Dallas, TX
Ionescu, Liberty Dominate Dallas For 31st Win
Football season has just begun but the New York Liberty already secured a sweep of Dallas.
Paced by a brilliant first quarter for Sabrina Ionescu, the Liberty completed a season sweep of the Dallas Wings with a 99-67 victory in Arlington. Between 16 points of her own and dishing off assists to Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Courtney Vandersloot, Ionescu played a direct role in 21 of the Liberty’s 25 scoring entries in the opening period.
With the win, the Liberty (31-6) reduced their official magic number to clinch homecourt advantage throughout the upcoming WNBA Playoffs to one. They can officially clinch the top seed on the bracket with another win or if the second place Minnesota Lynx lose to Chicago on Friday. The two teams are slated to battle on Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center (3 p.m. ET, WWOR).
The Liberty avoided any semblance of a trap game thanks to Ionescu’s early outburst: they led by 10 at the end of the first period and, save for a couple of brief couple of cutdowns to eight at the onset of the second, they kept the double-figure advantage throughout the evening, making it permanent when Vandersloot successfully converted an and-one opportunity at 7:22.
With her early tally, which ended up at a team-best 20, Ionescu got several landmarks out of the way quickly: she passed Crystal Robinson to become the fifth-leading scorer in franchise history. Her first of four three-pointers, sunk just 22 seconds into the game to open scoring, also gave her 60 games with at least one, just six short of the WNBA record set by Ivory Latta.
The only other Dallas threat came in the third quarter, when a series of quick tallies in transition cut the lead to 14 early in the third. A quick timeout from head coach Sandy Brondello, however, quickly restored seafoam sanity, One 17-9 run later more or less broke Dallas’ will and allowed the Liberty to empty its bench and expand its largest leads of the evening.
One of the Liberty’s points of emphasis was containing North Texas’ leading scorer in Arike Ogunbowale. New York contained the reigning WNBA All-Star Game MVP to 11 points on 3-of-13 from the field and shutting down the thought of a comeback. Despite the struggles, Ogunbowale did leave College Park Center with a little bit of history.
With her 11, Ogunbowale passed Deanna Nolan to become the leading scorer in Wings franchise history, which began under the branding of the Detroit Shock in 1998. Ogunbowale was the Wings’ leading scorer on Thursday alongside reserve Maddy Siegrist. Already eliminated from playoff contention, Dallas (9-28) shot only 37 percent from the field, including 4-of-18 from three-point range. Half of that tally, which was earned by Ionescu alone, was sunk by Sevgi Uzun.
Equally inspiring on the Liberty ledgers was a 17-point outing from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, once again back in the starting five after leaving Sunday’s win in Las Vegas early with a knee injury. Vandersloot (5-of-7) and Breanna Stewart each had 11 while Jonquel Jones paired eight with seven rebounds. The game’s one-sided nature saw all but one New Yorker get on the scoresheet, as the seafoam reserves put up 32 points.
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Jeff Kolb and Sam Gannon welcome Cowboys insiders Clarence Hill (All City Dallas) and Calvin Watkins (Dallas Morning News) for a hilarious breakdown of the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft. Giving insight, arguments, and plenty of laughs as two of the best Dallas Cowboys writers in the business go head-to-head on what Dallas should do next.
Dallas, TX
New video of Lake Dallas explosion draws focus on order decades ago to remove old plastic pipes
The search for the next general manager or president of basketball operations of the Dallas Mavericks has begun. They terminated Nico Harrison in November, which was about nine months too late, and gave any available candidates clear notice that they were open for business.
The plan was always to wait until after the season to start the search. While names popped up as the season reached an end, they didn’t begin turning over the staff until the Monday after the season ended. However, Dallas Mavericks fans are not going to like how the team is going about the search.
Patrick Dumont Leading Search for General Manager
NBA insider Jake Fischer reported that the Mavericks are not hiring a search firm in their hunt for a new lead executive. Instead, team governor Patrick Dumont is “acting as his own point person.”
This is an… interesting decision, to say the least. Dumont is not a basketball person whatsoever, and most organizations usually hire a search firm. The Chicago Bulls hired one as they look for their replacement for Arturas Karnisovas. Just because a firm is hired doesn’t mean a team will listen, though.
The Mavericks hired a firm in their last search for a GM. They let Donnie Nelson go in 2021 after a long tenure with the Mavs. Instead of listening to the firm, though, Mark Cuban ignored it to hire Nico Harrison, who had no previous NBA front office experience. Harrison had been an executive with Nike, which gave him connections with players like Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and plenty of others.
For a while, that seemed to be working out okay. While he still had some questionable transactions, such as trading for Christian Wood and letting Jalen Brunson walk in free agency, they were still able to make a run to the NBA Finals in 2024. Then, he blew it all up, trading away Luka Doncic for an older and injured Anthony Davis, and the team hasn’t been the same since.
It’s imperative that the Mavericks get this hire correct. The interim Co-GM setup with Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley has performed admirably, but the 2026 NBA Draft is important for the Mavs to get right. It’s their best chance to pair Cooper Flagg with another young star, as they don’t own their first-round pick again until 2031 after this.
Hiring the right GM could help bring in more draft capital by bringing in bad contracts or flipping veterans into picks.
Dumont was able to convince Rick Welts, a Hall of Famer, to come out of retirement to be the CEO and lead the charge for a new arena. Maybe Dumont pulls another rabbit out of his hat for the GM.
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