2024 WNBA Season: Playoffs

[Bigboote]

Geez, I love watching Kayla Thornton. Was ( not unexpectedly) unaware of her till she’d been in the W for a couple of years. Strong, fast, great motor, quiet, just goes about her business very matter-of-factly.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Geez, I love watching Kayla Thornton. Was ( not unexpectedly) unaware of her till she’d been in the W for a couple of years. Strong, fast, great motor, quiet, just goes about her business very matter-of-factly.

Thornton and Vandersloot contributed 16 points on 100% shooting in the first half off the bench.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Ionescu has been really good throughout the playoffs. Waiting for @baggerbob to acknowledge this.

 

[azfan]

Another thing to note is that on paper, Seattle looks like the second best team in the league.

But the games are played on the court in so Storm 5th best based upon play.

 

[azfan]

Alysha Clark was inspiring .....just not enough as Liberty bench>Aces bench

 

[cancontent]

Feels like every 10th post I see on Facebook right now is a "told you so" celebrating the much lower TV ratings the WNBA drew for Sunday's semifinal games. The Sun-Lynx dropoff was particularly stark, drawing around 650,000, compared to the 2.5 millionish that Sun-Fever game 2 drew. (Liberty-Aces drew about 300K more for their semifinal opener.)

I'm finding this dynamic really frustrating. It seems like there's this mass of vindictive "Caitlin or bust" people that want the WNBA to rig games (either on the sly or openly) so Clark and whatever team she's on keep winning all the way through to the finals, which is terrifying pro wrestling stuff. However, the TV ratings really are several times larger when she's playing, and I'd imagine some WNBA folks are going to be tempted to boost the Fever whenever possible, and cut the knees off teams like Connecticut that play in small markets and have little fan support outside of their home area. In fact, I have a feeling the Sun won't be playing in Connecticut much longer - the league is going to want to move them to Boston to capture a larger TV market. As a local Sun fan, I'm hoping they find a way to win it this year, because I doubt they'll get many more chances while representing my home state.

First, Facebook is a cesspool of wannabe "sports media pages" lazily creating articles to stoke the narrative. They never reference actual people and use anecdotal comments for their "proof". Frankly, let them because people will eventually get bored and they'll find something else to troll to make money.

Second, these games are also going against NFL football which doesn't help things. While the Connecticut - Minnesota game had 600K+, it was going up against Sunday Night Football. Not an easy feat. The Vegas-NY game had over 900k and peaked at 1M viewers at one point. The numbers are the WNBA's best in over 2 decades.

Sure it's not 2 million, but it's nothing to sneeze at. Three or four years ago, they weren't getting these numbers, but it's been steadily increasing.

 

[WBBTakeover]

If they do, they're cooked. Must wins for both Minnesota and Vegas.

It's a must win for Minnesota (can't lose two games at home), but Vegas has a chance to tie it up with two home games of their own. When Vegas went up 2-0 last year in the Finals, the prevailing media sentiment was that NY (after two embarrassing games) would easily tie it up and win Game 5 in Vegas because they had the league MVP. These two games in Brooklyn haven't been blowouts, so that's something. History has to be made at some point, so why not now?

Make no mistake about it. Vegas is up against it. We'll see how they respond. They're saying all the right things in the pressers, so we'll see.

Unrelated (listening to post-game press conferences): As the league grows, I hope that the media evolves as well. Some of these questions are just so steeped in idiocy. There's no way that these "journalists" would get an NFL/NBA beat.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Alysha Clark was inspiring .....just not enough as Liberty bench>Aces bench

Bench players typically play better at home. Question is--does NY's bench effort travel to Nevada?

 

[Bigboote]

Is Juhasz still not healthy? I think she could be effective when the Sun have Nelson-Ododa in. Plus I‘d like to see that.

 

[Baller29]

 

[nwhoopfan]

Lynx gotta feel good about winning Game 2 with Collier having a very subpar game. On the flip side Sun gotta be a little worried.

 

[Dillon77]

Is Juhasz still not healthy? I think she could be effective when the Sun have Nelson-Ododa in. Plus I‘d like to see that.

I think Dorka is ok, but I'll let our resident Lynx fan/expert, @JellyBean , clarify that.
Both the Lynx and Sun have tightened their rotations and each only played three substitutes. Coach Reeve chose to give minutes to Cecilia Zandalasini (17 minutes) and Myisha Hines-Allen (15 minutes).

Collier didn't come out for a second, so only so minutes to go around. Don't know if it's this year, but Dorka will get her minutes. Between the expansion draft and Hines-Allen being an UFA, I've got to think a forward/post will clear out.

 

[Dillon77]

Lynx gotta feel good about winning Game 2 with Collier having a very subpar game. On the flip side Sun gotta be a little worried.

Should the Sun be worried because Collier did have an off-game shooting (she did well in many other areas) and they lost?
If so, I'd adjust the verb. ticked? I'd also be ticked that every time they looked ready to make a run, the Lynx they left open burned them, most notably Smith on three's or offensive boards. I know the Sun wants to double on Collier, but you can't let Smith be that open and/or not put a body on her.

