July 24th, 2019: New York at Connecticut

some bullshit-ass half-assed notes

Good morning! It's too early for this, but here we are at Camp Day at Mohegan Sun, as Connecticut hosts New York in their last game before the All-Star break. Intrepid blogger needs caffeine badly.

At halftime, New York is somehow up 39-36. The reserves are having another good game, and this time Tina Charles has decided to remind everyone of her All-Star capabilities. Kia Nurse left with an apparent elbow injury and has not returned. I don't see any reason to risk her. (although she's warming up here at the break)

Morgan Tuck did Tari Phillips's show-the-ball trick. I'm easily amused.

I don't want to say that the Liberty are tanking, or worse, throwing games. That would be a hell of an accusation to make. But that last minute or so of game time might certainly give the impression that the players on the floor didn't particularly care if New York won that game. Terrible clock awareness. Terrible shot selection. Why are you forcing the ball inside down two or three possessions? Why are you messing around for six seconds when you only have fifteen? STAAAAAAAHP.

Rebecca Allen started the game on fire from beyond the arc, and then appeared to run out of battery power. The problem is that if Bec isn't hitting, then the flaws in her game (like her dubious defense and her tendency to panic when the defense comes hard at her) become harder to overlook, and she goes from a positive to a negative very quickly. Reshanda Gray was physical, but not advantageously so, which meant that she was getting called for fouls as often as she was getting rebounds. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe was okay defensively to start her day, but got burned more often in the second half. She missed too many shots at the rim for my liking.

Brittany Boyd seems to be missing some speed with the lingering ankle issue (she had the trainer looking at it right before the game) and once again let her emotions get the best of her. I don't mind players who play with emotion. I do mind players who let it completely control them and get swallowed up too easily by frustration. She's never going to be as good as she can be if she doesn't get out of her own head sometimes. Asia Durr still looks a little gimpy from the groin injury (which should put paid to rumors that she wasn't injured) and saw both her minutes and her touches reduced. Loved to see her out there when we needed perimeter shots and the entire team is looking to force the ball inside, because that made such perfect sense. Marine Johannès demonstrated a frankly appalling lack of speed against Connecticut's guards, which Williams and Hiedeman were especially able to exploit, but even Banham was able to get a step on her regularly, and while there are many complimentary things one can say about Rachel Banham, her speed has not usually been one of the things complimented. I like Marine's style, and once she either gets to know her teammates better or learns when to tone down the fancy stuff, she'll be a huge asset to this team.

For the first time in a while, Tina Charles actually looked like a post player. It was very refreshing. She still took a lot of stupid contested shots, but at least she was getting rebounds close to the rim. I don't like that the team was trying to force the ball inside to her at the end of the game, and I don't like the number of free throws she's been missing lately. But I'm glad to see her rebounding again. I would like to see if we could get back international Amanda Zahui B. That would be nice. She hit an early three, but so much of her offense was perimeter-oriented, and I've said this before: post players being able to hit threes is a nice surprise weapon, but it ceases to be a surprise when it's all that you do. I would also like Bria Hartley to get her act together. I know she's better than this, but she's coming off as terrible when she's on the floor, even when she hits shots. She had some inexcusable defensive lapses where she essentially just gave up on her assignment, and that's unacceptable.

Okay, I'm sorry. I'm cutting the notes off here, because it's been two days and while I'm still at a casino and resort, I’m three time zones away from this game. Given that I had to cudgel my brains to remember who was starting at guard for the Liberty, I don't think I can produce acceptable notes at this point. Sorry, Sun fans. Courtney Williams was amazing in the second quarter, Jasmine Thomas took over late, and it really seems like Curt Miller has to choose between Brionna Jones and Kristine Anigwe.