Tag Archives: WNBA Finals

The Daily W, 09/14/2014: Even without Griner, Mercury sweep Sky away to take WNBA title

 

Phoenix Mercury 87 @ Chicago Sky 82

 

Lineups: The big news before tip-off was that Brittney Griner was out after an outpatient procedure on her right eye the day before. Missing the game was a precautionary measure advised by her doctors, and she would’ve likely been available for future games in the series. If Phoenix hadn’t been up 2-0 and utterly dominant so far in the series, they might’ve pushed the medical staff a little harder to clear her. Ewelina Kobryn came into the starting lineup to fill her spot, as the slightly bigger and more physical option ahead of Mistie Bass. Importantly, Kobryn is also a better defender than Bass, although obviously either was going to be a significant drop-off from Griner.

 

Story of the Game: In the previous two games, the teams had been closely matched during the minutes that Griner spent on the bench. So it was no surprise that we ended up with a tight contest while she watched from the sidelines. As you’d expect, the Sky looked to feed Sylvia Fowles in the paint early on. Kobryn did a decent job battling with her and playing the Griner-role guarding the pass on the pick-and-roll, but the basic gaps in size and athleticism between her and Griner made the passes and finishes easier for Chicago. That said, Fowles still missed some straightforward layups around the rim, and Kobryn was getting most of the points back at the other end with finishes over and around Fowles. Unfortunately for Phoenix, Kobryn picked up a cheap early foul, and then a desperately soft call added her second. She was back on the bench after barely five minutes of play.

 

The problem for Chicago was that while the absence of Griner had opened up some room for their offense, they still couldn’t stop the Mercury. A couple of early fouls for Tamera Young didn’t help, sending one of the Sky’s key defenders back to the bench, and Phoenix continued to score just as smoothly and easily as they had in the previous games. Kobryn and Bass had too much room to finish inside as Fowles continued to show hard on high screens without decent rotation help behind her. Diana Taurasi continued to shoot and score over Courtney Vandersloot whenever she felt like it. And as they’d done throughout the series, Phoenix attacked Elena Delle Donne with whoever she happened to be guarding. Delle Donne looked relatively mobile and healthy in this game on offense, joining Fowles as Chicago’s primary threats in the early stages. But her defense isn’t great to begin with, and with her back problems limiting her physically the Mercury have been exploiting her since Game 1. She started the game on DeWanna Bonner, slid over to Candice Dupree when Young sat down, and both scored with relative ease. The Sky were right in the contest, but they were doing no better defensively than in previous games.

 

Behind jump shots from Delle Donne and Allie Quigley, Chicago actually led midway through the second quarter, a rare occurrence in this series. But Phoenix responded through Candice Dupree, who carried most of their offense in the second period. Her regular display of smooth finishes inside and mid-range jump shots that dropped like layups kept the points rolling for Phoenix (and considering Young only had two fouls and had done a solid job defending Dupree whenever given the chance in this series, you’d have to ask Pokey Chatman to find out why Young never came back in during the second quarter to try to cool Dupree off). Fowles and Kobryn both came back in to resume their battle in the paint (and Kobryn picked up another foul when Fowles backed her under the rim), while Taurasi got a little too aggressive with her jumper and started forcing – and missing – a few. She scored consistently and often easily when defended by Vandersloot in this series, but when Chicago slid someone else over to cover her – even similarly small or weak defenders like Quigley or Epiphanny Prince – she wasn’t quite as successful. The Sky were only down by two at the break, which was a lot better than where they’d been at halftime in the previous games.

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The Daily W, 09/11/2014: Mercury on the brink of a title thanks to another dominant win over Sky

 

Chicago Sky 68 @ Phoenix Mercury 97

 

Lineups: The same fives that opened Game 1 came out for Game 2, so Elena Delle Donne was ready to play despite the problems with her back.

 

Story of the Game: There was an immediately obvious switch for the Sky from Game 1, with Tamera Young sliding over to guard Candice Dupree while Delle Donne tried to hide on DeWanna Bonner. It wasn’t the move to having Young guard Diana Taurasi that I’d been hoping for, but it at least made use of Young being on the floor. Of course, the hope for Chicago would’ve been that it put less stress on Delle Donne (and that she wouldn’t give up so many points defensively, after Dupree lit up the Sky in Game 1).

