No Love for Sun vs Fever?

[psconn]

Sun trying to halt their losing skid against the league's worst team... not compelling enough for a game night thread, I guess.

Here's some takeaways:

• I am very concerned about Jonquel Jones. Her vertical and horizontal quickness and All-Star ability to find space at the rim are still MIA. Always a bit foul-prone, she is taking that to an extreme at the moment. The solutions are totally on her and the coaching staff, but she also gets little respect from the refs, and that makes the issue worse. Maybe the experiment of putting on extra weight is a bad idea. Bonner seems to be doing ok and she makes JJ look like Courtney Paris.
  
• The bench outscored the starters largely due to a really bad shooting night for Jas (1-10). Her only basket was a head fake blow-by lay-up. Courtney and Chiney were the only two effective starters with 14 and 13 respectively. 9 rebounds for Chiney. Court added 9 rebounds to her line also... not bad for a skinny 5'8" kid.
  
• For the first time since she was drafted, Rachel Banham is showing signs of being the kind of player the Sun hoped she'd be. With the knee issues under control, she's much fitter and more mobile. Tentative, slow and confused-looking Rachel seems to have departed the scene and that's good for the Sun. A perfect 5-5 from 3 last night and 7-10 overall. The MoheganMamba may never be a lock-down defender, but she's starting to hold her own in many matchups. Rachel has obviously put in the work and its paying off. Good to see.
• Bri Jones has also worked really hard to get better and it is starting to show. In the right match-up (like last night) she can be a real problem for opponents with her power and rebounding. 18 points on 8-10 shooting and a dub-dub with 10 rebounds. By the way, announcer Debbie Antonelli stated last night that Bri's "girth" was unmatched in the league... what the [bleep]?!?! Sometimes these "experts" need to take a breath and stop trying to fill every second with their blather.
  
• Does anyone doubt that Alyssa Thomas was the engine that made the Sun offense go? For all the flaws in her game, she is a unique talent in the league and when healthy she does what she does better than anyone else. Rebound, push, distribute or bull to the rim... rinse, repeat.
• Chiney is legit and playing her with AT and JJ was working out ok even though JJ is not playing at last year's level. Playing very well, but with a significant chip on her shoulder over star-biased officiating. My take on the officials is more generic... the officiating is poor and needs to improve because it is hurting the game. Basketball is inherently difficult to officiate but the inconsistency, the anticipation of contact calls, and the super-late "lets see if it goes in" calls are maddening.
• Washington in DC next. There will be a lot of motivation there, but it's unlikely AT will play and that's a problem.

 

[Roger G]

Good takeaways. I went to the Atlanta game and was a bit disturbed by what I saw, particularly JJ down near the basket with Miller screaming at her to post up and her just floating around down there. So this game was welcome, even if it was against a one win team.

 

[emjay]

Thanks for this thoughtful post. It was good to see the bench secure the win against the Fever - I'm hoping a real confidence booster for Rachel and Brionna in particular. Jasmine has been struggling with her shot lately, but I always appreciate her steady leadership and energy. She played well in Washington last time they were there, so maybe tomorrow's game will inspire a return to her best.

I'm also hopeful that as the season progresses, JJ will return to dominating games. She seems to be an emotional player, and you can see on her face when she's angry about a call (or lack of a call). She's still quite young... It was nice to see her cheering enthusiastically from the bench on Sunday nonetheless. Also hoping that AT will recover well - and soon - from her injury, and wish we'd get a more concrete timeline about her returning. Her playmaking and toughness have been sorely missed.

I'm curious about the Rachel-Lindsay Whalen comparisons I sometimes come across. Do they actually have anything in common, in terms of style of play?