Liberty Sweep the Lynx, and “The Caitlin Clark Game"

This episode is brought to you by Major League Baseball. There is nowhere left to go. Two teams, one championship. Watch the World Series. Yeah, the World Series presented by Capital One on Fox and Fox One. No time like October. Visit MLB.com slash postseason to learn more. Observe the North American dad, 50s, great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says, Dang, that's a good offer. The highest form of approval. No haggling. No hassle. No one called him boss. He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply. Anything is possible. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Ringer WNBA show. I'm Syrit Sohi. I was not planning on recording an episode today, but the games just put me in a place of feeling loquacious. I was really in my incapable of shutting up bag. So I hit up Stefan and I was like, I think we should fire. Fire up the mic. Stefan Anderson. You guys love him. He's normally on the back end producing our show. But the New York Liberty is New York Liberty. Pulled off the first upset in WNBA history where a number eight seed beats a number one seed. They swept the Minnesota Lynx in two games. And the Fever also lived to fight another day against the Aces. That series will be going to an elimination game three on Thursday. And I just felt like we should talk about both of them. So here we are. Stefan, let's start with the Liberty. How are you feeling? Are you apexing? Are you like, are you ascendant? Are you in an astral plane right now? It's a beautiful, beautiful night here in New York City. I'm also wearing my Yankee shirt. We just whooped the Red Sox seven to zip in our three game wildcard series in MLB. And on top of that, I'm watching the Liberty just put on a masterclass on being the number one team. This is, this is beautiful. Like I have not seen this team play with so much synergy in a long time. It just looked good to just see the big three beat a big three. Like everything was just going very well. Like JJ's like diving out of bounds and tap balls backwards. Like the energy was just amazing tonight. And to win this, I think it is, it is like one of the high, if not the high of the season for all of the ups and downs that this season has provided us as being Liberty fans. This was beautiful to watch it just culminate into this kind of win. Like make the unanimous rookie of the year look like a rookie. Make Fi kind of look non-existent out there. Like Nia Brody slash coffee is like the most fearful person on that team to me. Like she was just giving us hell the last time. The last two games. But yeah, man, I feel, I feel great. I feel great. This is a really, really good win. I am starting to campaign the We Believe Liberty. I don't know if everybody's familiar. Wow. With the underdogs and nobody believed in us. Nobody believed. Come on. We got to just, we got to ride it. The underdog New York Liberty. Yeah, we got to ride the win. The hard scrabble New York Liberty. Oh my gosh. They counted us out, man. The 18, the first 8-1 sweep. Let's, let's talk about it. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, I, I, I did think that this was a first round that was going to be particularly and unusually wide open. It will probably won't be one of the last three game first round series that we ever see. I imagine that the WNBA will move on to five games, but because of the three game format, it obviously creates more space for volatility. And the gap between the number one seed and number eight seed was historically tight this year. It was a, it was a seven game gap and, I believe in WNBA history, but at least going far as, as far back as conferences were eliminated in playoff seating, it was the tightest gap. And that was in 2015. So for like, you know, going, going a decade now, right? So when you combine that with the New York Liberty, just peaking at the right time, being relatively healthy, having a version of Leo Fibich that, I mean, Stefan, could you have, could you have imagined, imagine getting a better version of Leo Fibich than what you've gotten in the last two games? Nah, she's been amazing. She's been amazing. I, frankly, she, she was the turning point in game one and just her just being steady, man. She's just steady. She's just doing everything possible on the floor tonight in game two again. Yeah, I don't know what we would have did with her. I mean, I, I'm kind of glad she got healthy when she did. You know what I mean? Like just, she came literally at the right time, right after all-star breakers. It's like, okay, all right. We're adding somebody to the team. And it's like, that can't be your, your lone savior. But she did provide a spark that this team needed to like get where we are right now going into the semis. They needed her wing defense. They needed her versatility. They needed somebody who could just do some relief pitching on defense for Stewie, but then also magnify what Stewie does, just having their collective size. This team was just way too big for the Minnesota Lynx. Jonquil Jones was probably the, like, I think actually probably pretty clearly the MVP of tonight's game as well. And as we know, the Liberty kind of go, as JJ goes, she won the finals MVP in 2024 against Minnesota. And she was definitely the MVP of the closeout game as well. Let me just grab her stuff. Yeah. So she was, oh, I have the wrong, I have the game where she wasn't very good. But she's always just fun. She's just fun to watch just to like. Okay, I got it. When she cares, like we always, everybody makes the joke, like when JJ is awake, she is such a great player. Like I think that like she woke up at the right time today and like got her good night's rest. And I'd imagine she's gotten some good Bahamian food. Maybe she had some shark and baked for dinner. If she hasn't, she should be getting it now. For sure, by the boatload. Whatever they can get for her tonight, make sure we get her that in an abundance because we need it. We need this type of energy. 