Connecticut improved to 8-7 with a 91-85 victory at Indiana Saturday, and will be looking for a third straight victory when it visits San Antonio on Wednesday.
Some notables from the win.
Road Tested
As of July 3rd, no team in the WNBA has played more games on the road than Connecticut, which is 5-4 away from Mohegan Sun Arena as it prepares for Wednesday’s game at San Antonio. With a win over the Stars, Connecticut would match its road victory total from 2016. The win at Indiana marked the third time this season it has prevailed in a traditionally tough venue. The Sun also handed Minnesota its only loss of the season in St. Paul, and it beat New York at Madison Square Garden. The Lynx, Liberty and Fever are a combined 15-7 at home so far this season. The reward for surviving a tough early road schedule will be playing eight of nine at home from July 30-August 25th.
Match Up Challenges
The Sun are getting reliable production from odd sources this season, which makes guarding the team a challenge. Consider that Alyssa Thomas – playing the power forward position – had another eight assists at Indiana. She has 17 in the last two games and surpassed her single-season career total (70 in 2016) in just 14 games. She now has 71 assists, and ranks sixth in the WNBA at 5.1 per game. That is tops among post players, and ranks ahead of some elite point guards. On the perimeter, 6-foot-6 center Jonquel Jones was 2-for-2 from three-point range at Indiana. The leading rebounder in the league, Jones is a torrid 8 of 13 (61.5 percent) from behind the arc over the last six games, and she ranks third in the WNBA at .522 for the season. Meanwhile, 5-foot-8 guard Courtney Williams had five more rebounds. She is averaging 4.3 rebounds per game, which ranks third on the team.
Getting Their Shots
The Sun are averaging 71.87 shots per game so far this season, which leads the WNBA. The Atlanta Dream (70.38) is the only other team averaging at least 70 shots per game. Connecticut actually had fewer shots – 65 compared to 74 for the Fever – in the win at Indiana, but part of that could be traced to the fact that Connecticut shot 53.8 percent from the field, 56.3 percent from three-point range.