Sun 101, Wings 95: Not going to start nitpicking road wins (maybe a little)

Paige Bueckers was scratched just minutes before tip Wednesday night, depriving us of the much anticipated showdown against Leila Lacan, but it also put the Connecticut Sun in an unfamiliar spot, as a fairly heavy favorite on the road.

It was a patchwork Dallas Wings team at best, but it became clear early that they were a hungry one, racing to a double-digit lead as the Sun defense again parted multiple times for layups.


It was far from their best effort, especially on the defensive end, and they somehow went seven minutes in the fourth quarter without a field goal, but they survived 101-95, and that’s much better than the alternative.


In the process, the Sun have quadrupled their road win total in the last two weeks, and have now hit double digits in 2025 victories, something that seemed darn near impossible when the month of August started. They also scored 100 points for the first time in more than a year, the last being August 16, 2024, ironically (or maybe the Wings are just bad at defense) at Dallas, 109-91, in the first game after last year’s Olympic break.


Those numbers forgive a very uneven performance, which saw Leila Lacan lead the way on both ends of the floor again, as her amazing rookie season continues. 


But some grace is needed, too, despite Dallas missing Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale, among others, the Sun have played a lot of basketball lately, and it’s tough to have the same intensity every time out, something they clearly didn’t have on Wednesday, perhaps especially on defense where Dallas shot more than 50% from the field despite their injuries.


The Sun come back home for a couple of games against top tier opponents (Minnesota and Atlanta), and they’ll certainly need more than Wednesday’s effort to prevail, but prevail they did. And that’s enough to sing in 2025, remember?   


What else did we learn Wednesday as Lacan took over the league lead in steals?:



 

  1. More plaudits for Leila Lacan  - Lacan became the youngest player in WNBA history (by more than a year) to score 20 points, have 6 assists and 4 steals in a game (the next youngest is Caitlin Clark). She is now clearly the best player on a team that’s playing pretty well, .500 basketball this month and has been in every game. Granted, the competition isn’t the best, but her ability to get to the rim and finish combined with her defense mean the sky is the limit at the moment for her as she learns the game. There were a couple of plays (like not fouling up 4 late on a layup) that show her Basketball IQ is also not at rookie level. 

  2. Uneven night for Aneesah Morrow - The boxscore will show a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, but her defense often left a lot to be desired in 1v1 situations. But she did finish with a game-high +18, so it’s hard to say she hurt the Sun that much. You would just like to see it harder to score inside on the Sun in general. 

  3. Would like to see more minutes from Nelson-Ododa and Edwards -  Aaliyah Edwards had a tough night, never really getting into the flow in seven minutes, while Olivia Nelson-Ododa played just 13. I get why Rachid Meziane has some of the rotations he does to try to win games, but you need to play Edwards and Nelson-Ododa to make decisions on them going forward. There are only so many minutes to go around, but they should get some.


Player of the game:  Leila Lacan - I’m sure what else can be said, except what might be most surprising about her season is her ability to get to the rim at will against almost any defender. Her crossover is just so quick and she’s nearly six feet tall (and long), so it’s tough to block her shot in help, even for bigs. It’s just a dimension the Sun didn’t come close to having without her.



Inside the numbers: 93.1% - The Sun shot 27-for-29 at the free throw line Wednesday, which allowed them to score 100 despite getting just four offensive rebounds. The Wings are miserable defensively (especially without Bueckers), but still an impressive feat to get to 100. 


Under the radar: The first quarter was an absolute mess defensively, and it’s not the first time (or the fourth) it’s happened to the Sun this season. One thing going into 2026 is to figure out why it’s so easy to get to the rim against Connecticut, although there was one highlight between quarters that saw Haley Jones dribble past three separate Sun defenders on three separate players to get uncontested layups.


Lacan and Saniya Rivers combined to go 5-for-10 from behind the arc and that will make them very difficult to defend if they can be consistent from there. The Wings were clearly daring them to shoot and they obliged.


Quotable: “Everything starts at the head with the point and Leila has really been the difference as to why we've improved since she put a Sun uniform on.” - Tina Charles


Next up: Saturday vs. Minnesota, 7 p.m. EDT



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