2024 WNBA PLAYOFFS Discussion Thread (WNBA Finals: New York Liberty vs Minnesota Lynx; NYL WIN 3-2)

[hermes]

never like to see someone's head bouncing on the hardwood floor

[Sealab2024]

2 bad turnovers by Williams and bad shot selection is gonna sink the lynx here.

[ellobo]

Fiebich, please!

[MrDollarBills]

YES!!!!!!!

[Sealab2024]

Courtney had Phee on the roll wide open and missed it, then turned it over, then the 3. That might be game.

[Green Chile]

bull call

[hermes]

that was probably the dagger

[Sealab2024]

That's game. GGs liberty.

[Green Chile]

Minnesota will not go quietly into that good night.

[Green Chile]

Nevermind. I was a little behind.

[ellobo]

Courtney had Phee on the roll wide open and missed it, then turned it over, then the 3. That might be game.

Phee was open, but ball pressure prevented the entry.

[bisme37]

Such a fun series. Congrats Liberty fans. Game 3 Wednesday.

[Green Chile]

Congrats MDB

[Rich Rane]

Sunday weddings are the worst. Am I a bad person for watching what I could during the ceremony?

[hermes]

Sunday weddings are the worst. Am I a bad person for watching what I could during the ceremony?

as long as you're not in the wedding party, you're fine

[Sealab2024]

1 all and heading back to Minneapolis. Liberty played great today. Lynx cannot keep going down by 15+ in these games. NY isn't that team you can play with.

On to game 3.

[Ito]

Lynx don’t have the talent they got lucky first game it should have been a sweep

[offense]

Lynx don’t have the talent they got lucky first game it should have been a sweep

they are tough till the end, liberty cant afford to coast.

[Doctor MJ]

Courtney had Phee on the roll wide open and missed it, then turned it over, then the 3. That might be game.

Phee was open, but ball pressure prevented the entry.

So, this aspect of the blame gets to the heart of what's so tricky here:

Why didn't Phee get the ball more in general? Good defense, knowing what the Lynx want to do on offense, and making it fraught with turnover risk.

So the way to stop Phee from getting the ball is to leave her open while double teaming her teammate with the ball? Well, no. To me that's a defensive approach - abandon the #1 scoring threat to swarm the on-ball teammate - that's essentially banking on a certain unawareness on the part of the ballhandler. I wouldn't do that to - say - Vandersloot, just to name an example. I also don't think you can expect that unawareness to continue within a playoff matchup no matter who the ballhandler is, so I expect Williams will get savvier about this with the series.

But yeah, it was really frustrating watching Wiliams down the stretch of this game, and the truth is that building your offense around Phee in this way really requires ample teammate skill in passing just as it does in 3-point shooting. If Williams can't get enough better with this in the games to come, the Liberty probably win the series.

[Doctor MJ]

Lynx don’t have the talent they got lucky first game it should have been a sweep

Well, the Liberty had the most talent in the league last year too, but that didn't stop another team from getting the better of the match-up, and with that the chip.

But yes, I'd say that it will be noteworthy if the Lynx win the title because I think both the Liberty and the Aces very clearly have more talent on their rosters. One note we'll talk about also, if this happens, is the Olympic Curse, where the wear & tear of participating in the Olympics, and the negative effect that has on teams with many present Olympians on them.