RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Shades]

It’s not who starts. It’s who finishes. Might as well keep Han Xu humble while you can.


I wouldn’t be predicting the demise of the Aces just yet. They’ve played a lot of games the past couple of weeks and ran into a hot-shooting Liberty club. I still feel they’ll be the team to beat when everything shakes out.

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Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned

[Rock Hard]

[canadaball]

[tfan]

Han Xu is looking more and more mobile and skilled. Her Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is 23.6, the highest on the Liberty.

Xu 23.6. (6th in league)
Ionescu 20.2 (15th in league)
Howard 15.3
Johannes 14.7
Dolson 13.0


https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/teams/NYL/2022.html

[snlMINAJ]

i don't know a lot about aces, but maybe lets start stokes or plaisance and bring hamby back off the bench?
don't need to start the only 5 offensive threats on the team.

[ChiSky54]

Patience with newer players coming into a (possibly new) system and/or recovering from injuries, and having coaches who know how to tweak the chemistry, goes a long way! Not convinced about Brondello here, but I figured Johannes would be a spark, Han would get the hang of things, and Ionescu would pull it together!

Dang - that looks like an All Star game score!

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There is nothing new under the sun.

[RavenDog]

Don't recall seeing a shootout like this game before in the W. It must be a record score for a regulation game, in many aspects.

A'ja has grown into a three-point shooter and charging bull. Stokes is shooting threes and actually running and sprinting at times. Thought she was an imposter when I first saw her do these things. Johannes has shown to have Arike range and Han Shu is developing into a super star. Just love her game!
Last night they were the real Liberty Torches.

For the first time in over a decade, I can again enjoy and root for the NYL without an anxiety attack.

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

Wow. I really didn’t know what to expect coming into the game. You can see Vegas is clearly a fatigued team. So the Libs essentially got them at the right time. Teams that have contained Sabrina to some extent have done so with a combination of physical ball denial and/or that hard hedging or trapping. Vegas just couldn’t do either. For them the break is clearly arriving at the right time.

Combine that with NY being sharp and energetic establishing their offense and it was a pretty good recipe. Sabrina is now at 17 points, 7.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists, which are just unreal WNBA numbers.

From a matchup standpoint the Libs miss Laney. On a team that has two clear playmakers in Sabrina and MJ, I’m wondering how Laney’s playmaking will fit in when she returns. But if you try to be physical with Sabrina and MJ, Laney is a nice alternate matchup to go to.

Hopefully the Libs continue to play well through this challenging stretch. The last eight games are all against teams they are close to in the standings.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[TotalCardinalMove]

Beating a short-handed PHX team 3 times shouldn’t have been enough to claim the Aces were the best team anyways. Vegas is actually pretty fortunate to not have an additional loss to Minnesota as well as a couple to Dallas.

I still think they have trouble guarding the 3 pt line at times and that has really been an issue for them since the Bubble season. Outside of that, the defense just isn’t as good in general for whatever reason. Then the bench unit just isn’t good enough. Carrying that many players that ultimately don’t play hardly ever works out in the long run.

[FrozenLVFan]

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

I’ve seen LV a few times so it’s not like I’m an every game observer. But I did mention early in the season that their pace of play is really high for a team that plays all its starters at least 29.5 minutes per game. While this pace has enabled Young and Plum in particular to show off their skills, it’s difficult to play this way and play consistent defense too.

LV has a lot of players in the all-star game so they’re not going to get that much of a break even though the all-star game isn’t so taxing. But whatever break from the regular season grind should rejuvenate them a little bit. I’d expect a very different Vegas team in Brooklyn for those two games after the break.

Though looking at the remainder of LV’s schedule, they have a break between 7/23 and 7/29 but they have two sets of games that are really congested. And a lot of travel.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[ChasingRatDogmaSalade]

[Iluvacc]

Has any time fallen further in season like the Aces has? They have gone from surefire title team to this!