Category Archives: WNBA Today

WNBA Today, 05/28/2012: Early pacesetters continue dominance

Two games this Sunday in the WNBA, and oddly enough the one with the more lopsided final score was far more competitive. Sometimes you really do need to watch these things (or read WNBAlien) to get a good idea of how they went.

First up was Indiana’s trip to Atlanta. The two teams had already met this season, with the Fever easing to a fairly comfortable win on their home floor last weekend. However, Atlanta had looked far better in their second game, ripping New York to shreds, and now had center Yelena Leuchanka fit to play. Plus there was the addition of the home crowd behind them this time.

Both teams opened with the same lineups that had begun their previous games, Leuchanka now starting at center for the Dream and Tamika Catchings still the power forward for the Fever. The opening quarter went very nicely for Atlanta. Angel McCoughtry came out strong, attacking the Fever defense and providing early scoring, while the Leuchanka/Sancho Lyttle pairing in the post looked like offering much stronger resistance than Atlanta had managed in their last encounter with Indiana.

The key noticeable change-up in the Dream’s approach was at the defensive end, where they were dropping back into a 2-3 matchup zone when made buckets gave them time to set it up. With Leuchanka the beef in the middle, McCoughtry and Armintie Price on the sides, and point guard Lindsey Harding joined by the length and agility of Lyttle out top, it clearly gave Indiana some early problems. It was compounded by the way Atlanta were playing the zone on one possession, then man-to-man on the next, leaving the Fever confused about what they should do and how they should try to score. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 05/27/2012: Mercury downed in the desert, and the D.C. Debacle

Regular readers will have picked up that we typically look at the previous day’s games in chronological order. If you tipped off first, you go first in the column, unless there’s a very good reason. Well guess what, last night’s exploits count as a damn good reason. The abominable excuse for a basketball game that was Washington’s encounter with Tulsa is relegated to the end of this piece; LA’s trip to Phoenix is promoted by default.

Despite the athleticism of LA’s stars and the typical entertainment value provided by the Mercury’s offense, it was an oddly uninvolving and unexciting first half in the desert. So we’ll skim over most of it. Both teams stuck with the same starters they’d used in their previous games, Diana Taurasi in the lineup again despite playing very limited minutes against Tulsa due to her hip injury. LA still haven’t done anything about the lack of depth caused by the injuries to Sharnee Zoll and Nicky Anosike.

There wasn’t much pace to the game, despite how Phoenix like to play and LA’s athletes. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 05/26/2012: Sun and Fever keep rolling; Liberty fears deepen

It was a Friday night triple-header this week in the WNBA, and seeing as the general opinion seemed to be positive last time we tried it, we’re going to tackle them Bullet Point Breakdown style.

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 79 @ Connecticut Sun 83

  • San Antonio head coach Dan Hughes stuck with his itty-bitty starting lineup, With Danielle Adams at center and Jia Perkins the nominal small forward. Connecticut’s Mike Thibault changed things around a little, with Allison Hightower getting the start ahead of Kalana Greene on the wing. Renee Montgomery continues to come off the bench for the Sun (and isn’t very happy about it, according to local press).
  • Tan White is back practicing for Connecticut after her concussion, but didn’t play. Rookie Ziomara Morrison, who was supposed to help provide size and bulk to San Antonio’s interior, is reportedly limited by a finger injury but continues to dress and played very briefly.
  • Adams did a decent job on Charles early, despite the extra inches that the Sun center has on her. Adams can use her bulk to at least make it difficult for Charles on the low block.
  • At the other end, Charles had a few problems. She likes to play free safety a little bit, drifting in the paint to be able to offer help defense when her teammates need it. Against a lot of 5s that’s fine, but with Adams, if you sag back she’s just going to sit happily at the three-point line and fire away all day. The same problem occurred when Adams set screens for her guards, because Connecticut typically trap the ballhandler (or at least show hard with a ghost of a double-team) on pick and rolls. So Adams sets the screen, the guard’s defender and Charles slide over to challenge the ball, and if the guard can pass back to Adams she’s often wide open for a jumper. The defense depends either on a third defender rotating across to cover quickly, or Charles recovering in time to challenge the shot. Both of those are difficult to keep doing effectively. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 05/25/2012: Sparks ask questions, Lynx provide answers

Just the one game in the WNBA last night, but it was a fascinating clash between a reigning powerhouse and a fresh new challenger looking to prove themselves. Of course, the bizarre thing is that it’s the Minnesota Lynx who now sit on top of the pile with a target on their backs, while the Los Angeles Sparks are trying to knock them off their perch. This is not your mother’s WNBA.

Both teams started as expected, Minnesota with their standard five and LA with Kristi Toliver keeping her spot in the backcourt. Center Nicky Anosike remains unavailable due to a knee injury for LA, and with Sharnee Zoll done for the season they’re currently working with only nine healthy players. Minnesota are at ten with Amber Harris still nursing an ankle sprain.

