Curt Miller walked into Thursday night’s postgame press conference wearing a green hat with the words “belief” written across the front.
“I won a bet,” the head coach and general manager of the Connecticut Sun said as he sat down and placed it on the table in front of him. “(I) needed to wear the belief hat in here for a second.”
Miller wouldn’t say exactly what the bet was or who it was with, and his players didn’t offer insight either, but the sentiment was clear following the Sun’s 105-76 victory over the Las Vegas Aces in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
“The big picture was that we believe and we don’t care what anyone is saying,” Miller explained. “We are trying to block out that noise and the word right now is ‘Belief.’”
Connecticut entered Thursday night’s game on the brink of elimination. The Aces held a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series and could have wrapped up the championship. Many fans and national media expected them to do so; after all, they have been the favorites from the start of the playoffs. But the Sun weren’t going out like that.
“That’s a gritty team,” Miller said. “When you tell them they can’t do something, it’s going to make them try even harder and compete like crazy.”
This team is at its best when the pressure is on; Connecticut is now 4-0 in elimination games this postseason.
“Whenever our backs are against the wall, we’re ready to fight,” said Brionna Jones. “We’re not going to lay down to anybody. So I think for us, it’s just that mentality that we’re gonna go out there and play our hardest no matter what. People throw the first punch and we come out ready to return fire.”
Thursday night had a similar feel to Game 4 of the semifinals.
The Sun also entered that contest with their season on the line, down 2-1 to the Chicago Sky, but pulled out a 104-80 victory at Mohegan Sun Arena. It was the largest margin of victory in WNBA history to force a Game 5.
In both of their elimination games at home, Connecticut led by at least 15 points in the first quarter, handing its opponent its largest first-quarter deficit of the entire postseason. The Sun excelled at what they do best in both matchups, scoring at least 64 points in the paint, 15 second-chance points and 23 points off turnovers in each instance. They shot at least 50% from the floor and 40% from deep in each game as well.
In Game 5 of the semifinals on the road, Connecticut trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter against the defending champions. But determined not to let the Sky best them in the postseason for the second consecutive year, the Sun went on an 18-0 run to close out the victory and advance to the finals.
“It’s us. We just talk to each other out there, we believe in each other,” Natisha Hiedeman said after that game. “And adversity hit, sometimes we fold — not no more. We’re not folding no more. As y’all saw in the third quarter, we picked it right back up and won the game. And now we going to the championship. Job not done yet.”
During that same postgame press conference DeWanna Bonner told everyone not to “count us out just yet because we are relentless.” Connecticut players and coaches alike knew they were entering another series as the underdogs against the Aces in the finals. They know many probably thought they’d get swept after dropping the first two games, too. But once again the Sun rose to the moment with their season on the line. Now down 2-1 in the series, they’ll have to do the same in Game 4 on Sunday.
“It’s just the mentality of our team,” Jonquel Jones said. “We don’t lay down to anybody. And regardless of the situation or what outside sources think, we know that we can win games and we know that we can win the championship. … Moving forward we know what we can do we just have to go out there and do it.”
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