WNBA Today, 08/10/2013: Two road blowouts and Mercury win with, uh, defense and rebounding?

 

It wasn’t exactly a banner day of basketball yesterday in the WNBA, as three games resulted in an ugly slugfest and two blowouts. Because ‘poor but close’ is generally more interesting than ‘desperately one-sided’, and the league’s newest head coach was involved in the tight game, we’re breaking away from our usual chronological order for today’s Bullet Point Breakdowns, and starting in Arizona.

 

Tulsa Shock 67 @ Phoenix Mercury 70

  • Russ Pennell’s first game in charge of the Mercury came against Tulsa, the first of three meetings with the Shock in the space of twelve days. If Tulsa could take advantage of Phoenix’s recent issues to win at least two of those, then the lower reaches of the playoff race in the Western Conference might become distinctly more interesting. Pennell had the good fortune to have DeWanna Bonner healthy to play despite the bruised knee she suffered in Corey Gaines’s final game as head coach. Brittney Griner’s sprained ankle, however, kept her out. Krystal Thomas started in her place. Tulsa continued with the same starting lineup they’ve been rolling out in recent games, but were once again without live-wire sixth woman Riquna Williams due to a right ankle problem that’s expected to keep her out another week.

 

  • The most obvious difference under Pennell, right from the start, was the lack of zone defense. The Mercury were so deplorable playing man-to-man under Gaines that they went to a 1-2-2 zone midway through the season for the majority of defensive possessions, and had some success. Pennell has thrown that out, and went man-to-man throughout. They weren’t switching much either, placing individual responsibility on each player to cover their man. It backfired a couple of times early on, as a few Mercury players failed to offer the effort required to play effective man-to-man. Diana Taurasi, in particular, got caught on screens or just watched Angel Goodrich go by her far too frequently.

 

  • Tulsa’s success in recent weeks has come through the post pairing of Liz Cambage and Glory Johnson, and that was inevitably their focus again. They tried to run their offense through Cambage down low, and when she looked to score she was efficient and effective. Phoenix weren’t even double-teaming her that frequently, often leaving Thomas or Lynetta Kizer to do most of the work alone. It would’ve been nice to see Cambage attack even more than she did – at times it was almost as if she was expecting additional defenders and looking to pass before it was necessary. Johnson was quiet, failing to make much impact on the game. It was back to the story from a month or so ago, when the concentration on feeding Cambage led to Johnson barely touching the ball.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/09/2013: Sparks punish Fever inside, while Mystics pull off big upset in Minnesota

 

While the big news around the WNBA yesterday may have been the departure of Phoenix Mercury head coach Corey Gaines (read in depth coverage of that HERE), there were also two intriguing cross-conference basketball games to take in. Having gone the right way in both of them in my picks against the spread, forgive me if there’s a mildly smug hint to the coverage below. The predictions have been going surprisingly well since the All-Star break – for once, I’d actually be making money if I followed my own gambling advice.

 

The opener was in Indiana, where the Los Angeles Sparks made their yearly visit. After missing the first three games of LA’s post-All-Star road trip due to a right wrist injury, Candace Parker was back with the team and back in the lineup. There was some strapping around the wrist, and she grabbed it once or twice during the game, but obviously she and the medical staff felt she was ready to return. The Fever are as healthy as they look likely to get for a while. Center Jessica Davenport is done for the season after surgery on her tibia, and Katie Douglas’s back problem continues to leave her sidelined. But with the injuries they’ve battled all year, Indiana will settle for having 10 of their 12 first-choice options available to play.

 

The opening couple of minutes seemingly went perfectly for the Fever. LA looked unprepared for the energy and activity of Indiana’s defense, and repeatedly turned the ball over on passes into traffic or poke-aways by Fever defenders. Briann January even hit a layup, which has been about as common this season as seeing a pig drift by your window. But Indiana didn’t create any separation during that sequence because they couldn’t hit anything from the perimeter, and when they avoided turning the ball over LA weren’t missing. It didn’t help when January picked up her second early foul on a soft call while trying to play tight to Lindsey Harding on defense, sending her to the bench.

