Hope all of you are having good seasons.
UNDERs and dogs have been kings (queens?) this year....usually that happens through July and as BrutalJoe has mentioned things change in August. I don't see OVERs suddenly being dominant though as Wings, Sun and the Dream are still playing in the league and the Lynx still will play their scratch and claw defense.
Coaches tend to over-coach, which leads to long possessions and running plays has never produced good shots. Typically a set play produces a shot where the player catches the ball around 20 feet from the basketball off a pick facing away from the basket and where they will have to square herself, sight the basket and shoot. It's rare that those kinds of plays produce points. It is a low percentage shot.
Abe Lemon, a renowned coach from the past said, "there are two plays, 1) . Romeo and Juliet and 2) Take It To the Basket
Coaches should go the Abe Lemon school of basketball.
You put pressure on the opposing team, you put pressure on referees to make calls by penetrating the defense. Hopefully you have players that set up their teammates for easy scores. Most players aren't clever enough or are selfish, and can't make plays for their teammates when driving to the bucket. It is a lost art. Players are catch and shoot players nowadays.,,,,they can shoot 3 pointers, but they can't set up their teammates. Vandersloot can, but she rarely does these days, which I put on her coach.
Sky -6 Dream 157
Dream have the drivers in Sykes and Hayes, but everyone in the league know what they're gonna do, and neither can function in a pick and roll, and neither are clever passers. If I am the Dream, I run 3 hour practices where all they do is play 2 on 2, or 3 on 3 and just play the pick and roll game. They can't defend or execute pick and rolls. It is a coaching problem for that team. Their defense is bottom of the league this year...that is one reason why.
Mercury -7 Wings 154
The type of game the Wings play translates well at home, but not on the road usually. You have to have offense and scorers to win on the road. The defense that they play gets them called for fouls on the road, and which can get away with what they do at home. Tough to take the Wings on the road without Skylar or any skilled offensive player on the team.
Lynx -6' Storm 154
Lynx overachieve because they put out supreme effort. Defense is basically effort and your ass is sitting if you're on the Lynx and you decide not to try too hard. Storm are very well coached as well who also put out good effort consistently...their defense, with their trapping system leads to a lot of opponent's turnovers, which leads to easy buckets. It makes up for their lack of offense. Against bad teams and bad coaches it works great....against the Lynx where their coach will have apoplexy when her team does something wrong, I would not expect that type of turnover production will happen.
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