WBBTakeover
Thank you, Natalie!
- Joined
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It's just one game, but it could be a costly one for the Liberty:
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.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%.
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.
This is what happens when you don't play full-time with a true PG, but they're in a pickle because the one that they have is too much of a defensive (and shooting) liability to play for long stretches--especially when paired in the backcourt with another really bad defender in Ionescu. They needed a Natasha Cloud, Jordin Canada, or Skylar Diggins-Smith--and got none of the three.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.
Her 2022 series against Las Vegas was, IMO, the top performance in the history of the WNBA playoffs by a player who didn't ultimately go on to win the title that season.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.
I’ll throw mine in.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.
Shocker, eh?And a certain nameless wunderkind wasn’t playing.
Hmmm....And a certain nameless wunderkind wasn’t playing.
Let's be clear, while we're poking fun it's more in reaction to social media trolls than Clark herself. What those numbers prove is the narrative that no one is watching isn't true. And to see an increase of almost 60% percent is amazing from a year over year perspective. What business would not want that type of growth?Hmmm....
It's their best line-up against everyone except the team that they're currently playing against for the championship. This Liberty team was constructed to beat the Aces, which they did. They're not constructed to beat a team that they didn't anticipate having to face (Lynx, who have now defeated them four times in five tries). You could beat this year's Aces with length because they didn't move the ball well at all and didn't shoot the three well enough. Minnesota, on the other hand, moves the ball so well and shoots the three extremely well--which nullifies length. And when those three-point shots are dropping, there's no one that Ionescu can hide on defensively.On make up of Liberty. When they play Ionescu, Fiebich, Stewart, Jones, BLH, that team fits together as well as one built for fit.
Yeah, the social media side of things has really impacted the narrative which then drives the talking heads over on that four-letter network to offer their megawatt personalities take on things. We all are glad that the W is doing well and the numbers are improving and they are only going to get better over the years.Let's be clear, while we're poking fun it's more in reaction to social media trolls than Clark herself. What those numbers prove is the narrative that no one is watching isn't true. And to see an increase of almost 60% percent is amazing from a year over year perspective. What business would not want that type of growth?
Game 1 was up against a tough trifecta Thursday night. There was the start of the NHL, MLB playoffs and an NFL night game. Plus there was a semi-final between NY and Vegas that had over 900+ going up against the NFL recently. That could help provide some insight on how Game 2 will do tomorrow.Game two on ABC tomorrow should have an interesting analysis post game as to viewership. Going head to head with the NFL will prove an interesting challenge for the W