Lot of people in this group are down on Haley but it takes time for player to adjust to the pro game.

As stated in the title, there's only one game tomorrow which is the Connecticut Sun vs. the Minnesota Lynx. I've made a game analysis post so far on every game which the Wings have played so far this season and I have gotten a few messages regarding if I'd be willing to make my game analysis posts for other teams as well. Thus since there's only one game tomorrow, I think it would be a perfect opportunity to provide an in-depth game analysis on a different team's game. If you are interested, please vote on a team.

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In this post as the title states, I'll be recapping and giving my analysis on what I noticed with the Dallas Wing's 4th game today which was against the Minnesota Lynx.

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Part #1 - Offense:

Satou Sabally: Yup, I'll be starting this analysis talking about Sabally first this time instead of Arike like I usually do. Sabally ended the game with a double double of 23 points and 11 rebounds in 39 minutes of play while going 7-16 (43.75%) from the field, continuing her dominant start to the season. As mentioned in a previous post, the biggest positive about Sabally is her offensive IQ. She knows exactly when she needs to take over the game to score by herself and when to pass the ball to a teammate for a better quality shot. With about 4:30 left in the 1st quarter of the game, the Lynx were off to a read hot start and almost practically sealed the game away, leading by 14 points with the score 22 - 8 in their favor. During the last 4:30 of the first quarter, Sabally took the game into her own hands and proceeded to score the next 13 of the 17 Wings' points. By the end of the 1st quarter, the Lynx's lead was cut down to 6 and the score was only 31 - 25, still in favor or the Lynx. This was such an important scoring run by Sabally because not only did it bring the Wings back into the game, but the entire team was fire up and playing much better basketball in the second quarter of the game. By the end of the half, the Wings were up 6 points with a score of 52 - 46 in their favor. In the second half of the game, she didn't really score too much besides the occasional bucket here and there as well as some free throws. However, she didn't really need to as the rest of the team stepped up by this point. Honestly in my opinion, Sabally has a great chance for winning the WNBA's Most Improved Player Award this season. Despite having an injury prone career up until this season, she's shown so far that she has elevated her game so much from last season. While her defensive numbers this season have stayed quite the same compared to last year and her career for the most part, her offense numbers have skyrocketed. Her total points, FG%, 3PT%, FT% and other stats are all much better and I only see her continuing along this path. She is going to continue being a focal point on this Dallas Wings team.

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Arike Ogunbowale: Compared to last game, I thought Arike had a big improvement from last game. She ended the night with 21 points on 6-20 (30%) from the field in 38 minutes of playing time. While her shooting efficiency and shot quality issues still persisted this game, the biggest improvement from Arike in this game was her ability to be a team player. Arike ended the game with 5 assists which was very nice to see. She was getting her teammates involved and also analyzing the floor to see what the best options were on offense. There were so many plays this game where Arike had the ball and had opportunities to force up shots like she normally does. However on most of those opportunities, she ended up slowing down the pace and deciding whether to actually take the shot or pass it to a teammate. Don't get me wrong, there were still moments where Arike chucked up shots and played hero ball but the instances were far less this game than the previous three games so far this season as she ended the game with a season low 20 field goals attempted. This is exactly the play style of Arike that we need to continue seeing for the rest of the season if the Wings want to continue winning games. She needs to take the shots if she truly feels like they are high quality shots and pass them out / find her teammates in instances when she would normally just chuck the shots up even if they were bad.

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Natasha Howard: I have said this before on almost all my previous posts and I will say it again to remind everyone. We will never see Natasha Howard's full offensive ability until she gets some help on the defensive end in the paint so she doesn't have to conserve her energy on both ends of the court. This game was the first game where we got to truly see Natasha Howard's offense. The difference this time around was that she got help in terms of the defensive end on the paint with the Wings playing Kalani Brown, which I'll be getting more into her impact later on in the post. Natasha Howard ended up scoring a team high and a season high 25 points while going 11-15 (73.33%) from the field in just 33 minutes. For reference in the three prior games before today's games, Howard was averaging about 16.5 points while going about 6.5-18 (36.11%) from the field in about 35.5 minutes. By looking at todays game, we can see that she was able to score much more points (+9.5 on average) on better efficiency (+37.22%) on less shots attempted (-3) and in less minutes (-2.5). Howard was able to getting better looks in today's game as the Lynx had to focus their defense no both Brown and Howard in the paint. Before this game, defenses could just focus on Howard since she was the sole forward / center threat in the paint in terms of offensive for the Wings, making it much more difficult for Howard. With Kalani Brown filling in for Teaira McCowan for the next month (McCowan is heading overseas to play for a month), I expect Howard to continue doing much better on the offense end. In my opinion, Howard was the MVP for the Wings this game and she even scored 16 points in the second quarter alone.

