Dream: WNBA Playyobuttoffs 2012 Preview

[lethalweapon3]

It looks like it’ll be the Indiana Fever facing off with the Atlanta Dream in the first round of the WNBA Playoffs next week. Schedules are still in the works, but Game 1 will be either next Thursday or Friday evening in Indiana’s Fieldhouse, while Game 2 at the Highlight Factory will be either next Saturday evening or next Sunday afternoon.Indy will be the favorite, but Atlanta will arrive stabilized after a couple weeks of star player dissension and coaching upheaval, carrying the swagger that comes along with pulling off two consecutive Eastern Conference titles. Atlanta has yet to participate in the playoffs as the higher-seeded favorite, and will be playing with house money and little pressure once again.Last year, the Fever had the top seed in the East, but were felled in the Eastern Conference Finals by the Dream after league MVP Tamika Catchings tore her plantar fascia in Game 2 and understandably struggled to excel despite a valiant effort to play as a reserve in the decisive Game 3. Catchings is healthy again for the #2-seed in the East, and is enjoying a better season statistically than in her MVP campaign last year. But the Fever may have other issues on the roster to deal with at the outset of the series.To the casual viewer, it would appear Indy is regressing, having lost three straight while two starters, point guard Briann January and wing Shavonte Zellous, are shelved for their final regular season game after sustaining concussion symptoms. But two of those losses were back-to-backs against defending champ Minnesota. And in their last game on the road in Connecticut, the Fever reserves pushed the Sun defensively after coach Lin Dunn sat her other starters, forcing the Sun to bring their starters back on the floor to pull out the victory. To remain a serious threat to come out of the East, they will need at least January to play and perform well.Expect two or three grind-it-out games in this first-round series. Atlanta will likely finish as the league’s top per-possession defensive squad and the East’s best per-shot defensive team (95.3 Defensive Rating per 100 possessions, 41.4 Opponent FG%). But Indiana counters with the lowest opponent PPG in the East (73.4 PPG). Atlanta and Indiana are second and third in the WNBA in opponent turnovers generated per game. A frenetic pace from all the changes in possession will work to Atlanta’s advantage if their players provide strong transition defense and finish on their own fast breaks. Leading the brigade for Atlanta’s defense are the league’s #1 (Angel McCoughtry) and #2 (Sancho Lyttle) players in steals per game, along with the East’s top shotblocker, Erika DeSouza, back after sitting out the first half of the season for the Olympics. Rookie Tiffany Hayes has provided strong hustle on both ends lately, and might emerge as a breakout star.Indiana’s offense, however, is the stingiest in the league, leading the league with the fewest TOs per game. They have one player (January) in the league’s top 50 in turnovers per game. By contrast, Atlanta has five players in the top 50. WNBA leading scorer Angel McCoughtry turns the ball over more than anyone (4 per game), so she’ll need to rely on Armintie Price and Lindsey Harding to make good decisions with the ball, and to get back on D quickly whenever Angel and Sancho Lyttle cough the ball up.The Fever also live and die by the three, and their perimeter game keeps defenders stretched out and isolated. They’re last in the East for overall FG%, but first for 3-pointers attempted, threes made, and 3-point field goal percentage. The X-Factor in this series is super sniper Katie Douglas, who not only broke her team’s record for threes in a season, but still holds the record from her previous team (Connecticut). Douglas dropped 7 threes and 29 points on the Dream in their last matchup at the Fieldhouse, a blowout victory for Indiana, then lit them up in Atlanta a couple weeks later with 5 threes and 23 points, despite the Dream coming back to win late. The Fever have four players (Douglas, January, reserve Erin Phillips and midseason acquisition Karima Christmas) who shoot better from three than from two-point range. Catchings is also a deep threat.Last year, it was Iziane Castro-Marques who had a breakout performance for Atlanta in closing out the Fever in Games 2 and 3, nailing big-time threes to keep the Fever at bay. Izi’s no longer here, but a deeper Dream team has to resist the urge to match Indiana’s three-pointers shot-for-shot. Lyttle in particular has to avoid wasting possessions with long-range shots. Catherine Kraayveld can help counter from long-range in limited minutes, and Angel can be relied upon to nail a dagger or two late in crunch time. But it will be critical to pound the Fever, the worst rebounders among the Eastern playoff teams, on the inside with McCoughtry, Lyttle and DeSouza, getting putbacks and creating offense on outlets.DeSouza has been perfecting her catch-and-shoot moves in the low post, creating an advantage with little-contested, high-percentage shots. She will need to hold her ground defensively against Jessica Davenport, Tammy Sutton-Brown and Georgia Tech rookie Sasha Goodlett, relying on teammates to force mistakes from the Fever centers. Do-everything forward Catchings will try to provide help on the inside for the Fever.Atlanta will have a coaching experience disadvantage with “Freddy Bass” Williams, taking over the reins after the tumultuous exit by Marynell Meadors, going against the savvy, grandmotherly Dunn. But he has improved his game planning over the past few weeks and will have a battle-tested squad ready to adjust to whatever Indiana throws at them.Go Dream!~lw3

Edited September 20, 2012 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

09/28/2012 Friday 7:00 PM EST, Dream @ Fever, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, ESPN2

09/30/2012 Sunday 4:00 PM EST, Fever @ Dream, Philips Arena, ESPN2

10/02/2012 Tuesday (Time to be determined) (If Necessary), Dream @ Fever, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, (TV to be determined)

~lw3

[Gray Mule]

Great (we hope) new Hawks team are still a week from even starting

training camp. What can we watch?

