Montville, Connecticut — Some athletes have to be seen to be believed. In the case of Alyssa Thomas, the more you look at her, the more incredible it becomes. She has her two knuckle lips torn, leaving a shooting motion that looks like a waiter carrying her tray before she finishes by throwing it in the air. You might wonder how a player with obvious physical limitations can do anything in her WNBA game, but it’s incredible that Thomas can do it all.
On the day she became a second-team All-WNBA, Thomas performed basketball CPR extraordinaire with the Connecticut Sun. She tallied her 16 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists, leading Connecticut to her 105-76 victory over Las Vegas her ace.
“She’s probably the toughest player I’ve ever coached,” Sun coach Kurt Miller said. “She’s probably the most consistent player I’ve ever had.”
She probably embodies her team as well as just about everyone in the sport. The Aces are the more talented and more explosive team in this series and should still be considered the frontrunners to win. As forward Dewana Bonner said Thursday night, “We’re not going to leave. We’re going to beat us to Vegas.”
The sleight of hand a team can pull off in a five-game series is limited. Sun earns an unusual percentage of points in the paint by either dumping on a post player or quickly interrupting his defense by trapping. Vegas made it easy to do both.
Ace coach Becky Hammon said, “I don’t know if they thought we would show up, they were going to hand us the trophy, but we should know better by now.” They’re physical, they’re resilient, they have a battle-type mentality and tonight there was no match in any category.”
Both teams talked about the importance of the first quarter. Sun has to be considered small and Aces often struggle early in the game. In fact, Vegas played better in his first two minutes, building a 9–2 lead and forcing Miller into a timeout. I think he told the team.
The final score was misleading — Vegas basically folded in the fourth quarter and won 28-7. But there was no doubt as to who deserved to win the match.
If you listen closely to the two coaches, you can feel the difference between the teams. After Ace blew the sun out in Game 2, Miller enthusiastically referred to his Vegas skills, citing “a tremendous he went into the paint all night play 1-on-1”, and that Ace was on the drive. I mentioned how easy it was to win a strong hand. After the Suns blew an ace in Game 3, Hammon lamented the team’s lack of effort. … This game is about physical and mental strength, and they swooned over us. period. “
I won’t say either, but what is clear is that if the ace plays hard like the sun, he should win. But they have to. Connecticut, especially Thomas, is too strong.
The WNBA has eight triple-doubles this season. Thomas had three of them. How can a player who can barely lift her arms get 15 rebounds in the finals?
“It’s a professional athlete, because I don’t even know if I can do it,” league MVP ace star Aja Wilson said earlier this week. “A normal person would say, ‘No, I’m not doing this. But that’s your athlete.'”
The sun deserves praise. Maybe they deserve a trophy when the series is over. Perhaps we look back and say they let Ace win it.
Wilson said Thursday, “We weren’t trapped in the defensive end. I’m going to take full responsibility for that. We were running out of energy.”
There were many in the sun. they usually do.
Ben Pickman contributed to this article.
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