Photos by Bill Harper

Brittney Griner led all scorers with 26 points to

lead Phoenix to an 88-83 victory over the Sun.





Here are a few things to ruminate on:

The Sun, who played the entire season without their best player, Chiney Ogwumike, had no business being in the playoffs to begin with.

The Sun, who played the entire season without their best player, Chiney Ogwumike, had no business being in the playoffs to begin with. The very fact that they made the postseason can be credited to head coach and general manager Curt Miller, who was named the WNBA’s Executive of the Year it was announced yesterday. Miller was also named the league’s Coach of the Year. Under Miller’s mentorship, the Sun, which got off to a slow start this season ended up in the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

The very fact that they made the postseason can be credited to head coach and general manager Curt Miller, who was named the WNBA’s Executive of the Year it was announced yesterday. Miller was also named the league’s Coach of the Year. Under Miller’s mentorship, the Sun, which got off to a slow start this season ended up in the playoffs for the first time since 2012. Also, under Miller’s stewardship, Jonquel Jones, who as a rookie out of George Washington played a limited role with the Sun as a rookie in 2016 (6.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in 14.1 minutes per game), transformed herself into a double-double machine this season (15.4 points and 11.9 boards per game). JJ was named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player prior to yesterday’s game.

Jonquel Jones, the WNBA's Most Improved Player

chipped in with 19 points and 15 boards. JJ averaged

a double-double this season.



Actually, the writing was on the wall headed into the game. And it wasn’t so subtle, either. While the Sun finished 21-13 in the regular season, finishing just one game behind the Eastern Conference regular season champion New York Liberty who ended the season on a 10-0 run, the Sun had lost their last two regular season games and three of their last four, including a 20-point drubbing in Phoenix nine days earlier. The Mercury, meanwhile, finished 18-16, including a three-game winning streak to end the regular season (including the aforementioned rout of the Sun).





And while the Sun earned the right to play this one-game elimination contest at home, they were facing a team that sported two of the best players in WNBA history—Diana Taurasi, the leading scorer in league history, and Brittney Griner, the 7-foot wonder with the wingspan of a 747 and an inside-outside game never before seen in the league—certainly from a player her size.





Indeed, the Sun and Mercury were like two ships headed in opposite directions, and on Sunday, the ship heading upward ultimately prevailed. Griner led all scorers with 26 points, her all-time postseason high-water mark, and hauled down nine boards. Taurasi added 23.





Alyssa Thomas had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Sun, while Jonquel Jones put up yet another Double D with a 19-point and 15-rebound effort for Connecticut. Indeed, Jones had her double-double secured by halftime (11 points and 12 boards), setting a franchise playoff record for rebounds in a half. Jasmine Thomas (15 points) and Courtney Williams (10) also scored in double digits for the Sun.





Phoenix led by two at the first turn, 27-25, but the Sun came back in the second and went into the locker room at intermission with a seven-point lead. 50-43. The Mercury stormed back in the third period, and when Griner hit from the baseline with 32 seconds remaining in the quarter, the Mercury had their first lead, 68-66, since the opening minutes of the contest.





The fourth period was all about who wanted it more, and when the Phoenix bombed in three straight from beyond the arc (Leilani Mitchell, Taurasi and Monique Currie), it sent a message to the 8,420 partisan fans, who were equipped with orange towels given to them when they entered the arena, but when it came time to use them at the end of the game, sat eerily quiet. How every single seat wasn’t filled is a mystery. (Seating capacity for basketball is 9,323, which translates into almost 1,000 empties. One thing’s for sure: Uncasville ain’t Storrs.





Connecticut, down by three, 84-81 grabbed an offensive rebound when Shekinna Stricklen was fouled with 11.4 seconds remaining. It was a classic make the first, miss the second, then either grab the rebound and put it back up moment, or, if the opponent gets the rebound, follow immediately. Even if whomever was fouled made both, that would still give the Sun a chance to tie it with a trey with seven or eight ticks left. But when Stricklen missed the first, that strategy vanished. And when she missed the second, so did the Sun’s chances of winning.





Former UConn star Diana Taurasi, the leading scorer in WNBA history,

chipped in with 23 points. Dee is 11-0 in elimination games over the

course of her career.

As disheartening as yesterday’s loss may have been, it was a great, great season for this young team. And with a year’s experience playing together, and the hopeful healthy return of Ogwumike, the sky could very well be the limit next season. And talk about disheartening… The Liberty, who, as earlier mentioned, ended the regular season on a 10-game run, finishing 22-12 and earning the No. 3 seed, were unceremoniously booted from the postseason by the No. 6 seed, the 18-16 Washington Mystics.





So the top two seeds in the second round—Connecticut and New York—were booted by two teams that both finished the regular season under .500. (Minnesota, the No. 1 seed and No. 2 Los Angeles received byes into the semifinals. In college basketball, this might make sense. In the professional ranks, it does not. The one-and-done second round needs to be restructured.





For the play-in round, a one-game elimination makes perfect sense. But In this reporter’s humble opinion (and I’ve watched about 37 billion basketball games in my life), the second round should be best-of-five, with the semifinal and final rounds best-of-seven.





But so much for the past. There is much for the Sun and their fans to look forward to in the future. Miller, for one, is enthusiastic about the prospect of this team growing and developing.





“I am incredibly excited,” he said. “We had double-doubles out of both our post players tonight. JJ has only scratched the surface of her talent and is going to get better.”





He also compared Alyssa Thomas to Candace Parker, the former Tennessee All-American and current Los Angeles star, calling her “a facilitating four.” This reporter used to say the same thing about Larry Bird when he worked for the late, great Inside Sports, calling Bird a “point forward.” It’s a matter not so much of being great in and of itself (as Bird most assuredly was), but rather making everyone you play with a better player (which he most assuredly did).





“It is just amazing what she [Alyssa Thomas] is capable of doing at the four,” Miller continued. “When we made a run in the second quarter, and we were playing well, I looked out there and we had four second-year players on the court. Even though Rachel [Banham] and Morgan [Tuck] did not get extended time tonight, it just speaks to [how] we are playing good basketball with that many young players on the floor.”





In the end, however, it was experience—not youth—that won the game for Phoenix. Not just Taurasi and Griner, but also Camille Little, Yvonne Turner and Leilani Mitchell. This, too, will come to the Sun. Yesterday’s game will prove to be a valuable part of the growing process."





“It’s huge when you have that experience and have gone through the trenches and don’t get rattled by those things and it’s a learning experience,” said Taurasi, who is 11-0 in elimination games. “We have all been through it when we were young, and the end of the game seemed like the biggest deal in the world. You know, it’s just a game and you can use that calmness to really help you down the stretch of games and we had our five veterans on the court and that really helped us.”





So as the Sun go home, the Mercury head to Los Angeles where they will challenge the No. 2 seeded Sparks. First game in this semi is tomorrow night. Tip-off is at 10 p.m. (ET) at the Staples Center, and the game will be televised on ESPN2.





As the Sun mature, yesterday’s loss can play a large part in that process.





“As we infuse Chiney [Ogwumike] back into our post depth, as we continue to build for the future, I can’t be more pleased with our core group that we have coming back,” Miller said.

–Despite leading by 17 points in the second quarter, the Phoenix Mercury climbed back into the game and ultimately lapped the Connecticut Sun, earning an 88-83 victory before a near sellout crowd at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday.