Lucky, good, and consistent: Sun shift to playoffs
UNCASVILLE — Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good.
But what about being lucky and good?
The way Curt Miller sees it, the Connecticut Sun have been a mixture of both. Miller says so without hesitation because the roster he assembled has proven to be not just talented, but also ultradurable.
By virtue of their 2311 record, the Sun earned the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs, which comes with a doublebye into the semifinals. As they await their opponent, they have the distinction of being the only team in the league to use the same starting lineup all season: Jasmine Thomas, Courtney Williams, Shekinna Stricklen, Alyssa Thomas and Jonquel Jones.
“That’s how coach set this team up, for us to be able to play this long with each other,” Williams said Thursday from the team’s practice facility at Mohegan Tribe Community Center. “Now, it’s all coming to light.”
With that said, bestlaid plans don’t always pan out. Several highprofile injuries around the league this season demonstrated how expectations can change on a dime. In that regard, the Sun — who boast the youngest roster in the league at 24.2 years — consider themselves fortunate.
They’ve been able to handle pretty much everything Miller has thrown at them so far. Their 23 wins are the most since 2012, which also happens to be the last time the franchise won a playoff game. They’ll look to change that when their bestoffive series tips off Tuesday (6:30 p.m.) at Mohegan Sun Arena against the highest remaining seed.
“I think a little bit of luck certainly plays a part of that,” Miller said, regarding the consistency of his lineup. “I think that one of the things that we do as a franchise is really talk about the new term around pro sports — load management. We talk about rest and recovery, and we really work with these athletes about how beat up they are when they come from overseas, and the wear and tear on their bodies.”
The Sun aren’t doing anything drastically different from most teams. The reality is, they’ve just been more consistent in their results.
“It’s a balancing act,” Miller said. “It’s sometimes you sacrifice, and you worry about slippage and you
worry about losing some crispness and sharpness because you’re worried about load management. You’re worried about rest and recovery, but we’re trying to balance that out.”
All five starters are averaging between 23.7 and 30.2 minutes per game. Altogether, they’ve accounted for 73 percent of the team’s
scoring.
“We’ve been together for so long, so we know each other really well and our personalities,” said Alyssa Thomas, who was one of the team’s two allstars, along with Jones. “We really care about each other, and we all have the same goals, and that’s to bring a championship to Connecticut.”
Attempts have often proven to be futile. The Sun lost a second round, one
anddone playoff game to the Phoenix Mercury in 2017, and then again in 2018. Their goal this year was to avoid the same winorgohome scenario.
“It sucks to only play one game,” Alyssa Thomas added. “With one game, if you’re not on that night then your season’s over.”
The Sun know that feeling all too well.