With the Connecticut Sun's WNBA Playoffs series agains the New York Liberty set to tip-off on Sunday, everyone will be watching to see if they can knock off the team heralded as the biggest threat to the Las Vegas Aces crown. Ahead of their semifinal matchup, we'll be making our Sun WNBA Playoffs prediction.
Throughout the regular season, the Aces and the Liberty have been crowned as the top two championship contenders. Quietly though, the Sun have cemented themselves as a top team in the league and championship contender in their own right. They suffered a huge loss earlier in the season losing All-Star center Brionna Jones to a season-ending ACL injury. They haven't lost much a beat though behind MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas and veteran leader DeWanna Bonner.
The Sun are the only team that needed the full three games to knock off their first round WNBA Playoffs opponent in the Minnesota Lynx. But sometimes a wakeup call like that is what a team needs moving forward. The semifinals are now a best of five series and let's move on to our predictions.
2. The Connecticut Sun guards are going to keep the New York Liberty guards in check
The Liberty come into this WNBA Playoffs series with an explosive group of guards in Sabrina Ionescu, Betnijah Laney and Courtney Vandersloot. Each player is capable of getting hot and propelling the team to a win. All three have All-Star pedigree as well.
The Sun will counter that with Natisha Hiedman, Tiffany Hayes and Rebecca Allen. In the case of Hiedeman and Hayes, they have been among the tougher defensive guards in the WNBA. Slowing down the Liberty guards is not going to be easy for the Sun. The Liberty are one of the most explosive offenses in the league with explosive three-point shooting.
But the Sun were one of the best defensive teams in the league this season. They were first in opponents points per game at 79.0 and second in defensive rating at 100.7. A big part of their defensive attack comes from their guards particularly Hiedeman and Hayes. Ionescu in particular struggled at times in Game 2 of their first round WNBA Playoffs series against the Washington Mystics due to Natasha Cloud's hounding defense.
While Hiedeman and Hayes are not Cloud on the defensive end, expect them to make things difficult on their Liberty counterparts.
1. DeWanna Bonner will be the best player in the series
Alyssa Thomas has gotten much of the publicity for the Sun this season and rightfully so. She's a legit MVP candidate and has been setting numerous records this year including the most triple doubles in a single WNBA season.
But DeWanna Bonner has been just as important for the Sun. She's one of the older players in the league now but she's been having a career year. Through the Sun's first round series against the Lynx, Bonner averaged 22.0 points per game, 10.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.0 blocked shots with splits of 44 percent shooting from the field, 44 percent shooting from the three-point line and 73.3 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
It's a bold prediction to say the Bonner will be the best player on the court in a series that also includes Breanna Stewart and Thomas. But look for Bonner to rise to the occasion. She knows what it takes to win at this level. She's the only player on the Sun roster with a championship ring, and multiple ones at that. She's set to remind the world just how good she still is.
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