Episode 43 - A WNBA Title Could Be Clinched at 12:30 in the Afternoon

Cold Open and Episode 43 Rundown

Caitlin: The reporting has been that this has been in conversations for months now. And so that almost makes, there’s reporters who are like, oh, this has been a topic of discussion. I’m like, that doesn’t make it better. That actually makes it worse. No, it makes it worse. Hi, I’m Caitlin.

Alex: Hi, I’m Alex.

Caitlin: And this is Raising the Game, a women’s sports podcast covering primetime performers, the business behind the athletes and leagues, and what the growth of women’s sports means for the next generation of women’s athletes.

Alex: Episode 43, we have so much to cover. We are live watching. Yes, we are currently live watching this game five.

Caitlin: So if we get a little distracted, just know that’s why.

Alex: Yeah, that’s why. We’re going to talk game three, game four. All-WNBA team announcements were finally made.

Caitlin: On this past Saturday. We have kind of the rest of the playoffs, the rest of the finals, I should say, for the WNBA. More arena controversy to discuss. And then NWSL.

Alex: Yeah, we have decision day.

Caitlin: Right? Final picture.

Alex: Still not clear. It’s a big decision for the eighth spot.

Caitlin: Almost anybody at this point. So we’re gonna get into that, and then we definitely have some headlines that I think we’re gonna crack open a little bit more. Just a few where I think it’s worth having a little extra discussion on them.

Alex: Yeah, subscribe, follow, click the buttons. All the buttons that we like, the good feel buttons, the dopamine buttons.

Caitlin: Feel good buttons. Yeah, hit those ones, hit those ones. And we really appreciate it.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: All right. You want to get into favorite thing?

Favorite Things: Patio Sports and a High School Soccer Final

Alex: Yeah. I was thinking about this earlier. I don’t want to say sitting on our patio watching sports again, but that was fun this weekend. We got some furniture moved down there and got to sit down there and watch some sports. A soccer match. I think the big thing is I’m getting really excited for this decision day and being able to watch like three games at once to see who ends up in that eighth seed. We’re going to talk about all the scenarios, but it’s going to be wild.

Caitlin: Yeah, it’s gonna be really fun. So, update for our listeners. I don’t know if I would call this a favorite thing. By last week, right, we recorded, we had to move the date because my soccer team that I coach, high school soccer team, was playing in a semifinal game where I lost my voice, still recovering, as you may be able to tell. And then we played in a final on Wednesday last week. We unfortunately lost in the final one to zero. Very hard-fought game. We lost to the current number one ranked team in the state. It was always going to be a big battle for us, but I think our girls rose to the test and just came up short. We actually had a couple of what we think were missed calls. We had a goal called back on what we think was a blown call, based on all the video evidence that we have.

Alex: No VAR in the high school soccer league.

Caitlin: And I don’t think they’re coming after me for that. But I think my favorite thing is just this team that I got to coach this year, this group of girls. Coaches that I get to coach with, obviously, but each year the mix is a little different. We’ve had a few years recently where it’s been a little bit more challenging to show up the way we want to as coaches, because that mix was just maybe not quite the right mix. And this crew was a great mix. Super fun, probably some of the best team chemistry I have witnessed in a while, but also extremely good soccer. Very good at executing on the field. Really fun to watch. Super athletic. It was a great crew. That’s my favorite thing. Bummer to lose, but at some point.

Alex: There’s very few teams that end the season on a win.

Caitlin: Exactly. Love the fight. Love that team.

WNBA Finals Game Six Scheduled for 12:30 Eastern

Alex: All right, let’s do headlines. Game six of the WNBA finals will be played at 12:30 Eastern. I believe that’s a nine thirty Pacific, at State Farm Arena on Thursday.

Caitlin: So here we are again. There were scheduling conflicts, right, between the Dream and the Atlanta Hawks, the NBA team in Atlanta. For those who may not know, the Dream want to continue to use State Farm Arena. They sold that out game three or four, which is awesome. They typically play their home games in Gateway Center. We’ve kind of been over all of this. So I think this is where I do want to comment a little bit more. Rationally, I understand, and I think people do need to appreciate, the logistics of adjusting these schedules is not just moving a meeting on your work calendar. There is a lot that goes into making these changes. Now, it’s not impossible, because it happens actually probably more regularly than we realize, for weather situations, for other scheduling conflicts that come up.

Alex: Some leagues just do it because the game is going to be better played at a different time.

Caitlin: Right. The NFL as an example flexes games all the time. The reason why I say that, I’m not comparing the WNBA to the NFL before the comments get wild. What I’m saying is it is possible to move games around close to the day that they’re going to be played. As a women’s sports fan, I think it is egregious to play a game where either team is potentially winning the championship at 12:30 Eastern Daylight Time. Nine thirty. Folks are literally just starting work when this game tips off. It is egregious. There had to have been other ways to work this out, right? And I’ve seen all kinds of arguments all over the internet today. But to me, I was talking to Alex about this earlier, I definitely had a lot more emotion I think then. The thing that from my perspective, this is a symptom of the longer standing way that women’s sports have been treated, right? Like, I hate to say this, but we shouldn’t be surprised by this.

Alex: Yeah, we shouldn’t. This shouldn’t be surprising. Unfortunate.

Caitlin: Yeah. But it’s a symptom of sort of the necessity of being secondary in the two leagues, you know, within the NBA and the WNBA. And it’s frankly a part of, you know, we’ve alluded to it many times, but the structure through which our society is built. We are always going to prioritize the men, even if it’s an early regular season game for a team that barely has a shot at the playoffs, over a championship clinching game for two franchises who have never won before, who deserve to be center stage in that moment. It’s just disappointing.

Alex: I think, we were talking from like the business side of things. The NBA loves to talk about how the WNBA doesn’t make any money, but it’s like, this is your investment. You’ve invested money into this. The biggest game of the year for you. You’re making this choice and you’re deciding this is not, this is not Cathy Engelbert at this point. This is Adam Silver being like, no, I’m good with this. Like I’m good with just, this is my investment, but we’re going to say, screw it. Play at noon.

Caitlin: Exactly right. And we’ve talked before on our podcast about how, you know, we keep seeing this rise in viewership and attendance and all of these things. And largely, you can actually point to instances like this and say, there are things that have been happening far before now that have prevented women from getting the viewership, from getting the attendance numbers that they could have been garnering, because of choices made by leaders. Right? Because they’re thinking that there’s no business opportunity there. Well, it’s been proven there’s business opportunity. Now they have proven it and you’re still standing on top of it.

Indiana Fever Front Office: Amber Cox Fired, Kelly Krauskopf Resigns

Caitlin: All right, I told you we’re going to go a little deeper on a couple of headlines. We’ll probably go deeper on this.

Alex: Yes. Indiana Fever GM Amber Cox is fired and team president Kelly Krauskopf resigns as the Fever look to make changes amidst negative sentiment coming from players and agents. I can get the German names. The German names are easy.

Caitlin: Yes. Wow. What a week for the, it actually was just like a Friday. The Friday was a little exciting for the Indiana Fever. So, Kelly Krauskopf, her resignation was announced, and in the midst of this there was an article from The Athletic that was released that essentially had sources, agents of players, basically saying this is how my player has to handle when we go play the Fever. Comments about how players who actually can get signed in free agency, who have multiple offers, are not going to go to the Fever. They’re saying no. And players who don’t have a lot of options are the ones who the Fever are going to sign. I’ll get to why that’s important. I mean, if you know sports, you know why that’s important, but I’ll explain it a little bit. And then we hear that Amber Cox has been fired. And Amber Cox, you might remember her name, but just a couple of weeks ago when they did exit interviews with the Indiana Fever after they lost in the playoffs to the Aces, she was the one who made the comments that the allegations against Fever fans are not based in reality, and that she thinks people need to stop picking on them, essentially. This was met with a lot of pushback from players, current and former players in the league. Her own superstar, Kelsey Mitchell, said in her interview that she was having issues with fans. Aliyah Boston has had issues with fans, who also plays for the Fever. And we had talked about the number of times that we’re watching a game just this season and something has to be paused for some sort of fan behavior. Yeah, it has always been a Fever game.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: So anyways, heads had to roll, apparently. And who knows exactly the timing of this, but my suspicion here, going back to the free agency thing, is that the Fever want to win a championship, just like any professional sports team. They know that they need to build a stronger roster. They were probably starting to make calls. They’re probably starting to have conversations with Kelsey Mitchell about whether or not she’s staying. And my gut tells me that Amber Cox’s firing is because they are hearing a lot, a lot, a lot of no’s from top talent across the league.

Alex: And if you think you’re on a time crunch with Caitlin Clark’s contract, then you got to do it now. Right. But they may have set themselves back so far they can’t.

Caitlin: Yeah. Now we are made to believe that Kelly Krauskopf’s resignation was planned, within the article from the Indy sports that I read regarding these moves. It sounds like those conversations started during the FIBA break. And she actually shared with reporters, I think at that time, that she was having to disable her social media because of fans. I’m like, this is an older white woman who’s now getting dragged because of this fan base.

Alex: I think it was planned at 9 a.m. and executed at 10.

Caitlin: Probably, and we’ll just call it resignation now. She has a long tenure with both the Pacers and the Fever organization. She had done a lot of work with them in the past. Gone back, gone over, worked with the Fever, gone back to the Pacers, went back to the Fever when Caitlin Clark came in as a rookie. There’s a lot of moving parts going on. I think in my mind there’s two questions immediately that come up in my head. One, will Stephanie White still have a job there? Right? And two, who’s gonna come play for you?

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: So, remains to be seen. We’ll have a whole episode on it.

Alex: Yeah, I mean, multiple conversations. Interesting thing is everyone’s like, they were saying Stephanie White’s gonna stay, and it’s like, well, when a new GM comes in. Maybe not.

Caitlin: Maybe not, right? And it’s case in point, when Cox and Krauskopf came in two years ago, or three years ago now, the first thing they did was fire the head coach that was there. In Clark’s rookie season. So it’s pretty common.

NWSL High Impact Player Rule Opened Up to All Players

Alex: The NWSL and NWSLPA agreed to remove restrictive qualifications from the high impact player rule.

Caitlin: Wow, this takes us back to like early days episodes here. This is also known as the Rodman rule. So if you see that or hear that, it’s referring to this high impact player rule. This is essentially the rule that allows teams to sign players up to a million dollars beyond their current salary cap. So this allows you to kind of sign some of those superstar players. But back when it was created, there was a ton of really restrictive and prescriptive criteria that a player would have to meet. A lot of it had to do with marketability, essentially, and or national team play. And the NWSLPA at the time had pushed back on this rule saying this is not equitable. This should be eligible for any player that a team wants to give this money to. And so essentially they have made this change. So beginning January 1st of 2027, all players are eligible to be designated as a high impact player, as long as their pay accounts for 12% of the total team salary cap. I would assume more. I don’t know that you would want a player that has more than 12% of your cap.

Alex: It’s hard to get squished there.

Caitlin: Yeah, exactly. So that is great. I think what we can expect from this is, does this also help attract more of the international talent over to the NWSL.

Sparks Sale, World Cup Bids, and Equal FIFA Prep Funding

Alex: Seven of the eight NWSL playoff teams have clinched. The final spot will be determined on decision day.

Caitlin: As Alex mentioned in our kind of kickoff, that’s coming up this weekend. We’ll go through all of it here. Everything is kind of still up for grabs. So there’s that eighth playoff spot that you mentioned, seeding, so battle for home field advantage in the playoffs. And then even the Shield.

Alex: The Shield goes down to the last day.

Caitlin: Yep.

Alex: The owner of the Los Angeles Sparks, Mark Walter, is attempting to sell the team and practice facility for $700 million. He’s gonna need some money for whatever investigation is going on there.

Caitlin: I’m sorry, but this feels like a crazy amount of money. The largest sale to date, you may remember, but probably not, has been $300 million paid by Tilman Fertitta, I don’t know how to pronounce it, for the Connecticut Sun, to move them to Houston and become the Houston Comets next season. So 700 million. I get you’re throwing in the practice facility, which I think is, yeah, for the Sparks. So maybe that’s part of it. They are historically a legendary franchise, they just haven’t had the greatest success in the last couple of years. So that’s kind of why I’m having some skepticism about it. But to be fair, very marketable brand, very, I think, desirable area to be in, right? All of those things. So we’ll see. We’ll see if Mark Walter can offload all his assets except for hopefully the PWHL.

Alex: Portland, Chicago make bids for 2031 Women’s World Cup.

Caitlin: Yeah, we’ll see how this plays out. I was unable to find more detail on it prior to recording today, but I think this is something that we’ll talk about in our run up to the 2027 World Cup. We know the US and Canada, Mexico, whomever, kind of put in a bid to be a host. I know some of the drawbacks for certain stadiums with NWSL, or even any stadium, like football stadiums in the states, is the turf. That was the whole thing with the men’s World Cup. You have to have grass to play FIFA sanctioned games. So we’ll see how that goes. I know that’s a problem in Portland at a minimum.

Alex: FIFA have announced that every nation qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup will receive $2.5 million in preparation funding.

Caitlin: This is great to see. This matches the amount allocated to each men’s team in the 2026 tournament. This is the first time that both men’s and women’s teams have gotten the same amount of preparation funding. This kind of funding goes towards travel, accommodation, things as they’re doing their preparatory games, trainings, things like that. Other resources that they might need as they prepare. So awesome to see FIFA start to elevate the level so that we’re seeing kind of equitable resources for both the men’s and women’s side.

All-WNBA First and Second Team, and How the Voting Works

Alex: All right, WNBA. We’ve got our All-WNBA teams that were announced, like Caitlin said, on Saturday. Do you want me to read these off? Do you want to go through the players one by one?

Caitlin: No, I was thinking, let’s read the teams and then if you have thoughts overall. I kind of organized mine into like.

Alex: I have thoughts on every player, but I don’t need to go into that in depth.

Caitlin: Well, do you have overall themes though? Because I have thoughts on every player too, but I don’t need to talk about every single player on this list.

Alex: Yeah, let’s read through. First team here: Olivia Miles, A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Mitchell, Caitlin Clark, and Breanna Stewart. Do you want me to go second team right away? All right. So we got Angel Reese, Shakira Austin, Rhyne Howard, Paige Bueckers, and Jackie Young.

Caitlin: Okay. I’m going to talk a little bit about the process for this before we get into our thoughts, because I do think that in a lot of the discourse I’ve seen about who should be on which team and who’s deserving and who’s not, we’re losing a little bit sight of the process that comes up with these teams. So the process is this. A 56 member panel of national sports writers and broadcasters vote. They instituted positionless voting a while back, but basically it means like we don’t care what positions these players play, we’re just looking for the best players.

Alex: Which we had talked about.

Caitlin: Kind of our picks last year, and we had, or last episode.

Alex: Last year feels like a year ago.

Caitlin: Last episode. And we were kind of playing with that positional piece. And so to me some of the, I guess, differences make sense here if you’re just going off of players, right? Each voter selects a total of 10 players. Of those 10, the top five, so they prioritize the list, the top five get five points, and then the next five get three points. And then those points are totaled per player that’s voted on, and then the totals are added up and then they’re stacked, right? Any tie, I learned, in points results in expansion of the teams. So they don’t have any kind of tie breaker, which explains the All-Rookie team. So we were wondering about that last time. So this comes down to a points-based system. And when we go back to some of the discussions we’ve had around, when we were talking about just MVP voting, you had looked up like what are the criteria that they’re looking at. And I think there were three main categories. There’s kind of like statistical performance, there’s like the numbers. There is the team performance. And then there’s the narrative. So there’s sort of like some of the record-breaking, or like Olivia Miles as a rookie coming out, you know, links to the number one overall seed, like that’s a narrative. So when I was looking at this, and you know that everything is categorized by points just like MVP, it’s like, it depends on what these sports writers and broadcasters prioritize. What part of that three piece criteria might they have a bias towards that swings one player above another? Because in my mind, this is a very good list of 10 players. There’s one in my mind very obvious snub, which I’ll get to. But having to decide, I don’t actually know how you necessarily decide with some of these players between first and second team.

Alex: It kind of feels like to me, their main criteria is scoring.

Caitlin: I would agree.

Alex: For the most part. Offensive statistics. This is almost like these were the 10 that were voted for for MVP. Like it almost goes down the list of MVP, right? Which then again goes back to the stats, which, I think when we did talk about that, the stats part is mostly scoring and offensive stats, and not necessarily like you’re a massive defensive talent or anything like that. It’s hard to win MVP like that, right?

Caitlin: Right, right. I do also wonder how much the players care about the difference between first and second team All-WNBA. I think that fans, in particular online fans, seem to care way more about that.

Alex: Now, maybe they do. I don’t know the players. You’re one of ten out of a hundred.

Caitlin: Yeah, a hundred plus, right?

Snubs: Gabby Williams, the Valkyries, and Angel Reese

Caitlin: I want to just share, so first of all, I think that Gabby Williams got snubbed. At the very least, I think the Valkyries got snubbed. I know that their whole thing is strength in numbers. The idea that not a single player on that team is a top 10 player in the league seems crazy to me. I just said, and I will cop to this in our last episode, that I don’t think of Gabby as being like one of the elite scorers. So going into what you just said about offensive statistics, maybe that’s why. But it still seems crazy to have the number two team basically for the entire season with zero representation on the All-WNBA team.

Alex: That was actually two of the things that I was gonna bring up here. My first snub for the first team, even though I just said that scoring is the thing, was Angel Reese. I think we saw what she did this year, and I thought that she absolutely deserved a spot on the first team. The hard part is who on that first team then do you take off?

Caitlin: Yeah.

Alex: Because I can’t. It’s very difficult. And I think you even put a note in here. It’s like anyone’s going to be mad with whoever I say to take off. Because there’s no base.

Caitlin: Exactly.

Alex: Like, Caitlin Clark had an amazing year. I don’t think you can necessarily take her off. Breanna Stewart essentially kept the Liberty in early season, right? Literally kept them in the game. And then going to my other point was just that there is nobody on the first team from this game. The two teams that made the finals have nobody in the first team.

Caitlin: Yeah. So I hear you on Angel. Angel was somebody who I had on my first team. But as I was thinking through this and actually pulling the stats, reflecting, this is a regular season award. I think the Angel that we’ve seen in these playoffs and in the last 10 or so games of the season is a very different, from like an all around game.

Alex: Yeah, that was my only.

Caitlin: She’s been great defensively all year long, like that, don’t get me wrong, but offensively she did not look the way she looks right now. And so I could understand that one. But I want to, this is, I said the thing, I wrote the note down about like there’s no shifting these players without like ruffling some feathers, right? As I was going through the stats, I’m just going to pull out some examples here. It’s like, okay, if I actually look at that top five and I look at the person with the least impressive kind of suite of statistics, like number of things that they were top 10 in, it’s Kelsey Mitchell. But then you go and look at Kelsey Mitchell’s narrative. She scored the most points that anybody’s ever scored in a WNBA season. She had however many games with 20 plus points.

Alex: Her and Caitlin had that 10 run where they averaged 51.6.

Caitlin: So again, narrative, I can understand why she’s there. Team performance, why does the Indiana Fever have two players on the first team? They were sixth in the league. And then you have the Golden State Valkyries who are second. And so, again, I’m not arguing against them. I’m just saying, it depends on what criteria, the way that it was weighted.

Alex: I think that narrative plays a way bigger role than we probably think. I think there is some narrative that the writers tend to latch onto early, and then maybe that unconsciously kind of pushes their voting a certain way sometimes.

Caitlin: I think it did for some players. I think it didn’t for others. I think Kelsey Mitchell arguably had one of the best, most impressive individual offensive seasons. She didn’t, it’s not like she was crazy in assists or anything like that. But she shot crazy percentages from three. Lots of points. Big streaks. She was like unconscious. It was like 50-50 if she was going to miss a shot, most of the time. And so narrative pushed her there. Stewie, Breanna Stewart had an MVP caliber season, but her team sucked, right? And the only reason her team made the playoffs and went as far as they did is because of Breanna Stewart. And so if Stewie had been on a Liberty team of even two years ago or three years ago.

Alex: Or had Sabrina or Satou been healthy earlier.

Caitlin: Exactly, she would have been in the MVP conversation. Just same performance, right? Same performance.

Alex: I think in a similar conversation on the second team, somebody who maybe makes first team, and of course I think they do a lot better overall, is if Paige had had Azzi healthy the entire season. I think there were a couple other injuries too, she was out for a lot of the season. I think a little bit more help there and I think she pops up onto that first team.

Caitlin: Yeah. And I mean, I can even see, there are people that are arguing she should have been on first team period. And like, again, I can see that argument. If you look at her statistical line, you kind of understand the load she had to carry for that team in a lot of ways. But then, like, again, who are you taking? A lot of people are saying Olivia Miles should be taken off. Well, I hear that, personally, y’all know I’m biased, right? I hear that and I say, I don’t think you watched enough Lynx games to understand how incredibly effective she is.

Alex: I think if you watched the last two playoff games and the last 10 games leading into the playoffs, you’d be like, this is not great. Her three quarters of the season, she was phenomenal.

Caitlin: Yeah, and there was a point in time earlier in the season where I said, Paige Bueckers, best point guard in the league.

Alex: I said that.

Caitlin: Right? And so, to me, it’s kind of fun. It’s like all of these narratives that have come up over the course of the season all kind of came into culmination here. I think the one player we haven’t talked much about is Shakira Austin. I love seeing her on this list. I think she’s worked so hard to get to where she is. She really was a force for Washington as they kind of made their playoff run. Had to be a leader there, right, in a very, very young team. I like to see her there.

Alex: I think Jackie Young is incredibly underrated. I was going to say she kind of gets overshadowed by A’ja. But she’s doing all the things that A’ja’s kind of not doing, right? And even though she’s right next to A’ja, it feels like you don’t hear about her enough.

Caitlin: Right. And then I was going through, and Rhyne Howard, it’s like, she’s not a standout offensively. I’ll put it that way. She’s great, but she’s not a standout. She’s a really high volume shooter. She has to shoot a ton to get her points, but she’s so good defensively. It’s why they keep her on the court in these playoffs, even when she’s not making buckets, because her ability to impact the defensive side of the ball is pretty unparalleled for guards. So we were waiting for this for a really, really long time. To me, overall, I think I look at the list and I’m like, yep, that tracks. Maybe a few snubs, maybe a few things you’d shift, but again, it’s like, who do you remove? And I can’t really make a great case for many of these players that are on there. I know folks get kind of upset and think like Clark should be second team or shouldn’t be first team. If you look at her statistical categories, she had arguably a great year. Again, I go to, I like the balance of individual performance and team performance, and I think some of the gaps in her game and gaps in her leadership impacted their ability to get higher in seeding and then go further in playoffs. That’s not just on her. That’s on other players on the team too.

Alex: Coaches.

Caitlin: Right? But looking at what she accomplished over the course of the year, I don’t necessarily think you can argue that she shouldn’t be All-WNBA. Her second team, again.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: You’re splitting hairs at this point in my view.

WNBA Finals Game Three and Game Four Recap

Caitlin: I’m like, I’m watching out of the corner of my eye.

Alex: I know, I’ve been watching.

Caitlin: It’s close right now, folks. I had to switch my hat up today because I was feeling like it’s bad juju to just keep wearing the Atlanta hat. I’m trying to will the Dream.

Alex: All right, how do you want to go about this?

Caitlin: We do a little recap of the two games.

Alex: Yeah. Game three, Atlanta 97, Golden State 71.

Caitlin: That’s a good old fashioned butt whooping.

Alex: Yeah. And actually, before we go into this, we prepped really hard for this today and yesterday, and then tonight we’re watching the pregame before game five and L and Renee are just stealing all of our bits. We’re like, which maybe that means they’re good bits.

Caitlin: Maybe you guys tell us.

Alex: You guys tell us.

Caitlin: All right, and then game four. We were still in Atlanta. This was a win for the Valkyries. Got it back on level, two-two in the series. 67 to 62.

Alex: Might be about that tonight, the way it’s looking.

Caitlin: I think the overall score line right now favors the Valks. Low scoring games are going to favor the Valkyries. Essentially, if they can keep their opponent to under 70 points, they win. If their opponent gets above 70 points, the Valkyries generally can’t score enough to keep up with them.

Alex: Yeah, for sure.

Caitlin: So, as you can probably tell, game five is being played right now. They’re back in Ballhalla. We talked about game six and the scheduling fiasco there, but they will be back in Atlanta regardless on Thursday. Game seven, if necessary, will be on Saturday back in Ballhalla, Halloween night.

Alex: Finals game seven sounds like it could be really fun.

Caitlin: Although the girls were asking me tonight who’s gonna take us trick-or-treating and I was like, well, we both kind of like doing that, but you might be like, I need to watch this game.

Alex: All right, so I had this laid out where we were going to talk about stat lines, and then other things, and then what we needed to focus on, the two teams as we went forward.

Caitlin: Yeah, I like that. I think I saw you had kind of more, your stat lines a little bit more game wise, game three or four.

Alex: Well, I just pulled out two stat lines that I thought were interesting. So, Angel Reese in game four, she had three double doubles in the first three games, and then she went two of 12 with four free throws for eight total points.

Caitlin: Yeah, that’s a problem.

Alex: Yeah, that’s a big problem.

Caitlin: Big problem.

Alex: Big problem. And I think, I mean, we’re going to get down to it more about turnovers. I don’t think it was necessarily just her shooting. She also lost the ball six times. She turned it over six times, which is huge in this defensive battle, where we say turnovers are going to win the game. And then I also had this, one of the stats that they stole from me earlier tonight, was Kiah Stokes has the most blocks in finals history with 13. I don’t know how many she has tonight. First player with three plus blocks in four straight finals. She has three. Oh, perfect. Thank you. It’s like they heard us. She’s having another three. So she’s just set another record kind of.

Caitlin: Yeah, she’s extending her lead on the streak here overall. And I think she was a huge part, right, of disrupting Angel in that game four. And I think she was disruptive to her in game one. Now, Angel was still able to score, but they lost, right? So, not as much. I think she’s kind of found her groove a little bit, Stokes has, as far as how to play on Angel. We said last episode, right, the Dream go as Angel and basically Jordin Canada go. And frankly, what I’ve seen in the games where the Dream have lost or where they’ve been behind, the Valkyries are really able to keep Canada out of transition, actually keep the Dream out of transition, which is basically keeping Canada out of transition. And they’re able to keep Reese from getting to her spots. Now, what I’ve seen in tonight’s game from Reese, and sorry, we’re jumping ahead a little bit, is she’s getting to the hoop, but she’s not being patient at the rim. So she’s just kind of hurtling towards the rim. And that’s what’s allowing Stokes, I think, to be in better positions to block. Whereas if Angel actually paused, gathered, which is what she was doing in game two and game three, then you at least are forcing or baiting the defender into potentially leaving their feet, and you can draw the foul. Or somebody collapses down potentially and you can kick. Like, she’s just not being patient when she gets to the rim.

Points in the Paint, Shooting Percentages, and the Turnover Battle

Caitlin: Anyways, that is not my stat line. So I had a couple things. I think in game three, Dream won the hustle categories, right? Points in the paint, they win 44 to 20. So that is Reese basically imposing her will, essentially, is what that can be viewed as. And it’s also them getting a lot of points in transition. Fast break points in that game were 13 to five for the Dream, and then points off turnovers were 22 to seven, right? I think one of your points, a little further down probably, and mine too, is a team that takes better care of the basketball will win the game, which is not rocket science, but it seems to be very pronounced in this series. The Dream shot significantly better than the Valkyries in game three. This was the best shooting of any team in this series. They shot 49% from the floor. Valkyries basically have shot around 35% from the floor the whole series. So if you can shoot better than 35% from the floor and get enough attempts, you can beat them. And then in game three, Golden State had 15 turnovers to Atlanta’s nine. That’s six possessions, right, of difference essentially when you look at it that way.

Caitlin: Now, game four. Coach Nakase’s adjustments. She changes up the starting lineup. She’s like, no, no, no. I didn’t like the fight from my team. I thought that we looked like we didn’t wanna be there. Right? I’m gonna change my starting lineup. She also did not go as deep on her rotations. She was like, I’m gonna keep players in. This is not part of their DNA, but I’m gonna let them play a little bit more. And then Kaila Charles, y’all, came to be a disruptor in that game. She was sneaking into Dream huddles, which you’re technically not allowed to do.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: She was all up in Reese’s business. Like she was pissing them off. And that is the role Angel, yeah, right. And so the Dawg contest, so to speak, got won by Golden State in that game. Now, we’ve also talked about this before, but this series comes down to possessions. Atlanta wants a lot of them. Golden State wants Atlanta to have very few possessions, right? Again, seems obvious.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Like that is the game plan, right? In this game four, Atlanta attempted 54 total shots. Do you know how many shots Golden State attempted?

Alex: How many?

Caitlin: 72.

Alex: Ooh. Hey.

Caitlin: Remember they don’t shoot great.

Alex: Yep.

Caitlin: But if you’re taking, what is that, a third more shots than your opponent, you’re likely to win.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: And lo and behold, they did. Atlanta only made 18 total field goals. 18 total shots went in the basket in game four, and that’s kind of how it’s going right now kind of. And then Atlanta had 17 turnovers. Golden State scored 16 points off of those turnovers. Literally in my notes I have Golden State’s offense isn’t good. They just disrupted it enough. Angel had a bad game. I think the positive for Atlanta in that game four was that Rhyne Howard finally looked like she had woken up. It has not seemed to continue in a meaningful way here in game five. But those were kind of my stats.

Alex: Yeah. I mean, my only other thing was, like you said, whoever turns the ball over most is going to lose. That’s been the one rule this whole series. I don’t know what turnovers are at right now, but I would expect it’s not great for the Dream in this game five based on the score. But I mean, that’s the biggest thing. Talked about Reese not shooting well. You said that’s how they go. Like they go with her. And yeah, a lot of what I have here is a lot of what you just said.

Caitlin: Well, look at that, great minds, I think, alike.

Series Themes: Imposing Your Will, Adjustments, and Tired Legs

Caitlin: If I were to think of themes overall in this series, there’s two things that come to mind outside of like the turnovers and some of the stuff we’ve talked about, right? One to me is, so far in all of these games, and it even feels like it’s gonna be true in tonight’s game, the team that imposes its will from the start. Again, might sound like a really obvious statement, but really, really great teams and really, really great coaches figure out how to adjust. They figure out how to make adjustments. We were just talking about this last week with regards to the U.S. women’s national team. Like, how do you make adjustments so that you can come out and disrupt whatever it was that was working for your opponent, not working for you.

Alex: Yeah, I think back to our team, the Lynx with the Liberty. That’s exactly what the Liberty did and we never recovered.

Caitlin: So far, I am not seeing Atlanta’s ability to make those adjustments.

Alex: We’ve got four minutes left. It’s 56 to 44.

Caitlin: I am honestly surprised that we broke 50 points. This has not been an offensive showcase in this game five. And then my second thing, and I think this is what we’re starting to see in the score lines that we’re seeing tonight, is the legs. We now are at the point in the series too, where we have to do a lot, travel back and forth. We’re kind of playing at relatively odd times. So like, well, this game that’s being played right now would have had an 8 p.m. Atlanta start time. It’s a 5 p.m. West. And then they’re going to turn around and play the goofy game on Thursday.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: And so in the culmination of a long season, the pressure is mounting. And so, who can keep that energy and that fight higher is going to be what’s going to dictate the outcome of the series.

What the Dream and the Valkyries Need to Do

Caitlin: All right. So you can go first. What do the Dream need to do?

Alex: Is it anything we haven’t talked about? I mean, they have to protect the ball better. They have to win the turnover battle. They have to get Angel Reese back to shooting like she was in game three. Right. I do think one of the points I had here was, I think that the Dream, I mean, they’re going to lose and I’ll look like an idiot, but I think the Dream are the better team just because when they win, they win big and when they lose, they lose close. So I think they can still pull it out. They’ve won in Ballhalla once. They’ve got to go home and they’re gonna have to again. They just have to, I think, like you said, win the turnover. Oh, that’s a turnover. Win the turnover battle, which that’s not going to help. And they’ve got to get Angel Reese shooting, but they also have to get, I think they have to get Angel Reese fired up again. I haven’t been able to watch a ton of this game, but I feel like she’s not had the fire like she had in game two and three.

Caitlin: Yeah, I think in this game, from what I’ve seen so far, she’s not getting the calls that she wants. And I do think some of them, well, I think some of them are potentially good no calls. I think some of them in other games, you would have gotten a call. And so that kind of throws your rhythm off when you’re like, okay, I’m expecting a foul, like how else am I supposed to get to the rim? Right? So, yeah, I agree with you on all of that. I also still think that definitely the Dream can win it, but don’t count the Valks out. You know, Coach Nakase made her adjustments in game four and they clearly have kept the foot down on the gas pedal here coming back to Ballhalla. So what do the Valks need to do to win? They’re doing it tonight so far, right? They wanna keep this to a low possession, low scoring game, right? That favors them every single time. One, because they can’t score a lot of points, right? If Atlanta turns it into a track meet, they can’t keep up. They just don’t have the offensive weapons to do that. Two, they like when their defense can get set up. They aren’t great in transition defense. They need to continue to win the offensive glass. That extends possessions for them and that, again, reduces the number of possessions that Atlanta can have. They need to get Atlanta starters in foul trouble, right? You get Atlanta starters in foul trouble, Karl Smesko does not have the depth and the experience in his bench to be able to cover for that. And so he keeps them on the floor, trusts them to play with fouls, which is fine. But you do have to adjust your defense when you do that. You can’t be as aggressive. And for a team that likes to get up in the other team’s face and create steals and all the things that Atlanta is known for, they have to pull back a little bit from that when they get into foul trouble. So you get them in foul trouble, that’s going to be good for you. And then home court advantage, baby, is back in your favor. You got to lean into Ballhalla. Those fans, they want to be raucous. They want to be there.

Alex: Dressed as like the bell. They’re the Valkyrie leaders. They’ve been there all season long.

Caitlin: Right? Like at this point, the competitiveness of this series is what I like. I think the Dream are going to lose this game. I think they’re going to turn around and be fired up. But now, it kind of feels like you go back to Ballhalla, I don’t know if I see the Valkyries losing.

Alex: They know they can do it.

Caitlin: But they know they can do it, you’re right. So, give me more, give me all the basketball.

Alex: Yeah, we have about a minute left and it’s a 13 point game.

Caitlin: I don’t want the season to end.

Alex: Unless it goes somewhere else. All right. Okay, let’s talk about something else. We could just get stuck rambling on while we watch the end of this game.

Caitlin: We’ll just hold you guys hostage here for our audio listeners while we stare at a screen.

NWSL Table, Decision Day Scenarios, and the Eighth Playoff Spot

Alex: All right, NWSL, quick rundown. Points don’t matter anymore except for these eight, nine, 10 spots. We have Gotham in first, San Diego in second, Washington in third, Kansas City in fourth, Angel City in fifth, Utah Royals in sixth, Seattle Reign in eighth, North Carolina Courage in ninth, and Denver Summit in 10th. I lied when I said points don’t matter anymore, because you get the Shield, you still get home field, but the top seven have clinched. The weekend recap, I tried to do a weekend recap in a sentence. Gotham could have locked up the Shield and didn’t. Debinha broke the assist record, I think set by Tobin Heath.

Caitlin: Correct.

Alex: And the last playoff spot is down to three teams on decision day.

Caitlin: That is correct.

Alex: All right, so here are our scenarios. Try to keep up. I’m going to try to keep up with myself, I think, on this.

Caitlin: You want me to read through any of these?

Alex: Yeah, maybe. I’ll take the eighth spot here. So here’s the thing. We have Seattle in eighth, North Carolina in ninth, Denver in tenth. Seattle plays Orlando. They’re eliminated.

Caitlin: Orlando’s eliminated.

Alex: And then we have North Carolina playing Denver.

Caitlin: Yes.

Alex: So the way that this, remember, decision day, for new listeners, is they’re playing every single game in the last game week of the NWSL season at the same exact time on the same day, on Sunday. So with this, if Seattle wins, they’re in.

Caitlin: Yep. That’s it.

Alex: If Seattle draws and North Carolina wins, North Carolina is in. If North Carolina draws or loses in this scenario, Seattle is in. So they have to win. Seattle loses and North Carolina wins, North Carolina is in. If Denver wins though, Denver is in. They tie Seattle, but have a better goal differential.

Caitlin: Okay.

Alex: So Seattle loses and Denver wins, Denver is in.

Caitlin: Denver needs a win and a Seattle loss. Yep. And they’re in. North Carolina is in with either a Seattle loss and a win by them, or a Seattle draw and a win by them. So they need a win, which is obvious because they’re playing Denver. And then Seattle just needs a win. Or they could draw and North, and Denver would win, and then they would be in.

Alex: Yes. It’s North Carolina.

Caitlin: Wild.

Alex: Yes. Wild. Well, and the crazy part is if Denver wins and Seattle loses, they have a tie in the points, but the goal differential is there for Denver.

Caitlin: Oh, Denver is something to add to your one-sentence headline. Denver is the highest-scoring team, I think, in NWSL history, with 53 goals in the season, but there’s never been a team that’s led the league in scoring and hasn’t made the playoffs.

Alex: Oh, we’ll see.

Caitlin: What I’m curious about is, can Barbra Banda be back? I think she can. I think she comes back on the 31st, but I don’t know that you’re turning around a game on the first. We’ve talked about how she obviously is a huge offensive weapon. Seattle, like, they don’t, until recently, they don’t score a ton of goals. So coming up against a potential offensive power.

Alex: Still lowest in the top 10, at least.

Caitlin: Yeah, it’s just like, that could be interesting if Orlando decides they want to play spoiler.

Alex: Yeah.

NWSL Shield Race: Gotham, San Diego, and the Goal Differential Tiebreaker

Caitlin: Okay. I’m going to talk through the Shield scenarios here. So Gotham plays Utah. San Diego plays Bay FC. These are the two teams in contention for the Shield.

Alex: Gotham and San Diego.

Caitlin: Yep. Gotham has a three point lead on San Diego. So with a Gotham win or draw, Gotham wins the Shield.

Alex: Yes.

Caitlin: But if Gotham loses and San Diego wins, then San Diego wins the Shield.

Alex: Yes.

Caitlin: Each player on the winning teams, I should say, each get a $15,000 bonus. So it’s not like they’re playing for nothing. If you look at this, just looking at the matchups, who has a better shot here?

Alex: San Diego does. I was just looking at the clinching scenario again. It was like, does it go purely on points? Goes on points, right? Points first. Okay. But they would have a lower goal differential, depending on how much they win by. Might be a little bit more complicated.

Caitlin: Oh, it might be a goal differential because they’re one goal. Okay, yes, I think you’re right. So Gotham is currently at 58 and San Diego is at 55. So if Gotham loses and San Diego wins, which is the only way San Diego clinches the Shield, they would be tied on points. First tiebreaker. Hold on. Our first tiebreaker is goal differential. Right now, Gotham has a one goal lead ahead on goal differential. So San Diego actually has to win by two.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: In order to clinch.

Alex: Yes.

Caitlin: Or San Diego would need two more goals than Gotham scores, which is why decision day is cool, because they may not, well, I assume they’re getting information, but it’s all happening at the same time.

NWSL Home Field Scenarios and Projected First Round Matchups

Alex: All right. Home field. So Gotham and San Diego have it. Washington will get it with a win or a draw. Kansas City gets it with a win, and they can get it with a draw if Angel City loses. Angel City will get home field with a win and a Washington loss, or could get it with a draw and Kansas City losing. Oh my God, keep up. Utah needs Washington, Kansas City, and Angel City to lose and then have a large goal differential swing on Kansas City. So probably not. But if the current table does hold, we’ll see Gotham versus Seattle, San Diego versus Portland, Washington versus Utah, and Kansas City versus Angel City.

Caitlin: Oh man. Wow. What a lineup. Okay, do you want to know what’s really interesting though? Let’s say Denver gets in, Seattle’s out. Do you know which team has beat Gotham every time they’ve played them this season?

Alex: Denver?

Caitlin: Denver! It’s hard to beat a team three times though. But that makes it for a pretty compelling matchup. All right, we should have told you to get a pen and write it all down so you can have your cheat sheet as you’re watching this weekend. But really fun weekend ahead in the NWSL. We will look forward to talking about who actually is in the playoffs. When we talk next week, we’ll also go over the playoff schedule, when those games can be expected, and what we’ll be watching for as we get into it. Yeah, I think we can move on to what to watch.

What to Watch: Finals Game Six, Decision Day, Golf, Volleyball, and Hockey

Alex: Yeah, all right. Well, we’re gonna have game six of the WNBA finals. Atlanta did lose game five, in Atlanta, 11:30 Central on USA. So you’re going for, you have a little lunch there on Thursday. You maybe put a couple of lunch beers in you, watch the game. And then if Atlanta wins that, we will have game seven in San Francisco, 7 p.m. on Saturday on USA. Like we just said, decision day, NWSL, every single game is on Sunday, November 1st at 4 p.m. Central. We have Seattle versus Orlando, like we said. We have North Carolina versus Denver, Gotham versus Utah, and Bay versus San Diego are those big ones we talked about. These are all set on the ESPN app, I’m assuming because they’re all playing at once, they don’t have enough other stations to throw them all onto. Except for Gotham versus Utah, I think maybe on ESPN one or two, they haven’t made a decision yet on that. Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday through Sunday, overnight on the Golf Channel. NCAA volleyball, number nine Tennessee versus number 19 Texas A&M, Friday, 6:30 on SEC Network Plus. And number 12 Purdue at number 16 Penn State, Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on Big Ten Plus.

Caitlin: That was volleyball?

Alex: Yeah, volleyball, sorry, yes. And then hockey, we have your number three Wisconsin at number nine St. Cloud State, Friday at 2 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m. on Big Ten Plus. You don’t go up too much when you beat up on an unranked opponent.

Caitlin: The Gophers are number two, is that right?

Alex: Yeah, I think so.

Caitlin: Okay, okay, well.

Setbacks: Atlanta’s Adjustments and the Scheduling Problem

Alex: Momentum and setbacks?

