Category Archives: WNBA Today

WNBA Today, 09/14/2012: Led by stud rookie, Sparks slip by the Sky

Just the one WNBA game last night, but it was an intriguing encounter. Chicago had the most to play for, coming into Thursday half-a-game behind New York for the final Eastern playoff spot. With the season series between the Sky and Liberty tied at 2-2, if they finished with the same record it would go to conference record to decide. New York were at 9-12 (with one Eastern game left in Washington on Sunday) and Chicago at 7-13 (two Eastern games left, against Atlanta and Washington), giving the Liberty the upper hand. An upset win in Los Angeles to pull them level in the standings would’ve been huge for their postseason push.

However, LA had their own reasons to fight for the victory. 1.5 games clear of San Antonio in second place in the West, they still need wins to make sure of home-court advantage in their first-round playoff series against the Silver Stars. But more importantly, the Sparks had lost 4 of their last 5 games, several of them with fairly pitiful performances. This was the start of a four-game home stand for LA to close out the regular season, and they needed to start finding some form before we hit the postseason.

The Sky were still without star center Sylvia Fowles and veteran point guard Ticha Penicheiro, but having broken Minnesota’s 11-game winning streak on Tuesday night without either of those players, they should’ve been confident that they could survive without them. Courtney Vandersloot continued at the point, with Carolyn Swords in the paint.

As we saw when these teams played each other a couple of weeks ago, the way each team tries to set up their perimeter defense creates immediate interest. Both teams want their defensive stopper on the other side’s most dangerous perimeter scorer, which means Tamera Young guards Kristi Toliver for Chicago, and Alana Beard tracks Epiphanny Prince for LA. That’s fine for the Sparks, because the shooting guard is simply taking the shooting guard, allowing Toliver to defend Vandersloot, and DeLisha Milton-Jones to cover Young. But for Chicago, their small forward is sliding over to cover LA’s point guard. It leaves the Sky’s small backcourt of Vandersloot and Prince to cover Beard and Milton-Jones. Even on the official rosters (which tend to be generous), Chicago’s starting guards are listed at 5’8” and 5’9”. Beard and Milton-Jones are officially 5’11” and 6’1”. Basic size was going to be an issue for Chicago all night.

However, defense wasn’t the Sky’s main problem early on. Rather than just switching on practically every screen, which tends to be LA’s modus operandi defensively, they were trapping Prince and Vandersloot off ball screens with hard, active double-teams. And Chicago were absolutely atrocious at handling it. Multiple times they simply gave away the ball under LA’s pressure, unable or unwilling to make the pass out of the trap. It’s a pretty basic defensive tactic, which can be negated by quick ball movement, setting screens off the ball instead of on, or simply breaking down your defender without bringing a screen over to begin with. But Chicago didn’t manage any of that for much of the game – certainly not in the opening quarter. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/13/2012: Four blowouts and a windbag

It’s fair to say that last night was not exactly an evening of WNBA basketball for the ages. Four games, all ending in double-digit margins, three of them featuring teams who would love the 2012 season to just end. While the fourth game involved a team missing its entire starting backcourt. It was a night of blowouts and minimal excitement, and Carolyn Peck. Yeah, if you missed it, I wouldn’t worry too much.

 

Washington Mystics 62 @ New York Liberty 75

  • This game was yet another repeat of countless other Mystic appearances over the last couple of years – enough fight in them to make it competitive for a while, but not enough quality or composure to play a full 40 minutes.
  • For the first three quarters, Washington were in this. They spent most of the first half trailing by 5 or 6 points, with Cappie Pondexter dominating the ball even more than usual for the Liberty. Monique Currie was aggressive going to the rim, constantly creating layups or free throws, and Noelle Quinn hit a couple of shots from outside. Against a New York team that looked a little anxious, and was sometimes playing too quickly for their own good, that was enough to be within 37-34 at halftime.
  • It was still all Currie for Washington in the third quarter – by the end of 30 minutes she had 22 points with only one bucket that wasn’t either at the rim or from the foul line. Fortunately for New York, Currie’s opponent at small forward – Nicole Powell – was having one of her rare effective scoring nights, with 15 points of her own on a perfect 5-5 from the floor. Considering Pondexter was receiving little help from anywhere else, it was a good thing for New York that Powell’s offense had decided to show up for once.
  • In fact, the recent additions to New York’s starting lineup – Essence Carson and Kara Braxton – who’d been moved into the starting unit precisely to provide more offense, were benched for virtually the entire fourth quarter. Braxton played less than 9 minutes all night. Instead, it was Leilani Mitchell and Kia Vaughn given the opportunity to help New York home.
  • And despite a 55-55 tie heading into the fourth quarter, it was ultimately very comfortable for the Liberty. Vaughn kept knocking down her mid-range jumper (and the Mystics kept leaving her wide open to take it), Plenette Pierson was linking up with Pondexter and sliding to the rim to finish (Washington struggled to cover the pick-and-roll and slip-screens all night long), and that was enough. Currie cooled off in the fourth quarter, and no one else could buy a basket for the Mystics. That was it. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/12/2012: Dream stomp Storm yet again, while Sky excel to leash Lynx

