The WNBA semifinals get underway Tuesday night with the Connecticut Sun, who are the No. 2 seed, hosting the Los Angeles Sparks and a best-of-five series.
Molly Yanity covers the sun for The Athletic and is also director of Quinnipiac University's Sports Journalism Graduate Program.
Kari Njiiri, NEPR: Talk about the two teams, the Sun and the Sparks. The Sparks won two of the teams' three regular season games against each other. Will this make a difference in this series?
Molly Yanity: I don't think so. The Sun only lost two regular season series all summer. Yes, one of them was to the Sparks, but two of the games were in late May and early June. So that third game was in late August, and that was really the only one at this point that I think we can get a good handle on, because the Sparks in those first two games had a lot of lineup shuffling due to some injuries and a suspension.
The Sun are the only team this year to start the same five players every single game. So there's some continuity there. The Sun have home-court advantage. They were 15-2 at home this season, a league best. And that leads me to believe that the Sun have the edge, and what has happened earlier this season isn't going to matter too much.
Who should we look for to make a major impact in this series?
I think all five starters for the Sun are going to be really critical. As I've mentioned, they have been this very cohesive starting unit. They play a lot of minutes. Shooting guard Courtney Williams has come on really strong. She looks really good. She plays with just so much energy. She's really fun to watch.
Alyssa Thomas as a power forward, who doesn't have a lot of shooting range, but she can really make things happen. And against the Sparks, they're going to need that No. 4 player to really turn up the energy, grab rebounds, attack the rim and open things up to the shooters.
One thing to keep note on: The Sun are the worst free-throw shooting team in the league. And Los Angeles is No. 3. That really came into play in their last game, where the difference in the score really came down to free throws. The Sun only shoots 70% from the line, and in games that means a lot in things like the playoffs, that free throw percentage could be important.
Indeed. The Sparks are led by Chelsea Gray and Ogwumike sisters, Nneka and Chiney, who used to play for the Sun.
Yes, Chiney did play for the Suns. She was their first-round draft pick, five years ago, I want to say. And at the beginning of the season, right before it started, she literally forced a trade to Los Angeles. She wanted to play with her sister. She wanted to be working in TV with ESPN and working at the NBA finals. And she sort of threw down an ultimatum that it was trade me or I'm retiring. So the Sun did what they had to do. They traded her and they get a first round pick from Los Angeles next season for that.
Chiney has come off the bench. She's been the Sparks' sixth person. Chelsea Gray and Nneka Ogwumike are really the driving forces of the Sparks, not to overlook Candace Parker, who, when she's healthy and really rolling, is one of the best big players in the league.
And the Sparks also have a shooting guard named Riquna Williams...[who] is one heck of a shooter. And she kind of brings to the Sparks what Courtney Williams brings to the Sun. And...on any given day, she is capable of scoring 25 points and just providing that shot of energy for them.
