WNBA 2024 May 2024

[MilfordHusky]

I know. That is why I added that Gray didn't play.

I've heard nothing about Gray's injury. Unspecified lower leg injury, no anticipated return date. They miss her.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

I've heard nothing about Gray's injury. Unspecified lower leg injury, no anticipated return date. They miss her.

They did say she won’t miss the whole season!

 

[MilfordHusky]

They did say she won’t miss the whole season!

Well, that's a little info, but precious little.

 

[MilfordHusky]

After Q1, Chicago looks surprisingly good, and Dallas misses Satou. Lou came in and got a steal.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Dallas is starting an undrafted rookie guard from Turkey, Sevgi Uzun. Who? They traded Crystal to make room for her?

Angel is 0-2 from the floor and 0-4 from the line.

Dallas is playing Soares with TMac. That's 13' of height.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Players certainly decline that rapidly out of no where. It’s rare but certainly not impossible. I made the same argument heading into the playoffs last season and no one believed me. 7 months later Stewie hasn’t done a thing to prove me wrong.

I’d be surprised if her stats this year are much better than Dirks final season but while getting a lot more minutes. It’s unfortunate and sad but I think the games passed her buy physically and mentally. I think she’s at her ceiling right now and will only continue go down without any real accents moving forward.

I’d love to be wrong though.

Who does it in the middle of the season?

Could she be hurt?

 

[MilfordHusky]

TMac has 16 and 10 on 7-12 shooting. Meanwhile Arike is 2-10. Another game with a former ND guard shooting her team out of a game.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

Who does it in the middle of the season?

Could she be hurt?

Don’t think so. When your body goes, your body goes. It doesn’t care if it’s during a season or not. It is what it is. It was nice watching her while she was good though.

 

[Bigboote]

Kalani Brown has done an amazing job remaking herself. I barely recognize her. If McCowan wasn’t having such a great game, I’m sure we’d be seeing more of her.

Dallas spending some time rocking the twin towers with McCowan and Soares both in.

 

[BlueSkyGLW]

Was scanning the game last night. Quick observations:

Seattle's super team-to-be showed too much individual play; it will take more time to gel.....the disadvantage of having such a short training camp and preseason. A bit disappointed because Lloyd and Diggins-Smith were teammates in college.

On the other hand, there are only four holdovers for the Lynx playing last night - the absent Dorka will make it five. But the team had better movement and passing - thanks largely to Napheesa. I miss watching Dorka delivering passes from anywhere on the court, especially from the high post. The Lynx may turn out better than it first appears, despite missing Shepard for the whole year. Alana Smith did creditable job but doesn't playmake with her passes as well as Dorka.

The Fever's coach has a lot of work to do to make that collection of players function the way a good team should. Guards dominating play, not involving the front court players as much.....missing (or ignoring) to make passes when teammates are open and forcing some to Boston when she can easily be surrounded by the defense (3 on her quickly developed in a few instances last night). With her high usage, CC needs to decide to forget habits formed from being the dominant scorer at Iowa to learn how and when to involve her teammates early on as players move and the ball along with it. As it looked last night, Boston and Katie Lou were so underutilized, even when the latter was so wide open - the guards tended to ignore the optimal time to give them the ball because they are set on scoring and then they give up the ball when running into trouble. Or, the frontcourters did not move enough to get open. That happened too often.

The Sun looked good, though - the holdovers are showing the way but even some of the newcomers are in-step into the team ethos....of course, last night's starters are all holdovers. Little Mo is just returning from injury, so seeing short action in her first stint......but Banham looked fine.....even Olivia.

I don't know why all the gloom and doom about Stewie, with such impatience about her form. Let's see: Stewie, Vandersloot and Ionescu all shot 33% from the field last night. Stewie was the top rebounder with Jones for the Liberty. Of course, the energy level she played with was far below her usual high standard. Those three are veterans, so they should bounce back sooner than later, unless some kind of physical or mental issue is hampering Stewie.

Stewie, Jonquel and Courtney have played together a few years overseas, including Russia. There is no reason the three shouldn't be playing well together.....and they have had last year playing with Sabrina and Betnijah, so I can't explain a few moments of apparent disconnect when one may expect them to be a well-oiled machine. OTOH, that starting backcourt will likely have the same problems on defense against elite guards that they did against Las Vegas last year, so their offense had better function like the machine they should be.

Aaliyah is going to be fine.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Kalani Brown has done an amazing job remaking herself. I barely recognize her. If McCowan wasn’t having such a great game, I’m sure we’d be seeing more of her.

Dallas spending some time rocking the twin towers with McCowan and Soares both in.

TMac and Kalani are a nice 1-2 punch. Kalani has indeed trimmed down and made a very nice pass tonight.

 

[JellyBean]

I told y’all.


It’s not a shooting slump and I watched her skills decline in real time last August through September. I thought it was just fatigue heading into the playoffs but her inability to muster any efficiency during the play offs and then again during USA basketball confirmed to me she’s likely lost a step athletically for good. Stewie’s game can’t afford that so I think she’s done for real. I thought she might have a chance if she got stronger during the off-season but she’s to have not done any weight lifting so my guess is last night will be an average game for her.

I gotta admit, you were on to something. I had my Stewie rose colored glasses on. We will see if this trend continues with Stewie. I think that she will bounce back from whatever is going on.

 

[nwhoopfan]

They traded Crystal to make room for her?

Dangerfield is like Jefferson--on a new team almost every year. There must be a reason why?

 

[MilfordHusky]

Dangerfield is like Jefferson--on a new team almost every year. There must be a reason why?

Crystal can be a defensive liability because of her height. She needs to offset that with offensive aggressiveness and efficient shooting.

 

[jdote33]

Dallas vs Chicago was kinda fun. Arike went off in the 4th. Maddy looked good when she got minutes and wasn't randomly taken out. Jacy Sheldon looked good defensively as well, especially when she wasn't randomly benched. For Chicago, Mabrey is one of my all-time favorites, she's a dawg/crazy competitor. I think the team is full of them. But I thought they were a little selfish, and tried to do too much by themselves. Dana Evans took some awful shots, Mabrey took some awful shots, even Elizabeth Williams had some bad ones. Reese did too but kinda looked like I expected. Had some really good moments, and was versatile but struggled a bit posting up. Good first game for her, as she got into double figures despite not shooting well from the field and the line.

One thing I wanted to add about Mabrey. She's their primary scorer and they were asking her to basically defend Arike by herself all 4th quarter. Like I doubt it went well at the rec center in ND, Arike is much quicker and the better athlete. But Marina was trying.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Dallas was trailing by 2 with 4 minutes left, then Arike took over. Wings won by 8. Arike had some nice assists early on, but shot the ball poorly until late. She finished with 25/3/7/3. Maddy had a nice game with 13/5/1 in 18 minutes, including a big 3 on a pass from Arike in the clutch. Lou played 6 minutes and looked good to me. She had 1 nice assist and an uncredited steal. Dallas could use her shooting.

 

[Bigboote]

Wow, Siegrist had herself a great second half. She may not have great height or be a great jumper, but she makes up for it with a good head and sticktoitiveness.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Dallas vs Chicago was kinda fun. Arike went off in the 4th. Maddy looked good when she got minutes and wasn't randomly taken out. Jacy Sheldon looked good defensively as well, especially when she wasn't randomly benched. For Chicago, Mabrey is one of my all-time favorites, she's a dawg/crazy competitor. I think the team is full of them. But I thought they were a little selfish, and tried to do too much by themselves. Dana Evans took some awful shots, Mabrey took some awful shots, even Elizabeth Williams had some bad ones. Reese did too but kinda looked like I expected. Had some really good moments, and was versatile but struggled a bit posting up. Good first game for her, as she got into double figures despite not shooting well from the field and the line.

Angel shot 5-13 and 2-8 on FTs. She need to clean up the latter, as she will be fouled a lot. She had 7 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 5 fouls.

 

[bballnut90]

Angel shot 5-13 and 2-8 on FTs. She need to clean up the latter, as she will be fouled a lot. She had 7 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 5 fouls.

All things considered I think that's a promising debut since it shows her bully ball style can be effective in the pros (8 FTA and 5 offensive rebounds in her first game).

 

[MilfordHusky]

All things considered I think that's a promising debut since it shows her bully ball style can be effective in the pros (8 FTA and 5 offensive rebounds in her first game).

She is aggressive and athletic, though unorthodox.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Meanwhile, Tina Charles--remember her?!--has 17/5/1/1 at halftime in Los Angeles.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Who here had Tina Charles having 17 points and 5 rebounds--at the half--in her first WNBA regular season game since 2022?

Looks like the Dream will be fine when Jordin Canada returns. The pieces are in place.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I think Tina felt she had something to prove, as her last 1-2 seasons weren't great.

As a reminder, I believe she is 4th in career scoring and 2nd in career rebounding. First ballot express to Springfield.

 

[JellyBean]

I am so impressed with Dearica Hamby! She just goes about her business flying under the radar playing her game and putting up decent numbers.

 

[MilfordHusky]

LA and Atlanta were tied after Q1, Q2, and Q3, but Atlanta won Q4. Some notables:

Hamby had 20/14/3/2. She seems like their key player. Clarendon had a triple-double, 11/10/10. Kia Nurse scored 23 and hit 5 treys. Brink and Jackson had 11 and 7, respectively.

Tina Charles had 21 and 14 and finished at +16. Rhyne Howard had 25 on 9-16 shooting. Crystal Dangerfield had 6/1/2/1/2 on 3-4 shooting and was +13 in 15 minutes. She played with energy and experience. A good pickup while Canada is injured.