May 8th, 2018: Dallas at Connecticut

TJust the Facts, Ma'am: Led by their veteran guards, the Connecticut Sun beat the Dallas Wings 79-58 in their second game of the preseason. Courtney Williams had 18 points to lead four Sun players in double figures. Kaela Davis and Ruth Hamblin each had 14 points off the bench to pace the Wings.

For big posts, injuries, quick guards, a war of attrition, and running out of things to say, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.

The second game is upon us, with the Dallas Wings facing off against the Connecticut Sun. I have to say, the Dallas blue is gorgeous. it's a shame they combine it with that eye-searing green and that inexplicable red. The Nike rendition is darker than the Adidas version; this almost reminds me of the once-unspeakable blue era for the Liberty.

Alex Bentley is back, so Tyra Buss is gone. Either that, or she's undercover as a ballgirl. The people in front of me are very sad about this. I think I just rolled boxcars with my eyes.

23-13 Sun at the end of the first. Jasmine Thomas and Courtney Williams have gone nuts. Cambage already has two fouls for Dallas.

Oh, good, the crew remembered how to play tic-tac-toe this time.

43-30 Sun at the half. Footwork needs work; I think the Sun got called for three travels in the second quarter alone. But the interior defense has been stalwart, bending but not breaking under the pressure of the Wings' skyscrapers. Brionna Jones has been especially solid.

Chiney Ogwumike is here but not dressed for the Sun.

Wings are getting points from the South Carolina alumnae.

Someone needs to explain to the Sun gameday crew that the Jeopardy! theme does not go with Wheel of anything.

Injury update: Allisha Gray took a charge in the third quarter, went down hard, and came up hopping on one foot. She went straight to the bench but hasn't come back into the game. Looks like her left ankle.

58-46 Sunday at the end of the third.

Injury update: Nikki Greene took an elbow to the forehead that left her woozy and opened up quite a cut near her eyebrow. Blood spattered a large part of the lane, and it took four people with a union rep supervising to make the area safe to play in again. Obviously she left the game.

So we saw what happened when Dallas's height was countered by greater girth and energy underneath. Of course, the Wings might have had a better chance of winning if their tall players could hit shots at the rim, but that was a problem that I saw with them last night. I think that Natalie Butler was the one who got Greene in the forehead. That would explain why the official spoke to her the longest after Greene was taken out of the game. She really needs to improve her accuracy at the rim. There were a lot of sequences when she and Ruth Hamblin were exchanging misses over the basket. I never really thought of Hamblin as a three-point shooter, but she hit one and took a couple tonight. Maybe Cambage taking a three pointer last night was part of the game plan. With Señor Fred, we may never know. She shot a wedgie tonight. At least she knew how to get it down. Last night, Wiese couldn't get it down by herself. Breanna Lewis got into it with Laney in the 4th quarter, shortly after the injury to Greene. Unfortunately, I was looking away at the time, and the next thing I knew people were exchanging words, and they did not appear to be polite words. She was very physical, especially in the fourth quarter. That's when she picked up most of her fouls. Evelyn Akhator had a big block on Morgan Tuck, and picked up a bucket that I think was on the fast break, but was otherwise under marble. She was the last post off the bench for the wings, which is not a good time for her, is there are so many post players on the Dallas roster. Kayla Thornton got sent to the bench with the arrival of Glory Johnson. She rebounded well, with one particularly good offensive board in the early going. I love when players like her get chances after going overseas.

Azurá Stevens did not have nearly a spectacular a game as she had against the Liberty. She was bothered, she was hassled, and she was pursued. She wasn't getting the easy looks that she got against New York, and pretty much every shot she threw up was contested or was an extremely bad shot, or both. I still think she has the potential to be a game changing player, but I realize that she has to improve her physical play in order to deal with the more physical nature of the professional game. (I almost kept the last TTS typo, because metaphysical for more physical almost worked.) Saniya Chong brought good defense, but was quiet offensively. She looked to be trying to set up her teammates more than she was looking for her own offense. That's not necessarily a bad thing, if that's the role she's supposed to play. Kaela Davis was a sparkplug early for the Dallas offense. If the officials ever start calling her for travels on those pell-mell drives, though, she's going to be in a lot of trouble. I could also do without some of her dramatics, though she toned those down tonight. Loryn Goodwin definitely played, and I remember a drive that had a lot of steps, but I also remember having a one liner that I didn't get to use, so that's a thing. She's had a remarkable journey, but I think it's going to end before the end of training camp.

I don't know if there's any additional context to the matter, but Karima Christmas-Kelly and Shekinna Stricklen were going at it hammer and tongs whenever they were both in the game at the same time. It was a very physical battle. For the most part, it looked like Stricklen was getting the better of her on the inside, though Christmas-Kelly was able to shake her loose for a three in the early stages of the game. She didn't play a lot, but she was tough when she was in. Glory Johnson already looks like she's either having problems with her right shoulder or she's getting her elbows warmed up for the regular season. She looked wild in the lane- the shots she was throwing up were reckless, to say the least. It's absolutely astonishing how much of a presence Liz Cambage can be in the lane. She's so tall, and she's thickly built, and she has no qualms about using any and all of that size to the fullest advantage possible. She was especially good at using her lower body for leverage and to get people out of the way on screens (she got called for an offensive foul on one of those, which went over well with the Mohegan crowd). It's easy to get under her skin, and Connecticut's physical defense was definitely doing that. For most of the game, she was getting away with the pushing and shoving. She's quite the talent, and she's quite the handful. She obliterated Alyssa Thomas on a block.

