One last challenge
Only the Mystics stand between the Sun and their first championship
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Curt Miller’s first year as head coach of the Connecticut Sun, he took stock of the franchise, committed to developing a core group of players, and circled 2019 as the year when the franchise could realistically set its sights on a WNBA title.
Fast-forward to September 2019, and Miller is exactly where he believed his team could be. After securing the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs, the Sun swept the star-studded Los Angeles Sparks to advance to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2005.
“We love when teams have to play through one person and you can build your defense from there. You can’t do that with them because they have so many people.”
— Sun coach Curt Miller, above, on facing the Washington Mystics
in the WNBA Finals
The Sun are rolling into the series with momentum, swagger, and a chip on their shoulders, feeling that they’ve been overlooked and “disrespeCT[ed]” all season long. But for Miller’s vision to fully come to fruition — and win the franchise’s first-ever WNBA title — the team will have to best the top-ranked Washington Mystics, their historically efficient offense led by league MVP Elena Delle Donne, and the WNBA’s winningest coach in Mike Thibault. Action starts in Washington, D.C. this Sunday at 3 p.m. when the teams face off in Game 1 of a best-of-five series.
Mystics: an offensive juggernaut
That the Mystics — which secured the No. 1 seed and will accordingly host Games 1, 2 and, if necessary, 5 — find themselves in the Finals is not surprising. Washington returned its core from last year’s team, which, playing with an injured Elena Delle Donne, was swept by the Seattle Storm in the 2018 Finals. Now, the 2019 Mystics not only boast a healthy Delle Donne, who earned her second career MVP award last week, but also a balanced offense that has multiple scoring threats.
“They are one of the elite offensive teams I’ve ever seen,” Miller said.
And the stats back it up: In the regular season, the Mystics posted an offensive rating of 113, the highest in league history.
“You start with their spacing and the amount of players that can score for them, and they don’t have to play through one person,” Miller continued. “We love when teams have to play through one person and you can build your defense from there. You can’t do that with them because they have so many people.”
Delle Donne led the team in the regular season with 19.5 points per game, but so far in the playoffs it’s been Emma Meesseman, a forward from Belgium, that’s Washington’s top scorer, averaging 21.3 points in the series on 65 percent shooting from beyond the arc. Not only are Natasha Cloud and LaToya Sanders also capable of scoring, but Kristi Toliver, who is making her way back from a knee injury, most recently dropped 20 in Game 4 of the Aces’ series. The Sun also have yet to face the Mystics’ big lineup of Meesseman, Delle Donne, and LaToya Sanders that adds not just size but stretches the floor. And in addition to having great movement behind the basketball that can make help-side defense difficult, the Mystics typically don’t turn over the ball (they have the lowest turnover percentage in the league).
The Sun, however, are coming off some of their strongest defensive play of the season: Connecticut limited Los Angeles to 66.3 points per game on 39.1 percent shooting and allowed 81.6 points per 100 possessions, significantly lower than the 96.8 rating the Sparks posted during the regular season. Alyssa Thomas played with unmatched defensive ferocity, while Jasmine Thomas and Courtney Williams neutralized L.A.’s typically potent backcourt. And season-long, Jonquel Jones has proven herself to be a dominant rebounder and rim protector, which she will try to take advantage of against an undersized center in Sanders.
The Sun too recognize that, against a team that can stretch the floor and likes to drive and kick the ball out, one-on-one battles will be just as important as team defense.
“We have to be really solid in our one-on-one defense and cancel out their penetration, because once they can do that the game opens up a lot for them,” Jones said. “We’re conscious of that and are going to try to stop that.”
The Sun’s counter-punch: a balanced offensive threat of their own
Don’t be surprised if this series turns into a high-scoring affair: The Sun have a balanced, dynamic offense of their own, as they showcased against L.A. Game 1, Alyssa Thomas carried the load, scoring 13 first-quarter points when Connecticut struggled to settle into the game. In Game 2 it was Jonquel Jones and Courtney Williams who put up big numbers and in Game 3 it was Williams and Jasmine Thomas. Altogether, the Sun ended the series with a 105 offensive rating, up five points from their regular season mark. Even though Shekinna Stricklen had a quiet series, her three-point shooting has proven clutch in momentum-building moments, and the Mystics have no choice but to respect her shot.
“Curt has done a really good job of putting together an offense that fits their players,” Thibault said. “They’ve got their plays when Courtney Williams gets going they run those for her, and they have [Shekinna] Stricklen’s plays and they have JJ [Jonquel Jones]’s plays.”
That balanced attack will make it imperative for the Mystics to not
over-help on drives, Delle Donne said, especially when Alyssa Thomas looks to dish to an open Jonquel Jones down low.
The Mystics’ defense may not stand out on paper as much as their offense does, but Miller says he considers the Mystics’ unit “underrated.” During the regular season, the Mystics’ defense had a rating of 98.1, sixth-best in the league, but most recently the Aces gave Washington some trouble and were able to score at least 90 points in each of the four games. As a team that likes to turn its defense into its offense, the Sun may have to be particularly aggressive on the defensive end given Washington’s low turnover rate, but, if they are successful in that, they would be better positioned to run the floor and take advantage of a Washington defense that struggles when it is not set.
Defensive rebounding is obviously one way for the Sun to get those sorts of possessions, though offensive boards will also be key for Connecticut to secure second chance opportunities — that was one of the main reasons the Sun were able to pull away from the Sparks in Game 2.
The Mystics just faced a top rebounding team in Vegas, but Thibault said the athleticism Connecticut brings to its rebounding, especially from the perimeter and Courtney Williams, brings a different sort of challenge compared to Vegas’ “shove-you-under-thebasket” approach.
One thing about the Finals is certain: The entire series will be a chess match with adjustments and counters between two of the league’s greatest minds, both looking to win their first WNBA title.
“There’s no better challenge than to coach against Mike [Thibault],” Miller said. “He really challenges me, he’s helped me through the years want to get better, need to be better, because they challenge you the entire shock clock.”