High Hopes for 9-1 v. ATL Friday

[psconn]

The Sun have a great home record in recent years, and its gets crazy-good when they are given a few days prep time. They desperately need to win these early games when they have ANY exploitable advantage. Atlanta won a home game yesterday, while the Sun last played on Sunday and enjoyed 2 days off before getting back to work. The biggest danger might be a flat start coming off that much rest.

As other teams return to full strength and incorporate new lineups, I fully expect the Sun to be reeled in in the standings at some point. It is likely that there will again be a dogfight down the stretch for playoff seedings.

The season's 1st goal is to avoid the one-and-done scenario. Schedule situations like Friday's must translate to wins if they're going to get there.
GO SUN!!

 

[Roger G]

I like where they are right now, but Delle Donne's big game yesterday seems to indicate she may have thrown off her off-season staleness, which might make the Sun's run a bit harder.

 

[psconn]

I like where they are right now, but Delle Donne's big game yesterday seems to indicate she may have thrown off her off-season staleness, which might make the Sun's run a bit harder.

DC looked really good last night.

I hear Clarendon probably won't be available tonight for the Sun. Bad timing because ATL is super-atheletic and has no favorable guard match ups for Banham. She played only 8 minutes in the last ATL game (0-3, 1TO, 1PF). She'll play, but I expect Holmes to get more minutes even though she had goose eggs in 10 minutes of court time against ATL last game. Jas really needs to breakout right now! This is a night where Heideman would have come in handy... unfortunately she'll be wearing a Dream uniform tonight.

Watching for continued impactful minutes from Kristine Anigwe, too. She looked very good versus Seattle.

 

[psconn]

Well, Jas showed up big time-- 62% shooting and was 1 assist from a double-double but was a little overshadowed by Strick's unconcious shooting performance. The Sun set a franchise record for best start. 9-1.

Holmes played well but not as many minutes as I though she'd get (8). Banham worked very hard on D but struggled with the Dream's quickness as expected. She nailed 2 very big 3s in her 17 minutes.

I need to re-watch the game, but my early assessment is that this might be the worst officiated game I've seen in recent seasons.

Unfortunately, I think the Sun let the refs distract them and disrupt their game in the 2nd half. They allowed the Dream back into the game and put up a 51 point half. Thats not good, and would probably be a painful loss on the road or in the playoffs. But it's a W tonite.

 

[chrisphoto15]

Connecticut Sun Post-game press conference -

 

[psconn]

Love these Chris. Thanks very much for posting.