2025 WNBA Regular Season | Page 23 | The Boneyard

2025 WNBA Regular Season

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nwhoopfan said:
We've all known that for several years, yet they do nothing. Last night they had Stokes and Kitley starting...and nothing off the bench. Joyner Holmes didn't play, but she's hardly a decent option anyway. That's all they have for a front court w/ Wilson out of the line up.
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At this point, they'll probably just wait to until the rosters around the league blow up to reconstruct the bench and parts of that frontcourt. Hammons will give newbies a try for 10 minutes, then put them back on the bench after a cursory look. That's just her modus operandi with new(er) talent.
 
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bballnut90 said:
Didn't see it but per the box score, after being down 11, the Aces go on a 17-2 run to win the game with 14 of the 17 points coming off FTs. Seems like a strange finish to an otherwise solid game.

Dallas is up 82-71, then Paige has 3 consecutive fouls and two turnovers (plus a Hines-Allen offensive foul) which led to 6 points for the Aces.
Now it's 82-77, Arike commits two TOs, Dallas commits 2 more fouls and give up 4 points at the line, now 82-81.
At 82-81, Loyd hits a 3 to take the lead. Cue 4 more FTs in the final 15 seconds to secure the win.
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Dallas, when they got up 11, took the air out of the ball and completely changed the pace of the game to run the clock down. When you have a team that's this inept offensively, led by a coach, who is even more inept that the offense, this is what you get. Add to the fact that they can't guard a dead person or get a rebound, you have this. All of their turnovers(or seemingly) were on hand offs in the back court early in the shot clock Their offense has 0 movement and 0 screening action to get players open. Paige brings the ball up and just gets blitzed because nobody moves and the ball just sticks.

PS-I watched NaLyssa Smith her sophomore year at Baylor in Hartford when her and Lauren Cox absolutely took us to the cleaners in the paint. If you'd told me that day that Cox wouldn't even be on a roster and that Smith would BE THIS BAD, I'd have thought you were crazy. Does Smith just not care? She has so many tools; height, speed, athleticism, a "pro body," but she is completely inept on offense and defense, and she is even more terrible rebounding. I just don't get it.
 
Dillon77 said:
At this point, they'll probably just wait to until the rosters around the league blow up to reconstruct the bench and parts of that frontcourt. Hammons will give newbies a look for 10 minutes, then put them back on the bench after a cursory look. That's just her modus operandi.
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Nye really seems to be bucking that trend.

Side note: With Barker and Nye performing so well in the league, it really makes me question Coach Curry's system. She had two WNBA players and they never made it beyond the second round in any of their years there.
 
Finally, was able to watch that Minnesota/Seattle game where Seattle handed Minnesota their first loss of the season. Nothing Minnesota did wrong. Just Seattle was hitting their shots. Just a hot shooting night for Seattle. I am always happy to see players, especially when their other team gave up on them or the other team throws them under the bus because they couldn't do X, Y, or Z, do well on their new team. In this case it was Erica Wheeler of Seattle. She had a nice game for Seattle and just seems happy playing for Seattle. Just happy to see her getting that shine again. She took a beating in Indiana from fans and the media.
 
nwhoopfan said:
We've all known that for several years, yet they do nothing. Last night they had Stokes and Kitley starting...and nothing off the bench. Joyner Holmes didn't play, but she's hardly a decent option anyway. That's all they have for a front court w/ Wilson out of the line up.
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So true. The Aces have had a few years to figure things out with their roster and they keep kicking the can down the road. I also had questions about their skill development. I know they work on shooting in practice. Hopefully they are having talks about what is a good shot vs bad shot. So many times, in that game last night. It looked like the players on the Aces were like "I am going to shoot this shot because I can". Just very questionable shot selection in crucial moments of the game. Lucky they were playing the Wings and not the Lynx or the Liberty.
 
