Tag Archives: Connecticut Sun

WNBA Today, 07/12/2012: Speed, shooting and teamwork win the day

Sometimes basketball is an awfully simple game. If you’re quicker than the other guys, if you shoot better than the other guys, if you take better care of the damn ball – most of the time you’re going to win. Three games yesterday in the WNBA, and three times one side had greater team speed, shot the ball better, and had fewer turnovers. Guess which team won in every case?

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 77 @ Chicago Sky 68

  • It’s been ugly for Chicago lately. They started the season 7-1, then Epiphanny Prince broke her foot – and they’ve been 1-6 since. Even the one win needed a desperate fight back to beat Atlanta on the Sky’s own floor. They can’t find Sylvia Fowles enough in the post, and they’re struggling to score without Prince to bail them out. Even with the miserable seasons Washington and New York have had so far, Chicago are starting to drop perilously close to the chasing teams. That playoff spot that looked a virtual certainty a month into the season is back in doubt again.
  • San Antonio, on the other hand, have been on a tear. They’d won seven in a row coming into this game, including all three prior games of the Eastern Conference road swing that this encounter completed. They’d rather the Olympics were in October.
  • The Sky switched back to Ruth Riley in their starting lineup, after going small with Sonja Petrovic in their previous game against Indiana. This despite San Antonio being pretty small themselves with Sophia Young at the 4. San Antonio, of course, aren’t changing anything at this stage.
  • The problem with starting Riley against teams with agile power forwards, is that Fowles has to guard them while Riley takes the opposing center. So Fowles had to chase Young around, and Young took advantage with a couple of early jumpers from the perimeter. Fowles doesn’t really want to follow her out that far.
  • Meanwhile at the other end Young could relax, as her primary defensive responsibility is Riley, who does virtually nothing on the offensive end. Jayne Appel was the one exerting all her energy trying to battle Fowles in the paint.
  • Chicago ran an awful lot of pick-and-rolls and slip-screens with Fowles to try to find her in the paint early on, but it was painfully predictable. It worked once or twice when she managed to seal Appel under her, and she also drew early fouls on Appel, but it’s not like a slew of points were being produced. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/11/2012: Early Starts, Same Results

Apologies for this piece being posted after subsequent games have taken place, but all these Camp Day games are throwing my schedule out of whack. Everything would be fine if it weren’t for those meddling kids. Anyway, four games yesterday, all witnessed by hordes of screaming children. And the same four teams won that you would’ve expected to win in front of the standard bunch of adults and families. So let’s get to it, and I promise not to whine too much about the high-pitched background noise prevalent throughout every game.

 

Connecticut Sun 77 @ Washington Mystics 70

  • Lineups as expected for both teams. Mike Thibault’s rotation is growing increasingly short, however – both Danielle McCray and Kelsey Griffin failed to log a single second of court time in this game, having been pushed out by other players performing better in their positions.
  • Matee Ajavon got off to a nice start for Washington, being aggressive offensively and knocking down perimeter shots. Mystics GM/head coach Trudi Lacey has been jerking her minutes around lately (and this game was no different), so maybe Matee felt she better get those shots off while she had the chance.
  • After that early Ajavon burst, Connecticut dominated the first quarter. Asjha Jones and Tina Charles were both far too good for Washington in the paint, and while the Mystics were grabbing multiple offensive rebounds, it only led to extra misses. The Sun lead was as high as 14 points.
  • Connecticut relaxed too much over the rest of the half, and allowed themselves to be dragged down to Washington’s level. Charles spending several minutes resting on the bench stalled their momentum as well.
  • Crystal Langhorne, looking only semi-healthy thanks to the ankle she sprained a few games ago, got involved offensively late in the half, and helped Washington hang around. They trailed just 34-30 at halftime despite being largely outplayed – thanks mostly to a 12-0 advantage on the offensive glass (led by Michelle Snow with 6). Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/08/2012: Welcome, my friends, to the night of WNBA basketball that never ends

It felt like there was a hell of a lot of WNBA basketball played last night. We’ve had four-game evenings before, but with an early-evening start and late-night finish, and with all the swings and roundabouts that the games took us through, there was a lot to see and talk about. So this time I’m making no promises about keeping things short. Skim-reading is acceptable if you don’t have several hours to dedicate to careful perusal of WNBAlien.

Once again, it’s the Bullet Point Breakdown to try to keep everything moving.

