team-dynamics Stories - Swish Appeal
Phoenix Wins With Defense (!!), Ball Movement, and a Dose of Taurasi
For the first time this season, the Phoenix Mercury made their "rover" defense look brilliant. That's right, Phoenix won with defense.Diana Taurasi’s outstanding 4th quarter performance and clutch defense has gotten all the headlines for the win thus far. However, it was the huge increase in...
Team Synergy: The Value of Ball Movement in the WNBA
If someone forced me to list the things that I value most in the game of basketball, ball movement would probably be at the top of the list.It is probably why I put so much energy into evaluating point guards – the point guard would seem to be the engine on the floor that gets the ball moving and...
How the Silver Stars Have Taken Control of the West: "All About Chemistry"
As a die-hard basketball fan, it’s hard not to appreciate the San Antonio Silver Star’s style of play.At the beginning of this season, I knew next to nothing about the Silver Stars. And I certainly didn’t expect them to emerge as the class of the Western Conference by mid-season.They don’t have the...
Sparks’ Offensive Rebounding Overwhelms Silver Stars’ Team Dynamics
I have wondered about the Los Angeles Sparks’ strategy all season, but when you can grab offensive rebounds the way they did against the San Antonio Silver Stars last night, it’s all a moot point.The Sparks out-rebounded the Silver Stars 18-1 on the offensive boards en route to a 75-63 victory. It...
McCarville, Mitchell & Moore Make It Easy To Root For the Liberty
I never really write about the Liberty directly, but they’re always lingering somewhere in the periphery of my basketball consciousness.I usually end up referring to them when their play ends up exposing some fatal flaw in an opponent. As a new fan, I'm always trying to find a team to root for,...
U.S. Women’s Basketball Medal Outlook: What Can We Learn from the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament?
If there is one thing that U.S. basketball fans should have learned by now, it’s that talent alone is not enough to win international competitions. So perhaps due to past losses as much as present circumstances, there has been plenty of attention paid to the U.S. women’s basketball team’s on-court...
Weekend Olympic Numbers: Team USA Dynamics
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Top Five Teams to Watch After the Break: What Does It Take to Turn a Team Around?
Although having a month-long break might be tough for us fans, it’s a great opportunity for players to rest and teams to fix some things before continuing a tight playoff race.So what makes "Welcome Back Week" particularly exciting to me is getting to see how teams come out and play after having...
Finding the formula for team chemistry…or
A few weeks ago, PT from the Pleasant Dreams blog commented that "chemistry" didn’t seem like quite the right word to describe what I’m looking at since that implies that players don’t get along with each other. But I recently got some clarification on that.Eric Musselman, a...
Sue Bird: How a point guard can influence games during a shooting slump
The Seattle Storm are not quite meeting expectations and it’s tempting to place the blame one glaring statistic: Sue Bird’s field goal percentage.Which brings up a long-standing dilemma – what is the value of a point guard that can’t shoot?"That's how good of a player she is," said Diana Taurasi,...
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