[Music] hello Sun fans and welcome back to Here Come the sun I'm your host Sean gothier back from a rather unexpected break today we're taking a question from a listener and giving a quick recap of what's gone on with the sun since I've last recorded diving into the recap so the sun are on a two-game win streak they've gone seven of three in their last 10 games they've slipped down to third place in the WNBA standings behind New York in first and Minnesota in second the race for second place is still on although the race for first is basically out of the question looking back over the game since our last show the Sun finally had a victory over New York Liberty winning 7264 at the barlay center for fans and players alike and I know me this win was a massive weight off of our shoulders I've been stressed about the long losing streak against New York especially since winning a championship most definitely is going to be going through them at least anytime soon so I was very happy to see a win there the sun lost to the fever in a pretty close game ending That season series 31 um I'll get a little bit more into that one in a few minutes when we get into the listener question the sun won one and lost one in a minseries Against The Storm at home earlier this month I was actually at the game that they won at mohagen and it was a blast I brought my friend Steven he'd never been to a WNBA game before and he left as a fan and even got his own danana boner bobblehead so that was a really good time the sun did end up Los losing to the Aces and they remain winless against the aces they they haven't beat the aces since the blowout win in game three of the 2022 WNBA finals you know a win there would have felt great but we did quickly get some fun news when the sun won their back-to-back games against the Sparks earlier this week um in the September 8th game d Carrington reached her thousandth Career Point and Alyssa Thomas got her 11th regular season triple double and her 14th overall if you include playoff games also just to look at the New Edition Marina mayry she's looked really great in the sun Jersey uh especially she her three-point shooting she's 42% from three which if just these games playing with the sun had been her her whole uh her whole season this year it would be the highest three-point percentage of her of her career so it's a very good good record for her all right that was our Rapid Fire recap now let's get into the listener question from arene hey Sean this is Arlene Big Time fan and supporter of your podcast Miss hearing you the past few weeks my question is who does the Connecticut Sun want to face in the playoffs Indiana's hot I think we can beat them I hate to go play them against them in their home court or Phoenix Mercury love to hear your feedback and thoughts on this question thanks so much and keep the podcast going thanks for the question Arlene I think taking one step back so the sun put out a graphic actually on social media earlier this week talking about their chances of each individual potential matchup in terms of likelihood of it happening um and I'm glad they did because math is not my strong suit and figuring out those numbers would not have been something I could have done so looking at potential matchups there's a 57% chance that the sun play Indiana in the first round a 37% chance that they play Phoenix and a 5% chance that their matchup is against Seattle anyone else is about 2% and not all that likely I'm going to go over each of these matchups one by one starting from the least likely to happen to the most likely so looking at Seattle um I think this would be the toughest first round match up I think that's a bit of a hot take I think most people would say uh Indiana but the sun are one and two against Seattle this season and Seattle have only gotten better with the addition of the French sensation Gabby Williams who was lighting up the Olympics um and now found a home again in the WNBA over with Seattle and the Suns seemed to be struggling to get up three-pointers against the storm all season even before they got Gabby Williams that said in the wind Against The Storm the sun made 26 free throws and in their losses they attempted only 17 so you know if the sun are going to beat the storm in a series they'll definitely need to keep their efficiency up and but they need to make sure to draw and make their free throws which unfortunately something they haven't been all that good at this season and so for that reason alone I think Seattle will be the toughest match up when you look over at Phoenix again that's a 30 7% chance of happening I think that's probably the best case scenario for the first round the Sun have really had the Phoenix Mercury's number um this season so far in the first three games against them they won comfortably in all three they do have one game left against the Mercury that's this Friday and that'll give us a good preview of you know this potential first round matchup looking at the numbers though Alyssa Thomas alone is averaging nearly a triple double against the Phoenix Mercury this season she's got nine points on 65% shooting eight rebounds and six assists in an average of just 29 minutes over those three games so like if Alissa Thomas keeps it going against that team and also you know the addition of a lot of the three-point shooting and the great defense this team has been playing I think they've they've got a good um advantage in this one you know when you look at the disadvantage I think if the Mercury can get Griner going early in these games that's that's always going to be trouble um