Wednesday, May 15, 2019

May 13th, 2019: Liberty at Sun

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Connecticut controlled most of the way in their 100-66 preseason win over New York. Jonquel Jones had 19 points to lead the Sun. Rebecca Allen came off the bench to lead the Liberty with 18 in the loss.

For road trips, eating dessert first, being Very Tired of the same mistakes over and over again, partisanship, and depth issues, join your intrepid and Very Tired blogger after the jump.

On to the main event, the Sun and the Liberty!

Liberty have dressed Reshanda Gray and Amanda Zahui B. No one else appears to have arrived. Might be able to give a Sun roster check in the second half.

At halftime, it's 51-37 Sun. Believe it or not, we had a second quarter lead. But our second unit can't run with the Sun starters.

Spotted: one #lostmani, if found please return to the Dream team bus.

I am extremely done with former guards for the Lynx and the Storm who wore 30.

Sun fans, please explain to me why you love Rachel Banham so much. I am perplexed.

Officiating so bad in the first half that Tanisha Wright is currently having some animated words with the crew during the break.

I would really like for my team to stop testing my oath to swear as little as possible in the GNoD. Would that be too much to ask? Apparently it is too much to ask. Because we were extremely not good in the second half of this game, and it really feels like most of the issues can be laid at the feet of the coaching staff. And when Connecticut has their foot on your throat, they don't let up. And we rolled over and played dead in response.

So the PA guy messed up the intros and announced #7 Avery Warley-Talbert as the starter instead of #17 Amanda Zahui B. There was an awkward pause, and then Tina, Asia, and Kia went out there. Brittany Boyd was the last starter announced, and she and Amanda looked at each other awkwardly before Boyd went out. Then Amanda shimmied down the aisle to join the rest of the starters. (All things considered, maybe the PA guy had it right after all and Katie was the one running the wrong lineup, but we'll get to that later.)

Bianca Cuevas-Moore didn't get off the bench until the last two minutes. So much for her big game against China. She did have a nice block on Natisha Hiedeman. We also didn't see Talia Caldwell until the end of the game, when Tina Charles subbed out for the last time. (The time when Tina shouldn't even have been in the game, but that's not the point yet.) Talia promptly went on to commit a foul, which seems to be the sum total of her Liberty experience. I'd love to see her chronicle her time as a Liberty player, but I'd like for that time to be shortened. I have no idea why Avery Warley-Talbert played as little as she did, unless it's simply that Avery is an established product. Once she knows the system as well as she's going to, you know what you're getting from her; why waste time confirming it? I like Megan Huff's hustle, but I don't think she has the next level speed or skills. Kelly Faris played briefly, did not look good on defense, and offense isn't her thing. Between all that and the radiator tied to her back whenever she wasn't on the floor, I really don't want to see her make the roster. I'm hard on her for things beyond her control, and I acknowledge that. So if y'all do not believe I'm speaking from a genuine, heartfelt, well-meaning place here, I understand. But, please, Kelly. Retire before you break yourself more than you already have. You'll be an amazing coach. Go get started on that.

Reshanda Gray played hard on the glass, but she's got to hit those shots and she's got to stop committing those fouls. Again, I'm starting to feel like I'm playing a recording. Tiffany Bias hit corner threes, hit the floor a lot, and was the referees' redheaded stepchild for some reason. I don't understand. Y U NO RISPEK TIFFANY? She was impressively solid in this game. I don't see how she fits on the final roster unless we have a lot of wild variance due to Eurobasket, but she looks like she's put in a lot of work. Xu Han was extremely disappointing in this game- Jonquel Jones outdid her at the "being tall with long arms" thing and Brionna Jones outmuscled her on the regular. She got more and more passive as the game went on, and I swear to Arceus if I see her take one more pointless contested straightaway long jumper I will not be responsible for my actions in the rage blackout afterwards. Tanisha Wright, for some inexplicable reason, was mostly playing at the off guard, which... okay, Katie, you understand that hasn't been T's strongest position since, like, Seattle, right? And she did not look good doing it. Yes, she burned Banham, but Banham burned back at least once, and also, I expect more out of Tanisha Wright than to draw even with Rachel friggin' Banham. I also do not expect a two-game streak of panicking with ten seconds left on the shot clock, forgetting about the existence of her teammates, and throwing up a floater that could best be described as hot trash on a platter. Rebecca Allen was the only real bright spot off the bench, and we know she's inconsistent. If the good Bec shows up for most of the year, then I'll be happy. But I liked that she was assertive on offense, and that she found a niche in the defense.

I am having trouble finding words, concepts, and sentences that are not profane to describe the epic fail that was Amanda Zahui B attempting to defend Jonquel Jones. Or, indeed, doing much of anything. She was late on rotations, she was careless with the ball, and she seemed determined to foul out as quickly as possible. If she keeps playing like this, I am perfectly okay with her joining the Swedish national team for Eurobasket at her earliest convenience. Kia Nurse showed flashes of being the dominant offensive player we know she can be, but they weren't consistent, and she backed off too much on defense. I don't understand why we were forcing the ball to Tina Charles so much. Tina forced terrible shots, especially in the first quarter, but she can't be held responsible for other people choosing to pass into double-teams to get her the ball. She gets stuck. She got loose in the start of the third quarter, much of it off her rebounding, but then she was racking up the fouls. When Katie put her back in down 30 in the fourth quarter and she promptly got her fourth on a cheap reach, I was half-expecting her to decide, "nope" and deliberately foul herself out of the game. It would have been a selfish decision, but one I could have been okay with, because seriously, Katie?