Sometimes, history can be a wonderful indicator of upcoming basketball results. Sometimes, paying too much attention to the past leaves you looking like an idiot. Last night’s two WNBA games helped illustrate that nicely.

The first game was in Atlanta, where Seattle were the visitors. Since being swept by the Storm in the 2010 WNBA Finals, Atlanta have absolutely dominated this matchup, winning the previous three clashes by a combined 57 points. The Dream’s speed and athleticism on the perimeter, combined with their endless driving to the rim, has consistently proven too much for Seattle to handle. That said, this was the first time since those 2010 Finals that Lauren Jackson had been in uniform against Atlanta. This was Seattle’s chance to show that the two comfortable wins over Tulsa last week were down to their own development, not just the Shock’s weaknesses.

Both teams stood by their regular starting lineups, with the league’s leading per-game scorer Angel McCoughtry continuing to come off the bench for Atlanta. However, the two sides set up their defensive matchups differently from the start. The Dream were using Armintie Price on Sue Bird, while sliding point guard Lindsey Harding over onto Katie Smith. That allowed them to keep the pressure up on Bird, without tiring out Harding too much. Inside, Sancho Lyttle was on Lauren Jackson, while Erika de Souza started on Camille Little – Atlanta wanting their more mobile post defender on the player who’s more likely to shoot from anywhere. At the other end, Seattle were far more standard, with Bird on Harding, Smith on Price, Little on Lyttle and Jackson on de Souza. Both teams, as is their standard style, were perfectly willing to switch assignments when it made sense.

It’s interesting that Seattle rarely try to hide Bird on a lesser offensive threat. She has a reputation as a weak defender – and it’s pretty well-earned – but she’s gotten smarter over the years, and at least knows how to funnel opponents towards her help. Maybe they’d be more worried by what Price’s speed could do against her than Harding’s driving and distribution.

The early stages of the game were reasonably tight. Seattle were looking to Little and Jackson inside, and after firing an ugly three as her opening effort of the game, Jackson made sure her following efforts were from much closer. Without too many early turnovers or long misses from the Storm, Atlanta’s running game was being kept in check, and most of their scoring was coming from de Souza in the low post. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/10/2012: Sunday afternoon’s for basketball too

Paying no heed to the opening Sunday of the NFL season, there were five WNBA games on the slate yesterday. But we’ll get to those in a moment – unusually, there’s been some moderately worthwhile news emerging from our league over the last 24 hours.

Firstly, as announced by Cindy Brunson at the WNBA’s Inspiring Women Luncheon (and then first reported by Mel Greenberg via @womhoopsguru), the WNBA draft lottery will be televised by ESPN for the first time on September 26th. That’s much earlier than they’ve held the lottery before, but it should help build some buzz for the league heading into the playoffs. The extra interest this year obviously surrounds the 2013 graduating class that’s led by Baylor center Brittney Griner, with Elena Delle Donne and Skylar Diggins considered pretty nice consolation prizes. It’s good to see both the League and ESPN showing that they’re invested in coming up with new ways to draw people into the WNBA, and get them talking about its potential.

The WNBA also announced today that they’re bringing back the concept of involving fans in the Most Valuable Player Award voting. It’s something they tried in 2008 when Candace Parker won the award, but there’s been a little more thought (and significantly more sense) put into the idea this time. Four years ago the fan voting was weighted as 25% of the overall vote, with the media balloting accounting for the remaining 75%. This time, the entire fan vote will count equal to one media member, with the results sliding in alongside the 41 individual voters. So rather than 25%, the fans’ opinions will be worth about 2.4% this time around. That’s a much better idea, if they really want to give the great unwashed a hand in the MVP award. Many of the media who are given a voice may not actually watch enough games for my taste, but the MVP shouldn’t be allowed to become just a popularity contest. Even I will take the media over the general populace in a vote like this. If you want to join in, you can vote daily here.

