{"id":138928,"date":"2025-05-11T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T23:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=138928"},"modified":"2025-05-11T19:04:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T23:04:00","slug":"key-takeaways-wnba-preseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/11\/key-takeaways-wnba-preseason\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways From WNBA Preseason So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the WNBA season around the corner, teams across the league have begun their preseason. Preseason is important for several reasons, the main one being that some teams, such as the Las Vegas Aces,<\/a> want to improve on last year’s results. If the Aces can make small adjustments, they could compete for the championship again this year.<\/p>\n

Preseason for every franchise is about performance and fitness levels instead of results, as some players haven’t played for a while. There have been some intriguing talking points so far. Here’s what we’ve learned from the recent preseason games.<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways From WNBA Preseason So Far<\/h2>\n

The Las Vegas Aces Could Have A Great WNBA Season<\/h3>\n

The Las Vegas Aces won both of their preseason games against the Phoenix Mercury and Dallas Wings, with several players performing well. Jackie Young<\/a> played well against the Dallas Wings on May 2. Her confidence should skyrocket after she finished with a game-high 28 points, including eight threes<\/a>. Undrafted guard Deja Kelly <\/a>surprised a few when she scored 14 points off the bench against the Phoenix Mercury on May 6. Jewell Loyd<\/a> seems to have fit in seamlessly with her teammates, while there are no stats that show how much energy Tiffany Mitchell<\/a>\u00a0brings to the team. Becky Hammon’s side should not go under the radar, as they can beat any team in the WNBA on their day.<\/p>\n

Promising Signs For The Indiana Fever<\/h3>\n

The Indiana Fever gave it their all this preseason despite not having the services of Caitlin Clark<\/a> (quad<\/a>) until yesterday’s finale<\/a> against the Atlanta Dream. Their success without Clark will give the squad a huge boost as they know they don’t have to rely on her all the time. The Fever beat the Washington Mystics in the first preseason game and the Atlanta Dream in the second game. What stood out in both games is that they were hustling, driving for loose balls, and had tenacious defence when things didn’t click offensively. Stephanie White is implementing a new way of playing as they have added several new names to their roster, such as DeWanna Bonner<\/a>.\u00a0 If they can play this way without their best player, then they could be a force to be reckoned with next season.<\/p>\n

Paige Bueckers Did Well In Her First Game<\/h3>\n

The number 1 pick in this year’s draft had a modest 10 points in her first preseason game against the Aces. While this may seem underwhelming to fans, there are things that she did well that the stats will not show you. The Dallas Wings’ offense was at its best when Paige Bueckers<\/a> had the ball, and she only had one turnover in that game. She showed a maturity in taking care of the ball that most rookies coming into the league don’t have. What she is doing is no surprise, as she was in the spotlight for some time alongside Juju Watkins<\/a>. If Bueckers can build on this preseason, then there is no reason why she can’t win Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the WNBA season around the corner, teams across the league have begun their preseason. Preseason is important for several reasons, the main one being that some teams, such as the Las Vegas Aces, want to improve on last year’s results. If the Aces can make small adjustments, they could compete for the championship again […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5455,"featured_media":139028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,49709],"tags":[49063,50014,49659,50060,3856,4153,50116],"class_list":["post-138928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-wnba","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-deja-kelly","tag-dewanna-bonner","tag-jackie-young","tag-jewell-loyd","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-tiffany-mitchell"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138928"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139037,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138928\/revisions\/139037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}