Sun hand Dream fifth straight loss
Atlanta rookie star Carter leaves with ankle injury
Alyssa Thomas scored 21 points, Jasmine Thomas had 15 points and seven assists and the Connecticut Sun beat the Atlanta Dream 93-82 on Monday night.
Jasmine Thomas and Alyssa Thomas combined to score 26 points in the first half as Connecticut built a 56-46 lead. The Sun put it away in the third quarter by holding the Dream to 15 points.
The Dream lost guard Chennedy Carter in the first quarter with an ankle injury. Atlanta’s shining rookie was averaging 19.4 points per game, but was scoreless in three minutes before getting hurt.
Dewanna Bonner scored 12 points for Connecticut (2-6), and grabbed nine rebounds to move into 20th on the WNBA career list.
Shekinna Stricklen scored 18 points — all on 3-pointers in the first half — for Atlanta (2-6), which has lost five straight. Stricklen scored 12 of Atlanta’s first 14 points by making all four of her 3-point attempts in the first quarter. Courtney Williams added 12 points against her former team.
Mercury 91, wings 79: Skylar Digginssmith scored 26 points with seven assists, Brittney Griner and Brianna Turner each had double-doubles as Phoenix beat Dallas. Griner had 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocks, and Turner added 13 points and 11 boards for Phoenix (5-3). Diggins-smith made all 10 of her free throws, and also had five rebounds for the Mercury, who were missing star Diana Taurasi. The league’s all-time leading scorer injured her lower back in Saturday’s loss to Seattle in the fourth quarter. An MRI showed no structural damage. Arike Ogunbowale scored 22 points for Dallas (3-5), which has lost four of five. Ogunbowale, who entered averaging 20.1 points per game, has scored at least 15 points in 19 straight games. Allisha Gray added 17 points and Satou Sabally had 15. The Wings shot 37 percent from the field. all good: There have been no positive tests for coronavirus since the initial round of testing when the players arrived in Florida. The players and staff are tested daily, and while the results have been good for the league there have been at least two inconclusive positive tests that forced two players to miss games. Those players later tested negative, keeping the COVID-19 cases at zero.