Guru’s WNBA Report: Thomas Return Spurs Connecticut to Join Seattle Within a Win Each to Advance to the Finals

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

The Seattle Storm and Connecticut Sun are one game each away from the WNBA championship series following the second-seeded Storm’s 89-79 victory over the fourth-seeded Minnesota Lynx (14-8) to go up 2-0 in their best-of-five series while the seventh-seeded Sun with their leader Alyssa Thomas back in the lineup shocked the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces 77-68 with a huge fourth quarter 24-12 surge after trailing by three at the start of the period Thursday night to go ahead 2-1 at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., near Tampa/St. Petersburg.

 

The Aces built the lead to seven before the Sun forced a bunch of turnovers on the way to gaining control of the outcome.

 

In the Connecticut win, Thomas, who departed five minutes into Tuesday’s Game 2 loss with a right shoulder injury, played all but two minutes, scoring a game-high 23 points, grabbed 22 rebounds and dealt four assists.

 

“She only knows one way to play,” Sun coach Curt Miller beamed afterwards. “I thought we were going to have to be creative getting her in and out. I just thought that maybe there would be some plays where the physicality would not be what you’re used to, the tenacity that you’re used to would be a shell of that. She only knows one way to play even if she wanted to be smart.

 

“The MRI result was very encouraging, Miller said. “No new structural damage. It didn’t mean she wasn’t in a tremendous amount of pain, and the trauma of the dislocation, the muscles and the soreness.

 

“But she was able to go through the shoot-around today, felt that we had a chance but we needed to see how the rest of the day played out with the late game and how she was going to respond to a very light shoot-around,” he continued.

 

“She got here moving pretty well and you could see she wanted to go, she’s just a warrior. There’s nothing else you can say. She’s as competitive a person as I’ve ever been around and you’re going to have to amputate that arm and shoulder before you can keep her out.

 

“She spearheaded the defense again tonight. Guarded a lot of different people, a lot of different actions, and certainly spearheaded what we needed to have accomplished.

 

“(The pre-game conversation) like many of our conversations, she said, ‘I’m good.’ I said, ‘You’re good? Let’s go.’ That’s all I needed to hear.’

 

Two other Sun players also had double doubles with significant free-agent signee DeWanna Bonner,  formerly with the Phoenix Mercury, having 12 points and 10 rebounds, and former Maryland star Brionna Jones having 15 points and 10 rebounds.

 

Jasmine Thomas, a former Duke standout, who had 31 points in the semifinals opening win, had 10 points and six assists, while Briann January, another key free agent signee, had eight points and four assists.

 

On Las Vegas, A’ja Wilson, the regular season WNBA most valuable player, who had 29 points Tuesday, had 20 and 12 rebounds in this one, while Angel McCoughtry scored 14, and Danielle Robinson scored 11.

 

Connecticut, which had 17 turnovers in the loss Tuesday, committed just four, while the Aces had 15.

 

“Four turnovers in a high-pressure game,” Miller said. “It was so encouraging that they didn’t quit playing. At one point we were 5-of-36 outside the paint. We didn’t hang our heads. We went and continued  to play defense. We went and continued to rebound. This is what happens this time of year.

 

“Defense and rebounding can win you games even when you don’t shoot it well. We were really good in the paint (52-26).”

 

That Seattle, who won their third title in 2018, is in this position is no surprise after the Storm (18-4) led most of the coronavirus-shortened 22-game regular season only to lose to Las Vegas (18-4) on the final day and fall to the second seed, still good enough for a double bye to the semifinals, with the Aces taking the top spot off a 2-0 sweep in their series.

 

Though a year ago the Sun (10-12) extended the Washington Mystics to the fourth quarter of the decisive Game 5 in the championship series in the nation’s capital, a month ago, for that matter even two nights ago, few outside the Connecticut locker room could predict they would now be 40 minutes from a return with a safety valve Game 5 if they don’t prevail Sunday when they meet the Aces at 1 p.m. on ESPN followed by the Seattle game on ABC at 3 p.m.

 

The Seattle series is running one game behind due to last Sunday’s postponement when three Storm players had inconclusive results in the ongoing COVID-19 testing though subsequent tests proved negative and that series opened Tuesday.

 

Connecticut, which is missing Jonquel Jones for this season and had several roster changes over the winter, lost its first five games when the WNBA action began in late July and only beat two teams in the 12-team league – the Chicago Sky and Phoenix one time each – with records of .500 or better though the Sun dominated the rest of the league to qualify for the playoffs off the win over Phoenix on Labor Day.

