Aces 85, Sun 59: When will the next Connecticut win come?

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 at some other ignominious WNBA records such as the worst winning percentages of all-time, currently owned by the 2011 Tulsa Shock, who finished 3-31. It’s hard to see the Sun finishing that poorly, but the 2022 Indiana Fever were 5-31, and would it shock anyone if Connecticut finish with five or six wins at this point?


While the Shock eventually moved to Dallas to become the Wings, the Fever - with the greatest chance to get her thanks to that poor 2022 record - drafted Caitlin Clark in 2024 and now will sell out not only every home game this season, but road contest as well.


I guess it’s not great to look too far ahead of ourselves, there are still two games left on this road trip against what appear to be title contenders in Seattle and Minnesota before getting a week off.  


What else did we learn from another offensive struggle in Las Vegas?:




 

  1. Jacy Sheldon needs to shoot the ball  - Obviously, Sheldon isn’t used to trying to search for her own shot and I don’t want to say she’s our only hope with Marina Mabrey out, but she’s hitting on 38.5% from behind the arc and every open shot she’s taking appears like it’s online at least. She finished 2-for-5 from three (and 3-for-8 overall), but took only two shots in the first half, her usage rate of 13.4% is 11th on the Sun (only ahead of Lindsay Allen, who should also be taking command more). It’s probably not ideal to depend on Sheldon, but what choice do they have, because….

  2. I’m not sure when (or if) we’ll see Marina Mabrey again - The official team report says Mabrey is out 2-to-4 weeks, but it’s a knee injury and the Sun are not going to be a playoff team (most likely) That gets us to (about) August 1 and there’s still a decent amount of time to go in the season, but it’s worth keeping an eye on to see how her rehab is going as the weeks progress.

  3. No ONO and Morrow together -  It was good to see Olivia Nelson-Ododa back in the starting lineup, she finished with 12 points and looked much more aggressive on the offensive end. It does seem that Rachid Meziane is reluctant to play ONO, Tina Charles, and Aneesah Morrow together, and that means Morrow played only 12 minutes and had a really rough night offensively, going scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting, having trouble with bigger players in the post. Not sure what the solution here is, but would be nice to see them both get more minutes somehow.


Player of the game:  Saniya Rivers - She had only 10 points and her shooting is becoming more and more of a concern, but the most exciting plays of the night seemed to come from Rivers, who has the ability to get to the basket at least. It will be interesting to see how she develops the rest of this season and in the offseason.


Inside the numbers : 10.5% -  Shooting percentage of the Sun’s bench (2-for-19), with the only two field goals being Allen’s to break that drought to start the game and a Jaelyn Brown bucket. This is why Meziane gave the quote below.


Under the radar: It’s the mark of an inexperienced team that’s struggling, but every time the Sun got some momentum, they let the Aces snatch it away, with the biggest example obviously being after that run to start the third quarter. To be fair, Jackie Young - hitting only 32.4% from behind the arc - hit a pair of threes, one at the shot clock buzzer, to spark things, but it’s been a struggle for Connecticut to keep momentum.


Quotable:  “We have to work our resilience for sure, but we shot 71 times, they shot 70 times, so we had the same chance to win the game. It’s not like we gave up 25 offensive boards. I thought we created good shots, good looks and we missed them.” - Rachid Meziane


Random: Congrats on A’ja Wilson for getting to 5,000 points in her career, and of course, Tina Charles (who was wearing Wilson’s signature sneakers) was one of the first to congratulate her.


Next up: Friday at Seattle, 10 p.m. EDT



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