The WNBA Tuesday piece today looks at the first games of the current postseason, four of them, played on Sunday. There were some surprises, and there were some predictable results. Since the opening round is merely a best-of-three affair, this is the greatest chance for upsets, really, even though we did not pick any ourselves. We want to point out interesting tidbits plucked from boxscores of wins for the New York Liberty, Las Vegas Aces, Atlanta Dream, and Golden State Valkyries—in order.
It was a poor-shooting day that did in the WNBA’s top seed, the Lynx, here … in conjunction with an efficient performance from the lowest seed, the Liberty. It’s that simple; some days you just lose because you can’t shoot straight, and other days you lose because the other team cannot miss. It wasn’t that drastic, but with New York shooting over 50 percent from both three-point range and from the floor overall, Minnesota’s overall 41.8-percent shooting effort hurt them significantly. ‘Tis simple!
We expect both teams to migrate back toward the mean in Game 2: the Lynx shot 47.7 percent for the season, while the Liberty made 46 percent of its shots. Look for both teams to be closer to their 44-game averages in the second matchup of the series. Minnesota will be under some pressure to win on the road and avoid getting swept out of the playoffs in the blink of an eye. But also remember that New York won the (meaningless) Commissioner’s Cup earlier this year before injuries took hold.
The defending champs methodically took apart the Indiana squad through the first three quarters, building a 21-point lead before cruising to an easy win. The Aces shot 29-for-45 from two-point range, which is brutally efficient, and the Fever are one of the worst defensive teams in the league. Everyone slobbers over their high-scoring offense, while not thinking about the mediocre defense. Those are fatal flaws in a sport where any fool can score if s/he shoots a lot. Defense wins championships.
A’ja Wilson was 15-for-19 from the floor, including 2-for-2 from downtown. You can’t let the reigning MVP dominate you like that and expect to win, especially when the rest of the team makes 14 of 26 shots. What was the Indiana defensive game plan? There clearly wasn’t a good one in place. But the Fever shot decently enough (44.8 percent) to still win with just an average defense effort. Alas, no: the Indiana backcourt starters combined to go 10-for-23 overall and 4-for-16 from deep.
Perhaps the least “popular” matchup of the series openers, this game featured a comeback for the home team, which was down by five at halftime. By outscoring the visitors by 20 points in the second half, the Dream put an exclamation point on their goals. And anyone would be foolish to not take this team seriously. Atlanta overcome its own dreadful shooting (40.8 percent) by playing excellent defense and holding the Mystics to just 41.1-percent shooting themselves. Again, defense wins a lot.
Especially when the shots are not falling. Clearly, Washington played good defense, too, though, or at least it seemed like it in the first half. But it was 22 turnovers (!) by the Mystics that cost them this game, when the shooting efficiency was bad on both ends. That is a lot of possessions to sacrifice at the altar of the hoops goddesses. Every turnover is a missed chance to score and an extra chance for the opponent to score; that makes fastbreak points like pick sixes in football, really: painful.
Be clear here: the Valkyries will not shoot 48.6 percent from the floor overall or 50 percent from three-point range often. And that’s what they did here while outscoring the Wings, 37-11, in the second quarter. The streaky Golden State shooters turned a one-point lead after the first period into a blowout at halftime, despite Paige Bueckers making 9-of-10 shots from the floor in a masterful performance that still found her on the floor to the tune of negative 23 points during her 25-plus minutes of play.
That’s shocking, in truth. The Valkyries were the worst-shooting team in the WNBA this year (42.2 percent), and they also were the second-worst team at making two-point shots this season as well (48.6 percent). In this game, Golden State was 18-for-38 from two-point range (47.3 percent), so the damage was done primarily from outside. So as we said, don’t expect the Valkyries to score at will like this again any time soon. However, the Golden State defense is real, so look for that to continue.
