Sun face the remainder of the season without Brionna Jones
Jun. 24—MOHEGAN — The announcement was made official by the Connecticut Sun on Saturday: starting forward Brionna Jones, who was having an all-star-caliber year, will miss the remainder of the season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon.
The Sun play against WNBA Eastern Conference foes Chicago (5-8) on Sunday and New York (8-3) on Tuesday, their first steps in moving on without Jones, who was injured with 1 minute, 5 seconds to play in an 85-79 win over Seattle on June 20.
Connecticut is 11-3, the league's second-best overall record, following a 3-0 road trip. Sunday's game begins at 1 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena (NBCSB).
"The first thing is we're not gonna replace Brionna Jones," Sun head coach Stephanie White said following Saturday's practice at the Mohegan Tribal Community Center, referring to Jones' spirit on and off the court.
"We've gotta have the group that we have. Everybody's got to give us a little bit more, a little more offensively, a little bit more defensively, a little bit more rebounding. Our guards have to be great rebounders. We really relied a lot on (Alyssa Thomas) and Breezy (Jones) to clean up a lot of our boards.
"Certainly, it changes the way that we'll play but I also think that this group is ready."
Jones, the 6-foot-3 Maryland graduate, was the 2022 WNBA Sixth Player of the Year.
This season she stepped into the starting lineup after the Sun traded Jonquel Jones to the Liberty and Brionna Jones was averaging 15.9 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game, leading the league with 3.2 offensive rebounds per game and ranking fifth in steals (1.8) and ninth in field goal percentage (.571).
Jones had a season-high 28 points on June 15 against Atlanta and had four double-doubles. She was the Sun's first-round draft pick, eighth overall, in 2017 after an All-America career at Maryland.
According to the Sun's press release, Jones underwent surgery to repair her Achilles on Friday at the Swedish Orthopedic Institute in Seattle, where the injury occurred. Jones was still in Seattle on Saturday.
"I want to thank everyone who has reached out to me the last few days. All of the love I've received has truly been a blessing as I've gone through this tough time," Jones said in the release. "While this is not how I envisioned this season ending for me, I am determined and ready to head into the next stage of recovery and rehab."
Guard Bec Allen replaced Jones in the Sun's starting lineup against the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday, an 89-69 win to cap the successful road trip.
That gave Connecticut a three-guard lineup or four-guard lineup if you count 6-4 guard/forward DeWanna Bonner.
"I think the difference is that there's more of a shooting lineup with that," Allen said of the revamped lineup, which continued the Sun's uptempo approach. "That allows the spacing on the floor ... so when we're running, defenders have to run out to everyone. So that opens up the floor, especially for (Thomas) to come down the middle and get a lot of her transition buckets she wants to get."
"We'll evaluate it as we progress," White said. "There are certain matchups that make that fine for us. There are certain matchups that maybe we have to look at and say, 'Hey, is this the best lineup for us to start this ballgame?'"
Tiffany Hayes led the Sun against Minnesota with 21 points, including four 3-pointers, and DiJonai Carrington had 17 points and three 3s. In all, Connecticut shot 12-for-25 from 3-point range.
In 2021, Thomas missed the bulk of the regular-season season with a torn Achilles, returning for the playoffs. Last season, point guard Jasmine Thomas (now with the Los Angeles Sparks) tore the ACL in her right knee.
"Obviously this franchise has been resilient," White said of the string of injuries. "These players are competitive and resilient. They're the best at what they do. While our heart breaks for Breezy, we know that the best way to honor her is to continue moving toward our goal."
UConn graduate Olivia Nelson-Ododa, meanwhile, in her second season in the league and her first with Connecticut, is one of the team's options in the post and White has said previously that Nelson-Ododa has exceeded her expectations since joining the organization.
"She's a really long shot blocker, shot alterer," White said. "We need to continue to have her do that for us. She's got to be a great rebounder for us and then offensively, whenever she gets the opportunity, just convert."
The Sun are led by 17.4 points per game from Bonner and 14.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 7.6 assists from Alyssa Thomas. Chicago is led by Marina Mabrey with 16.7 points per game. The Sky are coming off back-to-back losses to the Washington Mystics.
"We continue to put one foot in front of the other," White said of Connecticut. "All year long we have to keep the main thing the main thing for us and that's continuing to improve, it's relying on our defense which is what we do best and it's competing in a manner that's going to allow us to be our best when the postseason gets here."