21 points, 9 for 14 shooting, 13 rebounds, six of them offensive, two assists, only two turnovers, plus 15. Her rim protection as well, her rotations. Just once again, I think another game where they were just able to stymie Olivia Miles' ability to get to the rim. And also just like is the story of the series to me, right? Like this size differential overall. New York outscored the Lynx 74 to 50 in the paint in two games. And it's like the kind of biggest through line between the 2024 series and this series. And it was interesting being in Minnesota for game one because you're watching all the bigs for Minnesota get into foul trouble. And I do think that the officiating wasn't great that game. Like I do think that Minnesota fans had like a right to feel a little bit aggrieved. And at the same, and it's interesting, like this, this, this fan base, you know, I think it was a little bit scarred. Like Stefan, I think every, every, every fan base has its traumas, right? But, you know, watching them exit the arena, watching like a bunch of fans exit. And there's a group of people who have the everybody watched Minnesota get robbed shirt, which is like a play on the everybody watches women's sports shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny in and of itself, but I also just kind of got to thinking where it's like, yeah, okay, the refs were bad in that game. But also like, I think this Minnesota Lynx team would have struggled with the size of a lot of the different teams that they could have potentially matched up against. Like at a certain point, the foul trouble, even with, you know, we take it back to Atlanta Smith in the last two years, right? Where if you're like the primary line of defense and you're going to be playing big minutes and you're asked to like protect the rim, and you're asked to always play physical and bigger than you are, you are going to end up being in foul trouble more often. And I think that's what happened. And it makes me wonder if you're the Minnesota Lynx, like we can get into the feeb at all at some point, but this team's Achilles heel is size. And we're seeing, it's so interesting where the WNBA is going right now, because there is obviously a point guard revolution, which Minnesota will be at the forefront of because they have Olivia Miles. And there's Caitlin Clark and there's Paige Becker's. And we're going to see more point guards, more lead guards, Juju Watkins come into the league. And that is definitely part of the direction the league is going. However, at the same time, you also have teams like the Atlanta Dream that are huge. You have teams like the Washington Mystics that are huge. You have teams like the New York Liberty that are huge. The Valkyries aren't as big, but they play Kia Stokes and they have the number one defense. Then you have Asia Wilson, Aaliyah Boston. Like you, just like every team kind of in postseason outside of the dallas wings has some sort of big that i think would have given minnesota a lot of trouble and it makes me wonder about like the future of their team building on like a role player level you know yeah somebody to kind of like put behind fee in a sense like just to have like what a jj would be to stewie in this case right like if stewie was the full-time five it'd be a little bit rougher but the fact that she has somebody behind her it does make everything a little bit easier so yeah i i get that part of it um but no for the liberty they have hanju come in for jonquil jones it's like shout out to hanju oh my god she was letting it fly tonight we we can't go no further without shouting out hansu today because she she just she just had a game she was just like fly i'm just like oh where did you get this three from like why are you where did this come from like you're just shooting five threes a game i love this for you han i love this oh dude amazing yeah like you said like you could roll out a han after that that's that's crazy it's deadly yeah and they're so big um in their backcourt as well first of all shout out sabrina unescu she had a shut the fuck up syria game um look i can own it i can own it when i'm wrong but i got a lot of words to say about sabrina unescu she was fantastic in this game i gotta give you i gotta call your phrase man the oral pharma three she was taking him tonight she she she you know you said it and i thought about it and as i'm watching the game i'm like nah she really is oral pharma out there look at her like she really is she is looking for the house of highlights she wants that clip so bad and you know what sabrina you played your ass off today you deserve it you're a superstar you want to go for the clip that's fine you're a superstar you want to go for the clip that's fine like but you got to play like a superstar right but she absolutely did i thought that her game management and the way that she was pushing the ball up the floor and defending and just setting the pace was was awesome and she was really efficient today as well and you could you could feel her presence in every in every aspect of the game um but yeah she she's a big aspect of you know there's like you know they have leo at the three they have sabrina at the two pauline ass here who's been absolutely unreal since viva like that three-pointer is back as well um there's a conversation we had about whether this is like the team that's peaking at the right moment as well uh but also like you know if you're the minnesota links like honestly i was kind of surprised from like the cheryl