Wings 109, Sun 87: Defense-less

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 not have as much to do with it as overall talent.

Watching Paige Bueckers in person shows how good she is going to be. Bueckers is very different than Caitlin Clark, much more measured and not as flashy, but she dominated Tuesday’s game, as a rookie, much more than her final stats (21 points, 7 assists) showed. No one on the Sun, and Saniya Rivers tried, could keep Bueckers in front of them, and she largely did whatever she wanted to do.

Bueckers, of course, is likely to only get better. And the Sun don’t have a Paige Bueckers, nor will they in the near future. They also don’t have Dijonai Carrington (who got a nice pregame tribute on the big screen pregame), who was the person who could take a shot at containing the Bueckers of the world.

The Mercury won again last night, but the only saving grace is that the 2026 WNBA draft class does not look overly stellar comparatively at the top, and by 2027, the Sun (unless they do something crazy) will have its full complement of picks and can go after the JuJu Watkinses of the world.

But, man, that’s a long way off. And I hope Meziane and his staff are up to the challenge in front of them, starting with road games at Indiana and New York (gulp) next.

What else did we learn from Paige Bueckers’ return to Connecticut?:

 Play the rookies - At one point, the Sun had a lineup of Robyn Parks, Haley Peters, and Kariata Diaby, which all of them are

great stories and it’s amazing they are back in the WNBA, but Aneesah Morrow played eight minutes, and

yes, she struggled, but you’re losing by 25 and going nowhere at the moment (if she’s hurt in some way, I

apologize). I understand Rayah Marshall is a bit of a project, but Morrow and Saniya Rivers are players

the team hopes to build around at some point, so you might as well see what they can do. They’re bound

to improve with more experience.

Not sure what Marina Mabrey’s future is here - Mabrey was frustrated, exhausted, and even a little bit hurt (she went to the locker room a couple of times for

treatment on what looked to be her back), and that’s a recipe for bad things. And can you see any

improvement on the horizon? Maybe there will be a team that feels sorry for her and will let her get shots,

but Mabrey (who scored 19 points, but turned it over 6 times) does not appear to be cut out for the role she’s

in, and in many ways, it’s not fair to her either. We’ll have to see what the market is for her, but unfortunately,

the more she struggles, the harder it will be to move her.

Hopefully the fans will hang in there -  It was a wonderful atmosphere at Mohegan Sun Arena for Bueckers’ return, but you could feel and hear

a little frustration beginning to mount, and we’ll see what that means for games that don’t involve Bueckers

or Caitlin Clark going forward. The audience not dumb, after all, and a fanbase that has seen a whole lot of

winnings going to be tough to keep dialed in as July turns into August, etc.

Player of the game:  Tina Charles -Charles was outstanding on the offensive end, with 27 points, and looked to try to carry the Sun in the second half,

but it was way too late and they couldn’t get any stops anyway.

Inside the numbers : 0 -  Number of blocks the Sun had Tuesday night. Combining that with having the most fouls in the league is not a great mix.

Under the radar: Jacy Sheldon really did work her butt off trying to defend Arike Ogunbowale, and shut her down until she went off with a trademark Ogunbowale barrage in the third quarter. It didn’t really matter much, though, because Bueckers just used that overplay to get herself or others involved. Sheldon added 7 assists in her best game of the season so far, but it’s tough for her physically against some of the big guards she gets matched up with.

Quotable:  “The challenge is just to be tough. They scored 35 points only on transition action in one-on-one situations. We’re not talking about the ball screens or stuff like that. We’re just talking about effort, containing one-on-one, playing with your heart … It’s not acceptable to let this Dallas team score 109 points at home.” - Rachid Meziane

Next up: Friday at Indiana (who will be without Caitlin Clark), 7 p.m.