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Sue Bird ‘noticed’ something different about Olivia Miles in WNBA playoffs
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- Sue Bird ‘noticed’ something different about Olivia Miles in WNBA playoffs
Photo by Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sue Bird picked up on a telling moment of frustration from Olivia Miles during Minnesota 's postseason run.
With Sue Bird watching courtside, Minnesota fell in Game 2 as New York eliminated the Lynx from the postseason.
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Rookie guard Olivia Miles had a rough night, managing just 5 points on 1-of-8 shooting, with two rebounds and one assist in 17 minutes.
It capped off a tough playoff debut for Miles, who totaled 16 points on 4-of-20 shooting across the two-game sweep while committing five turnovers against just two assists.
Sue Bird puts Olivia Miles' struggles down to pressure
Watching the game, Sue Bird picked up on a moment on the bench where you could just see the playoff pressure catching up to Olivia Miles in game 1.
Drawing on her own career, Bird offered some real empathy for what the rookie was going through as the frustration started to stack up.
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She said on her YouTube channel: "I feel like the one thing I noticed, and this has nothing to do with X's and O's, for Olivia, kind of tying back to what I was saying about this whole idea of pressure, she didn't like play poorly. She just didn't have the impact statistically that we're used to seeing, especially in the playmaking aspect of things.
"But there was this moment where she came off the bench and every player has this moment, just signs of frustration. And she's talking to her coach, talking to her teammates, and I just I it's like if I was on the team, I wanted to I wish I could have been there to be like, "Hey, you're good." Like, "This is normal." Like, "You're good."
"It probably just felt there's like an outsized feeling that those moments can and then you go back and you watch the film and you're like, "Oh my god, it wasn't even that bad." But it's like you need somebody on the bench in that moment.
"But you could kind of tell it started to build a little bit where now she's getting to the rim but like maybe not finishing the same, getting blocked and it just was like compounding a little bit."
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Even with the rough series, let's not lose sight of the bigger picture. Olivia Miles had an unbelievable season, breaking Caitlin Clark 's single-season rookie assist record, locking up Rookie of the Year, and even forcing her way into the MVP conversation. A couple of tough playoff games don't change that.
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