Tag Archives: Minnesota Lynx

WNBA Today, 08/26/2012: Superstars return, as WNBA leaders keep on winning

So with four games yesterday in the WNBA, and four comfortable wins for the obvious favourites, most of the interest was focussed on the soap operas. Would Angel McCoughtry return from her ‘personal reasons’ for Atlanta? Would Dream coach Marynell Meadors let her? Would Diana Taurasi finally play for Phoenix? Or would her dog eat her shoelace to keep her off the floor? Would the stars of Los Angeles and New York become so tired of all the attention drifting elsewhere that they’d start a fight to compete?

Well that last one’s a little unfair, but I had to throw in something from the other games. On to the Bullet Point Breakdown, where all will be revealed.

 

Minnesota Lynx 84 @ Atlanta Dream 74

  • As reported by Rebecca Lobo and her ESPN cohorts an hour or two before tip-off, McCoughtry was in uniform and ready to play in the nationally televised rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals. But there was still no coherent explanation for the absence, and Angel was ‘no longer a captain’ (they used to have three, now it’s just Armintie Price and Sancho Lyttle). So something happened, but we still don’t know exactly what.
  • Tiffany Hayes kept her starting spot ahead of McCoughtry. Minnesota, typically free from drama, had their standard five on the floor.
  • As she’d already illustrated in the two games Angel spent off-court, Hayes is developing into a pretty useful alternative. She was the one driving into the paint to create offense for Atlanta in the early minutes, while Minnesota settled for – and missed – a series of perimeter shots.
  • Barely three minutes into the game, Meadors got to make a pretty obvious point to her returning star. Armintie Price had picked up two quick fouls, and the straight swap off the bench would clearly have been McCoughtry. Instead, Meadors went to Cathrine Kraayeveld, who’s barely a small forward at the best of times – never mind when Maya Moore and Monica Wright are playing that spot for the other team. That was a pointed “the team’s bigger than you, Angel” statement from the coach. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/22/2012: Western powers roll; Sun survive a scare; Sky keep falling

Five games last night. They really don’t think about the poor writers when they come up with these schedules. For those of you who prefer the standard article format, rest assured that it will return on nights when there are fewer games to discuss. But for now, on to the Bullet Point Breakdown of all five games from Tuesday.

 

Tulsa Shock 80 @ Connecticut Sun 82

  • Starting forwards were still missing for both teams, Asjha Jones with her achilles issue and Kayla Pedersen presumably still suffering from the flu-like symptoms which kept her out on Sunday. Mistie Mims was again the replacement for Connecticut, while Tulsa went with Chante Black this time to fill Pedersen’s spot. Presumably in the hope that Black could help slow down Tina Charles. Ivory Latta also received her first start since the Olympic break, at that revolving wing spot where Gary Kloppenburg keeps rotating through his options.
  • The opening minutes were a little embarrassing for Kalana Greene. She’s basically out there for her defense, because she doesn’t offer a great deal at the other end of the floor. Her assignment to start this game was Roneeka Hodges, who was ridiculously open for two three-pointers to kick off Tulsa’s scoring.
  • In Greene’s defense, Hodges was wide open for her third triple as well, seconds after Greene was finally benched. Some of it came down to Connecticut’s defensive scheme, rather than individual failings, as became increasingly clear all night.
  • Connecticut’s defense, most of the time, is based around a similar idea to a lot of defensive systems in this league: the basic view that there aren’t that many players in the WNBA who can consistently knock down the three. They try to cut off penetration, and if anyone gets beaten off the dribble, the help sags inside to cover. Inevitably, that leaves shooters open on the wings at times, because that’s where the help is coming from. But they’ll live with that if they have to. You rotate and recover as quickly as possible to challenge the three if the ball gets kicked out, but that shot’s an acceptable risk compared to the potential layup attempt you’d otherwise give up. Tulsa got a bunch of those open threes on the wing in this game (and didn’t actually hit that many – so the plan mostly worked). Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/20/2012: OT tedium in the East, no surprises out West

It was a weird day of WNBA basketball yesterday. Usually, games which go down to the wire are exciting, however poorly played they might’ve been. The opening game on Sunday illustrated that there are occasionally exceptions. The second game was so predictable, and so uncompetitive, that it set a new record for the fewest notes I’ve ever made about any WNBA game I intend to write about. Then the final contest, between arguably the best and worst teams in the WNBA, was refreshingly entertaining until it turned into a blowout in the fourth quarter.

Sometimes, the world of the WNBA is a strange one.