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Rest Of The Team: I think the rest of the team made a good effort to contribute on the offense. Aside from the Big 3 in Sabally, Arike, and Howard in terms of scoring, Kalani Brown led the team with 12 points of the bench. As I previously mentioned in the post, the Lynx defense had to focus on both Howard and Brown. As a result, she was able to get some good looks while the Lynx were focused with Howard. Furthermore, she used her height and footwork to her advantage as she was able to get some nice easy buckets while backing down defenders in the paint. Dangerfield didn't really show up till the fourth quarter but she made a good impact when it mattered as she scored all 9 of her points in the 4th quarter to help extend the Wings' lead. Burton only scored 4 points but she was a great playmaker on the offense, leading the team with 9 assists. I think that Brown, Burton, and Dangerfield stepped up when necessary and overall had a positive impact on the offensive end for the Wings.

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Part #2 - Defense:

Natasha Howard + Kalani Brown: In the beginning of the season, I said that the duo of Natasha Howard and Teaira McCowan will be one of the best Forward / Center duos in terms of paint defense. We were able to see glimpses of that in the first half to the Atlanta Dream vs. Dallas Wings game. Unfortunately thereafter, McCowan was ruled out for the second half of that game and didn't play the next two games and today as well. Furthermore, she will be missing the month of June as she leaves the team for overseas commitments. I thought that this would be a big blow for the Wings as Howard would be completely gassed during the month of June as she'd be expected to be the focal point on both the offense and paint defense. However, today's addition of Kalani Brown to the team is a great example of what a full game of Natasha Howard and Teaira McCowan would be like. Brown fit McCowan's role splendidly and the results of this game showed as Natasha Howard was able to have the best offensive game of the season so far. On the defensive end, the duo of Howard and Brown in the paint was tough for the Lynx to score through. Howard and Brown played together on the court for a total of 19:46, so about 20 minutes which is half the game. During this time, Howard and Brown limited the Lynx to 6-16 (37.5%) from inside the paint. Their presence together was enough to have the Lynx players to second guess their shots or take contested low quality shots for the most part. Howard and Brown ended the game with 2 blocks each, making it a total of 4 blocks between the two of them combined. For reference, the entire Lynx team combined had 2 blocks today. Furthermore, Kalani Brown has the highest +/- on the team among the players who played meaningful minutes with a score of +9.

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Rest Of The Team: In terms of paint defense for the rest of the team, it was mainly Sabally with a little bit of Kuier. Sabally did fine on defense and did end up with 3 steals in today's game. Kuier wasn't that productive today as Kalani Brown ended up taking most of her minute and played really well. Going forward, I definitely expect Brown to play the backup Forward / Center minutes with atleast half of the game playing alongside Natasha Howard. From today's game, we can see that Kalani Brown should be able to succeed taking over Teaira McCowan's role. In 2022-2023, Brown played overseas and averaged about 18.5 points and 11 rebounds in about 28 minutes so it's definitely clear she has talent and will use that talent to help the Wings' defense going forward. In terms of defense from the mid-range and perimeter, I thought it was also pretty fine for the most part. The Wings did a good job as usual at applying pressure to whoever they were guarding and didn't really give that many open shots. Veronica Burton was one example as she pretty much had whoever she was guarding beyond the perimeter on lockdown. She ended the game as well with 3 steals, tied with Sabally. The big weakness about the Wings defense which I've mentioned in previous posts and was also evident in today's game was the transition defense. Points off fast breaks and transitions were a big part for why the Lynx were able to start the game off leading 22-8. That's just something which the Wings will need to continue working on. They've definitely shown their ability to defend the transition this game and one notable example off the top of my head was when one of the Lynx player's got a steal and was heading to score an easy layup on a fast break but Arike hustled back and stripped the ball off that Lynx player's hands, causing a turnover to become the Wings' possession as the ball went off that player's hand / knee. The main issue the Wings have in terms of transition defense is to be able to defend consistently. They clearly are able to but they only decide on certain instances when they should try. Overall, paint defense was great this game with Howard and Brown together, three point and mid-range defense was fine for the most part, and transition defense still needs work.

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Dallas Wing's Defensive Shot Breakdown: I've mentioned this in a couple of posts but I've noticed a pattern in the WNBA which I call the 50-30-20 rule. Essentially, this means that 50% of all shots taken and points scored by a team are in the paint, 30% of all shots taken and points scored by a team are in the mid-range, and 20% of all shots taken and points scored by a team are from behind the arc. Therefore, I'll be listing how the Dallas Wings' defense affected from where the Lynx were forced to take their shots and score their points from just like in my previous game analysis.

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Paint: 17 - 32 ---> 47.06% of all shots taken and 44.16% of all points scored (not with free throws)

Mid Range: 8 - 18 ---> 26.47% of all shots taken and 20.78% of all points scored (not with free throws)

3 Point: 9 - 18 ---> 26.47% of all shots taken and 35.06% of all points scored (not with free throws)

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With these breakdowns, we can see how the Wings' defense affected the Lynx's offense. In terms of the percents of shots taken based on the areas, we see that the Wings kept the Lynx to under 50% of their shots taken in the paint. This is a really good thing since paint shots and points should contribute to most of a team's total score. By keeping the Lynx under 50% of shots taken in the paint, the Wings' defense has effectively made them to take tougher shots from farther out. Next thing we notice is the percent of three point shots taken. Typically, team's shouldn't rely as much on the points from beyond the arc to win and should take at the max 20% of all shots from beyond the arc. The Wing's defense were able to force the Lynx to take shots at a 6% higher rate than the normal so this is also a good thing for the Wings' defense. Longer shots means less shots from in the paint or mid-range and it also means it's usually tougher to make those long shots. Overall in terms of percents of shots taken, we see the Wings forced the difference in lack of paint and mid-range shots for the Lynx to be taken from beyond the arc which is a good thing for the Wings' defense. Whenever a team makes its opponent rely on the three ball more, that's typically already one step towards winning the game. In terms of percent of all points, the idea is pretty much the same. Due to the percent of shots taken being higher from beyond the arc, the Lynx's offense relied on their three pointers to fall to contribute heavily to their score. As stated, about 35% of all points came from beyond the arc for the Lynx and about 44% of all points came from inside the paint, which is only a 9% difference between the two. Overall, we can see that the Wing's defense did a good job. The paint defense did great, the mid-range defense was very good, and the perimeter defense was fine but the Lynx were able to hit their shots, leading to more points for them in that area.

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Part #3 - Coaching:

