We are six days away from the start of the WNBA’s FIBA Women’s World Cup break, which means two things: there will be a pause on WNBA games until September 17 from that point on, and we’ll be catching the league’s stars competing on an international stage with international bragging rights at stake. 

So, we won’t really be all that deprived of a bit of WNBA action, albeit under the guise of watching powerhouses like the United States, France, Belgium, Japan, and others compete for the cup. 

With just over a week left until that break, though, the WNBA was chock-full of moments worth reliving.

Kuier Continues to Shine for Dallas

While Jessica Shepard has been getting a ton of praise for her ascension as a star big while with the Wings this season, Kuier has been an unsung hero on defense for Dallas as they struggle to find consistent rim protection. Her defense, coupled with her capabilities as a stretch 4, has made her a very fun bench piece for head coach Jose Fernandez to plug and play. 

Against the Indiana Fever in a game crucial to Dallas’ seeding, Kuier managed to rack up seven blocks, 11 points, eight boards, and four assists. She also hit two three-pointers to boot. 

After the game, Fever head coach Stephanie White tipped her hat to Kuier and the entire Wings front court, saying, “They have great length.… They did a great job of shelling us, forcing us into a crowd, and not allowing us to see some easy, open teammates. We got to watch the film, and we got to be better.”

Dallas is projected to face off against the Minnesota Lynx in round one of the playoffs if the season ended today. However, postseason seeding is far from settled beyond perhaps the Lynx at 1 and the Golden State Valkyries at 2. If they did face Minnesota, having depth like Kuier to back up Shepard is critical against the Lynx, who boast Natasha Howard next to Napheesa Collier in their frontcourt.

Bueckers’ Perfect Game from 3-point Range

Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings

Remaining on the Dallas hype train for a moment, they finished up their weekend with a win over the last-place Seattle Storm. It was a blowout for essentially the entire contest, namely because Paige Bueckers didn’t miss from three-point range. She finished up the game with six threes and 32 total points. 18 of those points came in the 1st quarter.

Bueckers remains the tone setter for the Wings’ offense, while players like Arike Ogunbowale, Shepard, and Kuier contribute around her. With Azzi Fudd out for the year, it’s imperative that they find their offense from everywhere, and not just from three-point range. 

Still, it’s always cool to see a heater like this from Bueckers, who is looking to reach the postseason with the Wings for the first time since getting drafted last year. She has to remain as efficient as possible for the remaining stretch of games that Dallas has in front of them, and luckily for them, they have the second-easiest remaining strength of schedule in the WNBA.

Mitchell Continues to Crawl Up Leaderboard

As you might know, Las Vegas Aces superstar center A’ja Wilson is attempting to win her third straight scoring title this season. She’s at 935 points through August 24, but she has unbelievably stiff competition from Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell. She’s sitting at 967 total points scored through August 24, which means we could see two WNBA players finish up with over 1,000 points scored in a single season. 

Focusing on Mitchell, though, she continued her streak of scoring over 20 points per game this week. She’s upped her points per game average to 24.8, which is a career high. Mitchell, of course, didn’t draw too much attention to the fact that she broke Wilson’s previous record for the number of consecutive 20+ point games after the Fever’s loss to the Wings:

“But I think ultimately it just comes down, obviously, to work. But I don’t really take statistics really that serious. So a lot of this stuff is really circumstantial to me. So I [want] to get the dub, and we didn’t get that. So I think keep my focus on the right thing; keeping the main thing the main thing is important.” 

Mitchell is sneakily climbing into this year’s MVP conversation with this level of production, all of which is the best of her career.

Fiebich Returns with a Bang for New York

Leonie Fiebich #13 of the New York Liberty

While the New York Liberty have had a rough go of things this year, partially due to big injuries to Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally, they at least got some good news with the return of Fiebich to the floor ahead of the FIBA break. She immediately contributed on both ends of the floor for New York, posting 20 points, five boards, five assists, and a steal en route to a critical win against the Fever. 

Notably, she also held Clark to 2-7 shooting when she was her primary defender, per ESPN’s Alexa Phillipou. This, amid a hot scoring month for the point guard, is extremely encouraging for New York to see ahead of a potential postseason meet-up with Indiana. 

Fiebich is the kind of x-factor that a contending team like the Liberty needs to go on a deep postseason run. Wings do not grow on trees, and New York is sorely missing the length and defense that they get by plugging Fiebich back into the fold.

Reese Scores First 30-Point Performance

It was just one game, but it might be time to officially put to bed the notion that you can’t run your offense through Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese. 

The third-year star recorded the first 30-point performance of her WNBA career against the Phoenix Mercury in a win. She shot 14-21 from the field, in addition to notching 14 rebounds, four steals, and two assists. 

This is huge for a few reasons, but mainly because Atlanta is better as a unit when Reese can put together huge games on offense like this one. Obviously, they have great weapons like Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray around her. Still, one stat really proves why running some more offense through the third-year forward might be something to focus on: the Dream are 9-2 when she shoots 50 percent from the field or better this season, and just 15-11 when she does not, per CBS Sports’ Jack Maloney. 

Watching this specific game back, you see the potential for this kind of offense – the give-and-go between Reese and basically any of Atlanta’s guards, but especially players like Gray or Howard who have a lot of shooting gravity, is a great means of getting her open as a cutter. She can also use her strength in the post, which is what she did a lot of in this game. Her strengths as a ball handler also make her a threat as a bit of a quarterback keeper, to put it clunkily, as she can fake an outlet pass while running right to the paint for a shot. 

This makes Atlanta scary to face in the postseason and makes the prospect of having to defend Reese even scarier.