We’re one week into the WNBA season, and there’s been little in the way of surprises. Four teams remain undefeated heading into Tuesday’s tip-offs, led by the defending league champion Las Vegas Aces and the team it beat for the title last season, the New York Liberty.
As Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark takes her lumps through the first three games of her professional career, her collegiate nemesis, Angel Reese, has impressed early in her inaugural campaign with the Chicago Sky.
Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, with Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier earning Western Conference Player of the Week honors.
WNBA Names Thomas East Player of the Week
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Thomas, an 11-year veteran for the Sun, earned WNBA’s Eastern Conference honors after averaging 16.7 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game as Connecticut began the season 3-0. It is the 10th such honor of her career.
The runner-up for WNBA Most Valuable Player laurels last season, Thomas is the WNBA’s all-time leader with nine triple-doubles in her career. She nearly averaged a triple-double last week as the Sun bested the Fever twice over their first three games.
In Sunday’s 88-84 defeat of the Fever, Thomas scored 24 points with 14 rebounds and nine assists. In doing so, she became the only player to record such a statline in league history.
For Thomas career, which has included four WNBA All-Star Game appearances, she is averaging 12.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game.
Drafted fourth overall by the Liberty in the 2014 WNBA Draft, Thomas was immediately traded to the Sun in a swap that brought legendary forward Tina Charles to New York.
Collier Honored as WNBA West Player of the Week
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Collier, in her sixth season with the Lynx, was named the top player in the Western Conference last week for the fifth time in her career. Coincidentally, two of her previous such honors were also after Week 1 of both the 2019 and 2020 season.
The WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2019, Collier was splendid in a pair of wins over the Seattle Storm. In the season opener on May 14, she scored 20 points with 12 rebounds. Three days later, she recorded 29 points with nine rebounds, six steals, five assists, and two blocks as Minnesota moved to 2-0 with a double-overtime defeat of Seattle in the Lynx home opener.
Picked sixth overall by the Lynx in the 2019 WNBA Draft, Collier is the fourth Minnesota player all-time to have won the honor five or more times. She told the Minneapolis StarTribune:
“It’s exciting. It’s my teammates. I couldn’t do anything without them. We just started and we’re already on such a high. I just want to keep going.”
Both Week 1 player of the week honorees will meet on the court this week as the Sun host the Lynx Thursday night.
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Tom Carothers is a sportswriter with more than 20 years of experience covering sports at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Still longing for the return of his Minnesota North Stars, he has a high pain tolerance as a big fan of the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Browns, and Tottenham Hotspur.
Tom is the WNBA Content Manager for Total Apex Sports. He is also well versed in covering MLB, NFL, NHL, as well as MLS and EPL.
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