Dillon77 said:
Well, there's a quite a bit to unpack there:
  • Ms. G can shoot well, for sure: In fact, she didn't miss a shot last night. At the end of the day, shooting is one of (the most, according to many studies) the way to win. On top of that, she sets decent screens and goes to open areas to receive what passes come back...keeps the ball moving. Was Siegrist hurt last night or has Koclanes decided she isn't worth putting on the floor?
  • I didn't see that much of an issue with her on defense or rebounding until that end run. At that point, Vegas was running four guards around Stokes and if she was exposed, that was the time. Koclanes chose not to put another guard or small forward into cover the other guard. BTW, at frenzy time, most of the offensive boards were being garnered by Vegas guards. Who know, maybe A. James could've helped there. But Nye, Gray and, particularly, Young were causing havoc there.
  • Where I do agree with you is that this team is trying to get by with no legit center, now that Big T is off to EuroBasket. Now that I think of it I think Geisilhoder (sp) is, too.

I still play in a men's league and am, unfortunately, aware of when the bottom drops out: shots won't fall, flow comes to a halt and the other team always gets a second or third chance. Sooner or later, they're going to make you pay. Loyd did.
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Dillon, I completely agree: Geiselhoder has been a nice surprise - and not just showing a lot of skill but also a lot of BB smarts. Even more impressively, she is hustling her butt off on the court. The defense on Jackie Young a couple of minutes into the fourth (when LG was called for a completely bogus foul on JY's three point shot) was an illustration of such hustle. During last night's disastrous 4th quarter, she was the lone bright star for the Wings (and my assessment includes Paige), scoring 6 points on 3-3 shooting.

Last night's Q4 debacle was mind-boggling. The Aces out-hustled the Wings, and saw that the Wings lost discipline when they (the Aces) deliberately turned up the frenetic activity. Granted there were some extremely questionable, home-cooking foul calls by the refs, but that does not take away from the lack of grit the Wings displayed.

Hopefully the Wings went into the locker room after the game extremely frustrated with themselves.

Jackie Young took over the game with an "I-don't-care-if-I-foul-out-of-the-game" aggressive, fearless, relentless attack. Aces fans are probably singing JY's praises while having their breakfast this morning.
 
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What a game! Folks seem to forget that the Wings played the much-hyped Lynx closely (85-81 win at Minnesota). I don't think Minnesota was missing an MVP candidate during that game, either. Whenever Arike shoots well (and she shot it more efficiently than Paige), the Wings have a chance to win. They probably should've won, but they didn't. Oh well...that's life! I don't care about style points, so I'll take the win.

Thought that several Aces stepped up in the absence of A'ja, including Gold Mamba (who shot efficiently and hit timely shots, with none bigger than the go-ahead three pointer), Jackie (who finally realized that no one on the court, not even Dijonai Carrington, could guard her), Aaliyah (who has shown that she belongs on the team and is getting paid a pittance compared to what her predecessor strong-armed from the Storm this season), and yes, even Kiah (who was more active offensively than she's been for much of the season). Tiff (Mitchell), Dana, and Liz Kitley also provided decent minutes, which shows that the bench responded to a challenge from Becky Hammon. With more reps, they should be able to provide regular production during the time of the season when depth will be needed the most. Developing a bench does not happen overnight, but the pieces are there for the Aces to have a very solid bench this season.
 
YKCornelius said:
Jackie Young took over the game with an "I-don't-care-if-I-foul-out-of-the-game" aggressive, fearless, relentless attack. Aces fans are probably singing JY's praises while having their breakfast this morning.
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I definitely did that! Coffee, bagel, berries, JY0. A bigger test awaits on Sunday, but she's another big-time performance from earning Western Conference Player of the Week and inserting herself into MVP discussions.
 
bballnut90 said:
Didn't see it but per the box score, after being down 11, the Aces go on a 17-2 run to win the game with 14 of the 17 points coming off FTs. Seems like a strange finish to an otherwise solid game.

Dallas is up 82-71, then Paige has 3 consecutive fouls and two turnovers (plus a Hines-Allen offensive foul) which led to 6 points for the Aces.
Now it's 82-77, Arike commits two TOs, Dallas commits 2 more fouls and give up 4 points at the line, now 82-81.
At 82-81, Loyd hits a 3 to take the lead. Cue 4 more FTs in the final 15 seconds to secure the win.
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Probably the worst 75 seconds of basketball Paige has ever played - three fouls and two TOs. No doubt she will use her incredible self introspection skills to turn the lemons into lemonade.

