August 14th, 2005: Charlotte at New York

New York Liberty 73, Charlotte Sting 65

The Liberty need some calcium, the Sting miss Allison Feaster, and Cathrine Kraayeveld proves to Helen Darling that thou shalt not fuck with a Liberty player.


Today's win was about those things that haven't been a strength of the Liberty this season: offensive rebounding and the bench. Today's game also demonstrated how much the Sting miss Allison Feaster, but we'll get to that in, uh, due time.

Don't stylize the anthem. I don't care who you are: don't do it as a round, don't change the words, and don't repeat phrases for dramatic emphasis. It is not cool.

Helen Darling is a real piece of work: she was grabbing and holding all night long, and if she weren't out of Penn State, I'd suspect an ulterior motive for some of those holds. She's a speedy little thing who does know how to make sneaky passes. Tangela Smith is so smooth it's almost painful- if you're not rooting for her team. Bogues played her the entire 40 minutes, according to the box score. She's tough, but damn, does that girl walk like an 8th Avenue hooker. Tammy Sutton-Brown struts almost the same way, but she's not quite as smooth about it. She stepped her game up slightly, I guess because someone had to. Kelly Mazzante was pretty ineffective today, and the only significant shot she hit was the halfcourt shot that ended the Sting's shootaround. Sheri Sam is a lot tougher and more physical than I remembered, and for some reason the Liberty defensive scheme often decided to leave her weakly defended. Adrienne Goodson still has it, but if it came down to either guarding Sam closely or guarding Goody closely, I'd guard Sam first. Jia Perkins is stockier than I had thought her. Teana Miller is still a tank, though a slightly smaller one. If Sam was on Crystal, she gets the award for best defense by a Sting player. Yes, I know Crystal is effectively a defense-only player right now, but she was the only one who really seemed to be stopped by someone else's actions. Muggsy really needs to work on his fashion sense, because that suit quite patently didn't fit him. He also needs to learn not to ride his starters into the ground. The more things change...

#25 was Becky Bigtime today, no doubt. When we needed a big shot, she stepped up. She picked her spots, and she picked them well. Likewise, VJ knew when to put the daggers in with those gorgeous drives to the hoop and the fastbreak lay-ups- really, is there anyone in the league better at catching up to those ridiculous passes and converting them to points? Loved her D today, too. Crystal had to bring the D, because her shooting is still slightly impaired. She shared a problem with a few of her teammates- if you're going to take a long jumper, make sure you're behind the line. Foot on the line gets you as many points as a lay-up. Elena was so fierce on the boards that it did my heart good. When she clears out, you could tape it and use it for instructional tapes, because she goes up strong, she brings it down strong, and she makes damn sure no one's getting friendly with her. Shameka just didn't have it tonight. Patty did right not playing her too much. La'Keshia was a real spark; she usually does well against her former teams. Cathrine was amazing off the bench, scoring, playing physical defense, setting those rock-solid screens that are already her specialty, and most of all, demonstrating to Miz Darling that thou shalt not fuck with a Liberty player unless thou dost wish to be fucked with thyself. That back elbow, in its twisted way, made her more truly a Lib than anything else she's done this year. Erin- while her defense on Sheri Sam and Goody made me cringe, flinch, and other assorted bad things- did what we needed her to do off the bench; unless I miscalculated, she was good for 12 VGM. Loree was a non-factor. It's times like these that I remember why she was a lousy first-round pick. (Not that I have anything against her, but she hasn't shown much in her last few spurts.) Patty, of course, spent most of the game being accused of being on crack. Earth logic makes no sense to her.

Refs were wildly inconsistent, per usual. Charlotte got away with more holding, but the Liberty had a couple of ignored infractions.

Note to Garden brass: do not set up the fan tunnel fifteen minutes before the Liberty are scheduled to come onto the court, while the other team is still on the floor. That's just bad timing, and bad timing is trouble for all concerned. Likewise, standing in an aisle anywhere in New York is a very bad idea, unless you *like* it rough.

Danni, sitting with you and your mom was a TRIP. We gotta do it more often next year.

Poor Ann. Really, this team needs more calcium. And we need to keep up the solid bench play.