 

Once the Sparks started taking better care of the ball, they began to dominate. They were getting out in transition when they could, but even in halfcourt sets they were finding their bigs deep in the paint and converting at the rim. Without steals to run off, Indiana were taking a lot of jumpers, virtually none of which went in, merely helping LA push back the other way from the long rebounds. The officials also started calling almost everything, which hurt Indiana far more than LA. Suddenly those reach-ins or poke-away plays from Fever defenders were drawing whistles, sending LA to the line repeatedly, rather than resulting in turnovers. By the end of the first quarter LA already had 16 points in the paint, 9 more at the free throw line, and led 27-13.

 

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Losses Outweigh Gaines: No defense for Corey as Mercury make a change

 

Sitting at 10-11 and clinging to third place in the WNBA’s Western Conference, the Phoenix Mercury decided enough was enough on Thursday, and fired head coach and general manager Corey Gaines. Russ Pennell, former men’s head coach at the University of Arizona and Grand Canyon University, was named interim head coach, while Chief Operating Officer Amber Cox will take over the general manager duties.

 

While many were surprised at the timing – changes at head coach, especially for playoff teams, tend to happen in the offseason rather than during the regular season – the decision itself can’t be a huge shock at this point. After the desperate season last year, where endless losses piled up (by design or misfortune, depending on your perspective), this year was meant to be the bounce-back. They were adding a game-changer in rookie center Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi was healthy, Candice Dupree and DeWanna Bonner were still in the fold, Penny Taylor was on her way back, even their young point guard was now a year more experienced – they were loaded. Injuries to Griner and Taylor provided yet more excuses for Gaines, but the team weren’t good enough whoever was on the floor. And considering teams across the league were dealing with major injuries to their stars and finding a way to survive, the Mercury’s struggles were made to look even worse.

 

Defense has always been Gaines’s achilles heel. In his five seasons in charge, the Mercury were second-last, last, last, third-last, and last in the WNBA in defensive points per possession (that’s how many points they concede, adjusted for the pace at which their games are played). They’re last again this year, by a considerable margin. The other 11 teams all sit somewhere between 91.4 and 101.4 points per 100 possessions; Phoenix have given up 104.3. Whenever this has been brought up over the years, his defenders have talked about how the Mercury offensive style leads to the defensive failings. But that’s always been a fallacy. You can play fast-paced, attacking basketball on the offensive end, and still play defense. Just because you like to concentrate on one end of the floor, doesn’t mean you can completely ignore the other. There are some poor defenders on the Mercury squad, but they’ve been so bad for so long that it’s completely inexcusable. There’s been a dismal lack of rules and consistency within their defense for years, and then this year they added the most dominant defensive center to emerge from the NCAA in a very long time. The hope was that they could install her at center, and she could cover for the flaws in Gaines’s system and coaching. But they were still terrible. Griner had her issues adapting to the pick-and-roll based pro game, and then the knee problem slowed her progress, but there were no signs that Gaines knew what he was doing in utilising her. You couldn’t help but feel that virtually any other coach in the league would’ve been doing a better job turning her into a true force on the defensive end.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/07/2013: Quintuple Tuesday in the WNBA

 

Yesterday was the first five-game day of the 2013 WNBA season, as the schedulers did their level best to make my life as difficult as possible. But they won’t break me. Not only did I come within inches of going 5-0 with my picks against the spread (got the right winner in all of them, but one failed to cover), all five are examined in the usual detail below. On to the Bullet Point Breakdowns.

 

Washington Mystics 88 @ New York Liberty 93

  • This was one of three remaining meetings between these teams, after New York won their first matchup last week with a dominant post performance. The starting lineups were the same as in that previous meeting, with Washington’s Mike Thibault promoting Michelle Snow back into the starting lineup for Emma Meesseman, after trying something different against LA on Sunday.

 

  • New York were the slightly more successful team in the early going thanks to their interior attack, with Cappie Pondexter drawing extra defenders to create good looks for her teammates inside. She still takes too many of those 19ft pullup jumpers – frustrating because they’d be barely any more difficult from two feet further back, and a low-percentage three-pointer is a much more worthwhile shot than a low-percentage two. But she does at least seem to be handling the ‘lead guard’ position better. There’s been more poise, fewer turnovers, and better patience to her game recently – even if her jump shot still isn’t dropping all that often.

