At this point it sounds like a broken record to say anything other than “Elena Delle Donne is the favorite to win” when discussing the WNBA MVP race. But with almost a month left in the regular season, Maya Moore continues to put pressure on Delle Donne. And nobody is surprised.
After all, this is Maya Moore’s thing. She’s earned a reputation as a closer, a player who does anything and everything it takes to help guide her team to victory. So when she bounced back from an uncharacteristic stretch of games and made a push for Elena Delle Donne’s throne, nobody batted an eye. But the relentless reigning MVP wasn’t about to stop there. She put together 11 straight games of 20 points or more and has the Lynx sitting pretty atop the Western Conference standings.
Through it all, Elena Delle Donne has managed to continue on virtually unfazed. She’s still the leading scorer in the league — at 24.3 PPG, she sits just one point per game behind Diana Taurasi’s record 25.3 PPG in 2006 — she’s still having a wildly efficient season and the Sky are still in the thick of the fight for the top playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Delle Donne’s play over the past week earned her Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors for the fourth time this season. Once again, Delle Donne tops the list, but as the season continues to near its end, look for Moore to continue to make her case to become only the second back-to-back MVP winner in league history (Cynthia Cooper in 1997, 1998).
In Sunday’s nationally-televised game against the Phoenix Mercury all eyes were rightly on Delle Donne. She’s been the face of the league this season, and a showdown against Brittney Griner and the Mercury made for must-see television. Then, in the second quarter Delle Donne rolled her ankle and fell to the floor in pain. After the training staff re-taped her ankle and put her through extensive tests, Delle Donne was cleared to return. Running on adrenaline, she hit a career-high five three-pointers and scored 33 points in the win. Overall, her play this week was just par for the course. She averaged 23 points in three games and hit 17/21 free throws, adding to her league-best 95.3 FT%.
Nothing Maya Moore does is a surprise at this point. She continues to make her case for why she should take home WNBA MVP honors at the end of the season. The reigning MVP is far and away the best challenger to Delle Donne at this point in the season. As she works to keep the Lynx atop the Western Conference standings, her continued brilliance could make the home stretch quite interesting.
The 2012 WNBA MVP has looked solid — if not dominant — all season for New York. She has been the catalyst on the block for a Liberty team that boasts the best defensive rating in the entire league at 92.4. Her play has earned her numerous Player of the Week awards and recently earned her Player of the Month honors for July. A case could be made for Charles to take home MVP honors, especially if she continues to lead the way for the best team in the Eastern Conference so far this season.
Brittney Griner’s numbers over this past week were astounding. She already has a sizeable lead in the total blocks category, but through three games last week she averaged 5.3 blocks per game and became the Mercury’s all-time leader with 279 in 76 games, passing Diana Taurasi. She’s been efficient and effective on both ends of the floor and will continue to be vital to Phoenix’s success as they look to challenge Minnesota for the top seed in the west.
Candace Parker has been the player most would point to when discussing the Sparks’ improved play as of late. However, Nneka Ogwumike has been just as important. She erupted for 26 points in the Sparks’ blowout win over Tulsa on August 6 and had 18 her next time out. Ogwumike — the 2013 WNBA Rookie of the Year — is the player who started to get the Sparks moving in the right direction. When she returned from injury, it seemed to set the tone for what they were looking to do once Parker returned to the fold.
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