reeve side of things um we should definitely talk about olivia miles soon but one thing that surprised me was like okay olivia mouse gets benched she has again back-to-back like really tough games she only plays 17 minutes has five points one for eight one for four from the three-point line one assist one turnover just i think that's like one of the things that i was like i don't know if she's going to be able to play a lot of games but she's going to be able to play a lot of games she's going to be able to play a lot of games she's going to be able to play a lot of games she's going to be able to play a lot of games she's going to be able to play a lot of games she's going to be able to play a lot of games she's going to be able to play a lot of games she's going to play a lot of games she's going to play a lot of games she's going to play a lot of games she's going to play a lot of games she's going to play a lot of games what what's next like what what what happens from here like what what do they what do the links do from here they played so well these past few seasons and just yeah can't get over the hump so what like what's next well i think the easiest fix is just the size right um but with the fee aspect of things so fee is a free agent this summer um i've talked about this in the past like there is a world in which i think you know she got reasonably close to get getting traded um in the off season i think that it was interesting being in minnesota i think that this is a fan base that really venerates and reveres people who stay and cheryl reeve at her coach of the year press conference um which god that feels like a weird sentence to say right now but sure look she's cheryl reeve like things you can't take away what she did this you can't right it's just one of those things like somebody gets your number it happens yeah it happens um so cheryl reeve also talked about that you know just appreciating that you know a lot of these free agents that just like took a leap of faith last season after the team got decimated and decided to stay um fee obviously was cord and you know i think just being around that team like this might be a little too sappy but i think that she just looks really happy with her teammates you know like olivia's getting the rookie of the year award and like you know they're doing like the fake snapshots and things like that and she just seems happy um that said i think that fee has like a she's not healthy like i don't think she's fully healthy um i think she's probably around like 80 and i think it's going to take her a while to really feel a hundred percent like ultimately this is somebody who had two ankle surgeries um the team was different when she entered the fray like i think this is a team that functions on chemistry and i think that her chemistry with olivia miles well look like i think it was good it was just still developing and they got a lot more layups when it was natasha howard and olivia miles primarily running the pick and roll partially because that's more so natasha howard style of play also because tasha howard was healthy so you know she got the practice with her got to build that synergy exactly like you do training camp with somebody it's so much different than coming off of an injury and then trying to reintegrate yourself into an offense that like once completely belonged to you um and you now have this young point guard that's at the helm of it and is also functioning at a historic level at the same time like i think that's very difficult to do um and i do think that we did see some of the pitfalls of that um especially just as far as like their paint production they just weren't getting a lot of points in the paint um and they became a lot more three-point dependent um and that's maybe something that you know training camp and just a few personal changes could could fix for sure um but i'm curious what she wants you know she's never been a free agent before the big thing i think is that she's never been a free agent before she's never been a free agent before you hear is that you know she wants a big market um maybe minnesota now that olivia miles is in town will have like the appropriate spotlight i think it's tough if you're minnesota because like there's a world in which if they didn't lose in the first round and you have olivia miles going deep in the playoffs and like maybe fee gets to shine that she like has rightfully deserved for for so long um after a first round loss i think a lot of it is up in the air but truly like i don't know like i this is not something that i think like you you hear a few whispers i hesitate to kind of like go there just because i think this series literally just ended and like she has time to think about it and we just don't know like what people are ultimately feeling um like she probably doesn't know how she's feeling and there are a lot of factors to consider and the situation has changed as well compared to last season just given like the the new ceiling that olivia gives his team the new potential spotlight that olivia gives his team so tbd it's a yeah it's gonna be something we'll watch all off season but yeah it's uh i guess you keep building and you know you just try and try again like just just being there but i don't know man this is that's a tough like these are tough bounces like that they've gotten over the past few seasons like this is just rough outwards to like i don't know how much more heartbreak a watching these things you know what i mean like you say yeah maybe you learn and build off of it then you just get like another version of it it's like i don't know this one's this one's different too though because new york in game five like game one game five like that was a five game series there were so many