 

Chicago Sky 86 @ Indiana Fever 88

  • Chicago decided to try starting small again, as Pokey Chatman grows increasingly tired of watching Ruth Riley do very little out on the floor. She was replaced in the lineup by Serbian forward Sonja Petrovic. The last time the Sky tried it, they got humiliated on the glass by Phoenix, but with Indiana’s small lineup it was an understandable switch.
  • The Fever started their usual five, but were short a player due to Erin Phillips’s concussion. That left Jeanette Pohlen and Katie Douglas sliding over to cover the point guard duties whenever Briann January needed a rest.
  • The problem with going small against Indiana, is that they can switch practically at will on defense. They want Tammy Sutton-Brown on Sylvia Fowles, but after that pretty much anyone can guard anyone. It makes defense easier.
  • The Sky were trying to trap high on ball-screens, but the Fever simply moved the ball out of the trap, rotated an extra pass or two, and were left with wide open shots when the ball movement beat the defensive rotation.
  • Indiana also drove aggressively in the opening minutes when the opportunities were available, and were quickly in the penalty. So while they missed a lot of the open shots, the parade of free throws made up for it, and Indiana led 25-15 after a quarter.
  • Largely thanks to the perimeter shooting of backups Le’coe Willingham and Shay Murphy, Chicago fought back in the second quarter. Indiana still couldn’t hit a damn thing, which also helped.
  • Indiana continue to bring a double-team from the baseline side essentially every time the ball is entered into the low post. And it consistently works. The offensive player feels her defender on her high shoulder, starts to spin into what she thinks is space on the low side, and turns right into the second defender coming across. It happens repeatedly. One time, Sylvia Fowles read it perfectly, and threw the cross-court pass to the player that the tactic leaves wide open on the weak side – and Murphy knocked down the three. But the Fever will live with that happening occasionally. The next time Chicago tried it, Tamika Catchings read the pass and picked it off.
  • Talking of passes being picked off, it’s amazing how many turnovers the Sky continue to commit. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/07/2012: The Soul of Wit

You know how these articles often seem to start with some declaration about how they’re going to be shorter than usual, then end up being a million words long anyway? Well today’s going to be different. I promise. There were three WNBA games last night; two of them were pretty dull, and the third was essentially invisible to anyone outside Chicago’s Allstate Arena, due to the vagaries of WNBA.com’s LiveAccess portal. So we’re truly, honestly, absolutely going to keep it short today. Really.

We’re also going to the Bullet Point Breakdown, for extra brevity.

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 78 @ Washington Mystics 73

  • The expected fives started the game, meaning Washington actually opened with their best players for a second consecutive game. Matee Ajavon only played 11 minutes in the end, for some reason, but she did start. The Mystics had Natasha Lacy available again on the bench after recovering from concussion-like symptoms.
  • The first half was utterly forgettable. There was rarely more than a few points in it; San Antonio, playing the second half of a back-to-back, looked a little fatigued; and the Mystics are still the Mystics. Michelle Snow did have one of her better halves of the season, for what that’s worth. The Silver Stars led 36-34 at the break.
  • Both teams shot exactly 50% in the first half, which just about summed it up – neither good nor bad, but right in the middle and utterly mediocre. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/02/2012: A Four-game Feast

The basketball gods offered up a little bit of a treat on Sunday. To make up for a few miserable recent days of basketball, we got four games, at least three of which were well worth watching. The schedulers even spaced them out in neat one-hour intervals so you could transition smoothly from one to the next. We here at WNBAlien will pay tribute to the gods’ generosity in our usual way – with detailed analysis of all the action. Chronological order (feel free to skip the Phoenix-Washington game if you’re only interested in potential playoff teams), Bullet Point Breakdown-style – let’s get to it.

 

Minnesota Lynx 84 @ San Antonio Silver Stars 93

  • You’re going to have to excuse me for going all gushy about this game, because not only was there some excellent basketball played, but the chess-match aspects of the battle between head coaches Dan Hughes and Cheryl Reeve were fascinating as well. Just for those who want to hear about the basketball action and not the ins-and-outs of playcalling and rotations, there’ll be a Chess-Match Warning! posted before every entry related to little coaching intricacies.
  • The teams opened with the standard starting fives we’ve come to expect. One long-term injury apiece, with Jessica Adair and Tangela Smith unavailable.
  • Chess-Match Warning! Those with long memories – or who spend an awful lot of time at this website – may recall the twist San Antonio threw at Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs last year. They defended Maya Moore with the far smaller Becky Hammon, practically daring the Lynx to attack that matchup if Moore could come up with a post game. It worked shockingly well, and Minnesota rarely found a way to exploit it. But in the first regular season matchup between these teams in 2012, Hughes rarely used that tactic. This time, the Silver Stars went right for it. From the opening tip, Hammon was on Moore, Shameka Christon on Seimone Augustus, and Danielle Robinson on Lindsay Whalen. The Silver Stars weren’t messing around.
  • At the other end the Lynx wanted it switched around – Augustus defending Hammon, Moore on Christon.
  • Moore pulled down two offensive boards on the opening Lynx possession, suggesting she might be more prepared to take advantage of the Hammon matchup this year. But after Christon went off, with 8 points in the opening three minutes, Moore was benched for Candice Wiggins. Moore had lasted only 3:04 into the game. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/30/2012: Playing away can be fun

