The Commisioner’s Cup continues.
The Clark-less Fever team is looking really bad, now losing both of their games without her to Washington and Connecticut. Offensively it is just a turnover fest, producing 16 per game, only worse than the Sun team (who still beat them). Oddly enough, their Paint defense has suffered the most, now surrendering 40 PITP per game. Each IND opponent had a Guard/Big duo that dominated them:
– Sykes/Iriafen 37 Pts (30 FGA)
– Mabrey/Charles 44 Pts (33 FGA)
– Sabrina/Jonquel 49 Pts (35 FGA)
– Rhyne/Griner 41 Pts (30 FGA)
Despite how strong Iriafen’s rookie campaign has been, she still has to compete in minutes with the rest of WSH’s incredibly young (and talented) frontcourt – which possesses Shakira Austin and Aaliyah Edwards. These two each had a strong offseason for Unrivaled, with Edwards almost winning the 1v1 tournament. With this duo healthy, Iriafen has yet to see over 25 minutes on the floor.
Citron and Sykes combined for 16 rebounds as The Mystics racked up 41 total. Indiana even tied The Sun in rebounds last game, despite Connecticut being the league’s worst rebounding team. 3 guards are dominating the Top 5 rebounding performances vs IND since Clark went out, which makes sense given their offense has to become more frontcourt dependent.
Fever’s offense has to depend on Kelsey Mitchell for their offense, though she has shot just 25% from the field in these two games (8/31). Most of Mitchell’s actions in the Mystics game came as a PnR Ball Handler or isolation looks, resulting in a lot of jump shots (9). While Mitchell is shifty in isolation, her greatest strength is her speed; Mitchell ended the CON game with 5 straight looks from off ball movement, so hoping that continues.
On the year when Clark is off the floor, it is Natasha Howard that leads the team in usage rate at 29.9%. She paces for 15 shots per 30 minutes, yet her minutes are unreliable given her turnovers and general lack of motivation. Played just 17 minutes against WSH, and The Fever don’t need a ton of size in this matchup.
While Alyssa Thomas remains out, Collier returns for Minnesota. The Lynx pulled out a narrow 3 Point victory over PHX without the two stars just a couple games ago. PHX has been the 2nd best 3PT-limiting defense, which left Alanna Smith and Courtney Williams to dominate the team’s FGA (33 of 69 total).
Despite Collier being in, Alanna is really undervalued at 8.5 Pts on sportsbooks. Last game against Golden State she shot just 1 time for Minnesota (#ally), yet today will be another rare instance where MIN will have better frontcourt size than their opponent. PHX has surrendered the 3rd most RPG in the league, including 38 to LAS in their most recent game.
Prior to AT’s injury, the rebounders that have thrived vs PHX were dominated by PFs:
– Azura 17 Reb
– Reese 15 Reb
– Iriafen 13 Reb
– Ogwumike 8 Reb
Post AT OUT:
– Shepard 10 Reb
– Hamby 10 Reb
Shifts now that they inserted a lower usage big and Satou Sabally is logging more on ball screens. Collier should defend Sabally.
The Wings will be without Bueckers again as she remains in concussion protocol. Bueckers has opened her WNBA career masterfully, as she joins Natasha Cloud as the only two players to be Top 10 in both Assists and AST/TOV ratio. Ty Harris also remains out for Dallas, leaving the team without a bonafide point guard. Dallas Wings w/ Ty Harris on the court:
Net Rating +4.85 | ORTG 101.40 | DRTG 96.55
Dallas Wings w/ Ty Harris off the court
Net Rating -23.65 | ORTG 92.74 | DRTG 116.38
However, Coach Koclanes turned to DiJonai Carrington to take on the facilitation load. Carrington notched 6 assists to Ogunbowale’s 2. Koclanes noted, “First game without Paige so we don’t have a true point guard, had a lot of different people bring the ball up… I mean DiJonai is initiating offense.”
Both Carrington and Ogunbowale notched 0 assists when they first met Seattle for their 2nd game of the season. This is even more shocking given that SEA loved throwing high traps on Bueckers last game, forcing the ball out of her hands, yet she still produced 8 assists. Expect this pressure to extend to Arike today.
Nneka with 18 rebounds in the last meeting, which is the highest regulation mark she has tallied since her rookie season in 2012. While a part of this success was from Magbegor dealing with foul issues in the opening half, she likely benefited the most from Myisha Hines-Allen being in foul trouble as well. Given MHA is so utilized in high action DHO, it typically makes her defenders see a slight dip in rebounding production. Regardless, DAL’s offense has struggled enough to surrender the 2nd most OPP RPG on the season. Bigs vs DAL (>25min):
– Shepard 8
– Ezi 8 / Nneka 18,
– Collier 8
– Griner 8 / Jones 15
– Cardoso 8 / Reese 9