***The Official 2025 WNBA Playoffs Thread***

MrDollarBills · Post #61 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:14 pm

F*ck Stewie had to sit. I'm heartbroken right now for her. She's clearly in pain

MrDollarBills · Post #62 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:15 pm

Fiebich was wide open come ON yall

MrDollarBills · Post #63 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:17 pm

Fiebich PLEASE

MrDollarBills · Post #64 » by **MrDollarBills** » Sun Sep 14, 2025 11:20 pm

Good win. That game was a brawl

ellobo · Post #65 » by **ellobo** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 12:45 am

MrDollarBills wrote:Good win. That game was a brawl

I hope Stewie is okay. It appeared to be a non-contact injury, which is always scary.

Post #66 » by **cupcakesnake** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 1:16 pm

I like so much about the Seattle Storm, but all seasons and last night they can be so much less than the sum of their parts.

- A real reluctance to shoot from 3 can leave them in the dust against a team that's aggressive from deep. Las Vegas took 11 more 3s than them, and hit twice as many. Every open 3 Seattle gets, they think about, look for an opportunity to pump and drive, before hoisting up what feels like an obligation.

- Skyler Diggins treats every possession like she and she alone has to get a game winning bucket. All her drives went to nowhere, but she shot (rather than passed) on every single one.

- The team has no interest in involving Ezi Magbegor is any action. Ezi used to be a very functional operating as a passer and finisher on rolls to the rim. Now they barely use her as a screener even. She's just out there waiting for the guards to finish messing around so she can get back on defense.

- This defensive personnel should feel humiliated last night. No team with Gabby, Ezi, Nneka, and Sykes should get beat that bad on the perimeter while also being tortured in the paint. A'ja treated this defense like they were a lottery team.

BlacJacMac · Post #67 » by **BlacJacMac** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 9:27 pm

Read on Twitter

Green Chile · Post #68 » by **Green Chile** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 9:36 pm

cupcakesnake wrote:I like so much about the Seattle Storm, but all seasons and last night they can be so much less than the sum of their parts.

- A real reluctance to shoot from 3 can leave them in the dust against a team that's aggressive from deep. Las Vegas took 11 more 3s than them, and hit twice as many. Every open 3 Seattle gets, they think about, look for an opportunity to pump and drive, before hoisting up what feels like an obligation.

- Skyler Diggins treats every possession like she and she alone has to get a game winning bucket. All her drives went to nowhere, but she shot (rather than passed) on every single one.

- The team has no interest in involving Ezi Magbegor is any action. Ezi used to be a very functional operating as a passer and finisher on rolls to the rim. Now they barely use her as a screener even. She's just out there waiting for the guards to finish messing around so she can get back on defense.

- This defensive personnel should feel humiliated last night. No team with Gabby, Ezi, Nneka, and Sykes should get beat that bad on the perimeter while also being tortured in the paint. A'ja treated this defense like they were a lottery team.

It's perplexing.
I can't imagine Noelle keeps her job. I'm not saying she should be fired. I don't know what's wrong with this team, so I certainly am not qualified to say she's the problem.
It's even more complicated because it sounds like all the players absolutely love her.

But with the under-performance compared to the overall talent, it's hard to imagine she keeps her job.

I love Sykes, but I didn't love the trade just from a team building standpoint (by the time trade happened, it was obvious this team was heading for a quick 1st round exit, at best).

But I'd be curious to see how things had gone if they brought Sykes off the bench, especially coming over so late.

Talking about the 3-point issue. Wheeler was a revelation for the team all year, but she was one of the few Storm players taking a lot of them efficiently. This team could not afford to lose a really good 3 point threat from the starting lineup.

But I don't know. I love the players, but trying to figure this team out makes my head hurt.

Aces had them figured out last night though. I don't if I've ever seen so many steals in the paint. It was everything. They were picking off entry passes, the rare kick out, pocket passes in the paint, it was just nuts.

Green Chile · Post #69 » by **Green Chile** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 9:49 pm

Frankly, at this point, the most important part of all of this is that Dom gets a chance to get her butt whooped by A'a in the Playoffs.

She's had success, and she's got confidence. She's got plenty of intestinal fortitude. Her first few games getting real minutes, it was obvious she wanted to take it right at the league's best and see where she stood.

So, I know a butt whooping won't deter her. It's good for her to see what the mountain top looks like, so she knows what to work towards.

Get Dom some Playoff reps. Come back with her, Ezi, hopefully Gabby, another lottery pick, I'd hope for Nneka too, and maybe a new coach and new philosophy and go from there. Dom in a spot where there is some real court spacing could be lethal.

Green Chile · Post #70 » by **Green Chile** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 10:02 pm

Sorry, I'm in the middle of Storm postmortem.

The KLS injury and Lexie not being good really hurt them too. Horston too, but that didn't hurt the roster/cap situation.
I know, talk to the Fever about injuries, and the Valkyries drummed up about 20 quality WNBA players this season.

KLS's injury meant Seattle started with 10 players to start the year. Then Lexie didn't have it. But she's on a guaranteed contract. Not just this year, but she's one of the very few players in the league actually signed through next year too.

They were supposed to provide some 3-point shooting, but both ended up clogging the roster (good for them, glad they get paid, but I wish teams had more leeway working around the contracts of injured players. with 12 spots, it can make a huge difference).

Noelle doesn't really play her bench, but only really having 9 roster spots didn't help.

Green Chile · Post #71 » by **Green Chile** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 10:07 pm

And of course, the Aces had a lot of similar issues.

A'ja can make up for a lot of roster building problems.

Green Chile · Post #72 » by **Green Chile** » Mon Sep 15, 2025 10:21 pm

And the strength of Chelsea Gray is just ridiculous.

She's a lot stronger than your guards. Switch her on to your bigs? Cool. She's got that.

For MDB's sake, I hope the Liberty get there. But a Lynx-Aces Finals would be pretty damn fun.

BlacJacMac · Post #73 » by **BlacJacMac** » Tue Sep 16, 2025 7:22 pm

Read on Twitter

Green Chile · Post #74 » by **Green Chile** » Tue Sep 16, 2025 11:34 pm

I have a feeling the Fever take Game 2.

AB looked good early in the first game. As they do sometimes, they went away from her, but I don't think they do tonight.

Green Chile · Post #75 » by **Green Chile** » Wed Sep 17, 2025 12:32 am

Don't trust ATL to come back, but that was a big time shot from AG at the half, as she does.

Green Chile · Post #76 » by **Green Chile** » Wed Sep 17, 2025 1:29 am

I'm running out of reasons to say Kelsey isn't 1st Team All WNBA.

jc23 · Post #77 » by **jc23** » Wed Sep 17, 2025 2:37 am

Fever first playoff win since 2015.

Post #78 » by **Doctor MJ** » Wed Sep 17, 2025 3:52 am

Hell of an outing from Malonga. As someone alluded to in here, great opportunity for her to go up against Wilson, and she really made the most of it.

A’ja seems impossible with her combo of length and agility compared to everyone else on the floor…and then Malonga comes in and Aja seemed out Aja-ed.

Wilson of course has a massive arsenal of basketball skills to make her far better at the game, and whether or not Malonga can truly climb that mountain, at least she can see it first hand.

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BlacJacMac · Post #79 » by **BlacJacMac** » Wed Sep 17, 2025 8:55 pm

Looks like Stewie plans to play:

Read on Twitter

Green Chile · Post #80 » by **Green Chile** » Wed Sep 17, 2025 10:02 pm

Doctor MJ wrote:Hell of an outing from Malonga. As someone alluded to in here, great opportunity for her to go up against Wilson, and she really made the most of it.

A’ja seems impossible with her combo of length and agility compared to everyone else on the floor…and then Malonga comes in and Aja seemed out Aja-ed.

Wilson of course has a massive arsenal of basketball skills to make her far better at the game, and whether or not Malonga can truly climb that mountain, at least she can see it first hand.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With so many amazing young players in the league, and coming in the next couple of years, I'm fascinated to know who will be the best in 5-7 years.

I think Dom is a pretty good bet in that race.

In spite of her solid numbers in Game 1, she got her butt whooped. She came back completely unafraid in Game 2, and put in a great game.

I won't put in my expectations of a 19 year old, but with her physical skills and tenacity, there's no limit to her upside.

Sparks have never been known for their brilliance, but they were staring at Dom, Brink, and Rickea on rookie deals and said "nope". This could go down as one of the biggest screw-ups by a franchise across all sports.