WNBA power rankings: Can the Atlanta Dream regain their footing after recent skid?

We have arrived at the midpoint of the WNBA season. The regular season itself doesn’t end until Sept. 24 because of the 17-day FIBA World Cup break, but the number of game days is half over.

As a result, Tuesday is the WNBA’s midseason cutdown date, after which every player still on a 12-player roster has a contract guaranteed. Usually at this point of the season, a flurry of action occurs as teams part ways with players at the end of their rosters to create roster and cap space for better fits for the stretch run. Last year, more than half of WNBA teams waived a player within a week of the cutdown date.

This season’s cutdown date has not yet been as frenetic. That could be because teams are required to carry 12 players at all times instead of 11 as was the case under the previous collective bargaining agreement. Waiving a player means having another option ready to go almost immediately — though that can be on a seven-day contract, not a rest-of-season deal — and that is even more challenging when 180 players are already rostered with 15 franchises and 23 are on developmental contracts.

Nevertheless, if a player is unexpectedly cut over the next two days — keep an eye on the ones who haven’t been in rotations recently — don’t be surprised by the timing. This is standard practice for teams to retain flexibility during the second half of the season; it’s easier to make trades before that Aug. 2 deadline with a little more cap space, for example. And players who make it past 5 p.m. ET Tuesday without being waived can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing they’ll still have a paycheck for the next two months.

Here are this week’s power rankings:

RankTeamPrevious rank1New York42Minnesota13Las Vegas24Golden State35Dallas 66Indiana77Washington88Atlanta59Chicago910Phoenix 1011Toronto1112Portland1413Connecticut1314Seattle1215Los Angeles15

Trending up

Dallas Wings

The Wings didn’t need to make things so difficult against the Connecticut Sun, in what was something of a homecoming game for Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd in Hartford, Conn. But it’s hard to be disappointed at Dallas’ playing a close game when it allows Bueckers to take over in the fourth quarter. Let the Wings play with their food if it forces Bueckers to go supernova.

The beauty of Bueckers’ game is she reads the floor well and always makes the right play, even if that means setting up her teammates. When the moment demands it, she’s a tremendously skilled individual scorer with the bite to back up her bark. Bueckers can drive into the teeth of the defense and hit Jessica Shepard for an open free-throw jumper, but she can race off of hand-off and finish at the cup in between Leïla Lacan and Brittney Griner. In the final three minutes, Dallas’ offense was: a Bueckers layup in transition, a Bueckers and-1 jumper from the free-throw line, a Li Yueru 3, two more Bueckers free throws, a Fudd jumper and then another Bueckers trip to the foul line before Connecticut was forced to intentionally foul someone other than her.

The Wings’ second win of the week didn’t require heroics, but Bueckers still provided the theatrics.

It was 10 days earlier that Bueckers had a more impressive run in the fourth quarter and overtime against the Seattle Storm (17 points in that stretch), prompting coach Jose Fernandez to instruct his star after a late timeout to show she was the best player in the world. The win over the Sun didn’t produce the same soundbite, but the outcome from Bueckers was the same. For the season, Bueckers is averaging 6.4 fourth-quarter points on 61.8 percent shooting and 47.6 percent from beyond the arc. No matter the defensive challenges, particularly on the interior, Dallas always has a chance with Bueckers on the floor.

New York Liberty

No one needed to get back home quite like the Liberty, who lost three out of four on an eight-day West Coast swing. Back in the friendly confines of Barclays Center, New York has won its last two, though the Commissioner’s Cup victory doesn’t count toward regular-season standings or statistics. Beating the Las Vegas Aces without A’ja Wilson, and needing a fourth-quarter flurry to do so, might not have been the most inspiring performance, but a 13-point victory over the Minnesota Lynx was convincing enough.

Like her fellow UConn alum Bueckers, Breanna Stewart is also fun to watch when she reminds the world she is capable of just about anything. She made 23 of 35 field goals (66 percent) over the past two games for 61 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks, picking up another Commissioner’s Cup MVP trophy in the process — making her the only player with two.