I thought that the Wings' coaching staff did a great job both in this game and before the game. The first thing which I noticed which I liked them doing was pulling Arike out of the game when they were down 22 - 11. Typically, you never see the Wings pull Arike in the first quarter. In every game this season, she played the entire first quarter or atleast till the last 30 - 40 seconds in the quarter. In this game however, the Wings' coaching staff pulled her out around the 3:45 mark and that was a great decision by them which I will explain. At this point of the game, the Wings were down 22 - 11 and Arike was chucking up some pretty poor quality shots and not finding her rhythm in the game as she was 1-4 (25%) from the field. The Wings' coaching staff noticed this and took her out the game to give her a small breather and to also get a different game plan going since using Arike at that moment was clearly not working and the Lynx were getting the momentum in the game at that moment of time. After benching Arike, the Wings relied on Sabally to run the offense and this was the beginning of the run to bring the Wings back in the game as Sabally scored 7 straight points. It was at this point that the Wings' coaching staff put Arike back in and she started to find her groove as she hit a free throw and a three to cut lead at the end of the 1st quarter to only 6 points. I loved this move by the Wings' coaching staff since you rarely see coaches pulling their star players out, especially in cases where your team is down by a significant margin. However in this case, the coaching staff for the Lynx were able to see that it was necessary to take Arike out for a short while to get a more flowing offense if they wanted to come back in the game and that's exactly what ended up happening. The next coaching decision was the addition of Kalani Brown before the game. I've been saying in all my previous posts that Natasha Howard needs help on the defensive end on the floor so that she can focus on the offensive end where she excels more at. Furthermore with Teaira McCowan not playing this game and leaving the team next month to play overseas, I was just hoping Howard would be able to play effectively during the coming month as there would be so much offensive and defensive pressure on her, with very little help on the defensive end from Kuier. Kalani Brown was exactly what the Wings needed to replace Teaira McCowan with and to help out Howard and this game showed us exactly why. Brown and Howard played very good paint defense when playing together and this allowed Howard to have her best offensive game of the year as Brown was able to support Howard on defense. Furthermore standing at 6'7, Brown was able to grab key rebounds and back down defenders in the paint to get easy buckets, leading her to end the game with 12 points (highest scorer outside the Big Three of Howard, Arike, and Sabally). Now going forward for this month while McCowan is out, I definitely expect Brown to keep playing a major role on the team and as a result let Howard to play to her full capabilities on the offense. The even better part is that Brown is now on the Wings for the rest of the season. The good part about this is that when Teaira McCowan comes back to the team after June, the Wings will have arguably the best paint defense in the league. At all times on the floor, there will be a mix of 2 players between Howard, McCowan, and Brown. Both McCowan and Brown stand at 6'7 and it will be very tough for teams to score in the paint with those two's height and length to block shots as well as Howard's athletic defensive ability. With Howard + McCowan / Brown playing together for about 16 minutes on average, we've seen so far that teams have shot for around 30% from inside the paint. Now with all 3 of these players signed for the season, the Wings will almost at all time have 2 of these 3 defensive bigs on the floor (unless they play small ball depending on matchups). Therefore, it is possible for the defensive ability of this trio, through rotations, to keep teams to around the 30% from inside the paint for a full 40 minutes in a game. If that's the case, that is a very big advantage for the Wings' defense and that will propel them even further into title contention this year (which I already think they are title contenders). Thus pretty much, the Kalani Brown addition by the Wings' coaching staff was a great move in my opinion.

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Final Recap: Overall, the Wings did a good job in today's game. Furthermore what I was more impressed with was that the team improved from last game in terms of how they ran their offense and defense. One thing to mention was that Diamond Miller was ruled out in the middle of the game with an ankle injury so the Lynx had to adjust their rotations. For the future games, the main thing that the Wings need to improve is that transition defense and to make it more consistent. That's probably the biggest weakness that they need to fix right now so that they can be prepared when they face tougher teams. The Wings will play the Washington Mystics on Friday so that will be another "good team" which the Wings will need to prove themselves on. After today's game, the Wings are 3-1 so that's a good start to the season and hope they can continue doing well and make improvements going forward.

Are those Stewies? I wanna cop a pair, they're nice 🔥

Pics are from Aces Instagram.

Box Score

https://www.beyondwomenssports.com/the-immediate-need-for-wnba-expansion/

Hey WNBA fans! I am an advertising student at BYU completing a research project on the WNBA. Sometime in the next week, I will be holding an online focus group and some individual interviews over Zoom to discuss the WNBA and its fanbase. Please comment or message me if you would be interested in helping me and my team complete our research!

Thanks again! Let me know if you would be willing to help.

New York Liberty vs Seattle Storm

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Road Team

New York Liberty

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Seattle Storm

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[Game Thread] (12) Minnesota Lynx (0-4) vs (5) Dallas Wings (2-1) ~ WNBA Tipoff - May 30th, 2023 8:00PM ET ~ ESPN3 & Local Broadcasts

Game Information

Minnesota Lynx vs Dallas Wings

Game Information

Road Team

Minnesota Lynx

Home Team

Dallas Wings

Want to use my 2023 WNBA Templates and help contribute posting game threads for r/wnba? Download here!. A potential 255 Game Threads for the entire for 1 person is a lot of work. This season I have two more volunteers to help me out!

Read The Flow Chart if you're Watching Games | Courtesy of @cwetzel31 on Twitter for those if you're planning to watch the games.