As Alyssa Thomas dominates, Sun need supporting cast consistency to overcome Lynx

In Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals between the Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx, the intensity between the two veteran squads was palpable from the start at Target Center in Minneapolis.

Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier got into a spat with Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey early in the game while fighting for a loose ball, and the chippy energy only built from there. Mabrey had to get in between DiJonai Carrington and Minnesota guard Kayla McBride after a hard foul under the net in the fourth quarter, and Mabrey herself spent several seconds exchanging words late in the third quarter with former Sun guard Courtney Williams.

“I told her she couldn’t guard me and she told me I didn’t have that many good games,” Williams said with a wide grin. “And I said, you think you pressure? Because I’m really pressure. Just a little back-and-forth action. It’s playoffs, man. We’re gonna talk a little bit, but we’ll be cool again after we done playing.”

Both matchups in the semifinal series between the top two defenses in the WNBA have been a slugfest: The teams started a combined 0 for 13 from the field over the first four minutes on Tuesday, and Connecticut went more than five minutes before making its first field goal. But when Williams caught fire with 11 of her 17 points in the third quarter, Connecticut struggled to find a hot hand. Mabrey, who hit both of her 3-pointers in the second quarter, went 0 for 6 in the rest of the game, and the team shot a combined 25% on 3-pointers after two days after winning Game 1 shooting 40.9% from outside.

Minnesota evened the series 1-1 with a 77-70 win, the largest margin of victory between the teams across five matchups this season. Connecticut now heads back to Mohegan Sun Arena to host Game 3 on Friday looking to reclaim the series lead.

“Minnesota came out, and they were the aggressor tonight,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “They were aggressive on the defensive end, they were physical. It wouldn’t let us get into our offense. They responded to every run that we had and had an answer to every run. There’s some things that we as coaches have to clean up for our team a little bit offensively to try to try to give us some some easier looks that we can get to on the offensive end of the floor, but its a series for a reason.”

All-Star center Brionna Jones and Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier both struggled offensively Tuesday, but Collier still played all 40 minutes and helped separate Minnesota with a game-high 12 rebounds, four blocks and a team-leading five assists. But Jones never found her footing, playing just 14 minutes with two points, two rebounds, two assists and two turnovers. Though Jones has not been on the Sun’s injury report since the playoffs began, she briefly left the court in Game 2 of the first round with an apparent right shoulder injury.

Alyssa Thomas has been unstoppable for Connecticut in the postseason, averaging 16.5 points, 10.5 assists, and 8.8 rebounds, but the Sun can’t afford offensive inconsistency from their supporting cast with an opponent as versatile as the Lynx. Jones is averaging just five points per game since the start of playoffs, and Mabrey is shooting 36.6% from the field after averaging nearly 47% during the regular season.

“We’ve got to talk about some different entries that we can have that allow us to get the ball into offense, and some of the movement patterns that allow us to get some freedom and some separation,” White said. “I felt like we could focus a little more on our off-ball screening and some of our execution in our screening … I think we’ve got to be a little more aggressive to the rim too. I thought their physicality put us on our heels a little bit.”

The Sun have to rely more on production from the bench with Jones in a slump, and while former UConn standout Olivia Nelson-Ododa was impactful defensively and on the boards in her 14 minutes in Game 2, she isn’t the kind of automatic post scorer that the Sun needed to get back into the game. Guard Veronica Burton saw the floor for 21 minutes, but she is also one of the Sun’s go-to defenders on the perimeter and got almost no offensive looks finishing 0 for 2.

What makes Minnesota such a dangerous matchup for Connecticut is its options down the roster. All eight players who saw the floor scored at least four points, and every starter made at least one 3-pointer. Veteran forward Myisha Hines-Allen, who the Lynx traded for in late August, was a critical spark off the bench with seven points shooting 3 for 6 and three rebounds, and she also led the team in plus-minus at plus-11. Forward Alanna Smith, who was 0 for 4 from beyond the arc in Game 1, went 3 for 4 and finished with 15 points in Game 2.

With at least two games left in the series, the Sun still haven’t seen everything Minnesota has to offer. Though neither has been particularly productive in the semifinals, Collier averaged 40 points in the first-round series against the Phoenix Mercury and Bridget Carleton hit a game-winning three for Minnesota in its regular-season win over the Sun.

“They’ve showed as a team why they’ve been successful,” White said. “They’re so balanced, so yes we were able to limit Phee, but they got off from the 3-point line and that’s something we have to remedy. We have to keep them off the offensive glass. When you’re talking about two of the best defensive teams in the league, possession matters. Every possession matters … so we’ve got to clean up some of the details and bounce back.”

____