BREANNA STEWART

The WNBA once again had strong metrics as the league had its most-watched regular season in 21 years and its highest average attendance since 2018.

Breanna Stewart of New York wins AP Player of the Year award for the second straight season.

WNBA teams are scoring at near record levels thanks in strong part to a quicker pace and some impressive individual efforts.

The New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces are living up to the preseason WNBA hype and will meet for the first time with a championship on the line when they play for the Commissioner’s Cup title on Tuesday night.

Breanna Stewart scored 30 of her 42 points in the first half to help the New York Liberty beat the Indiana Fever 100-89 and set a franchise record for wins in a season.

The Las Vegas Aces are on a historic pace heading into the second half of the season.

Brittney Griner scored 18 points, including two dunks, in her return to the All-Star Game to lead Team Stewart to a 143-127 win over Team Wilson.

Brittney Griner didn’t know what to expect when the WNBA season began and how she would respond after the trauma she experienced of being incarcerated in Russia that also forced her off the court for many months.

WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier are starting a new women’s basketball league to give top players another option to play in the U.S. in the offseason once the league’s prioritization rules go into effect next year.

The New York Liberty's three-game road trip last week included multiple bus trips, two airplanes and three airports on the way from Connecticut to Las Vegas.

Brittney Griner will be starting in the WNBA All-Star Game a year after she was an honorary choice by the league while she was being detained in Russia.

Aliyah Boston of South Carolina is just the 10th player to be named a first-team AP All-American for a third time.

Courtney Vandersloot became the latest star to join the New York Liberty.

Breanna Stewart is coming to the New York Liberty.

Brittney Griner’s return to the WNBA has collided with free agency which has raised questions once again about teams chartering flights.

Brittney Griner anchored a dominant frontcourt that made the U.S. women’s basketball team the favorites in any international tournament.

Kelsey Plum scored 20 points, Chelsea Gray added 16 and the United States women routed Bosnia and Herzegovina 121-59 to break the team record for consecutive wins at the World Cup.

Top WNBA players are finding other places to compete this winter, not wanting to go back to Russia after the arrest and conviction of Brittney Griner on drug possession charges and the country's invasion of Ukraine.

Alyssa Thomas had the first triple-double in WNBA Finals history to help the Connecticut Sun stave off elimination by beating the Las Vegas Aces 105-76 in Game 3.

A’ja Wilson has earned WNBA MVP honors for the second time in her young career.

Sue Bird’s career came to an end as Chelsea Gray scored 15 of her 31 points in the fourth quarter, and the Las Vegas Aces advanced to the WNBA Finals with a 97-92 win over the Seattle Storm in Game 4 of their semifinal series.

Jackie Young sent the game in overtime with a buzzer-beating basket and then Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum hit big shots in the extra session to help the Las Vegas Aces beat the Seattle Storm 110-98 to move within a victory of advancing to the WNBA Finals.

Jewell Loyd scored 26 points, including Seattle’s final six, and the Storm edged the Las Vegas Aces 76-73 to take a 1-0 lead in the WNBA semifinals.

Sue Bird's eye for the court and knowledge of the game separates her among WNBA point guards.

Breanna Stewart had 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, Sue Bird added season highs of 18 points and 10 assists, and the Seattle Storm beat the Washington Mystics 97-84 to sweep their opening-round series.

The U.S. women’s basketball team will have a lot of new faces when the Americans play in the FIBA World Cup next month in Australia.

Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart is the first two-time winner of The Associated Press WNBA Player of the Year award.

The Las Vegas Aces have come out of the All-Star break on a roll, winning three road games and scoring more than 100 points in two of victories.

WNBA enters final month of the season with 11 of 12 teams in contention for playoff spots and five franchises within three games of each other atop the standings.

Breanna Stewart traded for her Seattle teammate Sue Bird in the WNBA All-Star draft.

Courtney Vandersloot, Kahleah Copper and Emma Meesseman will get a chance to play before their home fans as the trio was selected as reserves for the WNBA All-Star Game on July 10 in Chicago.

Kelsey Plum views her improved play this season to just having more time on the court.

Becky Hammon vowed before the season tipped off that the Las Vegas Aces would be shooting more 3-poitners this year.

Liberty coach Sandy Brondello was on her way to morning shootaround when she heard the news that Russia had extended Brittney Griner’s pre-trial detention another 30 days.

As WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner approaches the three-month mark of her detention in Russia, she has no clear prospect of release.

Sue Bird officially re-signed with the Seattle Storm, her only WNBA team, in what is expected to be her final season.

Jonquel Jones is no stranger to winning Associated Press WNBA awards.

The WNBA enters the final week of the regular season with many playoff positions still to be decided as well as the final postseason berth.

The WNBA playoff chase may come down to the final day of the regular season on Sept. 19.

President Joe Biden has honored the 2020 WNBA champions Seattle Storm at the White House.

Breanna Stewart scored 15 of her 17 points in the first quarter and the Seattle Storm routed the Connecticut Sun 79-57 to win the inaugural WNBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Becky Hammon can’t wait for the time when it’s normal for women to interview for head coaching positions in the NBA and their gender isn’t the story.

