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WNBA Record Watch: A'ja Wilson, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark could make more history with a month to go

cassandra negley
Women's basketball reporter
·8 min read

While players are locked into the playoff race with a WNBA championship ring on their minds, fans are intrigued by the records they could topple on the way. Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese are on pace to break records, while Indiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark is within reach of one. The single-season records for average points, rebounds and assists could all fall next month when the season concludes on Sept. 19.

Single-season totals are also likely to be broken. But the averages are more indicative of the individual and team’s success since the league fluctuated in games played over its 28-year history. The 2023 schedule was the first 40-game season, hence why a litany of records were broken last autumn.

Jewell Loyd (939 points, 254 free throws), Alyssa Thomas (316 assists, 314 defensive rebounds), A’ja Wilson (326 2-pointers) and Sabrina Ionescu (128 3-pointers) all broke all-time marks last year and were joined in the top five by their 2023 peers.

Records are made to be broken.

Wilson, who is tearing up the record book en route to one of the greatest single-season performances in WNBA history, has been on pace to set the average scoring record since Day 1 when she dropped 30 points on Phoenix. She has scored fewer than 20 points only three times this season, including in the loss to Minnesota on Wednesday.

The runaway MVP candidate needs to average 10.4 points down the back 13 games to take the record set by Taurasi in 2006. Unsurprisingly, Phoenix averaged a league-high 87.1 ppg that season and the Aces actively lead all teams at 87.8 ppg.

Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd came close to breaking the mark last year, averaging 24.7 ppg with a record-tying 12 30-point outings. Wilson has scored at least 30 in eight games this year.

Wilson is on all sorts of record watches that are truly too many to count. Her 4.88 stocks average (2.04 steals per game plus 2.85 blocks per game) is on pace to break Hall of Famer Yolanda Griffith’s record. Griffith averaged 4.5 (2.59 steals, 1.91 blocks) in 2000 for Sacramento. Brittney Griner averaged 4.41 almost entirely off of 3.79 blocks in her 2014 record-breaking season.

Reese already racked up a few rebounding records in her rookie year, including consecutive double-doubles and the franchise’s single-season rebounding record. It should be no surprise, then, that she’s on pace to re-write the WNBA record book in average rebounds.

She’s averaging as many rebounds per game as she did in her collegiate career (12.3 rpg) with a similar offensive/defensive split. She’s first in the WNBA this season with 5 offensive rebounds per game and sixth in defensive rebounds (7.3). The rookie record for offensive rebounds per game is 4.86, set by Yolanda Griffith of the Sacramento Monarchs in 1999 (141 in 29 games). The total average rebound record is 11.71, set by Tina Charles in 2010 with the Connecticut Sun.

A'ja Wilson is shattering her previous single-season career high of 9.5 rpg set last season, her second consecutive one finishing second in the category. Wilson’s 31.5% defensive rebound rate ranks first and 19.7% overall rebound rate ranks third. She sat in second with 11.96 rpg before a nine-rebound night against Minnesota dropped her to fourth.

The rebounding record has stood since 2018 when Fowles broke the mark set by then-Connecticut Sun forward Jonquel Jones (11.85) a season prior. Fowles, who averaged 10.41 in 2017, and Jones, who also averaged 11.22 in 2021, are the only players in the last decade to rank in the top 25.

Clark, another rookie earning records seemingly every week, isn’t actively on pace to break the record, but she’s toying with it as her handle of the pro level and her teammates' understanding of her blossoms. The Fever point guard’s pace quickened over the last 15 games to be in this position, though she would need to average around 14 assists per game from here on out to set the record. She’s on pace to break the rookie record of 7.5 apg set by Ticha Penicheiro in 1998 with the Sacramento Monarchs (225 assists in 30 games).

Clark averaged 6.3 assists over her first 20 games, but late in that stretch she dished out double-digit assists for the first time with 13 against Chicago. It launched a seven-game run in which she averaged 11.7 assists and reached the franchise-record mark of 13 assists in a game four separate times. In the last game before the break, she set the WNBA single-game record with 19 assists that could have been higher if easy buckets were made.

The record will be hers one day and she could come to capitalize the peak performer award for assists the same way Vandersloot did while with the Chicago Sky. Vandersloot, who signed with the Liberty in 2023, held the first through sixth spots in the record book before Clark joined the league. Clark is currently fifth and needs to average 11 per game over the final 12 games to reach second (9.09 apg) and 9.4 per game for third (8.6 apg).

Vandersloot became the first WNBA player to average double-digit assists in a season in 2020 after a video review corrected an assist in a game the month prior. The recount found that an assist credited to Allie Quigley, Vandersloot’s wife and Sky teammate, should have gone to Vandersloot.

The official numeral for the season is 9.95, but the Elias Sports Bureau said it would be rounded up to 10. The 22-game 2020 season was played in a bubble in Bradenton, Florida, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ogunbowale is used to big minutes — her 2023 season ranks seventh — but nothing like what she's playing this season. She played a season-low 33:38 early in June followed by a full 40-minute showing the following night. The veteran guard also played all 50 minutes of a two-overtime loss to Phoenix in June.

She has had to carry a large load while the Wings dealt with various injuries and played at least 39 minutes in six of 26 contests.

Everyone wants to see Clark and the team’s historic rise back to prominence. Their season-low game total (15,022) is higher than most other franchises' season-long records, including the Fever’s own previous 11,266 mark in 2000. The season-low was following the Indy 500 and Memorial Day weekend, the busiest sports weekend in Indianapolis.

The Fever’s attendance average (16,996) would break the Mystics’ mark (16,202) set in 2002. Washington regularly packed Capital One Center in the early years of the WNBA and moved to Entertainment and Sports Arena (capacity 4,200) in 2019.

The combined league attendance of 9,733 ranks third behind 1998 (10,205) and 1999 (10,869) and many teams’ average attendance is at 70% or more of their arena’s capacity. A couple of teams in the WNBA play in arenas with capacities between 3,000-5,000, negatively impacting overall numbers even though they can individually announce sellouts and record crowds.

The Aces are averaging 11,042 fans, 2,000 more than last season and approximately 92% of Michelob Ultra Arena’s listed capacity. The team announced it had sold out of season tickets ahead of the year. The Chicago Sky, led by Angel Reese, average 8,743 fans to fill approximately 84% of Wintrust Arena. And the Liberty’s second-best 12,662 fan average fills out 71% of Barclays Center.

Of all the records to fall in September, this is the least likely of the bunch. To tie the record, the Liberty need to win out their final 12 games. That’s improbable for a whole host of reasons. Not only is it difficult to rattle off 12 consecutive victories, the team might decide to rest some of its stars with the bigger picture of the franchise’s first WNBA championship in mind. Sabrina Ionescu already missed Tuesday night’s game against Dallas with neck soreness, and various other players have missed time with injury.

As with many records set by the Comets in the league’s early seasons, the win percentage might never be matched. The Liberty could break the Aces’ record for wins by eclipsing 34, their number last season to edge out New York for the No. 1 postseason seed.

One record the Liberty could move up to break is team assists per game, set at 24.28 by the 2022 Chicago Sky team and nearly broken by the Liberty (24.13) last year. The 2024 Liberty are averaging 22.89 assists per game, slightly behind the Minnesota Lynx’s 23.29.