June 29, 2006 - Welcome back to another weekTriple Threat Fantasy Challenge. With the All-Star Break rapidly approaching, it looks like some of the WNBA's best are taking their games up a notch now that they have settled into midseason form. So let's take a look at the Triple Threat Leaderboard and see who it has been affected by some of the past week's dominant individual performances.

As if there was any doubt after her performance on Sunday, Lisa Leslie of the Sparks remains in the top slot, with a PRA average of 35.5 per game. Her career-high 41 points, along with 13 rebounds and 3 assists on Sunday against San Antonio was the top Triple Threat performance so far this year. It seems that the only thing that can stop Leslie from putting up big numbers on a nightly basis is when her minutes are limited by foul trouble. She has reached double-figures in scoring in all but two games this season, and she only played 18 minutes in both of those contests. She also ranks second in the WNBA with eight double-doubles. She even ranks 15th in the league in assists (3.4 apg), while the next best center in assists, Cheryl Ford is ranked 56th (1.8 apg). If you don't have Leslie in your lineup somewhere every week, I really don't think that you are playing to win.

We now have a tie for second in the Triple Threat rankings, with the WNBA's top scorer, Diana Taurasi and top rebounder Cheryl Ford deadlocked with 31.0 PRA averages. Taurasi's 14 point output against Chicago on Sunday snapped a streak of seven straight games where she scored 21 points or better. Ford was already having a career year, but over the past week she has been simply dominant, averaging 19.3 ppg and 13.8 rpg over her last four games. She currently leads the WNBA with nine double-doubles.

Lauren Jackson returns to the top five on the strength of some solid performances over the past week, highlighted by a 28 point, 14 rebound outing last Wednesday against Phoenix. Jackson is always a threat to have a great game, but she still is not consistently getting enough shots for my taste. In her last two games Jackson has attempted only 15 shots combined, which makes it hard to put up big scoring numbers even if you are connecting on .553 of your shots like Jackson. However she also gets to the free throw line and is a solid rebounder, which combines to make her one of the league's best PRA's with an average of 29.6.

The top two picks in the 2006 draft are neck and neck for the fifth spot, with the Mercury's Cappie Pondexter just barely edging out Minnesota's Seimone Augustus with respective PRA averages of 28.3 and 28.2, respectively. How close are they? Augustus is outscoring Pondexter 22.8 to 21.9, but Pondexter inches ahead in assists, with 2.7 apg compared to Augustus' 1.6 apg average. Both are averaging an identical 3.8 rpg. Pondexter has not shown any signs of slowing down her scoring pace, as still has reached double figures in all but the first game of her WNBA career. Augustus ranks behind only Taurasi in the league scoring race, with a 22.8 ppg average, and has scored 15 points or more in all but one game this season. As discussed last week, a very high percentage of her PRA consists of her scoring, so she should move up the rankings if she can add some more rebounds (3.8 rpg) and assists (1.6 apg) to her stat ledger.

WNBA.com Daily Expert Pick

Thurday, June 29th Seimone Augustus Minnesota at Sacramento

Friday, June 30th Lisa Leslie Los Angeles vs. Phoenix

Saturday, July 1st Lauren Jackson Seattle vs. Minnesota

Sunday, July 2nd Cappie Pondexter Phoenix vs. Washington

Monday, July 3rd Lisa Leslie Los Angeles vs. San Antonio

Wednesday, July 5th Seimone Augustus Minnesota vs. Washington

Last week’s expert picks:
My entry is on the comeback trail, moving up from 206th to 129th, in the 97th percentile. Hopefully another good week will have me back in the top 100 by the time we reach the All-Star break. This week I had four straight days of 30+ PRAs, capped off by Sunday's Lisa Leslie career-high/5,000th career point outing. I was also fortunate to take advantage of two games fromCheryl Ford where she combined for 46 points and 33 rebounds. Moving forward, my lineup this week will be more of the same, except I will have Cappie Pondexter in my lineup for the first time on Sunday. This may be a bad omen, but she will be the 13th different player I've had in my lineup this season.

The Guru's Picks So Far (As of 6/29)
Lisa Leslie: 5 times
Tamika Catchings: 5 times
Lauren Jackson: 4 times
Nykesha Sales: 4 times
Seimone Augustus: 3 times
Cheryl Ford: 3 times
Diana Taurasi: 3 times
Alana Beard, Yolanda Griffith, Vickie Johnson, Deanna Nolan, Sheryl Swoopes,
Vickie Johnson, Yolanda Griffith: Once

No Rest For The Weary
With this year's shorter schedule, more games and more travel are packed into a shorter amount of time. You've probably noticed that your favorite team is playing twice in three days. Common sense might dictate that tired players aren't going to play to their full capabilities. But are there any players who are not that highly affected by fatigue? Or are there any who actaully improve their numbers when they play on little or no rest? Thanks to WNBA.com's new and extensive statistics page, we can look up how any player in the WNBA performs on one day's rest. Later in the season when we have more games to quantify, we will take a look at the best performers in the second half of back-to-back games. But for now here are the WNBA's best PRA's on one day's rest. You'll see many of the same names in the regular top 10, but definitely not in the same order.