Caitlin Clark, Stephanie White Situation Overshadowing WNBA’s Top Stories

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June 3, 2026June 3, 2026By Admin
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Caitlin Clark, Stephanie White Situation Overshadowing WNBA’s Top Stories

Caitlin Clark and Stephanie White spent Monday telling everyone there was nothing to it. They got into it during a timeout in Indiana’s 100-84 loss to Portland on Saturday, and by their next media availability, both wanted the subject closed. Clark said they’re two competitive people who hate to lose, that those moments come up all the time, and that plenty of people in the media “think they know a lot of things and they’re just blatantly wrong.”

Indiana Fever. Stephanie White and Caitlin Clark.
(Photo by Bobby Goddin/Getty Images)

White said she was coaching, that nobody would blink at the same exchange in a men’s game, and that the rest was social media doing what it does for clicks. Both of them are right, for whatever that’s worth.

The part of Indiana’s season worth arguing about is on the floor. The Fever came in as title contenders, and they’re sitting at 4-4, losers of two straight. They score more than anybody in the league, 91.8 a game, and Clark is at a career-high 20.1, but it hasn’t added up to much because they can’t guard anybody.

Only the Los Angeles Sparks have a worse scoring defense than Indiana’s 89.0. Opponents have caught on, and lately they’ve spent whole possessions running their offense right at Clark in isolation to see what gives. She hasn’t hidden from it.

“Right now, we’re playing like the .500 team that we are,” Clark said, “and I have to look myself in the mirror and find ways that I can make this team better.”

Whether a team this dangerous on offense can defend well enough to matter in October is the real question, and Indiana starts answering it Thursday against Atlanta in the Commissioner’s Cup opener. That’s a far better use of everyone’s attention than the past week has been.

Ballislife highlights some of the W’s top storylines that should be getting more ink.  

The Expansion Teams Were Supposed to Lose. They Forgot To.

First-year teams usually lose a lot. The 2025 Golden State Valkyries were a feel-good story just for staying competitive. Portland and Toronto have done more than that already.

Check the standings, and the Portland Fire are 6-4, the Tempo 5-4, both above .500, and neither one playing like the gimme opponents probably penciled in back in April. Portland’s win over Indiana wasn’t a fluke, either. They went up to Toronto and took the first-ever meeting between the two new clubs 99-80, with Emily Engstler going for 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks, and five Fire players reaching double figures. Bridget Carleton, the Ontario kid Portland grabbed at No. 1 in the expansion draft, mostly so Toronto couldn’t have her, chipped in 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting from three.

Alex Sarama has Portland defending like a team that’s been together far longer than a month, and the veterans and buy-low fliers his front office stockpiled are earning every minute they get. Up in Toronto, the league’s first Canadian franchise, Brittney Sykes, Marina Mabrey, and rookie Kiki Rice have put together plenty of good nights of their own. Both clubs are a real problem to play, and a league that just added two of them is better set up for the next decade than anyone has really acknowledged.

This week, Mabrey was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the first time in her career. 

Minnesota Is the Best Team in the League Without Its MVP

Napheesa Collier has not played this season as she recovers from ankle surgeries. With Lynx are 7-2 anyway, which is the best record in the league.

Courtney Williams leads the team in scoring at 17.8 points a game after being relieved of playing point guard due to drafting rookie Olivia Miles. Natasha Howard is right behind Williams at 16.6 points per game while playing center frequently, and Kayla McBride adds 13.2 PPG. Howard already had a 26-point game against the Wings this season.

Cheryl Reeve has the Lynx off to another fast start, this time without her best player. Collier will be back in the near future. With that being said, a team this good without its MVP candidate is a hard problem for the rest of the league, and it only gets harder once she returns.

The Dallas Wings’ Turnaround

Jessica Shepard made history by dropping 22 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists on May 28, the first 22-20-10 game in WNBA history, and two teammates had 20-point games the same night. For the season, Shepard averages 12.6 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 5.9 assists, leading the Wings in both rebounds and assists, a big doing a lot of initiating and playmaking. On Tuesday, Shepard was named the Western Conference Player of the Week.

