September 19th, 2004: Washington at New York

New York Liberty 79, Washington Mystics 75

Alana Beard is unfrickin' believable, A'riel Hampton is utterly adorable, and bring on the Detroit Shock!


So yeah, there was this game last night, but I was too busy obsessing over my first date to really pay attention. Some team won, right?

Alana Beard. Sweet Lord. If they polled MSG this season, Beard would be ROY, based on the performances she's put together here and the Diana's subpar NYC appearance. Alana just decided that she was going to take over this game, no two ways about it. In the seocnd half she was so much on fire I almost called 911. She drove. She shot. She dished. She defended. She showed Becky how to play the point guard as a non-natural PG. She and her team ended up losing the game, but not from lack of her trying. Meanwhile... someone just do something with Stacey Dales-Schuman that gets her off the court and as far away from basketball as possible; she combined a knack for inconvenient threes with general irritatingness. The Mystics really should have exploited the matchup disaster when Becky was on her. Like, really. Murriel Page at small forward caused me go HUNH? Not that it didn't work in its own dysfunctional way, but it was still weird and confusing. Chasity Melvin came on in the second half, and yes, that one was because she ate Bethany for lunch; I even think I heard a ladylike burp after one play. Nakia Sanford was a monster on the glass, outclassing (or should that be outglassing?) the Liberty front line. Granted, that's not hard to do with half our post players in streets and one of them not even in the country. Coco Miller was effective in spots; Aiysha Smith a wee bit more versatile. Tamicha Jackson once again earned her nickname of Chucky (or Jack-Up Jackson, I've heard that one too), though she was even worse during warmups- everyone else was on the floor stretching and she was shooting around with her iPod secreted somewhere on her person. Michael Adams needs to take some deep clensing breaths when he's in game mode, because otherwise he'll come close to killing someone, and that would be bad.

Well, whaddya know? Shameka's a Meek after all. Either that or she was mixing her own moves with some of the ones she channelled from Tari. Seriously, Shameka looked like she stole Tari's hair and drives. *whistles appreciatively* *just for the hell of it, whistles at Tari* Becky came on strong at all the key moments with wicked drives, great dishes, and killer threes. Elena went off on the boards- she had a double double. *proud* VJ was stastically quiet, though she had several great assists- she shut down Alana in the first half, and it was while she was out, and Crystal was out, that Alana really got her feet under her and went incandescent. Crystal was defensively solid early, though I've no idea why she was wasted on Page, but she got hurt near the end of the first half, and missed the VAST majority of the second half- we're talking 19+, folks. Bethany came up big on the offensive end, but she still needs some lessons on defense sans fouls. I still heart our not-so-little foul magnet. La'Keshia was way solid off the bench- big shots, some boards, some standing-around-and-being-really-tall, though her reaction after a couple of fouls was straight of the Los Angeles handbook she must have gotten her first year in the W. K.B. rocked as a PG; ah, if only we could average out her willingness to shoot with Tamicha Jackson's, both teams would be so much better off. Erin ate up time nicely. Tari looked stunning- mom thinks she's lost weight. Whatever it is, she cleans up nice and she looked absolutely gorgeous. On the other hand... as much as I love DeTrina on the court, she only seems to own three shirts. This is not good, and in fact is rather unhygienic unless she constantly does laundry. As for Patty, she made her own fashion statement by actually rocketing past Richie on the Red-O-Meter.

If this makes any sense, the Liberty were victimized by phantom calls on the defensive end, but they were the beneficiaries of non-calls on the offensive end. The refereeing drew the usual number of boos and confused the usual number of people. Roy Gulbeyan. Really, isn't that enough of an explanation?

Kym did the anthem, hurrah! She's lost some of her breath control, but she's still got a really nice voice. I'd still love to hear Tari do the anthem again, but it's always nice to remember that Kym's out there. She brought the baby; her daughter is so so so cute! Like, OMG, the cuteness! *squees* And I almost melted of the cuteness when Sue Wicks was over there at halftime and holding the baby and probably reminiscing about old times. I love my ex-Liberty.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to schedule a Mystics-Liberty game at the same time and in the same home area as a Redskins-Giants game should be shot in the street like a rabid dog.

Hey, Shock! BRING IT ON!