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WNBA Fantasy: Pick up Moriah Jefferson before it’s too late

Moriah Jefferson has helped steady Minnesota’s backcourt since signing with the team on May 13. (Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

We’re officially over two weeks into the WNBA season, so hopefully you’ve been getting the hang of the fantasy game by now. If you’re 2-0, congratulations! If you’re 0-2, no need to stress — there’s still plenty of time to turn your season around.

Let’s get caught up on everything you need to know from the last week in the ever-changing fantasy landscape.

Risers

These are the top risers in fantasy ranking over the past week. We’ve only included players here who were ranked a week ago, meaning they had already played a game at that point. Notably, that excludes players like DeWanna Bonner (currently ranked 15th) who returned from their overseas seasons since then.

3. Shakira Austin: 25 spots (current 46th, previous 71st)

The Mystics were willing to give up Rhyne Howard to fall back and draft Austin, so it’s no wonder they’ve been upping her playing time as she transitions to the pro game. Austin averaged 20-plus minutes in all three games this week after reaching that mark just once in her first four contests. With veteran players Elena Delle Donne and Alysha Clark continuing to sporadically miss games due to load management, you can expect the Mystics to rely upon Austin and her young energy even more as the season goes on.

Austin kicked off the week with a 20-point showing on an incredible 9-of-11 shooting, and she followed that up with two more efficient games in double figures. All told, the rookie shot over 70 percent last week while averaging nearly 15 points and seven rebounds, and she blocked more than a shot a game to boot.

2. Natisha Hiedeman: 38 spots (current 53rd, previous 91st)

Hiedeman is another player whose minutes increased this past week, despite the fact that backcourt mate Courtney Williams returned at the beginning of it. And after Tuesday’s announcement that Jasmine Thomas will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL, there may be even more minutes for the taking in Hiedeman’s near future.

Hiedeman was already the top bench producer for Connecticut prior to this week, and since then head coach Curt Miller has decided to use his bench even more. Miller has been known to ride his starters and did just that in the first two games, but if he taps into his depth this season the way he has in the most recent three games, Hiedeman may be in line for a fantasy-friendly workload.

1. Moriah Jefferson: 46 spots (current 37th, previous 83rd)

The Lynx underperformed to start the season due to a lack of ball-handling, and then signed a legitimate point guard who has immediately contributed and helped them turn their season around. Where have we heard that before?

Last year, it was Layshia Clarendon; this year, it’s Moriah Jefferson. The former Wings player has stepped into the starting point guard spot in Minnesota and paid instant dividends for Minnesota. While Cheryl Reeve’s team is still at the bottom of the standings and has a lot to figure out, the outlook looks much more promising than it did pre-Jefferson. A competitive second half against the Sky in Jefferson’s Lynx debut followed by a road win over the Sparks and a solid showing in Las Vegas have quelled the talk of a 2023 Lynx lottery pick for now.

Fallers

On the flip side of the risers, you have the fallers — those players whose rank has dropped off in the last seven days.

3. Riquna Williams: 29 spots (current 73rd, previous 44th)

It’s early enough in the season that one game can still have a big impact on a player’s rankings. That’s the culprit for Riquna Williams’ slide: Williams managed just four points in her one game of the week before sustaining another foot injury that kept her out the rest of the week.

If the Aces’ prognosis is correct, Williams won’t be returning for at least a few more weeks, so she’ll have to fill your injured reserve (IR) spot or take up a bench spot for the time being if you choose to hold onto her.

2. Jasmine Thomas: 29 spots (current 77th, previous 48th)

There is starting to be a sad theme to this list. Connecticut’s perimeter defensive stalwart was unable to return after exiting Sunday’s game against the Fever due to a knee injury in the first half. Thomas recorded just eight fantasy points in eight minutes on the court, plummeting her ranking in the process.

Fantasy owners will have to look for full-time replacements now that she’s out for the remainder of the season.

1. Myisha Hines-Allen: 32 spots (current 65th, previous 33rd)

And the theme continues. The good news in Hines-Allen’s case is that she has already returned to action after her injury. The bad news is that she still hasn’t looked quite like herself in recent games. In 11 minutes against Chicago on Sunday, the Louisville product failed to make a shot and pulled down just one rebound.

For Hines-Allen fantasy owners, it will be important to closely monitor her health and production moving forward. We’ve seen Hines-Allen put up serious numbers at her peak, but a lingering injury or other factors can quickly derail that progress.

