Mitchell sets WNBA season scoring record at 1,034 points — SkimNews
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- Kelsey Mitchell scored 33 points on 12-of-17 shooting (7 threes) in the Indiana Fever's 103-85 win over the Toronto Tempo, pushing her to 1,034 points and breaking A'ja Wilson's 2024 single-season record of 1,021.
- Mitchell extended her streak of 20-point games to 25 consecutive, with the record-setting 3-pointer coming early in the third quarter when she was left unguarded on the wing.
- A'ja Wilson will also reach 1,000 points this season (she has 991 with three games left), but cannot catch Mitchell in total points because she's played two fewer games — though Wilson's 26.1 ppg leads Mitchell's 25.2 and is on track for her third straight scoring title.
- Mitchell and Wilson are the only players in WNBA history to record a 1,000-point season; Wilson set the previous mark in 38 games while Mitchell topped it in her 41st game of the 44-game 2026 campaign.
- The WNBA's season expansion — 34 games historically, 36 in 2022, 40 in 2023, 44 in 2025, and 50 planned for 2027 — has directly inflated recent scoring totals; Diana Taurasi's 860 points on a 25.3 average in 2006's 34-game season is now just ninth all-time, with all eight seasons above it occurring since 2023.
- Alyssa Thomas (single-season assists record) and Angel Reese (single-season rebounds record) have similarly benefited from the extra games, per the article, while Mitchell is expected to draw MVP votes and make the All-WNBA First Team for the second straight year.
Why it matters: Mitchell owns the raw points crown, but Wilson still controls the league's most prestigious scoring benchmark — the per-game title — and is poised to win it for a third consecutive season despite playing two fewer games than Mitchell. The broader context undercutting these records: the WNBA's regular season has grown from 34 to 44 games since 2022, meaning Taurasi's 860-point 2006 campaign — once the gold standard — now ranks ninth, and every record ahead of her has come in the expanded era.
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