May 26th, 2018: Indiana at Connecticut

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Indiana Fever came back in the fourth quarter, but the Connecticut Sun had built up too big a lead for them to overcome, and came away with the home win 86-77. Alyssa Thomas had 21 points to lead five Sun players in double figures. Kelsey Mitchell notched 18 points for the Fever, 13 in the fourth quarter.

For lost devices, panic, chivalry, new neighbors, high emotions, shaking off the rust, and young guards, join your intrepid and distracted blogger after the jump.


Well, that was quick, right? Your intrepid blogger is back on the road, off to Connecticut to see the Sun take on the Indiana Fever. We're currently paying toll on the thruway somewhere near Larchmont. This bus, at least, has air conditioning, unlike yesterday's adventure.

If you're ever looking for us, keep an eye out for the Tari Phillips jersey. I collect throwbacks, and that's one of my favorites. I may also have a 2003 Sun jersey, because I think the McDonald's jerseys were hilarious.

We detoured a bit in the Bronx, but we're making good time through Westchester, which is the only way I prefer to deal with this county in the summer.

So far, this trip is not starting off well. Traffic was obnoxious and my hotspot decided to go AWOL. My husband is valiantly offering to leave the game early to make the bus to find it. That's how you know it's love.

We're in our regular, for a given value of regular, seats for this game and two others. I get the feeling I would prefer our neighbors from the first game.

Dupree looks weird with the blonde buzz cut.

47-38 Sun at half, but I'm not satisfied with the way Connecticut has played. Their shooting has been streaky and the offensive rebounding is not good. Indiana got a lot of good energy off the bench from Stephanie Mavunga.

Our halftime entertainment is a man who balances on small moving objects. I'm impressed but not necessarily entertained. Oh, good Lord, there's a guy trying to balance on his seat.

Not impressed with the anthem. If you're doing a military appreciation thing, get a good singer.

Shout out to the guy in the Courtney Williams jersey.

Rebecca Lobo has the call on this game, and I'm pretty sure her daughter's AAU team had the ball exchange tonight. (thought I recognized the town name, and the girl in the Rushin jersey was a pretty good hint too)

That got closer than it had any right to be. Indiana has a lot of young talent that's feeling their way in this league, and if they all figure it out together, things are going to get very real very fast in the Circle City.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Hind Ben Abdelkader. I certainly wasn't expecting her to have a shot deep enough to have a legit chance of going in from about 30 feet out. I'm sort of curious how she would have developed after four years in the US college system (she spent a year at Cal), but maybe going pro overseas did her more good. I don't approve of how Victoria Vivians wears her shorts, but I'm also well aware that it's not my decision how she does it. In any case, her shot is still quite pretty. I think my favorite was the straightaway three she kissed off the glass right at the top of the key. She made a heck of an impact in the fourth.

Jazmon Gwathmey found someone to do her eyebrows! And that's probably the nicest thing I can say about her tonight! The Fever got a lot of good post play off their bench tonight. it wasn't from her. Kayla Alexander did some work down low, though what was probably her best defensive play still resulted in a Sun basket on the recovery of the loose ball. It was still a very nice deflection. Stephanie Mavunga brought them a lot of power off the bench. The second half star in the paint, though, was Erica McCall. She was all over the offensive glass. She made so many things happen for the Fever, whether it was setting screens (she had a beauty that sprung Vivians for three) or getting putbacks. If she could be more consistent, she'd be as much a part of the rebuild conversation as the Mitchells are.

I don't know what happened, but Tiffany Mitchell had to switch to the spare jersey for the second half. It took a little while for the PA guy to make the announcement, and people behind us were whispering in confusion about it before he did. She didn't have the greatest game, but I can see the potential of her working with the other Mitchell to make a very dangerous backcourt tandem in the near future. I started taking a real dislike to Kelsey Mitchell in the fourth quarter, in the sense of "I wish that young lady would stop beating up on the team I'm rooting for". She started lighting up Connecticut for threes and driving the lane for free throws. She's going to hit the rookie wall eventually, because everyone does, but once she leaps over that wall she's going to be amazing. She's actually got some defensive chops, which is something you don't usually see from high-octane offensive players coming right out of college. Erica Wheeler was the player constantly getting overlooked by the Connecticut defense, which led to her getting open jumpers and easy drives down the lane. I know she's short, but she shouldn't be that easy to overlook.

