WNBA rewatch: Opening Saturday recap
Liberty & Sparks top short-handed opponents, Dream/Sun begin season without their stars
San Antonio @ New York
You won’t catch me ever talking Liberty without first appreciating the greatness of Tina Charles. She put this early fade off the glass with ease over a good contest:
You’ve got to lock onto her hip on an under out, too, or she’ll walk into an easy jumper:
Vickie Johnson, still an all-time leader in many categories for the Liberty, fittingly began her head coaching tenure with the Stars at Madison Square Garden. The Stars were without Moriah Jefferson (sore right knee), Kayla McBride (finishing up her Turkish league season) and 2017 #1 overall pick Kelsey Plum (sprained right ankle).
Ultimately, San Antonio didn’t gain much traction until that first 5:00 of the 4th. The Stars predictably struggled to create many open looks. To Laimbeer’s dismay, Isabelle Harrison and Alex Montgomery pulled down 8 offensive boards while Monique Currie kept the offense afloat. Currie really had to work for her 23 points, highlighted by 4 tough jumpers off the dribble.
Brittany Boyd’s burst and quickness jumped off the screen early against San Antonio’s depleted guard rotation and she came through late to slow the Stars’ push. Boyd scored on a drive, then immediately ripped Currie at half court for another easy bucket.
The Liberty’s guards really can fly up the court to push it in transition. They only attempted 7 threes Saturday, but Rebecca Allen did not play (quad). Again, it’s just one game. But the Liberty looked crisp filling lanes and getting out on the break. Defense often comes to mind first with this team. On that end, their guards all fought hard to get over screens and kept ball handlers off balance by stunting in the gaps.
2017’s 5th overall pick, Nia Coffey, was good to go for the opener. She shot 1–5 coming off the bench for the Stars, and had a few nice drives with her strong hand. Traditional 4/5s will have their hands full trying to contain her this season.
Seattle @ Los Angeles
This game was a good watch made better when you consider the list of those who did not play: Sue Bird (knee), Breanna Stewart (knee), Candace Parker, Essence Carson and Jantel Lavender (Turkish league finals).
The Storm turned it over 8 times in the 1st and 23 times in all. Alana Beard, perennial all-defense candidate, had 5 steals to lead that charge in 35+ minutes. That massive number doesn’t even do this performance justice:
There, Chelsea Gray asks for a switch and Beard obliges, recovering and forcing a jump ball with Noelle Quinn.
Jewell Loyd poured in 25 on 10–18 shooting, but turned it over 9 times. Beard gets a hand on the ball and knocks if off Loyd.
On the surface you could put it this way: Seattle was missing two of its stars while LA was without one; the Sparks still had the reigning MVP at full strength. Nneka Ogwumike had 23 points, 3 assists and 3 steals in nearly 38 mintues. Clearly, she has sped up the release on her jumper and is ready to let it fly even more this season:
Chelsea Gray didn’t even need to turn the corner there for Ogwumike to have enough time to get that off. Not even 90 seconds later, she did it again:
And she’s the MVP for a reason. She’ll hurt you from all over the floor. Ogwumike’s footwork is tidy and smooth. She’ll face up and dance on a taller defender…
or work to a favorable spot against a like-sized one and look comfortable doing so:
Even without Bird and Stewart for the afternoon, Seattle found good looks when they worked through LA’s ball pressure. Here’s Seattle’s newly-acquired center Carolyn Swords hitting Jewell Loyd for an easy two:
That’s a simple split action, a well-known staple brought to the Golden State Warriors by Steve Kerr. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, a respected shooter, has to be guarded in that action. Two scoring threats running toward one another, then unpredictably splitting apart as the defense dictates, creates headaches (or point blank chippies for an All-WNBA player). Now just imagine more of those sequences with Stewart and Bird in the mix.
Mosqueda-Lewis and Loyd weren’t done. I’m going to call this one the ‘give and go out of bounds’:
Simple exchanges like that help you find easy buckets if you’re Jewell Loyd playing a great team with two star teammates sidelined. That’s great recognition from Loyd to jump back in — many players would drift back out to the perimeter or just linger out of bounds. Mosqueda-Lewis attacks like she saw it coming, too.
