May 2024 WNBA Thread, part II

[Dillon77]

Chicago leads NYC 63-59 at end of 3rd quarter in Brooklyn.
No DeShields, Harrison (or Kardoso, yet) for Sky but they're hanging in there. Onenyere, Mabrey and Carter all in double figures while Liberty are led by Ionescu.

 

[Dillon77]

Chennedy Carter and Dana Evans strike me as being the same kind of ballplayer: undersized, quick guards who focus on their shots first, although Carter does have six assists thus far. Not a good idea to have both of them in there at once: ball movement dies if either of them run the point.

 

[Dillon77]

Mabrey with a offensive rebound, which she turned into a 3, then a turnaround jumper on Sloot for 2 gives Sky an 11-pt. lead

 

[JellyBean]

Gotta respect the Knicks with the one dissenting vote. Gotta appreciate the pettiness while their lawsuit with the Raptors is ongoing.

Jeez. Only Jim Dolan (Knicks CEO) would be this petty. SMH

 

[Dillon77]

So, the Sky travel to Brooklyn and take the W, 90-81. Sky had 5 players in double figures and even more contributors. Mabrey with 21 pts (8-13 shooting from field), 7 assists and 6 rebounds led the way, but Dana Evans also shot well in the 4th and Lindsay Allen played good defense and calmly distributed the ball. Angel Reese and Elizabeth Willams got some key rebounds, as well. Teresa Witherspoon gets a W as a coach in her first return to Brooklyn (she played at MSG, but the franchise is still the same.). Sky play hard under Coach Witherspoon and their three key guards (Mabrey, Evans and Carter) are very aggressive offensively. Allen is the playmaker in the room, so to speak.

 

[JellyBean]

I gotta say, I am loving having Courtney Williams here in Minnesota. I always had a love/hate feeling about her. Loved watching her play against other teams but when she played against UConn when she was at South Florida or when she was playing against Minnesota in the WNBA, I hated her. She has an incredible jump shot. She is quick and can kick your butt on the drive and finish. She is a nightmare. I am just glad that she is playing for the Lynx...and we got Hiedeman as well. Give me my theme music...

 

[JellyBean]

So, the Sky travel to Brooklyn and take the W, 90-81. Sky had 5 players in double figures and even more contributors. Mabrey with 21 pts (8-13 shooting from field), 7 assists and 6 rebounds led the way, but Dana Evans also shot well in the 4th and Lindsay Allen played good defense and calmly distributed the ball. Angel Reese and Elizabeth Willams got some key rebounds, as well. Teresa Witherspoon gets a W as a coach in her first return to Brooklyn (she played at MSG, but the franchise is still the same.). Sky play hard under Coach Witherspoon and their three key guards (Mabrey, Evans and Carter) are very aggressive offensively. Allen is the playmaker in the room, so to speak.

The Sky have been pretty impressive early in the season.

 

[Bigboote]

Hiedeman and Williams on the court together is quite an entertaining pair of guards.

 

[JellyBean]

Hiedeman and Williams on the court together is quite an entertaining pair of guards.

 

[JellyBean]

Wow!! The refs gave the Sun that one. Holy smokes.

 

[Bigboote]

The Sun pull it out in OT against the Lynx. Very entertaining game.

I’m wondering about Nelson-Ododa and Jefferson not playing at all.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Minny was edged out at the buzzer. Connecticut is now the only undefeated team in the league.

MVPhee had a strong game: 31/11/4/4/2. If she hadn't missed 4 FTs, Minny could have won.

BTW, Phee was the Western Conference POW LAST week.

 

[baggerbob]

So, the Sky travel to Brooklyn and take the W, 90-81. Sky had 5 players in double figures and even more contributors. Mabrey with 21 pts (8-13 shooting from field), 7 assists and 6 rebounds led the way, but Dana Evans also shot well in the 4th and Lindsay Allen played good defense and calmly distributed the ball. Angel Reese and Elizabeth Willams got some key rebounds, as well. Teresa Witherspoon gets a W as a coach in her first return to Brooklyn (she played at MSG, but the franchise is still the same.). Sky play hard under Coach Witherspoon and their three key guards (Mabrey, Evans and Carter) are very aggressive offensively. Allen is the playmaker in the room, so to speak.