 

The energy and attack mentality of the Sky was a little better in the early stages than we’d seen for much of Game 1, but we also saw Sylvia Fowles blow yet more finishes around the rim under pressure from Brittney Griner, while Griner converted over or around Fowles at the other end. That was the same as 48 hours earlier. Then Fowles inadvertently took Griner out of the game for several minutes after catching her in the face with a swipe of her arm while fighting for a rebound. Griner was left lying on the court for several seconds while play continued, and went to the sidelines for treatment on a scratch near her right eye. Ewelina Kobryn was the choice to fill in, rather than Mistie Bass, due to her greater size and bulk to match up with Fowles.

 

Whether Griner was in the game or not, Chicago still weren’t particularly effective in running anything offensively, but they did have Delle Donne looking relatively mobile and hitting a couple of shots. Phoenix largely scored with the same regularity that they had in Game 1, with Bonner more aggressive in an effort to exploit Delle Donne’s defense. The Mercury were hurt by foul trouble for Taurasi, after she’d taken one intentionally to stop the game for Griner’s injury, then was called for a push-off after barely five minutes of action. But Chicago still weren’t exactly effective in slowing them down. By the end of the first quarter Phoenix were up by seven, and both Fowles and Griner had joined Taurasi on two fouls apiece (Fowles picking up both of hers while defending Kobryn, Griner adding her second on an illegal screen – so all pretty dumb).

 

The early stages of the second quarter were Chicago’s most positive minutes of the series. Griner started it on the bench, and the Sky finally found some success with their pick-and-roll game, working it mostly with Markeisha Gatling and Epiphanny Prince. Without Griner’s movement and long arms there to block the way, either the dump-off pass to Gatling was available, or Prince pulled up and hit shots in space. Even once Griner came back in, the Sky had finally discovered some offensive rhythm, and Prince was joined by Delle Donne and Allie Quigley in hitting some shots from the perimeter. This was the other element the Sky had missed in Game 1 – basic shot-making. Some of them were tough, some were contested, but they dropped and we had a tight contest on our hands.

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The Daily W, 09/08/2014: Mercury dominate Sky for blowout win to open WNBA Finals

 

Chicago Sky 62 @ Phoenix Mercury 83

 

Lineups: The starters were as expected. Phoenix inevitably went with the five that have been dominating for them for much of the season, while Chicago resisted any temptation to make immediate changes to try to match up with Phoenix’s size.

 

Story of the Game: It was ugly for Chicago right from the start. They were trying to feed Sylvia Fowles in the paint, and she actually managed to back her way into deep position on Brittney Griner a couple of times, but they either couldn’t make the entry pass or Fowles couldn’t finish under pressure from Griner. When the Sky brought Fowles out high to try to run pick-and-rolls, they quickly found that it was a much more difficult proposition than it had been against Indiana. Griner would show briefly on the ballhandler, then drop quickly back into the lane to cover the rolling Fowles, and Chicago couldn’t connect on the feed back to their center. Either Griner would snake a long arm into the way, or help defenders would come across in time. It took a long and painful 5 minutes and 10 seconds for the Sky to score their first points of the afternoon.

 

Meanwhile, Phoenix’s offense wasn’t actually running that smoothly, which prevented their immediate lead from growing too big. Diana Taurasi and Candice Dupree gave the Sky a couple of lessons in how to run the pick-and-roll to perfection, and Taurasi hit a couple of quick pullup jumpers, but most of their dominance was coming on the defensive end. They were so dominant defensively that they could hardly help but start to pull away.

 

Both teams began with fairly straightforward defensive matchups. Dupree took Elena Delle Donne, rather than trying to twist the Mercury defense to slide someone like DeWanna Bonner onto her. That left Bonner to cover Epiphanny Prince, Taurasi on Courtney Vandersloot, and Penny Taylor on Tamera Young. Chicago opened with the same matchups in reverse, which continues to make little sense to me. As I mentioned in the preview for this series, they had some success using a small point guard on Taurasi in their second regular season encounter with the Mercury, but it makes Young’s presence on the floor virtually redundant. She’s not a great offensive player at all – she’ll hustle, she’ll hit an occasional jump shot, but opponents will essentially let her shoot all she wants. She’s out there for her defense. For all her qualities, Penny Taylor will only occasionally make a significant impact on games these days – and while Taylor was relatively quiet, Young didn’t even do that great a defensive job on her. It was almost like Young subconsciously felt she was being wasted out there as well. Taurasi’s the one that makes Phoenix tick. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Chicago start Game 2 with Young on Taurasi, while trying to hide their guards on Bonner and Taylor.