different factors that went into it there was a reffing kathy dress all that stuff like the sort of conspiratorial thinking around that which who knows like i don't know that's above my pay grade um but i think that this year was different and that they got like just roundly smacked like against phoenix like fee gets hurt and it just changes the entire shape of the series like a lot of those things were based on luck and this one was just straight up like you guys got executed and you weren't ready and on some level maybe there's a silver lining there and that like this might be the first off season in which like they have a clear picture of what their flaws are and they're not going to be able to do anything about it and they're not going and they don't look to refereeing they don't look to injuries i think this is a season where they can look to the personnel that they were facing and the personnel they were continue to face as far as the size goes and maybe try to move from there but obviously like it all begins like it all starts with what fee decides to do like that kind of is a domino that ultimately determines the direction that the minnesota links go in but look either way they're in a very promising purchase new carpet from the home depot and get it installed for free right now shop the stylish choices and simple pricing of carpet from home decorators collection traffic master or life proof with pet proof technology and see for yourself why nobody beats our prices enjoy new carpet with free installation right now at the home depot offer valid october 15th through november 1st 2026 exclusions apply for licenses see homedepot.com license numbers the action's on the court and as the official beer sponsor of the nba michalob ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats merch and more visit michalobultra.com slash courtside to enter michalob ultra courtside 26 to 27 no purchase necessary open to u.s residents 21 plus begins on october 1st 2026 and ends on june 30th 2027 multiple entry periods see official rules at michalobultra.com slash courtside for free entry entry deadlines prizes and details this episode is brought to you by google chrome you think you know a browser but that's new it can help you with practically anything on the web like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks gemini and chrome is here for it ready to make anything online make sense there's no place like chrome check responses set up required compatibility and availability various 18 plus do you want to talk about the fever aces game so i will uh i will tell you a i will give you my uh story that i was briefly telling you so i have a little running superstition going on since the next uh series that i like to go out and run um before my team is put and uh during this superstition i don't know if it's a good accurate research the next happening just go like 13 and one during the times that i ran before a game so i said i never knew you're playing tonight because i'm playing tonight we need some good good analytics that i'm living for i don't know man listen yes my story has now it did listen the stats have not proven me wrong granted move over in the highest duncan yeah we got stefani so i would say all i have to say i did miss the game earlier but i did catch um the highlights and um i want to know your opinion on a few things the first is uh we'll go back to some podcasts that we did a few weeks or a month ago i at this point uh player safety um asia and the fan in the stands and even the fan in the arena post the game like that is not a good look in my opinion but i would love to hear your thoughts on it look okay i will say information is still pouring in about all of this like this is going to go crazy on social media we're going to see people post videos so i'm going to operate based on the limited information that we have and i'm going to see people post videos so i'm going to see people post videos so i'm going to see people post videos so i'm going to see people post videos thus far which is that um in the fourth quarter asia wilson was driving down the lane in transition um sophie cunningham tries to draw a charge on her it is called a block um we see if you're watching on the television you see a guy pointing um and i don't know if this is like him doing the sophie cunningham point or if it's him doing like the the charge call which look the exact same you know it's like when you do it um and i don't know if this is like him doing the sophie cunningham point um so that's hard for me to distinguish um and then the fan that asia actually went up and talked to was different than the fan that was on the screen but asia wilson after the game let's just play what she said i don't know if you guys know me but i'm i don't really get into the bullshit i don't i try to play my game keep it pushing but if i'm just walking because i just got the foul i'm chilling and if i see a man coming at me, taking steps towards me and pointing at me, I don't give a damn. what you said i don't give a damn how you said it the tone that is unacceptable you don't step towards me you never should and point at me i'm not i'm not i'm not for that shit at all excuse my french and god bless me but that there is it's unacceptable and how he gets back in the game because they said he didn't do anything of course he didn't and that's fine but and i apologize to my team because i got us a tech and i really but it's just certain things that i'm just not going to allow anymore because it's just unacceptable so don't you don't know me at all to come and step towards me and point at me and say anything out your mouth to me so yeah um look i think asia's reaction is incredibly valid here i think she's basically just saying don't play that shit