NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA tips off the second half of its season on Tuesday night with 10 of the 13 teams playing.
One player who won't be competing for the immediate future is Caitlin Clark, who is recovering from a right groin injury she suffered last week. Clark missed Indiana’s final game before the All-Star break with an injured right groin and pulled out of Friday night’s 3-point contest as well as Saturday’s All-Star Game.
Clark told reporters on Saturday night that she had been getting treatment during the festivities, which also took place in Indianapolis. While she is improving, Indiana coach Stephanie White said, the Fever intend to be cautious with Clark, who missed 10 games during the first half of the season with three different muscle injuries.
Players weren't thrilled having to play so soon after the All-Star break and hope to add more of a break in the next collective bargaining agreement that they are currently negotiating with the league.
Atlanta has back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday while New York and many other teams have three games this week.
“It's kind of the health and safety of it all,” New York's Breanna Stewart said. “Players having time to rest and recover, but also if we want the product in the All-Star Game to be better we have to have time between games like there's no way that you're going to have a super competitive All-Star Game when we play Tuesday.”
New York added some reinforcements for the second half of the season, getting a commitment from Emma Meesseman to join the team once she gets her visa. The Liberty also added Stephanie Talbot, who was waived by Golden State, strengthening the Liberty's bench. New York also got back a healthy Jonquel Jones, who missed the last month before the break to recover from a sprained ankle.
The defending champion Liberty currently are second in the standings behind Minnesota.
The WNBA 3-point contest and skills challenge averaged 1.3 million viewers Friday night, making it the most watched for that event ever. The All-Star Game, which wasn't extremely competitive with Team Collier winning 151-131 over Team Clark, drew an average of 2.2 million viewers Saturday. It was the second most watched All-Star Game, only trailing last year's contest which drew a record 3.44 million viewers on average.
Minnesota reclaimed the top spot in the poll from Phoenix after beating the Mercury last week. Phoenix dropped one spot. New York, Atlanta and Seattle were the next three. Indiana was sixth with Las Vegas and Washington following. Golden State, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Connecticut rounded out the poll.
A'ja Wilson of Las Vegas had 37 points and 10 rebounds in the Aces' lone game last week that was a 90-86 victory over Dallas. Other players receiving votes included Stewart and Los Angeles' Dearica Hamby.
Phoenix at New York, Friday. Two of the top three teams in the league meet again in New York with the Liberty hoping to avenge a 15-point home loss last month.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Chicago Sky's Angel Reese, left, shoots against Washington Mystics' Kiki Iriafen during the second half of a WNBA All-Star basketball game, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
New York Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu, left, talks with Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark during the second half of a WNBA All-Star basketball game against Team Collier, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Los Angeles Sparks's Kelsey Plum, left, goes to the basket against Seattle Storm's Gabby Williams during the second half of a WNBA All-Star basketball game, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks held up the effort.
“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!" he said in a social media post Wednesday.
Governors typically control states' National Guardsmen, and Trump had deployed troops to all three cities against the wishes of state and local Democratic leaders. He said it was necessary as part of a broader crackdown on immigration, crime and protests.
The president has made a crackdown on crime in cities a centerpiece of his second term — and has toyed with the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to stop his opponents from using the courts to block his plans. He has said he sees his tough-on-crime approach as a winning political issue ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration.
In his post, Trump said the troops' presence was responsible for a drop in crime in the three cities, though they were never on the streets in Chicago and Portland as legal challenges played out. When the Chicago deployment was challenged in court, a Justice Department lawyer said the Guard’s mission would be to protect federal properties and government agents in the field, not “solving all of crime in Chicago.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson’s office in a statement said the city’s reduction in crime was due to the efforts of local police and public safety programs. Chicago officials echoed the sentiment, saying in a release Tuesday that the city had 416 homicides in 2025 — the fewest since 2014.
Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.
The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote on X Wednesday that Trump “lost in court when Illinois stood up against his attempt to militarize American cities with the National Guard. Now Trump is forced to stand down.”
Hundreds of troops from California and Oregon were deployed to Portland, but a federal judge barred them from going on the streets. A judge permanently blocked the deployment of National Guard troops there in November after a three-day trial.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement Wednesday that her office had not yet received “official notification that the remaining federalized Oregon National Guard troops can return home. They were never lawfully deployed to Portland and there was no need for their presence. If President Trump has finally chosen to follow court orders and demobilize our troops, that’s a big win for Oregonians and for the rule of law.”
Trump's decision to federalize National Guard troops began in Los Angeles in June, when protesters took to the streets in response to a blitz of immigration arrests in the area. He deployed about 4,000 troops and 700 Marines to guard federal buildings and, later, to protest federal agents as they carried out immigration arrests.
The number of troops slowly dwindled until just several hundred were left. They were removed from the streets by Dec. 15 after a lower court ruling that also ordered control to be returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom. But an appeals court had paused the second part of the order, meaning control remained with Trump. In a Tuesday court filing, the Trump administration said it was no longer seeking a pause in that part of the order.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to return control of the National Guard to Newsom.
“About time (Trump) admitted defeat,” Newsom said in a social media post. “We’ve said it from day one: the federal takeover of California’s National Guard is illegal.”
Troops will remain on the ground in several other cities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in December paused a lower court ruling that had called for an end to the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., where they’ve been deployed since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.”
Trump also ordered the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis in September as part of a larger federal task force to combat crime, a move supported by the state’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee and senators. A Tennessee judge blocked the use of the Guard, siding with Democratic state and local officials who sued. However, the judge stayed the decision to block the Guard as the state appeals, allowing the deployment to continue.
In New Orleans, about 350 National Guard troops deployed by Trump arrived in the city's historic French Quarter on Tuesday and are set to stay through Mardi Gras to help with safety. The state's Republican governor and the city's Democratic mayor support the deployment.
Ding reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporters John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Jack Brook in New Orleans and Adrian Sanz in Memphis contributed.
FILE - A protester confronts a line of U.S. National Guard members in the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)
FILE - Protesters stand off against California National Guard soldiers at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, during a "No Kings" protest, June 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
