So hyped!

This is the Austin VIP schedule and I'm trying to plan when to drive down. The doors open at 2:30 but what can you do before 4 when shopping opens? Are there things to look at or do? TIA!

A couple photos from yesterday's game. Bonus Stewie waving at kids

My week has been so off not having the Liberty game Thursday. Let's get back on track. Wings UP!

When I saw the email I had the sudden fear I had booked the wrong dates.

Stocks and box out princess

It's been like this for 15 minutes. It earlier estimated 42 hours. Am I in a queue or something and this is normal? I usually purchase physical media but did virtual for RHG because I wanted to play tonight

First pic is Android Chrome browser. Second pic is desktop PC Chrome browser

I've seen some small differences before but nothing like this. It's wild. $519 vs $1,963 and $1,699 vs $6,137. Using incognito mode didn't really change the desktop numbers.

Has anyone seen this before? It's absolutely wild to me.

Kaitlyn was +26 and had a 15-2-2 statline in 25 minutes. She might know how to play against Paige and Azzi!

If anyone was on the fence on the PHM Vinyl, Target has it for B2G1F. This makes the regular release $30 and the LE box set $87, but only if you buy 3 of them.

If a couple other vinyl PHM fans are in Texas, let's split!

Target link for regular vinyl

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Project Hail Mary-Ryland Grace, Cognition Assessment
2. Project Hail Mary-Last Man on Ship
3. Project Hail Mary-Humanity
4. Project Hail Mary-You Were Loved (Burial)
5. Project Hail Mary-Petrova Line
6. Project Hail Mary-Erratic Maneuver Detected
7. Project Hail Mary-Centrifuge
8. Project Hail Mary-The Message
9. Project Hail Mary-Entering the Tunnel
10. Project Hail Mary-Barrier Language
11. Project Hail Mary-Connection
12. Project Hail Mary-Learning to Communicate
13. Project Hail Mary-Rocky Moves in

Disc: 2

1. Project Hail Mary-God Willing
2. Project Hail Mary-A Moment
3. Project Hail Mary-Life Is Reason
4. Project Hail Mary-Grace Go Home
5. Project Hail Mary-Time Go Fishing
6. Project Hail Mary-Gravitational Aftermath
7. Project Hail Mary-Tau Amoeba
8. Project Hail Mary-Amaze Amaze Amaze (Fist My Bump)
9. Project Hail Mary-Goodbye My Friend
10. Project Hail Mary-Believe in the Hail Mary
11. Project Hail Mary-Amaze Amaze Amaze (Life on Erid)

Target link for LE vinyl

Mutant link for LE vinyl

Expanded Original Score

Disc One

Side A

1. Ryland Grace, Cognition Assessment
2. Last Man On Ship
3. Invalid Operation
4. Newscast
5. Space Dots
6. Water Based
7. Humanity
8. Box In A Box
9. Top Secret Clearance

Side B

1. You Were Loved (Burial)
2. Prepare For Cut Off
3. Petrova Line
4. Erratic Maneuver Detected
5. Cannister Catch
6. Centrifuge
7. The Message
8. Entering The Tunnel

Disc Two

Side A

1. Barrier Language
2. Anybody Home?
3. Connection
4. Clock Numbers
5. Learning To Communicate
6. Finding Rocky Voice
7. Messy Room

Side B

1. Transporter Demonstration
2. Rocky Moves In
3. Grace Has Mate
4. God Willing
5. A Moment
6. Life is Reason
7. Three Days
8. Second Dream

Disc Three

Side A

1. Grace Go Home
2. Time Go Fishing
3. Excessive Centrifugal Force
4. Rocky Sacrifice
5. Measuring Mistake
6. Three Hours
7. Gravitational Aftermath
8. Wake Up Buddy

Side B

1. Tau Amoeba
2. Amaze Amaze Amaze (Fist My Bump)
3. Goodbye My Friend
4. Xenonite Contamination
5. Believe in the Hail Mary
6. Amaze Amaze Amaze (Life On Erid)

Disc Four - Original Soundtrack

Side A

1. Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down  Performed by Kris Kristofferson
2. Pata Pata Performed by Miriam Makeba
3. El Amanecer Performed byCarlos Di Sarli y su Orquesta Tipica
4. Rainbows Performed by Dennis Wilson
5. Wind Of Change Performed by Scorpions

Side B

1. Po Atarau Performed by Turakina Maori Girls Choir
2. Gracias A La Vida Performed by Mercedes Sosa
3. Stargazer Performed by Neil Diamond
4. Glory, Glory Performed by Ike & Tina Turner
5. Project Hail Mary (Credits) Performed by Daniel Pemberton

I've seen some post-game criticism of Arike's FG% after the last game @ NYL. First of all she kept the Wings in the game with her 3pt shooting in the first half. But people said she should realize she's cold in the second half and give up the ball more.

