Going for the ring: Raquel Carrera and Alicia Flórez make their debut in the WNBA playoffs
The WNBA echoes in its playoffs the new generation of Spanish basketball that has been going strong. Two representatives who were part of the World Cup bronze medal as Raquel Carrera and Alicia Florez They debuted in a phase for the title of the best league in the world already in their rookie year, although with uneven luck: while the New York Liberty de Carrera surprised the Minnesota Lynx (75-91), the Washington Mystics succumbed in the first match against the favoritism of the Atlanta Dream (92-77).
The Liberty contradicted the predictions to decisively beat the regular season champions and made the home court their own in this best-of-three first-round series. Carrera, with sporadic minutes in her first year in the WNBA, spent 2 minutes on the court recording a steal. The interior of Valencia Basket 24 years He has spent an average of 6.5 minutes on the floor in the regular season in 24 games, registering 1.7 points and 1.2 rebounds.
A spectacular performance by a veteran like Breanna Stewart With 34 points and 12 rebounds in 38 minutes, he catapulted the New York team, champion of 2024, being the only one that has disturbed the hegemony of the Las Vegas Aces of A’ja Wilsonwith three titles since 2022.
Leonie Fiebinch scored 16 points and Sabrina Ionescu 13 to complement Stewart, whose performance contrasted with Napheesa Collier’s bad day, only 12 points for the franchise player of the Lynx in which Nia Brodie was the best with 16 points from the bench followed by Kayla McBride’s 14.
Those who did assert their status as favorites were the Atlanta Dream with their dominant victory against Alicia Flórez’s Mystics by a margin of 15 points.
The Valencia player also 22 years She was only on the court for one minute, something that, as in the case of Carrera, is not surprising since the players with less weight in the rotation have even more limited playing time in the playoffs. Flórez has played 12 minutes on average in 35 regular season games with 3.5 points, 1.4 rebounds and 2 assists.
However, the Spanish international has made great progress as reflected by the simple fact that the development contract she initially signed was converted to a standard one.
Rhyne Howard led the Dream with 26 points followed by Allisha Gray’s 22, while Caitlin Clark’s archenemy Angel Reese He signed a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds. Sonia Citron was the best of the Mystics with 25 points.
The season is already over for the others three spanish who have played the WNBA this year: Awa Fam (Seattle Storm), María Conde (Toronto Tempo) and Marta Suárez (Phoenix Mercury), who is already returning to Europe to debut with a Valencia team for which she signed in June.
The Taronja team now awaits Carrera and Flórez, who dream of joining the select club of Spanish WNBA champion players: Amaya Valdemoro (1998, 1999 and 2000), Anna Cruz (2015) and Astou Ndour (2021).
