WNBA Playoffs Day 2

Great games last night, Detroit comes back to win and LA wins, perhaps, Lisa Leslie's final game in LA (which it won't be, sorry Seattle).

Los Angeles vs Seattle
Los Angeles, 1-0

Detroit vs Atlanta
Detroit, 1-0

The match ups tonight will be good too, well one of them will be.

Indiana Fever @ Washington Mystics (7:00 pm)
Phoenix Mercury @ San Antonio Silver Stars (9:00 pm)

Indiana Fever vs Washington Mystics

Game 1: Thu 9/17 (Washington) - 7:00 pm (ESPN2)
Game 2: Sat 9/19 (Indiana) - 7:00 pm (NBA TV)
Game 3: Mon 9/21 - (Indiana)-8:00 pm (ESPN2, if necessary)

Both teams are banged up which should prove to be interesting. All season long I've heard how Indiana can't win on the road (and I've thought that too). But they were almost .500 on the road, NOT bad. I'd take that. For Indiana both Tammy Sutton-Brown and Katie Douglas are still recovering. Tamika Catchings left the game early on on Sunday after her head collided with Connecticut Sun's Tan White's head (ouch).

For Washington, Alana Beard is recovering from a sprained ankle. Even with Beard though, the Mystics didn't win one of the four games they played against Indiana. Another issue for the Mystics; the game will not be played at the Verizon Center because some dinosaurs are marching around the Verizon Center floor. If you've read my blogs, you'll remember me talking about this before (or click here).

So some notes:

-Both teams average 77 points per game
-Washington allows 77 points per game vs Indiana's 71
-Both are very close on rebounding (for and against): Washington 35 for, 33 against; Indiana 33 for, 33 against.
-Indiana has 2 double figure scorers (Katie Douglas and Tamika Catchings) while Washington has 3 (Alana Beard, Lindsey Harding and Crystal Langhorne). But the rest of the Indiana starting 5 is nearly at double figures where Washington has a pretty big gap.

Keys for Indiana: STAY HEALTHY. Enough said....

Keys for Washington: Monique Currie has to step up for Washington to have any chance to win. If Beard is "good to go" she will not be 100% and not having her athleticism at full tilt could hurt them against a quick Indiana team. I know Monique can play, she's proven her abilities in playoff type games before. But she's also shown her ability to falter. Lindsey will have a nice series but she needs to get Langhorne the ball a lot more and pound Indiana's forwards. She has the athleticism to do it. Washington has the athletes to succeed, they just need to put it together and stay consistent for a full 40 minutes.

So the series will end up with Indiana winning 2-0. Washington allows opponents to shoot nearly 44% from the field, if you keep allowing that you are going home early. I think the games will be tight since Washington is very athletic and strong but I just see them falling short...barely but it's only a 3 game series and the track record is well, not there.

Phoenix Mercury vs San Antonio Silver Stars

Game 1: Thu 9/17 - (San Antonio) 9:00 pm (ESPN2)
Game 2: Sat 9/19 - (Phoenix) 10:00 pm (NBA, TV)
Game 3: Mon 9/21 - (Phoenix) 10:00 pm (ESPN2, if necessary)

Phoenix is healthy and ready to bring another Championship to Arizona. Phoenix heads to San Antonio tonight to begin the quest. They bring with them the best road record in the WNBA (11-6), WNBA scoring leader Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter is the 4th highest scorer this season and the league best average points per game at 93. So San Antonio has their work cut out for them.....hope they prepared well!

The Silver Stars are pretty healthy too but they just don't have the same kind of players Phoenix has. But, anything can happen. Becky Hammon is averaging more assists this season then any other season and she has always played well come playoff time. She also set a career high with 19.5 points per game this season. So she might be playing her best ball right now. There are just some players that can play their best in the playoffs and she's one of them. Plus she's an awesome leader that can get her team fired up.

Some notes on the teams:

-Mercury score 92 points per game BUT allow 89 points per game.
-Silver Stars score 77 points per game and their defense allows 78 per game (that's the wrong way you want that stat to be!)
-Mercury average 35 boards and allow 35 boards per game.
-Silver Stars average 31 boards and allow 35 boards per game (wrong way stat again!)
-Mercury have 5 players in double figures for scoring
-Silver Stars have 3 players in point per game averages

Keys for Phoenix: dominate the boards and protect the middle. That little one (aka Becky Hammon) loves to drive the lane. As long as Pondexter and Taurasi are playing well, Phoenix should be fine.

Keys for San Antonio: stop the perimeter game of Phoenix. If they got hot from behind the arc, forget it. Rebound, rebound, rebound! Win the boards and limit second chance points for Phoenix, stop the transition game. Let Sophia Young do her thing and let her be free in her decisions, she's a great athlete that can match the athleticism of the Mercury.

Phoenix wins the series 2-0.