I was crushed years ago when AT and Bonner led the Sun past the Sky (and my fave Candace Parker) years ago — but I’ve got nothing but mad respect for the way they teamed up to lead the Mercury past the Lynx. AT is a winner, straight up, hope she gets her ring to cap it off.

One thing I’ll give the Lynx is they’ve played well with Phee absent if the injury is bad, so the road is far from clear for PHX to make the finals. Would have to be a really severe injury to keep Phee out though.

Dominant as the Lynx have been all season, there’s been a subtle drop in the consistency of their effort relative to last season’s peaks. Carleton and Smith have been mediocre to poor in this series. AT has effectively muzzled the Phee/Williams PnRs & MN often looks disjointed.

On cue, Kahleah says in the postgame interview “I had to remind myself of who I was” lol. Been a long road to recovery from her injury, but tonight was encouraging.

Said after Game 2 I wasn’t sure the Mercury had enough offense to win this series. Lo and behold, Copper and Sabally come through with maybe their best games of the playoffs, and Phee (even before the injury) clearly wore down in the 2nd H. If not for Heideman, might have been a rout.

I hope Phee is OK though, really hope the ankle tweak isn’t as bad as it looked based on her expression upon falling on the floor.

That’s a clean strip by AT, Reeve wasting an awful lot of energy getting ejected for that no-call.

Still don’t think the Mercury have quite enough on offense to win this series (esp with Copper being below her best), but they’ve shown how much they can muck things up. Really fascinated to see what happens in Phoenix.

Whitcomb made a massive shot to send it to OT, but that win was led by Alyssa Thomas. Just love how AT has no fear and blows up everything on defense in big moments.

Satou with the volleyball spike off Carleton, and the ball goes back to the Mercury and that’s game over.

Sami Whitcomb turned the opening series against the Liberty decisively, still making an impact against the best team in the W. Having a hell of a playoff run.

Virtually every Liberty player of note suffered an injury that threw them off for multiple games. But poor attention to detail afflicted them all season. Every good WNBA team managed good wins this season short-handed, NYL by contrast underachieved.

Liberty letting Thornton go & losing Laney for the season put too much pressure on Stewie to carry the defense all season. Fiebich didn’t level up, JJ had a down year. Sabrina improved but injuries affected her too. And the bench…

All the love for Alyssa Thomas…no matter how much she plays for the team that plays my team, I’m rooting for her. Just an incredible all around player, so intelligent, so dogged, so smart, so tough.

Proud of the Liberty for not caving in with all the injuries and bad vibes, Stewie in particular carrying the team on a bad MCL was incredible. That said, the warts in their play all season showed down the stretch, rough finish esp for JJ.

Good road win for the Liberty, finally overcoming (in OT) so many of the little things that plagued them the entire regular season. Vintage Natasha Cloud performance. If Stewie is as hurt as it appears, though, that’s it for the season, NY has zero chance without her.

Haven’t posted much about the Liberty this season but while they can point to many big injuries and discontinuity, at some point you play with who you have and put forward the effort as a defending champion.Which hasn’t been good enough against the best teams. Defense has fallen off a cliff.

Rough outing for the Liberty at Barclays, all the issues with new players and lack of continuity bit them massively against the Lynx. 90 percent of passes into the paint were picked off or looked like turnovers and the bench units mostly failed, esp in the 2nd half.

I bet that reading Andrea Long Chu on Thomas Chatteron Williams will brighten up my day. www.vulture.com/article/post...

Wasn’t aware of the KAT memes beyond very basic stuff, but this is a lovely piece of writing

Some attendance facts to compare Switzerland '25 to England '22 Attendance was up 14%, but when we take out the opening group game for the hosts and the final, that figure jumps to 40.6%. Switzerland had 28 of 31 games with an attendance at 95% capacity or higher. England had three. #WEURO2025

No joke, when Lalas was asked to comment on a video segment on growth of women’s soccer in Europe, he said: “Women’s soccer is not a charity or a virtue signaling exercise…people like to watch other people kicking a ball”. Get this MF off all future broadcasts, please. (should have muted, I know)

Spain is in good shape with Pina and Lopez continuing to evolve as attackers, will be truly scary by the time of the World Cup. They really need Salma to regain her form, her level since her injuries has dropped, had at least two chances in the box that her 2023 self would have converted.

Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton my players of the tournament along with Aitana. People paid attention to the late scores from England, but Hampton had crucial saves when England’s defense was leaking against Sweden and Italy.

Tough one for Spain, inefficient in attack though England mostly defended well. Spain defended well themselves but had one space-out moment when their level dropped at the hour mark. Three missed penalties in your first five and you don’t deserve to win, cruel but all credit to England.