 

Chicago Sky 71 @ Washington Mystics 75

  • Washington trotted out the same starting five, while Chicago once again went small with Swin Cash at power forward and Tamera Young on the wing. At some point, you wonder if Sky coach Pokey Chatman might try starting the only true power forward on her roster – Le’coe Willingham – in that power forward slot she keeps messing around with. Willingham hasn’t made the greatest start as a Sky player, but at least she’d be a straightforward fit. Maybe that’s just too logical.
  • Michelle Snow picked up two very quick fouls, not that that was ever likely to make a great deal of difference to Washington’s performance.
  • Cash struggled at times defensively, because sliding to the four against Washington means trying to guard Crystal Langhorne. And when the Mystics actually managed to run something coherent and get Langhorne the ball – which wasn’t often – she’s too polished an interior scorer for Cash to deal with.
  • Chicago eventually built something of a lead late in the first quarter, although it was more down to the lack of offense or organisation from Washington than anything impressive from the Sky. If your opponent can’t score, eventually you should move ahead even if your own offense is poor. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/19/2012 (Part One): Catching Up

Yes, I know this is desperately late, but yesterday sitting in the pub and watching the start of the English Premier League season took precedence over writing about the WNBA (even though the first really important game isn’t until Monday). But just in case anyone still cares to hear my thoughts about Friday night’s WNBA games, here you go. It was at least a small step up on the three snoozefests that got the season back underway the night before.

 

Washington Mystics 69 @ Minnesota Lynx 98

  • Yep, we’re going to get the game only a mother or a blowout fan could love out of the way first. The Lynx reopened their season with their roster back in one piece, Rebekkah Brunson, Jessica Adair and Devereaux Peters all having recovered from their respective injuries over the break. Brunson returned to her customary spot as the starting power forward, alongside the three Lynx gold-medalists (who’d all somehow made it back from London in time to play).
  • Washington kept faith with the same starting lineup that lost in Indiana the night before (the schedulers sure weren’t kind to the Mystics – a road back-to-back against the Fever and Lynx to kick off the second half. That was never going to end well.)
  • Brunson came back from London with some seriously ugly fluorescent yellow shoes.
  • It didn’t take long for the vast gap in talent, chemistry, confidence, and everything else required to win basketball games showed up in this one. From the opening tip Minnesota were moving the ball well and stepping into shots with clear belief that they could make them, while also finding repeated holes in the Washington defense. The Mystics, on the other hand, looked tired and defeated well before the first quarter was over, with them already facing a 26-15 deficit.
  • While a home game against Washington was a nice way to ease back into the WNBA, there were no signs of Olympic hangover from the Lynx players we saw win gold only six days earlier. Seimone Augustus couldn’t miss with that pretty jumper (along with several wide open layups), Lindsay Whalen was playing her typical solid all-around game from the point, and Maya Moore slid right back into rhythm on the other wing. It was like they’d never left (after all, they closed the first half playing Tulsa twice – so those were comprehensive blowouts too).
  • The Minnesota bench kept things rolling as necessary as, although it was interesting to see Amber Harris as the first post off the bench, ahead of Peters and Adair. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve sometimes makes decisions like that based on matchups, so we’ll see if that rotation decision continues in future games. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/13/2012: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

Finally it’s upon us – the end of the first-half of the WNBA’s 2012 season. Heading into yesterday, every team in the league had one game left before the month-long break that splits this year’s schedule. Apart from the 13 players heading for London, everyone finally has time to kick back and rest their weary limbs, before spending some time in the gym to work on whatever’s been going wrong in the first half. For the vast majority of teams and individuals, this is a welcome respite in a season that’s suffered from a host of injuries to important players.

The first teams to close out their pre-Olympic schedules were Tulsa and Minnesota, sneaking the Lynx’s Camp Day in just before the break. At 3-14, the Shock have once again done a whole lot of losing this season, but with a few renewed signs of promise. Minnesota have dropped so many games recently – a three-game losing streak broken only by a win over Tulsa on Tuesday – that they’d fallen into a tie with Connecticut for the best record in the WNBA at 14-4. Still, after setting a new WNBA record by shooting virtually 70% from the field against the Shock in their last game, the Lynx were looking to complete back-to-back wins and head into the break on a small upswing.

The starting lineups were the same as two days earlier, with Maya Moore at power forward in the absence of Rebekkah Brunson, Jessica Adair and Devereaux Peters. Minnesota started out pushing the ball up the floor quickly, looking for early offense. Besides their halfcourt ball movement, this is how the Lynx pile up easy points when they’re in rhythm – speed and an attack mentality, finding their way to the basket before the defense is even set up. It’s part of what they’d been missing during the losing streak, and they re-discovered it during the two games against Tulsa. We’ll have to wait until after the Olympics to see if they’ve improved their own play, or if it was largely caused by the step down in opponent.

