2024 WNBA Finals Game 4 Observations

Game 4 of the WNBA Finals is in the books, and Minnesota won 82-80.  It was an exciting and close game throughout that came down to the end, with Bridget Carleton making two clutch free throws with a couple seconds left.

 

New York should feel confident despite losing

Sure, losing in a finals game is never good, but New York shouldn’t feel as bad as most losing teams in this situation should.  First, don’t count on Breanna Stewart (5-21) and Sabrina Ionescu (5-15) both being atrocious from the field.  Second, they had several avoidable turnovers that can be prevented.  Third, Alanna Smith isn’t getting healthier, especially after playing 30 minutes in Game 1.  Lastly, there were several questionable foul calls that went against them.  All of this and they only lost by 2.

 

New York didn’t exploit Alanna Smith’s presence enough

While Smith was on the court and was solid, she really couldn’t run.  There were times where New York attacked her directly, but Smith played it well.  With her limited mobility, I feel like they could have attacked her more with screens and motion.  While Jonquel Jones (who Smith was primarily defending) doesn’t really play that naturally, they could still try a different player on her.

 

Minnesota really can’t afford to keep Alanna Smith of the court

Even while ideally Smith shouldn’t be playing as much as she is, Minnesota was smoked in the paint on both ends when she was out of the court.  I jotted down several notes of situations where they allowed offensive rebounds, struggled to box out, or allowed drives right to the paint.  On the other side, they seemed a bit lost with what to do in the paint without her on the court.  Minnesota tends to be a smaller team, and while New York doesn’t start a traditional big, they are a really big team overall, which makes it difficult without one of their bigs.

 

New York appears to have figured out Napheesa Collier offensively

All you have to do is watch the games and realize that Collier is struggling so badly with her shot.  If you look at her stats for the playoffs, you see her shot isn’t falling like it did prior.  In 11 playoff games, each of the games in this series were included in her lowest 6 games for total points; on top of that, she has averaged 18.3 PPG on 50% from the field (compared to 22 PPG on 50% shooting against Connecticut and 40 PPG on 64.1% shooting against Phoenix).  On top of that, she shot just 40.6% in the last two games.  I’m not shocked that it’s a tougher series given that she has to face Breanna Stewart or Jonquel Jones, both of whom are great defenders and are so long, but it still is something to monitor.

 

Kayla McBride keeps fading at the end of games

I don’t have the percentage in each game, every game I noted that it looked McBride had faded on the offensive end.  I checked out the numbers, and this proved to be true.  In the first halves in this series, she had 10.5 points on 53.8% from the field and 57.1% from deep; in the second halves, she has 6.5 points on 33.3% from the field and 46.2% from deep.  The 3P% is still excellent, but she has not been good from 2, especially in the paint.  While you don’t want to limit one of your best players, it still is worth noting for Minnesota, since this has been a common trend.  It’s also worth noting that she has played so many minutes this entire series, which is probably what is happening.

 

Minnesota and Courtney Williams are the perfect pairing

For most of her career, Williams was not a point guard; while she might have been listed at guard, she was more of a score first guard.  In Chicago last year, she jumped to 6.3 APG and 33.8 AST%, which were easily the highest of career.  This year, she had 5.5 APG and jumped up to 37.0 AST%; it’s been more pronounced in the playoffs, as she has 6.3 APG and 37.6 AST%.  All you have to do is watch her to see the passes that she is able to find (I especially love her chemistry with Napheesa Collier in the pick and roll).  On top of that, she is so confident in her jumper, which is so valuable when there are any jitters.

 

Minnesota does something interesting when a big is switched onto a stationary guard with the ball

I noticed something interesting when Napheesa Collier got switched onto Sabrina Ionescu while Ionescu wasn’t moving:  Collier got really close into her airspace and had her arms out.  Collier was very careful not to foul Ionescu or reach in, which Ionescu would have caught up on, but it suddenly removed all the passing lanes.  I realized that I noted this at other times, including once when Dorka Juhasz was on a smaller player.  It’s something easier said than done, but I found it interesting that this kept happening.

 

It’s interesting just how much New York has gone away from Courtney Vandersloot

In Game 1, Vandersloot was great off the bench in just over 23 minutes, and appeared to be a nice addition off the bench; she also held her own defensively, which was going to be a difficulty against versatility and size.  Since then, she played 11 minutes in Game 2, 8 minutes in Game 3, and 7 minutes in Game 4.  On top of that, her impact of what she was doing on the court was minimized, and it appears as though they totally bailed on having her on the court with Sabrina Ionescu, which I don’t hate, though she is too talented to give such few minutes.

 

Myisha Hines-Allen didn’t play, which is surprising

After the trade deadline, Hines-Allen became a key part of Minnesota’s rotation.  She really hasn’t played that well in this series (she was especially overmatched in Game 3 on both ends) and hasn’t been able to hit a shot consistently (just 26.7% from the field and hasn’t hit a 3 yet), but she is still a versatile defender due to her size.  I was surprised that they opted to totally bail on her and not even play her in this game.  I’m curious to see what they do with her in Game 5.

 

That was a thoroughly exciting game throughout

After 3 straight games that weren’t even close until the second half, Game 4 was finally a close one throughout.  The lead never got into double figures (I think the largest it got was 7) and it still game down to the buzzer.  I was hoping for a game like this.

 

 

What did you think of this game?  Let me know in the comments!