Hoops Scoop

Five Burning Questions for the Second Half

By David Zingler

Unlike their NBA counterparts, WNBAers don't get much time to bask in Olympic glory. The hardest working athletes on Earth are already back to work. As the regular season winds down, here are five compelling questions that will ultimately be answered.

How many games will the Lynx win?
Coming off a dominant championship run with a loaded roster, many Lynx fans were figuring the sky was the limit in 2012. Records are made to be broken after all. When the squad shot out to a 10-0 start, whispers of a possible perfect season were heard around town. While that was never realistic, some observers tossed out gaudy numbers like 31-3 or 30-4 and hey, why not? A rash of front court injuries and a three-game losing streak in early July put those predictions on life support, but a strong start to the second half has visions of WNBA immortality dancing in many fans' heads. Is this team capable of running the table? Maybe, but will that be necessary? Assuming the Lynx play well and clinch home court, there will be no need to put additional strain on stars Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Maya Moore, who of course, were pretty busy during the Olympic break. Although it may not be as flashy as some had hoped, a 27-7 record should be good enough to hold of surging San Antonio and Los Angeles in the West and put the Lynx in good position to repeat as WNBA champions. In the end, that's all that matters.

Will the Sun rise in the East?
At the time of this writing, Connecticut has a healthy lead in the East and is just behind Minnesota's league-best pace. Lead by Olympians Tina Charles and Asjha Jones, the Sun has established themselves as the team to beat in the East. While former Lynx point guard Renee Montgomery has struggled to find her shooting touch in 2012, veteran Kara Lawson has more than picked up the slack. In 2011, Connecticut lost the No. 1 seed on a tiebreaker to Indiana and was unceremoniously swept of the playoffs in the first round by Atlanta. As the Lynx showed last year however, past playoff pedigree is not a prerequisite for a championship run. With the University of Connecticut women's basketball team in a two-year championship drought, the Sun will look to pick up the slack. If the Lynx are fortunate enough to make it back to the Finals, Connecticut might be waiting for them.

Can Chicago seal the deal?
The Sky's tenure in the WNBA has been a rocky one. In six seasons, they've yet to post a winning record or (not surprisingly) qualify for the playoffs. The Sky raced out to a 7-1 start this season lead by Sylvia Fowles and Epiphanny Prince and looked to have put the failures of the past behind them. Then Prince, who was among the top scorers in the league, broke her foot and things went terribly, terribly wrong. Chicago won just one of their next 12 games and is now fighting for its playoff life. The good news for the Sky is that New York has struggled to overtake them for the No. 4 seed and Atlanta is within range at No. 3. A lot will depend on Prince's health, but this should be the year the WNBA playoffs finally descend on the Windy City.

Will the once mighty Mercury be more terrible than Tulsa?
The 2012 season has been an unmitigated disaster for Phoenix. Penny Taylor was lost for the season with a torn ACL, while Diana Taurasi and Candace Dupree have also been sidelined for significant stretches. As a result, the Mercury's playoff changes have evaporated. The karma around the team is so bad even local politicians aren't immune. In a photo-op gone bad, Phoenix mayor Greg Staton took part in a Mercury practice during the Olympic break and broke his nose in two places when his face collided with Nakia Sanford's elbow while fighting for a rebound. In more serious news, the 2007 and 2009 champions find themselves in fight with perennial doormat Tulsa for the Western Conference cellar. As long as Taurasi stays healthy however, the Mercury should win that dubious battle.

Who will be MVP?
There are many good candidates for league Most Valuable Player honors, including Chicago's Sylvia Fowles, Connecticut's Tina Charles, San Antonio's Becky Hammon, Atlanta's Angel McCoughtry and the Lynx Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen. Charles and Fowles have put up nearly identical scoring and rebounding numbers, but Fowles has a healthy lead in field goal percentage and Charles' team is in first place. Hammon and Whalen are pacing the league in assists and Augustus is shooting nearly 54% from the field - unheard of for a wing player. McCoughtry, meanwhile, looks poised to finally wrestle the scoring title away from Diana Taurasi. In other words, each one has a strong case. In the end, Whalen and Augustus will probably cancel each other out and McCoughtry might be penalized for taking too many shots. That leaves Fowles, Charles and Hammon. A lot will depend on whether or not San Antonio can maintain their torrid pace and if the Sky reach the playoffs, but when the dust settles, no player is more dominant on both ends of the floor than Fowles. That might get her the MVP nod.