RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Admiral_Needa]

[genesis1272]

Sugar left the Garden, still in uniform, escorted by the trainer and using a large umbrella as a cane. Her gait was very slow and methodical, shuffling her feet rather than actual steps, and she couldn't turn her head. I told her that I hoped she would be ok and she mustered a kind of whimpering thank you that sounded like even that hurt her. Based on the uniform, and their early exit together, I assume that she and the trainer were off to the hospital, but who knows for sure. Hopefully all will be well, but it didn't look good at all- this sucks!!!

[Happycappie25]

[cthskzfn]

The SUN has had very important (to a young team) consecutive road wins now- laying the first loss on the Lynx and then finishing at The Garden after blowing a big, late lead. Hopefully these wins indicate a quicker-than-expected (by me) maturation.

It looks like JT's career-year last season wasn't a fluke, so to be fair I should tone down my vitriol, but she still takes stupid, early shots (and seems to miss most of them), imo, for a veteran PG.

I guess the SUN is (I'm in the USA, ain't I?) gonna be better than I thought/hoped, the live/die by the 3 scenario notwithstanding.

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Silly, stupid white people might be waking up.

[toad455]

Hopefully the Sun keep Bentley on the bench and keep this starting line-up. Very happy C. Williams has found her spot with Connecticut.

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LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!!!!

Twitter: @TBRBWAY

[cthskzfn]

[toad455]

Connecticut definitely has our number. Let's hope come playoff time we don't end up facing them(#4/#5 or #3/#6).

_________________
LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!!!!

Twitter: @TBRBWAY

[ClayK]

A couple notes:

*Zellous with no rebounds and one assist in 38 minutes.

*The five Sun starters all played 32+ minutes; only three subs, one for 2:56.

*I kept hearing about Rebecca Allen in the offseason, but she barely plays. What is the difference between the expectation and reality?

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Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā

[toad455]

R. Allen has been useless this season. I wouldn't be surprised if Laimbeer dumps her before next season.

_________________
LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!!!!

Twitter: @TBRBWAY

[Happycappie25]

[Luuuc]

Coming into a full season, and healthy at last, this was the year to find out whether Bec could become a real WNBA player. My expectations were always restrained, given that her achievements to date were against an inferior standard of opposition, but I still thought she'd turn out to at least be a decent option off the bench.
So far though ... nope. She's deep in the doghouse now. Miss one shot, pulled out of the game, not to see court time at all in the 2nd half.
The three and D role only works if you hit some threes and are an effective defender, and sadly neither is the case so far. I'm still rooting for her to turn it around though. The Libs could certainly use an extra contributor off the bench.

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Thanks for calling. I wait all night for calls like these.

[toad455]

I wonder if fellow Aussies O'Hea or Jarry would be better than R. Allen right now?

_________________
LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!!!!

Twitter: @TBRBWAY

[Randy]

[Shades]

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

Coming into the game Z had been averaging 12.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg and 2.9 apg. Since game 5 she has been performing at an all-star level. I thought Allen would be a starter purely due to the 6'2" frame and the fact she started games last year down the stretch. However, we don't know what effect the early-season quad injury has had on that but either way Z has been outstanding. I don't think SF is a problem area at this point. Though it might be if Sugar is out for any length of time.

To me, the main problem is we continue to routinely give up 90+ ppg and rebounding is a hit and miss area for us. Yeah Z had 1 rebound last night, but she also played 38 minutes and her scoring and leadership brought us back from a 20-point deficit. I think the main problem is excruciatingly simple. The last two seasons, Kiah's defense has covered for defensive breakdowns in execution. Her rebounding the last two seasons also tended to be pretty consistent in the 6-8 range. This year it has fluctuated wildly. In the first CT game she was in foul trouble. Last night, she allowed Jones to out-position her repeatedly for offensive rebounds. Vaughn had 4 rebounds just like Stokes, but when Vaughn was in the game JJ was less of a dominant figure. We need Stokes to be much more consistent if we are going to get to be a next-level team. It's that simple. In most of the games we have won, she has been a factor, at least on the defensive end. In most of the games she has been a non-factor, we have lost. It's a simple thing. Without her presence, and losing Wright, NY is not a great defensive team. We've known that since she went down along with Wright last year. Basketball reference has NY's defensive rating as 6 of 12 before last night's game. For where we want to be, that's nowhere near good enough. Offensive rating was 8th, but NY is trending up offensively and will continue to if we ever see most of our players on the court at the same time. Toss in that NY had only 2 freaking offensive rebounds last night, and there it is. NY is built to be a low-post, paint-dominant team. The fact that we tied the game when we weren't doing paint-dominant things is admirable. But we are not going to sustain winning that way.

And it's hard to believe that as soon as Piph comes back, down goes Sugar. This team clearly could have a lot of firepower if you get them both out there at the same time. Luckily we have another long stretch of days off. If that above report about Sugar is true you'd expect she will miss some time, but hopefully it won't be terribly lengthy. Ugh.