In less pleasing news for the WNBA, Mechelle Voepel at ESPN.com published a piece last night revealing that Kayla Pedersen and Temeka Johnson have both missed games recently due to yet another staph infection hitting the Tulsa Shock. It’s the third time in three years that Tulsa players have suffered from staph issues, and it’s not something that paints the franchise or the league in a nice light. It’s also slightly disappointing in the way it highlights the obvious lies that get spouted by teams and the league in relation to injuries. Pedersen was out with ‘flu-like symptoms’, and then just out with no explanation; Johnson had an ‘ankle/abdominal injury’. All of that might be true, but it’s also obviously an attempt to fudge reality.

While Voepel was revealing that unsavoury news on ESPN’s online portal, the TV branch was messing around with their schedules. In case you were expecting to see the Seattle @ Indiana game on ESPN2 on Wednesday night, be aware that you’ll now need either NBA TV or LiveAccess to see that game. Instead, ESPN2 will now be showing the far less interesting Connecticut @ Phoenix game several hours later. The Sun have also already stated that star center Tina Charles will be staying home from that game to rest hip and groin injuries, and recover from general fatigue.

And having got all that out of the way, let’s take a look at the basketball that was actually played yesterday.

 

Minnesota Lynx 81 @ San Antonio Silver Stars 62

  • While San Antonio are back in one piece after center Jayne Appel returned on Friday, Minnesota began this game with star guard and leading scorer Seimone Augustus in street clothes. She was out due to a sprained foot suffered against Atlanta a couple of days ago (although she had been ready to go back into that game, so it’s unlikely that it’s particularly serious). Monica Wright replaced her in the starting lineup. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/09/2012: Déjà vu for Storm and Shock

As mentioned in the past, as a rule I typically enjoy single-game nights in the WNBA. It provides a slightly more relaxing evening, and allows you to focus in on the matchups and development within one contest. However, most rules have occasional exceptions.

The problem with last night was that we’d seen it all before. And it’s not like you had to cast your mind back very far. Seattle faced Tulsa – in another single-game WNBA night – only two days earlier, and blew the Shock out in Key Arena. The only difference last night was that the venue had switched to the Shock’s own BOK Center back in Oklahoma.

Still, sometimes these quick-turnaround home-and-home games can be interesting, because you see what improvements either team has made to counteract what went wrong in the previous encounter. The first switch for Tulsa was to reinsert Kayla Pedersen into the starting lineup in place of Chante Black. Considering how the Shock had been ripped apart in the paint two nights earlier, you couldn’t blame Gary Kloppenburg for changing things up. Of course, Pedersen came off the bench in that game and was just as ineffective as the starters, but it was worth a shot. Tulsa also had veteran point guard Temeka Johnson back in uniform after missing a couple of games due to ankle and abdominal injuries, although Ivory Latta continued to start at the point. Seattle were unchanged.

Okay, enough with the pretense, this game was ultimately very, very similar to the encounter two nights earlier. The Shock couldn’t remotely handle Seattle inside, with Lauren Jackson’s size and strength, and Camille Little’s outstanding footwork and slippery movement far too much for them. In fact, having reminded themselves of their superiority over this team in the paint on Thursday, Seattle went inside far more in this game. They’d relied on an outstanding shooting night to pull away in the previous game – this time the base for everything came from the posts. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/08/2012 (Part Two): East meets West, while the Sky keep hope alive

So while we’ve already looked at the standout game from Friday night, there were four other games of varying levels of interest as well. Three were cross-conference matchups, which are always more intriguing purely because the teams play each other far less frequently. The squads don’t know each other quite as well, and players clash with different opponents for a change. The fourth was the vital matchup between the two teams still squabbling over the only playoff spot yet to be decided. So let’s get to it.

