June 9th, 2018: Minnesota at Connecticut

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Sun finished strong in their 89-75 win over the Minnesota Lynx. Courtney Williams had 22 points to lead five Sun players in double figures. Sylvia Fowles had 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead Minnesota.

For an abundance of passion, tipping the ball, timing the bus, making new friends, things that are extremely orange, spa dress and dribble, and the youth movement, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.


Good afternoon, fellow basketball-likers! We're coming to you from the heart of Mohegan Sun Arena, where the Sun are ready to take on the Minnesota Lynx.

Sure, now Shekinna Stricklen is out here missing corner threes. Yes, I'm still irked about that. Do you know how hard it is to get a dagger out of your aorta?

Jonquel Jones needs to find a better place to hide her phone pregame.

Alex Bentley is shooting around without headphones today. I don't know what it means either.

This year's WNBA Pride shirts look pretty boss.

I salute you, lady who tie-dyed the white giveaway t-shirt. You've got style. And then she raised the fist of defiance during the "Take a Seat, Take a Stand" commercial, so I think I know who I want to be when I grow up.

At halftime, Connecticut is up 44-38. As we all expected, Sylvia Fowles and Alexis Jones are tied for the Lynx lead in scoring. Courtney Williams has a game-high 16 for the Sun.

Play of the game: Jasmine Thomas turns an errant long pass into a touch pass to Williams, who misses the floater in the lane- but there's Chiney Ogwumike for the tip up and in.

We now know the PA guy is Italian. He can pronounce Zandalasini and get the hard C in Cecelia, but somehow managed to turn Tanisha into something more like Da'Shena.

I have no idea what's up with Rachel Banham's sneakers. But Augustus and Brunson look like they found the remains of that preschool cartoon Dolson butchered for her shirt, and fashioned shoes from it.

The good gentleman at WNBAAlien is fond of pointing out that Father Time is undefeated, and the Lynx are proving him right this year. This Minnesota team looks old, and slow, and caught up in their own past, trying to reach a glory that they can't quite manage anymore. Against a Sun team with so many players coming into their prime, they looked like they thought they themselves were younger.

Endy Miyem has potential, don't get me wrong. But Minnesota is not a place where that potential is likely to blossom unless a whole lot of people in front of her get out of the way. She's got good size and length, but I don't know if she knows how to use them yet. I was surprised at just how much run she got, especially in the second half. Conversely, I was surprised at how little play Lynetta Kizer got. I understand trying to develop the younger players, and you might as well make it worth Miyem and Zandalasini's while to show up, but I think Kizer might have given them more offense off the bench when they needed it. I do think Cecelia Zandalasini has a place in this league. She did a good job of drawing contact and converting the free throws, and hit a pretty three when left open.

I still love Danielle Robinson's team-colored hair (it's even more of a Lynx blue up close- we passed her in the casino on our way to the bus) and hope this is a tradition she maintains her entire career. Connecticut played her well to concede the jumper. But it's clear that the Minnesota offense runs way faster when she's in the game. If this team were anywhere but Minnesota, she'd probably be starting by now. But Cheryl Reeve would be run out of town on a rail if she dared to bench Whalen. Tanisha Wright brought physical play on both sides of the floor. She drove hard and defended harder. Alexis Jones got a lot of minutes in this one and looked good early with midrange jumpers and free throws. She and Wright both give Minnesota incredible flexibility in the backcourt. I mean, we'll see if she's allowed to develop.

Seimone Augustus looked like she was trying to make the moves she could pull off in her LSU days, but her body was like “C'mon, Mone, we're thirty-odd years old with knee and abdominal surgeries, AIN'T HAPPENING.” She was consistently a step slow on defense and short on her shots. There's still beauty in her game, but the results weren't there. And she was better off than Lindsay Whalen, who looks like she's playing out the string. To borrow an old turn of phrase, she was never that fast, but she was never this slow. She looks washed up. Spectacularly so. Her drives were weak and her outside shots were short. She was reduced to a shell of herself, trying to maintain the illusion of the Lynx's swagger.

Rebekkah Brunson stepped outside, hit a three, looked springy, and then pretty much disappeared. She didn't look great, but she didn't look terrible, either. I'm not sure what Reeve was doing with her. Maya Moore remains a force of nature and a skilled assassin. If she gets an inch of space, she's going up with the ball. She's a joy to watch for any basketball fan. There's a little bit of the Tamikaze to her game, the same reckless drive that Catchings had, the determination that nothing and no one will stand in her way. She made some great defensive plays, deflecting the ball with hands quick as a magician's to break up plays. Sylvia Fowles was big on the inside, taking off in the second quarter to power the Lynx's comeback. She was bothered constantly by the Connecticut defense, but still got good looks close to the basket. And you can't say she didn't get her rebounds, but she had to fight for them as well. Jonquel Jones and her phenomenal knack for flicking the ball away did a number on her.