like i'll deal with a technical she she ended up getting a technical foul for this um people online were saying that was pretty rare i will say like in the nba if you go up to a fan like that like you're probably going to get a technical foul if you get that close to a fan she was also saying that he was like coming up towards her i don't really know um but she gets a technical foul ultimately he doesn't get kicked out of the game the fever released a statement saying that they investigated the situation and found that the fan didn't break the code of conduct asia ultimately says that he was pointing at her um and you know it pissed her off and that's valid look it's valid for that to piss her off like that's the one like whether it was a charge thing or the pointing like the thing with the sophie cunningham point is that it pisses people off like that's the entire point of that troll is it it will drive you nuts um and my initial read on this is that asia got in her head like i think we'll talk about the defense that indiana was playing we'll talk about the toughness we'll talk about the kind of ways that uh asia hines allen was being an agitator as well i think that the entire game plan was kind of designed around making asia wilson very uncomfortable and i think that she was already really frustrated and then she had a collision with sophie cunningham and then the first thing she sees is some like dude in a hat pointing at her and she was like uh-uh not today like not today um not not not in this particular arena we know that she's a little bit more heightened in this arena she's talked about in the past like where she's worried about coming to indiana and just kind of wanting to get out there worrying about something popping off so i think that there were a lot of circumstances um that led up to all of this um we will see if there's more information we'll see if the fan said something that was inflammatory or discriminatory or just like flat out inappropriate that would have like raised the bar to a level that is like you cannot as a fan do that um as a fan you are allowed to point at a player you're allowed to trash talk them you are allowed to piss them off you are allowed to instigate to a degree like that's just that's how it goes there's a line and based on what i know so far i would say that that line i don't think was crossed i think this was a situation where um asia was pissed um i thought like i saw i saw that moment i was like obviously we know what's going to blow up on social media right yeah um what really struck me is because is like also i've i like like deleted a lot of my apps and so i'm just like trying to live like life and try to see like try to kind of like just see things look at you tapping off the matrix i'm trying like it's just it's it's a lot in this wnba space as well but also just in life like i think social media um is such a huge drain to like our perception of things um and i would like to just like i would like to like retain my own right to my perception of the world um i think that's just really important for anybody alive but especially if you're like a writer and you're being asked to you know have judgments on things so my judgment is kind of like based on not really seeing too much of the social media response so part of me is a little self-conscious i'm like am i gonna get blamed for this i don't know but that was just kind of like how i saw it um and if more information comes out like obviously like that changes things but one thing that i thought was so interesting about this game was that it was such a classic indiana fever game in that we saw everything that makes them so good and in the fourth quarter a bunch of different things happen you have jackie young going into the fourth hits a three at the buzzer then gets three free throws hits another three gets jewel lloyd a three they're playing this incredible two women game and i'm just like guys going if you're going into the fourth quarter up 15 points like you've seen this movie before there's there's exactly one player that you cannot let get off and it is jackie young and that is exactly what the indiana fever defense did then um caitlyn clark gets into foul trouble i think that steph should have challenged like the fifth foul that she got which was on jackie young i thought that like that would have gotten overturned it was it was like kind of a weak blocking call and i think caitlyn was in position um but then she fouls out which happens shortly after the asia wilson incident and i'm just like you guys have let jackie young get off you have pissed off the best player on the planet and now caitlyn clark has fouled out and somehow they survive yeah it was quintessential indiana fever like the highs and lows of watching this it was everything like even down to like the the culture war fodder that you get in these in these situations as well i don't know what is so what like it sounds like maybe you disagree like what did you think of the asia wilson um i i don't know more it just looked very like it just didn't feel it doesn't feel like a thing like something must have happened or maybe it is to your point where maybe it was like she was agitated and that pissed her off even more uh but it's just it's just out of her character if that makes sense right like we don't see her react like this never see asia wilson react like this at all so for me i was like something has to be there i don't think she would just would just jump out of her body for no reason here oh for sure like that's like when i first saw her reaction i was like oh no like the indiana fever fans are not beating the allegations not here not here what is going on on like i also think that it just seems like there's more weirdness at the games this