Kara Lawson scored 21 points and Sacramento clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday with a tight 81-79 win over Connecticut.
Sacramento (17-11) led by seven with just over 2:00 to play, and held off a Conneticut charge that was sparked by a technical foul and the ejection of a player's husband from the stands.
Conneticut's Katie Douglas saw her husband escorted from the arena for comments he directed at the referees.
Lindsay Whalen and Jones had 17 each for Conneticut (16-13), who had won 10-of-11 coming into this game.
Mercury 96, Sparks 93
In Los Angeles, Penny Taylor scored 23 points and made two free throws with 11 seconds to play to give Phoenix victory over Los Angeles.
The win saw Phoenix (19-11) move into first place in the WNBA's Western Conference by one game over San Antonio.
Kiesha Brown scored a career-high 18 points for Los Angeles (9-19) who have lost 16 of 20.
Mystics 77, Silver Stars 73
In San Antonio, Alana Beard scored 19 points to help Washington (13-15) improve its playoff chances by downing San Antonio.
Sophia Young scored 26 points for San Antonio.
Washington lost its assists leader Nikki Teasley to a sprained left knee 7:33 into the game.
San Antonio (17-11) clinched a playoff spot in the West last week.
In other games, it was Liberty 77, Comets 71; Fever 75, Sky 70, 2OT; Lynx 95, Storm 95.
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Starting with three fights in the first nine seconds and ending with a celebration and a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the US on Saturday delivered exactly what Matthew Tkachuk hoped for by beating Canada. “We needed to send a message,” Tkachuk said. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’” Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, brother Brady tussled with Sam Bennett the next time the puck dropped, J.T. Miller dropped the gloves with Colton Parayko next and the Americans followed those fisticuffs with a 3-1 victory over their biggest rival. “That was one of the
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Aaliyah Edwards on Monday pulled off the stunner of the opening round of the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament, beating top-seeded Breanna Stewart 12-0. The tournament to be played over three days featured 23 of the WNBA’s 36 players. A few had other commitments and a couple others were out with injuries. Stewart got the ball first against Edwards and missed a contested layup. Edwards then hit a three-pointer from the corner and a jumper from the elbow to go up 5-0. The player who scores keeps the basketball. Edwards hit two layups and a three-pointer to seal the win. Stewart, a two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player,