Surprised at how rough Putellas looked even with GER shutting down the middle & forcing everything wide. Alexia and Mariona with a few too many loose passes and odd decisions. Mariona showing signs of exhaustion after a long league season, but I suspect Alexia will be good in the final.

Aitana, Patri and Cata Coll the big standouts for Spain in that attritional win vs Germany. Credit to Germany for holding out as long as they did, but Nusken’s absence definitely hampered the quality of their attack. Germany have had ESP’s number for so long, this was huge.

Genuinely feel for Girelli on Italy, my favorite player on their squad to watch all tournament. For her to leave early with what looked like a hamstring injury after being an iron woman all tournament, and end the match sobbing, heartbreaking.

Great comeback at the death by England, but that is a reallly rough penalty to call after the official allows murder for 90 minutes plus two extra periods. Bronze committed four card-worthy fouls and ended up with zero cards lol. Feel for Italy, England with a great escape yet again.

have been a huge believer in Agyemang all tournament, no defender has looked capable of stopping her even in limited minutes. Miraculous from England after such wobbly attacking all match and terrific defending from Italy.

I thought even watching Italy make it out of the group stage of this Euros, that they were a year or more away from really competing against the best. Now they’re 45 minutes away from a possible final, though England still have (I think) more depth and options to throw at them.

honestly a bit shocked England are down to Italy at the half, but once their pressure let up, Italy found big holes in their defense. Just a great finish by Bonansea off an even better run by Cantore against the run of play.

One thing to watch with Spain-Germany will be how much Spain’s passing can unlock and what kind of physicality will be allowed. Today Germany were able to bully France’s attackers on the wings, and too often the French didn’t pass or move well enough to create quality chances.

Spain are going to struggle considerably against Germany’s defense and attack, even with their talent advantage. Question will be how the German players’ legs are for the semi finals after 120 minutes today.

France unfortunately might have bottled their advantage today even worse than Sweden, but all credit to Germany, just incredible resilience with 10. Hoffman and Berger were standouts, and Neusken’s shootout penalty conversion was as clutch as it gets.

Thought Spain were almost too conservative attacking wide, the subs (Athenea and Vicki especially) going at the defense really opened things up. Switzerland never really looked capable of exploiting Spain’s own shaky defense with so many behind the ball.

Spain overwhelmingly the better team but another comical couple of missed penalties keep the final score respectable for Switzerland. Swiss defended well for an hour, but they could never keep up the terrorball approach.

Genuinely feel for Sweden, but you can’t put the keeper up there to clinch the shootout and miss that badly. Brutal pens from an experienced Swedish side.

Sweden have been low key one of the best three teams in this Euros, but that first half was maybe the best half any team has played against top tier competition. England look reallly slow and needed a great save to avoid being down 3 goals.

On this stacked LIberty team, Marine Johannes can only show off her sauce in garbage time. She’ll eventually end up on one of the new expansion teams and I’m going to watch her get multiple highlights every game, can’t wait.

Fever had the deck stacked against them tonight vs NY, but seeing peak Breanna Stewart dominate on both ends like this is always a pleasure.

Great half for the Liberty, taking advantage of the Fever’s tired legs on a back to back. Liberty’s D allowed a lot at the rim aggressively closing on shooters, but Fever players smoked quite a few layups. Game does have a “last game before the All-Star break” feel, some sloppy play.

As far as lists that make people mad, I kind of like this one? Same issues that all lists spanning multiple eras have, but Magic being top five works for me. Bill Walton is too low though, and no Marques Johnson is a scandal. bleacherreport.com/articles/252...

If the French Open Final was the equivalent of the 2016 NBA finals (historic comeback featuring iconic high level play), Wimbledon was the 2017 Finals (total domination). Sinner was an incredible machine.

Have to say that apart from Alcaraz’s flurry at the end of the first set, Sinner has been better on the margins throughout the match. Better serving, better offense and defense overall. Alcaraz going to the drop shot often (and frequently failing) is a sign he’s struggling to find an advantage.

Alcaraz’s level drops in the second set, Sinner ups his aggression and consistency. Tied at one set apiece, Alcaraz needs to get his drop shot game back, whiffed on several in the second.

Nothing like the highest level of tennis that brings out extreme tension that either turns players into jelly, or simultaneously brings out moments you think aren’t possible athletically.

Top two draft picks looked great this afternoon. Liked how driven Flagg was to improve on his debut even if it’s just Summer League, while Dylan Harper looks so polished and smooth.

Aliyah Boston has gotten a brutal whistle tonight, but she’s still been the difference (with help from Clark) as the Fever have run away with the game.

Nothing like a Summer League game ending with two terrible shots by the two most hyped players. Fun game all things considered. Love that Cooper described the game as “not to my standard”.