Breanna Stewart played just 3 minutes against The Sparks on the 2nd night of Liberty’s back-to-back. This was unfortunate timing, as Brondello mentioned pregame that she’d “love to lower Stewie’s minutes. She’s one of the hardest ones. The plan is to lower all their minutes when we move forward and get all our players… our depth, we trust them”.
Stewart is joining the team for their 4 game road trip, yet “the team plans to give her time to fully recover” (x/ Madeline Kenney). Jonquel Jones is currently the key piece that is returning from a month-long ankle injury, yet did get up to 28 minutes against The Sparks. I would assume that Brondello ideally would not have ran her that much in two straight games, yet LA’s offense comes with a lot of size, which will remain true for this upcoming matchup of Dallas.
This is the first meeting between these two, despite being into the 2nd half of the year.
The Wings are 1-7 now with their new lineup that consists of a Yueru/Geiselsoder frontcourt, and have given up the third most OPP PITP in that span at 38.3. The Aces just scored 106 points against Dallas, yet scored 64 of those points from deep or the charity stripe. Dallas has given up the 2nd most OPP FGM (31.6), while playing at the fastest PACE in the league despite the objectively slower lineup. This game should be ultra fast, as The Liberty is the fastest PACE in the L30 days.
Expecting a very similar game as NYL v LAS, which was also two Top 3 PACE squads. LA just secured 37 rebounds along with 24 assists, as NYL has been a consistently poor RA unit. POAs and bigs have all thrived:
– Plum 12 RA | Allemand 16 RA | Azura/Hamby 10+ Reb
– Alyssa Thomas 21 RA | Satou 8 RA (22min)
– Boston 18 RA | McDonald 10 RA
– Gray 11 RA | Canada 14 RA
The Liberty as a team average the fewest OREB per game at just 7 per one, so whoever is expected to lead sets and crash rebounds generally can get them uncontested. DiJonai Carrington is a good candidate, and finally saw 30 minutes after she was out for over a month due to a rib contusion. With over 22 minutes, she has notched 6.8 RPG since the start of June.
McCowan notched 10 rebounds in the third quarter alone, notching her first double-double of the season. By this point last season, she had already notched 7 double-doubles. I doubt that this alone will earn her more run, as the last time she played big minutes was against PHX (9pt-10r, 22min), to which the next three games were all single digit minutes.
Sabrina Ionescu will be hounded defensively by JJ Quinerly, who isn’t a pure lockdown defender but certainly qualifies as a pest. With DiJonai Carrington in the mix as well, I would expect a lot of traps on Ionescu with The Liberty depleted.
Tina Charles last season didn’t even play a back-to-back, and the only one she did this year was just 15 minutes of action (in a close game against PHX as well). She produced just 2 points and 7 PRA in these minutes. She also was questionable yesterday against The Valks due to an illness, which could be pestering today.
However, if a minutes restriction is not in store for Charles, she has killed this Seattle team twice this season with back to back 20 point double-doubles. Subsequently, she should definitely be in store to face doubles today, yet that won’t keep her off the glass. SEA currently notches the fewest OREB in the league as a team, thus surrendering the most OPP RPG in their L10 games (39).
I am actually expecting Mabrey to sit out this game due to how long she was out with the hyperextended knee injury.
Despite The Valkyries only managing 64 points against Connecticut, it was more of a testimate to their complete depleted roster rather than any defensive improvements to The Sun’s defense. Morrow did draw the start over Nelson-Ododa last game.
Gabby Williams has notched a 20.3% usage in the first half in their L5 games, falling to 15% in the 2nd. This notably includes the last game vs WSH, where she had a 22% in the first half, then a literal 0% in 7 minutes of the 2nd due to poor shooting. It makes 1H stronger because she won’t test her shot in the second unless a quality first comes. She has notched 5, 1 and 4 FTM in the three games vs CON (100%) and 11/L15 games.
Gabby joined the rest of the Storm facilitating trio with 12 potentials per game vs CON. Wheeler had 11.5 as well, while Diggins averaged 11. Wheeler has played 15.3 MPG vs CON in their L2, along with 13+ in (at least) 5 straight games. 29/30 players to notch 13+ 1H minutes vs CON in their L10 games has also had at least 10 1H FS, no matter their usage.
Until that changes, I have no reason to not take any player at this mark. CON remains ranking B3 in DRTG, OPP 3PA, OPP FTM, OPP APG