Caitlin: Man, I think for setbacks, I have two. I think the Dream need to figure out, they need to adjust, right? This is two games now in a row that they’ve lost. The Valkyries were able to lose two and then respond. Now you have to respond, right? Or it’s, you know, you’re done. So it was interesting in this game. I was not by the TV at the start. And I was thinking to myself, I’m like, okay, if I go back downstairs and the Dream have like nine, ten, eleven points, you know, two, three minutes into the game, this is in their favor. I came downstairs and the score was zero to two for the Valkyries, two and a half minutes into the game, and I was like, well, they lost. At that moment, because again, like I said earlier, it’s been very clear whoever can impose their will from the tip-off. We have not seen adjustments, right? So now these adjustments have to come in between. Atlanta is gonna have to impose its will on Thursday, which leads me to my other setback, which is the whole scheduling thing. I went out, I did my tangent earlier or whatever, but to me, it kind of feels like neglect. How do we not plan ahead for this? How did we not know, or not know, but not anticipate that this was going to be a possibility and clear the path? Because I don’t care how locked in you are as players. This noise is getting to you. You’re hearing it, whether or not you let it affect you. Maybe you’re really, really good at blocking this stuff out. To prepare your body to play seven hours before your normal game time, right? They have typically been playing right around, call it 7 p.m. on average.

Alex: You eat a certain way, you sleep a certain way.

Caitlin: Yeah, you have your whole thing. And so now we’re put into a position where the players are maybe, now this goes both ways. It’s not just the Dream, right? Players are a little bit off. Who knows what the fan turnout’s gonna be? It’s just like, why do we do this?

Alex: I think it’s interesting because people might push back and be like, they’re professionals. This is what they do. And it’s like, this is what they have to do because of the scenario. It’s not ideal. You’re not going to get even the best product now on the court, right? So I think that’s important. Also, they know. They know what the schedule is. Like you have Atlanta in the second round of the playoffs and they’re winning. You gotta start making some calls and getting this figured out. It feels like they’re talking about it, well, let’s see if they make it to the sixth game and then we’ll worry about it then.

Caitlin: The reporting has been that this has been in conversations for months now. And so that almost makes, there’s reporters who are like, oh, this has been a topic of discussion. I’m like, that doesn’t make it better. That actually makes it worse. Because it means that they are unwilling to make adjustments based on the options available to them, right? So, anyway.

Fever Front Office Fallout and Caitlin Clark’s Fan Base

Alex: I think my setback is the front office drama with the Fever. There’s a lot of levels to it. It’s sad for the players that have played there and had issues. It’s sad for the players that go in there and think they have to turn off their DMs before and after the game so that they don’t get chirped by shitty fans. Oh, there goes our explicit rating on the podcast.

Caitlin: It was you this time, not me.

Alex: It was me. I ran it out. It sucks for, I mean, it sucks for whoever might get drafted there, if that’s an issue that they’re still dealing with. It kind of sucks for Caitlin Clark to be this talent, knowing that the team wants to put other talent around you, and maybe they can’t get who they want to.

Caitlin: Yeah, I sorry, I have to say something there. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for her. I think what’s unfortunate with Clark, I’ve said this before, is because, and the reason I say this is because these fans, the problematic fans, did not show up until, yeah, that’s true. She does not deserve necessarily to have that attached to her, but it is attached to her, and she has not done enough. She has said some things, but she has not done enough to quell the hordes, right, to calm people down and say, this is not how we conduct ourselves. In fact, in some cases, my opinion, I think she plays into it. In certain ways, not directly, but in certain ways. My read, take it for what it’s worth.

Alex: I mean, if it is happening as much as those players are saying it, I can’t see how you’re not out there every other night saying, guys, stop.

Caitlin: Exactly. Like, these are my teammates.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: Right. So anyways, it’s a bummer to have a talent like her where you are gonna struggle to build a team around her because of this basically snowball effect that’s created with some of these fans, new fans. I’m not talking about all Fever fans. I’m talking about this new cohort of fans that clearly are disruptive to the wellbeing of her teammates, other players in the league.

Alex: And I think we said it earlier, you’re not going to fix it with a new front office in the first year.

Caitlin: Nope.

Alex: Not in the second year. Take multiple, multiple years to fix that reputation.

Caitlin: Right. And we can get into maybe in a later episode, like her contract, right? Her rookie contract. She’s likely looking to sign that epic kind of raise. They actually have a whole big problem at the Fever as far as their roster construction goes, which would be really interesting to talk about, given that they are going to be a hot topic conversation for free agency.

Momentum: Golden State, the San Diego Wave, and the Utah Royals

Alex: All right. Momentum.

Caitlin: Ooh, man, I think my momentum right now goes to the Valks. Like they’re again executing the game plan. But again, this series has gone back and forth. My other one, the first one that actually popped into my head and then I looked at the TV screen, was the San Diego Wave. Okay, so that was a team that early in the season we thought looked great. They had some really unfortunate injuries. Their Brazilian midfielder goes down at international friendlies. She had been like one of the brightest spots in the entire league to start the season. Didn’t really know what was gonna come of the Wave coming out of that international, or the World Cup break really was what that was. And they have kind of quietly, honestly, found their way, and now they are in Shield contention. And it’s actually very possible for them to win the Shield based on this last set of matchups. Now, to be fair, Gotham have, you know, puttered it away. Like they could have clinched it like so many times, it feels.

Alex: Yeah.

Caitlin: But San Diego Wave right now for me.

Alex: Yeah, I think, and I don’t know what they’re like, it’s not momentum in the sense of they’re winning or whatever. But I think the Utah Royals, this is their third year as an expansion team and they’ve got their first playoff run here. So we’ll kind of see how that goes. Snaps for them.

Caitlin: Yeah, they’ve had a hugely successful season. Definitely. We’ll see how they perform in the playoffs.

Alex: Yeah, we’ll see.

Caitlin: That can be a totally different ballgame.

Alex: We’ll see.

Caitlin: All right.

Alex: Instagram, Threads, YouTube, RTG underscore pod. Raising the Game podcast at gmail.com and rtgpod.com.

Caitlin: We’ll be back next week with a WNBA champion.

Alex: Yeah, I think so.

Caitlin: NWSL playoffs will be set.

Alex: Yup.

Caitlin: Who knows, maybe we’ll have some PWHL.

Alex: Just to throw in there too. Yeah, we’ll see.

Caitlin: We’ll see. Talk later.

Alex: Bye.

Caitlin: Bye.