Heck. We could watch our own Atlanta Dream in the playoffs as they

defend their eastern conference title from last season.

Or, we could ignore them and hope they go away because we hate to

watch those good looking, athletic female players.

Thanks for the great write up about the Dream. I plan to be watching!

GO DREAM !!!!

[lethalweapon3]

As an aside, loads of WNBA fans outside of Arizona are incensed about the lottery results from last night. Phoenix, who a majority of fans suspected has been tanking and holding back quality players with suspicious "injuries/fatigue issues" this season, won the top overall pick in last night's lottery ahead of some fairly needy franchises (Tulsa, Washington, and Chicago).The Mercury will now get to add a certified jewel in Baylor super-center Brittney Griner to an already stacked squad featuring 2011 All-Star Penny Taylor, future Hall of Famer Diana Taurasi, likely Most Improved Player DeWanna Bonner, likely All-Rookie point guard Samantha Prahalis, and perennial All-Star Candice Dupree. Former 90s NBA journeyman Corey Gaines will have his work cut out for him as GM/coach to make this work right away.This stroke of (luck?) will make the Western Conference a literal slugfest in 2013, with the Merc favored to leapfrog ahead of Minnesota (Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen), L.A. (Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike, and a much-improved Kristi Toliver), and Seattle (Lauren Jackson, Sue Bird).Back East, Chicago would get much better at forward with 6'5" Elena Delle Donne out of Delaware, but may need to address sagging attendance by going after Notre Dame star Skylar Diggins. Washington, who had the worst record and is desperately in need of a PR boost, will get the slimmest of the lotto pickings and, barring some creative trades, is not a threat to improve anytime soon. Angel McCoughtry is a restricted free agent in 2013, but with or without her, considering the relative strength of the Eastern foes, the Dream are likely to be in the playoff mix yet again next year.~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

One day before Game 1 of the Atlanta Dream's defense of their back-to-back conference title, and you wouldn't know it with a glance of their "Dream page": http://www.ajc.com/s/sports/dream/ Nothing there but a bunch of Associated Press filler, and not one article from a living, breathing sportswriter since MC's August 27 writeup on Angelgate... which you also can't find on their page since they never created a link to it. Maybe now that he'll be all-things-sports, he'll get a moment to spruce up the section with actual content for a week. Is there an intern in the house up there in Dunwoody? Indystar has their own Fever page, too, which would be nice... if they had bothered to offer a link to the menu of their own Sports page: http://topics.indystar.com/Indiana_Fever/ Anyway, here is a preview from a living, breathing Indystar sportswriter previewing tomorrow's contest, emphasizing the importance of guard Brianna January to their team's playoff hopes: http://www.indystar.com/article/20120926/SPORTS05/209270328/Indiana-Fever-guard-Briann-January-key-playoffs-vs-Atlanta-Dream January and Shavonte Zellous are still probable status-wise for Game 1. Besides the setback in the 2011 Dream-Fever series with Tamika Catchings, the Fever were without January, too, after the latter was sidelined late last season with a knee injury. ~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

http-~~-//www.norwichbulletin.com/archive/x670728785/VIDEO-Renee-Montgomery-receives-6th-Player-of-the-Year-Award/normalflv.flv

The Gods of Gravity were not satisfied that Connecticut's Renee Montgomery's deserved the Sixth Woman of the Year award. Either that, or somebody line-item'd the Krazy Glue out of the WNBA budget!

The New York Liberty weren't quite so easy to topple after the award ceremony, but Montgomery and new MVP Tina Charles' Connecticut Sun held them off last night in Game 1 of the first-round series. Candace Parker and the L.A. Sparks also held serve against the San Antonio Silver Stars, playing at USC's arena due to a scheduling conflict.

T-minus 3 hours until the Dream face off in Hoosier Country. Game will be on The Deuce (ESPN2) at 7 PM.
If you live west of the Rockies, first of all, wow, secondly the game will be available online for you at: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index

Sancho Lyttle was just named to the All-Defensive 1st Team, Armintie Price 2nd Team. And when the team returns home for Game 2, the league will offer a Tiffany-crafted trophy to Angel McCoughtry for leading the league in scoring this season. Let's hope that one holds together!

Go Dream!

~lw3 Edited September 28, 2012 by lethalweapon3