I mentioned LA’s ball pressure. Alana Beard sets that tone, and Head Coach Brain Agler could be seen encouraging Requna Williams and Odyssey Sims to match it. And let’s not forget Chelsea Gray, a key contributor from that Finals run. Beyond the ball pressure, here Gray is jumping in front of a short roll at the right elbow to force a turnover:
Jewell Loyd easily could make Gray look silly for taking that risk had she skipped it to the back side for a 3 on 1. It’s Beard’s ball pressure on Loyd that makes it near-impossible to see Gray creeping over or fire a straight line skip pass to catch her leaning.
The Sparks are a lock to contend again this season. There’s the versatile star power of Ogwumike and Parker, the aggressiveness and depth of the guard rotation, and their most underappreciated strength: The ball just moves. The Sparks don’t like sticky fingers.
As the 3rd quarter wore on, I felt that Ogwumike wasn’t getting opportunities to catch in an advantage situation to attack the basket. But in real time, I wasn’t seeing the value in the ball moving from side to side. Ogwumike spacing the floor alone, as she did much of that quarter, opens up driving lanes for her slashing teammates.
That ball movement also led to Sydney Wiese’s two triples, which pushed LA’s lead to 8 early in the 4th. And of course, Ogwumike still got hers without hijacking the offense.
Final thing of note: Nneka Ogwumike really zips the ball around with authority. There are no looping passes with her, and I like that.
Atlanta @ Connecticut
Go back and watch this one all the way though and you’ll see both extremes — these teams will hit wall from time to time offensively without their star players, but have the talent/cohesion/collective IQ to fight for a playoff spot.
Tiffany Hayes will have her number called often when Atlanta needs a bucket. Despite shooting 3–11, her importance and added value was clear. Hayes got to the line 12 times. And if she’s hitting shots like this one, you know you’re in for a rough night:
Atlanta doesn’t have shooting like Washington, but they can get out and run to tee up some great looks. Bria Holmes found herself wide open on the right wing just as the Sun’s bigs were crossing half court:
Holmes shot 17–62 (27.4%) from deep last season as a rookie. If she makes a leap there this year, watch out. Michael Cooper’s team is in a position this year to get that ball moving. That extra space would give everyone a boost. Holmes shot 0–4 from deep, but was locked in from midrange Saturday. Watch her peel around three screens here, then pull up from the foul line:
Atlanta is also anchored inside by last season’s Most Improved Player: Elizabeth Williams. Watch her set up her right hook with two quick left hand dribbles with purpose:
This game in a sentence: The Dream kept building to 8–11 point leads, only for the Sun to respond every time with a mini-run. If Connecticut is putting points on the board, Morgan Tuck is likely to be involved. Tuck found similar success in the pick and pop to LA’s Nneka Ogwumike:
As you can see, Tuck isn’t being guarded by a plodder, either. That action is so tough to cover up. The Sun also flashed a double high screen look, which netted Tuck a wide open three:
Damiris Dantas switches onto the ball handler, Jasmine Thomas. Jonquel Jones’ job is to roll hard to the rim — she ends up taking both remaining defenders with her, making it an easy read for Thomas.
Atlanta showed a zone some in the first half. At first, it was a 2–3 only on side outs with the shot clock at 14 or below. The 2–3 became a more regular fixture midway through the 2nd. Cooper then put his team in a 3–2 in the 3rd to mix things up. How can Connecticut attack it? Finding Morgan Tuck on the move is a good start:
A 3–2 puts a ton of strain on those bottom two defenders. They have to guard up to the elbows then be forced to close out to the corners — not an enviable assignment.
Courtney Williams was instant offense in this one. She made her first 7 shots on her way to 18 points off the bench. Coach Curt Miller and the Sun got her going early with an Iverson Series set. Before you can blink, she splits the defenders and cans a tough shot from the baseline:
Williams bailed out the offense late in the clock several times and hit 2 of her 3 triples. The Sun were in position to tie it inside 2:00. Jonquel Jones’ tip rimmed out and Layshia Clarendon canned a floater to put the Dream up 4.
Up 3 with 30 seconds left and the shot clock winding down, a Clarendon-Williams pick and roll led to Williams pitching it out to Hayes on the weak side. Hayes got a shooter’s bounce as a visitor in the Mohegan Sun Arena, and Atlanta polished off a season-opening win.
Final note: Atlanta has got to be pleased with the strong play off the bench from Damiris Dantas and Brittney Sykes (2017 #7 overall selection). Nobody on the Dream logged more than 31 minutes, where Tuck played a tick under 38 for Connecticut.
If you enjoyed this, please check back for more of the same on the opening Sunday of the WNBA season, and for more like this throughout the season!
