Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. It is the WNBA Semifinals.
Alyssa Thomas returned from her injury and has brought the Sun on the verge of a return WNBA Finals trip.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Chris O’Meara/AP.)
So raise your hand if you thought Alyssa Thomas was going to play.
It sounds pretentious for a lot of us that raised our hands to this. But that’s just the kind of toughness Alyssa has. When we saw her warming up on the court to “give it a go”, it didn’t even cross our minds to us that watch the W that she was going to sit out. She was going to play.
And she acted like NOTHING happened in Game 2 when Thomas dislocated her shoulder. No problem. Two torn labrums? Dislocated shoulder? Pop that thing back into place.
And she made the biggest plays of that game. The Las Vegas Aces were up, 64-57, halfway through the 4th. But the Sun turned up their defense while Alyssa made some big shots. A lay-up and a one-handed push shot gave leads to the Sun. She made another clutch bank shot that put them up five. And then she made the biggest play when she stole a Kayla McBride inbounds pass (my niece is going to be so mad) and got the lay-up at the other end. She scored 8 points in the last three minutes and the Sun ended the game on a 20-4 run. Alyssa had 23 points and 12 boards while only sitting out 74 seconds of game time! Are you kidding me?
It’s incredible. Yes, we mentioned that we weren’t surprised Alyssa Thomas was going to play. It doesn’t make it less amazing. She plays through pain every day. And she just goes on and makes the biggest impact in a WNBA playoff game. The Sun are one win away from consecutive WNBA Finals trips.
Alyssa Thomas might be the toughest human being I know in sports.
The Seattle Storm took a 2-0 lead against the Minnesota Lynx. The Storm had a 21-point lead in the third before the resilient Lynx cut the deficit down to five. Unfortunately for Minnesota, the Storm collective bore down and made some big plays. Sami Whitcomb scored five quick point to push the lead back to 14. Alysha Clark, Mercedes Russell, and Breanna Stewart made timely baskets in the fourth. The Storm are now one win away from their second WNBA Finals in three seasons.
I’d like to point out that the Sun did a great job taking care of the ball in Game 3. FIVE TURNOVERS THE ENTIRE GAME. The swarming defense by the Sun caused Vegas to have 16 giveaways.
More WNBA season awards. Betnijah Laney won the Most Improved Player award, edging out Myisha Hines-Allen. Laney went from 5.6 points last year to 17.2 this year. Congrats to her!
Candace Parker won the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award and it only adds to her legendary resume. It was a pretty close vote with Alysha Clark finishing second and Alyssa Thomas finishing third. Parker led the league in rebounding (9.7) and is one of five players to average, at least, a steal and a block per game.
Double U Scoreboard
GAME 2: #2 SEA 89 vs #4 MIN 79 (SEA leads series, 2-0)
GAME 3: #1 LV 68 vs #7 CON 77 (CON leads series, 2-1)
Watch This Play
Alyssa Thomas. A sneaky steal on the inbounds pass… and THEN the clutch breakaway lay-up.
ALYSSA!
ALYSSA!
ALYSSA! pic.twitter.com/CSfqARAZQy— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) September 25, 2020
Games for the semifinals will resume on Sunday. Hope everyone in the Wubble stays safe.
Please take care of yourselves. Also, we knew it was going to happen but we’re so sorry the system in place failed you, Breonna Taylor.
Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
TNLP on FaceBook.