Sun, Storm facing off for inaugural title What is the Commissioner’s Cup?
The Connecticut Sun and the Seattle Storm will make history Thursday when they compete in the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game, which will also tease the resumption of the WNBA season Sunday after a monthlong break for the Olympics.
Still unsure of what this in-season competition is about? Interested in storylines to watch out for in the matchup? Below is everything you need to know about the game, from how to tune in, to players to keep an eye on and more.
In January 2020, the league’s newly adopted CBA introduced the idea of an in-season competition to promote innovation and fan engagement, which ultimately evolved into the Commissioner’s Cup. In the first half of the WNBA season, there were 60 select, intra-conference “Cup games,” with 10 per team: the first home game and first road game each squad played against its five intra-conference rivals. The Eastern Conference team (the Sun) and Western Conference team
Sun vs. Storm
Thursday, 9 p.m., in Phoenix TV: Amazon Prime Video
(the Storm) atop the standings after those Cup games earned a berth into the Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game, which features a $500,000 prize pool.
The basics
Location: Phoenix
Footprint Center in
At a glance
Date: Thursday at 9 p.m. ET
Tv/streaming: Amazon Prime Video (Lisa Byington, Lisa Leslie)
What’s at stake: Other than glory and a cool-looking trophy, there’s a total prize pool of $500,000. Members of the winning team will take home $30,000 per player (that’s about half the salary for players on rookie-scale contracts), and the runners-up will be awarded $10,000 per player. The game’s MVP will earn an additional $5,000.
How they got here: The Storm sit atop the league and Western Conference standings at 16-5 overall, with the Eastern Conference-leading Connecticut Sun at 14-6. The Sun decisively earned a spot in the Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game with a 9-1 record in Cup games, while the Storm advanced with an 8-2 record.
Key storylines
Tale of two Olympic breaks: The Sun and the Storm will be coming off two entirely different Olympic breaks.
The Sun didn’t have any Olympians, so their players were able to go on vacation and mentally/ physically reset before returning to Connecticut for a de-facto training camp over the last two weeks. Meanwhile, the Storm’s Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd and Sue Bird just got back from Tokyo, as did Australians Ezi Magbegor and Stephanie Talbot. The Olympians not only need to re-integrate into the Storm’s system, but are coming off a brutal stretch of games and travel. Storm coach Noelle Quinn said Monday that Bird, Stewart and Loyd are expected to practice with the team Wednesday and be ready for Thursday.
Previous meetings: The Sun haven’t been at full strength in either regular season matchup against the Storm: In Game 1, Briann January was hurt and coach Curt Miller wasn’t on the sideline while serving a one-game suspension, and Connecticut lost a tight one in overtime, 90-87. Game 2, where Jonquel Jones was overseas competing with Bosnia in Eurobasket, was much less competitive, with Seattle running away with an 89-66 victory. With no more regular season meetings scheduled between the two teams, the Sun are eager to get a win over the defending champs.
Matchup of two MVP candidates: Jones and Stewart are two MVP favorites this season. Though the Sun lost the matchup where both superstars played, Jones had the better individual performance that game with 28 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, three steals, two blocks and defense that limited Stewart to five points after the first quarter.
Scouting report: Both teams rely heavily on their Big Threes: For the Sun, that’s Dewanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones and Brionna Jones. For the Storm, it’s Stewart, Loyd and Bird.
From Miller: “Bird, Stewie and Loyd, they play the most minutes. They take the most shot attempts. There’s an intent to play through them, and then you have other players, [Katie Lou] Samuelson and Talbot shooting tremendously, [Mercedes] Russell and Ezi a great two-headed center monster, and so they complement so well. They have that group then that scores between five-seven points and they are all capable of having huge games, Epiphany [Prince], Jordin [Canada], all that next crew.
“We’re built the same way. We play through Dewanna, JJ and Bri Jones, and there’s got to be an attempt to play through those three. Not enough gets talked about how unselfish and how much Jasmine Thomas and Bri January expend at the defensive end. They’re just unsung heroes. ... It’s interesting that we’re both built with a Big Three, with very good players around those Big Three.”
As far as going up against an Mvp-caliber player in Jonquel Jones, there’s only so much Seattle thinks it can do to stop her.
From Quinn: “Jonquel is a tough matchup because she presents scoring at three different levels. Also, you look at what she does defensively, blocking shots, being long and lengthy. She is an elite player and a player that impacts the game on both sides of the floor. The goal is trying to contain [players like her], trying to get them off their sweet spots, and kind of just hope that that night isn’t their night ... try to limit her strengths, send bodies, show bodies at her, pressure her a little bit more, get her off the 3-point line, defend her without fouling.”
Stat to watch: The Sun, whose defense is their calling card, are 11-1 when holding teams to under 75 points. The Storm, who excel offensively, have only won twice when they’ve scored fewer than 80 points.
“If we can keep them under 80, if we can keep them under 75, I like our record at 11-1. I like the fact that they’ve only won two games when they scored less than 80 points,” Miller said.
Eyes on the prize: Thursday’s game may not mean much in the grand scheme of things (any player would tell you a WNBA Finals title means more than the Commissioner’s Cup), but it’ll be a good way to gain some momentum for the second half of the season. Though the Storm and Sun are part of the top tier of teams this summer, there are several others looking to make late surges with the playoffs right around the corner. After all, no matter who you are or who wins Thursday, everyone has their eyes on peaking at the right time as the crowning of the 2021 WNBA champion nears.