 

Because in the second quarter Phoenix’s dominance on the floor finally started to show on the scoreboard. Delle Donne had been fairly quiet, and after being nudged in her already-injured back midway through the second quarter she went to the sidelines for rest and more treatment. She’d had far more trouble containing Dupree than the reverse matchup had caused problems for Phoenix. Everything started flowing for the Mercury. Dupree was hitting her mid-range jumper repeatedly off the pick-and-roll. Griner was converting inside when Phoenix went to her in the paint. Taurasi was knocking down jumpers whenever she was given an inch of space, and spraying passes around the floor. It was far too easy for them. Meanwhile Prince tried to step up and carry the offense for the Sky, but that didn’t last for long, and Fowles still rarely managed to finish inside. A gorgeous no-look 30-foot bullet pass from Taurasi to Dupree under the basket closed the scoring for the half, and Phoenix were up by 22 points at the break. It was a blowout, and there wasn’t even a hint of a comeback in sight for Chicago.

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2014 WNBA Finals Preview: Phoenix Mercury vs Chicago Sky – Part Three: Areas to Watch, Overview and Prediction

 

Storylines and Key Areas

 

It was covered in the previous section, but health is obviously vital. Delle Donne’s back problem is the major concern, but Chicago also have Breland likely rushing back from her shoulder injury faster than normal because they needed her, and Vandersloot has struggled to stay in front of anyone defensively since returning from her knee problem. Phoenix’s core group have been remarkably healthy all season long, which has played an important role in their dominance. Look back through the WNBA champions, and you tend to find teams whose key players were fit and available all season long. That said, while the Mercury have a few decent contributors off their bench, an injury to Griner or Taurasi would change everything in an instant for them. Chicago can at least claim to be prepared for how they’d play with virtually any injury or absence – because they’ve been through them all at some point this season.

 

Rebounding. Oddly enough, over the entire regular season, these were two of the three-worst rebounding teams in the WNBA (Seattle were rock bottom, Phoenix 11th and Chicago 10th). Most of the Mercury’s negative numbers came on the offensive glass – they eschewed chasing offensive boards in favour of making sure they got back in transition and set their defense. Chicago were pretty bad on both ends, for a variety of reasons. Fowles missed time hurt, Delle Donne got sick and then played nominal power forward while mostly out on the perimeter, their defensive help schemes often rotate people out of rebounding position, and their perimeter players offer very little rebounding help to their posts. So where’s the edge going to be? When two teams are playing, the rebounding percentages have to add up to 100% one way or another. Chicago won’t want to give up any cheap points, so they’ll be looking to get back quickly in transition as well, but they need to attack the glass. They lost the hustle and energy battle to Indiana at several points in the Eastern Finals, and it almost cost them the series. They’re already likely to lose out in too many areas to Phoenix, so they need to outwork the Mercury for things like offensive boards, loose balls and deflections.

 

That links into the topic of fast breaks and transition points. Despite both of these teams having some outstanding athletes, neither of them actually runs all that much. And both defenses are based more around containment and contesting shots than forcing steals and getting out on the break. So it’s another area where you could look to surprise. Phoenix will use their length to press ballhandlers like Vandersloot and Quigley at times, while players like Prince and Young will look to poke their hands into passing lanes for steals on occasion. Again, Chicago need cheap points. They have to look for every little edge they can get.

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2014 WNBA Finals Preview: Phoenix Mercury vs Chicago Sky – Part Two: Offense vs Defense

 

Mercury Offense vs Sky Defense

 

Phoenix played some really pretty offensive basketball this season, on their way to producing the best offense in the WNBA. While Taurasi outside and Griner inside are their most obvious threats, they move the ball unselfishly around the floor to the best option, and the fact that everyone on the floor is a scoring threat at any given moment makes them especially hard to defend. Taurasi’s one of the greatest scorers the women’s game has ever seen, capable of firing from anywhere, drawing lots of fouls, and finding her way to the rim when necessary – as she finally illustrated in the deciding game against Minnesota, after shooting poorly from the perimeter in previous games against the Lynx. Griner has developed as an interior threat, finishing at an efficient rate inside on post moves and short turnarounds, and moving better without the ball to find space for herself on the way to the rim. Fowles’s size will make it more difficult to just toss lobs up high to Griner, but she’s still got a couple of inches on the Sky center. The option will still be there. She’s also a much, much better passer than Fowles, so her teammates can score off her by waiting in space or cutting through it.

