Storm 79, Sun 65: Frustrating loss, but at least Seattle had to battle for it
However, if you've followed the team all season, you’ve seen a few road games against good teams that have been hideous from the opening tip, and this was most certainly not that. The way the roster was compiled, it was always going to be a struggle offensively (exacerbated, of course, by the absence of Marina Mabrey). But some of the defensive efforts have been particularly frustrating, allowing layup after layup with games turned into laughers before halftime.
Friday was most certainly not that. I once played on a particularly untalented basketball team back in the day, and one thing I remember our coach saying when we were up against it was, “At least let them know we’re here, don’t let them turn the game into a joke.”
We all want to win, and when you have the lead midway through the fourth quarter and it slips away quickly like that, yeah, it’s going to leave you frustrated (we’ll get to the Bria Hartley stuff at the end a little later). But even in the second half when Seattle started to make baskets (and scored 48 points), the Sun still made things somewhat difficult, forcing jumpers and at least not giving up layups on every possession.
Baby steps, sure, and we hope there is a point where that won’t be good enough. For now, though, we’ll take some positives as the Sun head to Los Angeles on Sunday night.
What else did we see Friday night in a game that got pretty feisty at the end?:
Offense will be the next frontier at some point - The Sun led 33-31 at the half, but it was still ugly at the offensive end, with Tina Charles taking 11 shots in the first quarter alone. Saniya Rivers did bury a couple of threes in the second half, which is something that she’s going to need to develop, but Leila Lacan’s outside shots were not close. After Charles, Lacan and Rivers (13 shots each) were the next options offensively, no one else took more than five shots. And that darn turnover monster returned in the second half with 10 of them, Lacan had four as the Sun desperately searched for someone to run the offense. Again, I’m all for rookies Rivers and Lacan (who played 35 and 32 minutes, respectively) playing through it, but it was a tough watch Friday.
Lacan over Sheldon for now - Rachid Meziane has shown what he does one game does not necessarily dictate what he’ll do in the next, and Jacy Sheldon had some foul trouble, but she only had three total, so it was still a bit shocking to see Lacan get 32 minutes only a week after joining the team while Sheldon played just 12 (and somehow didn’t even attempt a field goal). I’ve talked a little about Sheldon being a defensive liability, but Bria Hartley has her troubles with that as well, so we’ll see what Sunday brings.
Another scuffle, unfortunately - Common sense is not so common, unfortunately, and the Sun were involved in another incident at the end of the game that could have been dealt with quickly. Bria Hartley seemed clearly frustrated that the game had gotten away from the Sun and had a reasonably hard foul on Skylar Diggins. The replay showed the foul wasn’t terrible, but with the game decided and emotions running high, the sensible thing for the officials seemed to be to give Hartley a Flagrant 1, Diggins a technical for her reaction, both coaches could pull them from the game, and the clock would run out. But none of that happened, so Hartley committed another hard foul on Gabby Williams (random: they never officially crossed paths at UConn, but Hartley played from 2009-14, while Williams came the next season from 2014-19, with the Huskies winning national titles in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2016). I’m not completely defending Hartley, who was involved with Angel Reese earlier in the year in an incident as well, but you can understand a bit why she was pissed off with how the fourth quarter played out. And Dick Fain - long regarded by WNBA fans as one of the biggest homer announcers in the WNBA - has to be better with his commentary when he’s on national television. Poor Elise Woodward occasionally tries to help him out, but it’s just not professional for a league that needs to be in that regard. For kicks, here's a video of Diggins complimenting Hartley in 2014, so they go way back.
Player of the game: Olivia Nelson-Ododa - Her 10 points and nine rebounds are not going to stand out particularly on the stat sheet, but she has been immense defensively, controlling the paint and even getting out to contest shots on occasion. She got the best of Dominique Malonga when she was in, at least until the fourth quarter, and the advanced metrics show how valuable she has been to the Sun.
Inside the numbers : 5 - Number of fouls for Leila Lacan in the contest. She’s now averaging 4.3 per game in her young career, which would lead the WNBA if she had played enough games. She also had four turnovers, but also finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, so she’s not afraid.
Under the radar: After Tina Charles took 11 shots in the first quarter, Noelle Quinn decided to blitz her every time she got the ball, and the Sun never really adjusted well to that on offense, partly because it’s hard for them to make shots. Charles had three assists, which was three more than she had Wednesday, but also had five turnovers and the Sun (despite Rivers hitting two) finished just 3-for-16 from behind the arc.
Quotable: “I think toward the end, they started to speed us up a little bit. There was a stretch in the fourth quarter where we just weren’t scoring anything, so I think for us, it’s just about finishing strong. We had a great three quarters, and we just came up short in the fourth.” - Saniya Rivers
Next up: Sunday at Los Angeles, 6 p.m. EDT
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