August 11th, 2006: Charlotte at New York

New York Liberty 64, Charlotte Sting 62

All in all, it looked like a game that both sides were kind of trying to lose for the sake of ping-pong balls. Sad, really, at the end.


One cool thing about the Sting that I haven't noticed about most teams is that not only does their inactive player travel with them, she watches shootaround with their coach. She seemed surprised to be recognized, and I have to admit it was a lucky guess on my part (well, that, and Yelena Leuchanka looks nothing like either of the Sting assistants). A lot of folks almost didn't recognize their cards tonight; I think the orange of the Sting uniforms struck them blind, and McCarville's card against an orange roster is enough to make anyone swear off color.

I'm sorry. Tammy Sutton-Brown still walks like an 8th Avenue hooker. She has her moments as a post player, but I'm starting to think 2002 was the best we'll ever see out of her, and gee, who was her coach that year and the year before? She *did* go to the floor once, which was something I don't see out of her very often. Helen Darling continues to work my nerves, and I swear at the end of the game she looked like she was under orders to tank. Tangela Smith went to the deck HARD after one play- we heard the thud in the upper deck, and for the longest time she was very still on the ground. She got up eventually, but she had a woozy look about her, as if she were wondering exactly where she was and why all these people were wearing orange tinfoil. She does have a soft touch. Currie had a shot or two go off on her- does the NCAA use the smaller ball or not? I think that might be part of her shooting woes if it doesn't. Also, is the hair thing a Duke thing? I'd be more certain if Beard went the same color as Currie and Iciss. Sheri Sam was matched up against Loree Moore a lot, and I'm surprised they didn't try to take advantage of that. Of course, Loree's a tough cookie, so it's possible that it wasn't as good a matchup for Charlotte as you'd think. At one point in the first quarter, Muggsy had had enough of this shit and sent in a bench unit, and it was at that point that I started to realize Janel McCarville's problem. Part of her is aware of the fact that she is 6'2" and possesses substantial girth, and thus ought to be setting brutal screens and muscling in for rebounds… but I think part of her thinks she can still grow up to be Lindsay Whalen; she passes well, has a decent jump shot, and tries to handle the ball. If she were trained in Europe, she would probably be an All-Star by the time she's off rookie scale. Allison Feaster and Kelly Mazzante brought the threes (I thought Feaster's shot was before the buzzer in the first, but I could be wrong), and Mazzante had an interception that Paterno would have been proud of. LaToya Bond didn't impress me as much as the last time I saw her, but the last time I saw her was one of her best games of the season, so I'll cut her some slack. She tries to do too much, which isn't the greatest idea when the only other person in the league who knows your quirks from having played with them for four years is on the floor. Ayana Walker had one impressive putback, and Ty'esha Fluker one big hit. Muggsy still needs to get his suits tailored, but they're not as bad as they used to be. He was rather unanimated for a coach who had a couple of rather big calls go against his team.

Barbara. Oh, Barbara. If there's any good time to pull a field goal out of your ass, the last basket of the game is the perfect time to do it. Believe me, folks, she wasn't exactly setting the world on fire until that last putback. But pulling the game-winning field goal out of your ass does preclude any further analysis of a player's game, so we'll be moving on now. Becky looked close to her old self- not completely, she wasn't as quick as she usually is, because Darling can't usually keep up with her, but she was close, hence the scoring. She was also pretty fierce when going for rebounds. She played a lot of minutes, as did Loree, who found her three-point shot for this game. Sherill, Erin, and Kiesha were buried on the bench; I don't think Erin got more than five minutes and Sherill ten, and of course Kiesha was DNP-CD. Shameka… she didn't impress me all that much, although she had one fierce rebound near the end of the game that had me hollering. Cathrine… man, she was going up strong, and setting solid screens. Not Screens of Death, but possibly Screens of Just Where Do You Think You're Going, Young Lady. She could teach Barb a little about screens, seeing as Barb was called for at least one illegal one early in the game. Iciss… oh, dear god. If she's in the right place and the ball comes to her, you might get a putback out of her, and tonight she was in the right place more often than usual, but she doesn't fight for what she wants and she has too much of a tendency to linger outside. I actually thought Christelle was the better post off the bench tonight. She fought for balls and rebounds. Now, if we could only get the girl to hit her free throws, we might have something here… but let's be honest, she'll probably get cut next year, because why would we want to keep a player that might actually develop into something?

Most embarrassing basketball moments: surprisingly, none of them named either of the blowouts by Houston, or the ones by Indiana, or the one by Seattle, or the ones by Washington, or… Christelle's was my favorite: since Romance languages such as French place the adjective AFTER the noun being modified, she once, early in her American playing days, referred to a fast break as a "break fast". A surprising number of them involved shooting at the wrong basket. Come on, you mean to tell me none of them have come onto the court without part of their uniform on? Ad-Libs: AB is horrible at soccer- "you don't want to see it, it's pathetic". Barb is the funniest player on the team, per Becky: "but she doesn't mean to be".

Anthem was yet another Sweet Adelines chorus. Seriously. Blaze's secret passion.

Sue and Kym were at the game. Sometime in the second quarter, Sue wandered down to section 16 to say hi to Kym, and I swear I've done the 'tap friend on the shoulder without warning her of your presence' thing. The boy observed, and I agree, that Sue wears tight jeans well for being almost forty.

All in all, it looked like a game that both sides were kind of trying to lose for the sake of ping-pong balls. Sad, really, at the end.