 

The postseason has been a different matter, however.

 

 The Sun, having to go through two one-game eliminations in the opening rounds, took down sixth-seeded Chicago and stunned the third-seeded Los Angeles Sparks with a tenacious defense and coach Curt Miller afterwards promising his team was going to be a tough out in the semis.

 

He proved prophetic when Connecticut easily handled week-long rested Las Vegas Sunday in the series opener.

 

But on Tuesday night five minutes into the game, Thomas, a former Maryland standout who plays with a torn labrum in each shoulder, suffered a right shoulder injury and was gone the rest of the way though Connecticut managed to play tough until the Aces were able to pull away in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

 

Things did not look promising for Game 3 when Thomas was listed Wednesday as out in the Sun injury report but 24 hours later early in the day she was upgraded to questionable and it went from there.

 

“We just feed off of her. She was demanding that we played harder,” Miller said. “She just continues to defy logic.”

 

January took a key offensive charge late in the fourth quarter that continued the outcome for good in the Sun’s direction.

 

“It’s the semis and we’re just trying to get back to the championship,” Jasmine Thomas said.

 

Of her heroics, Alyssa Thomas said, “Yeah, went down the last game. Took me to get an x-ray. Went and got an MRI. They gave the me the results of the MRI and pretty much left it up to me to see how I was feeling and as soon as I heard that I knew. I knew I’d be out there.

 

“Went through shoot-around. Felt pretty good and knew I was going to play my game and help my team any way that I can. I’m used to it. I wasn’t going to let it stop me. A lot of people counted us out because of our seventh seed. But as you can see we’re playing our best basketball right now.”

 

From the Aces perspective, “Hard fought game on both sides,” coach Bill Laimbeer said. “We took a lead in the fourth quarter and we ran out of gas. We couldn’t make shots. We couldn’t score.  That’s one of the things we need we have to find someone else who can score.

 

“We need someone else to step up and be consistent. They executed when they had to. We turned the ball over. Lot of stuff that wins playoffs games they were able to do and we weren’t. And that’s what the difference was.”

 

Seattle Takes 2-0 Lead on Minnesota

 

The Storm got to the brink of making it to the finals for the second time in three seasons as former Notre Dame standout Jewell Loyd scored 20 points, including making four of Seattle’s 10 connected three-point shots, while former UConn star Breanna Stewart had 17 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, Alysha Clark scored 13, Natasha Howard scored 11, Sue Bird had seven points and five assists, and reserves Sami Whitcomb scored eight points and Mercedes Russell scored seven, respectively.

 

Minnesota’s Damiris Dantas had 23 points, including five of Seattle’s 13-connected three-pointers, while Odyssey Sims scored 18, Napheesa Collier scored 12, and rookie of the year Crystal Dangerfield scored 10.

 

“We had a good run early in the third and then I thought we relaxed when we got a good lead and you just can’t do that,” said Seattle coach Gary Kloppenburg, who is filling in for Dan Hughes, who was advised over COVID precautions not to go to the Florida bubble because of his cancer surgery early last season.

 

“It’s a lesson learned as we move forward,” Kloppenburg said of a lead that almost got extinguished. “You can’t have lapses. You have to put the hammer down. But we got our focus back,. We regrouped, and I thought we did a decent job, defensively, going down the stretch in the fourth quarter. (Minnesota’s) a pretty good shooting team and they present problems defensively.”

 

As for Sunday’s game, “They’re desperate. They don’t want to go home, they’re going to come out with a lot of, lot of energy. We can’t afford to let down.”

 

The Lynx have won four WNBA titles and been to two other finals.

 

Faced with elimination, coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star from South Jersey, said, “What we fully anticipated in this game from Seattle was they would turn up their pressure and they did.

 

“We knew things would be more difficult and our shot selection wasn’t that great in that stretch,” she said of the run that blew the game open. 

 

“They’ve got some real shot makers.”

 

The 21-point lead after the run got cut to three before the Storm regrouped. 

 

“We had a chance to cut it to one possession. We got another crack at this. We got a 40-minute game and we’ve got a mind set we got to win a game. And Sunday will be that game.” 

 

Earlier in the day, the  WNBA trotted out two of its postseason awards, naming Los Angeles veteran Candace Parker, the former Tennessee star, Defensive Player of the Year, and in a close vote by the national media panel, former Rutgers star Betnijah Laney on Atlanta edged Washington’s Myisha Hines-Allen for Most Improved Player.

 

Reporting on the WNBA playoffs in Florida is being done by remote with availabilities on pre-game and post-game interviews through the zoom software.