WNBA 2019 Finals: Back Spasms Fell Delle Donne As Jones Leads Connecticut to Series 1-1 Tie

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

WASHINGTON – Nightmares on Oak Street would be an appropriate title to apply to Game 2 of the best-of-five WNBA Finals at the Washington Mystics’ Entertainment and Sports Arena Tuesday night here in the Congress Heights neighborhood of the nation’s capital.

A sellout and highly energized crowd of 4200 got hit with a double dose of horror, the first coming 3 minutes and 28 seconds into the action when University of Delaware graduate Elena Delle Donne, the league’s most valuable player, after going up for her first shot motioned to veteran Mystics coach Mike Thibault to bring in a sub for her.

She immediately headed to the locker room with what was announced as another of ongoing back spasms that have in recent seasons plagued her otherwise dominant career and she was unseen the rest of game.

In that span, the second horror of the evening that was an otherwise delight to those supporting the visiting Connecticut Sun was provided by Jonquel Jones, the runnerup to Delle Donne in the MVP voting, who owned the baskets and boards with a league playoffs first-ever performance of 32 points and 18 rebounds to lead the Sun to a 99-87 victory.

The outcome tied things up at 1-1 as the series heads to the Mohegan  Sun Arena at the casino-entertainment complex up north in Uncasville Sunday afternoon at 3:30 on ABC-TV for Game 3.

That will be followed 48 hours later by Game 4 being now the first date the championship can be claimed by whoever emerges on the upside Sunday. 

A fifth game, if necessary, returns here next Thursday at 8 p.m. to decide the whole shebang.

“Big win for us tonight,” said Connecticut coach Curt Miller of his players’ moves to shake off Washington’s 95-86 victory here in last Sunday’s afternoon opener.

Miller alluded to subtle adjustments. “… playing through J.J. and while still putting Courtney (Williams) and Alyssa Thomas in action really allowed us to have a really efficient and productive offensive night.”

Jones, who starred near here in college becoming Atlantic 10 player of the year at George Washington University in 2015 before becoming sixth overall pick in the WNBA draft a year later, also set a finals record with nine offensive rebounds and her 18 overall became second.

The native of the Bahamas had been stymied a bunch on the offensive boards playing the Mystics prior to Tuesday night when she shot 13-for-24 from the field, including 3-of-7 three pointers.

“I think I just got on the offensive glass a lot and that allowed me to get everything else going,” Jones said. “Obviously, my teammates were looking for me, and we talked about getting me the ball more in Game 2, and I just wanted to deliver.”

When Delle Donne left, Connecticut went on to build a 12-point lead at the end of the first quarter and increase it by two more points before the 14 point advantage got cut to 10 at the half.

The Mystics, missing Delle Donne and her 22 points from Sunday, got help elsewhere and in the fourth period extended a second-half rally to a 76-76 tie with 8:14 left in the game.

But then Jones scored on a putback to get the Sun going again and they went on to build a 12-point lead the rest of the way.

Way back when the University of Connecticut was going for its first national title and unbeaten season in 1995, future Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma would often note the nightmares that worried him that could ruin it all.

Apparently, Thibault saw similar demons as Delle Donne, who began to suffer from Lime’s Disease as a college sophomore, was enjoying her most successful season from a standpoint of health.

In recent seasons, back spasms disrupted her when she led the Chicago Sky to the finals and likewise so did a bone bruise in her knee last year when Washington got swept by the Seattle Storm after making the finals for the first time in the program’s history.

Delle Donne finished the regular season several weeks ago joining an exclusive club of NBA players with shooting percentages of more than 50 percent from the field, above 40 on three-point attempts, and more than 90 from the foul line.

“It’s the one nightmare I’ve had for the last month seeing her on her back,” Thibault said.  “I watched that in 2015 when she was in Chicago and it wasn’t a good sight for them, and it wasn’t a good sight for me now.”

If anything, Thibault is now grateful that there is a gap in the finals schedule of four days before the teams tip off again on Sunday.

“When Elena went out, I thought she did a terrific job on Jonquel in Game 1 on the boards, and that went out the door. So we’ve got to do it the hard way.”

Kristi Toliver was the only Washington starter scoring in double figures with 13 points but the Mystics bench poured 52 points paced by Emma Meesseman with 23 points and eight rebounds while Tiana Hawkins came up big with 16 points while Ariel Powers scored 11.

 Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud of Broomall, Pa., in suburban Philadelphia had nine points and four assists.

Though Delle Donne was a major absence, Cloud spoke of the team needing to just persevere.

“It’s obvious you care about her health, but when you’re in the Finals you don’t have time to think about other things besides getting stops and getting scores,” Cloud said. “We’ll all ask her how she’s doing tonight, but during the game we’re focused on winning.”

Courtney Williams with the Sun continued her offensive output scoring 22 while Alyssa Thomas scored 21 and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Miller praised his counterpart on getting the Mystics righted after the Sun prevailed in the half following Delle Donne’s exit.

 “Obviously, you don’t take an MVP out of a lineup and aren’t affected,” he said. 

Thibault has had a major star go down in the finals in the past when he coached Connecticut in the Finals and Lindsay Whalen was hurt.

“We still have our point guards,” he said of the current situation. “What Elena does is takes pressure off of other people because it stresses the defense.”

Both teams are going for their first title with Connecticut having fallen just short in 2004 and 2005 while Washington lost a year ago.