WNBA Notebook: Taurasi stands alone, Liberty prove they are championship contenders

From milestones to suspensions, the action-packed 2023 season of the WNBA continues to deliver entertainment both on and off the court.

Super teams looked super out of it, teams got heated and the pressure of the upcoming playoffs is clearly mounting as the end of the regular season creeps closer.

Here are some of the most captivating stories from around the league.

Diana Taurasi stands alone at 10,000

It's no secret that Diana Taurasi is one of the best players to ever grace women's basketball. From her days at UConn, her time in the WNBA and everything she has accomplished with Team USA, she is synonymous with greatness.

But Taurasi put herself another step ahead of the rest as she dropped 42 points to break the 10,000-point threshold against the Atlanta Dream, a season-high, and further extended her record as the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer.

Taurasi passed Tina Thompson, who had the previous record of 7,488 points, on June 18, 2017 for the most points of all time. She now stands alone by over 2,500 points as no other player in WNBA history has reached 8,000 or 9,000 points.

Taurasi is the WNBA’s all-time leader in made field goals, three-point field goals and free throws, has won five scoring titles and has led the league in three-point field goals 10 times in her career - the most by any WNBA, NBA or ABA player. She holds the record for the most 20, 30 and 40-point games in WNBA history and her 250 career 20-point regular season games are almost 100 ahead of second place Tina Charles who has 166. Her 10K special was her fourth career game with 40-plus points.

Current players who are on pace to reach 10,000 career points around the 500-game mark are Arike Ogunbowale, A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart.

New York Liberty can hang with the Aces

With only two losses heading into their matchup with the New York Liberty — a team they had beaten previously this season — the Las Vegas Aces seemed like they would continue to roll in what could be a season where they defend their championship title.

But the Liberty, who heard "super team" thrown around hundreds of times after their off-season signings, showed that when all cylinders are firing, they truly have the makeup of a championship roster.

Shooting 50 per cent from the field and 44.7 per cent from the three-point line, highlighted by 31 points from Sabrina Ionescu with 23 in the first half, the Liberty handed Las Vegas their largest loss in franchise history, and New York’s 38-point margin of victory was not only a season-high, tied for the second-largest in their franchise history.

Betnijah Laney, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot all played their part in the win contributing at least 10 points each, while Stewie added 22 on 40 per cent shooting and Jones added a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.

Alyssa Thomas is still leading the MVP race

The triple-double machine that is Alyssa Thomas has continued to roll as she earned the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award for the third time this season for her play from July 31 to Aug. 6.

Thomas averaged a triple-double with 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists per game as the Sun went 2-0 that week. Against the Lynx, Thomas became the first player in WNBA history to record 20-plus points, 15-plus rebounds and 10-plus assists in a single game as she notched 21 points, 20 rebounds and 12 assists.

The triple-double marked her fifth of the 2023 regular season and ninth in her WNBA career. Even when the Sun were upset by the Phoenix Mercury, Thomas put up 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, a near triple-double, as she, Bec Allen and Tiffany Hayes were the only players to score in double digits.

While the Liberty have taken the top spot in the east, the Sun are still third overall in the WNBA standings and with Thomas leading the charge, have a legitimate shot to make a deep playoff run as long as players like DeWanna Bonner — who left the matchup with the Mercury with a back injury — can stay healthy.

Sky and Wings get heated

Ruthy Hebard was suspended for one game without pay as she left the bench as things got physical between her teammate Dana Evans and Dallas Wings' Odyssey Sims in the third quarter, with Evans and Sims both receiving technical fouls.

Officials also ejected Wings point guard Arike Ogunbowale for unnecessary contact with a referee with just 52 seconds remaining in the game, though Ogunbowale says it was incidental contact from Courtney Williams' hard foul plus the referee walking toward her.

“So I don't know what's going on this year with the refs but that was the worst call I've ever seen in my life,” said Ogunbowale said in the game's aftermath, which the league then fined her an undisclosed amount for those comments. Williams also received an undisclosed fine for leaving the Sky's bench.

Marina Mabrey went off against her old team, scoring 32 points in the victory as Chicago completed a season sweep of Dallas, but it was Evans who was the spotlight of the game after her response to Sims.