As the WNBA heads into the final third of the 2023 season, a number of players have emerged as frontrunners for the league MVP award.

Among the list of candidates once again is reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, who has helped lead a stacked Las Vegas Aces team to a 24-2 record and first place in the league standings. Ensuring she stays in Las Vegas for the near future, the Aces signed Wilson to a two-year contract extension worth $200,000 annually in June.

“A’ja Wilson is a generational talent and a huge foundational piece to our team and organization,” Aces general manager Natalie Williams said at the time. “We are thrilled to have her re-sign and be here in Las Vegas for the next two years.”

Currently, Wilson is averaging 20.7 points (fifth in the league), 9.5 rebounds (third) and 2.3 blocks (first) per game. Her scoring average is slightly up from the 19.5 points per game she averaged last year, and her rebound numbers are roughly equivalent. The forward is also averaging more blocks than she did in 2022, when she was named Defensive Player of the Year.

A'ja called & said she's hosting a BLOCK PARTY 😤@_ajawilson22 has racked up 6 BLOCKS in the 1st half for a season-high in a game!

📺 @CBSSportsNet pic.twitter.com/OZRAl5mU3A

— WNBA (@WNBA) July 30, 2023

Last month, Wilson won the ESPY for Best WNBA Player and served as an All-Star Game captain for the second year in a row, as voted on by the fans, while making her third-straight All-Star Game appearance. Just this week, the two-time WNBA MVP helped the Aces become the first team to clinch a 2023 playoff berth. At 24-2, Las Vegas is tied with the 1998 Houston Comets for the best record through 26 games in WNBA history.

It seems that one of the only voids left to fill on Wilson’s growing list of accolades is to be featured on the WNBA edition of NBA 2K. Aces teammate Kelsey Plum agrees, and admires the way Wilson handles herself as the spotlight on her and Las Vegas basketball only gets brighter.

“I appreciate A’ja because I feel like she just remains true to who she is, regardless of the circumstances,” Plum recently told WSLAM. “And a lot of things are thrown her way — professionally, personally, things like that — but she just handles it with grace. And I just admire that.”

Wilson has been the face of a team that also boasts Plum, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Candace Parker (now out indefinitely with a foot injury). Each of those players has the ability to have a breakout performance on any given night, and still, Wilson finds ways to be the best player on the best team in the league.

More than anything, Wilson sets the standard for an Aces team that is far and away the one to beat as they look to win back-to-back WNBA Championships.

The USA women's hockey team came out on top over the weekend, kicking off the four-game 2025 Rivalry Series against Canada by dominating their northern neighbors, outscoring them by an impressive 10-2 margin across the pair's first two games.

US forward Abbey Murphy emerged as a series star, scoring a natural hat trick in the team's 4-1 win in Cleveland on Thursday — the first three-goal turn by a USA player against Canada since team captain Hilary Knight did so at the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship.

"I told [Murphy], 'You set the bar pretty high,'" said Knight, who added her own hat trick to the mix in Saturday's 6-1 victory in Buffalo.

"I love how we showed up," the 36-year-old continued. "We've been working like dogs since August and to get rewarded for our work, and see situations that we need to work on."

Notably, while the USA brought their entire 2025 world championship-winning roster to the first two Rivalry Series games, Canada chose to evaluate some fresh faces while resting a number of standout veterans, including their No. 1 goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens — a fact that should temper the sting of adding two big losses to their now four-game skid against the US.

With women's hockey taking over Milan at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February, the last two 2025 Rivalry Series matchups will more likely see both sides testing their final rosters for Italy.

How to watch the final games in the 2025 Rivalry Series

Canada will welcome the USA for the last two matchups in the 2025 Rivalry Series, with the puck dropping in Edmonton, Alberta, at 9 PM ET for both the December 10th and 13th clashes.

Both games will air live on the NHL Network.

The LPGA is bringing star power to Florida this week, as a wealth of women's golf talent — and one basketball superstar — tee off at the 2025 edition of The ANNIKA.

Kicking off the event on Wednesday was the annual Pro-Am, with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark headlining the field for the second straight year.

World No. 2 golfer Nelly Korda once again joined Clark through her first nine holes, as Fever teammates Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull served as guest caddies.

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The four-day professional tournament will then tee off on Thursday, though current world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul will not be in attendance for the second year in a row.

Korda, however, will lead the charge to both defend her 2024 title and secure her first win of the 2025 LPGA season — as well as add to her full trio of trophies collected at The ANNIKA.

Four other Top-10 players will look to upend Korda's back-to-back bid, including No. 3 Miyu Yamashita, No. 6 Charley Hull, No. 9 Mao Saigo, and No. 10 Lottie Woad.

With the 2025 CMA Group Tour Championship capping the LPGA season later this month, The ANNIKA will also see golfers on the bubble — like US stars Rose Zhang and 2023 champion Lilia Vu — try to snag enough points to make the end-of-year tournament's final 60-player cut.

How to watch The ANNIKA 2025 LPGA tournament

Coverage of the fifth edition of The ANNIKA continues through Sunday, airing live on the Golf Channel.

The No. 3 UCLA Bruins rose to the occasion on Monday, looking like 2025/26 NCAA basketball championship contenders as they took down the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners 73-59 in Sacramento.

Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens made the difference for the Bruins, leading all scorers with 20 points while opposing defenses limited both UCLA center Lauren Betts and Oklahoma big Raegan Beers to single digits.

Bruins forward Angela Dugalić also put up a standout performance, coming off the bench to score 16 points and snag 15 rebounds on Monday.

"There are so many weapons that I feel like it's hard for the defense to choose what to take away," Kneepkens said ahead of Monday's matchup. "What makes this team special is that any night could be someone's night."

Monday's clash with UCLA also served as the national broadcast debut of Oklahoma freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez, with the No. 1 high school basketball recruit seeing her first Top 10 NCAA matchup as a Sooner.

Chavez had a slow start against the experienced Bruins, registering 11 points, three assists, and two rebounds across her 32 minutes on the court.

How to watch UCLA basketball this week

The heat continues for No. 3 UCLA on Thursday, when the Bruins will host the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels at 9 PM ET, airing live on ESPN.

Newly formed offseason league Project B is stocking up, with Phoenix Mercury star forward Alyssa Thomas becoming the second big-name WNBA player to sign with the overseas venture ahead of its anticipated November 2026 debut.

Thomas follows Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike in joining Project B, a traveling tournament-style competition reportedly offering players significant pay raises into the seven- and even eight-figure echelon — as well as equity stakes in the league.

Thomas will still feature in the 2026 season of Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball this January, with the launch of Project B expected to conflict with Unrivaled's third season in 2027.

With salaries reportedly topping both Unrivaled and the WNBA, Project B's funding sources came into question after Ogwumike's announcement last week.

In February, The Financial Times named Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as a league investor, though Project B co-founder Grady Burnett denied those claims to Front Office Sports last week.

However, the league is working with event partner Sela, a known subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, though Burnett was quick to qualify that "Sela is one event partner that we pay money to. We do not have any dollars coming from them."

With the first season of Project B set to field 66 players, expect more high-profile signings to continue as the new venture adds to the increasingly crowded WNBA offseason space.