season than there was like the season before because of like sophie and some of the like the anti-trans stuff as well um but then like look what we heard about what happened came straight out of asia's mouth right so that's just kind of like i'm gonna like if anybody if there's anybody's word that i'm gonna take for it's hers and the other part is they didn't they didn't they didn't they didn't throw the fan out so i think that like to me is like okay it may just be just heckling but it's also just like indiana is just such a weird place they don't they don't have enough they don't have enough rope for me to like just give them right who's doing the judgment call exactly right it's hard for me to give them enough rope to say you know what like let's give them the benefit of the doubt here yeah they just have proofing the opposite no yeah it's not like a doubt situation for me it's more just like this is literally what asia said so i i don't know like that's that's kind of what i'm gonna go with thus far and if until we like hear more right um sorry good no i was gonna say game three uh thursday night what are you going into first like i think we should just talk about the game we just watched um this is a game like there are parts of this game where you just see them at their absolute best um we'll start with kate and clark who had her best playoff performance yet um had a full-time career and she's like i don't know i don't know i don't know what to say but i think she's like a really complete game and kind of a culmination of all the different things that she's been working on throughout the course of like the last year whether it's the driving and the driving volume the defense the stamina um the three-pointer was really going for her too um she had 27 points she hit five threes she had 15 assists she had five turnovers in the first half zero in the second half um she also ended up fouling out uh she was a plus 15 in the game which was tied with raven johnson and she was a plus 15 in the game who we'll definitely talk about um and she also had the best she's she had the best defensive rating in this game as well um i thought that she really took the onus on herself to be a catalyst for their defense she was in the passing lane she was trying to rotate um she was like you know trying to rotate on the back side to draw charges she was trying to stay in front of her man um i think that what you like like typically wait like like like game one i was very critical of her defense like this is typically like this is like what i want to see in the playoffs it's like this is what you have to do um in the playoffs and i think she just looks great physically like i think the stamina and the strength just really stood out to me um and you know it's interesting like there's a lot of discourse about her press conference with steph white where like if you like impose like if you watch the full press conference doesn't look that bad but if you put the moments uh together um you know it seems like steph is just like critiquing caitlyn for her turnovers and caitlyn's critiquing steph for um you know not running running the right place um and in reality look both of those things were problems in in game one right um and i think the biggest change was offensive execution which solved both of those issues as well because like caitlin also had the ball in her hands so much that it's like okay yeah she turned it over five times but the team overall only turned it over 11 times um and that's good like that's that's a good number if you're the indiana fever and you like produce offense at the level that they do um so like you definitely live with your 11 turnovers especially when you have like 22 assists so like that aspect of things were good and also i just think like they scripted this game so much better like one of the things i really critiqued uh steph white on in game one was that like becky hammond was putting her stars in a much better position to be successful um this game they open up the action with uh kelsey mitchell and alia boston they run this like decoy handoff while lexi and kk set a down screen for caitlin and she opens a game with a three they ran that play like over and over again to get caitlin going off of the ball and get her three-pointer going and get her in a rhythm um and caitlin was talking after the how um when steph was talking them through it she was like and caitlin's gonna make that shot so she's like oh man i just wanted to make that shot just like kind of get get us going on a good note um she she hits a shot their offense their execution just looks great like alia boston i think like looked like the old alia like the mvp candidate alia today some of her her drives on asia wilson um her ability to kind of like slow the game down late and just like finish it out was incredible um i think that the defensive execution too is like a huge part of the story but um did you have anything on either of the things that i talked about no i i uh i'll take your credence on that but i did um from what i've seen in the highlights it was good to just see cc just playing really free out there having a good time like it looks when she's at that level and she's like dropping passes off getting to the rack like shooting the threes like just playing her game is so much fun to watch so i i guess i'm just looking forward to thursday night and i want to see like what comes out of this like who with you know the aces have been in this this seat so many times so they're used to like backs against the wall elimination game high stakes game what what do the fever bring like which which fever do we see do we see the one that played tonight or do we see the ones that played on sunday so i think that's like my biggest like takeaway