Or, maybe the Sun can and see if she can do it again in Connecticut? After all, mission accomplished in Minnesota (to me, at least) for the Sun: they grabbed one win away and come home 1-1.

 

[cancontent]

Lynx gotta feel good about winning Game 2 with Collier having a very subpar game. On the flip side Sun gotta be a little worried.

Yes and no regarding the Sun. Mabrey having an off shooting night from 3 is rare. Considering they are the only team to win a road game so far, they did what was necessary to make it a series by winning Game 1.

 

[cancontent]

Should the Sun be worried because Collier did have an off-game shooting (she did well in many other areas) and they lost?
If so, I'd adjust the verb. ticked? I'd also be ticked that every time they looked ready to make a run, the Lynx they left open burned them, most notably Smith on three's or offensive boards. I know the Sun wants to double on Collier, but you can't let Smith that open.

Or, maybe you can and see if she can do it again in Connecticut? After all, mission accomplished (to me, at least) for the Sun: they grabbed one away and come home 1-1.

Great minds think alike.

 

[cancontent]

Man, what a career Bonner has had.

 

[GoUconn7961]

What a fun night! That Liberty/Aces game had me standing in my living room for the last 2 minutes. The Liberty defense was strong limiting A'ja (who I just love) to less than average scoring, for her. Sabrina has to be given credit for ball handling in the face of the Aces press. Honestly, I think Plum lost the game for the Aces.

I didn't see most of the second half of the Sun game, but the two former ND players (Mabrey & McBride) were at each other. I hope the Liberty can clinch it in the desert.

For those worried about TV ratings - you're now going up against football and the MLB playoffs.

 

[azfan]

Or, maybe you can and see if she can do it again in Connecticut? After all, mission accomplished (to me, at least) for the Sun: they grabbed one away and come home 1-1.

Absolutely..... In this format the visitor getting a split accomplished their mission! Lynx will now need to split in Connecticut.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Man, what a career Bonner has had.

Maya is 5th and played only 8 seasons!

 

[cancontent]

Maya is 5th and played only 8 seasons!

Why do you always have to chime in with a UConn reference when someone posts to credit a non-Uconn player? Everyone knows how awesome Maya was. It goes without having to be said.

 

[bballnut90]

What a fun night! That Liberty/Aces game had me standing in my living room for the last 2 minutes. The Liberty defense was strong limiting A'ja (who I just love) to less than average scoring, for her. Sabrina has to be given credit for ball handling in the face of the Aces press. Honestly, I think Plum lost the game for the Aces.

I didn't see most of the second half of the Sun game, but the two former ND players (Mabrey & McBride) were at each other. I hope the Liberty can clinch it in the desert.

For those worried about TV ratings - you're now going up against football and the MLB playoffs.

And Mabrey and Collier got into it. And Mabrey/Hines-Allen in the aftermath of it. Long story short, Marina Mabrey is not popular with the Lynx.

Agree on Plum costing the Aces last night. Picked up 2 quick fouls and was a major liability defensively for the rest of the half and didn’t contribute offensively. Everyone else was pretty good for Vegas. A’ja Wilson missed 2 great looks at the end but was great in the 2nd. Hopefully Stokes is okay, scary to go out after banging heads.

For NY, Sabrina is playing lights out. Stewart disappeared late but was impactful as a passer most of the game despite her shot being off. Slot was also huge for them in the middle part of the game. I think Libs win in 4. Aces aren’t consistent enough to win 3 straight and the Liberty are the better team this season

 

[cancontent]

And Mabrey and Collier got into it. And Mabrey/Hines-Allen in the aftermath of it. Long story short, Marina Mabrey is not popular with the Lynx.

Agree on Plum costing the Aces last night. Picked up 2 quick fouls and was a major liability defensively for the rest of the half and didn’t contribute offensively. Everyone else was pretty good for Vegas. A’ja Wilson missed 2 great looks at the end but was great in the 2nd. Hopefully Stokes is okay, scary to go out after banging heads.

For NY, Sabrina is playing lights out. Stewart disappeared late but was impactful as a passer most of the game despite her shot being off. Slot was also huge for them in the middle part of the game. I think Libs win in 4. Aces aren’t consistent enough to win 3 straight and the Liberty are the better team this season

And if it is a concussion, flying could have an impact as well. I recall a team mate on my daughter's AAU team decided to fly home instead of getting a ride back to Canada and it made her symptoms worse. Fingers crossed that's not the case here.

 

[GamecockFam]

But the games are played on the court in so Storm 5th best based upon play.

Thank you for your post. I would have never known that the games were played on the court without your insightfulness.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Honestly, I think Plum lost the game for the Aces.

Well she didn't play in the 4th quarter, other than an a few offense/defense substitutions in about the last minute, so that's pretty strong. She didn't have a good game, but I wouldn't say she lost it for them.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I wonder if Hammon is ever going to change up her switching on every pick defense. How many times do you need to see Plum get stuck trying to defend somebody like Laney-Hamilton or Thornton in the post to figure out it doesn't work. Let alone when she sometimes gets stuck with Stewie of JJ. It sets her up to fail.