 

Dupree’s been the next option for Phoenix, almost automatic from mid-range when she pops into the space created by defenses leaning towards Taurasi and Griner. If Delle Donne’s hurting, covering Dupree’s movement is going to be tough, because she can slide to the rim and finish smoothly as well. Having something approaching the old Penny Taylor back has also been important for Phoenix this year. She’s a little slower than before, but she’s still got the all-court game that allows her to score inside and out, constantly makes the right pass to the right teammate, and generally makes plays all over the floor. Bonner has helped herself and her team simply by taking fewer shots this year, recognising that there’s often a better option than just firing away. But it helps Phoenix when she’s aggressive. Attacking the basket off the dribble when it’s on, driving into the space afforded her by teams who help away from her, and occasionally hitting a wide open jumper so opponents don’t just ignore her entirely.

 

The fact that the Mercury can space the floor now also makes them much more dangerous offensively this year than they were last. Taurasi was the primary ballhandler last year as well, but also the only player opponents really had to worry about from deep. Now they’ve got Taylor, Phillips off the bench (plus Shay Murphy and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota if Brondello goes that deep into her rotation), and Bonner if you leave her completely alone. With Griner, Dupree and Mistie Bass all comfortable to at least 15 feet as well, that’s a big problem for Chicago and one of the key differences between what the Sky faced in their series against Indiana and what they’ll be up against in the Finals.

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2014 WNBA Finals Preview: Phoenix Mercury vs Chicago Sky – Part One: Matchups

 

Phoenix Mercury (West’s #1 seed, 29-5) vs Chicago Sky (East’s #4 seed, 15-19)

 

Phoenix

Points scored per 100 possessions (offensive efficiency): 106.21, 1st in WNBA

Points conceded per 100 possessions (defensive efficiency): 93.89, 1st in WNBA

 

Chicago

Points scored per 100 possessions (offensive efficiency): 97.00, 8th in WNBA

Points conceded per 100 possessions (defensive efficiency): 99.51, 9th in WNBA

 

Season series: Mercury won 2-0

07/02 @Pho: Mercury won 87-69

07/11 @ Chi: Mercury won 72-66

(but Chicago were without both Vandersloot and Delle Donne for both regular season games, so don’t pay too much attention to those)

 

—–

 

You’re going to notice a theme in this preview (and probably in most other previews you read for this series anywhere else). While there are certain areas where Chicago might be able to find a small edge, or where they can find hope for their prospects, you basically have to try to talk yourself into giving them a chance. Over the course of the 2014 WNBA season, the Phoenix Mercury were the best team in the league. They beat the second-best team in the last round, when they eliminated Minnesota in the Western Conference Finals. So  you have to believe the Sky are coming together at exactly the right time, or that they create some specific issues for Phoenix, or that Pokey Chatman is going to wildly outcoach Sandy Brondello, to believe that Chicago can win three-out-of-five over the next 11 days.

 

Matchups

 

Normally we’d talk about team offense and defense before delving into the minutiae of individual matchups, but it’s going to filter into every other topic, so we’ll start here. Chicago are one of the few teams in the WNBA who’ll largely defend Brittney Griner one-on-one. Most opponents double-team whenever she catches the ball remotely near the rim, but Chicago will trust Sylvia Fowles to defend her straight up. And she can do that. Phoenix will still look to go inside, and Griner will score at times, but Fowles is a strong and mobile enough defender to make it harder for Griner to score than it is against almost anyone else. That also puts a crimp in Phoenix’s offense elsewhere, because they often create open shots thanks to the ball going in to Griner, then rotating back out when extra defenders drop down on her, creating open looks. If Fowles can cope on her own, everyone else can stay home. It’ll be a similar story at the other end, where obviously Griner will defend Fowles, and her size and length will make it difficult for the Sky center to score inside. It’ll also be much harder for Chicago to feed Fowles than it was in the recent Indiana series, purely because of the size of all the other players around the floor. It’s hard to enter the ball with all those long limbs in the way.