The opening stages were about what you’d expect, with the Lynx playing their typical efficient game and the Sparks riding Candace Parker for all she was worth. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 05/24/2012: Are You Worried Yet?

I hate overreacting to early season results. Plenty of teams start off slowly and gain steam, and in a competition where a ridiculous two-thirds of the league makes the playoffs, finishing well in September can mean a lot more than starting hot in May. But barely a week into the WNBA regular season, some fans in Seattle and New York are showing signs of panic. And if you’ve watched their performances so far, frankly it’s not hard to understand why.

The Liberty faced Minnesota on Tuesday night, in their second ‘home opener’ (their first home game was shifted back to Madison Square Garden due to scheduling conflicts, so this was the first 2012 game in Jersey at the Prudential Center). For the few fans that showed up – and we’re talking a Mystics-sized crowd – it wasn’t pretty. Last year’s champs toyed with them for a while, batting them around like a kitten trying to decide what to do with a tasty little morsel it’d found in the garden, before pouncing to finish them off. The 80-62 final scoreline didn’t accurately represent how close the score had been through much of the game, but it was a fair reflection of the gap between the performances.

Now I was the one cautioning New York fans against panicking following their 0-2 start in back-to-back openers against Connecticut. And I hold to my basic view from the weekend – there’s talent on this roster, and I think they’ll win some games. But my definition of ‘some’ is starting to trend downwards. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 05/20/2012: First Impressions

Welcome to the first WNBA Today of the 2012 season. We’re going to be trying to keep the game recaps a little more brief this year, hopefully to the benefit of both author and audience. The idea is that there should be more analysis and impressions, without quite so much basic recapping of play after play and possession after possession. At least that’s the target. There might be a few kinks to work out.

We’re also going to try something new for the opening edition, which we’re calling WNBAlien Bullet Point Breakdowns. The content in BPBs will be pretty similar, but it separates it all out into nice easy chunks, and saves having to mould it all into a coherent article. This won’t be how every WNBA Today is presented all season, but especially on days with lots of games it may well make a regular return. Feel free to leave a note on whether you think it works. In fact, feel free to comment below about anything related to the articles or the WNBA, or drop a line to richardcohen123@yahoo.co.uk . You can also follow me on Twitter at @RichardCohen1, where you’ll find all kinds of pithy comments. Mostly about basketball.

On with the games, starting with Friday night’s opener in Seattle, and right through all seven of the weekend’s contests.

 

Los Angeles Sparks 72 @ Seattle Storm 66

  • A couple of surprises in the Sparks starting lineup, but they were less shocking when news emerged that Sharnee Zoll and Nicky Anosike were both suffering from knee injuries. The lack of real point guard options on the Sparks roster immediately came under the microscope, with Alana Beard and Marissa Coleman starting in the backcourt. Seattle were as expected, with Camille Little and Tina Thompson sharing the forward spots.
  • Seattle got out to a smoking hot start, because they were pushing the ball and looking for early offense within their sets. LA came out with a pretty dodgy looking 2-3 zone defense on several possessions and Ann Wauters murdered Candace Parker right in the middle of it. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 10/08/2011: Lynx complete their dream season

After last year’s sweep at the hands of Seattle, and the opening two games of this year’s Finals, the Atlanta Dream went into last night’s game with an unfortunate 0-5 record in the WNBA’s showpiece finale. While it was an achievement to emerge from the Eastern Conference twice in a row, it was starting to become a little embarrassing. Making it to the Big Dance and repeatedly coming up short almost leaves a worse taste in the mouth at the end of the season than being dumped out at an earlier stage. So Atlanta had every reason to raise their game and try to fight their way back into this series. For pride, if nothing else. Plus, if Minnesota could defend their home court in the opening two games, why shouldn’t the Dream defend theirs in the following two, and force a decider?

The starting fives were the same as in Game 2. As expected, Taj McWilliams-Franklin’s leg would have to have fallen off to keep her out of a Finals game, so the right knee sprain that forced her out of the final quarter two days earlier couldn’t stop her. Armintie Price retained her place at shooting guard for Atlanta, despite the disappointing games she’d had in the series so far, and the presence of Iziane Castro Marques loitering with intent on the bench.

The opening minutes looked good for Atlanta. They were evidently trying to feed Erika de Souza in the paint early on, and combined with a couple of breakouts for Angel McCoughtry that pushed them to a quick 8-2 lead. The most obvious difference from the opening tip-off in this game was the Dream defense on Seimone Augustus. For the first time in the series, McCoughtry was the primary defender on her instead of Price or one of the other wings. Along with that, instead of the weak switching they’d been doing on ball-screens throughout the series, whenever Augustus came off a screen they were trapping her hard with both the defenders involved, hoping to create turnovers or at least force the ball out of Augustus’s hands. If Atlanta were going down, they were at least determined that it wasn’t going to happen exactly the same way as we’d already seen in the previous games.

