It’s a time-honored basketball cliché for good reason:
Defense wins championships.
The Connecticut Sun have had the best defense in the WNBA this season and it showed Sunday when they frustrated a top-three offense — Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever — in their playoff opener. Once the Suns found their offensive rhythm, this game became a blast.
The Sun won 93-69 to take a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-three. Connecticut can close out the series and prevent Indiana from having another home game with a win on Wednesday.
Caitlin Clark, welcome to playoff basketball – she had a bruise under her eye after being poked there in the first quarter, but added that’s not why her shot was off. And it was off. Clark started 0-of-8 from 3, not hitting her first from beyond the arc until midway through the third quarter, and she finished with 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting, including 2-of-13 from 3.
“I got some really good looks. I felt like I had three pretty open 3s in the first half, like you usually do,” Clark said postgame. “So that’s tough, but I felt like I fought and tried my best.”
Credit DeWanna Bonner and Sun teammates for taking away Clark’s flow — and it wasn’t just Clark. The entire Fever team struggled to find a rhythm against the Sun, shooting 6-of-28 (21.4%) from 3 for the game.
Taking a team out of their flow and making the game a little ugly is what good defenses do. That’s what Connecticut did on Sunday.
Two other things started working for the Suns. One was their All-NBA two-way force Alyssa Thomas recording her fourth career triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists.
The other thing that changed the game came when Tyasha Harris had to leave the game in the first quarter after rolling her ankle on end. That put more pressure on reserve Marina Maybrey to step up — and she did, scoring 27, the most points ever off the bench in a WNBA playoff game.
The game was close early. The Sun led after the first quarter 23-20 largely due to the six offensive boards they grabbed, giving them plenty of second-chance points. Well, that and Bonner, who scored 10 in the first quarter including a pair of 3s.
The game began to turn when the Sun went on a 9-0 run late in the first half and by the half, stretched their lead out to eight, 46-38. Connecticut turned the tables on the Fever by running every chance they got, which not only got buckets but caused foul ones.
In the third, Clark finally started to find a rhythm, but so did Connecticut’s Mabrey – a midseason trade acquisition from Chicago – who had 11 points in the fourth. The Sun pushed the lead to 15 before the end of the third. Then came the fourth and the Fever looked like they were, the less experienced team in big moments. The Sun put its foot on the gas and it turned into an explosion.
Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 21 points, while Aliyah Boston showed her improved ability on the short roll and finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Connecticut’s defense will be there Wednesday for Game 2, if the Fever can’t find a way to adjust and adjust, their season will be over.
In other action on the first day of the WNBA playoffs:
New York 83, Atlanta 69: Top seed New York started the game 6-of-6 from the floor, raced out to a first-quarter 15-point lead and never looked back against an overmatched Atlanta squad in their first playoff game in the series.
Brianna Stewart had her usual monster game with 20 points and 10 rebounds, but it was rookie Leonie Fiebich who led New York with 21 points.
Atlanta’s leading scorer this season Rhyne Howard started the game 1-of-9 from the floor, struggling against the Liberty defense, but still finished with a team-high 14 points. New York can close out the series at home in Game 2.
