Guru’s WNBA Report: Stewart and Bird Key Seattle 2-0 Finals Series Lead on Las Vegas

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

The Seattle Storm are just one win away from a 3-0 sweep for a second WNBA title in the last three seasons and a record-tying fourth overall after beating the Las Vegas Aces 104-91 in Game 2 of the best-of-five championship series Sunday afternoon at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., near Tampa/St. Petersburg.

 

Both teams finished the corona virus-shortened 22-game regular season 18-4 tied atop the league but the Aces’ win over the Storm on the final day completing a 2-0 series sweep earned Las Vegas the top seed, though both teams got hold of double byes into the semifinals.

 

Once there, Seattle swept the fourth-seeded Minnesota Lynx 3-0 while the Aces were extended deep into Game 5 by the seventh seeded Connecticut Sun (10-12) three points short of forcing overtime and another point under from what would have been a return to the finals for the second straight season.

 

While it took a bit of work off the first two for Seattle to gain domination in Game 3 in the series with Minnesota (14-8), so far the Storm has a grip on broom handles for another sweep unless the Aces can stay alive in Game 3 Tuesday (7 p.m., ESPN) and potentially keep going to gain an all-time comeback since the five-game configuration in the title round was introduced in the last decade.

 

Once again the University of Connecticut duo of past and deep past NCAA champions led the way with the younger of the two, Breanna Stewart, who had 37 points in Friday night’s opener, scoring 22 in this one, connecting on 5-of-8 three-pointers along the way, while ageless Sue Bird, who set a playoffs record Friday with 16 assists, scoring 16 in this one, making 4-of-7 threes, while dealing 10 assists.

 

“I think we’re continuing to take what the defense gives us,” Stewart said of the Huskies alumna combo. 

 

But it didn’t stop there in another game of hot shooting by Seattle (40-for-70 57%) from the field as Alysha Clark and Natasha Howard each scored 21 points, and reserve Jordin Canada scored 10 points.

 

“To be honest, I think that our performance was better than it was in Game 1,” Stewart said of the entire team. “Just as far as having a balanced approach. Our mentality is to just to kind of keeping our foot on the gas, knowing that especially in a series like this, a team, if you give them any chance to come back, then they will. 

 

“We want to continue to kind of do what we need to do, just really have a complete game and really, like I said, leave  it all out there on the court. This is a time when we want to play our best basketball. I think we are doing that.”

 

Both Stewart and Bird missed last season with injuries, depriving Seattle of a chance to defend the 2018 title, thus enabling the Washington Mystics to gain their first in a five-game series pulling ahead of Connecticut in Game 5 at home in the nation’s capital.

 

Seattle coach Gary Kloppenburg, normally an assistant, but filling in for Dan Hughes, said Sunday the performances of Bird and Stewart in the first two games is a result of the motivation to regain the crown this summer.

 

“I just think they were so single-minded in their rehab and wanting to get back and I just really think they want it so badly and it’s displayed in their game, and just unbelievable ” Kloppenburg said.

 

“I mean Sue, 16 and 10, shot the ball really well, we knew she was going to get some shots and that was coming. Stewie, just 22 points and shot the ball from three, those guys are just such clutch pressure players, but I’m glad they’re on our side.”

Hughes was advised to stay away from the WNBA bubble when the teams assembled in Florida in early July for the delayed start several weeks later because of his cancer surgery at the front end of last season when Kloppenburg also stepped in to run the show.

Of course all this is precaution over the Covid-19.

 Last week, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert noted in her annual state of the league teleconference the 12 teams had zero positive results in ongoing testing though Seattle was forced to be postponed in a delay start of its semifinals due to three players producing inconclusive results off a test though subsequent results were negative and the Storm and Minnesota opened two days later.

 

Sunday’s game flow was a mirror of Game 1, while this time, by quarters, Seattle jumped to a 31-24 lead into the second period in which the Aces were one better 18-17 but trailed at the half, 48-42.

 

Seattle outscored Las Vegas each of the next two, 27-26, and another strong fourth, 29-23, but another strong Aces run cut an 18-point deficit to within three in the third before the Storm went on to lock the doors.

 

Second chance points to the advantage of 21-12 for the Aces was helpful for keeping them competitive.

 

“This is a very good team we are playing or they wouldn’t be here,” Kloppenburg said. “I thought we stayed focused, came back down and got really good shots and we were putting the ball down, driving, and kicking and I thought our execution offensively was really good tonight.

 

“Only 10 turnovers and we forced 16, so that’s good. 

“The other thing we really wanted to do was play defense, without fouling and that’s — you know with them just taking five free throws, that’s tremendous. They are usually — they are the lead in the league at getting to the line and I thought we really did a good job there.”

 

Rather than just Bird, this time the Storm set the assists team record in a finals game.

 

“All year long we have been a high assist team,” Kloppenburg said. “It’s just the way we play and move the ball. We felt like tonight we really put together a 40-minute game.”

 

On Las Vegas, South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson, the regular season MVP, had 20 points, while Angel McCoughtry and reserve Emma Cannon each scored 17 points, and Kayla McBride scored 14, while Danielle Robinson dealt 10 assists.

 

“Again, we’re our own worst enemy, sometimes,” said Las Vegas coach Bill Laimbeer, who won three WNBA titles with the former Detroit Shock, now the Dallas Wings via Tulsa in between. He also coached the New York Liberty.

 

“Our turnovers tonight really hurt us badly. They’re a very fine basketball team and you can’t make those blunders against them.

 

“But make no mistake, we had no favors from the referees today. They go to the free throw line more than us and they’re jump shot shooters? Please. That makes no sense.

 

“So that was a big part of this basketball game, also. It’s not the whole story, but just a part of it, and so was our turnovers. We missed (Dearica) Hamby tonight,” he said of the WNBA Sixth Player honoree who was injured in the last round. “But it is what it is. We are who we are and we have what we have.

 

“You have to win one game before you can win three, and that’s that’s our task, win the next game and then make it a series.”

All-League Honorees

 

Earlier in the day, the WNBA announced the last of the postseason awards voted by a national media panel — this one the two all-league team selections.

 

The first team consisted of Las Vegas’ Wilson and Seattle’s Stewart, as first team forwards, plus Los Angeles center Candace Parker, and guards Courtney Vandersloot on the Chicago Sky and Arike Ogunbowale on the Dallas Wings. 

 

The second team forwards were Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner and Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, with Washington’s Myisha Hines-Allen at center, with the guard spots filled by the Phoenix Mercury’s Dianna Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith.