June 28th, 2006: Charlotte at New York

Charlotte Sting 73, New York Liberty 67

Helen Darling should STFU, the Liberty should be finding their teammates on the fast break, and the Game Notes shouldn't have ordered that burger at Café 31.


If it hadn't been for that third quarter, I don't want to know what the final score would have been. That game was brutal and ugly and painful. It was the worst of times crossed up with the best of moments.

I think my count of people trying to sign with the button of my retractable Sharpie is up to seven with two Sting today. It's a silly stat, but it's a fun one. The Sting are a nice bunch. I like them. Well, most of them. Monique Currie seems to be making the best of her time in Rookie Hell; she was chatting with us and shakin' her groove thang at every opportunity.

I would give good money, or possibly part of my soul, to know what Allison Feaster and Iciss Tillis were talking about before the game, knowing that they both have economics degrees from prestigious institutions. The state of the national economy? The league's finances? Or the best way to look good and stay smart?

Lovely anthem by a lady named Nicole Napolitano, who we later found in the section next to ours. Boooooo to the Liberty for a cheap complimentary seat with indifferent sight lines, especially for a woman who hit the crescendo at the end of the anthem and just kept going.

Great biddy game by some cute PAL kids, one of whom I think was convinced she was Becky; knee-high to a grasshopper, and there she was cranking up regulation threes.

Charlotte did what we could not: they set screens to free up their shooters (read: Sam and Mazzante). Sam seemed rather fond of our defense; she kept coming at it, and Shameka just kept letting her come. There was one play where she stopped dead like she thought she'd heard a whistle. I proceeded to irritate the people five rows down from me with my shrill frustration at that laughable excuse for defense. She also helped put the clamps on Becky, simply by dint of being six feet tall and broad. Helen Darling obviously took drama lessons from Mery Andrade during their years as teammates. My God, that woman does not shut up and pulls some crap that should make her blush. I don't usually call someone a bitch, but I spent a lot of the game hoping that bitch would be knocked on her ass. Currie couldn't hit, but she got to the line- is that her, um, MO? I can't imagine her being anything but fantasy poison until she starts hitting from the field- 7 points doesn't do much to negate 0-11. Tangela Smith still seems addicted to the outside play- stop it, Tangie, you're 6-4 and built. I also wasn't impressed with her post presence. Tammy Sutton-Brown, on the other hand, played like this was an on year. She had strong post presence and finished in the lane. Very impressive. (She also, unfortunately, carries herself like the first thing people look at should be her tits, and, um, no, on so many levels.) Janel McCarville, despite a haircut that honestly made her look like she should be a Bobcat, was solid on the inside- she set some of the best screens of the night, along with TSB. LaToya Bond looked *good*. I *like* that kid. And she saved my ASS in VGM, so I'm inclined to like her even more. Fluker's bigger than I thought, though if she's 6-5 I'm a small forward. She used her size well on the inside, and she had one monster block on AB that was all, "NCAA rings don't matter in the W, byotch!" Allison Feaster… sadly, I don't think she'll ever be the player she was, a shooter that you could not leave open. I think that player is now Kelly Mazzante, who also earned my ire by attempting a slide-tackle/grab on Loree. Tsk, tsk. I swear, you wouldn't think they taught such physical play at Penn State.

Sherill, Becky, look over there. See those other women in white? They're your teammates. Please to find them on the fast break, kplzthx? Sherill especially. I realize that Becky spent most of the night with a much larger defender on her- and why the posts didn't set screens for her, I will NEVER know- but Sherill should not be taking more shots than Becky. I don't care how much of the future she is. Also, guys? Please not to be watching your point guard lead the team in rebounds, okay? Yes, I realize there were a lot of sixes and fives scattered about (mwah! to that, Sherill, and wow, was Iciss trying to show Mo up?), but this comment is mostly addressed to Barb's 2 rebounds in 19 minutes and Schuey's 4 in 26 minutes. Especially Schuey. My God, but did she look lost tonight. She blocked shots, but that was about it. Barb probably would have turned it up in the second half were it not for the fouls; I don't know so much about Schuey. One of these days, Loree is going to learn to score, and her teammates are actually going to hit their shots, and she's going to pull down a triple-double on us. It won't be a very impressive triple-double, probably a 10-10-10, but she pads the stat sheet nicely. Shameka turned it up late, but she seems to have bought into the Phoenix/Seattle idea of defense: score more than your opponent, except that she didn't. I liked her rebounding tonight. It was good to see her mixing it up inside- she needs to keep that up, especially when the threes aren't falling. Cathrine played well tonight, but damnit, where have the Screens of Death gone? Yeah, I like offense, and I like threes and taking it to the hoop, but getting your shooters open is also of great importance, as is covering on the defensive end.

Idiot refs. What else is new? Equal opportunity suckage, though, so I suppose that's fair. Darling and Mazzante were awfully physical. And I nearly died laughing when I saw how Becky fouled Darling during the endgame foul derby. No wonder she missed the first free throw- the touch probably traumatized her!

After the game, the boy and I went out to dinner at Café 31- the wings are as good as advertised, and they've improved the Italian portion of the menu, but don't order a burger because they're dreadfully dull. We saw Coach Stanley when we came in, glued to the Sacramento-Seattle game with a soda and presumably her dinner eventually, and Lisa White when we headed out (in the company of an awfully familiar bleach blonde, but I wasn't quite sure if that was Becky's bad bleach job or not).

If it hadn't been for that third quarter…