UNCASVILLE, Conn. — What’s the line between messy and malicious? WNBA officials don’t seem to know, and it came to a head in Game 3 of the semifinals between the Sky and Sun.
All series, Sun coach/general manager Curt Miller’s buzzword has been messy.
He has reiterated in every media availability that the only way his team is going to beat the reigning champions is if it makes the game ugly. Sunday afternoon it got about as ugly as it could without a season-ending injury occurring.
In the first five minutes, Candace Parker took an elbow to her left eye from Sun forward Alyssa Thomas. Parker remained hunched over under the basket for the next 30 seconds as the play continued. When she stood up, her left eye pinched shut as she walked toward her bench, she had a question.
“A-T! That’s what we’re going to do? Really?!” Parker yelled down the court before heading back to the tunnel to get checked out.
Before the half was over Thomas, who finished in second place for Defensive Player of the Year with 14 votes, far exceeded messy. With 59 seconds to play in the second quarter, Parker grabbed the rebound off of Thomas’ missed shot. When she turned to push the ball upcourt in transition Parker was met by Thomas’ right knee sweeping her legs out from under her.
As Parker crashed to the floor, Thomas turned and walked up the court with seeming indifference. The officials blew their whistles signaling it was Sky’s ball out of bounds, but no foul was assessed — flagrant or otherwise.
“It was a really bad play,” coach James Wade said. “And it could have ended really badly.”
Wade was unhappy with Miller’s “messy” messaging and the officials inability to protect his players. After hearing Miller’s news conferences following Game 1, Wade reached out to the league to assure it would be extra vigilant for illegal plays. He sent plays to the league for review after Game 3, including Thomas’ knee sweep to Parker.
Parker had no thoughts on whether it was an illegal play but expressed gratitude that she was able to walk away unscathed. If anything, both moments triggered Parker’s dominance. She went off for 16 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals.
Physicality in the playoffs is the expectation, but Parker might be the most primed for this level. She endured battles against one of the most formidable frontcourts in WNBA history in Sylvia Fowles, Rebekkah Brunson and Maya Moore when her Sparks and the Lynx met in the postseason every year from 2015 to 2018. Those playoff bouts included two WNBA Finals, in 2016 when the Sparks won the title and again in 2017 when the Lynx prevented them from going back-to-back.
“I will go to my grave saying this, any time you have to guard Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles, Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson you can do anything,” Parker said.
Game 3 was a tipping point in this physical semifinal series. Both because of the outcome, giving the Sky a 2-1 advantage heading into Game 4 on Tuesday, and for how the Sky secured the win.
Despite the Sun’s best effort at making things “messy,” the Sky remained unshaken. It was a visible difference from their Game 1 performance in which they were unable to establish any kind of rhythm after the Sun enforced their will in the opening minutes. In Game 3, the Sky responded to the Sun’s physicality with mental fortitude and simply outlasted them in an ugly game.
The Sky and Sun shot 37.1% and 36.8% from the field, respectively, nearly matching their Game 1 percentages. The difference was that Wade’s team played through moments that rattled them in Game 1 and matched the Sun blow for blow.
At one point during Game 3 Emma -Meesseman sat down on the bench and told her teammates, “This is a war.”
Miller’s messy method backfired, and his team appeared frustrated in critical moments, missing so many layups that he was overheard on the broadcast during a timeout saying, “I’m going to get fired because we can’t make a layup.”
Jonquel Jones was held to six points on 3-for-10 shooting and Thomas was held to the same total, shooting 3-for-12. Meesseman and Parker have bore the brunt of the Sun’s frontcourt and largely contained them.
All four of the Sun’s leading scorers have been held below their regular-season -averages in the semifinals, while Parker has elevated hers. She has averaged 19 points, 11 rebounds, 4.3 assists, four blocks and 2.3 steals.
But, it’s as Parker said, given who she has gone up against in the past, she can do -anything.
