Road trip is going to be key for Sun
The Connecticut Sun had a walk through in preparation for Friday's WNBA game against the Seattle Storm right after traveling almost 12 hours to get there Thursday.
It's a safe bet that the Sun coaches had the players' attention.
Connecticut (and its fans) got a reality check on Wednesday night when the Washington Mystics buried it under a 30-point deficit late in the second quarter.
There were more than a few fans at Mohegan Sun Arena who were gobsmacked watching Washington treat the league-leading Sun like the Hulk treated Loki. The Mystics led at halftime 65-37, the most firsthalf points ever scored against Connecticut.
All those things that the Sun couldn't or wouldn't do until the second half? Sun head coach Curt Miller and his staff had seen all of it during the team's hot start.
“The job of the coaching staff is to try to point out (flaws) through the good (times),” Miller said. “It's harder to point out the things that (players) need to improve on when you're playing well. You'll always have their attention more when they lose.
The Sun play two of the WNBA's best on the road this weekend on back-to-back nights — at Seattle tonight, and the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday.
Connecticut's already rough weekend may get worse as it announced Thursday night that starting forward Alyssa Thomas was doubtful for Friday's game after injuring her right shoulder during Wednesday's 95-91 loss. She's injured both shoulders during her pro career.
A truism of sports (and life) that can be easy to forget when things are going great — everyone gets their butt kicked.
Last Thursday (June 7), for instance, the Los Angeles Sparks hosted Seattle. The Sparks are widely considered the best team in the league.
The Storm decimated Los Angeles, 88-63. And then they returned home and lost to the Atlanta Dream on Sunday, 67-64.
Washington's Elena Delle Donne and Kristi Toliver were sizzling in the first half against the Sun on Wednesday and outscored them, 42-37.
Connecticut didn't help its cause by having an abominable start to its work day. It began the day leading the league in field goal percentage (47), but made just 36.8 percent of its first-half shots.
The Sun still leads the league in rebounding, but were outworked 20-11 in the first half by the Mystics.
“Some of the things that hurt us in the first half are what we've (done wrong) in (previous) games,” Miller said, “but because we had won games, it wasn't always easy to have all the ears and the listening that you need. But the amount of film breakdown that the coaches watch, you could see those things.”
Connecticut has its weaknesses. Willpower is not one of them. It nearly pulled off the biggest comeback in league history as it rallied to take the lead in the fourth quarter.
It led with under a minute left and were tied with 31 seconds remaining before the Mystics closed it out. “(The Mystics) just weren't missing (shots in the first half),” Sun Courtney Williams said, “but it also goes hand-in-hand with us being passive on the defensive end. … Once we turned up our defense, it got our offense going.”
Connecticut had used a huge rally to beat Washington last season, 96-92 (July 8). It trailed by 22 with 4:41 left in the third quarter.
“There's a confidence with this group that I don't question,” Miller said. “A lot of professional teams would've packed it in.”
Williams said, “It just shows our toughness and our mentality of never giving up.”
The Sun will need that toughness and more as they play nine of their next 10 games on the road. It starts against two teams that have something they don't — two players who can single-handedly take over a game.
Seattle's Breanna Stewart (21.4 ppg) and Jewell Loyd (19.4 ppg) are third and seventh in the league, respectively, in scoring. Stewart is also ninth in rebounds (7.5).
Phoenix has two of the most dominant players in women's basketball history — Diana Taurasi (19.5 ppg, 4.4 apg) and Brittney Griner (20.8 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.8 bpg).
“Some of the things that hurt us in the first half are what we’ve (done wrong) in (previous) games, but because we had won games, it wasn’t always easy to have all the ears and the listening that you need.”
CURT MILLER, SUN COACH