 

Los Angeles Sparks 96 @ Washington Mystics 68

  • We’re getting this one out of the way as quickly as possible, rather than giving it pride of place at the top of the column because it deserves it. The starting fives were the same again for both teams.
  • There were actually a few positive signs for Washington early on. They were creating points by being aggressive off the dribble, and exploiting the flaws in LA’s pick-and-roll defense (which had been highlighted for them in several recent LA losses to better opponents).
  • Unfortunately for the Mystics, Candace Parker opened the game actually scoring in the paint. Yes, Parker was posting up, looking for feeds down low, and running for finishes in transition as well. That’s what we’ve needed to see from her for a while.
  • LA started to take control towards the end of the first quarter, when Alana Beard was on the floor with a bunch of Sparks backups. It was Jenna O’Hea’s second straight impressive outing, and her arrival looks to have given the LA bench the shot in the arm they were hoping for. She knows her role, she can consistently hit that corner three, and she doesn’t try to do too much in other aspects of the game. So kind of like what Marissa Coleman was supposed to be offering all year, but has largely failed miserably to provide. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/08/2012: Finals Rematch Produces Instant Classic

There were five WNBA games played last night (all of them overlapping – thanks for making my job as difficult as possible, WNBA). All of them had at least some relevance to playoff positioning or qualification, but ultimately one stood head and shoulders above the others in terms of pure entertainment value. So it gets its own column (the other four games will be covered in another piece later tonight).

In a lot of ways, Atlanta’s visit to Minnesota was one of the least meaningful games played last night. The Lynx had opened up a four-game lead at the top of the West, and it’s going to take something unlikely to shift Atlanta out of third in the East before the playoffs. But neither team was going to treat this game lightly.

Minnesota have been rolling since the Olympics, winning all seven games before this encounter (9 in a row including games prior to the break). However, their bench has been in something of a slump, and this was one of only two home games left for the Lynx in the regular season. This was no time to relax. The Dream are still in recovery mode after the departure of head coach and general manager Marynell Meadors, and the return of Angel McCoughtry from suspension. Recent wins over Connecticut and Indiana have shown signs of piecing things back together, but they need to keep that push going heading into the postseason. There’s also the basic fact that the Lynx swept them in the WNBA Finals last year, beat them again a couple of weeks ago, and could well be awaiting Atlanta if they find a way to the Finals again next month. The Dream were tired of losing to this team.

The starting fives were as anticipated, which meant McCoughtry coming off the bench again (based on how she’s played so far, that doesn’t seem to be bothering her. Yet). The opening minutes were ugly, with neither team making anything, but when the points did start to flow, it was only at one end of the floor. It was all Atlanta. The Dream weren’t just on top; they were dominating on Minnesota’s own floor. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/07/2012: Dream hold off Fever in likely playoff preview, while it’s blowout-city elsewhere

Apologies for the lack of update yesterday – your WNBAlien correspondent was at the Paralympic wheelchair basketball, watching the USA lose to Australia in the semi-finals for a change. For the record, the women’s semi ended with the kind of screw-job by the officials that would’ve caused years of bitching and moaning from Americans, if it happened in a version of the game they actually pay some attention to. Fortunately for the referees in question, the Paralympics appears to be an even smaller blip on the radar in the US than the WNBA.

So, back to our regularly scheduled programming. In an effort to catch up, we’re going to discuss the one game from the last couple of days that’s worth talking about in detail, then Bullet Point Breakdown the remaining two (which were such consummate blowouts there’s not much to go into). So first up, the probable playoff preview from Wednesday night in Atlanta.

Indiana were the Dream’s visitors, and while nothing’s set in stone just yet, there’s a strong chance that these teams will be meeting in the first round of the postseason. Indiana had narrowed the gap with Connecticut at the top of the Eastern Conference to two games before this matchup, but it’s still going to take a strong finish to have any chance of overhauling the Sun. Atlanta, even while enduring the recent mess surrounding their coaching change and Angel McCoughtry, have continued to win enough games to comfortably hold off New York and Chicago in third. So there was a little extra spice to this game, because everyone knew going in that they were likely to meet again in three weeks’ time, in far more meaningful circumstances.

Indiana opened the game with the same starting five we’ve grown used to; Atlanta still had Angel McCoughtry coming off the bench behind rookie Tiffany Hayes, although Armintie Price regained her starting spot ahead of Cathrine Kraayeveld at the other wing spot. Inside five minutes, Price had picked up two fouls, leading to another sign that the Dream’s recent history is starting to be put behind them. When the same thing had happened a couple of weeks ago (while Marynell Meadors was still running the team), Kraayeveld came into the game as Price’s replacement, sending a message to McCoughtry. This time, McCoughtry subbed in. The franchise is trying to move on, and the only reason Angel is still a ‘reserve’ at this point is that Hayes has played so well as a starter. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/05/2012: Conference leaders keep rolling

The Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx both led their respective conferences heading into the WNBA’s Olympic break, and both still sat in first place heading into their games last night. But their paths since the midseason hiatus have differed. Connecticut looked the more comfortable leaders in the first half of the season, but with injury issues in their post corps and some inconsistent performances, Indiana have been narrowing the gap. Minnesota had their letdown period and injury issues before the break, but have gotten healthy and are yet to lose a game in the second half of the season. Meanwhile, nearest Western challengers San Antonio and Los Angeles have started slipping up. The Sun and Lynx remain the favourites to meet in the WNBA Finals, but it’s Minnesota who’ve started to look more certain participants.

