WNBA 2023 Season, Part 2 | Page 13 | The Boneyard

WNBA 2023 Season, Part 2

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cancontent said:
"Minnesota "Nice""? Is that why Sabally posted on X complaining about the fans? Didn't see the game but her comments made me cringe. Thinking I shouldn't watch the replay.
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www.espn.com

Satou Sabally calls Lynx fans 'disgusting' after testy contest

Wings forward Satou Sabally called the Lynx fan base "disgusting" following a game in which she was yelled at several times, including while she was dealing with an ankle injury.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Physical play on the court can often bring out the very worst in fans. Evidently a number of those fans forgot Midwest nice and crossed the line.
 
GoChips20 said:
She’s having a marvelous season and deserves her flowers, but the Sun have fallen too far behind the Aces and Liberty for her to take it to the finish line, in my opinion.
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Interesting philosophical question - is the MVP an individual award or a team award.

Without a doubt the top three players in the league this year are Wilson, Stewie, and Thomas.

Convincing arguments can be made for any of the three.

I recall a Super Bowl MVP that was ordered to a player on the losing team. Clearly that's a philosophy of providing an award to the best player regardless of teen outcome.

While it's more difficult to do this I think I'm more sympathetic to recognize the most valuable player in the league irrespective of team performance. Where that leads me to the current WNBA MVP race is still unclear.

If Thomas were to be recognized this year I would find that to be a fitting honor and would have no complaints. Although I'd say the same thing about the other two contenders.
 
visitingcock said:
A'ja was basically playing before a "home crowd" of Gamecock fans in Atlanta and was a little bit jacked bu the feathered faithfull pulling for several alumni on both rosters. BTW Amihere got 6 points for the Dream!

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They finally got A’ja and Lay on the court at the same time, for just about a minute. Long enough for Lay to be wide open to swish a baseline jumper. She’s one her last day of her third 7 day contract so unless Aces extend her for the rest of the season, she’s likely done in LV for the season.
 
cancontent said:
"Minnesota "Nice""? Is that why Sabally posted on X complaining about the fans? Didn't see the game but her comments made me cringe. Thinking I shouldn't watch the replay.
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Yeah, I saw her comments about our fanbase this morning. We aren't that disgusting. Just a great example of, even amongst a bed of roses, there will be a few weeds in the mix. For the most part, we Minnesota sports fans are laid back. We don't get that hyped up. Last night, Dallas had us at DEFCON 3. Not sure what was in the air. But the fans that cheered when Sabally went down, that was not called for and glad that Coach Reeve demanded that a fan be removed, and the ushers ejected a few others. Not cool. Not Minnesota Nice. I can't wait until Thursday now.
 
JellyBean said:
Yeah, I saw her comments about our fanbase this morning. We aren't that disgusting. Just a great example of, even amongst a bed of roses, there will be a few weeds in the mix. For the most part, we Minnesota sports fans are laid back. We don't get that hyped up. Last night, Dallas had us at DEFCON 3. Not sure what was in the air. But the fans that cheered when Sabally went down, that was not called for and glad that Coach Reeve demanded that a fan be removed, and the ushers ejected a few others. Not cool. Not Minnesota Nice. I can't wait until Thursday now.
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Gotcha. Now when you use DEFCON 3 as a description, how bad is that? Is DEFCON 1 worse in comparison? As a Canadian I get the levels of severity confused.
 
JellyBean said:
Yeah, I saw her comments about our fanbase this morning. We aren't that disgusting. Just a great example of, even amongst a bed of roses, there will be a few weeds in the mix. For the most part, we Minnesota sports fans are laid back. We don't get that hyped up. Last night, Dallas had us at DEFCON 3. Not sure what was in the air. But the fans that cheered when Sabally went down, that was not called for and glad that Coach Reeve demanded that a fan be removed, and the ushers ejected a few others. Not cool. Not Minnesota Nice. I can't wait until Thursday now.
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Just saw a replay of the incident on X. Just wow. A shame too. Sabally blowing kisses to the audience didn't really help things either.

While I get we need to allow players to be themselves, I struggle with situations like this. Would those other 2 fans have been ejected had she not done so? That's the question for me.
 
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JDuro said:


Could not be more happy for Alaina! :)
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I hope she gets more playing time--she looks much better out there than George IMO. She's also worked hard to get into great shape.
 
cancontent said:
Just saw a replay of the incident on X. Just wow. A shame too. Sabally blowing kisses to the audience didn't really help things either.

While I get we need to allow players to be themselves, I struggle with situations like this. Would those other 2 fans have been ejected had she not done so? That's the question for me.
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I'm just going from memory here, and I'm in no way excusing the behavior of the "fans."

This had been building for some time before it got out of hand. There seemed to be some hecklers in the stands, and both Sabally and Ogunbowale took the bait and began shouting back at them and Sabally blew kisses at the crowd. I was wondering if Arike and Satou would be fined; all depended on what they said. IIRC this was a few minutes before the second flagrant on Carleton, when things really went to hell. I thought one of the fans had been ejected before that, could be wrong.
 
bballnut90 said:
I hope she gets more playing time--she looks much better out there than George IMO. She's also worked hard to get into great shape.
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Most assumed Parker was done for the season based on comments (or lack thereof) from the Aces organization and her silence on social media, but this move seems to confirm it.

I don’t think Stokes or George is the answer in a series against the Liberty, so Coates can’t hurt. At least she has chemistry with Wilson.
 
Bigboote said:
I'm just going from memory here, and I'm in no way excusing the behavior of the "fans."

