Sue Bird has shot well the past couple of games and continues to be aggressive with the ball. It is still wierd to have the Storm play at such a slow pace and have such low scoring games. I really enjoyed the hustle and gutsy attitude displayed by newcomer Camille Little. She is going to work Shyra Ely out of the lineup. At the start of the year we saw less of Swoopes and more of Cash. As the season has progressed and Sheryl has improved her conditioning while Cash has struggled with her shot, that situation has reversed itself. Ashley is seeing increased minutes since she and Shyra were warned to improve by Coach Agler, but Shyra is slipping out of favor and not helping herself when she is on the floor.
For those interested, Tanisha Wright is -23 for the season at the point guard position. Kimberly Beck was -14 in significantly less minutes. At the shooting guard position Tanisha is +20 with Bird at the point and -19 with Beck at the point. She is also -1 in her limited time at the small forward slot.
Beck was not really playing any better than Tanisha at the point. Tanisha has huge upside playing side by side with Sue. If the coach needed to cut someone, Beck was the only choice that made sense. Sue is playing the most minutes per game of her career (not that I approve of that) so it doesn't really matter who plays poorly at the point while she sits. It won't be for long, and everyone stunk in that role. The more glaring needs for the team were three point shooting and rebounding, as well as post depth for the last five games before the break when LJ is off in Australia. Picking up a good rebounder who is shooting 40% from three and can play both forward spots was the smart choice.
Yes, the Storm need a solution at backup point. No, it isn't their biggest problem.
Storm
Most Effective Shooters
Player | True Shooting Percentage | Effective FG% | Floor Percentage | Points |
| Shyra Ely | 100% | 100% | 100% | 2 |
| Sue Bird | 70% | 70% | 51% | 14 |
| Yolanda Griffith | 60% | 50% | 48% | 9 |
| Sheryl Swoopes | 55% | 55% | 57% | 11 |
| Swin Cash | 52% | 43% | 48% | 10 |
Lauren Jackson was solid here as well but missed a number of her signature turnaround jumpers on the block that kept her off this list by 1%.
Top Ratings
| Player | Offensive Rating | Individual Rating |
| Shyra Ely | 200.00 | 183.05 |
| Sheryl Swoopes | 124.43 | 117.78 |
| Sue Bird | 115.73 | 120.04 |
| Lauren Jackson | 100.93 | 86.88 |
| Swin Cash | 93.82 | 83.06 |
Ely had her best offensive showing in a while, but it doesn't hurt your percentages and ratings when the coach pulls you after your first basket. Swoopes started the season with mostly defense and free throws and is warming up nicely to the player the Storm needed when they signed her. I look forward to seeing her in the playoffs. If only Swin weren't struggling so much.
Raw Plus/Minus
Yolanda Griffith: +20
Sue Bird: +19
Lauren Jackson: +19
Sheryl Swoopes: +16
Katie Gearlds: +8
Swin Cash: +7
Tanisha Wright: -2
Camille Little: -2
Kelly Santos: -2
Shyra Ely: -3
Ashley Robinson: -5
Most Effective Lineups
Bird-Swoopes-Cash-Jackson-Griffith: +12
Bird-Gearlds-Swoopes-Jackson-Griffith: +7
Bird-Wright-Swoopes-Jackson-Griffith: +3
Wright-Gearlds-Swoopes-Jackson-Griffith: +2
Mystics
Most Effective Shooters
Player | True Shooting Percentage | Effective FG% | Floor Percentage | Points |
| Crystal Langhorne | 100% | 100% | 71% | 6 |
| Crystal Smith | 51% | 50% | 32% | 5 |
| Taj McWilliams-Franklin | 47% | 43% | 37% | 7 |
| Alana Beard | 45% | 41% | 31% | 16 |
The Storm defense was dominant and set the 6th lowest score allowed in WNBA history (since the 24 second shot clock) per pd-swanson.
Top Ratings
| Player | Offensive Rating | Individual Rating |
| Crystal Langhorne | 143.69 | 140.68 |
| Nakia Sanford | 82.71 | 73.84 |
Amazingly, there is no other Mystics player with more than an 80 points per 100 possession rating or better than a 70 point individual rating.
Raw Plus/Minus
Kendra Wecker: +3
Nikki Blue: 0
Bernice Mosby: -3
Laurie Koehn: -5
Crystal Smith: -6
Nakia Sanford: -6
Crystal Langhorne: -9
Alana Beard: -11
Taj McWilliams-Franklin: -12
Coco Miller: -12
Monique Currie: -13
Most Effective Lineups
Miller-Beard-Wecker-McWilliams^Franklin-Sanford: +3
Smith-Miller-Beard-McWilliams^Franklin-Sanford: +3
Blue-Beard-Currie-McWilliams^Franklin-Sanford: +2
Smith-Wecker-Koehn-Mosby-Langhorne: +2
5 comments:
By your records has Swoopes played any point? Even if Wright is the PG, Swoopes can help play-make.
I don't have Swoopes as point, but she has handled the ball on a number of possessions. She is not a playmaker, though she has handle.
I was going off the recent good assist game and her status as clear #2 on assists but thanks for the feedback / informed assessment.
She has always had a good ability to get assists, she went through a period of being double and triple teamed in her career. She just doesn't have the court vision to be a point guard, at least in my opinion. She is a scorer and defender at heart.
Yeah I probably should have said good at execution & decision-making rather than playmaking. My memories from her run in fez Houston are modest sized and fuzzy.
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