July 27th, 2005: Houston at New York

Houston Comets 71, New York Liberty 69

The Liberty do lots of boneheaded things, Patty Coyle needs to go away now, and Becky Hammon and Crystal Robinson decorate.


This, my fellow fans, was the very definition of a choke job. We had this game in the bag. We should have won it going away. Instead, boneheaded mistakes by everyone eligible to make boneheaded mistakes cost us the win. I spent most of my ride home plotting colorful ways to kill Patty.

What Crystal was thinking when she launched that shot with four left on the shot clock, I will never know. That wasn't the shot we needed, and we had time to put something better together. In any case, her common sense and her shot are both still on the baggage carousel, so I don't think tomorrow will be much of an improvement. Vickie was quiet. Too quiet. Plus, she seemed to get awfully chippy with Tari during #24's limited minutes. I think she objected to us chanting for Tari when the subs came in. News flash, Cap: maybe you should have gotten off your ass and done something authoritative instead of letting Tari turn into a cause celebre. Weird as it sounds to say it, I don't think Becky got enough touches, but there will be far more on that later. She made a couple of dumb plays, but that was the story of the night, so I can't come down on her too hard. Elena was quietly savvy; a buddy of mine from the lobby brought up an interesting question that may be more profound than he knew: "When did Elena Baranova turn into Sue Wicks?" As in, making contributions that don't necessarily show up in the stat sheet but do change the game. She was hot offensively early, but then Patty pulled her and it all went to shit after that. Ann was a player of extremes: she made some fabulous plays, she made some incredibly stupid plays, nothing really in the middle. La'Keshia was on fire in the first half, but then Patty pulled her and it all went to shit after that. Loree was nothing, Catherine was nothing, Erin was nothing.

*puts on flame-retardant suit* Which, of course, leads me to everyone's favorite precious Baby. She has shown flashes, I'll grant that much. Flashes, however, should not merit a player more minutes than two starters and almost twice as many touches as the next most trigger-happy player. More often than not, she chucks up the first shot she sees, her defense is shite, she's overaggressive when she needs to step back and thinks too much when she should just drive. For some reason, the playbook seems to have been the Son of Van's Playbook: "Get the ball to [Baby] Swoopes." Comet fans understand the furstration of that kind of play-calling, and they have the original Swoopes to make the play more often than not. I'd be bitching any Lib player out for 4-14 shooting, but the fact that it was Sista Christon makes it even more galling. Don't tell me Becky couldn't have taken Canty on a couple of more drives. Don't tell me Ann couldn't have gotten up in Snowy's grill. Don't tell me Vickie couldn't have... well, done anything that might have been helpful. I like the girl, don't get me wrong, she's a total sweetheart with a world of potential... but this was not the time and not the place for Patty to decide that she should try to unlock her inner Swoopes. Not in front of Her Majesty.

Oh yes, Patty. Dear Coach: Please die now, in as painful and public a manner as you can, thanks.

For Houston, Swoopes was amazing. I suppose you lot in Houston are used to that, though. Tina looked good, too, although she's not quite back on form. She got an elbow in the throat, from what I've gathered from postgame reporting, and went down like a stone. We worried about her, and we were relieved when she got back up. Snow got into foul trouble, but she kept Ann off balance, and of course, at the end of the game, she struck (like a COBRA!?). In general, the Comets killed us on the offensive boards. I grant that we had fewer missed shots than Houston did, but still, we whould have been turning their offensive boards into our defensive boards. I don't even want to think about how many second or third chance points they had. It would probably make me froth at the mouth and fantasize about dismembering Patty again, and my shrink says that's not healthy. Janeth, of course, was ice down the stretch. That woman knows no fear and no doubt. Canty wasn't really an offensive threat, but she seemed to run the offense well. Tari played five ineffective minutes, and was fully aware that we still love her. The only thing I remember about Rasmussen was her dramatization of the hit that Shameka put on her with the booty. If the deep bench played, I wasn't aware of it. The damage was done by Houston's starters; Sheryl never sat. Van threw candy to the crowd. Really, Lib fans, y'all should know better than to take candy from strangers.

The refs didn't suck tonight so much as they tilted. I'm willing to accept that the Liberty were guilty of most of the calls made on them, but I find it hard to believe that the Comets weren't pulling any of that borderline legal crap that the Liberty were. It also didn't help that the callling-style changed throuhout the game, alternating between a sensible use of the whistle and excessive blowing.

"Reality show night" should generally be a sign of impending doom. They did, however, have a hysterical Trading Spaces with Becky and Crystal, in which they decorated each other's lockers. Becky did Crystal's with olive green drapery and a birdhouse. Crystal did Becky's in shades of purple, with a welcome mat and a stuffed pillow thang that said "Cutie Pie". What I found most interesting about it is that to the casual fan, they seemed to be decorating in schemes that would match the recipient's, but to those more in the know, the decorating schemes seems more in line with the decorator's personality. (Plus, I get to find out yet another reason why I like Crystal: she shares my color sense. *grin*) And the blooper reel was a hoot; Becky seemed amazed at the concept of foldable Frisbees. But seriously. Next time they do a reality show theme, I want a chance to vote Blaze off the island by dumping her in the Hudson.

Our tickets were next to a set of boors who didn't seem to understand the concept that the national anthem is a time to shut up, stand up, and take your hat off, not a time to buy cotton candy and get pissy at the people who are respecting the anthem. If foreign nationals can get the concept, why can't some Americans? As soon as the anthem was done, we moved our seats. We were going to anyway, because the chairs we had were sagging and the seats blew, but I could not stand the thought of being next to those assholes any longer.

So between one thing and another, and the giant-ass cockroach that is crawling around on the outside of my screen, I am NOT a happy camper.