This had been building for some time before it got out of hand. There seemed to be some hecklers in the stands, and both Sabally and Ogunbowale took the bait and began shouting back at them and Sabally blew kisses at the crowd. I was wondering if Arike and Satou would be fined; all depended on what they said. IIRC this was a few minutes before the second flagrant on Carleton, when things really went to hell. I thought one of the fans had been ejected before that, could be wrong.
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Not taking your reply as excusing the fans. It's unfortunate it got to that point though. Good to see that the Lynx supported the elections and came out to talk about it after the game. At the same time, players taking the bait, as you say, doesn't help matters.
 
cancontent said:
Gotcha. Now when you use DEFCON 3 as a description, how bad is that? Is DEFCON 1 worse in comparison? As a Canadian I get the levels of severity confused.
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DEFCON 3 is like mid-level, Air Force is ready to launch in 10-15 minutes. You are correct. DEFCON 1 is worse.
 
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GoChips20 said:
Most assumed Parker was done for the season based on comments (or lack thereof) from the Aces organization and her silence on social media, but this move seems to confirm it.

I don’t think Stokes or George is the answer in a series against the Liberty, so Coates can’t hurt. At least she has chemistry with Wilson.
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The Aces will adjust if this is the case with Parker.
 
cancontent said:
Just saw a replay of the incident on X. Just wow. A shame too. Sabally blowing kisses to the audience didn't really help things either.

While I get we need to allow players to be themselves, I struggle with situations like this. Would those other 2 fans have been ejected had she not done so? That's the question for me.
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It is tough to say. I think the other two fan ejections would have happened no matter what. Sabally's blowing kisses just made the ejection happen faster. For the record, I did not have an issue with Sabally blowing kisses. She is a competitor and in the heat of the moment, emotions are all over the place. I am looking forward to the game tomorrow.
 
azfan said:
Interesting philosophical question - is the MVP an individual award or a team award.

Without a doubt the top three players in the league this year are Wilson, Stewie, and Thomas.

Convincing arguments can be made for any of the three.

I recall a Super Bowl MVP that was ordered to a player on the losing team. Clearly that's a philosophy of providing an award to the best player regardless of teen outcome.

While it's more difficult to do this I think I'm more sympathetic to recognize the most valuable player in the league irrespective of team performance. Where that leads me to the current WNBA MVP race is still unclear.

If Thomas were to be recognized this year I would find that to be a fitting honor and would have no complaints. Although I'd say the same thing about the other two contenders.
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Yeah, someone else posted on here that all three are playing and producing better than any league MVP in the last five years and I’d have to agree with that.

Worth noting that the last few MVPs have followed the “best player on the best team” rule: Wilson (2022), J. Jones (2021), Wilson (2020), EDD (2019), Stewart (2018). Have to think it’s between Wilson and Stewie for that reason.
 
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L.A. beat Phoenix by roughly 30. Nneka was the 7th leading scorer for L.A. with 7 points. A measure of how bad Phoenix can be.
 
cancontent said:
Griner and Taurasi were also out. That could have been a factor as well.
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Thanks. Yeah, missing those two definitely puts the score and game in a better perspective.
 
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After shooting, what, 21 or 22 FTs in the previous game, Wilson got 0 tonight. That's a pretty stark contrast. I think Chicago led most of the game, but LV pulled ahead late. Heavy minutes for most of the starters.
 
Every time I think Dallas has solidified it's hold on the #4 slot, they slip again and let the others right back in the race. About to lose to Minnesota again.
 
Aces/Sky was an entertaining game. Sky badly outplayed the Aces in the first half but Aces stormed back and took over the second. Chicago was gritty but largely fell apart in the second half once shots stopped falling and they settled for some really bad looks. Evans in particular had some ill advised shots that really sucked the energy out of the Sky. They're a gritty squad though and competed the whole way even though they were just outclassed by Vegas in the second.

Young/Gray were the stars of the night. Young in particular was so good at getting in the lane and using her physicality to overpower opponents. She was huge in the second. Gray was stellar tonight too, she's just unguardable 1 on 1 in isolation plays. I dare say she might be the best 1 on 1 iso guard the WNBA has ever had. She's just so good and such a strong passer. She should be a lock for 1st Team All-WNBA this year. Plum finished with a nice statline and took over the 3rd quarter but largely struggled aside from that. Wilson kept them in it in the first half but was quiet in the second as the guards took over.

Vegas though has an uphill battle if they're planning to solely rely on their 4 stars. If any of them can have an off night, they instantly become much more beatable. Wilson is near impossible for posts to guard 1 on 1, but if you double her or bring help side defense she has a much tougher time getting buckets. Going up against a team like NY that has waves of height and strength inside is going to be tough for her in a physical 3-5 game series. Vegas has no other interior post threat and will have to rely 100% on perimeter players outside of A'ja which is not a good recipe for success. After the top 4, the outlook is grim for Vegas. They're getting nothing offensively out of Stokes (scoreless in 6 of the last 9 games), Clark is streaky as a perimeter threat who is struggling as of late, and I'm not sure Bell/George are WNBA caliber players. That's tough when matching up against a Liberty team that brings really good players like Thornton, Dolson, and Johannes off the bench.


Side note-despite losing tonight, Dewanna Bonner has tied Sue Bird for #7 in all time points and will likely pass Pondexter for #6 all time her next game. By the end of the season she'll probably have sole possession of #5 all time, and has a good shot to reach #2 all time next season. She is easily one of the most under appreciated players in league history.
 
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