WNBA All-Star Game: Matchups we'd most like to see via A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart's draft

A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart will draft their All-Star teams this week in a special airing on ESPN (1 p.m. ET Saturday) ahead of next weekend’s game in Las Vegas. The duo was selected as captains again this year as leaders of the fan vote.

Neither are divulging many secrets when it comes to their strategy, though Stewart did question in a media scrum the day of the announcement if she should trade for the No. 1 pick to draft Brittney Griner. Griner was selected as a starter in her first season back after missing the 2022 season while wrongfully detained in Russia. Stewart, the New York Liberty’s leading scorer, also jested about drafting Wilson’s teammates to “mess with her a little bit” on a “SportsCenter” hit.

That’s exactly what happened last year when Stewart took Aces shooter Jackie Young at No. 2. Wilson scooped up the rest of her teammates with Kelsey Plum, who would go on to be named All-Star MVP, at No. 3 and Dearica Hamby at No. 10. Team Wilson won, 134-112, in Chicago.

Ahead of the draft — which Wilson promised to be a fun time, and the Aces’ star forward always delivers on that front — Yahoo Sports brainstormed who fans might most want to see as teammates and as opponents in the annual event.

Gamecocks team up in Vegas

Three South Carolina alumna will play in the game and Wilson, making her fifth appearance, could put them all on a team together for the first time.

Allisha Gray, one of her closest friends and teammates on the 2017 national championship team, was named a reserve for the Atlanta Dream and is making her first All-Star appearance. They attended the 2023 Final Four, where South Carolina was upset by Iowa, to see Aliyah Boston attempt to win a second title. Boston, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, is the first rookie named to the starting squad since 2014 and only the eighth in league history.

If this happens, we can only hope Dawn Staley is courtside yelling trash talk at them all. And if that happens, please mic her up.

Notre Dame vs. South Carolina for bragging rights

If we’re going the teammate route, why not make it South Carolina versus Notre Dame in a matchup of 2017 and 2018 national champions?

Arike Ogunbowale, a former All-Star MVP in the Olympic year game, is making her third appearance and is joined by Jackie Young as a starter. They were on the 2018 championship team for Notre Dame that also featured Marina Mabrey, who just missed out on being an All-Star.

Jewell Loyd is also a Notre Dame alumna who went No. 1 in the 2015 draft, making it three Fighting Irish in the starting list. It’s tied with South Carolina for the most of any collegiate program this year.

Oregon and UConn each have two players in the game. Dallas Wings forward Satou Sabally, making her first start in the game, and Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, playing in her second game, were on the 2020 Oregon team that was a favorite to upend South Carolina and win the title. Napheesa Collier was a freshman and Stewart a senior when UConn won their fourth consecutive championship in 2016. No other program has more than one All-Star in the 2023 game.

Brittney Griner and an assist maestro

When Sylvia Fowles dunked in last year’s game, the roof was about to pop off of Wintrust Arena. Even players were stoked for the retiring legend to go out like that. Imagine what it would mean to see Griner, the league’s leader in dunks, do something similar a year after the game was dedicated to keeping her name centered.

The best likelihood of dunks, alley-oops and filthy pick-and-rolls would be to pair her with a prolific passer. And this game has two of the best in Aces point gawd Chelsea Gray and Liberty leader Courtney Vandersloot. Considering Gray does stuff like this on the regular, here’s to rooting for that pairing.

Gray and Griner were All-Star teammates in 2017 when it was Eastern vs. Western Conference. They were on opposite teams the following two seasons.

Becky Hammon and Wilson vs. the Aces squad

Hammon and the Aces coaching staff will lead Wilson’s squad since the Aces held the best record in the WNBA through June 30. How much fun would it be to see the franchise head coach and face go up against the rest of the deep squad? Gray and Young are starters, so Stewart could snag them early, even though it seems unlikely Wilson would let them fall out of her grasp. Plum is a reserve, and Stewie would have the first pick of that section of the draft.

Given how much fun Wilson and Plum had ribbing Young last year when she was on the opposite side, it would be typical Aces comedic gold to see a split down the Hammon/Wilson and Plum/Gray/Young line.

Super-team All-Star edition

What if we just formed new super-teams and had at it? The Aces’ four All-Stars against the Liberty’s three All-Stars. Wilson and Stewart could draft their teammates and fit in similar talent around them to form a funny nod to the super-team era.

Alyssa Thomas vs. the world

This is less a note on the drafting than a storyline to watch. Thomas is averaging close to a triple-double with 14.4 points, 10.1 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game. She is arguably the biggest snub of the All-Star starters list and has been crucial to the Sun’s stay at the top of the standings. First-year head coach Stephanie White and her staff will coach Stewart’s side as the team with the second-best record in the league through June 30.

Thomas posted a triple-double the day the starters announcement was made, then did it again days later. Thomas doesn’t need much more fire, but will we see her go off and drop a historic outing to show fans she deserved the nod? Thomas finished fourth in media voting and seventh in player voting, but 10th by fans to fall out of the starters list. It’s giving Ogunbowale-torches-Team-USA-in-the-2021-All-Star-Game vibes.

Record offensive production

Atlanta Dream wing Rhyne Howard scored a career-high 43 points in a 112-84 win against the Los Angeles Sparks at home on Sunday, becoming the fifth player this season to score at least 40. The previous high was three, set in 2006, ’08 and ’15.

