{"id":21639,"date":"2025-08-04T05:08:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T09:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/rising-sparks-and-falling-valkyries-wnba-analysis-and-power-rankings\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T05:08:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T09:08:54","slug":"rising-sparks-and-falling-valkyries-wnba-analysis-and-power-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wnba\/rising-sparks-and-falling-valkyries-wnba-analysis-and-power-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Sparks and Falling Valkyries: WNBA Analysis and Power Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The Sparks and the Valkyries: Heading to Opposite Destinations in the WNBA<\/h2>\n\nThe Californian WNBA teams, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Golden State Valkyries, appear to be on diverging trajectories. While the Sparks are exhibiting a winning streak, the Valkyries are facing significant challenges.\n\nThe Sparks, with an 11-14 record, lead the league with an active five-game winning streak, which has allowed them to climb the rankings. On the other hand, the Valkyries (11-13) have suffered six losses in their last eight games of the month.\n\nThe Sparks&#8217; situation is strengthened by the return of a key player, while the Valkyries lament a significant loss.\n\nCameron Brink, selected at number 2 in the 2024 draft, returns to action on Tuesday against the Aces. The former Stanford star, limited to 15 games in her rookie season due to an ACL injury in June 2024, averaged 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks before the injury. Her return is even more timely considering the Sparks&#8217; good form.\n\nKelsey Plum, Dearica Hamby, Azura Stevens, and Rickea Jackson are averaging double-digit scoring figures, and Julie Allemand has established herself as the starting point guard, standing out with two games of 10 assists in the last two weeks.\n\nIn contrast, the Valkyries have lost their top scorer and rebounder, Kayla Thornton, for the rest of the season due to knee surgery. Thornton was the franchise&#8217;s first All-Star.\n\nThere is positive news for Golden State: French center Iliana Rupert joined the team last week after missing the first half of the season due to commitments abroad.\n\nThe Sparks seem more prepared for the playoffs compared to the Valkyries, a notable change from the previous month.\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WNBA Standings<\/h2>\n\n\nHere is the updated WNBA ranking:\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Minnesota Lynx (22-5)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nThe Lynx, after defeating Chicago and Las Vegas, suffered a defeat against Atlanta. Their next game is against New York.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>New York Liberty (17-8)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nThe Liberty have had an irregular performance after Jonquel Jones&#8217; return and Breanna Stewart&#8217;s absence. They are awaiting Emma Meesseman&#8217;s incorporation and preparing to face Minnesota.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Atlanta Dream (15-10)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nAtlanta rose in the rankings thanks to key victories. They await the return of Rhyne Howard.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Phoenix Mercury (16-9)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nPhoenix lost two of three games despite the return of important players.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Indiana Fever (14-12)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nWith Caitlin Clark out, Kelsey Mitchell has led the team in scoring.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Seattle Storm (16-11)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nSeattle has shown inconsistency in its performance.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Los Angeles Sparks (11-14)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nThe Sparks, with a five-game winning streak, secured an important victory against New York.\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a1.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0729%2Fr1525060_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><figcaption>Rickea Jackson (izquierda) es una de las cuatro jugadoras de las Sparks que promedian dobles figuras en anotaci\u00f3n, con Cameron Brink (derecha) lista para regresar con m\u00e1s poder ofensivo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Las Vegas Aces (13-13)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nLas Vegas, with a .500 record, had a similar week. Jewell Loyd came off the bench to score 20 points.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Washington Mystics (12-13)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nThe Mystics have lost several recent games. Rookies Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron are expected to show the impact of fatigue in the second half of the season.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Golden State Valkyries (11-13)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nThe Valkyries suffered a defeat against Connecticut after Kayla Thornton&#8217;s absence.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Dallas Wings (8-19)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nThe Wings got wins against Seattle and New York. Arike Ogunbowale has performed well.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Chicago Sky (7-18)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nChicago has extended its losing streak to five games. Angel Reese is out with an injury, and the team is facing more absences.\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>Connecticut Sun (4-21)<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\nThe Sun welcomed Marina Mabrey back, but remain at the bottom of the standings.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sparks and the Valkyries: Heading to Opposite Destinations in the WNBA The Californian WNBA teams, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Golden State Valkyries, appear to be on diverging trajectories. While the Sparks are exhibiting a winning streak, the Valkyries are facing significant challenges. The Sparks, with an 11-14 record, lead the league with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[6475,1062,2416,382],"class_list":{"0":"post-21639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-cameron-brink","9":"tag-golden-state-valkyries","10":"tag-los-angeles-sparks","11":"tag-wnba"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}