Monday, May 21, 2018

May 20th, 2018: Las Vegas at Connecticut

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Alyssa Thomas posted 13 points and 17 rebounds as Connecticut trounced Las Vegas 101-65. Four Sun players scored in double figures, with Alex Bentley's 18 off the bench late a team high. Tamera Young had 23 points to lead the Aces. A'ja Wilson added 14 points and 10 rebounds in her professional debut.

For casino wars, fantastic video work, a good cheesesteak, impressive rookies, physical play, running up the score, and potential, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.

Good morning, fellow travelers! When we say WNBA all day in this house, we mean it. Your intrepid blogger has been up since 6:30 to make the bus to Flushing to make the bus to Mohegan for the Sun's home opener against the Las Vegas Aces.

Positives to this bus: the seats are amazingly comfortable and there's an outlet next to our seats. Downsides: the bathroom smells, I don't know if the outlet works, and the on-board entertainment leaves something to be desired (we got stuck on the passenger information message for about twenty minutes, and now we got an anime-esque feature on the Meaning of Easter, first in a line of Weird Sponsored Things that ran in a loop). And the outlets didn't work.

It's actually a shame our regular Sun seats are lower down. The people next to us seem nice and have very nifty Jasmine Thomas baseball-style shirts. The “we are loud” warning has already been issued.

Amazing roster cards with a fold-out illustrated poster of Jonquel Jones. I was even able to get mine signed!

I think they switched benches! If they did, I will be mildly annoyed. They did not switch benches, but I think they switched tunnels.

There's a promotion for wearing orange to the game (a voucher for a small soda is nothing to sneeze at) so I'm wearing a Shock shirt under my Sun jersey. Funny how 15 years later, we're back to the same font as at the beginning.

Courtney Williams has such a big personality. You could improve the mood of a small town if you could somehow spread her joy.

25-21 Sun at the end of the first, after Vegas raced out to a 14-4 lead behind six points from Nia Coffey. Miller is bringing the big guns off the bench with Bentley and Jonquel Jones.

I like the new name for the kids' dance team- the Sunbeams. They're cute.

49-37 Sun at the half. They initially had it at 50, but I think that was the scoreboard operator getting overexcited about the long two from Courtney Williams to end the half. Very balanced scoring for the Sun, though fouls are a concern, and I'm not thrilled with the shots they're leaving short.

The flashing banks of lights are new, and they're going to set off a seizure one of these days.

I'm just saying, maybe you don't do the ad with the spicy wings with the kid from Minnesota.

I like to think that somewhere, Pat Summitt is laughing at a concerted campaign to turn Connecticut orange.

Kelsey Bone looks good. She's slimmed down. A'ja Wilson looks pro ready. But they have no depth.

Friendly reminder to Sun fans: Bill Laimbeer only grows stronger from your hate. He is best villain.

73-49 Sun at the end of three. Shekinna Stricklen fall down go boom and left the game with a head/face injury. I didn't see how it happened, though it might have been self-inflicted. She stayed on the bench, but did not return to the game.

101-65 Sun, final, and I'm getting more and more uncomfortable with the bloodlust of Connecticut fans. They seem to get louder when they're up big, not early on when their team needs them more. At least they're starting to appreciate players who didn't go to UConn. The pop for Ogwumike, Jonquel Jones, and the Thomases was more than acceptable.

Kelsey Bone does not seem to be popular in Uncasville, and that was before she sluefooted Alex Bentley late in the game. She got a smattering of boos when she came in, and the crowd cheered whenever a foul was called on her. She was active on the boards, and physical all the way around. Ji Su Park has nice defensive instincts for a player as young as she is. I don't know if she's ready for heavy W minutes yet, but I see why Vegas opted to keep her. Good stroke at the line, too. In a couple of years, she could be a very nice player. Dearica Hamby was last off the bench and didn't even play in the first half. I'm trying to remember if she's recovering from an injury or not. I sort of hope she is, because otherwise she was just bad.

I do not question the Liberty's decision to cut Shoni Schimmel, not one iota. She was trying too hard to make passes that were harder than they needed to be. You don't get extra points for degree of difficulty, and you have to be able to get the basic passes through the defense before you can give them the old razzle-dazzle. (That being said, her accuracy should improve if she gets a chance to get used to her teammates and vice versa.) I feel for her, and when she's on a roll, she's a lot of fun to watch. I just don't know if this is the right system for her, or if there even is a right system in this league for her.

I had more to say about Schimmel than I thought, so I'll put my notes about the other guards here. Raigyne Louis, whose last name I keep wanting to give the French pronunciation, looked like the defender she was in her LSU days. Her offense still needs work, though. It's a bit wild. She's not the slasher she once was, and what works in college doesn't always work in the WNBA. Jaime Nared brings good height to the floor and provided flexibility to the makeshift Aces lineup. She had a nifty defensive play in the third quarter with a deflection.

Carolyn Swords continues to be good at being tall. Connecticut was playing a lot of small ball, which might have been a necessary evil, but doesn't match up well against a 6-6 widebody. She was able to pull down rebounds just by reaching over her opponents. She didn't get good position down low on offense, and her midrange game was full of fail. A'ja Wilson already looks like she belongs in this league. Her shooting line probably isn't going to show it, and she has to be a little more assertive on the glass, but she did a phenomenal job of getting to the line and hittting. I'm always impressed by posts with good free-throw shooting.

