Sun @ Liberty preview - Second verse, same as the first

We were hoping to get a better picture of what the Sun would look like the final preseason game, but instead it looks like Connecticut is going down I-95 to the home of the reigning champs with just 11 healthy players, and that includes Marina Mabrey, who may be limited as she comes back from a calf injury she suffered while with Unrivaled in the winter.


The result, of course, matters little Friday night, but even without Breanna Stewart, the Liberty should make it very tough on this untested and offensively challenged Connecticut team. On the bright side, the battle to make the final roster should be interesting. At least four players that are on the court (assuming the Sun don’t grab someone that another team cuts next week and Amy Okonkwo plays), will not be a member of the squad this time next week and the team prepares for its season opener against Washington.


So what will we see? Hopefully a little more scoring, but from where? Yvonne Anderson could use a better offensive performance to make the final roster and Madison Hayes shot 41.3% from behind the arc last season at NC State. Jacy Sheldon and Lindsay Allen are going to have to give some offense to help out Mabrey and Tina Charles at some point, so it would be nice to see some production against a surely experimental Liberty lineup much of the way. We can hope, at least.


SUN @ NEW YORK LIBERTY


Time: Friday, 7 p.m. EDT


Place: Barclays Center; New York, N.Y. (Brooklyn)


Records: Connecticut 0-1; New York 0-0


TV: WNBA League Pass


Line: New York -13 (it means very little, but that’s a very large and scary number for the preseason)


Absences: Connecticut - Aneesah Morrow (out, undisclosed), Diamond DeShields (out, ankle); Saniya Rivers (out, bereavement); Leila Lacan (out, still in Europe), Amy Okonkwo (questionable, undisclosed); Marina Mabrey (probable, calf). New York - Breanna Stewart (out, knee); Leonie Fiebich (out, still in Europe); Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (out, season ending).


History between them: The teams have played 98 regular season games against each other, with Connecticut actually leading 54-44 overall. Last year, New York won four of five meetings, although the Sun did get the last one at the Barclays Center on Aug. 24.


What to look for: Not to go after the proverbial dead horse, but some semblance of an offense from the Sun. Rachid Meziane has now had another week to put in a little more of his playbook and he should have Mabrey to help, at least in a limited fashion. If she does play, it will definitely be interesting to see how much attention she gets in a preseason game from the opponent. 


On the other end, Seattle was able to get far too many layups, unfortunately for Haley Peters and Robyn Parks, a few of them were at their expense, although Tina Charles also struggled defensively. Even without Fiebich and Stewart, there are going to be matchup issues and we’ll see how Meziane adjusted on that front from last week, with the caveat that the Liberty are defending champions with the best statistical offense in the league, so it won’t be easy.


Key players:  Connecticut: Olivia Nelson-Ododa - Nelson-Ododa only played 12 minutes in the preseason opener, which was a little surprising, but it will be more surprising if she doesn’t get more in this one. How does she matchup with Jonquel Jones? The Sun are at least going to have her hold her own on the defensive end and go from there.


New York: Natasha Cloud - Former Sun legend Cloud (you can become a legend in one week in the offseason, right?) comes into an interesting situation in New York. She was essential to a couple of Mystics teams that went deep into the playoffs (and won one title), but that was before the COVID pandemic and she is now 33. Can she replace Courtney Vandersloot? We shall see.


Advanced stat:  1.07 - Points per possession scored by New York last season, best in the WNBA (Connecticut was fifth at 1.023 ppp).


Tactical spotlight: What do the Sun do with Jonquel Jones with its current roster?


Inside the numbers: 38.8% - Three-point percentage from Jonquel Jones last season, her highest since 2018. We miss you, Jonquel.

Prediction: 86-70 New York (I hope for better, but we’ll see). 

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