Oh and one really disappointing element was that CT was clearly tired down the stretch (final 7 minutes) and we couldn't take advantage. I'd say A. Thomas and Williams were still going but man, clearly the rest of the team was gassed. Miller was imploring Jas Thomas to run the ball up the court in the 4th and she couldn't do it. That played a big part in our comeback but as Bill said in the postgame, when you give up offensive rebounds that can be deflating. We gave up a few big ones as we cut into the lead and that really hurt. Without those, what was an 86-86 tie with 1:00 left would have resulted in a tie game or Liberty lead much earlier. Then perhaps we could have taken advantage of the momentum and rode it. You look at the stats, CT had 9 offensive rebounds total, but 3-4 seemed like they were in the final 5:00. For a team like NY, that's a killer. You can't be built on rebounding and have that happen.

And for CT, playing this lineup has clearly played dividends. But as the games become more compact in July, I don't see them being able to sustain this type of energy playing smaller lineups. It nearly caught up to them last night, and that was with a week off. And that's taking into account shooting 50% from 3 and hitting some tough shots down the stretch. Two things that may not continue to happen nightly once you're in stretches of playing 4 games in 7 days.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[Shades]

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

We'd really only need Christmas or someone like her if Rodgers is out for a long period of time. Z is playing great. Piph, Rodgers and Z together is potent. If, you know, they could ever all play together.

Don't get me wrong. Christmas would be ok to add as a backup. But she's not better than Z, as I said in pre-season. And I would in no way deal a first-rounder for her.

Christmas has only hit 40% from the field once in her career. She's at .368 now on one of the most perimeter-friendly offensive teams in the league. Get her to one of the least-friendly ones and...

Contrast that with Z's .460, shot-creating, playmaking and ability to get to the line. There's no comparison.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

[root_thing]

For all the off-season talk about Rebecca Allen not being able to defend or rebound, going into yesterday's game she had the second best rebounding percentage on the team behind Stokes and the best block percentage in the WNBA. She had 8 blocks to Tina's 6 in less than 30% of the playing time. Small sample size obviously, but if you're going to kill her based on small sample size, then you have to praise her based on small sample size. As far as Laimbeer not trusting Allen on defense, have they defended any better with Bec barely playing? They're now fifth in defensive rating and the trend is downward. NY is the worst club in the league at 3Pt defense, giving up both the most makes (7.1) and the highest percentage (37.4%).

It's hard to improve your performance if you don't get playing time. Allen comes in, misses one shot, and Laimbeer pulls her. Or in a desperation situation, like the end of the Dallas game, he sticks her in there expecting a three on demand. How would you like to play under those circumstances? At this point, I'd like to see the Liberty cut Allen. I hope Bec ends up on a team that knows how to move the ball and create open perimeter shots -- like Connecticut for example. There's no way Allen is going to perform well in this offense where the emphasis is on forcing the ball into the paint, and they don't have a true point guard who can create and then make accurate passes to open shooters. Last year, Allen played with Boyd who could do those things. Prince and Hartley can't and L. Allen is too new. She's just following the team philosophy of looking to the post first.

In so may post-game interviews, yesterday's included, we have to hear about missed defensive assignments or uneven effort or not valuing the basketball. If this stuff happens all the time, maybe the problem is the system. Like maybe your high TO rate is related to your predictable and stagnate offense. Why are your players always picking up their dribble and looking for a place to pass rather than holding their dribble until they do have a place to pass? Could it be because no one is moving or if they're moving it's not toward the ball? And on defense, why are there so many open perimeter shooters? Could it be because NY doubles whenever someone gets near the paint, so there is always an opponent uncovered? It's kind of funny. Yesterday, Stricklen hit 3 or 4 threes early. There was a woman sitting a couple of rows behind me who kept screaming at Zellous to stick with Stricklen even though Shavonte was obviously rotating to help elsewhere. I wanted to scream back, "It's the system, not Zellous!" Or if the systems really are sound, then maybe the problem is the coaching. Players make bad decisions because the coaching staff hasn't taught them how to make good decisions. The mental part is as important as Xs and Os. Instead of the fans constantly haranguing about players stepping up, maybe the coaches need to step up. Maybe Laimbeer and his assistants are the ones who need to make more of an effort.

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You can always do something else.

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

I think it's sort of a mixed bag? Bec HAS dug in physically on D and rebounded when provided with an opportunity. At the same time, the need for Z's creativity has played a part in what we've seen. And her performance has been up to the task. As have some matchup situations of late that have seen Nayo get some time at the 3.

However, we saw repeated breakdowns of the Liberty D leading to open 3 point shots, and that can't happen. While usually teams don't make every wide open shot like CT seemed to last night, the fact is they have been over the last several games. We also know that Stricklen can kill you with standstill jumpers and that you you have to make her put the ball on the floor. We didn't do those things. What I'd want to look at is who might be supposed to rotate and when. And are the doubles happening too deep because of the post position being initiated? These are all things that should be resolved by now, but also what worried me entering the season. It wasn't just Allen's D, it was team-wide. They're overly reliant on Kiah to clean up defensive mistakes and have been for two years. If she's not up to it, then they have to figure out other ways to fix it. Especially now that we don't have Wright and Cash for physicality, leadership and defense.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[Randy]

[Ay Mate]

[Bob Lamm]

[root_thing]

[Bob Lamm]