Flagrant Stats – Statistical analysis for women's basketball

Scouting Brittney Griner – Game 5 of ’18 Eastern Conference Finals – First Quarter

I was a little late to Diana Taurasi’s Bun’s rewatch of this game, but I decided to take the time to watch it. Thanks, boring Rockets-Jazz Game 2!

I decided to do this while focusing on Brittany Griner. Griner finished the game with 21 points, 4 blocks, 9 boards, 6 assists, and a steal. She shot 8-12 from the floor and 5-6 from the line. She finished with a team high 40 minutes played, but with a +/- of -10.

These notes are chronological in order. It’s hard to take the time to post too many time stamps when you’re trying to keep up with the game. Also, the rewind function in the WNBA app is in thirty second increments. I tried to catch all the typos in it as well, so sorry for any I missed.

  • Griner looked a little uncomfortable passing out of a double cross court 9:45 to Bonner, so kicked it to more covered Taurasi
  • Set a sneaky pick for Taurasi around 1 minute in. Next play down the court tried to draw a cheap foul around midcourt from Stewie
  • SEA Alysha Clark drove in and Griner didn’t seem to pick up on it
  • 7:44 – Howard got called for foul on Griner; it looked a little bit like that should have been on Griner but it could have just as easily been a no-call
  • 7:36 – Griner had a much better pass out of a double to Turner for a wide open triple. Turner was directly in front of her, making it easier.
  • Seattle unsurprisingly is trying to draw Griner out of the paint with Howard. I haven’t seen Phoenix go into a zone yet but I wonder if they will.
  • January gets a pass in to Griner for a close shot. January nearly threw it away on the pass.
  • Griner passes out of the tail end of a double to find open Taurasi for three.
  • Taurasi plays way off of Howard, which lets her hit a three in response to the Taurasi 3
  • Griner may have been out of position on a turnover that ended up in the coach’s hand
  • SEA Clark took a three that Griner looked like she could have defended but opted not to. Griner was defending Stewart, so probably not a terrible decision?
  • Griner provides a nice help shot contest on Stewart, though Stewart still makes it.
  • Griner got great position just inside of 5 minutes on offense, gets the ball and puts it in.
  • Stewart drives right at Griner and makes a lay up.
  • Griner looked wide open behind the arc for most of a series where Phoenix had multiple offensive rebounds. At no point did the ball get close to her.
  • Coming out of the timeout, Griner seems a little more lively on D but is still drawn out to the three point line, allowing a Seattle layup
  • Griner tried a straight on 12 foot jumper against a Seattle double team but missed it. This was with 8 left on the shot clock and a teammate (January?) that looked open in the corner
  • It feels like every time that Griner is positioned outside of the three point line on offense, the ball never gets to her. Ignoring when she’s used to set a pick, she doesn’t seem to be a great decoy option.
  • Griner knocked down Stewart after they exchanged forearms to each other’s head. Both looked incidental to a possible offensive foul on Griner when she was boxing Stewie out on a free throw
  • Turner gave Griner a great entry pass for a nice layup despite three Seattle players around her.. Griner did great to  finish in that circumstance.
  • Another attempt to get the ball in to Griner is a bad pass.
  • Griner gets the ball in the paint a third time but passes out to January, who misses the three. For whatever reason, it kind of looked like the ball stuck to Griner’s palm and the ball came out a little funny, but still got to her.
  • Griner seemed to do a decent job of making Stewart uncomfortable while defending her.
  • Griner provided amazing defense on Canada as she drove to the hoop at the end of the quarter, forcing her to make a bad pass out to the perimeter that was intercepted.

I hope to get back to this by watching the second quarter soon.