Arike H1 stats: 13 pts (4-10 FG, 4-9 3P, 1-2 FT), 2 reb, 2 ast

Arike H2 stats: 6 pts (1-10 FG, 1-4 3P, 3-4 FT), 2 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 1 tov

That looks quite drastically different. I wanted to see if Arike was taking selfish or bad shots. I'll take an in-depth look at Arike's touches in the second half below.

However another important stat that should be immediately considered is her plus/minus. Like Azzi, Arike also played every minute in the second half, where she was +16 including +7 in the 3:21 that Paige sat. Consider that for a moment.

CONCLUSION: After looking at all the possessions below, my conclusion is Arike is not taking bad shots. At most there are 1-2 possessions (#17 and maybe #5) [ETA for transparency #1 is also contested] out of 20 below one can argue she could have passed up although I don't have a problem with them.

What I see going on is the Wings offense playing well together, moving the ball, and finding great looks. And when the Liberty defense doesn't make a mistake, Arike gets the ball late and is still able to create for herself.

Arike passes up good shots for better ones and makes the right reads out of double teams. She's not stat hunting, and she's willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win.

Yes, Arike took more shots than Paige and Azzi who had higher FG%, but she is taking the tough shots at the end of the shot clock and still getting quality looks. That is how she helps the team and why the team is better with her even when her individual stats don't look amazing.

Detailed Analysis

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1 3Q 8:17 Arike makes a long 3 to give the Wings their first lead (GOOD)

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2 3Q 7:37 Stewart switches onto Arike who makes a nice sidestep move to get an open, but passes to Jess who draws the foul. This is a great decision, she has a good look from 3 but sees Jess with deep paint position and makes the entry pass. This is great team basketball (GOOD)

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3 3Q 6:28 Arike assists to Azzi made 3. Again good decision making (GOOD)

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4 3Q 6:01 Arike blows by her defender, Stewart helps and Arike misses the layup. Arike should have made this, but it's not a hot/cold or shot selection issue (OKAY)

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5 3Q 4:23 Arike misses a stepback midrange shot, Awak grabs the oreb and draws a foul. One can argue there's still 13 on the shot clock but it's worth mentioning Paige is off the floor. If you work the ball around some more maybe you get a better shot but maybe not. Honestly this is not a terrible shot. (OKAY)

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6 3Q 3:37 Arike gets the ball with 7 on the shot clock, drives and makes a layup that's waved off for an offensive foul. I agree with the call but like the drive. (OKAY)

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7 3Q 2:41 Arike off curl from Azzi, misses 12 footer. Again it's a fine look that just didn't go down. (OKAY)

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8 3Q 1:57 Arike makes a difficult pass out of a double team, but Maddy fumbles the pass and doesn't get the shot up in time. (OKAY)

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9 3Q 1:16 Arike assist to Paige on the low block. (GOOD)

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10 3Q 0:11.8 Arike drives and draws a foul on Jones (GOOD)

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11 3Q 0:00.5 Arike miss from 3/4 court. This shows up on the stat sheet as a miss but taking the shot shows Arike cares about the win and not empty stats. A lot of players will hold the shot until after time expires. (GOOD)

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12 4Q 9:20 Arike gets the ball again with 7 on the shot clock, creates a good look from 15ft but misses (OKAY)

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13 4Q 9:03 Paige passes to Arike, who passes right back to Paige for an assist on the 3. This is great basketball (GOOD)

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14 4Q 6:57 Arike makes a long 3 after a TO call. It doesn't count but we should be reminded Arike can make shots at any time

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15 4Q 6:47 Arike doubled with shot clock winding down but makes a good pass to Jess who draws the foul (GOOD)

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16 4Q 5:49 Arike baseline jumper misses but draws foul on Ionescu. Unsuccessful Liberty challenge. (GOOD)

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17 4Q 4:37 Paige passes to Arike after an oreb. Arike misses a 3. Multiple people pointed at this as a bad shot. Arike has made 5 threes, is open and catches the ball in rhythm. NYL has closed within single digits a couple times now and you don't want to be scared to shoot. That being said I won't argue too hard with people who say that was a bad shot. (BAD/OKAY)

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18 4Q 4:24 Arike steal, Stewart defends, Arike misses layup. I think this could/should have been called a foul and I don't think you should go Ben Simmons there and pass out. (OKAY)

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19 4Q 1:24 Arike gets the ball with 3.4 on the shot clock. She does a good job just to get an open look but layups in traffic are not automatic. (OKAY/GOOD)

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20 4Q 0:53.8 Arike makes an incredible skip pass out of a double team to Azzi in the corner who passes to an open Jess for the hockey assist. This doesn't show up in stat sheet but absolutely a + play. (GOOD)

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!