June 15th, 2004: Seattle at New York

Seattle Storm 86, New York Liberty 62

The Storm are really good and the Liberty's defense is really bad.


"So she was wearing a sweater, a denim vest, and this floor-sweeper dress that had to be three sizes too big for her. It probably *was* Anne Donovan's miniskirt."

Unfortunately, that and the Cleveland-inspired punfest my mom and I had at halftime were the last good laughs I had. There are butt-whuppings and there are butt-whuppings, and this was a full-fledged butt-whupping. Simply put, Seattle kept their hands on the ball, and New York didn't- whether it was on rebounds, dribbles, or passes, Seattle had better control of the ball.

It started out so well. We had a decent anthem from a young Aussie named Karen Jacobsen; she infused it with a lot more emotion than I'm used to, but there were odd vocal shifts in the middle. We had the amusement value of Tully Bevilaqua and Simone Edwards looking for all the world like they were trying out for the Rockettes. We had a hard-fought, well-played first half with the Liberty only down five. But the momentum had already started to shift in that half. It only got more and more lopsided in the second half. Seattle got second shot after second shot after second shot. I think the key play was near the end of the first half, when Lauren Jackson went to the line for two. She hit the first, then Richie called a timeout to try to ice her. She missed the second, perhaps intentionally, then swooped right in and got the putback. That was killer. There was a whole lot more of that in the second half for the Storm.

It had previously impressed me no end that Sue Bird, who plays a position that usually ends up with the worst-percentage shots, was leading the team in field goal percentage. But now I understand why. She knows exactly when to take the shot and when to pass and when to try and set something else up. Perhaps LJ was right in saying that she's the best point guard in the league. Speaking of which... the reigning MVP was unstoppable last night. Elena and Ann both tried defending her, supposedly, though what they were doing didn't look much like defense. She had a double-double in the first half- I'd say that's pretty impressive. Betty Lennox was doing her good-Betty/bad-Betty streaky thing, and it was rather disturbing, though fortunately for the Liberty she spent most of the game as bad-Betty, otherwise it probably would have been a 40-point loss. Sheri Sam kept getting left open, and she kept hitting shots. (Then again, the Liberty defense kept leaving LJ open too, and that's like WTF?) She also had a knack for getting the ball in a rebounding situation. Kamila Vodichkova was quiet most of the night, except for the state of perpetual foul. Tully Bevilaqua is as tenacious and fearless as advertised; I think it was the first play she was in- she was getting ready for KB to come up, then took one huge step and was planted in position just in time for the happily oblivious KB to plow her over like something out of a bad driving commercial. Fortunately, she has perfected the art of falling without being too awkward. Adia Barnes is as fierce a defender as ever, though I do believe that her brace is a couple of inches longer than Becky's; she also found some offense in that second half, making me feel really stupid after I'd spent most of the first half saying how she was known for her defense. Janell Burse is rough, and physical, and for my peace of mind she needs to find herself at the wrong end of a smackdown.

Ugh. Where do I begin with the Liberty? The defense was nonexistent- no one scores 86 on a good Liberty defense, not even an All-Star team. Players missed assignments. Players lost rebounds. Players stood around and looked stupid. Tari looked totally out of place- I'm starting to get frustrated with the shape she's not in, and the hand is no longer an excuse. Becky made a lot of bad decisions, especially in the second half when she thought she had to take over the game (you'd think after she got the stuffing knocked out of her once or twice, she'd get the drift that the paint is not a good place to be when you're 5'6" and the people around you are 6'4" and 6'5"). VJ was off every which way from Sunday- if she's not hurting, then I don't know a damn thing about basketball. Elena had moments, including a couple of good defensive moments, but she still wasn't Supernova. Ann was very good on offense, but questionable on defense. Crystal I think was the only one who really brought it. And Richie, of course, was bad to his old tricks of calling every single possession, taking out the hot hand, and taking his sweet time about making substitutions. But at least he removed his head from his arse and put Bethany and Erin in, though it took him about three minutes too long.

The Liberty looked awful, and it wouldn't surprise me if some of the harmony had gone sour. But the Storm have a knack for making teams look bad. While the extent of the loss can be placed squarely on the pathetic defense and rebounding that showed up, the fact of the loss can be placed on the fact that the Storm are one hell of a good team.