Dom Amore: CT Sun remain unbeaten, and they warn their best is yet to come

UNCASVILLE — The CT Sun have won some close ones, come from behind, persevered in overtime, found different ways to win.

These are among the earmarks of a good team. On Tuesday night, they had an easier game, smothering Phoenix, 70-47.

“We haven’t played our best basketball,” Alyssa Thomas said. “We’re still working out a lot of kinks, lineups, minutes restrictions, so there’s a lot of room for us to continue to grow, which is also scary. I don’t think any of us are playing our best basketball right now.”

Connecticut Sun stay undefeated, rout Phoenix Mercury 70-47 as DeWanna Bonner surpasses milestone

And there was the recurring theme following an impressive win — you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The Sun, at 6-0, are the last unbeaten team in the WNBA. In an era of “Super Teams,” assembled in New York and Las Vegas, and breakout new superstars, the gritty, workmanlike Sun, well put together by President Jen Rizzotti and GM Darius Taylor, well molded and driven again by reigning coach of the year Stephanie White, are becoming the story of the W.

“They’re just a tough team,” said UConn great Diana Taurasi, before she was held to six points, less than a third of her 19-point average for Phoenix coming in. “I spent some time with Coach White with USA Basketball, and the one thing I really love about her, she is really sure about what she wants from her players and you can see that in the way they play. There is no indecision, everyone knows what their role is, what is expected of them and that’s why they’re playing like that.”

In Year Two of the Taylor-White collaboration, the Sun have again added a number of new players, veterans to play important bench roles, and that’s where they see room for growth, as those players settle into roles and get acclimated.

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What’s not new is the core of the Sun, Thomas, who had 10 points, eight assists and six rebounds, DeWanna Bonner, who scored 19, passing the 7,000-point mark in what is to be a Hall-of-Fame career, and Brionna Jones, gradually increasing minutes in her first season back from a ruptured Achilles.

“I think our core, me, A.T. and Breezy, we’ve been at this thing a long time, a lot of years,” Bonner said. “We kind of know each other, we know where the other is (on the court), we’re comfortable with each other, that helps. Then you just add pieces and bring them along, confidence-wise, get them to play on the same level, feel the same love, so I think we’ve got a great group that’s buying in, buying into their roles.”

They started the season May 14 before a packed home arena, many making a pilgrimage to see Caitlin Clark’s debut, but leaving with the impression of yet another Thomas triple-double stamped on their foreheads.

“It does help when you have that monster like Alyssa Thomas, that just affects the game in more ways than, I think, anyone who’s ever played basketball,” Taurasi said.

Bonner is averaging 20.3 points per game, and the Sun are fifth in the league at 83.8, but aren’t near the top in the offensive categories. They are, however, the top-ranked defensive team, allowing 73.8 points per. Phoenix shot 23.8 percent from the floor, including an unfathomable 1-for-27 on 3-pointers.

“I don’t feel like we’ve really played 40 minutes of our best basketball on both ends of the floor,” White said. “We just haven’t put it together. We’ve played stretches where, in the fourth quarter, we’ve played well enough to win, we haven’t shot the ball particularly well, but our defense has always given us opportunities for success.”

Sure, to miss 26 of 27 threes, the Mercury just had a tough shooting night at the casino. Some were open looks they just missed, but when you play the kind of defense the Sun plays, teams are bound to feel more harried, and rush even the open looks. The defensive identity gives Connecticut a certain advantage before a game even begins.

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The Sun have beat Indiana, Washington, Minnesota and Phoenix at home, Indiana and Chicago on the road. Only the Lynx (4-1) are over .500; the major tests are yet to come. Dallas (3-2) comes to Connecticut on Friday, the New York Liberty (4-2), who eliminated Connecticut in the semifinals last fall before losing to the Aces in the finals, come to Connecticut on June 8, the first crack at the two-time champs comes June 21 at Vegas.

So we’ll know much more about the Sun by July, when the league takes its break for the Paris Olympics, but if we haven’t seen their best basketball yet, we’ve certainly seen enough to assume they will be knocking on the door one more time in search of that elusive first championship. They are the 12th team in league history to start 6-0, of those, 11 have reached the finals, five won the title.

“They’re a super team, because when they play, they play collective,” Taurasi said. “They have shared cognition, and that’s when you become a super team, when everyone knows what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Super talent, you can throw that out the window if you don’t know how to play together, and this team has been at this for a while now, this nucleus has been together for a long time, you can tell they know what to expect from each other, and that’s why they’re undefeated right now, and probably playing the best basketball in the league.”