2024 WNBA Season: Playoffs

[Dillon77]

I turned on the last few minutes. I think there were a combined 6 or 7 empty possessions in a row. That last sequence was brutal for Minnesota, looked like they had no idea what they were doing. Certainly didn't have a good play set up for a tying 3.

I don't like the Sun, I think everybody knows that, but I've learned you never bet against them in the playoffs. They are just built for post season basketball.

Andraya Carter had some interesting post-game points on this iteration of the Sun:

• Per your (understood) and previous posts), the Sun -- with their defense -- are a tough out. They dictate play.
• The Sun has Alyssa Thomas (and no one else does). That ability to lead in three facets of the game is undeniable.
• Now the Sun have Marina Mabrey, which she called "the trade of the season." She acknowledged the obvious (three-point shooting) but says Mabrey does something else: Even if DeWanna Bonner is off shooting-wise (which she was most of the game), Mabrey can make up for that; allowing Steph White to keep Bonner in to rebound, play defense (which she did against Collier on the last-second shot). Mabrey, of course, also fits the Sun mentality like a glove.

And Steph White gave kudos to Veronica Burton, as well, saying Burton's ability to play (very) tough defense allows the Sun to go small (and fast) on the Lynix, which might've thrown them off. With that in mind, perhaps the "cut and pick up" of the year goes to Greg Bibb for cutting Veronica Burton and to the Sun for picking her up off the waiver wire.

 

[GoUconn7961]

So, I guess the Liberty did OK against the Aces. Loved it. I'm hoping they can keep it up.
I have mixed feelings on which team I want to win when it comes to CT/Lynx. I want to see Phee in the finals against Stewie, but I live in CT.

Both were great games yesterday. I'm not one to analyze every single play, I just enjoy good basketball.

 

[azfan]

X-Factors and key stats for the WNBA Semifinals

The top four teams in the regular season standings remain, making for some fascinating matchups

open.substack.com

On point preview of last night's game. Really nailed the Sun and Lynx regular season series and anticipated what happened in the game. Advantage Sun going forward

 

[JellyBean]

Hats off to Connecticut. They played well and took one from Minny. I was going to post last night after the game, but I was wore out. The crowd at the Target Center was loud and really into the game! Love that the fans showed up and showed out. Even had some Connecticut fans in the house. This is going to be a battle that I see going 5 games. Courtney had that look (Michael Jordan stare with that bent leg, hand on hips, looking at Veronica and Marina laughing it up) on her face. Now who knows if Courtney has a Jordan game in her, but I know she did not look happy at all seeing Connecticut laughing it up like they did. Or she could have been upset about her play. Who knows. We shall see tomorrow. Oh, somebody throw some cold water on Marina! Jeez she was cooking out there! She just might be the difference maker out there with her shooting. Veronica is a beast! Dallas slept on her. I am just happy for her. The so-called experts were writing her off as "Too small", "Can't handle the pace of the WNBA", "Not a good guard". She is just showing those folks what can be done when given a chance. A fair chance. Well done, Veronica. With that being said, Let's go, Lynx!!

 

[cancontent]

A New York tradition like no other.

 

[cancontent]

Hats off to Connecticut. They played well and took one from Minny. I was going to post last night after the game, but I was wore out. The crowd at the Target Center was loud and really into the game! Love that the fans showed up and showed out. Even had some Connecticut fans in the house. This is going to be a battle that I see going 5 games. Courtney had that look (Michael Jordan stare with that bent leg, hand on hips, looking at Veronica and Marina laughing it up) on her face. Now who knows if Courtney has a Jordan game in her, but I know she did not look happy at all seeing Connecticut laughing it up like they did. Or she could have been upset about her play. Who knows. We shall see tomorrow. Oh, somebody throw some cold water on Marina! Jeez she was cooking out there! She just might be the difference maker out there with her shooting. Veronica is a beast! Dallas slept on her. I am just happy for her. The so-called experts were writing her off as "Too small", "Can't handle the pace of the WNBA", "Not a good guard". She is just showing those folks what can be done when given a chance. A fair chance. Well done, Veronica. With that being said, Let's go, Lynx!!

Same here. She was fun to watch while she was at Northwestern. Coach McKweon must have been beaming while the game was on.

 

[Stagnant]

The expansion draft info finally came out.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Both Game 2's will be telling, IMO. I don't expect to see either loser from Sunday go down 0-2.

 

[azfan]

If history holds the Aces and Lynx REALLY need wins tonight.

Becky will need to figure out match ups as SB was relentless in exploiting Vegas when Stokes was on the floor. I believe she only had 15 minutes and it's going to be a challenge for the Aces to win with the four guard lineup against Liberty front court.

Cheryl Reeves has to have her fingers crossed that her team hits the three ball. I got the sense the Sun smelled blood in the water as they closed out Minnesota Sunday

 

[12au]

BBall Index just released advanced stats for this WNBA season. They aggregate player impact using a stat called LEBRON. The ranking is based on a per-possession basis.

Some interesting observations. Angel Reese finishes slightly ahead of CC, 24th vs 32th (Time to re-kindle the embers of that debate). Brink is number 1 in the league in D-LEBRON. Kelsey Mitchell's defense grades out horribly.

 

[ninety-nine]

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.

 

[GamecockFam]

BBall Index just released advanced stats for this WNBA season. They aggregate player impact using a stat called LEBRON. The ranking is based on a per-possession basis.

Some interesting observations. Angel Reese finishes slightly ahead of CC, 24th vs 32th (Time to re-kindle the embers of that debate). Brink is number 1 in the league in D-LEBRON. Kelsey Mitchell's defense grades out horribly.

Kelsey also tended to play against the best guard, so there is some leeway needed because she was definitely better than most of their other guards (with the eye test) but she got cooked more often because she was defending again better competition. One thing I noticed about the Fever is that Boston is their only good all-around player. That needs to change. They basically have three good offensive players (Boston, Mitchell and Clark) and two good defensive players (Boston and Fagbenle).

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

 

[Dillon77]

Kelsey also tended to play against the best guard, so there is some leeway needed because she was definitely better than most of their other guards (with the eye test) but she got cooked more often because she was defending again better competition. One thing I noticed about the Fever is that Boston is their only good all-around player. That needs to change. They basically have three good offensive players (Boston, Mitchell and Clark) and two good defensive players (Boston and Fagbenle).

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

Didn't Lexie Hull get put into the lineup due to her defensive prowess (or at least the ability to stay with the opposing team's wing)?
And then, after the Olympics, she (re)discoverd her three-pointer and became as well known for that?

 

[GamecockFam]

Didn't Lexie Hull get put into the lineup due to her defensive prowess (or at least the ability to stay with the opposing team's wing)?
And then, after the Olympics, she (re)discoverd her three-pointer and became as well known for that?

Yeah, I think her LeBron numbers would be in the positive direction based on her after-olympics heroics but since the numbers are a story of the whole season, she basically had neutral metrics. But yes, I think going forward that Lexie could be another good all-around player for the Fever.

 

[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.