from tonight i'm like what team shows up or even like last year when they you had a little bit with the aces without caitlyn and kelsey mitchell was like lights out over there um i'm i'm just like i'm interested in the chess match i'm interested to see who's like who wins like these little the little matchups in between there so i'm looking forward to the chess match on no for sure i think yo i think honestly it begins and ends with asia wilson like i think that i'm really curious what she takes away from this tape like indiana they went they did an incredible job of like making it really small and instead of like using size on her they use speed and just try to like scramble get her off her spots a little get her off her spots and like you had raven johnson who has been like the huge a huge x factor in this series um had that huge steal which led to like caitlyn taking the ball up in transition and hitting uh kelsey mitchell for the alley oop like the lebron wade recreation like that was so sick um but i think honestly like it's it's really asia like asia was incredible in game one um and the fever really took her out of her game um their ball pressure was really good they scrambled asia i think put the ball on the floor a little too much which led to some turnovers um and it made it like they also like really really made the passing lanes difficult for her to see vegas only got two post-ups in this game per synergy which is really low for a team that has asia wilson they also did a good job of like not letting him get downhill off of like their curls and stuff too so yeah i think that look asia wilson is the best player of all time she's going back home to play an elimination game um and she just had this situation that really pissed her off so like i would take the over you know like i would personally take over so he's so looking at 40 this game she had 38 last time we get 45 like yo maybe honestly what doesn't actually like the she tied like the all-time playoff career high last last year or something like that um like yeah i expect i expect full-on greatness out of asia wilson um i think the question becomes game one the indiana fever big three did not show up the way that the big three did for the aces so do we get a repeat of the performance that caitlin alia and kelsey were able to have today and do we get sort of the lexi hall that we got today even if she's not shooting that well it just feels like she's been way more active and we're seeing her kind of like go for those offensive rebounds like we're used to as well and then honestly i would love to see even more raven johnson to me she has been the x factor in this series like she was like really great in game one but it didn't end up mattering this game like i said she was a plus 15 she was incredible defensively i don't think indiana can hang around this series like perimeter wise um with the talent that vegas has especially when they go small on their perimeter without raven johnson doing the things that she's been doing so if you are looking for like your answer to the to the question of how the hell do we kind of slow down jackie young i think raven johnson is has shown herself to be the player deserving of of that shot so that those are kind of the things i'm most curious about yeah it's i'm i'm intrigued i'll be tuned in um i can't wait i can't wait i can't wait to um hope we get another game three um maybe in atlanta washington game three you know what i mean like i want to see that as well um but uh yeah i'm very interested to it and let's see what the val do see what we've been getting a little bit i don't know if the people are listening we give the valks a lot of love but they say we don't give the valks we do man look and i'm sorry like i had to go to the kids i think you fairly express yourself and said you had to do what you had to do yeah look we did a full like i don't like to be because i get it if you're a fan of the valkyries they just won their first playoff game ever the defense looked incredible you're tuning into a podcast you're hyped about your team you're like waiting until the end and then like you get like five minutes of talk about your team i totally get that so i don't want to be like oh my god you guys like so i get that but i will say look we did a full episode on their defense with nathan cantaloupe we talk about them quite a bit janelle salon we like i thought i think i'd bring up janelle salon more than any other person on national on national tv man like we like the valkyries around here absolutely and we're going to be back on on thursday and one of the agenda items that i have is talking more about the valkyries and also look i'm going to talk more about them when they're in a more relevant series they beat the brakes off the wings and i expect them to close it out on the road in game two look they're potentially gonna they're gonna play whoever wins the indiana aces matchup and i think that's a fascinating series and we will we got y'all we got y'all will be on i promise we will hear i got one job we'll be here no matter what i will make sure it happens i am trying i am actively like just nudging my editor mr. the lovely matt dollinger just being like hey let me travel in the semis to to see the valkyries we love the valkyries around here all right i love you guys i love you baby shout out to valkatraz yeah yeah uh it's the fun that i appreciate you hopping on um this was fun i'm glad we just like kind of chopped it up about what we saw tonight um and yeah we'll be back thursday i think after the fever aces game um so stay tapped in for that if you aren't subscribed to the podcast and you enjoyed it and you want to follow us for the playoffs make sure you subscribe if you have friends that are tapping into the