with Britney Grinder's size and her skill she's basically impossible to stop in the paint when she gets going and if she's really going off that could be big trouble for the sun um you know and potentially you know I think potentially steal a game but I think that the you look at the history of the matchup these two teams over the season and unless something Bonkers happens in this fourth game against the the Mercury this Friday I I think the team should feel pretty confident going into this one they've won by 271 and 23 uh in their other matchups this season so we we'll see if they can keep that run going against Phoenix this Friday but I do think that one would be the best case scenario in terms of you know making it out of that first round now on to Indiana um you know 57% chance that's the matchup I think it would be the most fun matchup in the first round if if all things were to stay the same right now your matchups would be New York versus Chicago Vegas versus Seattle Minnesota versus Phoenix and Connecticut versus Indiana I think that Vegas Seattle series could be a lot of fun But ultimately I think that this this series will be the big story out of the first round of the playoffs you've got the Connecticut Sun the small Market Powerhouse mostly ignored by the national media you've got the Indiana Fever who are obviously the opposite of ignored by the by the national media um but you know they've not had a ton of success in recent Seasons obviously this team is a very much a new look team um with the addition of kayln Clark and also you know the way that Aaliyah Boston has really shown up and shown out um and continued her growth from her first season in the W I think you know it would be it will be a fun matchup seeing the Vets um of the Connecticut Sun versus you know the rookies of the Indiana Fever or the young players rather of the Indiana Fever also we'd get D kington versus Nelissa Smith her girlfriend that's always an entertaining matchup it's been fun to watch all season but digging a little deeper into this one since it is the most likely matchup the sun went three and one against the fever this season in the first game they had a massive win they won a close one in the second game against them they had a big win again in the third and then a close loss in the fourth game against them in that most recent game the sun lost 80 to 84 and that's a pretty close game and ultimately the game really came down to the way that Indiana was hitting their three-point shots can hasn't always been the best three-point shooting team so it can make it hard to make up those deficits when the other team is hitting hitting threes while you're um well you're you know settling you know not settling you're you're getting your two pointers you're scoring in the paint but just math wise it's it's hard to get to catch up that said the biggest issue in this game was for the sun was really the lack of free throws the biggest issue for the sun in this most recent game against the fever was their free throws and it wasn't even just that they weren't making them but it was just the fewest they've had attempted um and so in a in a game against the fever all season and and that was the biggest difference and is you know in a game where you lose by four like having more free throw attempts could have been you know the deciding factor in that game um in that same game though the sun outscored in the paint they outscored off of turnovers and that's their strong suit especially off of turnovers this is a team that you know turns defense into offense as the main way that they're scoring buckets in games right and so the fact that they were still able to do that in this game even in the loss shows that like their strategy is working they were out they were outscoring in these high percentage looks they were outscoring in um you know the hustle plays there and so I think keeping that up um is going to be important to winning and ultimately I think that the Sun have three key advantages over the fever one would be that they would have homec court the fever have a very big arena that they pack with ravenous fans it gets very loud it's very intimidating in there and so the sun having home court advantage in this series would be huge I mean the way that the first round works is you get two games at home one game away in a best of three Series so if the sun can win in both of their home games they don't even have to go to gamebridge Arena and you know deal with the the the noise that comes with being there the second thing is that the sun are stacked with veterans this team's been in the playoffs the past seven seasons the of boner Thomas and bana Jones have been together and they know the intensity of being on the stage of the playoffs you know they they've made the finals together not too long ago and so you know the young core of the fever will largely be in the playoffs for the first time um obviously including their rookie Caitlin Clark and you know I think that that we've been here before mentality can really help the stun the sun stay collected and focused on their game plan um you know not get lost in the moment of of the playoffs because they've they've seen round one of the playoffs before um and they know what it's going to take to to win lastly I firmly believe that defense wins championships um I've said it before that I'm a Celtics fan I think that their defense is what won is is a big part of what won them the championship this year and you know the Sun have said many times I remember Alissa Thomas saying ahead of the game in Boston that like they play