team-dynamics Stories - Swish Appeal
Los Angeles-San Antonio Scouting Report: Offensive Rebounding is the Key
Based on their record, San Antonio has to be considered a favorite to win the WNBA championship right now.They’ve arguably been the most consistent team in the league, not losing more than two in a row and they’ve only lost two games at home. But they have one glaring, consistent weakness –...
Sue Bird Shows Off Her Point Guard Versatility in Lauren Jackson’s Absence
In a sense, Sue Bird and Lindsay Whalen -- easily the top two point guards in the WNBA -- make playing point guard look like more of an art form than an arbitrary positional classification. On one hand, there are times when they can dominate a game by creating scoring opportunities for themselves,...
Liberty's Big Win Still Shows Signs of Trouble
By most accounts around the web, the Liberty’s 90-87 overtime road win against the Comets last night was a great win coming off two tough losses.WNBA.com labeled it an "instant classic" and a "magical moment", coach Pay Coyle called it a great team win, and color commentator Mary Murphy called it a...
The Value of Synergy: Connecticut’s Trust in Their System Makes Them a Contender
I honestly did not think the Connecticut Sun could beat the Storm without Lindsay Whalen.Coach Mike Thibault has called Whalen the "engine" the runs the Sun. She’s an MVP candidate, the best point guard in the league, and the Sun’s second leading rebounder. It just seemed that Sue Bird would...
Illuminating the Unseen: Statistics Show Point Guards Are Key in Lynx-Mercury Game
I normally don’t follow games that I can’t see, but last night I had the urge to follow the Lynx-Mercury game. As I’ve written previously, I’m sort of rooting for the Mercury to make the playoffs because it would be a great story for the league if Olympian Diana Taurasi can lead her team to the...
How the Fever Played Without Tully…and What It Means For Team Strategy
I’ve been trying to figure why the Fever have been struggling so much offensively despite considerable talent, so I’m writing one this game analysis a bit late because I think it’s a particularly interesting dilemma.I’ve been watching the Fever more closely over the past few games because of my...
Visualizing The WNBA’s Top Player Combinations:
I have always found that one of the most exciting things about watching sports is pondering how the individual players on a team come together to win games.Of course, there are always more factors at work than individual talent – strategy, match ups, leadership, and chemistry come to mind...
Team Synergy Part 2: Ball Movement and Team Dynamics
After going through an amateurish statistical analysis of ball movement in the WNBA and NBA, I found that it might be valuable, but only one piece of a bigger picture.I started out by looking at assisted field goal percentage (a/fg) and from there found a synergy statistic that seemed to have some...
Was the NBA Revolution Just Televised?
Saturday night in Orlando, my assumptive basketball world was seriously shaken.Not because Nike’s million dollar puppet show had convinced me that Kobe and LeBron were supposed to face off in this year’s NBA finals – those puppets were merely a humorous way to reinforce the seeming inevitability of...
Sparks’ Team Chemistry: A Bigger Problem Than Point Guard Play
At the beginning of the L.A. Sparks-New York Liberty broadcast yesterday a 9-year-old "Sparkscaster" claimed that the Sparks are "unbeatable".Before you laugh off his comment as ridiculous, let me confess that prior to the start of the 2008 it indeed seemed elementary to me that the Sparks would...
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