playoffs um let them know about the podcast um if you didn't like it it's all good just keep moving you know i appreciate the listen appreciate it even if you want to give us a clip farm you can give us a clip farm it's all good i don't mind yeah it's all love around here um stephan thank you so much i appreciate you thank you of course for producing this podcast later as well thank you for staying up it is 12 a.m your time uh your godsend i am gonna send you a bottle of whatever your favorite drink is once this postseason is over because i have a lot of things so if you got your birthday's monday my birthday's monday so if you got any any ideas you know that i i will be accepting gifts on monday you know okay so that is good to that's that's right there you feel me that's good to know well happy early birthday ah word i appreciate you wait what is that are you a are you libra i am a libra yes give me to give me the astrology tea before we go what's the astrology tea on libra i hear i hear a lot of different opinions um i actually don't know a lot of libras to be honest so yeah what is what what is like the general take on a libra so they say we're like very uh we're like very indecisive as far as cons um you ask the right woman they might say libra men are liars i don't know if you subscribe to that theory but um i don't subscribe to that theory let's just put that out there as we know black men don't cheat black men don't cheat you don't fall you don't fall and then um i think they say we're like very diplomatic like we're able to like see all sides of the playing field and like very uh like charismatic people those are like our our pros, they would say. Gotcha. Well, I certainly think you're a very charismatic person. um the people love it when you come on um and i think you have a they don't see you in real life but i think that you have a very nice energy about you do you think the other two are true no i can't subscribe to the other two well indecisive yes i am very okay you know i want to like process everything that goes well that's part of like seeing all the sides yeah you can't just you're not just going to make a decision off exactly to see it all the way through some people can't have it they want it to be black or white they don't exactly understand that it's gray sometimes exactly oh yeah i feel like i very much live in the gray as well so i totally get that um stefan thank you appreciate it happy early birthday listeners wish i got wish i got a happy early birthday you make so much stuff happen we're popping some champagne oh yeah liberty win yankees bring a home tomorrow it's a party out in new york city the vibes lives in five uh lives in five man lives in three man we bringing that type of energy to the table around lips in three i'm on that man okay you don't even care wait who do you want who do you want to see them play all right so i think i think we will have a better chance with the mystics uh atlanta like you mentioned that size is a little scary can't lie that size is a little scary uh but yeah i think i think we could we could have we would have a better chance of facing the mystics then we got like the benaja revenge series a lot of storylines over there you know what i mean like this young hungry team coming to like they have nothing they're playing with house money like you know the young hungries that's what we call them right they they they're there's a lot of different things going on there um yeah i would prefer that series over a dream series just based off the last two games that we played against the treatment it's like they just give us a they have they play us really really tough angel is she's something the angel gets to barclay something and she just sees the the lights just do something to her i don't yeah exactly exactly my point i just i don't know if i could i don't know if i could root against angel either i don't want to root against angel you know yeah i love angel i don't want to root against her yet yeah not yet so you'd rather have her lose to the mystics listen man that's how life goes sometimes you know you gotta take it yeah yeah if i had a choice of the two i'd probably go um i'd go mystics okay and then uh let's see man if we can get past the mystics let's get back to the finals man let's make let's let's make the cities pop again man like we're keeping the energy from the knicks yankees liberty oh my god what a time to be in new york city too much right now the the vibes are extremely hot i would love to be in new york for the finals so listen i would love to have you here we could pod like this every night we'll have the studios we could we could leave the games and pod like this every night this would be so much fun it would be it would be all right i might be manifesting that all right stefan appreciate you man thank you for having me once again i appreciate it and uh yeah let's let's talk again on thursday new and exclusive holiday decor just launched online at the home depot check out the viral grand duchess collection with smart holiday lights you can control from your phone easily customize the twinkle across trees wreaths and garlands to match your holiday vibe create stunning light effects then switch it up with the tap of your fingers even the man in red will be impressed shop the holiday decor you want online only at homedepot.com want to be the one who's always in the know about the game the scores the plays here's a tip the apple sports app just pick your favorite teams and get automatic live updates without even knowing their schedules and when your team scores it shows up right on your iphone lock screen making it easy to check in anytime so rule the group chat and download apple sports for free on the app store or find it on your new iphone