After a slow start in the first half, the Sun were able to surge past the Minnesota Lynx with a monster second half to win, 92-82, and force a Game 5. But they have adjustments to make before they hope to make their one last push to the Finals.
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Last game, the Sun didn’t feel prepared and head coach Stephanie White talked about how they got outcoached and outplayed postgame. Going into Sunday’s game, Connecticut felt much more prepared as a team.
“Shout out to our coaches,” Bonner told reporters postgame. “They came in and gave us a great game plan, because we felt like we wasn’t giving our best the first, what, three games, and we had to come up with something different. And so that’s what we did. And we got to challenge ourselves. There was nothing to be said after we lost, we kind of sat there in silence. It’s not over so we got 40 minutes or it’s done.
“So [we] just kind of challenged ourself, and took a deep breath and relaxed because the playoffs are high intensity, and you gotta breathe a little bit, because you can really overdo it and over complicate things on your own.”
Ty Harris is back
Connecticut Sun guard Ty Harris underwent a right ankle injury only minutes into their first playoff game in the first round against the Indiana Fever.
But you’d never know about that injury if you just based your takeaways off of her performance in tonight’s game, scoring 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
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After the initial injury, Harris missed the rest of the first round and Game 1 of the semifinals against the Lynx. Harris returned in Game 2, but only only seven minutes, ending up with zero points and just one shot attempt. In Game 3 she played even less, clocking just six minutes in the game and going 0-for-1 on the floor.
White said she sat down with her coaching staff all day yesterday and weighed the options for their starting lineup. While a decision didn’t come easy — White said it took until nearly midnight — they decided to put Harris back into the starting lineup on Sunday.
“It’s never easy, like you just kick around a lot of different ideas,” White told reporters. “But I felt like with Ty, specifically, we knew we needed to get her more minutes. It’s not easy to be in a position coming back from injury, coming off the bench, where you’re cold, right? And then you got to get started again. So it wasn’t really giving her the best opportunity for success. I told her at shootaround [that she would be starting]. I was hoping that just coming after warm up, she would still be warm, she would still be able to move.”
“But more than anything, it’s just getting confidence. And I think you saw it from the beginning. She made some plays defensively, made some plays offensively, and got some confidence. And once you get that and your adrenaline gets going, she was fine.”
When Harris is on the floor, she gives the Sun an advantage that they haven’t really been able to utilize since before her injury due to limited minutes.
“First of all, her ability to space the floor and shoot it. She gives us another floor spacer, which opens things up for AT [Alyssa Thomas] to attack, opens things up for Breezy [Brionna Jones] when she’s on the floor on the block, it certainly makes DB [DeWanna Bonner] and Marina [Mabrey]’s life a lot easier as well,” White said. “It gives you another ball handler on the floor. So then you have two or three people on the floor at once that can initiate offense. And that’s important, because it takes a lot to bring the ball up 94 feet against pressure, to get us into offense. Physically, it’s a lot, mentally, it’s a lot. So it’s big for us.”
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After the game, Harris talked about what her mindset was before playing today and how her preparation allowed her to perform well.
“I put in extra work every day, regardless of what the outcome is. My teammates, they instill confidence in me every day, my coach, they [the team] be on me. So whenever my numbers called I’m just out there ready to do what I have to do,” Harris told reporters.
Harris makes such a huge impact on the team’s performance which they will need more of in Game 5.
“We know that when Ty is on the floor and knocking down shots for us, that we have great opportunities to be successful. And I’m thankful that she bounced back today and was outstanding,” White said.
Buckling down on defense
The Sun went into halftime down seven points against the Lynx, so they knew they had to make some adjustments.
After Games 2 and 3, Connecticut emphasized that they weren’t happy with their defensive performance. They weren’t making it hard for Lynx forward and Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier to get touches.
Out of halftime on Sunday, the Sun emerged with a new level of intensity where they were able to hold Minnesota to just 13 points in the third quarter.
The Sun’s defensive identity has allowed them to score in transition throughout the entire regular season. After their loss on Friday in Game 3, White talked about how if they can’t make plays off of their defense and score in transition, then they weren’t going to be successful. That helped swing the momentum in the second half and force a trip back to the Twin Cities.
Stathead Stat of the Week
Breanna Stewart scored 34 points in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals. That’s her sixth 30-point playoff game. The only player in WNBA history with more is Diana Taurasi, who has eight.
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Finals on the line
Connecticut knows that they have to perform better than they did on Sunday if they want to win Game 5 on Tuesday.
If the Sun want to advance to the Finals, they have to continue scoring in transition and keep the momentum up that they had throughout the second half of the game. White talked about this prior to the game today.
“The other thing is pace off of makes, off of misses, we have to push the ball down the floor,” White said. “We are not finding a lot of success when we walk it down. Even if we push it and we don’t like what we have, it, at least gives us a better opportunity through a drag, through a double drag, that now we’re running offense where we want to run it as opposed to closer to half-court.”
During the postseason, players and coaches have alluded to the intensity of emotions and stress that are ever-present. Following the game Bonner talked about some of those feelings and not allowing them to get the best of you as well as the mindset she had during the game.
“Backs against the wall. You got to win. Give everything I had,” Bonner said. “My baby girl was in the stands for the first time. She kind of took my mind off[of the pressure], calmed me down a little bit, because you get high stress in these situations. So having her around was pretty special, but I was going to leave it all out there. This is do or die. And we had our fans behind us, and they wanted to end here. And hey, now we going to Game 5, and let’s see what happens. Put it all out there again and whatever happens, happens.”
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Game 5 will be held back in Minnesota at Target Center with loyal and energetic Lynx fans likely cranking up the volume on what Bonner called an “absolutely insane” environment for the first two games. But in her eyes, the approach must stay the same.
“I wouldn’t tell my team anything different, like just got to focus and lock in on each other and we have each other,” Bonner said. “We know they are gonna come crazy. They’re great fans. They’re championship fans, where they’ve won multiple championships, so they’re hungry for another one. It’s going to be crazy, but I think we’ve been there — thank goodness for the first two games, so we know what it kind of feels like.
“We’ll be prepared to handle that, and just got to stay locked in on each other.”
