By Doug Feinberg | The Associated Press
WNBA teams are scoring at a breakneck pace through the first week of the season with six teams reaching the 100-point mark through the first 24 games.
Only once did a team cross the century mark in the same time frame last year. Teams have scored more than 90 nine additional times this year. Teams are averaging 84 points a game so far this season — up six points from last year.
A big part of the reason why is the pace of play so far. It’s been trending upwards the past few years with WNBA franchises averaging an estimated 82.2 possessions per game this season. They were only at 77.7 last year and just over 75 in 2015.
With a shortened training camp teams have focused more on offensive schemes rather than defensive ones which has led to the eye-catching offensive numbers so far. The question on the mind of most of the league’s coaches is will it last?
Many teams are already short-handed on their rosters and with a grueling schedule that has teams playing three games a week it might be tough to keep that pace up.
“It’s going to be difficult to see this lasting right now,” Dallas Wings coach Brian Agler said.
Storm atop poll
This week’s WNBA poll:
1. Seattle (3-1): Sue Bird will be sidelined for a bit with a bone bruise in her left knee. The Storm are deep enough to weather the loss.
2. Washington (3-1): Ariel Atkins and Aerial Powers have picked up the scoring slack this season, averaging 18.8 and 18.0 points respectively.
3. Chicago (3-1): The Sky are using a balanced offense with six players averaging in double figures.
4. Minnesota (3-1): The Lynx have won three of their first four games for the ninth time in 10 years. They also will most likely get Odyssey Sims back this week once she clears quarantine.
5. Los Angeles (2-2): The Sparks are looking for more consistency on offense as they are struggling to score. The team is in the lower half of the league in scoring averaging 83.3 points.
Storm’s Stewart honored
Breanna Stewart earned player of the week honors after helping Seattle go 2-1 this week by averaging 18 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals.
