New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
What you need to know about the Sun’s Game 1 win over Sky
The Connecticut Sun defeated the Chicago Sky for the first time all season.
The No. 3 seeded Sun stole Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals playoff series Sunday in Chicago. Connecticut’s 68-63 win over No. 2 Chicago was its first over the Sky since winning Game 2 of their semifinals series last year.
The Sky, last year’s WNBA champion, defeated the Sun 4-0 during this year’s regular season.
Sunday’s game featured 15 lead changes and nine ties. While the Sky’s Candace Parker dominated at both ends of the court, the Sun’s defense and quick start secured its win to begin the series between two teams that have become rivals.
The teams will meet for Game 2 on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (ESPN 2) in Chicago . Game 3 will be played at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville this Sunday at 1 p.m.
Here are five takeaways from the Sun’s Game 1 win over the Sky:
SUN THROW FIRST PUNCH, STUN SKY
One of Connecticut’s weak points this season has been starting games flat and waiting to catch up to its opponent’s speed.
On Sunday, it was the Sun who threw the first punch.
After Chicago scored the first four points, Connecticut used an 11-0 run to grab the lead and keep the Sky scoreless for over three minutes. The Sun outscored Chicago 19-16 in the first quarter, outscoring the Sky for the first time in any quarter this season. Connecticut led by as many as eight in the first 10 minutes.
“We have not throw the first punch in the other four games and I thought we got on our heels early,” Sun head coach and general manager Curt Miller said. “We were reactive and not proactive, so we came out tonight right or wrong if we made some mistakes, we wanted to be the aggressor. We wanted to throw the first punch. We wanted them to take the first timeout.”
DEFENSIVE IDENTITY ON DISPLAY
The Sun forced six Chicago turnovers and limited not only Courtney Vandersloot to zero assists and zero points in the first half and kept fourtime WNBA 3-point champion Allie Quigley scoreless in the first quarter.
Connecticut produced 20 points off Chicago’s 12 turnovers. Vandersloot didn’t score until the third quarter, while Quigley (seven points) finished 0-of-5 from deep. The Sun outrebounded Chicago 47-36 and held the Sky to a 35.3 field goal percentage for a season-low 63 points.
A defensive rebound from Alyssa Thomas resulted in a fast-break assist to DeWanna Bonner to clinch the five-point win with less than four seconds remaining.
“We hang our head on defense,” Bonner said. “... I think we were scrambling around our defense, we were flying around, covering for each other, talking, letting everybody know we were on helpside. We know
they’re a team that moves, move the ball, they move on the weakside so we’re never standing still and I think just our communication on defense was huge tonight.”
CANDACE PARKER BEING CANDACE PARKER
The seven-time All-Star and twotime MVP proved she’s Chicago’s biggest weapon. Parker finished the game with absurd stat line of 19 points, 18 rebounds, six blocks, five assists and four steals.
The Illinois native came up clutch for the Sky when it needed momentum. She tipped away Sun passes and shots and swatted away block after block. Parker also drained a gametying 3 pointer with 3 minutes and 26 seconds left in the game.
EXPECT ‘MESSY’ GAMES
There were 15 lead changes and nine ties. Neither team shot above 38 percent on field goals nor more than 27 percent from the 3-point line. While the Sun was able to string together a couple runs in the first quarter, neither team was able to lead by more than eight. In the last two and a half minutes, there were three lead changes. The Sun secured the win with 3.8 seconds left thanks to a fast-break layup from Bonner.
“We know who we are. We’re blue collar,” Miller said. “We’re gonna be good around the basket. We’re gonna
rebound. We’re gonna defend our tails off, but we have to make it messy, and we got the game messy tonight which was our advantage.”
THERE’S BEEF: ‘IT’S JUST WHOEVER WANTS IT MORE’
About halfway through the fourth quarter, Kahleah Copper grabbed a defensive rebound from a Courtney Williams’ miss. Williams then jumped on the ball in Coppers’ hands and hung on. Neither player let go of the ball, even when officials called a jump ball, the two still held on. They brought the ball to the ground as they began to argue with each other while holding onto the ball.
Both Williams and Copper were given technical fouls.
The Connecticut-Chicago rivalry has become one of the WNBA’s most competitive since last year’s semifinals. With the Sky sweeping the Sun during this summer’s regular-season, the tension has only increased.
“They’re really hungry, I mean we are too but we could see that tonight,” former UConn women’s basketball and current Chicago forward Azura Stevens said. “They came out with a really really intense energy. They lost to us last year and it wasn’t like they just lost. They were on some crazy streak and then we sorta gut punched them, then we beat them 4-0 this year, so they have extra umph to beat us. …
“It’s just whoever wants it more because they have beef with us from last year. I think that play with Kah (Copper) was great, like that’s the type of series this is gonna be.”