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SEATTLE – The first minute of the WNBA finals first match showed the type of party for Elena Delle Donne and the Washington Mystics 2015, who lost 89-76 to Seattle Storm on Friday night.
Isolated against Natasha Howard of Seattle, at the top of the key, Delle Donne shot for a 19-foot shot that Howard modified and is far from the basket. Delle Donne will finish 4-for-11 in the match, scoring 10 points – her lowest playoff performance since scoring two points in 10 minutes in the first game of the 2014 Phoenix Finals with the Chicago Sky.
At the time, Delle Donne was struggling with low back pain that forced her to leave the field. This time she suffered a left knee bruise during the second match of the Washington semifinal against the Atlanta dream, which prevented her from playing in the third game of this series. In three games since returning, Delle Donne scored 39 points in 15-for-39 (38.5%), an average of 20.7 points and an average of 48.8%. field.
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Nevertheless, after the match, Delle Donne refused to blame her difficulties on the injury.
"We can talk about my knee after this series," said Delle Donne. "The excuses are for the losers, if I wanted to be 100 percent I would not be back, so I knew I had to find another way to play."
That did not help things that the Storm used Howard, a first-team defensive choice this season, as the lead defender to Delle Donne – a slight change from the way Seattle had equaled in the past. During the regular season, Breanna Stewart has kept twice more than Delle Donne's shot attempts against Seattle, according to Howard.
From the first minute, Howard made life difficult for Delle Donne.
"It puts pressure on Stewie by doing that," said Mystics coach Mike Thibault. "They try to keep the length [Delle Donne]and Natasha is really long. So when they put [Alysha] Clark on Kristi Toliver, which allows them to change positions and not create inadequacies in pick-and-roll situations. We will have to find other ways to create inconsistencies without Clark being involved at the same time.
"They did not do anything we had not planned, we did not manage it very well."
Indeed, Delle Donne was hardly alone. The Mystics shot just 40.4 percent in the first three quarters before Thibault overturned the game on his bench with Washington in 24th place for the final period. Toliver was unable to find a pace against bigger Clark, missing nine of his 11 shots and going from 1 to 8 from the 3-point range.
As a team, Washington, who finished third in the WNBA regular season in 3 points, attempted 3 attempts in 21 (14.3%) beyond the bow.
"The excuses are for the losers, if I wanted to be 100 percent I would not be back, so I knew I had to find another way to play."
Elena Delle Donne, when asked how much her knee is close to 100%
From Delle Donne's point of view, the improvement in Sunday's match 2 will start with better ball and player movement.
"I think our whole offense was a bit stagnant," said Delle Donne. "Instead of moving the ball from one side to the other, we clung to it from one side and we looked at each other. move in our attack and have them chase us a little bit as they do with us.We have to dive more, we have to make the backdoor over the overlays. "
The Mystics proved they could win without a dominant Delle Donne, winning the last two games against the Dream – including match 5 in Atlanta – with a total of 29 points from their top scorer. She remains confident in her teammates, including rookie forward Ariel Atkins, who scored 23 points in the 10-14 shot on Friday.
"It may not be the same basketball I played all season," said Delle Donne, "but I think I can make an impact on this game. My teammates love Ariel, she has her back, we have to improve and we'll find a way, we have to watch a movie and find out. "
"They did not do anything we had not planned, we did not manage it very well."
Mystics coach Mike Thibault defends Storm
And while Sue Bird, Storm's playmaker, who is no stranger to injury in the playoffs, is sensitive to Delle Donne's situation.
"I feel for her," said Bird. "It's bad to be in that position to get your team to the final and probably not feel 100%, but you have to give it credit, because I'm telling you, she's still here and playing against she do not feel like that. "
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