a very similar Style game and so you know you look at the sun they are the they have the best defensive rating in the league uh the fever our second worst in 11th place in the league when it comes to defensive rating and so with defensive minded guards especially like d Carrington and Veronica Burton this team has already shown that they can slow down Caitlyn Clark especially in that very first game but also in in all three of the first games they've played against the fever D Carrington especially looked so good guarding Caitlin Clark and just making the game hard for her um and so I think that that's that's also a big Advantage just the team defense and also that individ ual defense of Carrington and Burton making the game harder for Caitlin Clark who's obviously very very talented and you know a key to winning against the fever is going to be to slow her down like I said this would be the Marquee match up of the first round which I think would be great for sun fans in a season where despite the team's early historic success the team hasn't always received its flowers from the national media you know I mean it could be frustrating and personally taxing for a lot of the players um probably especially D Carrington given just how you know opposing players have been targeted by people who identify as Clark fans online sending a lot of hate to any team or player that's matched up against Kaylin Clark in the fever um you know D Carrington has seen plenty of that hate um on her own social media accounts I I've seen her doing plenty of clapping back on Twitter but you know I I think that that stuff does you know it's it's definitely not something that any of them were looking forward to I'm not looking forward to being on social media um you know during that time outside of the you know the group chats I'm in and things but you know the the clips on the the clips from ESPN and the national media and also you know just the the fervor you're going to hear from again those people who at least identify as Caitlyn Clark fans is is going to be frustrating to see so I'm not looking forward to that but I am looking forward to this big matchup um should it happen um because you know it'd be great to see this team in the Marquee um event it'd be great to see everyone focusing on this team and again I think that the Connecticut Sun can win this matchup and so it' also be great for them to be able to you know shine on that really big stage also just looking at the bigger picture of the playoffs the sun are like I said in a tight race against the Minnesota links um the links are in second with a one game advantage over the Sun but the great news is that barring any major upsets you know unless people are really unless teams are really sliding around in the in the standings it looks like the Aces and the Liberty will be on the opposite side of the bracket from the Sun so obviously I don't want to get ahead of myself but a potential path that includes Indiana and then Phoenix or Minnesota I think gives the team a much better chance of making the finals than if they had to go through New York Liberty or um the Las Vegas Aces and also just from a viewer perspective I think the potential for a semi-final of the New York Liberty versus the Las Vegas Aces sounds like a lot of fun to watch and a lot of fun a lot of fun to not have to be a fan rooting in that series because that one sounds hard Arlene I hope I answered that question I think again like I said I think that um Phoenix is definitely the the best matchup despite Indiana being the most likely um but you know we will we will see um how things shape up there's four games left in the season so you know we're pretty close to the end here for the regular season and we'll get to you know do a proper preview of the first round of the playoffs once we know what the picture will be everything's really coming down to this last these last four games um the number eight SE isn't even decided yet um so there's a lot of exciting basketball coming up in the W um and the sun you know need to get four wins out of the next four games if they want to take that second place spot to secure home court advantage in a potential second round um but also I think that positioning themselves into third like I said gives them a good chance of making it to to the finals this year um if all goes if all goes as planned that's going to be it for me thank you so much to everyone for listening to this show and to Arlene especially for leaving us a voicemail question your question literally informed this entire episode um so thank you again for that and if you want to hear your voice on the show like arleene you can leave us a message at 617 903-7683 and you can hear your voice on the show you can also um send us an email at CTS sunpod gmail.com or you can DM us on social media we're atcts sunpod if you're a regular listener please help spread the word about the show to other Sun fans in your network you know tell a seat neighbor at a game or a friend or a family member about the show and I promise this isn't just about my ego and trying to get the list numbers up you know spreading the spreading the show to more listeners will help me to get more amazing guests on the show like Brenan glashen and Noah Delle who came on earlier if this is the first episode you're listening to welcome and thanks for listening Please Subscribe wherever you get podcasts or on YouTube and you can join the herec come the sun Community all right that's it from me thank you all again for listening and I will talk to you all here next week on here come the Sun [Music]