Sun rise

If you thought it was hard watching Sunday night, imagine how the Connecticut Sun players felt while enduring their ninth straight loss, this one 102-63 in a game that probably wasn’t that close. Yes, they are professional athletes and you can try to call them out for not doing better, but without their top scorer (Marina Mabrey) and playing their eighth game in 14 days against what I consider to be the favorite to win the WNBA title. Then it’s 49 to freaking 17 late in the second quarter and Tina Charles is trying her best to rally the troops, but they can read the scoreboard and confidence is about -50 right now, especially with a flight home and a week off after the game. There will be plenty of time (and space here most likely) coming about what the Sun got wrong this season, or maybe if it was a necessary step to rebuild and try to build again starting in 2027. And there is plenty of room for improvement for a lot of people, including the coaching staff who seemed pretty lost for ...

With all the injuries in the WNBA, there’s been a lot of talk about the schedule , and if you’re reading this, you probably understand, Sunday will be the Sun’s eighth game in 14 days, and while they haven’t played considerably worse at the end of these stretches, it certainly wore Marina Mabrey down and might have contributed to her picking up a knee injury. She’s not alone, obviously the biggest stars the league has to offer: Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers, Jonquel Jones, Kelsey Plum, and Napheesa Collier - whom Connecticut will play Sunday - have been out for varying periods of time and the regular season is only a third through. You’d surmise that would send up red flags to the league front office, but of course, higher above them on the hierarchy are the people that write the big checks, namely the television partners The MNBA has the same problem trying to squeeze 82 games into a regular season, obviously their contracts tend to be a lot bigger, however, it doesn’t stop the “shut ...

It didn’t seem like the Sun played a bad first half Friday in Seattle, they were doing some good things offensively, had a couple of steals they turned into points, but then you look up, and they’re still down 14 at the break. And that was with the Storm - who came in as the best three-point shooting team in the league - at just 3-for-16. Welp. As I’m sure you know if you’re reading this, the poor shooting for Seattle didn’t last, and it didn’t get any better from there as Connecticut was blown out again by the Storm, 97-81, in a game that wasn’t nearly that close, setting a franchise record for consecutive losses, a streak that does not look like it’s going to end anytime soon, especially with a game at Minnesota on the horizon. What’s perhaps most frustrating is that it seems to be different things almost every night, although the offense has been consistently poor all season. And as I wrote in the preview, Seattle might be a sneaky title contender, so it’s probably unrealistic to ex...

Seattle is a sneaky under the radar pick to win the WNBA title, but the question is how sneaky. The advanced metrics show them right in the mix after New York and Minnesota with teams Atlanta, Phoenix, and (yes) Indiana.  Storm rookie Dominique Malonga (courtesy ESPN) But the Storm are slightly different than the rest because they lack a true star, in fact, the one star they had - Jewell Loyd - they traded under not so great circumstances that involved allegations of harassment that carried into this season when Loyd played against Seattle for the first time, kind of a sad ending for someone who won two titles there and was a six-time All-Star. Seattle went out and drafted Dominique Malonga with the pick they got from trading Loyd, then grabbed Erica Wheeler and Alysha Clark and have regrouped accordingly. Interestingly, it hasn’t been on the defensive end, which is significantly weaker than 2024 so far. Seattle is third in the WNBA in shooting (effective FG%), and is just behind t...

It’s a never a good sign when you have to start looking up things like “fewest points in an WNBA game” in the first quarter. The answer was 34 by the 2001 Washington Mystics against the Cleveland Rockers (interestingly, the lowest four point totals in WNBA history all happened in 2001). Finally, 8:02 into the contest and after Las Vegas had 19 points of its own, Lindsay Allen of all people got the Sun on the board. Things actually got a lot better from there, Connecticut scored 23 points in the second quarter and somehow was within four points when Jacy Sheldon hit a three-pointer and Saniya Rivers picked up a steal and layup to start the second half. But - as it’s been many times this season - the positivity was short-lived. The Aces, after a stern talking to by Becky Hammon, led by 22 after three quarters and the final was a lopsided 85-59 in a game that it’s hard to say Las Vegas was as its best (although it did shoot decently from three-point range). So we’re left to begin to look ...

Not going to lie, I was a little jealous watching Dallas and Chicago pick up big home wins Tuesday night, sparked by a lot of energy and confidence. The Wings - brutal statistically on defense - completely shut down Atlanta, while the Sky - who have had all kinds of trouble scoring, especially without Courtney Vandersloot - dug out of a big hole and ran past Los Angeles convincingly . Those types of days are coming for the Sun, right? Right? To be fair, we did have two of those games this season, even though they seem like decades ago with how the last few have gone. And, as we said after Golden State (or even before ), none of the teams on this west coast trip are going to feel sorry for Connecticut’s plight, least of all Las Vegas, who has struggled mightily for much of 2025, just 6-7 and the analytics back that up, with the Aces just ninth in overall net rating (just ahead of Dallas, of all teams, in 10th). Marina Mabrey on crutches Sunday, June 22 (Eakin Howard) And Las Vegas appe...