Minnesota at full strength for WNBA playoffs – but beware the LA Sparks

“It felt really good to have everybody on the court,” Minnesota Lynx cornerstone Maya Moore said after practice on Tuesday, days ahead of the WNBA playoffs. “All 12 pieces, on the court at the same time.”

The presence of Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus on the practice floor had to be soothing for the tired legs of Moore, who largely carried this Lynx team to the Western Conference’s top seed this season. An expected superteam, particularly once they acquired Sylvia Fowles, finished the season just 7-8 after starting off 15-4.

But part of that was integrating Fowles. Most of that was missing Whalen and Augustus.

“Lindsay, Seimony, Syl and Maya have played together less than 50 minutes on the season,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said Tuesday. “So them getting as many reps for us as possible is good for us.”

What it all means is that the most talented team on paper in the WNBA is at full strength heading into their playoff opener Thursday night. That’s good, because a rival for that mantle will be Minnesota’s first-round opponent.

Moore is the 2014 WNBA MVP. The Los Angeles Sparks boast the 2013 winner in Candace Parker, who actually improved upon her MVP form this season. Her player efficiency rating of 31.9 is the best of her career, and ranked a close second to likely 2015 MVP Elena Delle Donne’s 32.7. She led the league in assist percentage, at 37.2, and finished a close second in defensive rebounding percentage, at 30.6. She also rated in the league’s top ten in steal percentage and block percentage.

So it is no surprise that the Los Angeles Sparks were 3-13 without her, 11-7 with her (and those last two losses came with the Sparks resting players in games that didn’t affect playoff seeding). Nneka Ogwumike, the team’s most efficient scorer, is back from a concussion suffered in August. Her season was also delayed due to a sprained ankle.

Accordingly, though the team’s record is just 14-20, it wouldn’t surprise anybody if the Sparks found their way to the WNBA finals.

They’ll just have to beat a team with six US Olympians to get there. You can watch at 10pm EST Friday night on NBA TV.

Running down the rest of the first-round series:

West

(2) Phoenix Mercury v (3) Tulsa Shock

This is a difficult matchup to handicap, mainly because of the extremes that made up the Shock’s season. Tulsa started 8-1, driven by Skylar Diggins, the young, charismatic star who looked like she’d taken the step forward into the league’s elite before a torn ACL ended her season. The Shock, predictably, lost 13 of 15, giving away most of their early gains. Ownership announced the team would be moving to Dallas, limiting the advantage of home court, and many wondered of the Shock would win another game all season when the team dropped ten in a row. But coach Fred Williams found a combination that finished the year 8-2, with guard Odyssey Sims scoring 21 or more in five of the ten games. Long-range gunner Riquna Williams will take a three if given a bit of space. And don’t ignore the second overall pick Amanda Zahui B., who scored 15 in the season finale, and whose size will be needed against Phoenix.

That’s Brittney Griner’s Mercury, and so much of how Phoenix plays will depend on Griner’s ability to control the game defensively. Griner missed the first seven games due to league suspension over her domestic violence incident, and still managed to block 105 shots, 38 more than anyone else in the league. Her defensive dominance is what sets the Mercury apart in a season where the offense is well off of last year’s pace (playing without Diana Taurasi has an effect). But the Mercury do have offensive weapons like the always-dangerous DeWanna Bonner, all arms and legs and angles to the basket, Candace Dupree and X-factor Marta Xargay of Spain, a facilitator who seemed to understand the league better as the year went on. The series tips 10 PM EST Thursday on ESPN2.

East
(1) New York Liberty v (4) Washington Mystics

The Liberty earned the top overall seed in the WNBA playoffs, and they did it in a way familiar to head coach Bill Laimbeer: through some of the best defense in league history. No WNBA team allowed fewer than the Liberty’s 92.2 points per 100 possessions since 2007, when two teams did it – the Indian Fever, with five-time defensive player of the year Tamike Catchings, and the Detroit Shock (head coach? Bill Laimbeer). The Liberty excel by clamping down on opposing offenses, throwing bigs like Tina Charles, Carolyn Swords, and rightful rookie of the year Kiah Stokes at interior players. The perimeter defenders, freed to take more chances, create turnovers and limit penetration.

Offensively, the Liberty utilize the high/low post work of Charles with the efficient scoring of Epiphanny Prince, who returned from playing overseas to a 6-4 Liberty team and helped them finish 17-7. Everybody on the team excels in a particular area, and Laimbeer has this team maximizing their roles. The only cautionary note is that they lost three of four to finish the season, though the Liberty had almost nothing to play for at that point.

They’ll face the Washington Mystics, who boast an enviable pair of young inside/outside threats in jumpshooting center Stefanie Dolson, 23, and versatile big Emma Meesseman, 22. Not only did they both make the all star team this year, Meesseman actually expanded her range beyond the three-point arc as the season went on, shooting 5-for-7 from three over her final five games. Then there’s Ivory Latta, the league’s most prolific three-point shooter. But for the Mystics, so much depends on the return of veteran guard Kara Lawson, one of the league’s smartest players, someone who makes so many plays that decide basketball games. Not surprisingly, the Mystics are 13-9 with Lawson, 5-7 without her. The team said her back injury makes her day-to-day, and how stiff a challenge the Mystics can present to the Liberty will have a lot to do with that back.

The series tips 7pm EST Friday on NBA TV.

East
(2) Chicago Sky v (3) Indiana Fever

The extent to which this series comes down to a pair of players is unfair to several contributors on both sides. The Sky boast Courtney Vandersloot at the point, an elite playmaker who drove the league’s most efficient and second-fastest offense, instant offense Allie Quigley off the bench, and veteran scoring guard Cappie Pondexter. The Fever have all star forward Marissa Coleman, young, talented rookie big Natalie Achonwa, and the improved shooting guard Shenise Johnson.

But for the Sky, as has been the case all season, it comes down to Elena Delle Donne, who just completed one of the best seasons in WNBA history. Her Win Shares/48 of .406 ranks sixth ever in the league, while she managed to take home a scoring title and post a 32.7 PER, best in the league as well, while playing 31 of 34 games, a career-high. Delle Donne emerged in the playoffs last season and took the Sky to the WNBA Finals. She’s even better this year, and her surrounding cast looks better, too.

In the other lineup, however, is the criminally underrated Tamika Catchings, whose Fever have reached the playoffs in 11 consecutive seasons, and at least the Eastern Conference finals in four straight campaigns. The Fever have wisely limited her minutes to just 26.6 per game, keeping the 36-year-old fresh for the playoff sprint. She managed a top-ten league finish in PER, a stat that rewards volume shooting, while taking less than 11 shots per game. She accomplished this by doing everything else well, defending at an elite level, rebounding among the trees, collecting steals and even blocking about a shot per game.

She announced earlier this year that after next season, she’s retiring. It seems foolish to bet against the massively decorated future Hall of Famer in one of her final chances at another WNBA title. Then again, the same is true of the league’s biggest star, Delle Donne, in the midst of her signature season.

You can watch them both beginning at 8pm EST Thursday night on ESPN2.