Nika. Those are her stats for the past 8 games with both CD and Azzi out (since Azzi's second injury).
Before any of you jump on me to point out that she is less guarded than others (which is true), she has been certainly been more guarded during this stretch than in the beginning of the season, when we had 3 shooters out there.
Compare that with her own stats in the previous 15 games: 43/34/63 - a tremendous improvement mid-season right when it was both more difficult and most needed.
Add that to the big improvements off-season both addressing her known weaknesses (much belabored here over the summer) and increasing her known strength - compared to last season, she almost doubled her A/T ratio, cut in half the number of fouls per 40 mins, and fixed the lack of penetration and terrible foul-line shooting (it was 20% on only 5 trips to the line all season). Last but not least, over the past few games a pull-up J showed up for the first time... Just a couple of misses and a couple of makes so far, but if this gets added to her skillset, watch out!
We are witnessing something remarkable, to put it mildly. Enjoy!
Before any of you jump on me to point out that she is less guarded than others (which is true), she has been certainly been more guarded during this stretch than in the beginning of the season, when we had 3 shooters out there.
Compare that with her own stats in the previous 15 games: 43/34/63 - a tremendous improvement mid-season right when it was both more difficult and most needed.
Add that to the big improvements off-season both addressing her known weaknesses (much belabored here over the summer) and increasing her known strength - compared to last season, she almost doubled her A/T ratio, cut in half the number of fouls per 40 mins, and fixed the lack of penetration and terrible foul-line shooting (it was 20% on only 5 trips to the line all season). Last but not least, over the past few games a pull-up J showed up for the first time... Just a couple of misses and a couple of makes so far, but if this gets added to her skillset, watch out!
We are witnessing something remarkable, to put it mildly. Enjoy!
