A remarkable pair of WNBA teams will face each other at 3:30 p.m. ET Tuesday afternoon in a battle of unbeatens unseen in any major sport when the 12-0 Minnesota Lynx play the 11-0 Los Angeles Sparks at the Staples Center.
The two teams have already passed the 2012 Lynx, who began their season 10-0, for the best start in WNBA history. But across sports, this is singular: No two teams have ever played after starting the season with more than 10 wins without a loss or tie in the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL or MLS.
“It's exciting for fans of this league, and a chance to get some more eyeballs on this league,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said in a conference call Monday. “We're doing something that no league in professional sports has done — having two teams that are undefeated — no losses, no ties, at this point in the season. So that's something external that's great for the league.”
The two teams come by their records honestly — the underlying metrics reveal a pair of squads that haven't relied on luck. Only five of the 12 wins by Minnesota have come by single digits, with another five by more than 15 points. The Sparks, meanwhile, won each of their first two games by 30 apiece, and have both 23 and 24-point victories on their resume as well.
The Lynx are scoring 110 points per 100 possessions, second in the league, while allowing 93 points per game, best in the league. A devastating combination of Maya Moore (26.2 player efficiency rating) and Sylvia Fowles (24.1 PER) vastly improved their efficiency after last summer's midseason trade that brought Fowles to Minnesota. This reflects the danger of giving Reeve the kind of deep roster Minnesota boasts along with a full preseason to coach them.
“Championships are not won or lost today," Moore said Monday. "But what a great scenario, for these two teams to go out and play and really make a statement with their performances. I'm excited to play in the game, just as a competitor.”
As for the Sparks, their offensive rating of 113.6 points per 100 possessions is not only best in the league this year, it would set the league's all-time record for offensive efficiency. And their defense, at 93.3 points per 100 possessions, is right there with Minnesota's.
While Candace Parker, the reigning WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week, is getting all the MVP talk early, it is actually Nneka Ogwumike who leads the Sparks in PER at 33.2, with an astonishing true shooting percentage of 74.9%.
“A lot of people, when they bring this up, they aren't asking me about where I'm getting shots, how I'm getting shots,” Ogwumike said of her historic accuracy so far. “A lot of people are just focused on, 'you're making a lot of baskets'. Because of how we play, the chemistry we've developed with each other over the past few years, and then with coach the past couple of years. It's creating great opportunities for me with this team.”
Opportunities like an unexpected pair of showdowns with a chance to make a statement about who is the true favorite in the WNBA. The two teams play each other Tuesday in Los Angeles, then again three days later in a Friday night game at the Target Center. The latter is in primetime, while the first meeting on Tuesday was scheduled as an afternoon affair, convenient for schools, long before both teams began their unprecedented runs.
Both teams insist they won't alter their preparations for the game, which makes sense — both seasons come under the heading of not broken. That doesn't mean everybody isn't excited for the fun ahead.
“Wherever the game is, whenever it's played, we're just excited for the competition, the chance to play a quality team like L.A.,” Reeve said. “I wish I could roll back the clock, put my tennis shoes on and get out there. I'm envious of my players.”
