Jun. 27—MOHEGAN — It has been comical at times this season to watch how drastically the Connecticut Sun have continued to embrace their “defense first, score-when-we-can” identity.
Connecticut used to play one of the most exciting styles of basketball in the WNBA, using a combination of the fast break and long ball to rack up points and wins.
Fast forward to Sunday afternoon in which Connecticut scored a whopping 74 against the Chicago Sky, one of the league’s best teams. … and won by 16 points.
“It might not always be pretty but we have to make it ugly,” Sun head coach Curt Miller said after a 74-58 win before 2,014 at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“We have to make it like that.”
The Sky (9-8) had won seven in a row, including two over Connecticut. They were the league’s second-highest team (90.7 ppg) from June 9-26. They also shot 47.3 percent over that time, also second best in the WNBA.
Chicago shot 33.3 percent against Connecticut, the lowest by any Sun opponent this season. Fifty eight points were also a season low by both the Sky and a Connecticut opponent.
DeWanna Bonner had 23 points and seven rebounds for the Sun (10-5) while Brionna Jones had 21 points and nine rebounds.
Jasmine Thomas scored 18 with three steals for Connecticut and reserve Beatrice Mompremier added a both a game-and-career high 11 rebounds.
It was Connecticut’s fifth-and-final game without post Jonquel Jones, who has played at an MVP level. She left the team earlier this month to play with the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team at the FIBA Women EuroBasket tournament. Miller said Jones is expected to meet the Sun in Washington, D.C. for Tuesday’s game at the Mystics.
Connecticut went 2-3 without Jones.
Kahleah Copper and Allie Quigley were the only players to score in double figures (11 points each) for the Sky.
Starters Diamond DeShields, Stefanie Dolson, Candace Parker and Courtney Vandersloot combined to scored 18 points for Chicago.
“They kind of dictated the pace,” Sky coach James Wade said about Connecticut.
Miller was best known for his offensive mind when Connecticut hired him as its head coach in Dec. 2015. “Offense is spacing and spacing is offense” was his mantra as his teams at both Bowling Green and Indiana were known for playing fast and using the three-ball.
The Sun were forced to adapt a defense-first mindset last season when it traded Courtney Williams, their best mid-range shooter, to the Atlanta Dream during the 2020 offseason. Atlanta also lured three-point specialist Shekinna Stricklen away from Connecticut in free agency.
Connecticut already had three top defenders — post Jonquel Jones, forward Alyssa Thomas and point guard Jasmine Thomas. It acquired guard Briann January, a six-time All-Defensive Team selection, in the Williams trade.
Jones opted out of last season due to the pandemic, yet the Sun rode still their defense all the way to the 2020 WNBA semifinals.
“When I got here, we started to build with that draft class in 2016 and had young legs,” Miller said. “We could really score the ball. We weren’t always good defensively.”
It’s been quite a change for the likes of Bonner. She broke into the league in 2009 with the Phoenix Mercury, which used the league’s fastest and most wide-open offense to win two titles.
“Then I came here (in 2020) and it’s been totally different,” Bonner said. “Jasmine Thomas, Briann, Alyssa when she’s out there [Thomas is out this season with an Achilles injury], JJ … those are defensive-minded players. So they kind of challenged me a little bit. I don’t want to be the player on the court who doesn’t play defense.”
The Sun led the majority of the game. Chicago, however, managed to cut a 17-point deficit to 36-32 just 13 seconds into the third quarter.
Connecticut outscored the Sky the rest of the quarter, 26-12. Bonner scored 11, including a 3-pointer that gave the Sun a 60-40 lead with 1:50 left in the third. Thomas also scored nine.
“I’ve been embracing (defense first),” Miller said. “I understand we have to win that way. It’s painful at times when we struggle offensively, how I’m wired, but it’s how we have to win.”