PHOENIX — The WNBA revolves around bigs, and Friday’s 2018 season-opener showed what’s in store for one newcomer against one of the league’s most brutal interior players.
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The Dallas Wings now have one of the only WNBA players capable of physically matching Brittney Griner, and with Liz Cambage, the team hopes to compete with the league’s best.
Cambage, who averaged 16.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 2013, her last in the WNBA, gives Dallas a dominant interior player in a league where having one is almost a prerequisite to title contention.
An overwhelming talent like Cambage has a way of dictating style to the point that one forgets what the team was like before their arrival. The Wings did not merely add to their roster, they fundamentally reshaped it. That means there will be an adjustment period, one that forces last year’s upstart core to find their place within Dallas’ new reality.
It may not mean a completely new hierarchy, however — on Friday, you still watched Skylar Diggins-Smith streak into the paint and cause pains for Phoenix’s defense. Glory Johnson took as many shots as Cambage in the first half, but struggled to get in rhythm as a floor-spacer, but there’s quite a big difference already between this year’s Wings and last.
For Griner, the change may need to be more of a mental one. The Mercury have been grooming her to take Taurasi’s spot as the heart of the franchise and a leader in the locker room for two years now. She is getting more comfortable, but that fire flickers out from time to time.
The next adjustment will be to a force out of her control — WNBA officiating. Griner is an impossible player to call fairly, with length to interrupt every shot and strength to ignore defense played against her. At war with Cambage, Griner gave the referees no chance, sitting for large portions of the game in foul trouble.
Cambage was not insusceptible to that aggravation, either, matching Griner foul for foul. At times it felt as if Cambage controlling the game disrupted Dallas’ other stars, who finished 11-33 from the field.
If Cambage is forging a new identity for the Wings, Griner is enjoying a familiar one.
The other story Friday for Phoenix was the return of wing DeWanna Bonner, who sat out the 2017 season after giving birth to twins. She was the difference on defense for the Mercury with Griner in foul trouble, grabbing three steals and giving the team versatility they sorely missed in 2017.
Griner’s teammates ultimately turned the tide of the game in Phoenix’s favor, outscoring Dallas by six points in the minutes she and Diana Taurasi were both sitting.
After Johnson left the game with a right leg injury midway through the fourth quarter, the Mercury took control.
Ultimately, this is the story of a young team colliding with a championship squad. Griner scored just 13 points, but walked out of Talking Stick Resort Arena with the victory. Cambage and the Wings are a work in progress.
The Wings and Mercury next play June 12 in Dallas.