Tulsa managed to hang around through the first quarter, primarily because they started trapping and playing high-pressure defense, which knocked the Lynx briefly out of their stride. Alongside that, Riquna Williams came into the game off the bench and started firing away – as always – and produced some scoring that hadn’t been on offer from the starting unit. Her offense pulled the Shock within 22-21 at the end of the first.

There was a brief little scuffle early in the second quarter between Candice Wiggins and Temeka Johnson. Wiggins has a tendency to get under the skin of opponents with her pesky defense and endless jawing, while Johnson seemed to be in a bad mood all afternoon, but there was nothing much in it. The officials handed out technicals to the pair of them. There was no real reason why that moment should’ve been a turning point – the Lynx are experienced enough not to need a brouhaha to energise them – but the game was tied at 31 when it occurred. Barely five minutes of game time later, Minnesota were ahead 52-33 and the contest was virtually over. 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, 07/06/2012: Lynx lit up by LA; and San Antonio win a game of two halves

Yesterday’s pair of WNBA games got off to an amusing start with the news that Andrea Riley had only been unemployed for a matter of days, with LA picking her up after Phoenix cut her loose. Apparently, that 18% shooting for the Mercury (dropping her WNBA career percentage fractionally below the 30% line) had impressed someone in Los Angeles.

But enough about the scrubs; let’s talk about the basketball. The early game was in LA, where the league-leading Minnesota Lynx were the visitors. The Sparks had lost three in a row, by a combined 50 points (and one of those was even against Tulsa), but after a week off they were looking to improve in front of all their screaming young fans. The Lynx weren’t exactly coming in on a high either, after falling to their second defeat of the season in San Antonio on Sunday. Now they had a chance to respond against their other closest rival in the West.

The expected lineups started the game, and Adair, Anosike and Hoffman were still unavailable for their respective teams. The opening minutes of the contest favoured Minnesota, with the Sparks settling for jump shots and the Lynx’s balance finding points from all around their team. But the warning signs of what was to come were already developing. Kristi Toliver was hot from outside from the very start, and Candace Parker looked interested. Whether on length-of-the-court drives, shots in the half-court, or even actual post ups in the paint – Parker’s offense was in the building. So the Lynx led 19-11, but the advantage was short-lived. An insanely deep three from Toliver to close out the first quarter – already her third make in three attempts from beyond the arc – gave LA a 24-21 lead. Parker and Toliver had combined for 22 of the Sparks’ points.

When she’s in rhythm, Toliver’s one of the best pure shooters in the game. And Lindsay Whalen won’t be mistaken for the best defender in the world any time soon. But it was disappointing for the Lynx that Toliver was so wide open for several of her outside shots. 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, 06/28/2012: Day or night, injuries take their toll

Just two games in the WNBA on Wednesday, and unfortunately injuries continue to play a key role in how these contests play out. It’s going to be nice to come back in August and see healthier, more complete rosters take the floor.

The early game was in Chicago, where Indiana arrived for their second Kids’ Day outing in succession. Not the greatest piece of scheduling the world has ever seen. The key injury here was obviously Epiphanny Prince, the Sky guard who looked like she might be making ‘The Leap’ into an elite class in the early weeks of the season. Prince was in attendance, but she was hopping around on crutches, not in uniform. She should be back to start the second half of the season along with the rest of us.

Other team news for Chicago had backup post Le’coe Willingham missing for personal reasons (although she was sat right next to Prince on the bench in street clothes), and Shay Murphy back after missing five games to represent Montenegro in EuroBasket Women qualifiers (they went 4-0, by the way). Sydney Carter had been cut after one game, because for the first time since May 19th, veteran point guard Ticha Penicheiro was in uniform and ready to play. Penicheiro’s recovery from her lingering calf injury meant that the hardship exception used to sign Carter immediately expired.

The Sky had lost their previous two games, both played essentially without Prince. But this was their first game back on their own floor without her, and the first one they might’ve felt capable of winning in her absence. The Fever have been inconsistent lately, with both Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas struggling to find their jump shots. The Fever were also fairly comfortably beaten the day before in Atlanta, so were carrying the fatigue from a back-to-back. With Indiana 2-0 up in the season series already, Chicago needed this one to avoid conceding the tiebreaker that could come into play at the end of the year.

Both teams started the expected groups – without Prince, Chicago presumably didn’t feel they had the players to go small again to match up with Indiana’s ‘Catch at the 4’ lineup. The early stages featured a stark contrast in styles, with Chicago working hard to feed Sylvia Fowles in the paint, while Indiana fired in perimeter jump shots. Largely speaking, the success rates were fairly similar and the game stayed close.

While both teams diversified their attacks, neither team managed to take control throughout a tight first half. Continue reading →