Tamera Young, bless her heart, still has one of the most dubious jumpers in the league, so you can imagine my surprise when she hit the three. She did a good job of getting into the paint and finishing, or at least drawing contact to get to the line and convert the free throws. If she's a primary offensive option when the regular guards are back, I'll be surprised. Nia Coffey got off to a hot start before the caffeine high wore off, and there's your obligatory coffee-related joke. I'm not sure how to sort out her skill set. She seems to do a lot of things, but not do any of them particularly well, and I don't know if she has countermoves ready for when the defense catches on to her. I'd like to take a closer look at her, though. I was pleasantly surprised at Lindsay Allen getting the start, and I thought she played well. She wasn't spectacular, and she definitely made some questionable passes that neither she nor the intended recipient were ready for, but overall she was pretty steady, and she did well defensively on Jasmine Thomas. But, again, I see her role changing drastically when Jefferson's back from her injury and Plum and McBride have returned from their overseas sojourns.

I can see some of the potential that the Aces have. There were moments when the individual defense was very good, although their communication needs a lot of work. Their rebounding was excellent, anchored by Swords, Wilson, and Young. I don't know how much good the inside play is going to do them with their guards, though.

There was a fairly large group- maybe two dozen people- in Aces shirts near the visiting bench. Not sure if traveling fans or MGM folks.

The Sun crowd really likes when Rachel Banham hits threes. I can live with her being the folk hero off the end of the bench, I guess. She's got to stop fouling, though. It makes her too much of a defensive liability. Alex Bentley realizes she has teammates, right? I understand if she took Bone's shenanigans personally, but if you're up 30 in the final two or three minutes, is it really necessary to be chucking every single shot yourself? She knows how to fire up this crowd, though. The rust showed a little bit for her, but you know that'll wear off. (Okay, maybe that's also a reason why so much of the offense went to her near the end of the game, but I still don't have to like it.) I was surprised Lexie Brown didn't get into the game sooner, but then she played pretty much the entire fourth quarter, so I guess that makes up for it. Her shot looked good. I'd like to see her get more minutes; I think she's good for them.

Brionna Jones had more trouble on defense than I was expecting after her superlative performance against Cambage in the preseason. She was getting consistently beat physically by Swords and Wilson, and a lot of it was strictly on height. I was glad to see her get her free throws at the end to get on the board. Betnijah Laney threw herself completely into the game. I love her hustle. It looked like Connecticut was trying to give her heavy run in the third quarter- there was a sequence of possessions where it seemed like Connecticut was trying to feed her every time. The results were mixed. Morgan Tuck has gotten more physical, and not in a good way. I was surprised she wasn't getting called for offensive fouls with the elbows she was throwing and the bad screens she was setting. Jonquel Jones definitely looks rusty, and in lineups where she's playing the five, there's no reason for her to be jacking threes. I love the way she tips rebounds away from players who were absolutely certain they had the ball corralled- her length in those situations is amazing. She laid the smackdown on a couple of shots, with a fantastic one to answer a Wilson block. She's just so much fun to watch, and once she's back in the groove she'll be even more fun.

For now it looks like Chiney Ogwumike is playing center, and despite the height issue, that's not the worst thing in the world for her right now. She's still not that mobile, so plopping her down in the low post is the most effective way to use her. I'm super glad she's back. Shekinna Stricklen's shot was streaky, and at one point she got a shot volleyball-spiked by Wilson. I swear, sometimes she forgets how strong and wide her build is, and falls too much in love with the outside shot. Alyssa Thomas still needs to work on her free throw shooting, but now her stroke at least looks like the shot has a chance to go in. She did a fantastic job running the break, and as the game went on her passing got fancier. Didn't always work out, but she racked up the assists and got buckets in the lane.

Courtney Williams spent most of the first quarter very much in her own way, chucking up shot after shot that went off the back iron or spun around the rim and went out. She found a bit more of her groove on the break in the second quarter, but this was the kind of game that highlights her weaknesses as a player. Jasmine Thomas was solid, but had a surprising amount of trouble with Allen. And in the end, there's only so much I can say about Jasmine Thomas that hasn't been said before in set after set of GNoD. Barring injury or games well outside the norm, you know what you're getting with her. She's not spectacular, but she's steady and she's consistent, and that's what you need out of your floor general. (Although beating up on Nia Coffey on a three is pretty spectacular. That was an awesome block.)

I love Connecticut's offense. I think I'd be tearing my hair out on a regular basis if I had to watch them keep fouling on defense. When the gambles work, they work. When they don't work, they rack up the fouls and they lose their assignment on defense. The Aces got a lot of open looks on missed switches.

Then again, Vegas has their own communication problems, what with Nared and Coffey knocking each other off the ball on one play, and Hamby throwing the resulting loose ball clear into the backcourt. Keystone Kops moment there.

Officiating was inconsistent, and the review mania needs to stop. That being said, Sun fans do understand that their players commit fouls sometimes, right? It does happen.

So much orange. Cannot cope.

I think the LA game will be a bigger test for this Sun team, and Indiana will be a nice palate cleanser. I'm looking forward to that Indiana game, though I'll probably be a zombie for much of it.

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