Home|Sports|Jones, Sun in must-win game tonight Sports
Simba FrenchSend an emailSeptember 15, 2022 168 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
All the odds are stacked against Jonquel “JJ” Jones and the Connecticut Sun as they look to play an elimination game against the Las Vegas Aces tonight in the WNBA Finals. The Aces lead the best-of-five series 2-0.
No team has ever come back from a 0-2 hole in the WNBA Finals. The Sun is 3-0 in elimination games this postseason and has shown that they are a resilient bunch all postseason. They will look to use that fighting spirit to pull off the improbable – win the series.
The Aces did what they had to do in the first two games of the series – win on their home court. Now the series swing to Jones and the Sun’s home court for the next two games – the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. With them needing to win both games, Jones said they are not looking ahead of this game.
“We are taking it one game at a time. That’s all we can do. We are going to go back home. … We are going to have our fans behind us, who have been with us all season, and we are going to use that to propel us to a win and that’s all we can do,” Jones said.
Sun’s head coach, Curt Miller shared his center’s sentiment at not looking past the game tonight.
“You can’t think big picture. That becomes overwhelming and daunting and feels, at times, bigger. It’s too big. So you’ve got to drill it down and we’ll get back to work with our preparation for Game Three, and all we talk about is Game Three, and in particular, all we are going to talk about is the first quarter, and that’s our approach. I think if you start thinking we have to win three in a row, we have to do those kind of things, it becomes big. So, we are going to talk about Game Three and Game Three only and be ready for that first quarter,” Miller said.
The Sun fell 85-71 to the Aces on Tuesday night as the Aces shot a blistering 51.6 percent from the field in that game compared to the first game, when they were held to 39.7 percent from the field. The Grand Bahama native recognized that they did not play good defensively in the second game.
“I think they were just extremely aggressive,” Jones said. “I think we did a better job of playing one-on-one defense in game one and we didn’t do as well of a job this game (game two) and I think that was the major difference, them just putting their heads down and getting to the basket and being able to finish through contact or getting to the free-throw line.”
For her, going into this game is another opportunity for them to make it a series with their fans behind them.
“We have another opportunity. That’s why it’s a series and like I said before, we’re going home and we’re going in front of our fans and we are going to use it to help us win the game,” Jones said.
The 2021 Most Valuable Player (MVP) is averaging a double-double with 15.5 points and 10.0 rebounds per game in this series. She is shooting 50 percent from the field and is averaging 30 minutes per game.
The Sun must slow down 2022 MVP A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray who are both averaging 20-plus points in the series. Wilson is averaging 25 points per game and Gray is averaging 21 points per game.
Tonight’s game will get underway at 9 o’ clock on ESPN.