I don't understand Reeve's personnel moves in the last few minutes. Why barely play Robinson? Why ride Wright when she's in foul trouble? Who did Kizer tick off? It was like she was trying to concede but not look like she was conceding. Perhaps the appearance of power matters as much to the Lynx as the power they once had did.

Line change near the end of the game gave Betnijah Laney and Lexie Brown their minutes. (Brown's entry was delayed by a jump ball.) Laney got blocked hard by Miyem. Brionna Jones brought good physicality down low and did her level best to challenge Fowles. I mean, it was doomed to failure, but she's a brave little turtle nonetheless. Morgan Tuck got off to a rough start with a dumb foul and a fumbled pass/rebound thing (though that was as much on Ogwumike as on her) but she settled down on her second go-round.

Rachel Banham didn't come in until the second half, and brought a lot of energy on defense. The folks around us were fired up for her to hit a three, but I'll be happy with her continuing the hustle on defense. (And working on her dribbling to try and be a point guard- she was doing some fancy moves in warm-ups.) I'm uncomfortable with the amount of pop she gets from the crowd relative to her impact as a player, but she's growing on me. Shekinna Stricklen got hot from deep right before Minnesota got into foul trouble- she turned the game around for Connecticut in the third quarter when Minnesota was starting to get ideas. It's nice to be able to root for that to happen to someone. I'd like to see her use her build a little bit more, but if she's hot from outside I'm not going to argue. Alex Bentley passed the ball more than I'm used to- she had a beautiful feed to Ogwumike down low. Her shots seemed to be coming in the flow of the offense, for the most part, though I'm not sure about going to her straight off the bench on a possession.

Courtney Williams started the game red hot for the Sun, hitting on pretty much everything she looked at. She cooled down somewhat after her first rest, and after the Lynx were able to adjust their defense to her. I love watching her work- her speed, her ups, her energy, just make her a joy on the floor. If she were more durable and better able to take contact, her game would be even more terrifying. Jasmine Thomas was steady, taking a lot of hits and getting right back up again (usually without getting the call). She's so critical to this team's success. There are stars all around her, but she's the engine. I keep circling back to the first Mercury title teams and the role that Kelly Miller played for them. I think there's a really good parallel there. Phoenix wasn't winning without Miller; Connecticut's not going all the way without Jas.

Alyssa Thomas still looks like she's trying to figure out which shot she should be taking with which hand. In that regard, she might consider the age-old mantra of "don't think too much, you'll hurt the ball club". She was utterly relentless in chasing down loose balls on the glass. She and Jasmine Thomas make a good defensive pairing in the trap. I'm not a fan of Jonquel Jones as a three-point shooter, even if it did sort of work. I'd much rather see her in the paint, either going to the basket or using those long arms and deft fingers to lay claim to loose balls. I could wax lyrical about the way she tips and tips and tips the ball until it's either hers or her teammate's. I'm also not sure how she works in this lineup, because that pushes AT more towards the perimeter, which is not exactly her strength. I think there might be a little more lineup juggling for Connecticut to do. Chiney Ogwumike is a rock, albeit a somewhat undersized one, down low. She did big work today, matched up with the very tall task that is Sylvia Fowles. She's back in her groove and I'm loving it.

When Connecticut's off to the races, I don't know if anyone can beat them. The transition game is so strong. And the rebounding is so tough, which leads to outlets, which see the previous sentence. Honestly, I think the Sun's biggest problem might be getting out of their own way. Too many stupid fouls, and that's not even getting into the dubious officiating. Too much letting the emotion overwhelm them (see: two technicals and the flagrant). Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy.

Sometimes the officials can too. They let them play like crazy for the first five minutes or so, and then the whistles came out like these three bros thought we were here to watch them. I don't think the calls were as universally terrible as the home fans did. For one thing, while I thought the play that earned Alyssa Thomas her flagrant should have been a double common foul, I do at least thing there should have been something on AT, unlike the folks around us. Yes, sometimes Connecticut players commit fouls. It happens. But these refs were pretty bad. Credit to Barnett for the quick call on the review of the Moore/Thomas entanglement, even if they screwed up on review.

I like the concept of the drumline, but it needs a little work- more flair, more panache, instead of just percussive backup to the dance teams.

Good crowd noise today. Sun fans don't get as loud as I'd like usually, but today they brought it even without prompting. Now all we need is to get people organized and we might have something there.

During one of the timeouts, they ran a feature asking Sun players, "What is Blaze?" Answers ranged from general WTFery (Banham, Thomas) to "one of those things from Sesame Street" (Jones) to "something that lives on the surface of the sun" (Ogwumike). My answer is simple: Blaze is orange. Very, very orange.

We were sitting in front of a pretty cool dude. I think at the end, he mentioned to someone that he was Jasmine Thomas's brother (which explained why she was pitching the post-game squishy basketballs at our section).

This Sun team is pretty fun to watch. This just might be their year, if they can stop fouling.