Brittney Griner had 15 points and 12 rebounds to help the U.S. beat Serbia 79-59 to advance to the gold medal game of the Olympics.

Wake up.

Breanna Stewart scored 20 of her 23 points in the first half to help the U.S. beat Australia 79-55 on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

Kevin Durant and Breanna Stewart are the charter members of USA Basketball’s Achilles Comeback Club at the Tokyo Games.

The U.S. has five of the best post players in the world.

Both the U.S. Olympic team and the WNBA All-Stars expect a competitive game in the league’s showcase.

The Chicago Sky are at full strength and moving up the WNBA standings after a slow start due to injuries.

The WNBA season is only a few weeks old and there already have been five games that have decided in overtime.

The WNBA season isn’t even two weeks old and the New York Liberty have already doubled their win total from last year and are off to their best start since 2007.

The WNBA is back and celebrating its silver anniversary.

The WNBA will tip off its 25th season on Friday after an offseason that was full of player movement, including Candace Parker returning home to Chicago.

Breanna Stewart and the Seattle Storm never really got a chance to defend their 2018 championship because of key injuries. “I don’t know if any of us are thinking that way,” Stewart said after the Storm completed a three-game sweep of the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday night by setting a WNBA Finals record with a 33-point win. The 26-year-old won a second WNBA Finals MVP as a unanimous choice and was nearly unstoppable in the championship round. Bird, who turns 40 next week, has been a part of all four of the Storm championships during three decades. I just kind of start working out and see how I feel,” said Bird, who averaged 11 assists in the WNBA Finals.

Stewart scored 26 points and Seattle completed a sweep of the Las Vegas Aces with a 92-59 rout Tuesday night. It was the biggest margin of victory in WNBA Finals history. Seattle had pretty much the same core group that won the 2018 championship back for this year, led by Stewart, Bird and Jewell Loyd. Seattle has now won a record 11 games in a row in the WNBA Finals, dating to the team's first championship in 2004. She led the Dream to three WNBA Finals appearances but the team was swept in each one.

Las Vegas couldn't respond. A'ja Wilson had 20 points to lead Las Vegas while Angel McCoughtry and Emma Cannon added 17 each. The Aces led 65-64 with 3:22 left in the period before the Storm closed with a 11-3 burst. The Storm, who had 17 assists on their 18 baskets, built the lead to 13 before Las Vegas rallied to the six-point halftime deficit. ... Stewart had her fifth consecutive 20-point game in the WNBA Finals spanning back to the 2018 season.

“You impose on them it's a five-game series, even if you lose one game so what? “He trusts us and knows what we’re capable of.”The Aces feel that they have fixable problems. It was also the first finals for many of the Aces players, including Wilson and Jackie Young. Stewart had a career-high 37 points — one short of the WNBA Finals record. The biggest thing is to make them contested shots," Wilson said.

Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart (30) celebrates after the team defated the Las Vegas Aces during Game 1 of basketball's WNBA Finals Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, in Bradenton, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)BRADENTON, Fla. – The Seattle Storm's lead down to two with a quarter left, Breanna Stewart took over. The big-game player scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter and finished with 37 to help the Storm beat the Las Vegas Aces 93-80 on Friday night in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. She was a point short of the WNBA Finals record set by Angel McCoughtry. McCoughtry scored 20 points to lead Las Vegas, which was playing in the WNBA Finals for the first time since the franchise moved to the Nevada city three years ago. Eight players had reached 11 assists in a finals game before Bird's record performance.

“She knows who she is, she knows where she’s going,” said Las Vegas coach Bill Laimbeer. “I feel like I'm a more complete player now then when I first got into the league,” Wilson said in an online interview. The second team included Phoenix teammates Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith, Connecticut teammates DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas, and Minnesota's Napheesa Collier. POWER POLLThe Las Vegas Aces finished atop the AP Power Poll, a spot they held for three of the final four weeks of the season. A'ja Wilson also received votes after she led Las Vegas to the top seed in the postseason.

NEW YORK The Seattle Storm are healthy to begin the season with Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird back in the lineup and sit atop the preseason Associated Press WNBA poll. 1 in the preseason since the AP has been doing the poll. You have to go out there and play the games, said Bird, who missed last season while recovering from knee surgery. Connecticut and Washington, who met for the WNBA title last year, were sixth and seventh in the poll. The first regular season power poll will be released on Tuesday, July 28___Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg

Sue Bird has seen a lot in her storied playing career in the WNBA, overseas and the Olympics. While nothing the 39-year-old Seattle Storm guard experienced has prepared her for life in the WNBA bubble, she is making the best of the situation. The bubble is part summer camp, mixed in with the Olympic village, playing overseas and an AAU tournament with a little bit of college life thrown in, Bird said in a phone interview. Two weeks into the experiment, players and coaches have been adjusting to their temporary homes. The WNBA has gone far and beyond what I thought would happen.Even with the WNBA in the bubble, the virus is still on everyones mind.