 

  • It was New York’s general inability to hit a shot that helped ease Washington back into the game, although the Mystics were taking plenty themselves. Even with all those perimeter shots, Washington drew plenty of whistles, which also helped them take the lead at the free throw line.

 

  • As the half progressed, the Liberty found some shooting from an unusual source. Wing Alex Montgomery has gradually earned increasing minutes this season, but it’s been due to her defense and hustle more than her points production. Her jumper was falling in this game, giving the posts someone to kick out to and Pondexter a sidekick on the perimeter. That left us with a surprisingly high-scoring first half, which finished with Washington up 46-45.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/05/2013: Sparks dominate regressing Mystics; Silver Stars squeak past Shock; Lynx coast home again

 

Sometimes, the WNBA can be pretty predictable. When one team fighting at the top of a conference faces a sub-.500 team heading backwards, there’s a likely result. When the two worst teams in the West face off, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the game ends up scrappy and tight. And when the league’s best team faces a squad that have been fighting for their lives all year, a blowout is on the cards. Let’s take a look at Sunday’s action.

 

Los Angeles Sparks 75 @ Washington Mystics 57

  • The bad news for Los Angeles was that Candace Parker was still out with her right wrist injury, and had in fact left the team to head back to LA for an MRI. She’s listed with a bone bruise and is day-to-day. Mike Thibault made a change to his starting lineup, finally reacting to the fact that his bench was frequently outperforming his starters. Rookie Emma Meesseman came in for Michelle Snow at center, putting her alongside Crystal Langhorne in the post. Interestingly, Thibault was reluctant to use Langhorne and Meesseman together at all at the start of the season – both are primarily power forwards at this level, so it can be an awkward fit. Now he was trying them as his starting frontcourt.

 

  • For the first few minutes, Washington were on top, with everything rimming out for LA while the Mystics made a series of short jumpers. But that balance was very short-lived. The Sparks were getting deep into the Washington defense with Nneka Ogwumike finishing inside, Marissa Coleman came off the bench and started nailing jumpers, while all the Mystics could offer were bricks from the perimeter. LA took control.

 

  • The silver lining in Parker’s injury for LA could be the extra responsibility it places on Ogwumike to step up. While she’s put together solid numbers, she has a tendency to fade into the background in many games while Parker and the perimeter stars dominate the ball. With Parker out she can be more of a focus for the offense, remind everyone – including herself – what she can do, and then hopefully keep that rolling after Parker returns.

 

  • Washington made a bit of a run in the second quarter to get themselves back into the contest, but there were still too many turnovers, too much one-on-one play, and too many jumpers being fired up. The home commentators were happy about how high a percentage of their scoring was coming in the paint – but that was because they weren’t getting to the line and they weren’t making any jump shots. When that happens, virtually all your points have to come in the paint. There’s no other way to score. LA led 33-26 at halftime.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/04/2013: Sun, Fever and Mercury prevail as WNBA standings continue to tighten up

 

Another triple-header in the WNBA last night, and the team with the weaker existing record won all three of them. Everyone’s back underway now after the All-Star break, and so far there’s been something of a concertina effect tightening up the standings. Off to the Bullet Point Breakdowns to examine last night’s action.

 

Connecticut Sun 88 @ New York Liberty 66

  • The teams were unchanged for this matchup from their previous games, both in the players available and their starting lineups (although Kara Lawson was listed as ‘Not with Team – Family Issue’ rather than out due to her bruised knee, for what that’s worth). Both were trying to build from wins, after New York produced another dominant post display to beat Washington, and Connecticut scraped together a fourth quarter comeback to beat an understrength Indiana.

 

  • The opening stages were exactly what most probably would’ve expected. The Liberty pounded the ball inside, and ended up with a series of layups and post finishes for Plenette Pierson and Kara Braxton. The Sun help defense was slow to arrive (if it arrived at all), leaving far too much room for bigs on the pick-and-roll. At the other end of the floor, Tina Charles was already drifting further and further away from the rim to fire jump shots, and no one else was hitting anything, just as has been the case all year for Connecticut. It was a familiar story.