Not that this game was ever going to resemble Game 2. The lack of whistles was a blessed relief after the endless stoppages on Wednesday night, and the officials were clearly taking a more laissez-faire approach. If you wanted to shoot free throws in this game, you were going to have to do rather more to earn them. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 10/06/2011: The Fat Lady’s Warming Up

So last night brought us Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, and even this early the series was already on a knife edge. It’s not unprecedented, but very few teams in any sport make a comeback from 2-0 down in a best-of-five series. While it would simply mean that Minnesota had defended their home court in the opening two games, another win would send them off to Atlanta in an immensely strong position. After being swept in the Finals by Seattle last year, the last thing the Dream wanted to do was head home down 2-0 for the second year in a row, but after collapsing in the fourth quarter of Game 1 they had a lot of areas to improve in if they were going to tie the series up.

The hope for Atlanta was that one obvious improvement could have a big impact. Erika de Souza was back from the FIBA Americas tournament in Colombia, despite some travel difficulties that had postponed her arrival to a day or two later than anticipated. After being beaten up on the glass in Game 1 and struggling at times with the awkward matchups created by playing their small lineup against Minnesota’s bigs, the return of their burly center presented an obvious solution to some of those issues. She went straight back into Atlanta’s starting lineup in place of Iziane Castro Marques, reestablishing the group that had led the Dream’s strong second half of the season. Minnesota, of course, continued with the same starters that have led the way for them all year long.

The interesting aspect of the opening minutes of the game was how little Atlanta had changed, despite the return of their more traditional lineup. Defensively, Sancho Lyttle was on Taj McWilliams-Franklin with de Souza on Rebekkah Brunson to start the game (a slightly surprising way round, but workable). However, the Dream were still switching on screens, leaving little guards on post players while the posts tried to cover the perimeter players. So even though they now had two true post players on the floor to match up more naturally against Minnesota, Atlanta were still allowing all kinds of awkward mismatches to be created. You could see the obvious difference when the ball moved to the other end. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 10/03/2011: Flying start for Finals, but Lynx prove too much for Dream in Game 1

Last night, the WNBA Finals got underway, and they did it in style. If you haven’t caught the game yet, stop reading this and go spend a couple of very enjoyable hours catching up – it was a heck of a contest. If you’ve seen it already, stick around for the next couple of thousand words while I pat myself on the back for everything I got right in the Mega-Preview (and skim swiftly over the occasional item where I might’ve been slightly off).

The teams came out as expected: Minnesota with their standard starting five, Atlanta with the small lineup that won them the Eastern Finals over Indiana. That left both teams dealing with the obvious mismatch created by the Lynx having two true post players on the floor in Rebekkah Brunson and Taj McWilliams-Franklin, while the Dream had four perimeter players out there. At the start of defensive possessions to begin the game, Angel McCoughtry was nominally on McWilliams-Franklin, with Sancho Lyttle taking Brunson. But the Dream were essentially playing a scramble defense and trying to create as much chaos as possible. They were switching at practically every opportunity, which sometimes left them with ugly mismatches like point guard Lindsey Harding trying to hold off McWilliams-Franklin in the post. However, the speed and activity of all their defenders was compensating and allowing them to survive.

Minnesota’s defense was rather different. They don’t like to switch except when absolutely necessary, so they came out playing straight-up man-to-man, with Brunson doing her best to handle McCoughtry, McWilliams-Franklin taking Lyttle, and Maya Moore taking on Iziane Castro Marques. The problem was that after Brunson and McWilliams-Franklin took advantage of Atlanta’s switching to open an early 6-3 lead, the Dream turned the game into a track meet. And when the ball’s flying from one end to the other, matchups don’t matter all that much – no one even has time to search for their man before the ball’s heading towards the hoop. Continue reading →

WNBA Finals Mega-Preview Part 7: The Conclusion and Prediction

If you happen to be crazy enough to add up all the ratings I’ve given both teams in every area presented, Minnesota comes out ahead 87.5 to 83 (out of a possible 100). In fact, the Lynx only lost out in one of the ten categories. So I should be taking Minnesota to win with ease, right? Well it’s not quite that simple.

Both last year and in the last month, Atlanta have shown an impressive ability to step up their game when they’ve had to. They know how to fight, they know how to win, and they know how compete against the best opposition around. If McCoughtry can show up as the leader and scorer that she was for the second half of the regular season – not the ineffective ghost that she opened the playoffs as – she’ll be tough for Minnesota to handle. She’ll also lead the way in one area I didn’t examine separately that Atlanta are likely to dominate – free throw creation. The Dream could well win at least one game in this series purely through a free throw discrepancy that could creep up towards 20. Plus with Minnesota’s reliance on their starting unit, any foul trouble Atlanta can force them into will damage their rhythm and cohesion at both ends of the floor.

However, I can’t help coming back to one noticeable aspect of this year’s Minnesota Lynx that jumps out of multiple advanced statistical categories: they’re this year’s 2010 Seattle Storm. Continue reading →