 

After we get past the centers, it becomes much more complicated. Both teams have their designated defensive ‘stopper’, in Tamera Young for Chicago and DeWanna Bonner for Phoenix. Between them, they’ve covered Angel McCoughtry, Tamika Catchings, Candace Parker and Maya Moore in the last two rounds. But they both guard perimeter players (or at least players who spend the majority of their time on the perimeter – all of those opponents play at least a little power forward). So Bonner guarding Elena Delle Donne – if the Sky star stays at power forward, where she’s played almost all her basketball since returning midseason from her struggles with Lyme disease – would require some awkward shifting. Candice Dupree would have to slide over to guard Young. That’s possible, but what we may see instead is Dupree starting on Delle Donne, with Bonner guarding the biggest threat among the actual perimeter players. Especially if Delle Donne is still limited by the back issue that restricted her in the Eastern Finals, Dupree can probably cope on her. That would allow Bonner to cover Courtney Vandersloot, trying to upset the Chicago offense by unsettling their distribution at the point, or stay on top of Epiphanny Prince and Allie Quigley at shooting guard. Diana Taurasi will take whichever of those guards is left – and has done okay defensively this season with the security blanket of Griner behind her – while Penny Taylor hides on Young.

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WNBA Today, 10/11/2013: Lynx complete sweep over Dream to finish unbeaten postseason and take another title

 

Heading into last night’s Game 3, the Atlanta Dream didn’t just have the weight of being down 2-0 on their shoulders. After suffering sweeps at the hands of Seattle and Minnesota in 2011 and 2012, the franchise was 0-8 in Finals games. Plus they hadn’t just lost the two games back in Minnesota – they’d been stuffed by 25 in each of them. They were fighting against history, against embarrassment, and against the all-conquering Minnesota Lynx team that was looking to complete an undefeated postseason with their third consecutive series sweep. It was a daunting task, and with Philips Arena hosting Disney on Ice, they didn’t even have their regular home venue to boost their chances.

 

At times in the first two games, it looked like Dream head coach Fred Williams had run out of ideas on how to challenge the Lynx. But he decided to try his third different starting lineup in three games, with Le’coe Willingham coming back in at power forward ahead of Aneika Henry (or Tiffany Hayes, if they’d wanted to go small again). It was a thoroughly random roll of the dice, seeing as Willingham isn’t really the kind of player who can turn a series, but you couldn’t blame him for trying something different. It didn’t work out too well in the opening moments, though. Janel McCarville – nominally being guarded by Willingham – decided to be particularly aggressive offensively, and drilled a series of jumpers. Willingham wasn’t doing anything particularly badly – helping away from McCarville is something you’re basically supposed to do against Minnesota – but the Lynx center fired away and refused to miss. It was clear around midseason this year that the Lynx coaching staff had asked McCarville to be more of a threat offensively, so that teams couldn’t cheat off her quite so egregiously, and she started taking some of those wide open jumpers teams offered her. Now she was stepping up in Game 3 of the Finals. This Lynx team really can hurt you from all angles.

 

It looked like we might be in for another blowout in the opening minutes. The McCarville barrage was backed up by a couple of buckets for Maya Moore, while Angel McCoughtry was out of control at the other end. She started with a hideous jacked three with 16 on the shot clock barely hit the rim, before an airball on a 1-on-3 baseline move and a couple of desperately soft turnovers when she drove into heavy traffic. There’s a thin line between ‘carrying your team’ and ‘trying to do too much’. Often, frankly, the difference is whether the bad shots you take go in or not. But Angel was dominating the ball, and it wasn’t working at all. Williams took a timeout after barely five minutes of play, with his team already trailing 13-3.

