Shortly after launching an errant three-point attempt from the corner that missed everything, Flau鈥檍ae Johnson checked out with 7:08 remaining in the third quarter of a closely contested game against the Connecticut Sun.
She watched the rest of Wednesday night鈥檚 80-78 loss from the bench, which was uncharacteristic of the star rookie.
鈥淛ust flow of the game,鈥 coach Sonia Raman said postgame when asked about Johnson. 鈥淛ust went with a couple other players. Just trying to ignite our offense a little bit. So, that's all that was.鈥
Maybe so, but the fourth-quarter benching marked the first punitive response to Johnson鈥檚 shooting woes. She鈥檚 scoring 10.8 points per game 鈥 one of eight rookies averaging double-figures.
However, Johnson ranks 40th among WNBA rookies in field-goal shooting percentage at 26.5%. She鈥檚 also shooting 23.5% on three-pointers (4 of 17) and hasn鈥檛 made a shot behind the arc in the past three games.
When evaluating players, Raman, a reputed basketball tactician and a first-year WNBA coach, says she isn鈥檛 necessarily swayed by a particular performance and favors data from a sample of games.
Five games into the season, the Storm (1-4), who are riding a three-game losing streak, and Johnson, the No. 8 overall pick in last month鈥檚 WNBA draft, appear to be at an early-season crossroads heading into Friday鈥檚 7 p.m. rematch against the Sun (1-5).
鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be ups and downs, that鈥檚 basketball,鈥 Johnson said during training camp last month. 鈥淚 know I have a lot to learn and I鈥檓 ready to for it. This league is different than college. These girls are grown women, so everything is bigger, faster and stronger. 鈥 Hopefully, that adjustment won鈥檛 take too long, but then some things you can鈥檛 rush.
Johnson had little difficulty scoring the past four seasons at LSU, where she averaged 14.6 points while shooting 46.7% from the field and 37.3% on three-pointers.
鈥淚鈥檓 just taking it one day at a time," Johnson said. "Taking it all in, listening to my coaches and everybody. They鈥檙e telling to just be me and play my game.鈥
Before Wednesday, Johnson led the Storm with 28.4 minutes per game. Her season-low 16-minute outing against the Sun puts a spotlight on her shot selection and lack of offensive efficiency.
In the season opener, the dynamic 5-foot-10 guard connected on three of 12 shots while scoring 12 points. She tallied a season-high 16 points on 3-of-10 shooting and was instrumental in an 89-82 win against the Sun last week.
After a 2-for-7 shooting display against the Toronto Tempo, Johnson was 3 of 14 on field goals for 14 points versus the Indiana Fever.
On Wednesday, Johnson thrilled the Climate Pledge Arena crowd with a couple of highlight layups, but she finished with a season-low five points on 2-for-6 shooting, including 0 for 2 on three-pointers.
Johnson was the only starter who did not appear in the fourth quarter. She was replaced by backup guard Zia Cooke and veteran reserve Lexie Brown, who played all 10 minutes in the fourth.
鈥淪he's getting some pretty good shots in different phases of the game,鈥 Raman said. 鈥淲e love her in transition and her ability to just get out and be a transition player. We want her to be able to attack in the open floor, to be able to take open threes when she has them and then really trying to target her in certain actions when we're really getting into our set pieces.鈥
Johnson and the Storm, who rank last in the WNBA in scoring (79.6 points per game) and 13th in field-goal shooting (41.1%), tend to run into problems when the opposing defense gets set.
鈥淚t's just a matter of her getting a feel for where her shots are going to come and what are the best shots she can take,鈥 Raman said. 鈥淏ut also 鈥 we run something and then the music stops a little bit. How do we get to that next action?
鈥淚f we're not collectively getting to that next action, then we end up taking more of a contested two, a contested pull-up (shot) or something like that. When I see some of those shots, those are a collective effort of us as a team just (needing to be) a little bit smoother and having a little bit more flow getting from like one phase of our offense to the next.鈥
(0) comments
Comments are now closed on this article.
Comments can only be made on article within the first 3 days of publication.