Dream 79, Sun 55: This level of offense is not sustainable

 You can talk about things like hustle and teamwork and whatever buzzword du jour you want to throw out there this week, but it’s hard to be successful in the game of basketball if you can’t score.

And how the Connecticut Sun were going to score with the roster it was trying to assemble has been the biggest question since the coldest days of winter, and one of the big reasons Marina Mabrey is still on the roster is because they knew the options were going to be limited. 


We also know the Sun are rebuilding and patience is key, but there are 40 games left in the season, and resignation is not something we want ever, let alone with 90% of the campaign left to go. Which is probably why Rachid Meziane was so upset after Sunday’s 79-55 loss in Atlanta (below), against a Dream squad that was missing Jordin Canada, Te-Hina Paopao, and even Brittany Griner, who was rested.


Even without them (and Atlanta is not exactly known as a defensive juggernaut), Connecticut scored a dreadful 0.705 points per possession and just 22 points in the second half. Through four games, the Sun are ahead of only Chicago in offensive efficiency, barely, at 0.855 ppp, and are the worst shooting team in the league. 


Mabrey is shooting just 29.4% from the field and 24% from behind the arc, and the team is just 45.9% from two-point range while playing at the slowest pace in the WNBA.


Is it fixable? I guess we’ll find out together, but let’s not go all surrender cobra on May 25, right, Rachid?


What else did we learn from a tough day in Atlanta?:




 

  1. The Sun’s best lineup is a mystery - It’s hard to see a lineup without Tina Charles and Olivia Nelson-Ododa at the moment, even if Charles was on a massive struggle bus this weekend, shooting just 7-for-26 from the field. She still leads the Sun at 15.7 points per game. Nelson-Ododa is valuable, but has never really been an offense first type of player. Jacy Sheldon and Bria Hartley can shoot the ball, but neither is a true point guard, the pair are a combined 9-for-31 on two-point shots. Hopefully, Lindsay Allen will return soon, but as a non-scoring (for the most part) point guard, she didn’t help too much, either. It seems like it’s worth it to play more of Saniya Rivers and Aneesah Morrow to see what they can do, but we shall see.

  2. Leadership is needed now - Confidence heading into Tuesday’s game against fellow winless team Dallas will be low. But a sold out Mohegan Sun Arena awaits (although a lot of them will be rooting for Paige Bueckers) Tuesday night, and even though it’s another short turnaround, the Sun have to find a way to move on and match the Wings’ intensity.

  3. The defense wasn’t terrible -  Yes, Griner and Paopao were out, but they did hold Allisha Gray to 18 points, Rhyne Howard to 11, and Brionna Jones to just eight. Unfortunately, they were done in by the likes of Maya Caldwell and Nia Coffey, but the defense certainly could have been worse. Maybe the Sun can find players like Caldwell and Coffey.


Player of the game:  Aneesah Morrow - Not a whole lot to choose from, but Morrow pulled down seven rebounds in 11 minutes and looked healthy. The Sun will need her going forward.


Inside the numbers : 52 -  Number of rebounds the Dream had, mostly because the Sun missed 46 shots. So turnovers (9) were not the issue Sunday at least.


Under the radar: Saniya Rivers was the one guarding Allisha Gray for most of the contest, and as with Dijonai Carrington (who happens to be visiting Tuesday) the last couple of seasons, that may become an automatic going forward, starting with Bueckers on Tuesday.


Quotable:  “We don’t have superstar players, we have a team first system. We have to play a different way. Just understand we can’t play like we played, we are a team that has to play almost perfect with our execution.” - Rachid Meziane


Next up: Tuesday vs. Dallas, 7 p.m.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Have the Sun really been officially sold? (and a Liberty @ Sun preview)

Image
Nothing has really changed since Friday, well, at least on the court, so I figured we’d go off the board and off the court for the preview of the second game of a series with the New York Liberty. If you’ve been in a cave or on the town Saturday, multiple reports stated that the sale of the Connecticut Sun to Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca for $325 million is done and the franchise would be moving to Boston in 2027. That seems pretty straightforward, but it is far from it at the moment. Before I start, I want to iterate and reiterate that the most likely scenario for the end of this saga is for the Sun to indeed be in Boston in 2027. Marina Mabrey chases down a ball after battling with Stephanie Talbot Friday (David Butler / Imagn Images) But - and a big but - there are many things that are not adding up as finalized. Let’s start with Pagliuca, who is technically the Celtics minority owner, but not for much longer. The team recently sold for $6.1 billion (yes, with a b) ...
Read more

Sun 94, Liberty 86: It's the hope that kills

Image
It’s the hope that kills you, right? Ted Lasso famously disagreed , of course, and - at least on May 9 - I’m going to go with Ted. Because after Sunday’s game in Seattle, it was hard to find much of anything to be hopeful about the Connecticut Sun with the 2025 regular season careering toward us. The Sun looked disjointed, which was somewhat understandable, but the lack of any direction and/or shooting ability seemed like an ominous harbinger of frustrating summer nights to come. Friday saw the Sun basically run the defending champs out of their own building, scoring 84 points in the first three quarters before emptying the bench for a 94-86 final that was not as close as it appears. We had Marina Mabrey running the offense, talking trash, and arguing with the officials over seemingly mundane calls. Olivia Nelson-Ododa might have been the most active player on the floor, Jacy Sheldon was hitting transition threes in rhythm, Lindsay Allen had seven assists and finished at +17, and Tina ...
Read more

Sun 78, Liberty 62: Peering into the future

Image
If you stared closely enough Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena, you could see into the future. It was the second quarter, and the Sun went with a lineup of Leila Lacan, Saniya Rivers, Marina Mabrey, Aneesah Morrow, and Olivia Nelson-Ododa. And the reigning queens of the WNBA, the New York Liberty, could not score. On a few possessions, they never even got a shot off. Sandy Brondello (see below) would shout out Lacan and Nelson-Ododa by name, and the chances of Mabrey being with the Sun a couple of years down the road (there’s a chance she might be gone this wee k) are probably slim and none, but Jacy Sheldon also had one of her best defensive games of the season, and by 2027, maybe we can throw JuJu Watkins in there, and good freaking luck scoring regularly on that team. It’s also somewhat baffling that the team that can force 23 turnovers and generally wreak complete havoc on New York is the same one that is dead last in defensive efficiency (although the Sun have nearly caught the Sk...
Read more