Adds and Drops

One of the most important aspects of winning a fantasy title is attentiveness. If you want to have a shot, you’ve got to stay on top of the latest trends and news and make sure you’re fielding the best possible team at any given moment. What looked like the best combination of nine players you could put together a week or two ago may no longer be the case today.

Here, we give you the best widely-available players to consider picking up, as well as the players potentially worth cutting to free up that roster spot. Keep in mind, this may vary a little depending on your league size: A player worth rostering in a 10-team league isn’t necessarily viable in an eight-team league.

Adds

Moriah Jefferson

We’ve already discussed how Jefferson has jumpstarted the Lynx, and she’s likely available to jumpstart your fantasy team as well.

Despite averaging more than 32 minutes a game over her four games with Minnesota so far, Jefferson is still available in over 80 percent of ESPN fantasy leagues. Those minutes haven’t been empty by any stretch; she’s posting averages of 15.5 points, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals since joining the Lynx. Were it not for the one game she played for the Wings pulling her averages down, those numbers would rank 18th, 5th and 7th in the WNBA, respectively.

Go grab her while you can.

Danielle Robinson and Victoria Vivians

We’re giving you a 2-for-1 here, because these Fever teammates are putting up stats for a similar reason: volume.

In last week’s betting piece, we took a look at Indiana’s historic pace of play to start the season. Robinson and Vivians are each playing nearly 30 minutes per game over the past week, and when you see the floor that much for a team that loves to run, you’ll get plenty of opportunities to fill the stat sheet.

Vivians is owned in just 21.2 percent of ESPN leagues, while Robinson is rostered in fewer still. If you are in one of the 19.1 percent of leagues in which Jefferson is owned and you’re in need of a guard, turn to the Fever for help.

Drops

Teaira McCowan

Before ESPN entered the fold, the leading fantasy WNBA website was an obscure foreign site called Sports.ws. That site had a system in which a player’s fantasy points per minute mattered far more than their fantasy points per game.

Under that system, McCowan was and is a beast. The former No. 3 overall pick has always been extremely efficient with her minutes, and moving to Dallas has done nothing to change that. Her per-minute scoring and rebounding averages extrapolated to 30 minutes a game would essentially make her a 15/10 player.

In Dallas, however, she’s been averaging a mere 7.6 minutes per contest, and under ESPN’s scoring system, totals rule the day. McCowan is owned in over 70 percent of ESPN leagues, and until she starts consistently seeing the floor, that number is just too high.

Layshia Clarendon

This is a tough decision considering what Clarendon has been able to do when given an opportunity (and how easy of a person they are to root for). But fantasy sports, like real sports, is a harsh business, and if you’re not on a real roster, you probably shouldn’t be on a fantasy one.

Clarendon is still owned in almost half of the ESPN leagues, which is well over double the percentage of leagues owning the player who replaced Clarendon as Minnesota’s point guard. Here’s hoping she gets signed at some point this season and shows up in the “adds” section of a later version of this piece.

Fantasy performances of the week

Diana Taurasi, 43 fantasy points (May 19 vs. Dallas)

For Diana Taurasi to still be capable of putting up more fantasy points than her age is beyond impressive. The league’s all-time leading scorer became the first player aged 39 or older to ever record a 30-point game with her 31-point showing in this one.

Shockingly, this wasn’t even one of the top two performances of the day, nor was it the best in this game. More on that in a minute.

Aerial Powers, 44 fantasy points (May 19 vs. Las Vegas)

While Taurasi was draining buckets for the Mercury, Aerial Powers was a few hours up the road putting on a Vegas-worthy show of her own. After feeling under the weather and texting Michael Jordan for advice earlier in the day, Powers had the best fantasy output of her career thanks to 25 points, six boards and six assists.

In fact, Powers is the only player thus far in 2022 to post 25/6/6 in a game, and when you factor in the two blocks and three 3s, she’s just the eighth player in league history with that line.

Arike Ogunbowale, 53 fantasy points (May 19 vs. Phoenix)

Remember when Ogunbowale showed up in the “fallers” section of our last fantasy piece and we told you not to worry? If you weren’t convinced yet, surely this game provided enough reassurance.

The young Dallas star outdueled Taurasi in this epic battle, one-upping the veteran’s 31 points with 37 of her own and carrying the Wings to a 10-point win. For good measure, she dished out five assists and made all 10 of her free throws, becoming the first player in WNBA history to do both of those things in a 37-point game.

Miscellaneous fantasy stat of the week

Candace Parker didn’t quite make the cut for top fantasy performances of the week — her 41 fantasy points on Sunday were two short of Taurasi’s aforementioned May 19 total — but it’s still worth shouting out a legend in this space for what she accomplished against the Mystics.

With her 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, Parker became the first WNBA player ever with multiple regular season triple-doubles. She also joined Sheryl Swoopes and teammate Courtney Vandersloot as the only players with two of them at all, and she set a new mark for the oldest player with a triple-double at 36 years of age.

Parker has been open about contemplating retirement, so there’s a chance we are witnessing her final season. She’s proven she can still ball at a remarkably high level (the triple-double was only her second-best fantasy score of the season) so let’s enjoy the ride for however much longer we get to watch her play.

Calvin Wetzel is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering basketball and betting. He also contributes to Her Hoop Stats, CBS SportsLine and FiveThirtyEight. Follow him on Twitter at @cwetzel31.

US Tennis Stars Advance as Wimbledon Field Narrows

Italy's Jasmine Paolini celebrates her first-round win over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships
World No. 4 Jasmine Paolini fell in the second round of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships on Wednesday. (Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)

The 2025 Wimbledon Championships wrapped its second round on Thursday, with the grass court Grand Slam seeing just 15 of the tournament's 32 seeded players advance to the Friday and Saturday's third round.

A full half of the WTA's Top 10 players did not survive the week, with 2024 Wimbledon finalist and world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini joining four first-round star exits by falling to unseeded Kamilla Rakhimova in a three-set, second-round battle on Wednesday.

At the same time, unseeded fan favorites like Japan's No. 53 Naomi Osaka and England's own No. 40 Emma Raducanu secured third-round spots at the London Slam, joining top surviving contenders like No. 4 Iga Świątek and defending Wimbledon champion No. 16 Barbora Krejčíková.

Notably, a full five US players managed to move ahead, tied for the largest national contingent still standing at the tournament.

Led by 2025 Australian Open champion No. 8 Madison Keys, the US group also includes No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 12 Amanda Anisimova, as well as unseeded players No. 54 Danielle Collins and No. 55 Hailey Baptiste.

With matches against Świątek and No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, respectively, Collins and Baptiste have a tough third round ahead — though Navarro's battle against the 2024 champ Krejčíková arguably headlines Saturday's slate.

US tennis star Emma Navarro eyes a return during a 2025 Wimbledon match.
US star Emma Navarro will face 2024 champ Barbora Krejčíková in Wimbledon's Round of 32. (Rob Newell/CameraSport via Getty Images)

How to watch Wimbledon this weekend

While world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is still holding strong in the dwindling field, this year's Wimbledon play is proving that the London Slam is anyone's to take, as the grass court humbles even the sport's top stars.

Expect the twists and turns to continue as tennis's best battle for spots in Sunday's Round of 16.

Round-of-32 Wimbledon play kicks off at 6 AM ET on Friday, with live continuous coverage of the tournament airing on ESPN.

Finland Opens Women’s Euro 2025 with Upset Upset Win Over Iceland

Finland's Katariina Kosola and Emma Koivisto celebrate a goal during their opening 2025 Euro match.
Finland earned a surprise 1-0 win over Iceland in their 2025 Euro opener on Wednesday. (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

The 2025 European Championship is officially underway, as Euro action kicked off with a group-stage upset on Wednesday.

Though the 2025 UEFA tournament's opener was a sweltering affair amid a European heat wave, world No. 26 Finland prevailed, earning a 1-0 upset win over No. 14 Iceland in Group A.

Finnish winger Katariina Kosola played hero, curling in the winning goal in the match's 70th minute — just 12 minutes after Iceland midfielder Hildur Antonsdóttir picked up the competition's first red card.

"The result is important for our confidence," Kosola said after Finland's first major tournament win since the 2009 Euro. "It was the kind of goal I have been practicing a lot."

"It's terrible to lose and we feel frustrated," said Iceland head coach Thorsteinn Halldórsson. "It is an even group and we knew Finland were good, but our first half wasn't good enough."

Elsewhere, No. 16 Norway closed out Wednesday's slate on top of Group A, taking three points by defeating host No. 23 Switzerland in day's second match.

Led by captain and 2018 Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg — who pulled the match even with a second-half strike — Norway battled to a 2-1 comeback win, despite the Swiss side outshooting and out-possessing the Norwegians.

Spain jersey hang in lockers ahead of the team's 2025 Euro opening match against Portugal.
Reigning World Cup champions Spain will open their 2025 Euro account against Portugal. (Aitor Alcalde - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

How to watch this week's 2025 Euro action

Group B steals the 2025 Euro spotlight on Thursday.