Skylar Diggins-Smith didn't play a lot, and really wasn't impressive when she did. She had a lot of trouble with the Connecticut defense- they were all up in her business. She had one nice move that garnered the attention of the woman in front of me (who was quite the fan of hers despite being a Sun season ticket holder, but I suppose I shouldn't judge). Allisha Gray was hot in the early going, but wasn't getting as much time, or as many looks, later in the game. Most of her points were in the first quarter, though she did have a very nice steal in the third.

Dallas is, or at least has the potential to be, very high-octane. Their guards are aggressive going the basket, and their sheer size up front makes them formidable down low. But they've got to work on their accuracy, and Stevens will have to be more consistent. I mean, she's a rookie, so that's bound to happen, and I expect her to iron out her problems sooner rather than later.

I really feel bad for Nikki Greene taking that hit to the head, because unless league rules forbid it, it's probably going to be the last thing she did for the Sun. She was physical with Cambage, which I think was the role she was called upon for, and hit her putbacks, but I don't see her as a multi-dimensional enough player to stick on a WNBA roster. Cayla George was on the floor against Thornton and Davis much of the time, and that is entirely too many people with phonetically identical first names on the court at the same time. Someone in the arena was a fan; I heard the "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!" cheer when she was on the court. She had some good minutes in the second quarter. Betnijah Laney really turned up the intensity on defense, going after loose balls along the sideline. She got into it with Lewis, and I still don't know why, but they got double technicals out of the deal. I can only imagine that someone said something about someone's mother. Better game for Morgan Tuck this time around than against Los Angeles. Her shot was working a little more (she hit a pretty one underneath on a nice feed from Stricklen). I'm still not entirely sure what kind of player she is, but her potential is starting to show.

Alex Bentley came into the game and immediately hit a three, so I guess she's doing all right upon her return. She had a nice steal in the fourth quarter, as the Sun were jumping all over the passing lanes. I think the fans might have missed her a little bit. (That first shot being granted, though, she did miss everything else she took, which isn't good. She looked to be forcing a lot of her stuff, though I wonder how much of that was from lack of familiarity with the personnel.) Rachel Banham didn't wait until the end of the game to get her three-pointer working this time, but the play she had that impressed me most was actually the steal and the runout for the lay-up. If she can bring that kind of shooting every night, and add the defense to it, she'll stick on this roster. But that's always been a problem for her. Leticia Romero continues to be underwhelming, and I'm disappointed. I really thought she had the game for the W, but somehow it's not translating. Lexie Brown had a quieter game than she had against Los Angeles, but still showed potential on both ends of the floor. I'd probably want to see her build a little more muscle if I'm Connecticut, as long as it doesn't impact her quickness.

If I'm Connecticut, I'm deeply worried about Alyssa Thomas's free throw shooting right now. As bad as it was against Los Angeles, somehow she managed to be even worse against Dallas. I know most of the best parts of her game are in transition, but you still can't legitimately be a slashing kind of player and not be able to hit free throws. That invites a lot of fouls. Brionna Jones got the start for Chiney Ogwumike, who sat out the game for rest. She was on the bench, though (she was the aforementioned union rep who supervised the clean-up of the blood, so much blood) and keeping her teammates loose. Jones was a force on defense, with a ruthless block on Allisha Gray and a lot of bodying up on Cambage. She got called for a lot of fouls, and got frustrated by being called for a lot of fouls when she was getting as much as she gave. I was getting flashes of DeTrina White or Tamika Whitmore in her good years from her, and I love it.

This was the first time I really felt that Shekinna Stricklen was embracing her height instead of steadfastly trying to ignore it. She spends a lot of time on the perimeter on offense, and that's not the worst thing in the world, but this seemed to be the first time I saw her using her height and her build on the inside for rebounding and defense. It's refreshing, and I hope to see a lot more of that from her this year (except when the Sun are playing the Liberty, of course). Maybe this will be the year she blossoms into the player Seattle thought she was going to be when they drafted her. I still love what Jasmine Thomas brings on both ends of the floor. She was on fire in the first quarter- for a very long stretch, she and Courtney Williams were the only players scoring for Connecticut, which might have been a disturbing note for the future if other players hadn't gotten involved in the second half. I love Courtney Williams's speed. She's going to have days when she's a hot mess and she can't throw it in the ocean, and she's going to have to be able to be able to help her team on those days as well. But when that first step gets her to the basket and she explodes, there isn't much you can do if you're the opponent except either get out of the way or foul her.

Connecticut has got to stop fouling, though. That was their problem on defense last year, and it's still their problem on defense. The posts couldn't defend without fouling, and the guards have a regrettable tendency to reach in when they don't have to.

Definitely still preseason for the officials. Reaction times are a little slow, and they couldn't call travels for beans.

I really think it's going to come down to Banham or Laney for one roster spot for Connecticut, unless there are positional issues that I'm not considering properly.

I hope that for the regular season, the fans get involved in the game earlier. It took a run of uncalled fouls against Dallas and the injury to Greene to get their blood up. Basketball is not the opera, but neither is it the Roman Colosseum. There were a couple of guys in the lower deck whose jibs I liked the cut of, though- they were trying to get the chants going, even if no one else was really jumping in on them. It's not my job to be the loudest person in the room for a team that's not truly mine.

I'm looking forward to the season opener, and I think this team's going to be pretty interesting when they have all the pieces together.