Friendly Bounce Playbook: This Connecticut Sun inbounds play is very cool

The Connecticut Sun lost a heartbreaker earlier tonight, as Leilani Mitchell drilled a three at the buzzer to cap off a wild game and give the Phoenix Mercury an 81-80 victory. What little playoff hopes the Sun still had were crushed, as the loss moves the Sun to four games back of the final playoff spot with just six games to go.

But let’s not talk about the playoff race. Let’s talk about inbounds plays, because this Connecticut Sun inbounds play is very cool.

Late in the second quarter, with the Sun taking the ball out on the sideline and looking for a basket, head coach Anne Donovan devised a pretty sweet play. And although the final result wasn’t what she was hoping for, it’s important to *extremely Sixers fan voice* trust the process. So let’s take a closer look at how it (almost) worked to perfection.

It first starts with Kelly Faris taking the ball out of bounds on the sideline with her teammates set up in a box-like formation before her. The first action sees Chelsea Grey run through a set of elevator doors to pop out to the three-point line.

But Grey does not get the ball. At least not yet. First, she stops and becomes one of the doors for another elevator action. This time it’s Jasmine Thomas sneaking through traffic on her way to go get the ball.

Before that can happen, however, Grey runs through yet another set of elevator doors, returning whence she came. So in case you’ve lost count, that’s three sets of elevator doors Sun players have run through before the ball even gets inbounded. Whew.

Finally, Thomas pops up to meet Faris and receive the ball. As Thomas takes control, Faris then sprints to the other side of the court using an Iverson Cut.

Eventually, Thomas gets the ball to Faris near the block. At this point, Grey, who has just been hanging out down low, begins to cut back up to the three-point line. Using a nice feint, Grey sends her defender the wrong way, giving her a nice head start as she prepares to use a double screen to get free up top.

With her defender flummoxed, Grey curls up to the top of the key, where Faris hits her for a wide open three.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t go down, but that doesn’t discount the ingenuity of the play. Just because Grey didn’t make the shot, doesn’t mean the play didn’t work. No, the play was designed to get a wide open shot, and that’s just what it did.