WBNA Playoffs - here we go! | The Boneyard

WBNA Playoffs - here we go!

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BRS24

BRS24

LisaG
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Here are the upcoming games:

1757706715751.jpeg
 
Game #1 Day Hype Time:

BALLHALLA IS A MENTALITY.

I personally think the league should give us a few extra roster spots in recognition of having the best fans and the most likeable team...

Speaking of best fans? The Valkyries had better average attendance at their home games this season than NINE MNBA teams, including, wait for it, the NBA Champs, the Thunder:
 
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Love the Valks' energy so far. Lots of confidence. Not sure we can take the Lynx down at home but sure want to make them work hard for it.
 
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I'm pretty sure the Valkyries are going to get absolutely destroyed this series, but I love them. Nakase took a first year team of role players and has them in the playoffs in year 1

It will be super interesting to see how this franchise develops. They have the best crowd in the league, the Bay Area LOVES basketball, and clearly they aren't a pushover team. They should attract big name free agents. I hope they become a power team quickly
 
REB1094 said:
I'm pretty sure the Valkyries are going to get absolutely destroyed this series, but I love them. Nakase took a first year team of role players and has them in the playoffs in year 1

It will be super interesting to see how this franchise develops. They have the best crowd in the league, the Bay Area LOVES basketball, and clearly they aren't a pushover team. They should attract big name free agents. I hope they become a power team quickly
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They had such an incredible year across the board that I’d imagine them being the most attractive landing spot. Free agency can’t come sooner!
 
Oof, Sabally shot 2-17, 1-10 from 3, AT and Copper didn't exactly step up and have big games to cover for her, and it STILL took New York going to OT to beat the Merc. Although winning on the road in the playoffs is huge.
 
Mitchell scored 27 but barely got any help. Balanced scoring for the Dream led to an 80-68 win.
 
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nwhoopfan said:
Oof, Sabally shot 2-17, 1-10 from 3, AT and Copper didn't exactly step up and have big games to cover for her, and it STILL took New York going to OT to beat the Merc. Although winning on the road in the playoffs is huge.
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Stewart's injury will be something to monitor. Per posts I've seen on social media, severity unknown, but Stewart did ask to have it looked at. Hopefully it's nothing serious. If memory serves correct, game two is on Wednesday.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Pretty meh first day of the playoffs. 2 blowouts, another double digit margin, only one game with any intrigue down the stretch.
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The 4-5 was a thriller and tight the whole way through, but the other three all felt decided by halftime. Kinda makes sense though - there have been five serious contenders all season: Lynx, Aces, Dream, Merc, and the Lib, so it's not surprising that's carried over to the post-season
 
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TheFarmFan said:
The wa4-5s a thriller and tight the whole way through, but the other three all felt decided by halftime. Kinda makes sense though - there have been five serious contenders all season: Lynx, Aces, Dream, Merc, and the Lib, so it's not surprising that's carried over to the post-season
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This was a defensive game in which former Mercury guard Natasha Cloud was clearly the difference.

Nate was lauded by some for his roster utilization and strategy. Clearly his strategy of resting starters before the playoffs was it best not successful but more accurately an abject failure.

The million dollar Coach received a great deal of attention for house cleaning before the season turning the roster over completely.

It was clear in this game that Brondello out coached him and unable to take advantage of the home court the million dollar coach could find no answer as his big three were ice cold.

With 2 minutes in regulation AT misses 2 free throws and then after Stewie makes an extraordinarily difficult shot in the paint AT comes down and leaves a shot on the rim after beating Stewie with her patented spin move . The game, while still tied, was over at that point.

We earlier had a discussion on the boneyard about the impact of travel east west and west east certainly didn't seem to affect the Liberty as the home team which lost their third game in a row seemed to half step slow.

The deflated Merc had zero in the tank in OT as the the Liberty closed out the contest in the first 90 seconds of OT

The million dollar coach strategy of resting starters as the season wound down clearly lacked efficacy. As the Mercury lost their third game in a row it did appear that in addition to being a half step slow they were a little out of sync. A little?

In the post game presser AT who I thought was very gracious was repeatedly asked about defense and the shooting woes. She honestly said we got the shots we wanted they just didn't fall which was evident throughout the game. One has to wonder about the strategy of rusting starters down the stretch and the impact that might have had on both rhythm for the team as well as preparation. In any event the Mercury lost their ninth straight first round game so the coach of fresh change was unable to make any impact on performance in the important first round contest.

Even with Stewie hurt I'm not certain that the Merc really are in a position to advance.

We will see however if the million dollar coach can do something hard and overcome the travel issue which we've discussed on the BY. Sandy Brondello did both in yesterday's game. In the arena of skepticism I would guess skeptics of the million dollar coach may be more on point than skeptics of Sandy Brondello who goes on the road to beat the higher seated team in the all-important first game of the firstround game.

What is clear is his strategy in the final two games the regular season did not work. I also wondered why we didn't see Sammie Whitcomb as regulation wound down or in the OT given the extreme cold shooting by his big three.

I made the right decision in not driving down to the valley of soul crushing heat to watch this game. In the unlikely event the million dollar coach can overcome travel and the home court I'll have a decision to make this week and hope the temperature drops under 500 degrees.

After the first round it's clear who is winning the race to the bottom as Mr conviviality outpaces Noelle Quinn in the failure to prepare department.

We also have an opportunity to see what elite coaches like Becky Hammon, Cheryl Reeve and Sandy Brondello to in anticipation of the important first round first game.

Is he worth 1.2 million?
 
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azfan said:
I'll have a decision to make this week and hope the temperature drops under 500 degrees
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Stay in the mountains. That’s key. Over here in Santa Fe we’ve had a lovely cool spell for the last week or so.
 
azfan said:
This was a defensive game in which former Mercury guard Natasha Cloud was clearly the difference.

Nate was lauded by some for his roster utilization and strategy. Clearly his strategy of resting starters before the playoffs was it best not successful but more accurately an abject failure.

The million dollar Coach received a great deal of attention for house cleaning before the season turning the roster over completely.

It was clear in this game that Brondello out coached him and unable to take advantage of the home court the million dollar coach could find no answer as his big three were ice cold.

With 2 minutes in regulation AT misses 2 free throws and then after Stewie makes an extraordinarily difficult shot in the paint AT comes down and leaves a shot on the rim after beating Stewie with her patented spin move . The game, while still tied, was over at that point.

We earlier had a discussion on the boneyard about the impact of travel east west and west east certainly didn't seem to affect the Liberty as the home team which lost their third game in a row seemed to half step slow.

The deflated Merc had zero in the tank in OT as the the Liberty closed out the contest in the first 90 seconds of OT

The million dollar coach strategy of resting starters as the season wound down clearly lacked efficacy. As the Mercury lost their third game in a row it did appear that in addition to being a half step slow they were a little out of sync. A little?

In the post game presser AT who I thought was very gracious was repeatedly asked about defense and the shooting woes. She honestly said we got the shots we wanted they just didn't fall which was evident throughout the game. One has to wonder about the strategy of rusting starters down the stretch and the impact that might have had on both rhythm for the team as well as preparation. In any event the Mercury lost their ninth straight first round game so the coach of fresh change was unable to make any impact on performance in the important first round contest.

Even with Stewie hurt I'm not certain that the Merc really are in a position to advance.

We will see however if the million dollar coach can do something hard and overcome the travel issue which we've discussed on the BY. Sandy Brondello did both in yesterday's game. In the arena of skepticism I would guess skeptics of the million dollar coach may be more on point than skeptics of Sandy Brondello who goes on the road to beat the higher seated team in the all-important first game of the firstround game.

What is clear is his strategy in the final two games the regular season did not work. I also wondered why we didn't see Sammie Whitcomb as regulation wound down or in the OT given the extreme cold shooting by his big three.

I made the right decision in not driving down to the valley of soul crushing heat to watch this game. In the unlikely event the million dollar coach can overcome travel and the home court I'll have a decision to make this week and hope the temperature drops under 500 degrees.

After the first round it's clear who is winning the race to the bottom as Mr conviviality outpaces Noelle Quinn in the failure to prepare department.

We also have an opportunity to see what elite coaches like Becky Hammon, Cheryl Reeve and Sandy Brondello to in anticipation of the important first round first game.

Is he worth 1.2 million?
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Lot to unpack there. I guess to me resting starters down the stretch doesn't seem like a bad idea and clearly it worked well for the Lynx - each of Phee, Lan, and McBuckets sat out one of the last games, and they looked very fresh yesterday (too fresh, gosh darn!)

I question AT's statement that they got the shots they wanted - to me the biggest difference between the Lib and Merc down the stretch was willingness to work into the possession. The Lib were way more patient and taking smarter, good to great shots. The Merc kept hoisting stuff up 5 seconds into the shot clock. And clearly Satou was off, so maybe have her set screens and look to get inside, but lord she needed to stop bricking from outside seconds into a possession.

AT was the only one who I thought consistently dribbled her way inside effectively, and so in that sense, yes, I think she was mostly taking good shots. But as a group, the Merc were an offensive dumpster fire in the second half, saved only by really good defense and the Lib being terrible at passing the ball inside.

To me the major question for game 2 is Meeseman - does the former finals MVP show up, or the sloppy, step slow player we saw yesterday? (I'm assuming no matter what we won't see Stewie on the court, so Meeseman suddenly becomes critical for the Lib.)
 
The deacon said:
As so do Napheesa, Stewie and maybe especially AT... it's the way it's played in all the major leagues.
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ATP, I am 90% sure the incredibly focused criticism from a handful of our host fans would be much more restrained if she was A'ja Wilson of Stanford or A'ja Wilson of Notre Dame.
 
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azfan said:
It was clear in this game that Brondello out coached him and unable to take advantage of the home court the million dollar coach could find no answer as his big three were ice cold.

With 2 minutes in regulation AT misses 2 free throws and then after Stewie makes an extraordinarily difficult shot in the paint AT comes down and leaves a shot on the rim after beating Stewie with her patented spin move . The game, while still tied, was over at that point.
Expand ...
So Brondello outcoached the million dollar coach because AT missed a pair of FTs and a bunny? Just clarifying.
 
nwhoopfan said:
So Brondello outcoached the million dollar coach because AT missed a pair of FTs and a bunny? Just clarifying.
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No, because she won, on the road, in OT.

To clarify could one argue the million dollar coach outcoached Sandy because he lost?
 
TheFarmFan said:
Lot

To me the major question for game 2 is Meeseman - does the former finals MVP show up, or the sloppy, step slow player we saw yesterday? (I'm assuming no matter what we won't see Stewie on the court, so Meeseman suddenly becomes critical for the Lib.)
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Another question perhaps minor would be the ability of the Merc to hit the three. They were absolutely abysmal in that regard yesterday, while the Liberty defense was on point a number of those missed threes were real clean looks.

And another question perhaps not so minor will be which JJ will show up for the game in New York.

Definitely will be an interesting contest. Before she left hurt Stewie spent a lot of time on the defensive end on AT
 
azfan said:
No, because she won, on the road, in OT.

To clarify could one argue the million dollar coach outcoached Sandy because he lost?
Expand ...
If AT doesn't miss a pair of FTs and a bunny in the final 2 minutes, doesn't Phoenix win in regulation? I don't think this is about either coach.
 
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