2024 WNBA Finals Game 5 Observations

Game 5 of the WNBA Finals is in the books, and New York won 67-62.  It was a terrible game that I’d prefer not to revisit…so let’s revisit it with my observations.

 

That game was horrible

This was a bad game both offensively and defensively, yet people praised it as a thriller since it went into overtime.  New York shot 30.6% from the floor and 8.7% from 3 (while also taking 25 free throws) and Minnesota shot 37.1% from the field and 15.8% from 3.  On top of that, neither team played good defense, as there were several instances where I noted players had wide open looks that missed or where teams missed blatant assignments.  Overall, the part of this game that was a thriller was when it ended since I was thrilled this atrocity was done; it was cruel after an amazing series.

 

The refereeing was…a bit one-sided, to be generous

This has been a talking point since the game and has been a bit controversial with pretty serious accusations being made about bias…though there is a point.  While most are pointing to the free throw discrepancy (25-8 in favor of New York), it became clearer when watching the game.  In the second half, I commented on about 6 fouls that I thought were pretty clearly in favor of New York and should not have been fouls, while there was 1 that I was surprised was a called on New York (though it was a foul).  On top of that, they allowed significantly more physicality for New York than for Minnesota, especially in the paint, where I noted several situations where Jonquel Jones was allowed to be more physical than whomever was matched up with her.  Also, the New York dress didn’t help…

 

Minnesota exploited switches with bigs on the perimeter very well

Whenever New York had a big switched onto a guard or wing on the perimeter, they appeared to be at a major disadvantage on defense.  There were several moments where Jonquel Jones was switched onto a smaller player on the perimeter and looked lost after a few steps; there were 3 times in the first half where I distinctly wrote down that Jones was beat on a switch when she kept up for about 3 shuffles before being beat and not even making an effort to keep up.  Minnesota kept trying to go back to this, and New York never sent anyone to help throughout the first half, which was something I found surprising.

 

New York’s counter of playing Nyara Sabally for so many minutes saved the game

In the second half, New York made the most important adjustment of the entire series.  After Minnesota couldn’t hit a 3 and was attacking the paint, New York played 3 bigs (or bigger forwards) together in Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Nyara Sabally.  While this normally doesn’t make a ton of sense to have them playing instead of an additional wing for additional versatility, New York largely had Sabally as a drop defender focused on the paint, allowing her to consistently help anytime anybody got close to the rim.  The three of them are so big and long that it countered Minnesota’s offense while also giving more size in the paint on offense.

 

Jonquel Jones was the right MVP choice by default, and even that felt underwhelming

New York had a weird series where Breanna Stewart was underwhelming offensively by her standards, Sabrina Ionescu was bad offensively, and almost everybody else was inconsistent at best, so Jones was consistently good and won the MVP.  It feels justified enough when considering her numbers of 17.8 PPG on a 56.1%/42.9%/100% split with 7.6 RPG and seeing her dominate games at points, but she certainly did not dominate.  Even when she thrived in games, she had long stretches in each game where she totally disappeared and was a nonfactor on offense and had defensive mix-ups (while I felt that her lapses in this game were the worst, she did have stretches where she missed plays she shouldn’t have).  While she normally isn’t the primary focus of New York’s offense, she had 11.4 field goal attempts a game, which isn’t that much for someone who supposedly was dominant throughout.  While there is a case to be made that her presence changed the game, I think that Breanna Stewart’s presence had a greater impact since you have to scheme both defensively and offensively around her.  Despite all of that, I felt as though they had to give it to her.

 

While both teams faded, Minnesota faded worse

Minnesota fading in the second half with their shooting percentages has been the norm this entire series, but it felt like a totally different story in Game 5; they mired an awful slump in the second half after being at least decent from 2.  I think the issue is that Minnesota’s stars played for so many minutes.  On top of that, Alanna Smith’s injury made it difficult for her.  Add in the fact that Courtney Williams struggled mightily with her jumper and it just put more pressure on their other players.

 

There were several mix-ups for each team on both ends

I made several notes about the fact that players on each team had made silly mistakes that were avoidable or missed something obvious, but there were also many times where the other team missed it as well.  There were two later in the game that I found interesting.  In the fourth, Bridget Carleton was guarding nobody for approximately seven seconds before she looked around and saw nobody was next to her; despite that, New York didn’t notice that there was a player who was wide open on the opposite end of the court.  In overtime, Jonquel Jones had amazing position in the paint against Courtney Williams, but nobody from New York noticed this; ironically, nobody from Minnesota noticed them either, despite two Minnesota players being in a position to help.

 

After a while, Minnesota allowed Sabrina Ionescu to shoot anything, and it was the right move

For most of the game, Minnesota heavily guarded Ionescu, and in most situations, this is a good idea.  Even when she has off nights with her shot, not only can you not expect her shot to be permanently gone, but she is such a smart playmaker that you have to stay on her.  About halfway through the fourth quarter, Minnesota started allowing her to take wide open 3’s since Ionescu was taking any shot given to her if she was open.  The thing is that she wasn’t hitting any of them in this game; in particular, she went 1-19 from the field and 1-10 from 3.  I think that she just ran out of juice since most shots were either short or airballs, but she is so valuable that New York needed her on the court.  The other thing I wonder is if an early minor injury in her shooting hand messed up her shot the whole game.  If she was making great passes while open, it would be better for Minnesota to also guard her, but they realized she was not doing this.

 

Alanna Smith needed to be on the court for Minnesota, but she shouldn’t have been out there

I think at this point we can all agree that Smith was not healthy in this game and probably shouldn’t have been out there as much as she was (though it wasn’t as bad as some of Minnesota’s prior games).  However, they were totally lost in the paint on both ends of the court as soon as she stepped off the court.  Minnesota didn’t put up much of a fight on the defensive glass when she was out and looked timid when driving into the paint.  While New York was so much bigger than Minnesota with their playing style in this game, Minnesota needed any size they could get to just throw bodies at New York, but they really couldn’t do that whenever Smith was out of the game.

 

That was a bad ending to an amazing season

Not only was this series excellent, but the season was also so much fun.  There were so many enticing teams, games, players, and plays that made it such an entertaining season.  As such, it would make sense to think that a Game 5 would be the perfect way to end the season.  This wasn’t; it was awful and something we all could have lived without.

 

 

Congratulations to New York for winning the championship and to Minnesota for having such a successful season!

 

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