u/hullowurld

Yes I did clown on Li's layups last game but I feel she brings a defensive advantage to the Wings that they need against certain matchups like Betts last game and Cardoso tonight.

Li's impact was felt immediately when she drew a foul on Cardoso upon entering the game. She had stout defense, strong box outs and corraled rebounds .

Li had the best +/- tonight with +18. A lot of times this stat isn't noticed until after the game but tonight it was absolutely apparent live with her great work on Cardoso when she was dominating every other Wings defender.

Yes, there are a limited number of teams with a Betts/Cardoso type player, but this is a luxury this Wings team has when the matchups are right. Let's go Li!

The game last night was rife with major issues from sloppy passes to the inability to rebound, but the majorest of major issues was WIDE OPEN LAYUPS over and over and over. I have literally never seen so many wide open layups. They looked like fast break finishes in half court sets.

Conclusion: Most of these are really basic pick and roll plays that everyone has seen and defended for years. Watching live I thought it was a Jess problem but on rewatch there's a consistent systematic reluctance to rotate/help across multiple players. I think Fernandez must have said something like "do not leave McBride/Coffey/whoever open" and the players were disciplined following that and maybe not enough reps in practice for the players to know who's going to help if the first help defender has to stay locked to their person. Leading to really stupid-looking defense. That's on Fernandez to clarify/adjust/fix.

Below is a recap of selected PnR possessions.

It started from the first Lynx possession after Miles came back into the game (4Q 6:45).

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4Q 6:20 Azzi guarding Miles, Howard sets a pick, Jess traps Miles, Howard rolls and Maddy rotates to Howard. Miles passes to Kosu at the top of the arc. Paige thinks about rotating but doesn't leave McBride because Kosu isn't a 3-point threat. Instead Kosu drives the open lane and gets a layup when no one picks her up.

What most sane teams would do: Paige rotates to Kosu giving Azzi/Jess time to get back into the play.

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4Q 5:00 Paige guarding Miles, Howard sets a pick, Jess is looking elsewhere and doesn't trap, Azzi also doesn't rotate, Miles gets a layup

What most sane teams would do: Jess realizes a pick and roll happened and actually does something. Azzi sees no one defending Miles and slides over

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4Q 4:28 Azzi guarding Miles, Howard sets pick and Jess switches, McBride sets pick and Paige switches, Miles makes a "skip" pocket pass to Howard who gets a layup but there's a foul called

What most sane teams would do: the fact that someone was able to commit a foul means this is already better than the other possessions (very low bar). Miles makes a pretty pass into a tight window. I could see a sane team getting scored on here too

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4Q 3:14 Paige gets picked Paige guarding McBride, Howard sets pick and Jess traps, McBride passes to Howard, Lan rotates and takes a charge

aka the one time Wings defended a PnR

Wings playing like a sane team!

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4Q 2:44 Arike guarding Williams, Coffey and Howard set double pick, Jess traps Williams, Lan doesn't know if she's guarding Howard or Coffey, Tash makes a cut and gets the open layup

What most sane teams would do: Lan switches to Howard and Azzi rotates to Coffey, giving time for Arike/Jess to get back

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4Q 2:00 Azzi guarding Miles, Howard sets pick and Jess traps, Howard rolls and gets an and-1 layup

What most sane teams would do: Lan rotate weak side help

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4Q 1:28 Sims guarding Miles, Howard sets pick and Jess switches, Miles blows by Jess

What most sane teams would do: know how to move feet on defense

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4Q 0:55 Paige guarding Miles, Howard sets pick and Lan traps, pocket pass to Howard for an open layup

What most sane teams would do: Jess rotate weak side help

I have League Pass through Amazon Prime. Am I supposed to be able to see the Dream-Wings game now? I'm in DFW so subject to local blackouts, but I thought replays were available a few hours after the game ends or the next morning for nationally televised games. Anyone else here able to replay the game?

I rewatched the Wings-Fever game with special focus on Azzi's play. While she had a limited impact on the box score, I honestly thought she played well.

Defense

This is one big area that doesn't show up in the box score very well. The first possession she came in, she got a steal (pic 1). There was a CC drive that Azzi gave up too easily, but after pre-season foul trouble she's still trying to find how much physicality refs will allow. She did have a cheap reach-in foul later, but otherwise she played solid defense all her minutes on the floor.

Offense

Here's where I'm sure most fans were looking for more production than 1-of-2. While she was just spotting up a lot, there weren't a lot of opportunities because her defender was sticking to her. Which is fine, it opens up the floor for everyone. There were only two times Azzi was open but didn't get the ball: once on Maddy's made 3 (pic 2). Hard to complain on a made shot but that would have been a nice spot to swing the ball to the corner. The other was a wild drive from Sims (pic 3, Zaza also open lol). I think in that spot PB would have found Azzi, but Sims doesn't have the court vision and was probably trying to draw a foul she didn't get.

I did love that Azzi's made 3 was assisted by Jess, with crafty pass off a fake handoff to Paige.

Conclusions

Azzi is a smart player, she's playing good defense and taking the shots that come to her. She's mature and steady on both ends of the floor and her body language is good. Fernandez trusted her to sub her in after the TO when Fever tied the score 67-67.

Azzi will benefit from plays being run for her, but I think coach is being intentionally conservative about easing her in. Which is totally fine--as long as Wings get Ws, he can take as much time as he wants.

Fernandez seems to be a strong Xs and Os coach and will take advantage of Azzi's strengths and fit her into the team offense. I wouldn't be surprised to see Azzi starting later in the season, but whether starting or coming off the bench Azzi's production will increase steadily and consistently. As soon as Game 2.

Wings Up!