After a historic winning streak to start the 2024 season, the Connecticut Sun have lost four of their last eight games and face a pair of critical matchups before entering the WNBA’s three-week break for the Paris Olympics.
Sun superstar Alyssa Thomas is set to compete with Team USA in her first Olympic Games, but first the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference will host the Phoenix Mercury at Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday, after a 70-47 win in the first meeting. Connecticut will then face the New York Liberty on the road in Brooklyn for the third time this year looking for their first regular-season win over the conference rival since July 2022.
“We have a veteran group, so we don’t have a lot of players that we’re introducing to what it takes to be successful,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “It’s an every day thing. You can’t have a day off; you can’t have a lull. You’ve got to be consistent. Our group just really is very businesslike in their approach. They don’t get too high, don’t get too low, and understand the urgency of every season.”
Building on offensive consistency
The Sun look like championship contenders when their offense is flowing, but inconsistency has been the squad’s Achilles heel all season. Connecticut has scored 75 points or fewer and shot below 43% from the field in all five of its losses, and though its 40.8% against New York on Wednesday was an improvement from 35.8% in the first meeting, it’s not enough to get the Sun over the hump against the most talented teams in the league.
“You just can’t make a lot of mistakes, and you’ve got to be able to to match their scoring,” White said after the loss. “They have a lot of weapons on both ends of the floor. … When they go with that big lineup, they’ve got length at four or five positions, and that creates some challenges defensively because of what they can do. I always feel really good about our defensive effort … but we’ve got to be able to score with them.”
Connecticut’s system thrives on movement and players making quick reads, but they currently rank second-to-last in the league in assists, averaging 19 per game. Thomas is one of the best passers in the WNBA, but her production has taken a dip even as the offense has seen more success recently. The Sun star logged five double-doubles across the first eight games of the season but has put up just three in the 14 games since, and she is averaging her fewest points per game since 2019.
Prioritizing injury management and recovery
Heath has become a critical storyline for Team USA leading up to the All-Star game.: Former UConn stars Diana Taurasi and Napheesa Collier are both on the roster but have missed multiple games in the last week with injuries, and Brittney Griner has played just 12 games since the start of the WNBA season. The Sun are slated to face five U.S. Olympians across their final two games before the break, but players may be varying degrees of involved as teams look to avoid unnecessary risk.
Thomas has earned the nickname “The Engine” for her relentless effort on the court, so the Sun’s Olympian probably won’t be restricted leading into the break despite a minor ankle injury she dealt with before the Washington Mystics game on June 27. However, White has stressed the importance of rest for Connecticut, and she is trying to work in lighter loads for her veteran stars as often as possible. Thomas and leading scorer DeWanna Bonner have both been in the league for more than a decade, and All-Star center Brionna Jones is recently recovered from an Achilles rupture suffered last June.
“When we have opportunities to rest AT, we want to do that regardless of the Olympics. I mean certainly for the Olympics, because that is so important, but for us too, making sure that because of the Olympics, and because of the length of the season, and because she plays all year round, that she’s efficient and effective throughout the course of the year,” White said. “I love looking and seeing multiple players in the 20-minute range. We need that in order for us to to finish strong into the break, and we’re going to need that for coming back on the on the back end to finish the season.”
Maintaining momentum into second half of season
Connecticut’s final two opponents, the Mercury and Liberty, leave no room to coast. The Sun just saw the Liberty three days ago on their home court, suffering a 71-68 defeat after coming back from a 14-point deficit in the first half, and New York also dealt the Sun their first loss of the 2024 season, 82-75 at Mohegan Sun on June 8. Things won’t get any easier for Connecticut on the road at Barclays Center, especially with the Liberty averaging their highest home attendance since 2001. A Liberty-record 17,758 showed up on Thursday night to watch a 91-76 win over the Chicago Sky.
The Sun had a historic defensive performance in their first meeting with Phoenix on May 28, holding the Mercury to 1-for-27 on 3-pointers to set a WNBA record for worst 3-point percentage in a game. Phoenix was also playing without Griner, and Connecticut doesn’t have any player with the size and length to match the 6-foot-9 All-Star. The Sun are likely to enter the break on a loss to the Liberty after starting 0-2 against their conference rival, which makes the meeting with the Mercury even more important to end the first half of the season on a strong note.