Game 20 wrap: Always Close Enough To Hurt™; Valkyries fall just short; Aces stars shine

A'ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Jewell Loyd live up to their reputations

• Official box score

Apricot’s discombobulated in-game notes

Sorry, they’re disorganized and there were long stretches when I forgot to write notes. But they were written with honesty and love.

Pregame

• I mostly have heard players talk about how physical and tough the WNBA is and how much stronger and faster everyone is. With Zandalasini and Salaun, I wonder also if it’s partly that they’ve come off EuroBasket where they had permanent green light for shots on their national teams and now have to play off the ball more and can’t create as easily for themselves.

• Never a good sign when you're watching a Valkyries game and wondering if an opposing player is going to break the all-time single-game scoring record

Q3

• I had to miss the first half, but it looks like it can be summarized by a clip of A'ja Wilson relaxing in a bath of gold coins laughing. 

• Coach Nakase's interview at halftime was her angrily talking about how she was going to chew out the team for being soft on defense and then yelling an apology to the reporter as she stormed off into the distance. 

• Imagine what A’ja could do if her wrist wasn't injured. 

• 10.00. Valkyries start with Horns' Flare play, ends with Janelle Salaun shooting her frighteningly flat but effective jumper. 

• 9.30. Aces give the ball to A'ja Wilson with Chelsea Gray coming off-ball to set an instant screen. Clever little action to prevent GSV from loading up on Wilson. 

• 9.08. Clever defense from Las Vegas there. GSV runs a pick-and-roll with Burton and Salaun. Aces spring a trap, and as Burton tries to pass to the rolling open Salaun, help comes with Gray rotating way off the opposite corner. Time out. 

• 8.55. Really clever action from the Aces. Wilson sets a hard screen to knock down Burton. VB calls for a switch, but Fagbenle wants to chase Wilson, and Hayes thinks Fagbenle will switch (which makes sense since Temi will have a better chance to block the shot). No one switches. Layup. 

• 8.12. Aces run exactly the same play. This time Burton fights through the screen, but Wilson now gets a brush screen on Hayes following the cutter to the opposite wing, which gives her enough space to dot a three in her eye. 

• 5.47. Carla Leite in, and she bounces a pocket pass to the rolling Fagbenle right off of Temi's knee. Passing to the roller has been a consistent issue for Carla this year. 

• 4.51. Burton gets her fourth foul. Ruh-roh, Shaggy. 

• 4.31. Love to see Cecilia that aggressive. She was actually open on the initial pick and pop, but didn't get the ball.

• 4.20. Carla Leite confused defensively, almost as if people yelled at her to play a zone or something, and she just dropped back to guard nobody. That created the open three. 

Q4

• 9.26. Sometimes the simple play is a good play. Zandalasini sets the pick, then forces the switch onto the smaller defender, then posts her up. Help comes from the opposite corner, passed to the cutter from the opposite corner, foul. 

• 8.30. Chen running the pick and roll. The big defender switches to Chen without worry that she will burn her in isolation.I have the feeling this will be the defense against her going forward until she can disprove it by punitive buckets. 

• 8.15. I guess Zandalasini is getting her confidence back. She is doing a great job creating advantages and passing

• 8.00. Leite and Fagbenle run a wing pick and roll again and again, Carla throws a terrible pocket pass AGAIN (cf Q3.5.47.) to the rolling Fagbenle, which leads to a fast break 2 the other way. 

• 7.09. Whoa, Evans is fast, period. With a delicate finish over Carla

• 6.50. Nye gets a stagger screen from under the basket. Zandalasini tries to take a shortcut over the top of the screens, good flaring out by Nye, and the Valkyries dodge a bullet. 

• 6.22. Zandalasini has got the rhythm on that sweet turnaround jumper. And of course she holds her finger, because we can't keep nice things.

• 5.28. Fagbenle gets the small guarding her on the switch. Las Vegas prevents the pass in, so GSV swings it to the other side for a better angle. As the entry pass is in the air, Aces tried to scram switch off of Temi, but Temi is willing to score over anybody.

• oooooh, Amihere in. we're desparate, need to chaos this joint up

• It got complicated and close but GSV couldn’t quite get over the hump.

• Hard fought and slightly random ending but when one side can go to a Jackie Young - A'ja Wilson PNR and the other side has to set three screens for Zandalasini... here's where the all-star deficit hurts.

  • To clarify for new readers, I call any game that's within one possession in the last four minutes a random ending. That's because there's a lot of amoral chance in the game that American sports culture loves to interpret as superior/inferior character, tactics, mandate of heaven, etc.

  • For instance, in this game in the last 3 minutes, there were multiple close reviews, deflections out of bounds, and weird ball bounces going in both directions. And of course, the Valkyries fought really hard and never gave up down the stretch, but also hit three pretty lucky long shots to keep the game close. Not to mention the randomness from earlier in the game.

  • So, the work and the hustle and the attitude show character, but the game result often does not.

Valkyrie Valor

FYI, I’ve made up a new policy (driven by the limited number of poll options) that whoever won the last VV (in the case, Veronica Burton) is not eligible for the next game.