 

McCoughtry was summarily benched, in the hope that she’d calm down, or relax, or just get out of her own team’s way. And it worked. The Dream started running their offense through Erika de Souza in the low post, something that we should’ve seen more of in this entire series (although the Lynx admittedly make it very difficult with their heavy strong-side help). With McCarville resting on the bench, it was Rebekkah Brunson trying to guard her, and for a few minutes Erika was dominant. She was finishing inside, or hitting little turnarounds, or unbalancing the Lynx defense so much with her threat to score that gaps opened up for players like Armintie Herrington on cuts and offensive boards. Erika can also be an emotional leader for this team, and once she was involved in the offense she started jumping around, waving her arms and encouraging the crowd at Atlanta’s temporary home in the Gwinnett Center. The Dream had some life after all.

 

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WNBA Today, 10/09/2013: Another day, another domination – Lynx blow out Dream again to move one win from title

 

Game 1 of the WNBA Finals was frankly a little embarrassing for the Atlanta Dream. They came into Minnesota on a high after a strong performance in the Eastern Finals, and were essentially blown off the floor by the home town Lynx. So Game 2 needed to be about responding and improving. They couldn’t afford to shoot 2-36 from outside the paint again, but they also needed to find ways to simply shoot fewer shots from outside. They had to craft better avenues to the rim, and create easier looks. And they had to do a better job defensively so that they could roll that momentum into their offense. All the Lynx needed to do was be ready for the potential response from Atlanta – more of the same from Minnesota would do perfectly nicely.

 

The Dream made one conspicuous move before Game 2 even tipped off. Aneika Henry started the game in place of Tiffany Hayes, replacing a guard with a post. Hayes had a nasty fall in Game 1, resulting in some lower back pain, but was ready to play off the bench. It was an attempt by Fred Williams to shake things up, try to capitalise on their size inside, and go with the option that worked the best in Game 1. Not that anything worked particularly well in Game 1, but Henry was one of the few bright spots. Minnesota had their regular starting five in place as usual, and made the defensive adjustments you’d expect. Seimone Augustus started on Angel McCoughtry instead of Rebekkah Brunson, who moved onto Henry. Janel McCarville stayed with Erika de Souza. Of course, with two true posts on the floor for the Dream, McCoughtry had to guard one of Minnesota’s star wings rather than hide on McCarville. She started on Augustus.

 

Atlanta looked better in the opening minutes than they had in the previous game. There was a clear intent to drive and attack at every opportunity – sometimes even when there wasn’t really much of an opportunity. McCoughtry and Armintie Herrington both went barreling into the paint on early possessions, and even Erika took a step or two outside, then attacked off the dribble when she glimpsed a gap, rather than settling for a short jumper. However, they were still running into a lot of traffic, and because the Lynx knew that Atlanta wanted to drive at all costs – and that the Dream were unlikely to punish them by hitting shots from outside – multiple defenders were waiting in the lane to block the route to the basket. The mentality was good from Atlanta, but the success was limited.

 

And they still couldn’t get any stops. The same things continued to work offensively for Minnesota – solid screens, effective and purposeful movement off the ball, unselfish passing, and making shots. Once again, the game was frantic early on – just the style Atlanta like to play – but once again it was Minnesota pulling away on the scoreboard. As the first quarter wore on, we even saw the Dream make a few perimeter shots – Hayes drilled a three with virtually her first touch after coming off the bench, while Alex Bentley and Jasmine Thomas both made jumpers from the top of the key. But those were just occasional breaks in the overall Lynx dominance.

 

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WNBA Today, 10/07/2013: Lynx dominate Dream to roll to easy victory and 1-0 Finals lead

 

After what seemed like in interminable wait, last night the 2013 WNBA Finals finally got underway. After building the fanbase over three years of success, the Minnesota faithful was out in force to support their Lynx. They dropped the Finals opener at home last year, which ultimately played a key part in Indiana’s 3-1 upset victory in the series. So the Lynx were hoping for a much better start this time around, to set the groundwork for regaining the championship trophy. The Atlanta Dream were in town hoping to spoil the party – or at the very least do better than the sweeps they’ve suffered in their two previous visits to the Finals.