 

  • Then a funny thing happened. Renee Montgomery and Allison Hightower made consecutive threes out of a timeout midway through the first quarter, and that opened the floodgates. For the rest of the first half, Connecticut were suddenly making shots they’d been missing all season. The return to fitness of Montgomery and Tan White have given them more options, but even the likes of Kelly Faris and Kelsey Griffin were drilling perimeter jump shots. It gave Connecticut a foothold in the game that they’ve rarely had this year, because of the constant steam of bricks they’ve been firing up.

 

  • New York were still the more efficient team offensively for most of the first half. Cappie Pondexter continued to shoot horrendously, as she has done for the vast majority of the season, but when she stuck to creating for teammates and dropping off passes it led to good looks. There’s been a little bit more patience to the Liberty passing in recent games, making the pass when the opportunity actually presents itself rather than when they feel they’re supposed to pass. By halftime the Sun shooting had kept them right in the game, and the Liberty led just 34-33, but New York were up 26-8 in points in the paint. Typically, that suggests the team relying on outside shooting will cool off and the team scoring inside will pull away in the second half.

 

  • But of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. When you start making a few shots, everything can begin to look better. The sun shines brighter, the birds sing sweeter, you put some effort in on defense – the list goes on. After already beginning to fade in the second quarter, New York’s post attack continued to tail off in the third, as they failed to find the same space that had been on offer at the start of the game. The parade of jumpers continued to drop for the Sun now their confidence was up, leading to some drives for higher-percentage looks as well. Connecticut’s lead continued to stretch out throughout the third quarter, and New York didn’t have an answer. They were being comprehensively out-shot by the Sun.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/03/2013: Fowles and Cambage carry teams to victory in the paint; Lynx coast past Silver Stars again

 

Now we really know the WNBA has kicked back into gear after the All-Star break – three games last night, all of them missing superstars of the women’s game due to injury. Such is the WNBA in 2013. On to the Bullet Point Breakdowns to take a look at the action.

 

Los Angeles Sparks 89 @ Tulsa Shock 96

  • The late-breaking news before this one was that Los Angeles star Candace Parker was out due to a right wrist problem. Nothing seems to have emerged yet as to how or when she suffered the injury, and she was with the team, but Jantel Lavender started in her place. It’s unknown whether Parker will be available for LA’s next game on Sunday in Washington. Tulsa kept the same starting lineup that led them to three wins in their final four games before the break.

 

  • The opening possession of the game saw Glory Johnson go straight past Lavender with a drive from the elbow, while drawing a foul. It was clearly a screw-up from the LA defense (which is a little ridiculous off an opening tip). Nneka Ogwumike should’ve been on Johnson, with Lavender on Liz Cambage. But it illustrated an extra level of difficulty that the Johnson/Cambage pairing throws at defenses. A lot of teams in this league have relatively interchangeable post tandems, so switching when the opposing 4/5 combinations cross, or just picking up whichever is nearest in transition isn’t a problem. But Johnson and Cambage present such differing threats that teams may need specific defenders on each of them. It just makes post defense and interior rotation that little bit more complicated.

 

  • Lavender picked up a second foul moments later and went to the bench. Now LA had to handle Tulsa’s posts with Ogwumike and Ebony Hoffman.

 

  • It was Tulsa who got off to the quicker start. Most of their halfcourt sets start in the ‘horns’ formation, then roll into a high-low balance with Johnson at the elbow and Cambage in the paint after the point guard uses one of them as a screen. It’s not complicated, but it can be very effective. They were also playing much quicker than LA in the early going, looking to push and attack. The Shock have moved away from firing endless threes in recent games, driving more even when they can’t get the ball inside to their talented posts. It’s made them a more dangerous team, and leads to more fouls and free throws.

