First, the glass-half-empty way of looking at it …
Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggled. A lot. They finished the game shooting 10-for-36. From 3-point range: 0-for-9. Stewart still had a double-double with 11 and 11, including six offensive rebounds.
Also, various academics have concluded that “home advantage” is partially due to the officials not being able to fight the temptation to give the home team a few close decisions. And … yeah.
Now the glass-half-full …
Courtney Williams, who played college basketball at South Florida and has only been an All-Star once while playing for five teams in nine years (four in the last four) is having a series for the ages. She had 15 points and seven assists, and it seemed like every last one came at an important time.
Alanna Smith played through a back injury and managed 30 minutes on the court. She hit both 3-pointers she attempted and grabbed seven rebounds.
While Stewart and Ionescu had an off night, Napheesa Collier was quietly effective. She only scored 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting (4-for-6 from the free throw line), but she played all 40 minutes and added nine rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Kayla McBride scored 19 points, some of them from mind-boggling angles.
And it was every bit the highly competitive contest we expected.
Which means, going back to glass-half-empty, that Game 5 will probably be a blowout. You have to like New York’s chances at home. A quick check of the odds shows that the people in charge of such things agree.
But it’s going to be must-see TV in any case. The WNBA has had a breakthrough season, thanks in part to Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, and it’s going to end with a winner-take-all game in New York.
See you then. Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll be back in about 44 hours.