While No. 13 Italy snagged a 1-0 opening win over No. 20 Belgium to kick off the day, 2023 World Cup champions and tournament favorite No. 2 Spain will face No. 22 Portugal at 3 PM ET.

Friday's Group C slate will pit No. 12 Denmark against No. 6 Sweden at 12 PM ET, before No. 3 Germany contends with No. 27 Poland at 3 PM ET.

Closing out the first group-stage matches will be arguably the toughest draw of the 2025 Euro pool.

Saturday's Group D slate features major tournament debutants No. 30 Wales against the No. 11 Netherlands at 12 PM ET, with No. 10 France taking on defending champions No. 5 England to cap the day at 3 PM ET.

Live coverage of 2025 Euro matches will air across Fox Sports platforms.

USWNT Caps Summer Friendlies with 3-0 Canada Shutout

Yazmeen Ryan, Michelle Cooper, Claire Hutton, Mandy McGlynn, and Izzy Rodriguez and the rest of the USWNT huddle after their July 2025 friendly win over Canada.
The USWNT finished the summer international window with 11 goals, conceding none, across three matches. (Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images)

The world No. 1 USWNT ruled the pitch on Wednesday night, shutting out North American rivals No. 8 Canada 3-0 to finish the international window on a high note.

Catching the Canada backline sleeping, US midfielder Sam Coffey opened the scoring at the 17-minute mark before 19-year-old Claire Hutton claimed her first-ever USWNT goal by heading in a Rose Lavelle corner kick in the game's 36th minute.

Houston Dash forward Yazmeen Ryan then padded the US tally in the waning minutes of the match, finding the back of the net just eight minutes after subbing onto the field.

Despite fielding a young roster, the US overpowered a veteran-heavy Canada side in almost every category, topping their Northern neighbors in shots, shots on target, possession, and — most notably — set pieces.

Canada ultimately couldn't match the game's mental pace or physical battle, as the USWNT scored all three goals off dead ball situations — a free kick, a corner kick, and a throw-in.

"It's not about the opponent," US head coach Emma Hayes said after the match. "It's about what we do, and I felt that was extremely dominant."

With Wednesday's contributions, the USWNT finishes the summer window with 11 goals scored across the three friendlies — and zero goals conceded.

The US now enters an extended break before reconvening for another as-yet-unannounced friendly series in October — but players will be expected to perform in the meantime.

"I said to the players in the end in the huddle, if you want to compete to win the biggest things, it's not what you do here that matters," said Hayes. "It's what you do when you go back to your club."

Seattle Storm Looks to Climb the WNBA Standings in Weekend Gauntlet

Seattle Storm star Nneka Ogwumike high-fives teammates as she's introduced before a 2025 WNBA game.
The No. 5 Seattle Storm will face No. 4 Atlanta and No. 3 New York this weekend. (Soobum Im/NBAE via Getty Images)

The 2025 WNBA regular season returns on Thursday night, with teams at the top of the league standings looking to prove their mettle against close competition across the long holiday weekend.

The No. 5 Seattle Storm have arguably the toughest weekend assignments, taking on the No. 4 Atlanta Dream on Friday before tackling the No. 3 New York Liberty on Sunday.

Four middle-of-the-pack teams will look to close in on a double-digit season win tally while the league's frontrunners strive to maintain their advantage in this weekend's slate:

  • No. 7 Las Vegas Aces vs. No. 8 Indiana Fever, Thursday at 7 PM ET (Prime): Though still without star Caitlin Clark, the Fever hope to harness their 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup victory momentum against an Aces side tied with Indiana with an 8-8 season record.
  • No. 5 Seattle Storm vs. No. 4 Atlanta Dream, Thursday at 7:30 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): Seattle will look to make strides against a strong Atlanta side while putting last Sunday's stinging 84-57 loss to up-and-comer Golden State in their rearview.
  • No. 6 Golden State Valkyries vs. No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, Saturday at 8 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): The rising Valkyries must face a Lynx side hunting redemption, as the league-leaders look to bounce back from their stifling Tuesday Commissioner's Cup upset loss.
  • No. 5 Seattle Storm vs. No. 3 New York Liberty, Sunday at 1 PM ET (CBS): With injured Liberty center Jonquel Jones still sidelined, the Seattle Storm will have a chance to steal a weekend game against the reigning champs, as New York struggles to re-find their footing.

With the 2025 WNBA All-Star break looming, early top performers must keep standards high if they want to hold the line when the season crosses the midway point.

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