Aari McDonald just hasn’t been able to catch a break. She broke her foot in the 2025 WNBA season, adding to the Fever’s mounting list of season-ending injuries. She was back in action in time to make her Unrivaled debut, but played just barely over six minutes when she had to exit the game with another injury. She hasn’t played since, leaving the Breeze short-handed with only five players.
Losing McDonald did much more than just leave the Breeze short-handed. It also left the team without a backup ball handler behind Paige Bueckers.
Bueckers has been great, averaging 23.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 6.4 assists. She leads the Breeze in minutes, points, field goals, and assists per game. But Bueckers also needs to rest every once in a while, and that’s when the Breeze have some issues without McDonald. Kate Martin and Rickea Jackson can handle the ball—even Dominique Malonga and Cameron Brink can bring the ball up if needed—but neither has much experience doing it and acting as a point guard at the pro level. The Phantom’s defense against the Breeze in Philadelphia really highlighted that and McDonald’s absence.
Unlike Martin and Jackson, McDonald has experience playing the point guard position as a pro. She averaged 4.7 assists per game for the Fever in her most recent WNBA season.
Phantom’s defense made things difficult for the Breeze
When the Breeze and Phantom met for the first time this season, the Breeze secured the win behind a 24-point performance from Paige Bueckers and a double-double from Dominique Malonga. The rematch in Philadelphia was also a close game, but the Phantom got their revenge with a 71-68 win.
Phantom’s defense was firing on all cylinders. The team totalled four steals and three blocks and forced 11 turnovers. The trio of Tiffany Hayes, Kelsey Plum, and Natasha Cloud made things difficult on the perimeter when Bueckers was out. One of them was always pressuring Kate Martin when she had to bring up the ball. Jackson was the only other true source of playmaking aside from Bueckers.
Martin, Jackson, Malonga, and Brink combined for five assists—three of which came from Jackson—and six turnovers. Having a more veteran point guard in the rotation surely could have helped the Breeze navigate the Phantom’s pressure on the ball and cut down on the team’s turnover numbers.
Breeze has struggled with turnovers all season long. They average a league-high 11.6 turnovers per game. A lot of those miscues can probably be attributed to the team’s youth and inexperience playing with each other and the speed of the game.