 

  • The other obvious change in Tulsa’s recent run of good form is that it’s coincided with Angel Goodrich coming in as the starting point guard. The move was forced when Skylar Diggins sprained an ankle and missed a game, but Goodrich hasn’t let her back in. Citing that as the reason for Tulsa’s upswing would be unfair to Diggins – the health of Cambage and increasing development of her pairing with Johnson has been key, and came at a similar time – but it’s hard to write it off as complete coincidence. Goodrich is an active little thing, she keeps them moving, and she knows how to run a team. Her confidence to score herself is slowly increasing as well, after she looked almost afraid to shoot early in the year. She’s also managed to play well enough defensively to prevent being exploited on that end despite her tiny stature. Diggins has struggled to adapt to the pro game, and still can’t finish in traffic for love nor money. The big-name rookie might get her job back eventually, but right now head coach Gary Kloppenburg is quite rightly sticking with what’s working and going with the rookie third-round pick.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/02/2013: Sun comeback papers over cracks in Connecticut, while Storm make Mercury melt

 

Last night saw four more WNBA teams resume action after the All-Star break, although the shine was taken off the opening game before it began. Indiana travelled to Connecticut without star forward Tamika Catchings due to personal reasons – she’s fine, and expected to play in their next game, but “family cicumstances prohibited travel for this game”, whatever that means. Guard Erin Phillips also stayed home due to continuing issues with the knee that was operated on in the preseason. Wing Jeanette Pohlen is reportedly nearing a return, but she and Katie Douglas are still out for now as well, so the Fever were back down to eight bodies. With Kara Lawson still out for the Sun due to her bruised knee, Connecticut weren’t at full strength either.

 

This was an awful, ugly game for most of the evening. If the WNBA had a D-League, this is what it might look like (and a few of these players might be there sooner rather than later as well). The positive in the early minutes for Connecticut was that Tina Charles was inside, getting putbacks and finish attempts near the rim. That’s where you want to see her, not firing endless fadeaway jumpers. But the rest of the Sun still couldn’t make a shot to save their lives, which inevitably leads to Charles forcing up more and more difficult shots as games wear on. She’s trying to carry the team, and taking some bad shots in an effort to score before double and triple-teams force her to move the ball. She’s not playing well – 40% from the field for a center, along with minimal trips to the free throw line, is horrible – but it’s a difficult situation for anybody.

 

Elsewhere in the frontcourt, Jessica Breland and Kelsey Griffin were making each other look good. Griffin’s a hustle backup pushed into a starting role that she isn’t good enough for, but she’ll at least grab a rebound or two and offer some energy. Breland isn’t remotely close to Catchings as a defender – an unfair comparison for anyone, but Breland in particular loses concentration or gets exposed on the defensive end too frequently. However, on the offensive end, Breland was perfectly capable of feasting on the weak collection of power forwards Connecticut have to offer this season.

 

Neither team led by more than five points in the first half until the final couple of minutes, when a Shavonte Zellous pullup jumper was followed by Karima Christmas driving right past a statuesque Renee Montgomery for a layup (Charles was weak and late on the help defense as well). Then Briann January hit a three, and Zellous pulled up to hit a triple of her own just before the halftime buzzer. From nowhere, the understrength Fever had pushed out to a 34-25 lead at the break.

 

Most of the third quarter was just as bad for Connecticut. Frankly, if you can’t beat a Fever team without Catchings, Douglas, Phillips and others, it might be time to consider a new profession. But Indiana extended their lead to 16 late in the third quarter on consecutive breakaway layups from Christmas and Zellous – both in situations where the Fever players simply seemed to put more effort in to get to the ball first and push it to the other end. It looked like the game was going to tail off into another embarrassing loss for the Sun in a season full of them.

 

However, Sun coach Anne Donovan finally ran into a lineup that clicked. Starters Charles and Allison Hightower were joined on the floor by Tan White, Kelly Faris (who didn’t play a single second during the opening 28 minutes of the game) and Mistie Bass. They closed out the third quarter with Bass running the floor hard for a transition layup, and White nailing a three from the corner. Then opened the fourth with Bass dropping in a short hook, Hightower driving past January for a layup, White hitting a pullup, Faris driving past Breland with ease for her own layup, and Charles closing off Breland for an easy finish inside. That drew the second Fever timeout in quick succession, as a 15-0 Connecticut run had pulled them within a point.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/01/2013: Liberty pound Mystics in the paint as WNBA’s second half begins

 

After nearly a week with nothing to sustain us but All-Star festivities, real WNBA action got back underway last night with New York taking a trip to Washington. The vagaries of the WNBA schedule meant this was the first of four encounters for the conference rivals, and with the Liberty trying to chase down the Mystics (or Indiana) for a playoff spot it’s likely to be an important series. Win at least three of the four, and New York would probably be right in amongst the hunt for the postseason (plus they’d hold the valuable tie-breaker); lose at least three, and the second half of the Liberty season would likely be as disappointing as the first.

