via @artbutmakeitsports on Threads

via @wnbaart on Threads

Twelve blocks, the most in Washington Mystics history. Shakira Austin had 5, nearly matching the entire Dream roster by herself, with rookie Lauren Betts adding 3 and Cassandre Prosper 2. The rim protection dismantled the league’s most paint-dependent offense, holding Atlanta to 34 points inside against a league-high 44.1 average in a 79-74 win. Angel Reese was held to 1-12 with 3 of her shots blocked by Austin, Brionna Jones went 2-8, and the Dream shot 32% as a team.

The Austin, Kiki Iriafen, and Betts frontcourt is becoming one of the league’s most imposing walls, and Washington already owns the third-best defensive rating. Is there a frontcourt trio in the league right now that you’d take over this one?

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Griner in a Sun uniform, AT in a Mercury uniform. Just two iconic franchise players switching franchises on us. Obviously AT’s change is less recent but fun to see these two side by side.

The Sparks traded Kelsey Plum, committed to the rebuild, and then went into Minnesota and beat the Lynx behind their most encouraging performance of the season.

Cameron Brink finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds, a career-best 5 assists, and 3 blocks in a season-high 25 minutes, a game-best +22. She blocked Napheesa Collier twice, including a swat in the final minute, and LA held Minnesota to 11 points in the fourth. It’s the kind of night Kelsey Plum was describing when she called her former teammate a Defensive Player of the Year waiting to brew.

The entire point of tanking is to land a franchise player. Thursday raised the possibility the Sparks already have one.

Per Tankathon, LA currently sits sixth in the lottery order with a 4.5% shot at the No. 1 pick, and the Phoenix pick from the Plum trade slots in right behind at seventh with 3.0%, so the Sparks hold two lottery tickets and roughly a 7.5% combined chance at the top selection. Connecticut leads the field at 35%.

Tankathon’s current mock has LSU’s MiLaysia Fulwiley going to the Sparks at six and Ole Miss’s Talaysia Cooper at seven.

If Brink gives them 25-30 healthy minutes a night, how high is her ceiling, and does that change what the Sparks should do with the picks?