I'm starting to run out of patience with Brittany Boyd. And please bear in mind I wrote those words wearing a Brittany Boyd jersey. I love her, I want her to succeed, and I still believe she can succeed. I just don't know if she will, between her own shortcomings and the utter cluelessness that this franchise is marinating in. (It's so bad I almost called it a program, because it sure ain't professional right now.) I like the hustle plays she makes, but she was getting burned on defense and making bad choices on offense. Do better, Boyd. I'm even more scared of the extreme tentativeness we've seen out of Asia Durr in these first two games. I mean, we brought her in as a scorer, right? This is the thing she's supposed to be good at, right? So why is she not getting the ball? And why does she seem terrified of it when it does eventually come to her? She needs to be looking for her shot more.

We have a supporting cast around Tina for the first time in a while. Can we maybe act like it? Our rotations make no sense and our positioning makes no sense. I have no idea what we're trying to do when we're not force-feeding Tina, and that's a thing I don't think we should be doing. Katie still seems to be in over her head. We can do better.

So, Connecticut. What about you? Part of me was surprised to see so little so late of Emma Cannon, but on the other hand, she's sort of an established product from her time in Phoenix. You know who she is and what you're probably going to get, so the question becomes whether or not she's better than the variables you're bringing in. And looking at this Sun roster, I would have to say no. She's a physical post off the bench, but they get that from Brionna Jones. I was surprised at how little we saw of Kristine Anigwe, though I wonder if we're going to see more of her against Dallas. I think she might have potential, but it's hard to tell. Regan Magarity only played in the fourth quarter, and I was not impressed with what I saw (or the poor kid's bootleg-looking jersey with the name all spaced out). I don't think she's ready for the big time.

I would like to see Natisha Hiedeman make this final roster, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Big East fan with a not-so-secret soft spot for Marquette's class of '19. She brought a higher gear to the game. It hurt them sometimes, as when she got blocked by Bianca Cuevas-Moore, but I think it fits with the style that Miller wants to play. Layshia Clarendon had a quiet game, but I don't know how much she was being asked to do. I remain spectacularly unimpressed with Rachel Banham. I would absolutely take Hiedeman over her, but again, I recognize I have multiple biases in this situation and may not be the most impartial judge. Bria Holmes has a nice shot.

I see what everyone's been saying about Brionna Jones taking a step forward this year. She leveraged her bulk and her strength really well against our posts, whether it was Xu or even Tina. (This is why I want Tina off the center spot; it's too easy to beat her up there, perfectly legally.) She's finishing plays I don't know if she was finishing last year. Much will be asked of her, and I feel more confident that she'll be able to answer the call than I was looking at her last year. Bridget Carleton showed flashes of good play, but I don't think she's making this roster. She needs a year or two of international polish, whether it's in an overseas league or with her national team. Even then, maybe she won't have the speed for the WNBA game, but we'll see. I like Morgan Tuck, but I get the feeling I would like her better if she weren't a Husky and could thus be evaluated on her own merits instead of the blind loyalty Connecticut fans give her. She's a good, solid rotation player, and she does a lot of good things on the offensive glass, but she gets cheers like she's a superstar, and it annoys me.

(seriously, I have no real problems with UConn as a basketball team and program, I just have had one too many bad experiences with UConn fans)

I have come to the conclusion that it is very easy to love Alyssa Thomas when you're rooting for her and very easy to dislike her when your team is playing against her. I was not happy with her repeated and uncalled holding on Tina Charles. That spin move is a thing of beauty, though. I can't deny that, even on a day when the Sun is not my team. She's a little bit awesome and a little bit terrifying, and I think that's the way she likes it. Somehow we keep forgetting that Shekinna Stricklen shoots threes. (If this were any more specifically meant to call out Amanda, it would be in Swedish.) I get that she's not built like a traditional long-range shooter. She's also been doing this for seven years now. A clue, y'all, please to acquire it. On my Sun days, I'd like to see her be more of an interior force and use that thick build of hers to power through smaller defenders, but I can see how she instead slips bigger defenders on the perimeter. Jonquel Jones took charge both inside and out, getting around the defense to either hit outside jumpers or go up in the lane. She is, as the Internet parlance goes, a problem.

I loved seeing Jasmine Thomas take a few extra seconds at the end of a timeout to talk to the Sun's young guards. That kind of mentoring is important, and I don't know if every veteran is willing or able to provide it. She was merciless and deadly efficient in this game, setting up offense with her defense on steals and breaks. Courtney Williams got loose for elbow jumpers. Don’t' ask me where the assists came from, though. I had a terrible angle on the Sun's offense. We'll be switching to an upper deck sideline view tomorrow, which is now today because I am so tired.

Connecticut's starting five can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the league and probably beat most starting fives. But I know from painful experience that that isn't always enough. If Brionna Jones can be consistent, and if they can get solid production from one of the reserve guards, they'll be okay. But if they're only five or six deep, and other teams can go eight or nine deep, those big leads might not be safe, and the afterburners might not be there for them to use.

Officiating was very lackadaisical, and I’m not okay with that, especially in a preseason game. If someone gets hurt because the refs are swallowing their whistles, I am extremely not okay with this. (Also, seriously, guys. AT had Tina in a hammer lock. Exactly what were you expecting Tina to do about that? I may or may not have yelled "ALYSSA STARTED IT!" at that point.)

Love how Sun fans only get into the game when they're up 20. And really, disconcerting the shooter when you're up 30 is ever so classy. We had enough problems without y'all "helping".

I hope we learned from this game. I don't know if I can do more than hope.

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