WNBA All-Star Game: Takeaways from the biggest spectacle in league history

PHOENIX — Cheryl Reeve anticipated finding it difficult to concentrate on coaching Team USA in the 2024 All-Star Game because of everything else going on around the team’s training camp in Phoenix.

“It is one of the greatest spectacles, I think, in the history of our league, this game today,” Reeve said ahead of Team USA’s 117-109 loss to Team WNBA here at Footprint Center on Saturday night. “The excitement that exists not only for the national team, but for some players on the All-Star team representing the W, I think all of that sort of converging at once, I think makes it incredibly exciting.”

That was felt throughout the city, including a jam-packed WNBA Live hours before tip-off of the sold-out game. Celebrities and icons including Aubrey Plaza, Jason Sudeikis, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, Sheryl Swoopes, Shannon Sharpe and Paige Bueckers littered the sidelines. Players appeared at activations back-to-back over the last 48 hours with brands, surprising long lines of fans and signing autographs.

Reeve, a legendary coach who led the Minnesota Lynx to four WNBA championships in seven years, said she was “thrilled that I get a chance to have a great seat” to the spectacle. But the storylines and distractions certainly took some toll on Team USA, which held its first training camp here a week ahead of the Paris Olympics with the Games more on their minds than an All-Star celebration finally worthy of the league’s talent.

She was also right in that the storylines to come out of the contest are aplenty.

Team USA is going to be just fine

Team USA didn’t look sharp, turning the ball over 14 times largely with sloppy passes. And defensively, giving up 117 points won’t get the job done in Paris. There’s no reason to panic about it, though.

“We have work to do,” Reeve said. “And we know that.”

This is still a fresh group that’s barely been together as the current iteration. Team USA held only two practices on back-to-back days and a walk-through shootaround Saturday morning before the game. That’s not a lot of time for a group that has never played together.

“It’s not time to panic, but it is time to learn and grow,” two-time Olympic gold medalist Breanna Stewart said.

The national team isn’t the same 12 every time, even if some players are well versed playing with each other on prior teams. Reeve said muscle memory of players used to being with their WNBA teams they were playing with days ago impacted their adjustments.

“You’re not going to be able to instinctively get to those places if it’s different than what you’ve been doing,” Reeve said. “And so we’ve got to very, very quickly replace some things that you’re doing for other teams.”

Defensively, Stewart said the team needs to be on the same page and were not on Saturday night. That’s fixable with time and space from the hectic nature of an All-Star weekend where players have responsibilities to their brand partnerships as well as the league. The team will head to London next for an exhibition against Germany before the opening of the Games.

“I’ve been saying it since I got here, and Phoenix has been a great host, but I can’t wait to get to London where we can really kind of focus in,” Stewart, one of the team’s new guards with A’ja Wilson, said. “Just because the other things, the commitments that you have and things that are going on during All-Star weekend, it’s hard to balance [with] what we’re doing getting ready for Olympics. Now we can solely be focused on USA.”

Team WNBA was motivated and featured the next 12 best players in the nation right now. They’re better than many nations the U.S. will face in international competition.

“This is our first test and I’m glad we got tested. This is something that we needed too, same as a couple years ago,” Wilson said.

Team USA also lost to Team WNBA in 2021, and still went on to win its seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal.

“It was the same four years prior [when] Team WNBA beat Team USA,” Caitlin Clark, the future of the team, said. “They were perfectly fine in the Olympics. If anything, it shows how good this league is.”

Arike Ogunbowale came alive thanks to Cheryl Miller

Arike Ogunbowale said Team WNBA “got wind” that Team USA were going to come out hard and they matched it to the tune of a one-possession first half score. She didn’t get wind, or any indication, she’d be called out by head coach Chery Miller at halftime.

“I wasn’t expecting her to say my name,” Ogunbowale said. “She was talking about the team and she pointed at me. And I was like, all right. She just told me to take a deep breath and play my game.”

The Wings guard’s game is destroying Team USA. She scored a game-high 26 en route to MVP in the 2021 Team WNBA win over Team USA. This time around, she scored 21 in the third quarter alone after a scoreless first half and finished with 34 to secure her second All-Star Game MVP award. Ogunbowale nearly couldn’t miss from 3-point range, shooting 5-of-7 to bring fans in Phoenix to their feet any time she pulled up from deep.

“As a scorer, when you see a couple go down like that, you just have all the confidence in the world. The basket looks really big,” Clark said. “I know exactly how she felt. She was just in the zone. And really they played good defense, multiple times. There’s just nothing you can do in those situations where she’s making step-back 3s, one-legged floaters, things like that. You literally cannot guard that.”

Clark said she admires Ogunbowale as one of the best one-vs.-one players in the league. She’s made four All-Stars in her six-year career during which only five have been played. The 34 points are an All-Star record, breaking the 31 scored by Jewell Loyd last year. Stewart matched that mark with 31 for Team USA alongside 10 rebounds.

Ogunbowale is not on the national team because she removed her name, citing “politics” in decision making from the committee over talent. She is the fourth player in league history to win multiple WNBA All-Star awards, joining Lisa Leslie (three times), Maya Moore (three) and Swin Cash (twice).

The rookies continued their stellar seasons with historic All-Star rookie marks. Clark played the most minutes on Team WNBA in the first half and kept the ball moving well to keep it close. She finished with 10 assists, one shy of the record set by Sue Bird in 2017.

“That’s Sue’s record. Can’t take that from her. That’s my homie,” Clark said.

It is, however, a record for a rookie in the All-Star Game. And it showcased the importance of chemistry and time since a few of her passes near the paint appeared to surprise the bigs. She fed Fever teammate Aliyah Boston for one and hit fellow rookie Angel Reese with her 10th of the night. Late in the game, she appeared to wave off taking the ball out of Ogunbowale’s hands as the star took Team USA one-on-one.

Reese played largely in the second half with 12 points and 11 rebounds. It was the first double-double by a rookie in WNBA All-Star history. She had four points and seven rebounds in 3:23 of the first half.

Allisha Gray is not a rookie, but she also neared a record mark. Her five steals were one shy of the six set by Ruthie Bolton in 2001. It was a continuation of the Atlanta Dream guard’s

Give us USA-WNBA All-Star every year

It wasn’t only the most competitive WNBA All-Star Game in history, it might be the most of any sport at minimum this year. The game felt like real stakes throughout and though there were fun little moments — Clark smiling off a 3-point attempt she felt she should have taken, or Kelsey Mitchell and Kelsey Plum tying up — it was a quality game.

But don’t expect it every year without major changes to the WNBA schedule.

“When it’s not an Olympic year, I don’t want to play defense,” Wilson said in a humorous back-and-forth with Stewart.

Wilson and Stewart agreed that the current format doesn’t allow for a serious All-Star Game because teams play up until the night before the Orange Carpet opens the festivities and leave for games a day or two later in a standard year. Stewart said an actual break in the condensed schedule might allow for a more competitive game.

That’s unlikely. Earlier in the day, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league is looking at a 44-game schedule next season because there’s not an Olympic or World Cup to schedule around. The league is playing its second season of 40 games and the collective bargaining agreement allows for up to 44. The footprint of the season needs to expand later for it to work. It can’t go earlier because of the NCAA tournament finishing the first week of April and the draft a week later. It’s already a tight squeeze.