Sabrina Ionescu finally looks healthy again. In the Cup final, she had the touch on her drives and the legs for her 3-ball. Against the Lynx, she once again was all layups and 3s and added six assists, four of them coming in the restricted area and one for a Jonquel Jones 3-pointer. The Liberty could afford to ease Ionescu in because Pauline Astier has been dynamite in her rookie season. The 24-year-old’s rim pressure and defensive ball pressure are a unique combination on New York’s roster, and she’s been hyperefficient.

The Liberty bench has had its struggles, but with the current starting lineup of Ionescu, Astier, Leonie Fiebich, Stewart and Jones taking no prisoners — plus Satou Sabally having a strong season before her concussion — there is still better depth in New York than anywhere else. The star power doesn’t hurt.

Trending down

Atlanta Dream

A five-game losing streak for Atlanta has the Dream outside the contender tier, and the return of Brionna Jones can’t come soon enough. Naz Hillmon is on a minutes restriction, and she’s been a little out of sorts coming off the bench (which is admittedly funny to say about the reigning Sixth Player of the Year). Atlanta hasn’t gotten enough from spot starters Sika Koné and Isabel Borlase. The more pressing issue seems to be Atlanta has lost its last four fourth quarters, a surprising stat for a Dream team that still has the best fourth-quarter plus-minus in the league.

Coach Karl Smesko said he believes Atlanta is playing well enough to win games, and the Dream just aren’t making shots. That’s certainly true, as they’re not hitting on 2s, 3s or free throws. Against the Washington Mystics, Atlanta didn’t have the best shot selection down the stretch, and then Hillmon committed a baffling foul down 1 with 12.5 seconds to play even though the shot clock was about to expire. In the next contest against the Golden State Valkyries, the only “mistake” was when Rhyne Howard gambled on a steal at the top of the key, and the Dream’s rush to rotate behind her created an open corner 3; that put Golden State up 5 with 1:04 to play.

The margins are pretty thin in the WNBA standings, and Atlanta is costing itself a chance at homecourt in the postseason with its latest tumble. Maybe the Dream can start making shots; the problem is, other than Jones, none of their best players has historically been a consistent shot-maker.

Rookie of the week

Alicia Flórez, Washington Mystics

(Reminder: This isn’t the best rookie of the week, rather a player who caught my eye.)

Flórez is one of the early success stories of the developmental player contracts in the new CBA. She didn’t make the original 12-player roster in Washington, but the 22-year-old impressed enough to earn a full roster spot within a month of signing, and she’s become increasingly relied upon as the Mystics have dealt with injuries to their starting backcourt of Sonia Citron and Georgia Amoore. Flórez was arguably Washington’s second-most important player in an upset win over Atlanta without Citron last week.

Flórez has great chemistry with her bigs. She worked well on give-and-gos with Shakira Austin and Kiki Iriafen and made the decisive plays in the fourth in the pick-and-roll with Iriafen. Flórez is also decisive in attacking the basket. She resembles Amoore from a distance (the ponytails and the fist pumps are similar), and she even dribbles the ball the same way, but Flórez has the size to make all the passes Amoore can’t and provides a necessary scoring threat from the perimeter, and Amoore mostly scores as a last resort. That’s especially helpful when Citron is out.

Flórez also had some nice defensive plays to close out the win, including taking a charge on Angel Reese and stonewalling Jordin Canada’s drive. The Mystics justifiably brought in Amoore during the intentional fouling portion of the contest, because Flórez’s free throws are an adventure, to put it mildly. In every other facet of the game, Flórez has been the best point guard in Washington.

Game to circle

Connecticut Sun at Minnesota Lynx

7:30 p.m. ET Monday

Cheryl Reeve has an opportunity to become the winningest coach in WNBA regular-season history, passing Mike Thibault with 380 wins. It would be surprising for Minnesota not to get the job done at home, and the Lynx haven’t lost back-to-back games all season, but Connecticut has been playing better lately with two wins in the last four games; the two losses came by a combined 7 points, 1 in overtime. Olivia Miles is questionable for this one, denying a potentially fun rookie matchup with the rapidly improving Charlisse Leger-Walker, but Dorka Juhász is at least probable to make her season debut as Minnesota gets closer to being whole on the injury front.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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