August 8th, 2006: Indiana at New York

New York Liberty 80, Chicago Sky 69
Indiana Fever 77, New York Liberty 44

Please note that the "game notes of doom" for the Chicago game, aka Spoon Night, comprised two profane sentences, not worth reposting. We're skipping right on to the Indiana blowout now.

You know the season's gone bad when you lose track of which blowout was which.


You know the season's gone bad when you lose track of which blowout was which. Also, you know you're bad when your coach takes her sweet time bringing in the scrubs, plays her starters deep into garbage time, and you STILL get outscored in the fourth.

So apparently the Liberty players have taken to once more using the front entrance; we saw everyone but Loree, Ashley, and Sherill. Cathrine came with an older couple. I'm willing to stake money on them being her parents. Also, yay for tchochke pins in exchange for school supplies. Lots of tchochkes tonight: they were handing out water bottles in the lobby and playing cards as the giveaway. (Lame playing cards. The only Liberty thing about them was Maddie as the joker and the 10th anniversary logo on the back.)

D'you think Tamika Whitmore is still a little bitter? Still enjoys rubbing it in with the Liberty? Because she was up and hollering as Indiana built that ridiculous lead, to the point where it was really classless. There's enthusiasm, and then there's "In yo' face, bitch". At least hers seemed to have reason; why Ebony Hoffman was up with her, the world may never know. Anyway. Tully may have set the record for fastest "official game by Stormfan standards"; she was flat on the floor within thirty seconds. She was in the ballhandler's shorts most of the night. She and Catch both read the passing lanes well; to a lesser extent, so did Tan White (or so I thought, although I might be confusing her plays with Atkinson's, now that I look at the box). Whitmore played like she had something to prove, especially in the paint. Indiana knows how to finish on the foul. Catch was relatively quiet, although she didn't play much. There were some sequences when Erin Thorn was her defender; why Indiana didn't exploit that, I have no idea. Likewise, people kept leaving DeForge open, and I have no idea who thought that was a good idea. I had no idea she was such a good rebounder, either. Atkinson- I like her. I like her a lot. And I think she's on the right team to develop her. I developed a distaste for Olympia Scott that I didn't recall before; she seems to have gotten more physical and greedier since I last saw her play serious minutes. Seeing Fro and K.B. come into the game together made me happy. I miss Fro and her rebounding and her silly fouls. I miss K.B., too, even if she's more reluctant to shoot than Loree. There were a couple of priceless moments between K.B. and Erin, once before the game when Erin was coming off the court and K.B. was coming in, once at the end when Erin was "guarding" K.B. for the final four seconds. Interesting note: three Indiana players were wearing red headbands tonight, and all three of them were the former Liberty players.

I still don't think Becky should have been activated for this game, because of the risk of further damaging her ankle and affecting the 2007 season, but she did play reasonably well. I'm not sure if she's 100%; it didn't look like she was cutting well side-to-side, as that pass from Barbara seemed to prove (the one where Barb passed between Loree and Becky and Becky was all *deathglare* "WTF?") Ashley was looking for her offense more than I'm used to… sometimes a little too much. Cathrine was workin' inside a bit, but she still has too much of an eye for the three-ball. Other than that, I'm really not remembering much about actual Liberty players. Oh! Christelle! She shoulda been 3-3 from the field; her misses rimmed out or bounced out. Love her. LOVE her. WHY is she not playing? Then again, our coach seems to think starting a guard means you don't play her; she finally starts Erin, and our starting guards proceed to play fewer minutes than our bench guards (and Becky aside, our bench guards and our starting guards are rapidly becoming indistinguishable). Kiesha put up the dreaded billion- two billion, in her case; two minutes, no stats. Shameka, other than that awesome redemptive block on Catchings, was awful tonight. Dreadful. Not that most of the Liberty were much better, and Sherill was even worse.

Schuey looked like she was at the career fair. I know she wasn't, but the long black skirt and the white blouse made her look very business-like. Ambrosia was cute in a ruffled white skirt and a striped top. (And flats. After all, heels are sinful. ;))