Thanks to three absurd foul calls from the refs, Carrington had a nightmarish Q4. I would not be surprised if she unknowingly immortalized herself into a WNBA trivia question: Name the only WNBA player to ever collect six fouls in the last five minutes of a game?
 
I know Minnesota is really good...but LA just looks awful. They have some talented players, but sure aren't a good team.

Might have to call this game at the end of Q1.
 
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Collier and C. Williams have almost doubled up LA just between the 2 of them, shooting a combined 16-19 and 6-7 from 3. So if you're LA, if you can't shoot, at least they also can't defend and can't stop turning the ball over. They look like a bad high school team.
 
It was 58-26 at the half. Unbelievable. Sparks chipped away at the lead in the 2nd half, but I'm sure Minny backed off. Kliundikova managed to get double digit minutes and also double figure scoring against her former team w/ 5-5 shooting.

Collier had 26 at the half, finished w/ 32.
 
I missed the first half of Fever-Liberty, real shoot out. Second half not quite the same scoring pace. Game of big runs back and forth.
 
Not gonna be a repeat of the last time NY visited Indy. Fever pulling away down the stretch. Big win for them.
 
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Huge first half for Clark, didn't do as much in the 2nd half. Mitchell took over at the end. Big game for Ionescu too.
 
GoChips20 said:
Still a great offseason signing, but Cloud has really come back down to earth after a blistering start to the season.
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I was just thinking that too. Still valuable w/ her D and play making, but her scoring has dried up and gone away.
 
Is Howard on minutes restriction? Started, but only played 14 minutes. Was barely on the floor in the 2nd half as far as I could tell.
 
ucbart said:
PS-I watched NaLyssa Smith her sophomore year at Baylor in Hartford when her and Lauren Cox absolutely took us to the cleaners in the paint. If you'd told me that day that Cox wouldn't even be on a roster and that Smith would BE THIS BAD, I'd have thought you were crazy. Does Smith just not care? She has so many tools; height, speed, athleticism, a "pro body," but she is completely inept on offense and defense, and she is even more terrible rebounding. I just don't get it.
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Add in that Olivia Nelson-Ododa is arguably the best pro of the 3. That game vs Baylor she was completely dominated by Cox, going scoreless and shot 0-8 from the floor. I guess that's why you shouldn't count your eggs before they've hatched.

My guess with Smith is she probably has the wrong people in her ear blaming everyone else instead of telling her she needs to become a lot more disciplined defensively and make the best of situations she's in. I might be making a rash judgment, but she doesn't strike me as someone who has a pro mentality of needing to outwork others and as a result she's getting surpassed by a lot of players who she shouldn't be.
 
bballnut90 said:
Add in that Olivia Nelson-Ododa is arguably the best pro of the 3. That game vs Baylor she was completely dominated by Cox, going scoreless and shot 0-8 from the floor. I guess that's why you shouldn't count your eggs before they've hatched.

My guess with Smith is she probably has the wrong people in her ear blaming everyone else instead of telling her she needs to become a lot more disciplined defensively and make the best of situations she's in. I might be making a rash judgment, but she doesn't strike me as someone who has a pro mentality of needing to outwork others and as a result she's getting surpassed by a lot of players who she shouldn't be.
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I think this is exactly it based on social media posts she and her family have made over the last few seasons.

Off-topic, but it’s still amazing to me that Lauren Cox never become established in the W despite being a very good offensive player and an unbelievable post defender (easily the best since Griner until Boston came along).
 
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cancontent said:
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I think Li has a lot of potential but the issue she had with Seattle was she wasn't getting playing time in order to develop. The way Dallas plays, I don't see her situation improving. I wish her all the best in Dallas. Who knows. She and her team were pretty solid in Los Angeles. Dallas might just be the right fit for her and her development. We shall see.
 
What I'm a bit more interested in regarding the Seattle-Dallas trade is who Seattle now signs to fill out that roster spot that is open due to the trade.
 
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