New York and Minnesota still leading the way, both unbeaten Commissioner's Cup play begins

NEW YORK — The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx picked up right where they left off last season when reaching the WNBA Finals.

Both teams have gone undefeated so far this year with the Lynx improving to 8-0 with a win over Phoenix on Tuesday night in a Commissioner's Cup matchup.

The Liberty and Lynx faced off last season in the in-season tournament final with Minnesota coming away with the victory. New York got revenge, winning the WNBA championship for the first time in franchise history.

With Minnesota 8-0 and New York 7-0 this season, it marks the latest that more than one franchise had been undefeated this long into the season since both the Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks started 2016 winning their first 11 games.

New York has dominated its opponents so far, averaging 91.9 points a game, and winning by nearly 23 points a contest. That includes a 48-point victory over Connecticut, the second-largest margin of victory in WNBA history.

Minnesota has been finding ways to win close contests. Before beating Golden State by 11 on Sunday, the Lynx had won their previous four games by a total of 18 points.

The Lynx and Liberty won't play in the regular season for a few more months with their four matchups coming in the span of a few weeks — the first of which is on July 30.

Power poll rankings

New York led the way as the No. 1 team in the power poll again this week. Minnesota was right behind in second. The national voting panel chose Phoenix third and Atlanta fourth. The Dream moved up three places. Las Vegas, Seattle and Indiana were the next three. Washington, Golden State and Chicago followed. Los Angeles, Dallas and Connecticut rounded out the poll.

Commissioner's Cup

The WNBA will play its annual in-season tournament over the next few weeks. Each team will play the other teams in their conference one time during that window. The West will have six games with the addition of expansion team Golden State. The East will play five. The teams with the best record in each conference will face off in the title game. The winning team receives a $500,000 cash prize pool to divvy up as well as each player on that squad will get $5,000 in cryptocurrency from Bitcoin.

Player of the week

Allisha Gray of Atlanta earned Player of the Week honors for the second time in her career. The Dream guard, who also won the award in June 2023, averaged 26.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4 assists to help Atlanta win both its games last week on the road over Los Angeles and Seattle. Other players receiving consideration included A'ja Wilson of Las Vegas, Napheesa Collier of Minnesota and Sabrina Ionescu of New York.

Game of the week

Indiana at Chicago, Saturday. Caitlin Clark may still be sidelined with a quad strain for this rematch between the Fever and Sky. The game will be broadcast on CBS in primetime, the first for the network in WNBA history.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball