May 3rd, 2017: Los Angeles at Connecticut

Just the Facts, Ma’am: A second quarter outburst set the tone for Connecticut in their 79-62 win over Los Angeles. Danielle Adams led all scorers with 17 points, all in the second quarter. Odyssey Sims paced Los Angeles with 12 points.

For one-woman wrecking crews, foul counts and miscounts, endless reviews, disappearing fans, camouflage, culinary tips, and rude mascots, join your intrepid and annoyed blogger after the jump. (Dear bus driver, why didn’t you pee before we left Mohegan, instead of waiting until we hit the state line?)

We’ll do this backwards again, second game first, once I can get my eyes to stop bleeding. Can we cut refs in the preseason? Because I’d really like to put Tiffany Bird on waivers. Suzanne she is not.

I have adopted protective coloration to better fit in with the locals. (Look, man. It took me years and years of collecting to finally find a 2003 Sun jersey in my size, damn right I’m going to show it off.) (As an aside, Champion and Reebok have wildly different opinions as to what constitutes XXL.)

Do not go to Geno’s late on a weeknight, the night shift is utterly clueless.

I love Brittany Brown’s enthusiasm on the floor, on the bench, and in the stands (she watched her former Florida State teammates in the first game). I think she’s playing at too fast a speed, not letting the game come to her. Her teammates weren’t helping, either, but we’ll get to Sydney Wiese in a little while. Chelsea Hopkins brought the quickness and the adroit dribbling moves. I don’t know how well she meshes with the rest of the roster, but I like her. I am spectacularly unimpressed by Jamie Weisner, fourth-quarter mini-surge not withstanding. I am even less impressed with Mikaela Ruef. She’s more versatile than Weisner, but she isn’t as good at the things she does as Weisner is at the things she does. That made sense to you guys, right?

Nina Davis is sneaky at getting to the inside. I love her rebounding instincts- as soon as she knows a shot is off, she’s off to the races to the rim. She just can’t get through the higher, denser trees around the basket the way she could at Baylor. I think she’ll have a very successful career in Europe, but I don’t think she’s going to translate well to the W. Heart and brains can only get you so far. I really don’t like Saicha Grant-Allen. She flops, she’s unduly physical, and I don’t think she knows how to set a legal screen. I’m not even sure she should have been in the game at the end; the stats I keep show her with only five fouls, but the official scorer and the scoreboard had her at six. I think one may have initially been announced for Tiffany Jackson-Jones and later corrected, or something, because that’s where my stats and the box score differ. Part of me wonders if she knows she doesn’t have a chance and is taking it out on everyone.

Sydney Wiese’s handle was abysmal, especially in the early going. She was fumbling, missing passes, and not taking good care of the ball. She was hassled by the Connecticut defense, but when you’re getting schooled defensively by an offensive specialist, you might have a problem. Odyssey Sims decided she had to go it alone, which is not a good plan if she wants to integrate herself into the returning core of the Sparks. Lavender, Ogwumike, and Parker don’t need another hero. She drove fearlessly and had a nifty steal, but driving into traffic is a bad plan.

Karlie Samuelson continues to be the best of the crop of blondeish Pac-12 shooters that Agler brought in, at least in game action. I thought she did a good job getting her shot off and helping her teammates get open. I thought her game was the most balanced out of the four (who I presume are all scrapping for the same roster spot). Tiffany Jackson-Jones was physical, and had a ridiculously bad time finishing at the rim. It was bad. She was defended decently, but not well enough to explain all of those misses. Avery Warley-Talbert rebounded like someone with something to prove. She also showed good leadership on the court, helping signal her teammates go where they needed to be.

No minutes for Gamble, Go, or Jackson, so I think we know who’s on the chopping block. If my math is correct, there are eight roster locks (Beard, Carson, Gray, Lavender, Ogwumike, Parker, Sims, Williams), and cap room for three bench players. Based on the last two days, I’d keep Samuelson, Warley-Talbert, and Hopkins. If there’s room for one more, coin toss between Davis and Wiese (only to save face).

These games tell us nothing about Los Angeles. How can they tell us anything when their top five are out of the picture? At most, they tell us that Odyssey Sims needs to slow her roll. (And also stop flopping. Friggin’ drama queen.)

This was the kind of game where you understand why fans could fall in love with Kelly Faris. She was all over the floor, making hustle plays and making smart plays (there was a sequence where Connecticut inbounded with one second on the shot clock, and I’m pretty sure she deliberately took the shot short so she could get the rebound and the partial reset). Her offense and her offensive thought are still lacking, but on nights like this, she might just earn you more points indirectly than you lose from direct scoring. Allison Hightower was inexplicably in love with the sweeping scoop shot, and it was a love that languished unrequited. I love, love, love her defense, and the movement is back. Rachel Banham set up for corner threes and had one particularly nice rebound under the Sparks’ basket in the second half. Jessica January had a three go halfway down and pop out in the first half, and another one go awry. Turns out she needed to take another couple of steps further back to recalibrate. She got a lot of run in the fourth quarter, and I’m not sure what Curt Miller thought of her ability to handle pressure defense. Being the one person on the floor with a handle couldn’t have helped.

Danielle Adams’s second quarter was the stuff of which legends are made and folk heroes born. Three after three after three, and the crowd went wilder with every one. She had Connecticut’s first 17 points of the quarter on five treys and a midrange shot, then made the pass on the next basket. But either Los Angeles adjusted their defense to take her out of the game or she didn’t like the angles on the other side of the floor, because she had nothing in the second half. I think that’s where the strength and conditioning problem kicks in. Brionna Jones was physical inside and is catching on to the art of the screen. She did a nice job keeping balls alive inside. (Uh. As it were.) All the fouls on Reshanda Gray were bad calls. I mean it. All of them. I have no idea what even they were thinking with that flagrant. She was tough inside, but one can only do so much when the deck is stacked against you. Jennifer Hamson was very tentative, and I have to remember it’s admirable, not hilarious, when tall post players dive for loose balls like they know what they’re going to do with them when they get them. Something seems off about her shot mechanics, but that might be a height thing. Very tall posts seem to develop odd shooting motions. I’m not sure what to think of Shekinna Stricklen, or even how to categorize her. She needs to stop committing stupid fouls, this I know.

I still don’t know how Courtney Williams fits on this team, but I like her stubbornness. She’ll be in your face on either end of the floor. She had a nice defensive sequence on Wiese that led to a Los Angeles shot clock violation. Jasmine Thomas seriously needs to lay off the ticky-tack hand-check fouls. They’re starting to impede her ability to stay on the floor, or at least to keep the game flowing. She didn’t see the floor a lot, which makes sense considering the margin.

Alyssa Thomas is a one-woman fast break party. When she gets going, there’s no stopping her. I don’t know if you can even draw up offensive sets for her, or if it’s like improv. “Alyssa, you just find points somewhere, okay? You’ll figure it out.” Jonquel Jones set the tone with a big early block. I think it was on Sims, but I can’t see the tiny number in this light. The three-pointer is not necessarily her friend at this point in her career, but it’s good for her to try. Morgan Tuck was solid, especially early on, getting jumpers and points in the paint. Her services weren’t required for most of the game, and I think it was the right decision for Miller to use her as sparingly as he did.

I think these Sun kids (Sunkids? Sunkidt?) have a lot of potential, and they’re developing together, which might be just as important as each player’s individual development. They’re getting ready to gel as a team, to rise or fall together. That’s really cool.

So many reviews. Too many reviews. Really out of control officiating. Tiffany Bird did not leave a good impression yesterday, and she didn’t leave a good impression today. I’m almost tempted to ask Daryl Humphrey how he got saddled with these two clowns.

Good win for the Sun- yes, it’s a meaningless preseason game against a JV roster, but it had to feel good for the kids.

Reshanda Gray was utterly adorable in the “This or That” feature. First car? “A bicycle!” Spirit animal? “A unicorn.” Come to New York, Reshanda! We will love you and appreciate you and be socially active with you and appreciate your beautifully unique dorkiness!

I don’t completely understand why people get tickets for a doubleheader, show up for the second game, and leave in the middle of that. I don’t understand why it’s a thing. Why commit to the event if you can’t watch more than half of it? Sun fans are a strange breed- the season ticket holders can be passionate, but so many of the people who appeared on camera looked like they didn’t want to be at the game. Then why are you here?