Sparks @ Lynx - 10/04/17

[EricLA]

Tremendous series. Bush league to blame the refs or Nneka for the loss. At 6'2", she gives up 4" to the bigger and strong Fowles, who is the MVP and a future HOF'er. Parker is bigger than Nneka. Why not put her on Fowles? Most of us know the answer (see Parker's performance against Cambage - she apparently hates to bang), but blaming Nneka? As a leader, Parker could have stepped up and taken on that challenge instead of leaving it to her severely undersized teammate.

Still, great series. Games of runs for both teams. Tenacious defense by both teams. And an incredibly physical game. If the refs called ALL the fouls committed, most of the starters would have ended up on the bench. Congrats to all the Lynx players, but especially to Maya and Renee - 2 UCONN fan favorites. Clearly good won over evil...

 

[wallman]

Egads, but what a great series. Thoroughly enjoyed these match ups. A few take aways from my point of view.

Size matters. Too much size in the paint. When Brunson started to bring it, we were doomed.

At first, I though we had the advantage in the backcourt and Sims did a great job of showing weaknesses in the Lynx handling but down the stretch we couldn't put the ball in the basket and Chelsea was also stifled by the Lynx D.

It's still my opinion that CP needs to play in the paint more and try to get the other teams bigs hit with some fouls there. The Sparks need to rethink their bench and we could likely lose Lav.

 

[Carnac]

Fowles should end up in the Naismith HOF when all is said and done.

She's flown somewhat under the radar as an all-time player.

......................Until now. This was BIG Syl's "come out" year.

Two questions:
1. The Lynx win the championship EVERY OTHER year. That means they won't win it next year, who's the favorite to win it all next year? The Sparks?, the Liberty?, the Sun?, the Mercury?
2. Now that Fowles has firmly established herself as the dominant (MVP) post player in the W, what player do you see (think) will be able to stop or contain her one on one next year?

 

[Trappa]

Maya will go down as the greatest. Unbelievable player with talent and maturity well beyond her years. It's easy to forget she just turned 28 (only a year and a half older than Griner, for comparison).

 

[EricLA]

Maya will go down as the greatest. Unbelievable player with talent and maturity well beyond her years. It's easy to forget she just turned 28 (only a year and a half older than Griner, for comparison).

Until Stewie turns 28...

 

[Carnac]

Carl's story

Another WNBA title for ex-Huskies Moore, Montgomery

"You know, and like Coach [Cheryl Reeve] said, at a certain point players make play and Maya made that runner at the free-throw line, which is why she's Maya Moore, which is also why we like her on our team."

"Maya made a hard shot," Reeve said. "That shot that she made there at the end, that's not something that comes easy, you know, kind of a runner/floater from like 15 feet. But I heard Lindsay say, that's Maya Moore. That's what she does. She makes plays."

And wins.

For those that have been following Maya since she arrived in Storrs, they understand that this could easily have been said (and often was) during her time at UConn!! She was doing the same exact things then. The only difference is that she's now doing them at the next level, and doing them CONSISTENTLY!!!

Nothing has really changed about her lately. She was a great teammate then. She was a great competitor then, and she was a great "role model" then. She made plays then, she makes plays now! You could call her the female version of Michael Irvin. During his playing days with the Dallas Cowboys, his moniker was "The playmaker" If there was a Mount Rushmore of the 4 greatest women to ever come through UConn's program, I personally think Maya, the playmaker should be on it.

 

[UConnCat]

Egads, but what a great series. Thoroughly enjoyed these match ups. A few take aways from my point of view.

Size matters. Too much size in the paint. When Brunson started to bring it, we were doomed.

At first, I though we had the advantage in the backcourt and Sims did a great job of showing weaknesses in the Lynx handling but down the stretch we couldn't put the ball in the basket and Chelsea was also stifled by the Lynx D.

It's still my opinion that CP needs to play in the paint more and try to get the other teams bigs hit with some fouls there. The Sparks need to rethink their bench and we could likely lose Lav.

Really good points. The keys for the Lynx were Brunson's play (after game 1) and the fact that Whalen found ways to score last night.

I do wonder what Nneka is thinking these days. She is a great teammate but forcing her to bang with Sylvia in the paint is a lot to ask and affects other parts of her game.

Lavender's mid-range shot is money but she's not one to mix it up in the lane.

 

[Carnac]

Really good points. The keys for the Lynx were Brunson's play (after game 1) and the fact that Whalen found ways to score last night.

I do wonder what Nneka is thinking these days. She is a great teammate but forcing her to bang with Sylvia in the paint is a lot to ask and affects other parts of her game.

Lavender's mid-range shot is money but she's not one to mix it up in the lane.

Great points!!! If the Sparks want to compete on a level playing field with Minnesota, they're going to have to go out (somewhere) and find themselves a BIG post player that can and will BANG with Fowles or anyone else, and hold her own. Right now, trying to stop Fowles is like playing poker without any chips.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Great points!!! If the Sparks what to compete on a level playing field with Minnesota, they're going to have to go out (somewhere) and find themselves a BIG post player that can and will BANG with Fowles or anyone else, and hold her own. Right now, trying to stop Fowles is like playing poker without any chips.

Even Griner has trouble with Fowles. I’m not sure Stokes can slow her down. Maybe someone down the road can, but the list of candidates is short.

 

[UConnCat]

Great points!!! If the Sparks what to compete on a level playing field with Minnesota, they're going to have to go out (somewhere) and find themselves a BIG post player that can and will BANG with Fowles or anyone else, and hold her own. Right now, trying to stop Fowles is like playing poker without any chips.

I disagree. The Sparks did compete with Minnesota and at times during the series looked like the better team. The Lynx were able to gut out another championship but the cracks in the back court showed and next season it may not matter that Sylvia is still dominating the lane. The Sparks won the championship last year and likely will be favorites to win next year. I love Whalen and Augustus but I don't know how many more miles are left for them. The Lynx need an infusion of youth and athleticism, particularly in the back court.

 

[trb123]

Congratulations to Lynx.
Maya was great. I wish I could say the same about Rene.
I am worried that next year Lynx will be older and Sparks may be better particularly if they can add a center.

 

[meyers7]

I think you're being more than a little hard on Nneka. She's 6-2 and it was her job to bang with the bigger and physical Sylvia in the lane on both ends of the floor. Parker plays mostly on the perimeter on offense and was mostly a help defender against Sylvia on defense. The physical banging with Sylvia, which Parker mostly avoided, clearly took a toll on the smaller Nneka. After 5 games of that was it any wonder that other parts of her game would be affected. I'm sure Nneka would have loved for someone else to deal with Sylvia.

Hmmmm.

 

[Justavisitor]

Tremendous series. Bush league to blame the refs or Nneka for the loss. At 6'2", she gives up 4" to the bigger and strong Fowles, who is the MVP and a future HOF'er. Parker is bigger than Nneka. Why not put her on Fowles? Most of us know the answer (see Parker's performance against Cambage - she apparently hates to bang), but blaming Nneka? As a leader, Parker could have stepped up and taken on that challenge instead of leaving it to her severely undersized teammate.

Still, great series. Games of runs for both teams. Tenacious defense by both teams. And an incredibly physical game. If the refs called ALL the fouls committed, most of the starters would have ended up on the bench. Congrats to all the Lynx players, but especially to Maya and Renee - 2 UCONN fan favorites. Clearly good won over evil...

Parker did defend Fowles for much of the series, including last night. Nneka defended Brunson most of the time. They found out early on that Fowles has a much more difficult time against the length of Candace. The biggest issue was when they brought in the bench and Lavender just is quick enough defensively. This limited her playing time which meant too many minutes for both Nneka and Candace.

 

[Justavisitor]

Lucky for the Sparks, with Nneka fouled out, Beard with 5 and Sims with 4

This. The league has got to get better officiating. Sue Blauch is just awful. She can't keep up with the NCAA players, so she certainly has no business in the WNBA. The players (all of them and on both teams) work to hard at their craft to keep getting short changed by officials.

 

[Justavisitor]

Congrats to the Lynx--they played better as a team and appeared to want it more. Fowles was an absolute beast tonight and Whalen had a great game. Moore did a lot of little things well and made the biggest play of the night.

3rd year in a row that Nneka has performed quite poorly against the Lynx in the playoffs. She hit the winner last year but was subpar most of the series. Tonight she was flat out bad...she got owned on the boards and was largely ineffective besides a few buckets early.

Sad for Parker that she didn't get another title tonight. She worked her butt off all night and did what she could to rally LA. I thought it was an uphill battle for the Sparks with the reffing tonight but they had their chances and didn't make the most of them. Lots of missed shots by Lavender, Sims and Beard. They need a better backup post to replace Lavender next year. Someone with size and who can rebound. I think La is the favorite next year if the starting 5 return. The guards are onl getting better and Nneka/Parker aren't slowing down.

Well said and spot on. Although Nneka was undersized, all series long, I felt she attempts to bang inside against bigger players too often. Maybe she's trying to draw fouls, but in this match up, she has got to be ready to hit her spot up 10 -15 footers. Not blaming Nneka. It's just a bad match up and a match up that she's going to need to figure out. LA needs another big that's more mobile and more of an inside beast than Lavender.

 

[j66kicker]

This. The league has got to get better officiating. Sue Blauch is just awful. She can't keep up with the NCAA players, so she certainly has no business in the WNBA. The players (all of them and on both teams) work to hard at their craft to keep getting short changed by officials.

Agree the officiating is bad in WNBA. But not that it was biased against the Sparks last night. Nneka got fouls because she just couldn’t contain Syl. The Sparks just got beat by a better team.

 

[Geew1992]

Parker did defend Fowles for much of the series, including last night. Nneka defended Brunson most of the time. They found out early on that Fowles has a much more difficult time against the length of Candace. The biggest issue was when they brought in the bench and Lavender just is quick enough defensively. This limited her playing time which meant too many minutes for both Nneka and Candace.

Not sure I would say a more difficult time. She averaged 18 and 15. If Minnesota looked to Syl earlier in games, she probably would have averaged 25. And NO ONE kept her off the O boards

 

[UConnCat]

Parker did defend Fowles for much of the series, including last night. Nneka defended Brunson most of the time. They found out early on that Fowles has a much more difficult time against the length of Candace. The biggest issue was when they brought in the bench and Lavender just is quick enough defensively. This limited her playing time which meant too many minutes for both Nneka and Candace.

Not accurate. Nneka was the primary defender on Fowles and Parker defended Brunson. That was the case throughout the series. Parker defended Fowles on occasional possessions (off of switches or if the defense couldn't match up) but even with Nneka out of the game it was Lavender who tried to defend Sylvia. Rebecca Lobo talked throughout the series about Parker giving help defense off of Brunson which presented opportunities for Brunson.

 

[Shades]

Agree the officiating is bad in WNBA. But not that it was biased against the Sparks last night. Nneka got fouls because she just couldn’t contain Syl. The Sparks just got beat by a better team.

Nneka had careless fouls like she always does, but the refs weren't overlooking them last night.

 

[BigBird]

Given the come-back runs the Lynx consistently allowed, I am a little surprised that they won it all. I don't know what the issue was, but the Sparks' rally was scary, if futile.

 

[Shades]

LA needs another big that's more mobile and more of an inside beast than Lavender.

If Teaira McCowan declares for the 2018 draft, then do what you have to trade up for her. If she doesn't declare, consider tanking in 2018? Just kidding.... I hate tanking.

If the Sparks somehow get this physical center, what happens to Parker? She becomes the SF?

 

[Shades]

 

[Striper69]

No way Hamson is mobile enough to be effective against Fowles....she's barely played at all in the WNBA.