Connecticut were the first on-court last night, facing their fifth and final meeting of the season with the hapless Washington Mystics. Unsurprisingly, considering Washington were 5-21 coming into the game, Connecticut had won all of the previous four encounters. The Sun were still without starting power forward Asjha Jones due to her achilles injury, but at least her backup Mistie Mims was available again, after recovering from her own quad strain. Mims went right back into the starting lineup ahead of Kelsey Griffin. For the second straight game, Washington started Noelle Quinn on the perimeter and Ashley Robinson in the post, ahead of previous regular starters Matee Ajavon and Michelle Snow.

The official attendance released after the game read 5,980, but the number of people watching looked like it probably fell in the three-digit range. In that spirit, and due to the fact that it’s increasingly difficult to find anything worth saying about Mystics games, this report will hopefully remain reasonably short.

It’s not that this Washington team are completely untalented or consistently useless. If that were the case, they’d be losing every game by 30 points. They simply have too many breakdowns at either end of the floor, and too many mental errors to beat better teams. Their main chance of winning games at this point is the hope that a random player or two might get hot from outside, and their opponent might take them too lightly. Connecticut did their best to help Washington out early in this game, sleepwalking through the opening stages and allowing the Mystics to hold a 5-point lead at the end of the first quarter. Crystal Langhorne, Washington’s one true star-quality player, was the central figure in their offense, knocking down jumpers from the top of the key and finishing with her usual tenacity inside. The Sun seemed to have largely forgotten that they had Tina Charles as an option in the paint, and their only decent offense came from Kara Lawson jump shots. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/03/2012: Atlanta’s conquering heroine returns, while Sparks are exposed again

Maybe the USA should have more public holidays. Two WNBA games yesterday, and anyone who took the time to catch them during Labor Day weekend saw some decidedly entertaining basketball. Or for those of us in different countries, it was just a nice Sunday.

The games began with what hopefully was also a conclusion. Atlanta were hosting Connecticut, and Angel McCoughtry was in uniform and ready to play. She’d missed two games prior to Marynell Meadors’s departure as Dream head coach and general manager, then missed two more while ‘indefinitely suspended’ by Meadors’s replacement, Fred Williams. On Wednesday, he’d reportedly presented her with a written list of requirements that she needed to sign and comply with before being reinstated to the team. Presumably, she’d agreed to his terms, because Angel was back.

Not back in the starting lineup just yet, however. Rookie guard Tiffany Hayes continued to start, and the only change for Atlanta was Cathrine Kraayeveld beginning the game ahead of Armintie Price (possibly because Price missed a practice to attend a funeral, rather than a strange coach’s decision). Connecticut once again had Kelsey Griffin starting at power forward, with Asjha Jones and Mistie Mims still out due to injury. The Sun post corps is scraping by with about two-and-a-half options at the moment.

Besides the inevitable McCoughtry drama, the post is where much of the interest lies in this matchup. Connecticut were a better team than Atlanta for much of last season, and finished ahead of them in the standings, earning home-court advantage for their first-round playoff series. But largely because of the job that Erika de Souza did on Sun star center Tina Charles, Atlanta swept Connecticut out of the postseason. With Erika having skipped the first half of the 2012 WNBA season to prepare for the Olympics with Brazil, this was their first encounter since that playoff series (meaningless USA-Brazil international friendlies don’t count).

The big centers started going at each other from the opening possessions. Charles wasn’t backing down, but as always the physicality of de Souza was making things difficult for her. Erika forces Charles to work hard for everything she gets, including the initial post position she can set up in. While many of the efforts were moves and shots that she typically takes against everyone, it was noticeable that every attempt Charles took in the early stages – and for most of the rest of the game – was either a face-up jump shot, or a post move that took her away from the basket. Practically nothing was with Charles moving towards the rim. Continue reading →