Howard is the fourth-quickest to score 40 in WNBA history. Cynthia Cooper (15 games), Candace Parker (18) and Elena Delle Donne (48) did it faster than Howard, who played in her 49th game. The 112 points was a single-game franchise scoring record for the Dream collectively, and Howard fell one shy of the Dream’s individual scoring mark. She hit six 3-pointers and was 9-of-12 overall.

The second-year player fell short of the season record of 45 points set by Stewart on May 21 against the Indiana Fever. Connecticut Sun forward DeWanna Bonner (41 points vs. Aces), Ogunbowale (41 vs. Storm) and Loyd (41 vs. Lynx) have all hit the mark.

Loyd has come close two other times with totals of 39 and 37 points. There are 17 instances of players scoring at least 30 this season with Loyd having five of them.

The all-time single-game scoring record is still 53 points scored by Liz Cambage when she was with the Dallas Wings in 2018. Stewart’s 45-point performance is tied for seventh and Howard’s is tied for 13th. Five of the top 17 highest-scoring games have happened this year. Teams are averaging 82.5 points per game, trailing the abbreviated 2020 season in a bubble (83.1 ppg) and 2018 (82.8).

Status report

Delle Donne will miss time after sustaining a left ankle sprain in the final 20 seconds of a 94-89 loss to the Atlanta Dream. Delle Donne, who was named an All-Star reserve over the weekend, went down in the paint while defending Nia Coffey in a back-and-forth final minute.

The immediate worry was her back as she lay in immense pain on her stomach on the court while being attended to by trainers. She was able to exit the court with help. Delle Donne missed the majority of the 2020 and 2021 seasons after undergoing two back surgeries. The Mystics are already without forward Shakira Austin and guard Kristi Toliver. They signed Linnae Harper, a member of Team USA’s 3x3 pool, to a hardship contract.

Lynx rookie Diamond Miller returned from her ankle injury and averaged 20.7 points over her three games back in action. She was 55.8% from the floor and went 4-of-9 from 3-point range.

Sky forward Ruthy Hebard was activated on Monday in her return from maternity leave. The Sky had to waive her pregnancy designated replacement, Kristine Anigwe.

The Storm will receive a veteran presence when Gabby Williams joins them on a rest-of-season contract. Williams’ return to the league was a looming question because of the prioritization clause. In 2022, she started all 36 games for Seattle and averaged 7.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game. She was a career-best 44.4% from the field and is one of the best defenders league-wide.

In a flurry of movement, the Wings waived rookie Ashley Joens and second-year guard Jasmine Dickey to sign veteran Odyssey Sims. Sims averaged 4.8 points and 5.2 assists (ranking seventh in the league) in an average of 19.9 minutes over five games for Dallas on a hardship signing.

Standings

Top four host playoff series — Aces (15-1), Liberty (11-4), Sun (12-5), Mystics (9-7)

The Aces showed not once (see: 98-81 win vs. Liberty), but twice (102-84 win over Sun) last week why they’re the hands-down favorites to win the championship. And they’re doing it with strong defense now. The Mystics, a defensive team that could put up resistance to the Aces’ offense, are on a more serious two-game losing streak after injuries to Austin and Delle Donne.

Making the playoffs — Wings (8-8), Sky (8-9), Dream (7-8), Lynx (7-9)

The mid-third is full of teams on winning streaks of two or three games: Wings (2-0), Sky (3-0), Dream (2-1) and Lynx (3-0). The Dream and Sky earned wins over a Mystics team working through injuries, but otherwise it was all victories against the bottom of the pack for the quad.

The Dream averaged 97.3 ppg last week, slightly more than the Lynx (96.3) and Aces (96.0).

Lottery — Sparks (7-10), Fever (5-11), Storm (4-12), Mercury (3-12)

The Fever offense struggled in a 85-63 loss to the Mercury — their second-worst output of the season — but recovered to lose by a late bucket to the Sky. Boston was kept to six points in the first game and four in the second, two of five single-digit games so far in her rookie season. She was also kept to single-digit boards.

The Mercury continue to turn the ball over, averaging 19.3 over the week. It’s almost two more than their season average. They also haven’t improved their steals (5.7 ranks last) or rebounding (30 rpg).

What to watch this week

Wednesday

Mercury at Liberty, 7 p.m. ET, Twitter: Griner and Diana Taurasi were not available for Phoenix the first time they played. New York won, 89-71.

Fever at Lynx, 8 p.m. ET, League Pass: It was a two-point game the first meeting and Collier scored 28 with 14 rebounds.

Wings at Aces, 10 p.m. ET, League Pass: It’s the first meeting of the two and could help the Aces clinch the Western Conference berth in the Commissioner’s Cup. They’re 6-0 and the Wings are 4-3.

Dream at Sparks, 10 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network: Atlanta crushed the Sparks, 112-84, in Howard’s 43-point game on Sunday.

Thursday

Storm at Sun, 7 p.m. ET, Prime Video: The Sun are on a two-game losing streak, but at the hands of the league’s best in the Liberty and Aces.

Friday — ION (regional)

The Fever and Mystics tip at 7 p.m. ET and three more games tip off at 8 p.m. ET: Dream at Sky, Aces at Wings and Mercury at Lynx.

Saturday — ESPN matinee

The afternoon starts with the All-Star Draft at 1 p.m. ET, followed by All-Star captain Stewart and the New York Liberty hosting the Seattle Storm (2 p.m. ET) for the second time in a week.

Sunday

• Mystics at Sun, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN

• Wings at Fever, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN3

• Sparks at Mercury, 6 p.m. ET, League Pass

• Aces at Lynx, 7 p.m. ET, League Pass

• Dream at Sky, 7 p.m. ET, League Pass