Hamson did pretty well against her in the Fever win this season. Hamson really has yet to get a lot of playing time and I have doubts about whether Pokey can get everything out of her. Time will tell but the Sparks missed the bus as far as using her.

 

[Carnac]

I disagree. The Sparks did compete with Minnesota and at times during the series looked like the better team. The Lynx were able to gut out another championship but the cracks in the back court showed and next season it may not matter that Sylvia is still dominating the lane. The Sparks won the championship last year and likely will be favorites to win next year. I love Whalen and Augustus but I don't know how many more miles are left for them. The Lynx need an infusion of youth and athleticism, particularly in the back court.

I agree on your other points. LA was the better team in games 1 and 3. Had they been able to match those efforts in game two, they would have won the series. The fact remains that the Sparks don't have a big that can match up against Fowles. Nneka gives up 4", and cannot stop or contain her. She gave a valiant effort last night before fouling out with about 5 mins left. Once she went out, the game was over, and the Lynx pulled away. Agler had no one on the bench that could come in a guard Fowles. Parker does not like to bang down low, she can't stop, slow down or contain Fowles either. She was not an option. I don't recall anyone besting Fowles on a regular basis this year.

The Sparks were out-rebounded 46-29 in game 5. Fowles had 20 of them. Remember what then Laker head coach Pat Riley said during the Lakers' show time era: "No rebounds, no rings". Rebounding is very important. Side note - Miss St out-rebounded UConn 37-31. Winning the rebound battle can make the difference in a close game.

In game 2, LA was out-rebounded 36-29. Nneka is good, but she can't consistently out rebound 6'6". Note - LA was out-rebounded in all 5 games. Before last year, the Sparks had not won a championship since they won two back-to back in the Lisa Leslie era of 2001 & 2002. That's 14 seasons.

Yes, LA did compete. I've been a Sparks fan since the team's inception in 1997. Their best chance to win the series was to win game 2, however they let that one slip away. If this series had been the best of 3, the the Sparks would have won. I still maintain that the Sparks need a competent post player if they want to win another championship. For the foreseeable future, it appears that they will have to get by the Lynx to do it.

The Lynx are getting long in the tooth, and no doubt some changes should be made. I'm sure you know how reluctant GM's are about breaking up a team that just won a championship. Some feel they (the team) have a right to defend it the next season. Whalen (35 years old) may retire soon. I recall someone reporting she was making overtures to that effect.

Time will tell if the Lynx bring in younger players next season. Recently their roster has been the hardest in the league for a draftee/undrafted FA/free agent to make. Their 5 starters have been together for a long time. Reeves (like Geno) does not go deep into her bench in the post season.

Appearing in the championship round every year results in them drafting 11th or 12th. The 1-3 "franchise" players coming out of college are always gone by then. It's doubtful they'll get anyone in the first round that can break into their starting lineup.

Free agency or a trade will most likely be the way they address their "aging" problem. Maya (28) is the only Lynx starter under 30. Brunson (the oldest) will turn 36 in December. Fowles is 32. I think she can continue to play at this level for another 3 years. I commented earlier that the Lynx's success is due to their maturity, and good coaching.

All of their starters are wile seasoned veterans, all of whom have won multiple championships. UConnCat, I've read most of your posts over the years, and have a healthy respect for your knowledge and opinion. You know basketball. I'm afraid we're going to have to disagree on this one point.

It's been a rough week for LA teams. The Lakers lost their first two games, The USC (football) Trojans lost to Washington State, and the Sparks lost the series. O for 3.

 

[Carnac]

If Teaira McCowan declares for the 2018 draft, then do what you have to trade up for her. If she doesn't declare, consider tanking in 2018? Just kidding.... I hate tanking.

If the Sparks somehow get this physical center, what happens to Parker? She becomes the SF?

The cost to trade up may be too costly. At this stage of her development, she's still a work in progress. It may take 2-3 years before she begins to blossom. In time, she may develop into the low post "banger" they need.
Nothing happens to Parker should they acquire McCowan.