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Fire 83, Sun 82: Baffling lineups down the stretch that made little sense from the outside

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The Sun were in a tight game against a shorthanded, but very motivated expansion Portland team Monday night, and you looked up with five minutes left to see a lineup of Charlisse Leger-Walker, Hailey Van Lith, Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow, and Brittany Griner. It seemed (and has seemed) clear that Leger-Walker and Van Lith can’t keep good WNBA point guards in front of them, which isn’t the end all, be all of everything, however it’s made things difficult for Griner, who can’t really hard hedge many pick-and-roll actions at this stage of her career. If you add in the fact that Portland has a young coach in Alex Sarama, who clearly thinks his team’s best chance as an expansion squad is to pressure opponents into mistakes (how the Sun were successful at the end of last season). Leger-Walker had a nightmare against it, turning the ball over a couple times, almost doing it a couple more, and finally just giving up on taking the ball up the court altogether. Van Lith was a little more savvy...
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Aces 101, Sun 94: At least a glimmer of hope

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  It was just a moment, but it will have to sustain us, at least until the Connecticut Sun get back to full strength (if they ever do). Playing without Brittany Griner, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, and Leila Lacan, it looked like the Sun were going to be on the losing end of another name-your-score blowout, trailing 72-59 late in the third quarter with an extremely young lineup that looked lost just two days earlier against the same opponent. But then Nell Angloma - not even 20 and making her WNBA debut - exploded for a bucket, and then Saniya Rivers, who looked miserable to start the season before Friday, found Angloma again for a layup. Charlisse Leger-Walker got a steal and Rivers hesitated before finally shooting a three-pointer and drilling it. Almost immediately, you could see a weight lifted off Rivers’ shoulders as her defensive intensity picked up and she hit another three to make it 72-70, forcing Becky Hammon to call time out. Maybe there was a way for the Sun to win this thing?...
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Aces 98, Sun 69: Tough to read much from this one

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There are games that you can extrapolate plenty from for what will happen going forward (I would argue Sunday’s might have been one of those ). Wednesday’s game was not one of them. It was going to be a tough ask for the Sun before Brittany Griner was ruled out, and once she was (with Aaliyah Edwards, Leila Lacan, and Nell Angloma also unavailable), it was always going to be ugly. And then Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Reagan Beers - known on the broadcast as undrafted Reagan Beers - were in foul trouble, you have one of the best players of all-time on the other side, and that was it. That doesn’t mean, of course, that there isn’t plenty to worry about going forward. Kennedy Burke, whom a lot was expected this season as an expensive free agent, has been poor to be generous, invisible if you don’t want to be so kind. Saniya Rivers does not look like the same players she was as a rookie (particularly her jump shot, which has been tough to watch). The point guard situation seems untenable, with...
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Storm 89, Sun 82: Hopefully not a harbinger of things to come

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We’re going to try to keep it positive as much as we can this season, but will be games this season that the Sun are not supposed to win, like Friday’s opener against the Liberty, and games that they really should have a good chance to prevail, like Sunday against Seattle. Add the fact that Dominique Malonga was limited to just 20 minutes due to foul trouble (and Stefanie Dolson just 21), and everything was set up to grab their first victory of the season before a potentially angry Las Vegas team comes in for a pair of games this week. But it didn’t happen, obviously, the Sun showed flashes (more on Aneesah Morrow later), but had too many turnovers, committed too many fouls, and just didn’t have enough on-the-ball defense to get the job done, even against a Seattle team that seems likely to be near the bottom of the WNBA standings with the Sun. Leila Lacan will solve some of their problems, but the concern is that things can spiral out of control quickly here, and in the final season i...
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Liberty 106, Sun 75: Waiting for Lacan

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Needless to say, I hoped we were past the kind of beatings the Sun took Friday night in Brooklyn, made worse by the fact that Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally (and a couple of others) weren’t even in uniform. Connecticut looked a step slow for most of the first half. Or two. Or four? I guess some of that is to be expected when you have as many new faces on the roster as the Sun did. Leila Lacan, who was the team’s MVP by a pretty wide margin as a rookie in 2025 is still in France, while Aaliyah Edwards is out with a thigh injury. That led Rachid Meziane to put out a starting lineup that never really stood a chance: Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow (at the 2?), Kennedy Burke, Diamond Miller, and Brittany Griner. It was 36-13 and 46-19 before the Sun knew what hit them and it was all over early. There are a lot of things that can be fixed, but the Liberty shooting 16-for-20 on two-point shots in the first half (with Breanna Stewart just taking it to Morrow every chance she could with no ad...
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Sun season preview: Last ride in Uncasville

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One last time. And we’ll teach them how to say goodbye . It sadly looks like Hamilton on Broadway will outlive the Connecticut Sun, who will move to Houston (pending approval by the WNBA Board of Governors) for 2027 and beyond. We knew it was coming for quite some time now, but it still stings to talk about. The Sun are putting on a brave public face, but things like the YouTube channel have already gone silent, word is it's largely a bare bones operation behind the scenes. Head coach Rachid Meziane is among those that might never make it to Houston, as Galatasaray announced he will coach their team next winter. But we’ll have time to mourn when the summer is over, let’s live in the present and get ready for what could be an exciting swan song for the Sun. The chances of a Hollywood ending and going out with their first WNBA title are extremely slim.  Brittany Griner will be a big piece for the Sun in 2026 (courtesy Connecticut Sun) How slim? 500-1 at your neighborhood sportsbook, ...
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Sun 83, Tempo 78: Still smarting from Houston move, but we are back

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You’ve probably noticed the lack of posts on this blog in the preseason, and full disclosure, it’s going to be tough this summer, my life is different than it was at this time last year, and the whole moving to Houston thing has taken a bit of love away from our beloved Connecticut Sun. Hopefully as the season progresses and the regular season starts that will go away a little, but that remains to be seen, I guess. But - although I can’t promise you every game like last season - I’ll still be around and surely pop up at Mohegan Sun Arena at least a few times in the farewell season (don’t make me cry already). A new campaign began, though, Wednesday night in Canada of all places against the expansion Toronto Tempo, and the Sun looked a lot like a team that has never played together before, largely because they hadn’t. There is more room for optimism headed into 2026 than there was last season, despite the loss of Marina Mabrey (if you read this blog last year, you know I think losing he...
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