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WNBA playoffs: How the Sun match up with 'battle-tested' Liberty in semifinals
The New York Liberty harped they were a “pick-your-poison” team in their first-round sweep. The phrase was one of the first things Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White said about her next opponent, and she used it again minutes later.
“Put an ‘s’ on that, ‘threats,’ because they’ve got a lot of them,” White said following the Sun’s 90-75 win in a deciding Game 3 at the Minnesota Lynx’s Target Center.
It was the only first-round series that didn’t end in a sweep and set up a best-of-five series between the No. 2 Liberty and No. 3 Sun. Game 1 is 1 p.m. ET Sunday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on ABC. The other semifinal is No. 1 Las Vegas hosting No. 4 Dallas (5 p.m. ET Sunday, ESPN).
The Liberty can win a plethora of ways. They won their first game via seven 3-pointers and 29 points from guard Sabrina Ionescu. When the Mystics and guard Natasha Cloud focused on shutting her down, it opened up more room early for MVP candidate Breanna Stewart and clutch moments from nearly everyone on the roster. The first-quarter defensive pressure often opens up Betnijah Laney for buckets, and the team is undefeated when Jonquel Jones has a double-double.
“The makeup of this team is so special because we’re all kind of position-less, plus we can play multiple positions and whatever it takes for the team to win that night,” Ionescu said Tuesday night after the Liberty’s 90-85 overtime victory.
The Sun, by contrast, know the poison they need to pick to pull off an upset and carry on into a second consecutive Finals appearance after losing center Brionna Jones (known as Breezy) to an Achilles injury a month into the season. It’s who showed out for a Game 1 trouncing of the Lynx, and who they turned back to with their season on the line in Game 3.
Alyssa Thomas, the Sun’s MVP candidate, scored or assisted on 58 of the team’s points, the most in a game in WNBA postseason history, according to ESPN Stats and Information. She scored 28 points, a postseason career-high, with 12 assists and six rebounds. DeWanna Bonner, a two-time champion with the Phoenix Mercury, had 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. She had three of the team’s nine 3-pointers, a difference-maker in the first round wins and a needed asset against the Liberty.
“Those two are playing out of position and have been since Breezy’s injury,” White said. “And they’ve just continued to rise to the challenge, to be great leaders, to be tough competitors, to step up when the moment is biggest.”
The Sun are experienced in the postseason, but don’t have the one-through-five all-WNBA level talent of the super-teams in New York and Las Vegas. It took a team-wide 3-point effort in Game 1 against Minnesota. The rest of the roster outside of Thomas and Bonner was quiet in the Game 2 loss.
Heading into the win-or-go-home game, Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said the game plan was to limit the Sun’s third scorer, whomever that might be that night. It was Tyasha Harris, who scored 18 points off the bench and was 4-of-6 from 3.
Connecticut went 0-4 against New York in the regular season. The Sun will need that third scorer, and possibly a fourth, to steal one on the road and possibly knock the Liberty out.
They’re undersized playing Thomas, a 6-foot-2 point-forward type, at center and moving 6-4 Bonner into the power forward spot. They’ll have the tall task of keeping the 6-4 Stewart and 6-6 Jones at bay in the paint. White said because of size being an issue, “our discipline has to be great” and their attention to detail pristine.
“The biggest thing for us is we’ve got to give them different looks, we’ve got to keep them off balance, and we’ve got to pick our poison,” White said. “Because they are so well-balanced, we’ve got to decide what it is that we want to — not necessarily give up, but what are we willing to give up and what do we have to take away?”
Liberty ‘battle-tested’ with Finals in sight
While the Sun faced adversity up the road, the Liberty became battle-tested, they said. In their Game 2 win, they gave up an 11-point lead and ran a well-executed free throw miss by Ionescu to force overtime after trailing in the final minutes. It added to a long list of ways the Liberty have gritted out victories.
“We’ve been through it all,” Stewart said. “We’ve been up 20, we’ve blown the lead, came back [and] won, we’ve obviously lost. … We’ve been battle-tested. We’ve gone through all the things in the regular season for these moments.”
Point guard Courtney Vandersloot said Game 2 against the Mystics was a game they’ll take a lot from and learn heading into the best-of-five semifinal series. Stewart compared it to the overtime one against the Sun in late August. The 90-95 margin was the closest of the four games the two sides played, all of which were won by New York. The games were spread out evenly throughout the season; the most recent was a 31-point Liberty drubbing on Sept. 1.
“They [Mystics] really tested us tonight and I think that will give us good preparation,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “We faced everything now. What more can we face?”
Washington and Las Vegas had success against them by being physical and keeping the Liberty from getting too hot from 3-point range. The crowd, which is turning out at sold-out levels for big games, feeds most off of Ionescu’s deep 3-pointers. Opposing coaches often call timeouts amid roars.
“Our team is one of those teams that uses energy, regardless of whether it’s home or away, to our advantage the best way that we can,” White said.
The Sun’s two double-digit losses against New York came at Barclays. In May, the Sun fell by 16 in Brooklyn and on Sept. 1, they lost by 31 in the same arena. Their losses at home were by eight in June and five in an August overtime game. The series will shift to Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, for Game 3 and an if-necessary Game 4. It is back at Barclays for Game 5, if necessary.
Lynx look to 2024
Minnesota heads into the offseason with all five of its starters from this series signed in Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride, Tiffany Mitchell, Diamond Miller and Dorka Juhász. Aerial Powers, Natalie Achonwa (maternity leave), Lindsay Allen (left thumb injury), Rachel Banham and Bridget Carleton are all unrestricted free agents, leaving the Lynx with approximately $640,000 in cap room.
They do not have a true point guard on the roster and could use one to direct the offense, particularly early in the season to avoid losing skids that have caused woes for two consecutive years. They ranked ninth in points per game and had the worst defensive rating in the playoff field.
Minnesota is in the early stages of a new era building around Collier, their No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 draft. She is the main link to their dynasty core of Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson, Lindsay Whalen and Sylvia Fowles. Last postseason was the first they missed out on since 2010, which was Reeve’s first season as head coach.
Miller, the 2023 No. 2 overall pick, dealt with an ankle injury that kept her out of eight games. She has fit in nicely next to Collier. Another year of experience will grow her game and develop a troublesome forward pair for opponents. Due to injuries, Reeve had to start Juhász, a steal in the second round of the draft, at center. The duo are favorites to make the All-Rookie Team.
They are the first set of rookies to start in a WNBA postseason since Candace Parker and Shannon Bobbitt for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2018. The Sun are the only other team since 2000 to start two rookies in the postseason when they had Amber Holt and Kerri Gardin in 2008, per Across the Timeline.
