on Aug. 24 (ESPN schedule).
• The Aug. 2 deadline falls on a Sunday, the same day as that first Toronto home game.