After losing three of four games, the Connecticut Sun have returned to their winning ways, reeling off three-straight wins to move to 17-4, matching the New York Liberty for the league’s best record. The three victories were propelled by the Sun’s three All-Stars: Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones.
Jones, now a three-time All-Star, posted 18 points and seven rebounds to push Connecticut past the Phoenix Mercury, 83-72. During her 27 minutes on the court, the Sun outscored the Mercury by a team-best 23 points. Bonner got buckets in Connecticut’s victories over the Minnesota Lynx, 78-73, and Atlanta Dream, 80-67. Against the Lynx, the six-time All-Star tied her season high with 24 points before draining a career-best seven triples as she finished with 23 points against the Dream.
And through it all, Alyssa Thomas—”The Engine,” a five-time All-Star and a first-time Olympian—has remained the driving force for the Sun. After flirting with a triple-double against Phoenix with 10 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, she completed the deed in the win over Minnesota, totaling 13 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists. In just 25 minutes against Atlanta, she had a tidy stat line of seven points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
With three All-Stars, a legitimate All-Star snub in DiJonai Carrington and the league’s best record, all is good in Connecticut, right?
Can Connecticut compete with the league’s best?
It’s worth asking how good the Sun are. Yes, the are a very good regular season team, ready and willing to grind out wins against any opponent—almost.
There’s a glaring hole in the Sun’s resume, as they’ve yet to beat the championship favorites: the Liberty and Las Vegas Aces. While Connecticut and New York may share matching 17-4 records, the Liberty own two wins over the Sun. New York not only dealt Connecticut their first loss of the season, winning the June 8th battle in Brooklyn, but also handed the Sun their first loss at Mohegan Sun Arena. Likewise, the back-to-back defending champs smacked the Sun around in their first visit to Las Vegas. Connecticut also came up short against another team with championship ambitions in the Seattle Storm, as the Sun scored a season-low 61 points in their loss to Seattle.
In a vacuum, none of those losses are particularly concerning. Yet taken together, they raise questions about the Sun’s ability to compete with the league’s best, especially in the postseason. And especially on the offensive end.
Connecticut has a rock-solid defense, trailing only the Minnesota Lynx with a defensive rating of 93.6. Their offensive rating of 102.6 ranks third, suggesting there are no big problems on that end. However, the Sun average only 79.9 points per game, which ranks eighth in the league. The Sun score effectively, but, because they play at the league’s slowest pace, they don’t score explosively. The Aces and Storm, in contrast, play at the fastest paces in the league, while the Liberty, playing at a moderate pace, take and make the most 3s per game. The Sun rank 11th in both 3-pointers attempted and made.
Although many a coach may proclaim, “Defense wins championships,” offensive firepower increasingly defines the elite teams in modern basketball. Thus far, the 2024 Sun, not unlike previous editions of the team, do no appear to have the extra offensive gear necessary to win consistently at the highest level.
Can Connecticut raise their ceiling?
As assembled, can the Sun find the offensive fire needed to run with the likes of the Liberty, Aces and Storm?
The Sun are reflection of the strengths and weaknesses of their best player: Alyssa Thomas. While she deserves all the praise and more for her relentless determination to assert her will on every aspect of a game, her shortcomings in the offensive halfcourt, largely due her limitations as a shooter, cap the Sun’s ceiling. Brute force, will and want to can lead to buckets, but often not in ways that cause dialed in defenses to bend and break down. The transition scoring opportunities where Thomas and the Sun thrive also tend to dry up against better, more prepared competition.
While 3-point shooting is not the modern elixir for all offensive ills, high-volume 3-point shooting does tend to make offense easier. While it would be unwise to expect, or even to encourage, the Sun to totally switch up their offensive identity and begin to bomb away from behind the arc, Connecticut has enough viable 3-point shooters to incorporate more long-range shooting in their offense, generating not only more points but also more space inside the arc for Thomas and Jones.
Always a streaky shooter, Bonner must continue to fire away, using her volume, rather than her percentage, to threaten opponents. Carrington likewise should not be discouraged by dry spells and keep working to establish herself as a shooter who must be guarded. Ty Harris has become an excellent 3-pointer shooter and should be attempting more than 4.3 per game. How real is Veronica Burton’s shooting? She’s taken 10 3s and made half of them, giving her a much higher percentage than she posted in her two seasons with the Dallas Wings. She should keep shooting with confidence. Thus far, Rachel Banham is shooting a career-worst percentage from 3, but, when given the opportunity, she’s proven unafraid to keep launching.
What’s next for Connecticut?
The Connecticut Sun are very good. But, to win the franchise’s first championship, they have to find a way to become great. In particular, they have to find a way to become a great offense.
They’ll have two opportunities to prove themselves before the All-Star/Olympic break, twice meeting the Liberty. They host New York on Wednesday, July 10 (11 a.m. ET, League Pass) and then close out the first half of the season with a game in Brooklyn on Tuesday, July 16 (7 p.m. ET, Prime Video). Between those two first-place tilts, the Sun welcome the Mercury to Uncasville on Sunday, July 14 (1 p.m. ET, ABC).