Before one completely buries Phoenix, they were playing perhaps the best coached and most talented team the W has ever seen - MN is a powerhouse and it starts with 1/4 of the Olympic team - four very dedicated and extremely talented players who are joined in the starting line-up with a consummate pro in Brunson who cleans up everyone else messes. And then the bench is incredibly talented as well. They are an older team, but have remained healthy all year which was the worry. And the coaching staff has done a really good job of defining roles and building confidence in the bench players and generally stayed out of the way of the starters - play tough fundamental defense and ride the hot hand and exploit the other teams weakest links, whoever and whatever that happens to be on any given night. No ego issues either. It is a really impressive production. They can go big with Fowles and Brunson, or go smaller and faster with Howard and Hampton. They are first in scoring and second in defense. They shoot the second highest from the floor, and shoot the three 10% better than anyone else while they give up the third lowest opponent shooting percentage. (Sounds sort of like Uconn doesn't it!) Phoenix of two years ago was going to struggle against this years MN, and this years Phoenix was not as good a team as 2014.
All that said - Phoenix hasn't looked right all year - they had a better post Olympic run and did well to reach the semis, but ...
I can't figure out Griner - good Olympics but she runs hot and cold, and the competitive fire wasn't that strong this year.
DT was incredible in the Olympics, but she sometimes seemed disinterested during the season too.
Bonner is a freakish player physically who could use more discipline
I really like Dupree but this wasn't a great year for her either
Xargay seemed a little miscast in her role
And the bench never really got organized - no idea why they brought in Bone with Harrison already there.
Overall, I think the reintroduction of DT may have create an unexpected chemistry issue - she is a great player but is also a dominant personality - they made it work without her last year, and performed better as a team but struggled all this year to get in right.