Three WNBA games last night, all overlapping each other. Sometimes, the multi-game view in LiveAccess can be very useful. Considering very few of the fans in attendance went home happy, maybe they’d have been better off in front of a computer screen as well. Let’s get right to it, via the Bullet-Point Breakdown.

 

Connecticut Sun 77 @ Washington Mystics 64

  • For the fifth straight game, Sun coach Mike Thibault retained the same starting lineup, with Kalana Greene and Alison Hightower on the perimeter ahead of Danielle McCray. Washington switched things up a little, bringing Shannon Bobbitt in at the point to replace Jasmine Thomas. For whatever reason, Monique Currie continues to come off the bench – so the Mystics still haven’t tried starting all their best players together for a single game this season.
  • Washington were without backup guard Natasha Lacy due to concussion-like symptoms.
  • The game started poorly for Washington, with multiple turnovers and a forced timeout when Bobbitt picked up her dribble and was trapped. It looked like a blowout waiting to happen.
  • Despite those early problems, Bobbitt illustrated quickly that she was an upgrade on Thomas. Bobbitt has drawbacks – she’s tiny, at times she over-dribbles or has tunnel vision, she often can’t finish inside, and she’s not as good a shooter as she thinks she is – but she makes things happen. If the shot-clock’s running down she’ll penetrate and create something, even if it’s something fairly undesirable. Even when the ball’s in someone else’s hands, she’s often pointing and directing everyone as to what they should be doing. She gives this team a pace and directness they haven’t had with their other lead-guard options.
  • After their lead went as high as 11 in the first-quarter (ooh, unintentional Spinal Tap reference), the Sun relaxed a little too much. It had almost been too easy, and they took their foot off the gas. The ball stopped moving as well as it usually does in their offense, their key post pairing of Tina Charles and Asjha Jones faded out of the game, and Washington drifted back into it.
  • Offensive rebounds were helping the Mystics as well, even if they often only led to an extra opportunity to miss. Continue reading →

WNBA Todays 06/21/2012 & 06/22/2012: Double the W

Apologies for the late posting, it’s been one of those weeks where WNBAlien is restricted by non-WNBA related matters. In order to make up for it, we offer up a double dose of WNBA coverage – both of Wednesday’s games, and both of Thursday’s as well. So two later than usual, but two considerably earlier. See, it all evens out in the end.

Let’s hit the Bullet Point Breakdowns.

 

Washington Mystics 77 @ Phoenix Mercury 88

  • Already without Penny Taylor and Diana Taurasi, the Mercury were missing Candice Dupree and Nakia Sanford for this game as well. Both had picked up ‘left knee contusions’ in the loss to Tulsa on Sunday night. Assuming you believe the Mercury (more on that later). Alexis Hornbuckle and Krystal Thomas came into the starting lineup.
  • Washington stuck with the same starting five they’ve used lately (including the blowout loss to LA on Monday).
  • Most of this game was pretty awful, in terms of actual basketball. In the first half, against a woefully understrength Mercury team, Washington settled for far too many jump shots. Phoenix did the best they could with the personnel they had left, but came out with their 3-2 zone which constantly left shooters ludicrously open.
  • It’s amazing how often Mercury players seem to be close enough to challenge shots, but their arms are down by their sides. How hard is it to stick your hand in the air and make some mild effort to contest? Don’t they teach you that when you’re five? Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/20/2012: Eastern Promise

It was an all-Eastern affair in the WNBA last night. The significantly more appetising game of the two available was in Connecticut, where Indiana were the visitors. While Indiana have lost a few games lately, and Chicago’s hot start has pushed their name into the conversation, the Sun and Fever remain two primary candidates for the Eastern crown. They’d already met once this season, and on that occasion hot shooting from Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas hadn’t been enough to hold off a balanced Connecticut attack. Given the significant possibility that these teams might see each other in the postseason, Indiana won’t want to allow the Sun to dominate the regular season series and build up a mental edge over them.

