Sun rise

  There’s a little swagger to the Connecticut Sun’s step heading into Sunday afternoon’s game with the Liberty. The Sun, who looked like it might be a while before their first 2025 victory, got one in impressive fashion in Indiana Friday night . Be careful what you wish for, however, at least too much, because next on the slate is the defending champions in their building. New York enters a perfect 6-0, and their starting five has been close to unstoppable in the early season, scoring 1.129 points per possession, comfortably atop the WNBA, despite a tough performance Thursday against Golden State that they eventually pulled out 82-77. The record shows, however, that they played that contest without our old friend (and MVP) Jonquel Jones. The starting five of Natasha Cloud (also ours for a couple of hours), Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Leonie Fiebish, and Jones can all shoot (even if Stewart is just 3-for-20 on the young season), and Sandy Brondello’s five-out offense is all bu...

  It looked for all the world like Friday’s game in Indiana was going to end in the same fashion last week’s near upset against Minnesota . The two games were eerily similar, all the way down to a 16-0 Fever run in the fourth quarter that eventually gave them a 75-74 lead with 3:06 left when Aliyah Boston made a layup. With Rachid Meziane down to his last time out and reluctant to use it, who was going to stop the bleeding? The rookie, Saniya Rivers, of course. Rivers got herself to the free throw line, then hit another massive three-pointer (after Bria Hartley did the same) and the Sun, finally, were in the win column, 85-83, with a pretty big upset at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and I’m sure they didn’t care how they did it. I’m not afraid to eat a little crow now and then, and if you read the preview , I didn’t give the Sun much of a chance. But Marina Mabrey and Tina Charles did what veterans do, lifted the team in its darkest hour and got their confidence up.  But to get to the...

  The great thing about sports is that no matter how badly the last game went, there is always another one, at least until the season ends, of course. And so, the Sun will go again tomorrow night in Indiana, who will be without Caitlin Clark, but it looks like Connecticut might not have Marina Mabrey or Olivia Nelson-Ododa, so that’s a wash, right? I mentioned in Tuesday’s recap, I’m not sure what Mabrey’s future in Connecticut is, as someone who has struggled mightily with being the opponents’ center of attention as has made it clear she would probably rather be with someone else anyway. So with her out, we might get a chance to see more of, well, who? Bria Hartley got 19 minutes Tuesday and looked exhausted and the Sun don’t really have any other available guard options. A lot of Saniya Rivers and Jacy Sheldon, I guess. If ONO can’t go, the frontcourt is pretty thin, too, her most likely replacement for minutes is Kariata Diaby, who has played a total of 37 minutes this season an...

Rachid Meziane continued where he left off Sunday in Tuesday’s postgame after another lopsided loss, this time to previously winless Dallas, 109-87 “Until we understand what we’re capable of doing and not capable of doing, we will play like that,” Meziane said . “I’ve said many times that we have to play as a team, and playing as a team on both sides offensively and defensively … At the end of the day, we didn’t put our heart on the court. We didn’t make the effort to just have a chance to compete.” But, as with many teams near the bottom of the standings in whatever endeavor you follow, it’s a little like plugging holes in the proverbial submarine at the moment for Meziane and the Sun, one day you’re scoring 22 points in the second half at Atlanta, the next night you’re giving up 109 (and getting cooked at 1.31 points per possession) by a winless team at home. Although there’s no respectable head coach that will admit it, at least with 39 games still to go, “compete” and “heart” might...

Somewhere in an alternate universe , the Connecticut Sun started their rebuilding a season earlier, miraculously won the draft lottery and Paige Bueckers is now leading their team (ignore the whole trading their pick thing). Or she stayed in college another year to make some big NIL money and the Sun got the first pick in 2026 (again, ignore the Sky having the pick again). Then Bueckers saved the franchise, they won back-to-back titles in 2029 and 2030, no one ever talked of the Sun moving again, and everyone lived happily after ever. I mean, a person can dream, right? Paige Bueckers hold the Big East championship trophy at Mohegan Sun Arena in March (Jessica Hill/AP) In the real world, Bueckers’ return to Connecticut Tuesday night means Mohegan Sun Arena will be sold out (with a fairly hot resale market) for a pair of 0-4 teams if you needed to know what her appeal is in the state. It’s been a rocky start to her pro career for Bueckers (and former Sun assistant Chris Koclanes), at lea...