Aces 98, Sun 69: Tough to read much from this one

There are games that you can extrapolate plenty from for what will happen going forward (I would argue Sunday’s might have been one of those).

Wednesday’s game was not one of them.


It was going to be a tough ask for the Sun before Brittany Griner was ruled out, and once she was (with Aaliyah Edwards, Leila Lacan, and Nell Angloma also unavailable), it was always going to be ugly. And then Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Reagan Beers - known on the broadcast as undrafted Reagan Beers - were in foul trouble, you have one of the best players of all-time on the other side, and that was it.


That doesn’t mean, of course, that there isn’t plenty to worry about going forward. Kennedy Burke, whom a lot was expected this season as an expensive free agent, has been poor to be generous, invisible if you don’t want to be so kind. Saniya Rivers does not look like the same players she was as a rookie (particularly her jump shot, which has been tough to watch). The point guard situation seems untenable, with Charlisse Leger-Walker and Hailey Van Lith both defensive liabilities.


The Sun have been unable to speed opponents up and force mistakes like they did in the second half of 2025, and they’re just overmatched in a half-court game against a team like Las Vegas, who they have to play again Friday night, probably with the same personnel. Yikes.


You add in the official announcement that the Sun are going to Houston, which we obviously knew already, but it still hurts a couple of hours before tip-off, much more so than it would if the move was to Boston in my opinion, and you have a rotten night.


But no one is going to feel sorry for them. Least of all, Las Vegas, although they could have scored much more than they did at the end.


What else did we learn from the Sun’s 98-69 loss to Las Vegas that was closer than the final score indicated? A little?:




 

  1. Not much Rachid Meziane can do at the moment - Saniya Rivers and Kennedy Burke can’t make a shot, he doesn’t have a real point guard, and his top two post options are out with A’ja Wilson and NaLyssa Smith on the other side. No amount of coaching tactics are going to help with that one. The Aces did have 15 turnovers, although most of them came in the second half, and that’s about the only thing he could try to change the tempo, maybe? But there were so many fouls in the first half, I’m not sure that was possible anyway. 

  2. The Sun need Saniya Rivers - Rivers is now 5-for-25 from the field on the season, and what’s worse, she hasn’t really been effective on the other end, with 0 steals through the first 3 games, and not being able to stop people she gave a lot of trouble to last season. Combined with Kennedy Burke being 7-for-27 (and 2-for-10 from behind the arc) and you’ve got an offensive disaster. Will getting a point guard in Leila Lacan help take the pressure off those two and get them going? Well, we have at least another week until that happens.

  3. Paint woes -  Las Vegas was just 5-for-16 from behind the arc, but that didn’t matter because it was 34-for-56 inside it (60.7%). Needless to say, that’s not sustainable for the Sun and not having Griner and Edwards is an obvious reason, but not keeping their guards out of the paint is another, and if they can’t fix that, things will get worse before they get better.


Player of the game:  Aneesah Morrow - Wasn’t much to choose from, so Morrow gets her second straight here despite shooting 4-for-16 from the field. But she did finish with another double-double, 16 points and 11 rebounds, and has been a big bright spot in a pretty miserable start to the campaign.


Inside the numbers : 5,452 -  Attendance at Mohegan Sun Arena Wednesday, with lots and lots of empty seats. It will be a shame if the Sun go out with paltry crowds, but there might not be a way around it at this point. 


Under the radar: Olivia Nelson-Ododa getting three fouls led to an early appearance from Reagan Beers, who certainly gave her best, but was also certainly overmatched (although she did finish with 7 points, which is pretty impressive for an undrafted rookie). Meziane looked at smaller lineups with Burke playing at the 5 (?!?), and they actually might have looked better for a while that way?


Gianna Kneepkens actually looked reasonably effective in 16 minutes of action, scoring 4 points, but I’m not sure what spot she would take because she’s not a point guard and can’t match up against bigs, but she might be a valuable player that could pick up spot minutes going forward.


Quotable:  “I'm not the one who runs the culture here, the players do." - Becky Hammon


Next up: Friday vs. Las Vegas, 7:30 p.m.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fever @ Sun preview: Shippin' up to Boston, hopefully not permanently yet

Image
There will be a lot going on Tuesday night at TD Garden, between the game being a showcase for the possible future of the Connecticut Sun, Caitlin Clark coming to town, and the first meeting of Indiana and Connecticut since the shenanigans of June 17 that saw Jacy Sheldon, of all people, ejected, and every right-wing website abuzz at the savior, Sophie Cunningham (I still get alerts for such articles a month later, by the way). I will not be there, sadly, although prices have gone down significantly for the cheap seats (about $100 at the moment), I already committed to my summer job for the evening. If anything, the Sun seem slightly less likely to move to Boston in 2026 then they did when I wrote their obituary two months ago on the eve of the regular season. This article shows how much moving the team to Boston for one night involves, but reading between the lines, there seems to be a little reluctance for the Celtics (and Bruins) to share much, at least not yet. The Sun sold out...
Read more

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 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