 

The first questions were answered by the opening lineups. Minnesota center Janel McCarville had reportedly been suffering from some back pain since Friday’s practice, but she was in the starting lineup as usual along with the regular Lynx group. Atlanta had decided to stick with the small lineup that had served them so well against Indiana in the Eastern Finals, with Angel McCoughtry as a pseudo-power forward alongside Jasmine Thomas, Tiffany Hayes and Armintie Herrington on the perimeter. The opening possessions quickly illustrated that Fred Williams had decided to go with the unusual defensive assignment I mentioned in my preview, with McCoughtry guarding McCarville while Erika de Souza took Rebekkah Brunson. Herrington started on Seimone Augustus, with Hayes on Maya Moore, but Atlanta had a general willingness to switch on the perimeter whenever necessary. As anticipated, Minnesota were happy to match up with Atlanta’s small lineup without changing anything about themselves – Brunson started on McCoughtry, McCarville took Erika, and they got down to work.

 

It was a pretty frantic opening period, with both teams feeding from the crowd’s energy and the action flowing from end to end. McCarville posted up on McCoughtry once, and managed to force the ball home, but the Lynx weren’t going to take themselves out of their offense in an effort to attack that potential mismatch. They were moving well off the ball, Moore was hitting jumpers, and Augustus was successful with a couple of those dive-in plays from the corner, both times finishing off nice feeds from McCarville. Their offense was rolling nicely.

 

But the Dream had a little early success too, doing some of the things we knew they’d need to do in this series. Herrington crashed for an offensive rebound, stealing the ball right from Brunson’s hands and dropping in a putback. Erika got a couple of touches in the low post, and found a way to finish over or around McCarville. McCoughtry opened her account with a ridiculous leaning jumper that she jacked far too early in the offense, but it somehow went in. The problem was that they weren’t having much success stopping the Lynx and when they finally did create a turnover, McCoughtry blew a wide open layup. The high pace suited the Dream, but the transition chances still weren’t really there. Minnesota were doing a solid job of taking care of the ball while running their offense, preventing those break opportunities for Atlanta.

 

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WNBA Today, 10/22/2012: Catchings and Fever complete richly deserved Finals victory

Before the 2012 WNBA Finals began, the Minnesota Lynx were the overwhelming favourites. They had the track record of winning last year, they’d had a smoother journey through the Conference Finals, they were healthier, and on paper most observers agreed that they had more talent. If you could find anyone predicting that the Indiana Fever would win the series, chances are they had some connection to the Fever organisation or one of the players. You could get 4-1 at various bookmakers for Indiana to win the Finals before the games began. But the Fever took Game 1 on the road, and responded to a Game 2 loss by blowing the Lynx out when the series returned to Indiana for Game 3. That left them just one win away from the holy grail of a WNBA championship, with the opportunity to close it out in front of their own fans at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. And if they needed any further motivation, they were still the underdogs with the bookies to win Game 4.

After missing the first three games of the Finals, wing Katie Douglas was back in uniform for Game 4 after at least somewhat recovering from her ankle injury. She was by no means 100% healthy, and she was probably there largely for the boost that seeing her dressed might give her teammates, but she was theoretically available. Jeanette Pohlen was obviously still out after her ACL tear. The starting lineups were the same as the previous three games – Indiana’s Lin Dunn riding her successful crew; Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve still waiting for her key pieces to reach their usual heights.

The first couple of minutes of the game seemed like a decent start for Minnesota. Seimone Augustus missed a pair of runners in the lane, but the Lynx grabbed offensive boards on both. In fact they had three offensive rebounds in the opening minute of the game, and their opening three baskets all came right at the rim as Lindsay Whalen penetrated and Taj McWilliams-Franklin found a little room to finish inside. Then Indiana point guard Briann January picked up her second foul of the game after less than 4 minutes of play, sending the player who’d shackled Augustus in Game 3 back to the bench. All positive signs for the Lynx.

But as the first quarter wore on, much of the action was distinctly reminiscent of the previous Fever victories. They were the team injecting pace into the action, pushing the ball at every opportunity for easy chances to score. Minnesota’s transition defense was pathetic, with Shavonte Zellous and Erin Phillips simply beating them down the floor and going right to the rim. Twice, Augustus essentially watched while Fever players went right by her for layups. It was understandable that Augustus wanted to avoid early foul trouble, but that doesn’t mean that you completely fail to contest against players who are about to score, especially when you’re yet to pick up a single foul. Even in halfcourt sets, Indiana were the team driving to the rim and drawing contact, while Minnesota largely settled for jump shots. With the Fever defense as active as ever, and Augustus ice cold – both before and after January left the floor – Indiana led 25-18 at the end of the first period. Continue reading →