 

The health of both sides was the same as it’s been for most of the year – Washington have a full eleven, New York have been at ten since Essence Carson tore her ACL. Mike Thibault continued with his veteran starting unit, but Bill Laimbeer made another switch for New York. He’s chopped and changed his lineup this year in search of a successful rotation, and this time it was rookie guard Kamiko Williams’s turn to start. She replaced forward Toni Young to start the game, but it wasn’t a return to the structure from the start of the year, when Williams was essentially the starting point guard. She played off the ball, with Cappie Pondexter continuing in her ‘lead guard’ role, and Katie Smith doing most of the additional ballhandling. Williams was essentially a role-playing wing, out there to play some defense and keep the ball moving, and not much else. Alex Montgomery’s increasingly been earning minutes in that role recently, but presumably Laimbeer wanted to keep her as part of his rotation coming off the bench. It’s one of the few things that’s been working for the Liberty lately.

 

However, it was New York that started this game the stronger. Or at least, it was Good Kara Braxton that exploded out of the blocks. She scored New York’s first five buckets of the game – without a miss – all on finishes right at the rim. It was a reminder of the Liberty’s success against Indiana in the ESPN2 game eight days earlier. They were finding their posts with deep position in the paint, creating easy chances right at point-blank range. Meanwhile, Washington were a clear contrast, settling for perimeter jumpers and failing to hit any. Their only response to Braxton’s barrage came on an offensive rebound and putback for Crystal Langhorne, when a Michelle Snow jumper missed so badly the ball dropped in Langhorne’s hands.

 

Thibault finally cried for a timeout with his team trailing 12-2 after barely four minutes of action, although Snow had already been dragged out of the game in the hope that Kia Vaughn could do a better job of handling Braxton. Out of that break, the Mystics finally got into their game by once again rediscovering their aggression. It’s been a key component of their improvement this season, but they still seem to forget it at times. Drive, create contact, then draw fouls or create better looks – simple. Monique Currie went first, and threw in a ridiculous runner, but it was Matee Ajavon who had the most success. Braxton taking a rest, and New York coughing up some of their trademark turnovers, also helped Washington into the contest.

 

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WNBA Today, 07/30/2013: The Late Late WNBA All-Star Game Recap

 

As you can probably tell from the length of time it took for this coverage to appear, detailing the WNBA All-Star Game wasn’t high on my list of priorities. The ins and outs of who makes it to the game or who goes overlooked is generally far more interesting than the game itself, which is a meaningless exhibition, usually filled with terrible basketball. This year at least, it did turn out to be reasonably entertaining. And if you’re going to cover 204 regular season games, a few minutes taking a look at the showpiece midseason event seems only right. So let’s take a look at a few of the highlights.

 

  • Indiana Fever and Eastern Conference All-Stars head coach Lin Dunn said during her pregame speech that she’d been all over social media hyping the game, including Myspace – leaving many viewers and several of her own players cracking up with laughter. Listening to Lin Dunn is always worthwhile, one way or another.

 

  • Shavonte Zellous created the first vaguely entertaining interview WNBA president Laurel Richie has provided in as long as I can remember. Richie’s usually as mind-numbing in interviews as her predecessor Donna Orender, but Zellous jumping into the back of the shot and shimmying to music only she could hear offered a welcome distraction. It was nice to see some new faces at All-Star, and the likes of Zellous and Latta clearly enjoyed the hell out of the experience.

 

  • Also amusing was how much several players lived up to their performances – or lack thereof – from the first half of the season. Tina Charles and Cappie Pondexter tossed up a whole lot of bricks; Pondexter had a couple of nice assists, but also sent several passes into the crowd, maintaining the turnover binge she’s been a central part of in New York; and Rebekkah Brunson charged after every loose ball and rebound like her life depended on it – apparently she only has one gear.

 

  • It was 49-43 to the East at halftime, with Chicago’s Epiphanny Prince probably the sweetest shooter on show to that point. The four Minnesota Lynx on the West squad provided 32 of their team’s 43 points in the first half.

 

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