Sun rise

Well, I said I was going to write a recap of all 44 games this season, so here we are, but this might be the toughest one of the bunch to try to put any positive spin on, a pretty embarrassing 88-64 loss in Chicago in a game that should have seen at least a little urgency with the season coming to an end. Instead (and injuries played a little part), but we got the same old, same old problems that have plagued the Sun all season long: very little defense in the paint, allowing the Sky to jump out to a 15-point lead by attempting just two (count ‘em, two) three-pointers in the entire first half. Connecticut has never fixed this problem and has some tough offseason choices to make because of it. Marina Mabrey was scoreless and 0-for-8 from the field (and -20 on top of it), and I think it’s safe to say that, for the most part, the Sun have been better off without her this season, the advanced metrics sure say so. And then Rachid Meziane waved an early white flag in the third quarter, throw...

The race to stay out of the basement continues in the 2025 season’s final week, and for the Sun, this might be their last shot at victory with Atlanta twice and Phoenix remaining on the schedule. We hope not, but Connecticut looks like it might be running out of gas with the games coming fast and furious at the end. But we should remember that the first three quarters Monday were not bad, and they in fact led the Dream at the start of the fourth quarter before things fell apart in a hurry. But it’s been a brutal season in Chicago, who are 2-17 in their last 19 games and will probably be happy to call it a year and go home next week. Their remaining schedule is a little more palatable, but Las Vegas twice, Indiana, and New York is no cakewalk and they’ll be big underdogs in all of them. Kamilla Cardoso has put up big numbers against the Sun this season. (AP) The odds of Tyler Marsh being back on the sidelines for Chicago are probably not great at the moment, and I’m not really sure a wi...

Well, we always need to sit down and be humbled at some points in our lives and that has been the last two games for the Connecticut Sun, as they dropped a 93-76 decision to Atlanta Monday afternoon, their second straight fairly lopsided home defeat to one of the top teams in the WNBA. But while many of the games at the beginning of the season were laughers before the third quarter even got going, there was plenty of fight in the Sun, who actually took a 68-67 lead on a Saniya Rivers layup with 9:30 to go, but then got outscored 26-8 the rest of the way. I mentioned in the preview that Atlanta was billed as an offensive juggernaut when the season started, but they have morphed into the second-best defensive team in the WNBA, and that was very evident in the second half, forcing numerous shot clock violations and just not allowing anything easy to an offense that does not normally do well in the half-court anyway (more on that below). It’s abundantly clear that the Sun have improved a...

Sometimes you see things that make no sense in the not-so-imminent future and just ignore them, but when they get closer in the proverbial mirror, they look even more illogical. Thus begins three games in nine days for the Sun against the Atlanta Dream (60% of their remaining schedule), a team they haven’t seen in three months. There might be reasons (maybe?) for such a run out to conclude 2025, but it’s a little disappointing now that it’s here. Instead of the Sun and its rookies getting to test itself against various squads to see how much they’ve improved, it’s going to be all Atlanta, a very talented team that sits just a half-game out of second place. For the rest of the teams fighting that second spot, as much as we love the Sun and they’re playing better, it’s an advantage for the Dream, whose other two contests are both against Los Angeles consecutively later this week. Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray are among the top three  in the WNBA in minutes played this season. (Chris ...

We’ll see what happens in the final five games but Saturday night’s 94-70 rout for Minnesota over Connecticut at Mohegan Sun Arena seemed more about the quality of the Lynx than how poor the Sun played. Not that they played well by any stretch, but the top defense in the WNBA was stifling for most of the night, refusing to give the Sun any decent looks (except off second chances, something that could haunt Minnesota deep in the playoffs), and running off those misses. At the other end, everyone on the Lynx shoots, as the Sun found out in last year’s playoffs (of which the only player on the court for Connecticut from that series is Marina Mabrey although DiJonai Carrington is now on the visiting team). When the Lynx shoots 15-for-28 from beyond the arc and Napheesa Collier is playing, they are a championship team. They might win a title making half as many. The Sun weren’t giving up dozens of layups as they were in the beginning of the season (or at Dallas on Wednesday), but Connectic...

This week supposed to be countdown to extinction for the Connecticut Sun. I (and seemingly most others) thought when the sale of the team looked imminent that surely the Sun would be in Boston by 2026 . Instead, it now looks like Houston (?!?) is the most likely destination for Connecticut, but we’ll get at least one more campaign at Mohegan Sun Arena, and if the ticked off Mohegan Tribe really wants to be stubborn, maybe even a couple more. Before we get to another season of Leila Lacan and the rest of the rookies, the Sun have six games remaining. The good news is four of them are at home. The bad news is their opponents have a combined record of 104-50 as of Saturday morning. That might have been a tough way to say goodbye.  Napheesa Collier and DiJonai Carrington will be teammates at Mohegan Sun Arena Saturday night. (Abbie Parr / AP) But maybe not? Because they haven’t played Minnesota, Atlanta, and Phoenix in months, the only one of the three that has competed against Lacan ...