By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA tips off the second half of its season on Tuesday night with 10 of the 13 teams playing.
One player who won’t be competing for the immediate future is Caitlin Clark, who is recovering from a right groin injury she suffered last week. Clark missed Indiana’s final game before the All-Star break with an injured right groin and pulled out of Friday night’s 3-point contest as well as Saturday’s All-Star Game.
Clark told reporters on Saturday night that she had been getting treatment during the festivities, which also took place in Indianapolis. While she is improving, Indiana coach Stephanie White said, the Fever intend to be cautious with Clark, who missed 10 games during the first half of the season with three different muscle injuries.
Players weren’t thrilled having to play so soon after the All-Star break and hope to add more of a break in the next collective bargaining agreement that they are currently negotiating with the league.
Atlanta has back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday while New York and many other teams have three games this week.
“It’s kind of the health and safety of it all,” New York’s Breanna Stewart said. “Players having time to rest and recover, but also if we want the product in the All-Star Game to be better we have to have time between games like there’s no way that you’re going to have a super competitive All-Star Game when we play Tuesday.”
New York added some reinforcements for the second half of the season, getting a commitment from Emma Meesseman to join the team once she gets her visa. The Liberty also added Stephanie Talbot, who was waived by Golden State, strengthening the Liberty’s bench. New York also got back a healthy Jonquel Jones, who missed the last month before the break to recover from a sprained ankle.
The defending champion Liberty currently are second in the standings behind Minnesota.
Strong ratings
The WNBA 3-point contest and skills challenge averaged 1.3 million viewers Friday night, making it the most watched for that event ever. The All-Star Game, which wasn’t extremely competitive with Team Collier winning 151-131 over Team Clark, drew an average of 2.2 million viewers Saturday. It was the second most watched All-Star Game, only trailing last year’s contest which drew a record 3.44 million viewers on average.
Power poll rankings
Minnesota reclaimed the top spot in the poll from Phoenix after beating the Mercury last week. Phoenix dropped one spot. New York, Atlanta and Seattle were the next three. Indiana was sixth with Las Vegas and Washington following. Golden State, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Connecticut rounded out the poll.
Player of the week
A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas had 37 points and 10 rebounds in the Aces’ lone game last week that was a 90-86 victory over Dallas. Other players receiving votes included Stewart and Los Angeles’ Dearica Hamby.
Game of the week
Phoenix at New York, Friday. Two of the top three teams in the league meet again in New York with the Liberty hoping to avenge a 15-point home loss last month.
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball