WNBA 2023 Season, Part 2 | Page 34 | The Boneyard

WNBA 2023 Season, Part 2

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JellyBean said:
I hope that Chicago is looking for a solid GM. I wonder if Jerry West would be interested in coming on board to help out.
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Or, if there's a person working in the front office of Las Vegas and/or New York that the Sky might interview after the finals.
 
Okay, benches emptied so we'll call it over. Yet again the Aces guards just killed the Liberty. I can't believe how lopsided the matchup has been between the trio from each team. Sloot was just completely ineffective today, Ionescu no showed, Laney had some flashes but not a particularly good game. Jones had a monster second quarter, but overall there just wasn't any fight in NY. Was expecting a bounce back, but they were even worse in Game 2 than Game 1.
 
Wilson with a monster game. For much of her career Young in the playoffs has not been the same player as the regular season, but she's been fantastic in this series. Gray was putting on a clinic with her passing. How 'bout Plum w/ 23 points/8 assists/3 steals. Stokes even got in on the scoring early w/ a pair of 3s and 8 points.
 
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Vegas jumped out to a 22 point 1st quarter lead. NY whittled it all the way down to what, 5 in Q2? That was almost all JJ. But then Vegas immediately stretched an 8 point halftime lead out in Q3 and there was never any response in the second half from the Lib. I'm just stunned by their performance. Did the series against the Sun wear them out? How can this be explained?
 
nwhoopfan said:
Vegas jumped out to a 22 point 1st quarter lead. NY whittled it all the way down to what, 5 in Q2? That was almost all JJ. But then Vegas immediately stretched an 8 point halftime lead out in Q3 and there was never any response in the second half from the Lib. I'm just stunned by their performance. Did the series against the Sun wear them out? How can this be explained?
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They’ve been playing poorly since the end of the regular season, this isn’t a surprise to me.
 
I think the Aces’ three guards legitimately may be the three best guards in the league. I won’t get into the overall debate but Wilson has pretty clearly been the best player in the WNBA for the past two months.

Not over for New York but can’t see Aces losing three straight.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Vegas jumped out to a 22 point 1st quarter lead. NY whittled it all the way down to what, 5 in Q2? That was almost all JJ. But then Vegas immediately stretched an 8 point halftime lead out in Q3 and there was never any response in the second half from the Lib. I'm just stunned by their performance. Did the series against the Sun wear them out? How can this be explained?
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Looks like experience vs pure talent. NY has the pieces to give the Aces trouble but I don't think it's properly utilized. Sabrina and Sloot are liabilities on defense and the Aces aren't allowing them to get off easily offensively like most teams have done all season.

It also doesn't help that Stewie has not been efficient for most of the playoffs. I still think her shooting and her teammates shooting has suffered from shooting in hopes of a call over just shooting to score.

NY still isn't out of it, the Aces haven't won in NY all season so they still have that going for them. The Liberty still is the most talented team with the deeper bench but they have to play some defense and get some grit soon or this is looking like a sweep.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Wilson with a monster game. For much of her career Young in the playoffs has not been the same player as the regular season, but she's been fantastic in this series. Gray was putting on a clinic with her passing. How 'bout Plum w/ 23 points/8 assists/3 steals. Stokes even got in on the scoring early w/ a pair of 3s and 8 points.
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Vegas is unbeatable when they have all 4 stars in sync plus Stokes knocking down triples. Biggest problem for Aces right now is deciding who gets Finals MVP. Through 2 games:
Wilson-22.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2 blocks, 63% FG
Gray-17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 10.0 assists, 44% FG, 39% 3pt
Plum-24.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.0 steals, 52% FG, 40% 3pt
Young-25.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 steals, 58% FG, 53% 3pt

I'm inclined to go with Gray just based on how she sets the tone of everything for Vegas but you can't go wrong with any of the 4. Wilson has been a beast, Plum is playing lights out and Young is as well.


I still think NY takes games 3 but I don't see them pushing a game 5. I'm not sure why the team looks to be in such disarray. Ionescu and Vandersloot have been just awful the first 2 games and are getting destroyed by the Vegas guards. In earlier games this year they handily outplayed the Vegas guards. Their inability to get on track at all is bizarre.

Stewart hasn't played well the first 2 game either. Jones has been the lone bright spot for NY. Their bench has been useless (aside from Johannes hitting a flurry of insane 3s in the first half of game 1).

The regular season was dominated by these 2 squads and if NY gets swept in 3 straight blowouts it'll be a major let down considering this was one of the most hyped finals series we've had in a long time.
 
bballnut90 said:
Biggest problem for Aces right now is deciding who gets Finals MVP. Through 2 games:
Wilson-22.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2 blocks, 63% FG
Gray-17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 10.0 assists, 44% FG, 39% 3pt
Plum-24.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.0 steals, 52% FG, 40% 3pt
Young-25.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 steals, 58% FG, 53% 3pt

I'm inclined to go with Gray just based on how she sets the tone of everything for Vegas but you can't go wrong with any of the 4. Wilson has been a beast, Plum is playing lights out and Young is as well.
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It's supposedly Finals MVP, but do they consider the previous rounds of the playoffs at least a little bit? That had to work in Gray's favor last year. I'd lean towards Wilson, because she's been so dominant throughout the entire playoffs.
 
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GCKSFN4L said:
The Liberty still is the most talented team with the deeper bench
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Both teams have been going barely over 6 deep. Liberty depth is a non factor if they don't use any of them. If it's just Johannes vs. Clark it's fairly even thus far. Thornton has been playing more than whoever the seventh player in the Aces rotation is, but not by all that much. Dolson got a bit of run tonight after pretty much nothing in Game 1.
 
To me the major differential is in the coaching. Almost every possession LV had a plan and executed it well 80 percent of the time. They were both efficient and smooth. The Liberty were resorting to hero ball or a ref bailout on almost every possession. Very little tactical ball movement, and a lot of hesitation at the top of the key followed by hopeless passing around the perimeter. Not sure what's up with Sloot, but when she's neither shooting nor directing traffic well, the Lib seem to go up in flames if they can't just massively out-talent their opposition. And when you're facing 3 #1 picks, that ain't happening...
 
I watched last night and didn't expect this margin of victory. Teams sometimes shoot lights out and that was Vegas but NY was a mess the entire game.

I love Sloot as a player and she's been incredible but she was unable to keep up with the three headed monster of Gray/Plum/Young. Ionescu wasn't good either. She doesn't look as though she has gas left in the tank. Maybe she will prove me wrong in game 3.

NY has too much talent for a sweep unless something is brewing among the players. Neither team has depth but Vegas looked so much younger and fresher.

FMVP will likely be Aja for missing out on the regular season one but my vote is Gray.
 
I'm floored by the lack of response from NY during the second half. With how they clawed back during the second, I was expecting a game of runs after half time.

And to the comments about NY's depth, I agree. It's useless if it's not being utilized. Leaving Sabally on the bench, I understand because she's a rookie. Thornton and Dolson however, that's the head scratcher to me. During their run in the second, having Thorton in the game seemed to help. Thought they would go back to that more during the second.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Both teams have been going barely over 6 deep. Liberty depth is a non factor if they don't use any of them. If it's just Johannes vs. Clark it's fairly even thus far. Thornton has been playing more than whoever the seventh player in the Aces rotation is, but not by all that much. Dolson got a bit of run tonight after pretty much nothing in Game 1.
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That's what I take issue with. Vegas has a 6 player rotation because they have to not because they want to.They have that advantage and don't make use of it. If your starting lineup keeps retreating then maybe put in some fresh legs in or change it. A more defensive lineup that consists of KT, Laney, JJ , Stewie and only one defensive liability (Sloot or Sabrina) could be utilized.

I do think coaching is definitely hurting NY. While I think Sandy is a decent coach I have always thought her teams have underperformed despite how talented her teams were no matter if we're talking about Phoenix or team Australia. It seems that Sandy's only alternative for her gameplan was that hope that Marine go off and that be enough.
 
GCKSFN4L said:
That's what I take issue with. Vegas has a 6 player rotation because they have to not because they want to.They have that advantage and don't make use of it. If your starting lineup keeps retreating then maybe put in some fresh legs in or change it. A more defensive lineup that consists of KT, Laney, JJ , Stewie and only one defensive liability (Sloot or Sabrina) could be utilized.

I do think coaching is definitely hurting NY. While I think Sandy is a decent coach I have always thought her teams have underperformed despite how talented her teams were no matter if we're talking about Phoenix or team Australia. It seems that Sandy's only alternative for her gameplan was that hope that Marine go off and that be enough.
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Great point re the "have to". Vegas doing this without Parker and Williams who they were banking on at the start of the season hasn't been discussed too much.
 
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cancontent said:
I'm floored by the lack of response from NY during the second half. With how they clawed back during the second, I was expecting a game of runs after half time.

And to the comments about NY's depth, I agree. It's useless if it's not being utilized. Leaving Sabally on the bench, I understand because she's a rookie. Thornton and Dolson however, that's the head scratcher to me. During their run in the second, having Thorton in the game seemed to help. Thought they would go back to that more during the second.
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Jonquel's second quarter was awesome, and I thought it was basically a new game at the half. But for JJ's heroics, this would have been a blowout of epic proportions. But the Aces seemed to adjust to her in the second enough and NY's other stars didn't give her any help.

In two games AT HOME, the Ace's defense has made a bunch of offensive stars look mundane. But let's see if the story can be repeated in NY.
 
visitingcock said:
Jonquel's second quarter was awesome, and I thought it was basically a new game at the half. But for JJ's heroics, this would have been a blowout of epic proportions. But the Aces seemed to adjust to her in the second enough and NY's other stars didn't give her any help.

In two games AT HOME, the Ace's defense has made a bunch of offensive stars look mundane. But let's see if the story can be repeated in NY.
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Yeah I've got a gut feeling this series is about to get crazy. I think the Aces either take it in 3 or it goes to 5 games where the Liberty come back with a vengeance and dominate the next two games on their home court.
 
GamecockFam said:
Yeah I've got a gut feeling this series is about to get crazy. I think the Aces either take it in 3 or it goes to 5 games where the Liberty come back with a vengeance and dominate the next two games on their home court.
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In other words: "It ain't over 'til it's over."
 
hoopsnloops32 said:
They’ve been playing poorly since the end of the regular season, this isn’t a surprise to me.
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I don't really see how you can say that when they've gone 5-1 against Washington and Connecticut. If they were truly playing poorly, they wouldn't have gone thru those 2 series with only 1 loss. They were awful in Game 1 against the Sun, but the rest of the series they played gritty and at times were on fire offensively. They have been bad in both games against Vegas, they looked nothing like that against Connecticut other than Game 1.
 
nwhoopfan said:
I don't really see how you can say that when they've gone 5-1 against Washington and Connecticut. If they were truly playing poorly, they wouldn't have gone thru those 2 series with only 1 loss. They were awful in Game 1 against the Sun, but the rest of the series they played gritty and at times were on fire offensively. They have been bad in both games against Vegas, they looked nothing like that against Connecticut other than Game 1.
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OTOH, when you look at the post-season stats, NY is legitimately performing worse on basically every metric that matters than at least 3-4 other post-season teams (and worse than the Aces, Dallas, and CT almost across the board). Honestly, the team I watched last night did not belong in the finals. It doesn't feel like the team has clear leadership or communication, and there were a lot of miscues that you shouldn't be seeing in the post-season...
 
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visitingcock said:
In other words: "It ain't over 'til it's over."
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Basically. Either the Liberty give up or they take it to another level. I suspect the latter. I think the Liberty will even it up at 2-2 and Vegas wins it at home in a wild 5th game.
 
TheFarmFan said:
OTOH, when you look at the post-season stats, NY is legitimately performing worse on basically every metric that matters than at least 3-4 other post-season teams (and worse than the Aces, Dallas, and CT almost across the board). Honestly, the team I watched last night did not belong in the finals. It doesn't feel like the team has clear leadership or communication, and there were a lot of miscues that you shouldn't be seeing in the post-season...
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The last 2 games have totally skewed their stats. They beat the Sun 3-1. That's the only metric that mattered. Yes, they've looked terrible in the Finals, and I am shocked by that. If they had played the same way against Connecticut, they would've gotten swept. I have no idea what's going on with them right now, but clearly they are not playing the same way they did earlier in the playoffs. They wouldn't be in the Finals if they had been performing like this all along.
 
GamecockFam said:
Yeah I've got a gut feeling this series is about to get crazy. I think the Aces either take it in 3 or it goes to 5 games where the Liberty come back with a vengeance and dominate the next two games on their home court.
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I can see New York winning a game back in New York. I just can't see the Aces losing three in a row.
 
nwhoopfan said:
It's supposedly Finals MVP, but do they consider the previous rounds of the playoffs at least a little bit? That had to work in Gray's favor last year. I'd lean towards Wilson, because she's been so dominant throughout the entire playoffs.
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If the Aces hold on to win the whole thing, I could see Young getting the Finals MVP award. I mean it could go either way but we will have to wait and see what develops.
 
I’ll put it this way — if a team is ever going to come back from being down 2-0 in a five-game series, it’s probably going to be the team with two MVPs, a former MIP, the league’s best passer of all time, and the league’s best three-point shooter.
 
I’ll put it this way — if a team is ever going to come back from being down 2-0 in a five-game series, it’s probably going to be the team with two MVPs, the league’s best passer of all time, and the league’s best three-point shooter.
 
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