Natalie Achonwa doesn't like getting called for fouls, even moreso than the average player. She sent a Courtney Williams shot somewhere into the stratosphere briefly. She didn't play a lot; small ball seemed to be going more effectively for the Fever, plus they were getting good minutes from Mavunga and McCall. Candice Dupree is still so ridiculously damn smooth. Even with the weird haircut making her look distractingly bald, she looks good. She finds space, or makes space, and there goes the midrange jumper or the cut to the lane. She's the closest thing this team has to a star right now as the young'uns develop, and I think she's accepted the responsibility.

I like how this team held it together even when they were down big. A young team could easily have folded down 19, but instead they fought it back to double digits. Much respect. This isn't going to be their year, but if Chatman can keep developing this core, they're going to be very dangerous very soon.

Miller didn't go to Brionna Jones and Betnijah Laney until very late in the game. I don't know what sent them both so far back into the doghouse, but neither of htem had much impact on the game, other than Jones attempting to make a tackle. This is not a recommended course of action in a basketball game. Jonquel Jones still seems to be lacking some of her springiness, for lack of a better word- she was slow getting back, and didn't seem to be going after rebounds with her usual enthusiasm. Getting to camp late is really starting to show. She did have a fantastic block on Achonwa that effectively served as a make-up call to a missed foul on the other end. Morgan Tuck got a lot of pop from the crowd, as she always does, and had a couple of nice baskets in the lane. At least she wasn't throwing elbows this time. They were quite unnecessarily last time I saw the team.

Really good offensive game from Rachel Banham. She threw some variety into her offense, and that's fun to see. Her defense still needs work, as she's especially prone to reaching like a chump, but that's a Sun-wide problem on defense. She was a big catalyst for the Sun in the fourth quarter as they held off the final Indiana run. Lexie Brown didn't get a lot of run- didn't see her until the fourth quarter. I don't think I like that plan. Alex Bentley took a lot of quick shots, and I'm not a fan of that style of offense on a good day. Then again, she fired off some good passes that were subsequently fumbled by her teammates, so I can understand a little bit why she wasn't quite so willing to pass.

Chiney Ogwumike is still a bit slow and a little clumsy holding on to the ball. But she's getting better with every game, looking more and more like her old self. She was at her best down low. Alyssa Thomas cuts through all defenses like a hot knife through butter. You can pretty much tell when she's going to blow the free throws- it looks like she's forgotten which hand she's actually supposed to be shooting with. I wonder if that's a "thinking too much hurts the ball club" kind of thing, because in the flow of the game she's lethal.

Courtney Williams did her best to shoot Connecticut out of the game in the first quarter. But, wow, can she ever get up for boards. Her ups are awe-inspiring. She brings such speed and such explosiveness to the floor for Connecticut. She set up Tuck for one of her buckets with a wicked steal. Jasmine Thomas had a rough shooting night, and she's got to be smarter with her fouls. If you're a true point, a floor general, not a combo guard or a lead guard or whatever newfangled term they've come up with, you're an extension of the coach on the floor. You need to be out there. And they were not good fouls. If you want to do a compare/contrast with Shavonte Zellous's behavior during the Liberty-Lynx game, I'm down for that. I'm not really sure what to make of Shekinna Stricklen in this game. It seemed like she was being really passive.

Refs got to a point where they were really letting them play. There was one sequence with Ogwumike and a Fever player (maybe McCall?) where I was shocked no one was called for a foul, and if their personalities were different, there might have been a fight.

Our regular seats are amazing, but I'm not fond of our neighbors. Not terribly exciting or interesting people.

Connecticut needs to invest in better paper tape or rubber bands for their t-shirts. A lot of them are opening up mid-air and not going all that far. Combine that with Solar Power dancers who can't even be bothered to try to throw shirts, and you have a recipe for disappointment.

While I'm pessimistic about the direction of the league in a management and ownership sense, I'm optimistic about the future on the court. The talent coming in just keeps getting better and better, and they're more and more ready for the pro game That's the importance of longevity- these kids coming in have always known the W was a thing, and it gave them something to aim for. Every young team I see looks like they're going to explode into glorious success. Leaning on veterans isn't going to work much longer in this league.