A key factor has been Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 pick, who made her first career start that night and scored 22 on 9-of-15 shooting, days after a 24-point game against New York. Since moving into the lineup, she has given Dallas exactly the shooting it drafted her for. She has also made a strong defensive impact, leading the team in steals and blocks, which is not what you expect from a rookie guard.

Paige Bueckers has followed up her Rookie of the Year campaign with another hot start, leading the Wings in scoring at 18.3 per game, and has taken a clear step in her second year. Arike Ogunbowale is scoring 13.1 points per game alongside Fudd and Bueckers. Jose Fernandez has Dallas at 6-3 and winners of three straight; the team GMs voted both most improved and most fun to watch before the season.

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A Talented Rookie Class

The rookie class has been good right away, and Fudd has come on after emerging as a starter. Since Fernandez put her in the starting lineup, the No. 1 pick has scored 20 or more in back-to-back games and moved into the Rookie of the Year race. For the season, she is at 12.1 points a game on 57.1% shooting and 43.8% from three, elite efficiency for a rookie guard.

Miles is the current betting favorite to land Rookie of the Year early in the season. The No. 2 pick from TCU leads all rookies in scoring and assists, averaging 15.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.3 assists while logging the most minutes in the class. Through seven games, she became the fourth player in WNBA history to start a career with a 15-5-5 stretch, after Caitlin Clark, Candace Parker, and Sabrina Ionescu.

She had 21 points and 8 assists against Atlanta in her debut and has scored in double figures every game since. She also gave Minnesota a real point guard for the first time since Lindsay Whalen, which is part of why the Lynx kept winning without Collier.

Kiki Rice, Toronto’s first-ever draft pick, is the second-leading scorer in the class at 13.1 points per game on 55.2% shooting. Given her all-around impact, she looks like an immediate long-term cornerstone for an expansion team. Awa Fam was a late arrival after an overseas commitment and is only 19 and already giving Seattle 7.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

There are plenty of draft picks still figuring it out. The main one being Lauren Betts, the No. 4 selection out of UCLA, who is in a position to earn playing time in a group that includes Kiki Iriafen and Shakira Austin. Flau’jae Johnson is still finding her form for the Seattle Storm, Gabriela Jaquez has shown flashes in Chicago, and other talents like Raven Johnson and Madina Okot have had their moments. This is a class to keep an eye on.

Europe Is Showing Up in the W Like Never Before

The new money is changing who shows up. The CBA that the players ratified in March took the salary cap from $1.5 million to $7 million, and with two expansion rosters to fill, the WNBA now pays enough to pull Europe’s best across the Atlantic rather than the other way around. Through late May, 32 players from 15 European countries had appeared in a game, close to 15% of all player appearances and on track for the highest share in league history. The best of them did not arrive as high draft picks.

Jovana Nogić has been one of Phoenix’s better shooters, averaging 12.8 points per game and 2.7 threes per night on better than 50% 3-point shooting. Pauline Astier, undrafted out of France, is giving New York 12.0 a night on 61.2% shooting, and Toronto’s Laura Juškaitė is hitting 45.8% from deep. The league is deeper and more international than it was a year ago, and the money is why.

A’ja Wilson Is Chasing a Fifth MVP

A’ja Wilson is doing what she always does. She is averaging 24.8 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists through eight games, shooting 51.9%. She already has four MVPs, more than anyone in league history, and the last two were back-to-back. A fifth in 2026 would make her the first player ever to win three straight. The Aces are 6-3 with three titles in the last four years, and the only question left about them is where this run ranks all-time.

It is one of the great individual stretches the league has seen, and it should be celebrated more.

Just Look at the Standings

Atlanta leads the Eastern Conference at 6-2, and almost nobody outside the building has noticed. The Minnesota Lynx are out front at 7-2, and behind them, the rest of the contenders are bunched within about two games. Collier hasn’t even played yet, and the expansion teams are already in the playoff hunt. In the league’s 30th year, the field has never been this deep, and there is more worth watching than there has been in league history. 

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