It’s an age-old basketball cliché for good reason:
Defense wins championships.
The Connecticut Sun 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 — throughout their playoff opener. Once the Sun found their offensive rhythm, this game became a real test.
The Sun won 93-69 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series. Connecticut can close out the series and prevent Indiana from having another home game with a win Wednesday.
Caitlin Clark, welcome to the basketball playoffs. She had a bruise under her eye after being hit there in the first quarter, but she said that wasn’t the reason her shot missed. And it did miss. Clark started 0 of 8 from three-point range, not making her first three-pointer until midway through the third quarter, and she finished with 11 points on 4 of 17 shooting, including 2 of 13 from three-point range.
“I had some really good chances. I felt like I had three pretty open three-pointers in the first half, like I usually do,” Clark said after the game. “So it’s tough, but I felt like I fought and did the best I could.”
Credit should go to DeWanna Bonner and his Sun teammates for messing up Clark’s rhythm, and it wasn’t just Clark. The entire Fever team struggled to find a rhythm against the Sun, shooting 6-of-28 (21.4 percent) from three-point range in the game.
Getting a team out of its rhythm and making the game a little ugly is what good defenses do. That’s what Connecticut did on Sunday.
Two other things got the Suns buzzing. One was the performance of Alyssa Thomas, an All-NBA player who recorded her fourth career triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists.
The other game-changing factor came when Tyasha Harris was forced to leave the game in the first quarter after twisting her ankle on a closing play. That put more pressure on backup Marina Maybrey to step up — and she did, scoring 27 points, the most ever scored as a backup in a WNBA playoff game.
The game was tight from the start. The Sun led 23-20 after the first quarter, thanks in large part to the six offensive rebounds they grabbed, which gave them plenty of scoring chances. And then there was Bonner, who scored 10 points in the first quarter, including a pair of three-pointers.
The game began to turn around when the Sun went on a 9-0 run late in the first half and had extended their lead to 8-46-38 by halftime. Connecticut turned the tables on the Fever by running every opportunity they had, which not only resulted in baskets but also fouls.
In the third quarter, Clark finally began to find his rhythm, as did Mabrey, from Connecticut, a midseason acquisition from Chicago, who scored 11 points in the quarter. The Sun extended the lead to 15 by the end of the third quarter. Then came the fourth and the Fever seemed to be what they were, the less experienced team in big moments. The Sun stepped on the gas and it was a blowout victory.
Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 21 points, while Aliyah Boston showed off her improved short-throw skills 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 adapt and adjust, their season will be over.
In other action from day one of the WNBA playoffs:
New York 83, Atlanta 69: Top-seeded New York started the game 6-of-6 shooting, jumped out to a 15-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back against an overmatched Atlanta team in its first playoff game of the series.
Brianna Stewart had her usual monstrous 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-for-9 from the field, struggling against Liberty’s defense, but still finished with a team-best 14 points. New York can close out the series at home in Game 2.