Thats the kind of game where Sabrina needs a seat on the bench, along with Laney. Too many times down the floor, one of those 2 put up a quick shot without even looking to get Stewie involved.
Sabina as many shots as Stewie and Jones combined. Then you add 3-10 out of Laney, and no defense on Chicago's guards.

 

[Bigboote]

Minny was edged out at the buzzer. Connecticut is now the only undefeated team in the league.

MVPhee had a strong game: 31/11/4/4/2. If she hadn't missed 4 FTs, Minny could have won.

BTW, Phee was the Western Conference POW LAST week.

Yeah, Minnesota makes another couple of free throws late and they win.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

Thats the kind of game where Sabrina needs a seat on the bench, along with Laney. Too many times down the floor, one of those 2 put up a quick shot without even looking to get Stewie involved.
Sabina as many shots as Stewie and Jones combined. Then you add 3-10 out of Laney, and no defense on Chicago's guards.

Stewie couldn’t score on Reese or Williams. Fan blame Sab for that.

 

[Geew1992]

Everyone… Diana should retire

Diana.. hold my beer

 

[Blueballer]

Glad to see the Mercury off to a decent start even with Griner hurt. They finally added some good pieces for speed, energy and grit with Copper and Cloud. And the coach seems to know what he's doing and has the team behind him. Nice since they've been down for a couple years. And last year was just miserable with the Diggins situation.

 

[Geew1992]

Glad to see the Mercury off to a decent start even with Griner hurt. They finally added some good pieces for speed, energy and grit with Copper and Cloud. And the coach seems to know what he's doing and has the team behind him. Nice since they've been down for a couple years. And last year was just miserable with the Diggins situation.

The diggins situation?? She was pregnant. Mercury couldn’t have done much

 

[Blueballer]

The diggins situation?? She was pregnant. Mercury couldn’t have done much

Her relationship with the team deteriorated long before she was pregnant.

 

[Dillon77]

Thats the kind of game where Sabrina needs a seat on the bench, along with Laney. Too many times down the floor, one of those 2 put up a quick shot without even looking to get Stewie involved.
Sabina as many shots as Stewie and Jones combined. Then you add 3-10 out of Laney, and no defense on Chicago's guards.

@hoopsnloops32

Having watched this entire game, I can see where both of you are coming from.

In the first half, Ionescu led the team in scoring and shot reasonably well. That was not the case in the 2nd half when Mabrey got in her grill, daring her to drive.

Williams and Reese do a good job of clogging up the lanes and the pesky Chicago guards (Evans, Carter, Allen) come back to stick their hands in and jostle the ball when it does come. Of the Liberty's 14 turnovers, 7 came from the front line. BTW, Sky converted those TO's into 19 pts, 8 more than the Liberty did off the Sky's 9 TO's. That's the game differential.

It's pretty much acknowledged, one can score on the Liberty backcourt. The only time Mabrey was checked was when Kayla Thornton came in for 13 minutes. (She knows Mabrey from the Wings days.). In the 4th with no Thornton, Mabrey got free again.

BTW, Stewie's major impact? 4th quarter when Chicago was hanging on....

 

[Geew1992]

Her relationship with the team deteriorated long before she was pregnant.

Right. But last year had nothing to do with that.

 

[bbsamjj]

@hoopsnloops32

Having watched this entire game, I can see where both of you are coming from.

In the first half, Ionescu led the team in scoring and shot reasonably well. That was not the case in the 2nd half when Mabrey got in her grill, daring her to drive.

Williams and Reese do a good job of clogging up the lanes and the pesky Chicago guards (Evans, Carter, Allen) come back to stick their hands in and jostle the ball when it does come. Of the Liberty's 14 turnovers, 7 came from the front line. BTW, Sky converted those TO's into 19 pts, 8 more than the Liberty did off the Sky's 9 TO's. That's the game differential.