Erin Phillips was back from her European trip with the Australian national team, but Briann January retained her spot in the starting lineup. For Connecticut it was once again Allison Hightower and Kalana Greene ahead of Danielle McCray on the perimeter.

As in the first game between these teams, Connecticut’s balance gave them an advantage early on. It was 11-2 midway through the first, and each of the Sun’s starters had one basket apiece. Catchings was trying to shoot her team into the game from outside early on, and while Catch can get hot out there, that’s rarely going to be a good choice.

Both of these teams thrive on creating offense from their defense, turning poke aways and steals into quick points back the other way. It kept the pace of the game high while everyone looked to sneak in front and take the ball away. The Sun dominated much of the first half, receiving a surprising level of scoring from players like Hightower and Greene to complement the usual sources. But a late run for the Fever was ignited by defense and January’s scoring, and allowed them to trail only 45-39 at halftime.

The Fever kept hanging around in the second half, with Douglas and Phillips hitting some big shots, and Jessica Davenport carrying over her solid play from the Fever’s previous game (the last one was against Chicago and Fowles, this one versus Connecticut and Charles – maybe Jess just needs a real challenge every night to excel). Phillips hit a deep three late in the third quarter to give Indiana their first lead of the night.

Still, the Fever’s most effective method of offense remained creating turnovers, so when Connecticut managed to take care of the ball they were typically in control. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/18/2012: Backwards Day in the WNBA

Some days, the world just goes a little bit topsy-turvy. Cats make friends with dogs, a politician tells the truth, bookies lose money – you get the idea. Yesterday was one such day in the WNBA. We at WNBAlien bring you all the details below, via the Bullet Point Breakdown.

 

Connecticut Sun 75 @ Atlanta Dream 73

  • The big pregame news was the Atlanta’s star Angel McCoughtry would miss the game with a sprained left MCL. Given that she was benched for the previous game for a ‘team rule violation’, then protested that she hadn’t violated any rules afterwards, I remain a little dubious. Angel may well be hurting, but it might also have been an unofficial ‘suspension’ by head coach Marynell Meadors to show McCoughtry she means business. Either way, Atlanta had to make do without their leader for this contest, and McCoughtry remains day-to-day for future games (which means nothing). Tiffany Hayes again replaced her in the starting lineup.
  • Connecticut kept the same starters as in their previous game, with Allison Hightower and Kalana Greene on the wing ahead of Danielle McCray.
  • The vast majority of the first half was dominated by Atlanta. Defensive pressure from the likes of Hayes and Armintie Price was creating steals and breakouts for the Dream, and causing the game to be played at their pace. Too many lazy passes from Connecticut, and too many unnecessarily quick perimeter jump shots, were allowing Atlanta to dominate.

WNBA Today, 06/16/2012: Blowouts, a squeaker, and a little bit of history

It was another heavy evening of action in the WNBA on Friday, with five games taking place in one night. Fortunately for me, the teams decided to take it easy on us poor writers and offer up an array of blowouts. Some of them even would’ve benefitted from a WNBA version of the mercy rule. Nonetheless, there were still some interesting moments, and one game that went down to the wire, so let’s get to it: WNBAlien Bullet Point Breakdown-style.

 

Indiana Fever 66 @ Washington Mystics 67

  • Tammy Sutton-Brown returned to the starting lineup at center for Indiana, after being losing her spot to Jessica Davenport for one game. Briann January continued to start in place of Erin Phillips at the point, with the Australian still in Europe with her national team.
  • Washington switched things up, with Jasmine Thomas, Matee Ajavon and Noelle Quinn starting on the perimeter. Dominique Canty was waived earlier in the week, and Monique Currie went to the bench. Mystics coach Trudi Lacey was clearly trying to avoid the horrendous starts her team has made a habit of lately, and was opening the game with the lineup that keyed Washington’s comeback in their previous game. She also had Canty’s replacement, Shannon Bobbitt, as a new point guard option off the pine.
  • The fresh starting lineup seemed to work for the Mystics. They avoided digging their typical first half hole, and even built a small lead in the second quarter. Indiana’s problem was that when they couldn’t get out and run off steals or long rebounds, their halfcourt offense wasn’t creating anything. There was very little going to the rim, resulting in a lot of jumpers, very few of which were falling.