WNBA Power Rankings: Liberty and Lynx refuse to lose, Sky's season goes from bad to worse, 'soft' Aces fall
The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx are a combined 17-0 this season
By
Jack Maloney
•
7 min read
Courtney Vandersloot won the second championship of her career with the New York Liberty last season, and could have stayed in Brooklyn to continue chasing rings. Instead, she decided to return to Chicago, where she had spent the first 12 seasons of her career and became a Sky legend.
"I wanted to be back into my comfort zone," Vandersloot said about her decision. "I wanted to be somewhere that I had a lot of support and somewhere I felt really good on the floor and off."
Vandersloot knew that the Sky would not have as much success as the Liberty this season, but she wanted to be a starting point guard again and help mentor the next generation of Sky players, while also being close to family. In April, just before the season started, Vandersloot and her wife, former Sky player Allie Quigley, welcomed their baby girl, Jana, to the world.
"We are over the moon" Vandersloot and Quigly said. "We have been dreaming of this moment for a long time, and it's better than we could have ever imagined."
Aside from the Sky's early record, everything was going well for Vandersloot. She passed Quigley to become the franchise's all-time leading scorer on May 29, and was averaging 12 points and a team-high 6.2 assists through their first six games.
Come Saturday, she was set to start in the first WNBA game at the famed United Center when the Sky hosted the Indiana Fever -- a moment that would not have been possible if not for everything Vandersloot had done for the organization during her first tenure, including leading the Sky to their only championship in 2021.
"It's incredible for us to be able to play in an arena like this," Vandersloot said prior to stepping on the floor.
In a cruel twist, she only got to be out there for five minutes. Early in the first quarter, Vandersloot drove to the basket, took an awkward step and collapsed to the ground. She was carried off the court and later diagnosed with a torn ACL that will cost her the rest of the season.
"She's our engine, she's our captain and our leader out there," Sky coach Tyler Marsh said after the game on Saturday.
Courtney Vandersloot injury: Chicago Sky legend suffered torn ACL vs. Fever, will miss rest of 2025 season
Jack Maloney
Even at this stage of her career, there's no way to replace a player like Vandersloot, and her injury is a major blow to a Sky team that was hoping to get back to the playoffs this season, but is off to a 2-5 start.
Long-term, it's fair to wonder when, or if, we'll see the 36-year-old Vandersloot back on a WNBA court. For everyone's sake, the image of her laying on the United Center court in agony will hopefully not be the final one of her career.
Here are CBS Sports' latest WNBA Power Rankings:
WNBA Power Rankings (June 9, 2025)
| 1 |  |
| The Liberty picked up a fairly comfortable win over the Mystics in their only game this week to set a new franchise record for longest winning streak to start a season. Jonquel Jones went down with a sprained ankle in that contest, but the New York Post reported that the injury is "minimal" and she shouldn't miss extended time. Kennedy Burke, who went 4-of-4 from 3-point range against the Mystics, is now shooting 59.3% on 3.4 attempts from downtown per game. | |
| 2 |  |
| In WNBA history, there have only been eight instances of a team starting a season 9-0 or better. The Lynx have now accounted for four of them after their two wins over the Mercury and Wings this week. Napheesa Collier had 28 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks in their latest win, and continues to operate at an absurd level. As the quarter-mark of the season approaches, she has established herself as the clear MVP favorite (-400 at Caesars Sportsbook). | |
| 3 |  |
| The Storm continued their wild ride to start the season with back-to-back wins to bounce back from their three-game losing streak. After playing sparingly to start the season, No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga has grown more comfortable and taken the back-up center role. That's much to the chagrin of Li Yueru, who publicly requested a trade due to her diminishing playing time. | |
| 4 |  |
| The story in Indianapolis this week was Aari McDonald, whom signed with the Fever on an emergency hardship exception contract. She helped stabilize things while Caitlin Clark remained sidelined, and the Fever have now won two games in a row to get back to .500. McDonald showed she deserves a spot in the league, but she'll have to be released when Clark or Sophie Cunningham returns from injury. Will the Fever figure out some way to bring her back afterward? Or will another team sign her up long-term? | |
| 5 |  |
| After a frustrating week that included two defeats and concluded a grueling stretch of nine games in 18 days, Satou Sabally let off some steam by calling out WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert over the league's new 44-game schedule. Notably, Sabally said that it was "not really responsible" for Engelbert to add games to the schedule. | |
| 6 |  |
| Jordin Canada returned to action on Friday for the first time since injuring her knee during the preseason. She may want a redo on her season debut after scoring zero points and missing all seven of her shot attempts in a loss to the Sun that snapped the team's four-game winning streak. While having Canada back makes the Dream more talented overall, it also introduces another non-shooter into the mix, and it will be interesting to see how that affects this group. | |
| 7 |  |
| In Becky Hammon's first three seasons in charge of the Aces, the team only lost two games by 20-plus points. They now have two such losses in their first seven games this season after a stunning 27-point defeat to the expansion Valkyries. Hammon ripped her team as "soft" after the game. "I'm not going to coach effort," Hammon continued. "It's one thing I can't deal with." | |
| 8 |  |
| The Mystics snapped a three-game losing streak in style with a 37-point destruction of the Sun on Sunday. That was the franchise's biggest margin of victory since 2019, when, ironically, they beat the Sun by 43 points. Lottery picks Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen have both scored in double figures in their first 10 games to start their careers. They are the first rookies to achieve that feat since A'ja Wilson in 2018. | |
| 9 |  |
| Entering Saturday, the Valkyries had lost four games in a row and scored more than 80 points just once all season. So naturally they poured in 95 points in a dominant 27-point win over the Aces on national TV in by far the most surprising result of 2025 thus far. Casual fans tuning in may have thought the Aces were the expansion team, not the other way around. | |
| 10 |  |
| The Sparks seemed to be unraveling last week, but had plenty of time to regroup with only one game this week. Even better, it was against the lowly Wings and they easily took care of business to snap their three-game losing streak. Prior to that outing, coach Lynne Roberts revealed that Cameron Brink, who is working her way back from a torn ACL and meniscus, is still limited to non-contact drills and has no timeline for her return. | |
| 11 |  |
| For the second week in a row, the Sun had two games and scraped out a narrow upset win in the first one before getting destroyed a few days later. This time, they ended the Dream's four-game winning streak, then lost by 37 to the Mystics. Five of their seven losses this season have been by 20-plus points. The rest of the league combined has nine such defeats. | |
| 12 |  |
| This was a disastrous week for the Sky even though they only had one game. Five minutes into their 27-point loss to the Fever, during which they had more turnovers (21) than made shots (18), franchise icon Courtney Vandersloot collapsed on a drive to the basket and grabbed for her right knee. An MRI later revealed a torn ACL and she has been ruled out for the remainder of the season. | |
| 13 |  |
| Paige Bueckers finally cleared the concussion protocol, but missed her fourth consecutive game -- a loss to the Lynx -- anyway due to an illness; Arike Ogunbowale avoided discussing first-year coach Chris Koclanes' performance after said loss on Sunday; the Wings have lost five games in a row and sit in last place at 1-9; after one of the worst seasons in franchise history in 2024, the Wings are on pace to have an even worse record this summer. In short, things are not going well in Dallas. | |
