June 5th, 2016: Indiana at Connecticut

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Indiana Fever went up big and held off a fourth-quarter rally from the Connecticut Sun to win 88-77. Tiffany Mitchell had 21 off the bench, including 12 in the fourth quarter, to lead all scorers. Tamika Catchings, Marissa Coleman, and Devereaux Peters each added 12. Alyssa Thomas had 20 to pace the Sun.

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Oh no! My team has gone on an eleven-day, three-game road trip! What shall I do with myself? Catch up on housekeeping? Work on the Great American Novel?

Screw it, I'm going to Connecticut. The Sun are hosting Indiana. So we squeaked and rattled our way out of Queens to Mohegan Sun, making good time on quiet roads. As it turns out, the squeaks and rattles were ominous- we changed buses on the way back.

I don't know who's managing behind the counter at Geno's this afternoon, but that dude is a trooper. There's a new woman on the register who knows diddly-squat, and he took charge back there like a boss.

I think the Connecticut Sun are at a crossroads. They have talent. They have a coach who has a system. What they don't currently have is talent that matches that system, or a system that matches that talent. They're going to choose. And to me, it looks like they're about to choose the system and the coach over the talent, and I think that's a mistake. I think that's going to lead to a couple of very rough years, especially without the pick they traded for Jonquel Jones, before they come out of it, and Miller might be a casualty of those rough years.

Today I got to see out of Indiana what wasn't as apparent in the game against New York- their offense is heavily predicated on ball movement. When they can get that crisp, sharp ball movement going, the offense is unstoppable. When that ball movement gets impaired, the offense breaks down and they become more dependent on one-on-one play.

I was surprised to see so much of Natalie Achonwa after her short minutes in New York, but she was second post off the bench today for the Fever. She was unremarkable, but she closed well in the paint on defense. Devereaux Peters had herself a nice, nice day. The outside shot was falling, she was hitting the looks she got inside, and she got those long arms up on defense to really mess things up for Connecticut on the inside. Part of me understands why Minnesota traded her, but at the same time, they might very well have given up on her right when she was ready to blossom. We'll see how that plays out.

Erica Wheeler, bless her heart. So much speed and no idea where she's going with it. Her clock awareness at the end of the first and third quarters was a bit questionable- the play worked in the first, but gave Connecticut a chance at another shot in the third. She definitely makes the game faster, but I don't know if it's always to her team's benefit. Tiffany Mitchell got her Microwave on in the fourth quarter, when Connecticut was making a run. She broke their backs with the three-pointer that extended the lead back out to 10. She's a bit of a defensive liability, but if she can keep scoring like she's scored in the last couple of games, she'll score more than she gives up.

I see why Fever fans have been complaining about Marissa Coleman. She's got a pretty three-point shot, to be sure, but she should be doing more than setting up for threes. She has the strength to do more on the inside. She also needs to do more vis-à-vis ball security. I don't think her decision-making was quite there. Erlana Larkins got out-sized by Connecticut, but she swooped in for offensive rebounds like a boss. She finds and makes space so well. Tamika Catchings was tough defensively, of course, because she's still breathing, and right when we were discussing in the stands the low probability of breaking Tina Thompson's scoring record, she hit back-to-back shots. (I still don't think it's going to happen, but would that make her any less of a legend?)

Shenise Johnson brings firepower and a legitimate distance threat. I think she must have said something about someone's mother, or something, because near the end of the game she was getting knocked down a lot by the Sun reserves. Briann January found the open player brilliantly time and time again (fairly often it was Larkins). She and Catchings together spearheaded the defense and set the tone.

What I would like about this Indiana team if I were inclined to like a team that isn't my own is that they're no longer Tamika Catchings And A Bunch Of Random Parts. They're balanced. They're no longer dependent on Catch to do anything and everything all at once. The future is coming and they're getting ready.

Jonquel Jones has a world of potential, and as the saying goes, you can't teach height. You can, however, teach ball securityand the ability to hold on to the ball upon receipt of a pass. She has to go up with more authority, and she has to get some of the jerkiness out of her shot. Once that happens, she'll be a double-double machine. Chiney Ogwumike has lost some speed after the knee injury, and she was never super fast to begin with. But she cleaned up down low, especially in the second half- that baseline was hers. Morgan Tuck was spectacularly unimpressive. She held her place on defense well enough, and the play where she scored was a nice hustle play, but when the first impression you make is letting a pass bounce off you for an out of bounds and a turnover, and the first shot you attempt is a finger roll two steps short, well.

Kelly Faris hit a three-pointer, but I'm pretty sure it was an accident and it won't happen again. (I'm not just being snarky, either; it was an off balance shot as she as falling to her left.) She hustled well enough, but I can't help but think that a defensive specialist would have done a better job on Mitchell. I have a lot of trouble being objective about Faris. Rachel Banham's shot is lightning quick. I'm going to try to avoid snake jokes, though. She's still struggling to learn the defense, but she needs to be freed on offense. (The steal was mostly not her own doing, except being in the right vicinity when the Indiana player dropped the ball.)

Kelsey Bone needs to remember her size. I grant that Curt Miller's system is pretty much designed for players to forget their strength and focus on their shooting, but sometimes you need to get outside the system and use your strength. Bone was scoring when she went inside and used her build to throw people around. Granted, that was also when she was getting into foul trouble offensively. (Lowering elbows into people's backs is generally not the way one makes friends.) Camille Little was solid all around, because that's who she is and what she does. We're all going to not talk about the second free throw, of course. We're going to pretend that a veteran in her ninth season did not airball a free throw. Alyssa Thomas needs to be set free from this place that will never use her properly. She needs to acquire a jump shot from somewhere, but when set loose inside, she's a beast. She penetrated the Fever defense with strength and speed, and when she got inside, she was pretty much unstoppable. She has no reason to be taking perimeter shots right now, though.

I don't know what's going on with Alex Bentley. I don't think her head was entirely in the game, but it was hard to get a read on her with how little she played. I was surprised she spent so much time on the bench. Jasmine Thomas was telegraphing too many of her passes, and Indiana was ready for them. She played better than the stats indicated, though.

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but Erlana Larkins got stuck in her warm-up shirt, and it took three teammates to detangle her. Somewhere in here, there's a joke related to the academic acumen, or lack thereof, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I, however, have entirely too much of a self-preservation instinct to make that joke.

Anthem singer had a nice voice, but couldn't sing. And there's no excuse for messing up the lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner when they appear on the screen in front of you.

"Enterting" the arena, Mohegan Sun? Really?

Officiating could definitely have been worse, but there were some dubious calls. The worst was the foul on Banham- I'm pretty sure she never actually got a hand on the shooter.

Remind me never to get into a game of Chinese jump rope with Briann January. She'd probably do some of the really tough layouts.

Note to self: do not call the Sun's orange uniforms ugly when talking to a man in an Illini shirt. (They didn't wear the orange, but they came up in conversation.)

There's a lot of promise to these young Sun players, but there's going to be a long adjustment period while they come into their own. And I don't know if this franchise is going to have the patience to ride it out.

The arena was pretty dead until the final push. Even the announcer seemed to be mailing it in when the Sun scored, and the MC as lower-key than usual. I figured there might be trouble when their own people accidentally razzed Morgan Tuck for the pass that bounced off her chest. Someone's not used to the lack of home whites, and the teams were shooting at opposite ends from the way things are usually aid out.

We're on the Whitestone Bridge now, and there is a brilliant rainbow shining to our left, from deep red through bright orange and pale green to indigo. This has nothing to do with the game, but it brings me great joy and glee, and it's a beautiful end to a busy day.