July 8th, 2004: Washington at New York

Washington Mystics 71, New York Liberty 54

Bench play is sorely needed and sorely lacking.


Why do I have this sudden image of a line of Liberty voodoo dolls pinned to a dartboard somewhere in Tamika Whitmore’s home? First Tari, then Crystal, now Ann? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh! Though at least it’s the moderately well-dressed ones in street clothes; Tari, of course, takes her sweet time but comes out looking good, Ann put herself together neatly, and Crystal... well, Crystal at least keeps it simple.

Okay, the honeymoon’s over. 4 minutes for Erin? 7 minutes for K.B? When you only have eight players, you can’t pull that crap. Was Patty expecting someone to rip off her street clothes and dump her bandages? VJ’s only human. Becky’s only human. Having them go 37 minutes? Bad idea.

We hung tough in the first half. Unfortunately, this meant not having the energy to play the second half. I kept thinking they should expend their energy only at one end- either play defense and not score or score and not play defense, but at least do one real well, because the way they were playing they couldn’t do either well.

Shameka... hon... catch the ball when VJ throws it to you. Don’t just stand there and watch it go out of bounds. And someone get Bethany free throw lessons (and don’t let Tari volunteer to be the one giving them!) Becky’s shot selection was questionable- I understand that the team needed offense muy pronto, but if the threes aren’t falling and the circus shots are being summarily introduced to photographers’ row, rethinking the offense might be a good idea. She looked like she was expecting a lot of fouls that didn’t get called. Well, a lot of people were expecting calls and didn’t get them. There were so many steps I thought I was watching a dance contest. (Not that the Liberty weren’t also beneficiaries; I’m sure Shameka has an offer from the Giants at home on her answering machine after one tackle she made.) And why on earth did Elena pass up the first two open threes she had before taking (AND HITTING) one? *slap slap to all Liberty players*

‘Claw has a whole lot of moves. Granted, some of them aren’t the nicest of moves, like the elbow to Elena’s face. SDS basically only showed up for the last few minutes of the game. Alana’s offense deigned to show up tonight (of course), and of course her D's been here all year. Tamicha Jackson is fast- and in pregame warm-ups I saw why they used to call her Jack-up Jackson, ‘cause those shots were going up in nanoseconds. Why is Aiysha Smith in the doghouse- wasn’t she playing well in the early part of the season?

Note to those of the Sharpie variety: if you want to get Alana’s attention, make sure you say her name properly, otherwise she’s either going to ignore you or not notice you’re calling her. (so A-LAY-na, not A-LAH-na) She really is nice. I still wouldn’t call her Sweetness to her face, but she’s really nice.

It’s going to be a long season until those bones finish knitting up... who else is going to donate calcium to the team? I know my mom has some old chews kicking around...