2024 WNBA Season: Playoffs

[WBBTakeover]

It's just one game, but it could be a costly one for the Liberty:

 

[Rb335]

A classic case of play to win vs play not to lose. The liberty seemed comfortable up 15, some lazy offensive possessions with bad shots. Allowed the Lynx to put some game pressure on them and they got really frazzled. Add in some costly mistakes, missed bunnies, and the free throw.

It will make game 2 very interesting. How do the liberty respond to that. They were playing lights out for a stretch, home court was rocking, and then an almost embarrassing collapse. That felt like a game that could really get in their heads.

 

[cancontent]

Hope everyone doesn't mind me sharing, but this is what I was seeing while listening to a live stream of the game. These were minor compared to others I saw later but I'm glad I was able to multitask while the game was on.

Another benefit is that my focus was more on the audio and the sound of the crowd was amazing. It sounded like more than the 17,000+ that was announced by the team.

 

[JellyBean]

Teams don't ever seem to efficiently work the clock in the W. You see a lot of bad 3's where the offensive player clearly thinks, "this will ice the game for sure.' and then take a bad shot. Work the clock and get the best shot you can is a foreign concept. Grats to the Lynx for hanging arouind, but that was an all-time choke job by the Liberty. Stewwie and Ionescu were both brutal from the field. They combined to shoot 14 for 47. That's a combined fg% from 2 first all league players of 29.7%.

Working the clock is always tricky, especially when it does not work. Then folks are quick to blame the coach/player for not "working" the clock. If the Liberty made their shots, folks would have been complaining that they were running up the score and how the Liberty should "run more sets. Run their offense". I am just glad that the Liberty cooled off with their shooting. I feel bad for Stewie. When she missed that 2nd free throw, a shot that would put the Libert up by 1 and more than likely seal the game for New York. That has to hit hard. Then the last shot of the game in OT. I feel for Stewie but glad that my Lynx dodged a huge hit yesterday. A win like that only adds to Minnesota's confidence going into Game 2.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Truth be told, Stewie's playoff shooting performances as a member of the Liberty have not lived up to standard (her standard--the Seattle Storm standard). Her last five Finals games have been, to put it mildly, underwhelming (and the Liberty are 1-4 in those games).

She is getting heat from the NY media (as she should). It'll be interesting to see how she handles it. Her legacy is on the line and is being seriously threatened by, as fate would have it, her former UConn teammate/current Team USA teammate.

 

[bballnut90]

Truth be told, Stewie's playoff shooting performances as a member of the Liberty have not lived up to standard (her standard--the Seattle Storm standard). Her last five Finals games have been, to put it mildly, underwhelming (and the Liberty are 1-4 in those games).

She is getting heat from the NY media (as she should). It'll be interesting to see how she handles it. Her legacy is on the line and is being seriously threatened by, as fate would have it, her former UConn teammate/current Team USA teammate.

Prior to last year’s playoff run Stewart was on the fast track to being the clear cut best of all time IMO. Her college career speaks for itself, and through 2022 her WNBA playoff numbers were absolutely insane. Last year she struggled and this year she hasn’t had a strong playoff run either. Plenty of time to recover but missing a FT to seal the win and the layup miss in OT to lose a finals game is something you just don’t see from players of her caliber.


All that said, props to Minnesota. They dug deep and balled out. Williams is a gamer and Collier is just so freaking good. She was brilliant on both ends.

 

[bballnut90]

Random observation from game 1, NY was abysmal in late shot clock situations. I think 3-4 times players passed the ball with 2 seconds or less on the clock instead of putting up a shot. Just not very good awareness that has to be there in a game of this caliber.

 

[cancontent]

Was looking at the minutes for both teams. A cursory glance at the distribution of minutes, it looks like the Liberty will utilize 6 players in comparison to 8 players for Minnesota.

What led me to this is that most of Minnesota's players played at least 10 minutes. With the exception of Vandersloot, the Liberty's bench played a combined 15 minutes between three players.

Thought I saw a post in another thread where it's the belief that the Liberty has a deeper bench. If these numbers hold up for the series, I'm not sure about that.

 

[GoUconn7961]

Hope everyone doesn't mind me sharing, but this is what I was seeing while listening to a live stream of the game. These were minor compared to others I saw later but I'm glad I was able to multitask while the game was on.

Another benefit is that my focus was more on the audio and the sound of the crowd was amazing. It sounded like more than the 17,000+ that was announced by the team.

I’ll throw mine in.

 

[Bigboote]

I got a text from a friend who lives about a mile away that there was a good show here near DC. Unfortunately I didn't see it till half an hour ago.