It's pretty much acknowledged, one can score on the Liberty backcourt. The only time Mabrey was checked was when Kayla Thornton came in for 13 minutes. (She knows Mabrey from the Wings days.). In the 4th with no Thornton, Mabrey got free again.

BTW, Stewie's major impact? 4th quarter when Chicago was hanging on....

Impressive game and composure from the Sky. The announcers described Chicago as a team where everyone has a chip on their shoulder, and I think that's a perfect descriptor. Mabrey is a streaky shooter but she was ON tonight, and it's nice to see Carter seems to have a found a good landing spot in the W.

Not making excuses, but this was Chicago's third game versus the Liberty's fifth--and the Liberty seemed sluggish all night. Jones never got into her groove given all the foul trouble, multiple layups and FTs were missed by pretty much everyone, and the defense looked straight up bad. And it's obviously Brondello still doesn't trust the bench, particularly when things are close. Both Stewart and Sab played 35min. The only good news is Sabally may have had her best game as a pro: 8pts, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and a block in 19min (and the team was +13 with her on the court).

 

[Dillon77]

On the other hand, this is Sabrina Ionescu's comment on the Liberty-Sky match, post-game:

"I think we were just settling,” Ionescu said. “It wasn’t anything that they necessarily did, I think we all just came down and didn’t take our best shots. Offensively, we were rushed. We were taking the first available shot instead of our best shot.” (Via the New York Post)

 

[cancontent]

Impressive game and composure from the Sky. The announcers described Chicago as a team where everyone has a chip on their shoulder, and I think that's a perfect descriptor. Mabrey is a streaky shooter but she was ON tonight, and it's nice to see Carter seems to have a found a good landing spot in the W.

Not making excuses, but this was Chicago's third game versus the Liberty's fifth--and the Liberty seemed sluggish all night. Jones never got into her groove given all the foul trouble, multiple layups and FTs were missed by pretty much everyone, and the defense looked straight up bad. And it's obviously Brondello still doesn't trust the bench, particularly when things are close. Both Stewart and Sab played 35min. The only good news is Sabally may have had her best game as a pro: 8pts, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and a block in 19min (and the team was +13 with her on the court).

To your point about the number of games, it will be interesting to see how this season's schedule impacts players. Commissioner Engelbert noted yesterday that it's compressed due to the Olympics. The time between games to recover are shorter and obviously schedules are skewed right now.

 

[Rb335]

@hoopsnloops32

Having watched this entire game, I can see where both of you are coming from.

In the first half, Ionescu led the team in scoring and shot reasonably well. That was not the case in the 2nd half when Mabrey got in her grill, daring her to drive.

Williams and Reese do a good job of clogging up the lanes and the pesky Chicago guards (Evans, Carter, Allen) come back to stick their hands in and jostle the ball when it does come. Of the Liberty's 14 turnovers, 7 came from the front line. BTW, Sky converted those TO's into 19 pts, 8 more than the Liberty did off the Sky's 9 TO's. That's the game differential.

It's pretty much acknowledged, one can score on the Liberty backcourt. The only time Mabrey was checked was when Kayla Thornton came in for 13 minutes. (She knows Mabrey from the Wings days.). In the 4th with no Thornton, Mabrey got free again.

BTW, Stewie's major impact? 4th quarter when Chicago was hanging on....

Stewie has a tendency to get complacent at times. It feels like if she misses a few early shots, or isn’t getting touches, she’s content to float around setting screens. Not looking to score. Then late in the game yesterday, she demanded the ball and scored with relative ease. Before some last minute heaves, she was 5-10 from the floor, its not like she was shooting them out of it. Frustrating at times because she can and should be making an impact consistently throughout games. The liberty sometimes forget who their first option is, and revert to 1v1 basketball. Last year they would get a lead and it felt like it was every player going ok now is my opportunity to get mine. Opponents would creep back in and Stewie would step back up and make plays, or they would go back to working the ball for open shots. They are a very talented team, but they are subject to off nights where they look flat. Doesn’t help they rely so much on jump shooting.

4-1 is a great start, but their 4 wins have come against the worst teams in the league. Still not sure they actually look any better than last year.