June 30th, 2005: Sacramento at New York

Sacramento Monarchs 61, New York Liberty 50

The Liberty are confused. So are the Game Notes.


Mom kept describing this game as lackluster, and that seems to be the right word for it. There was a distinct lack of energy in the building, at least on the Liberty's part and on the part of Liberty fans. There were times when this logically seemed like a winnable game, but deep in the pit of my stomach, I knew there was no way we were going to pull it off, even when we closed to within six or four or three.

Amisha Carter didn't even bother to show up tonight. I mean, I can understand it, there's really no point to coming, except for the free courtside seat, but it just struck me as a BAD THING. She better have a reason for it. DeTrina was in street clothes- word to the wise: iron the shirt before you wear it. Especially when the other team's IR player is Erin Buescher, modeling a rather nice top and slacks, with sensible enough shoes that she was helping with some of the inbound passes for the pregame warmups.

I didn't know refs had friends. Did you? Ref #25, a lady with a blonde ponytail who could have passed for a scion of the Black family tree, had a hugs-and-kisses moment with someone pregame. She also high-fived the kids from the biddy game. I fear for their souls now. Said biddy game was actually pretty damn good for a bunch of kids. They ran fastbreaks, they tried cross-court passes, they used the glass, and one of them even hit a midrange jumper. Seriously, they were awesome. Best biddy game I've ever seen at MSG. Would that it had been an omen.

Anthem was done by the guys from Altar Boyz, which I now want to check out. They've got the sound pretty much down, and they sounded good. The high notes made me wince, though, but I expect men to have trouble hitting higher notes. It's when they don't that I worry.

My scribbled notes indicate that at 11:52 of the first half, I was thinking, "Holy hell, do we ever have butterfingers tonight! We look miserable and confused out there!" The plays that worked against lesser teams weren't working against Sacramento, who's bigger, tougher, and more defensive-minded than any other team in this league. Ann might be able to budge Ruth Riley or Kelly Schumacher, but if she tries to shove Yolanda, Yo shoves back twice as hard. I think at that point, I was also thinking, "No, I can't see La'Keshia as a realtor. Actress, yes, after her cameo in Love and Basketball, and for some reason I can very much see her at the front of a classrom that's about to stop being unruly, but I just can't imagine her showing off houses."

Um, guys with German flag? WTF? Linda's not here anymore, you know...

Halftime=dancers. Aieeeeeeeeee, why must we have dancers inflicted on us? Do something basketball-related, for the love of Goddess!

A'riel (sp?) is the epitome of cuteness. She knows how to work the camera. I think several thousand people fell instantly in love with her when she looked right at the camera and stuck her tongue out at the lot of us. Between the knack for the camera and the toy cell phone, I think it's safe to say that she's very much her mother's daughter. And that's a good thing for Baby Liberty.

Okay, so maybe Loree wasn't a wasted draft pick. She does have a knack for running a team, which is very important for a point guard. She kept the offense flowing pretty well. Now, if she would only discover a shot, before we end up infected with Four-Woman-Offense Syndrome again. But why Tamara remains a DNP-CD is utterly beyond me. I'd talk about everyone one by one, but I'd start to sound like a broken record. No one had anything working tonight. Ann came the closest, because she wasn't foiled by sheer bad mojo, but by the fact that Yolanda is a hella better player than she is, on both ends of the floor. VJ also had her moments, but she didn't look like the player we've expected her to look like this season. Shameka did not have a lot of offense- again, she was hesitant- but she was a terror on the boards, she stuffed Yolanda twice, and I think she was the one with the wicked tackle on Nicole Powell. Crystal certainly didn't set back the Shameka-as-starter cause, and if Elena keeps this shit up, we're going to have a La'Keshia-for-starter campaign going soon. Becky, odd as it sounds to say, didn't spend enough time looking for her shot. I don't know if it's because we've come to expect it or because teams are keying in on other players, but she's passing up shots she should be taking, making passes she doesn't need to make, and I can't believe these words are coming out of my fingers, I really can't. But the offense tonight looked like crap. I don't know why the hell Patty was reaching for Gatorade, because it wasn't like she was doing anything.

DeMya Freaking Walker. If this is how she's been playing all season, she damn well better make the All-Star team. Although I've never seen a player more aptly named- three TOs on traveling violations, each with a different cheesy song attached. Chelsea Newton played a solid defensive game (yeah, I know, the word I'm reaching for here is 'duh'), but it would have been nice for all the RU fans who were there to see her go off. Ticha, Haynie, and Lawson may be the toughest, scrappiest, stubbornest backcourt combination in the league, and if you factor in Chelsea, it only gets worse. I mean, damn, those women are stubborn. They were getting floorburns with under a minute to go. Yo was... Yo. You know Yo. Although the oncourt supportive mother/daughter thing she's got going on with Rebekkah Brunson nearly had me rolling in the aisles. Bekkah's taking that Baby Yo nickname seriously- I think she's even got a tat similar to one of Yolanda's, and she's certainly got the tangle and bang down pat. I'm going to work under the assumption that Nicole Powell spent most of the game under the aegis of one of the Liberty's defensive aces, because otherwise there really isn't an excuse for the way she played tonight. Tante didn't strike any chords with me, but she may well have been of use to Sacramento defensively. Darned if I know. Coach Whisenant, though, is one of the most emotive coaches in the league. He's a hoot to watch.

Just in general, no one should have been taking hook shots tonight. Whether it was Elena, Ann, or DeMya, they weren't falling. Of course, that usually meant therewas a Monarch there to pick up the rebound and put it in the general direction of the appropriate basket. I don't have the final rebounding totals, but the halftime differential was 21-11, 4-1 on the offensive boards. The Liberty just weren't boxing out and the Monarchs most definitely were. I remember one play where the two players crashing the boards the hardest were Crystal and Ticha, and I couldn't help but wonder precisely what the HELL our post players were doing othe than looking right idiots. I think I yelled something to that effect, too. Man, my vocal cords haven't hurt this much in ages. Then again, I wasn't in my normal seat- I scored a courtside ticket off Jean, the nice lady who's doing the photos for SportsPage. So I was in with a crazy crowd, and I kind of wanted to fit in. The only problem with shrieking is that by the second half, it's impossible to do the Xena warcry that puts free throw shooters off their timing.

We got hella more free throws than they did up until hopeless foul derby time, so I ain't gonna get fussed. Seriously, though, other than Reggie Miller, has that 'foul desperately, hope they miss, and hope we hit a lot of quick threes' strategy EVER worked in the history of foul shots and three pointers? Drives me NUTS.

Rutgers orchestrated a takeover of the Garden, and I'm not just talking about the fans who gave Chelsea such a warm welcome home (although the one girl in the #2 Monarchs jersey definitely gets props). Sue was there, of course- she walked by our section, we did the "Suuuuuuuuuuue!!" thing, and she covered her face with her hands. We like her. We really like her. Apparently Vivian Stringer was also in the house, though I didn't see her, and there were a hella lot of Scarlet Knights and former Scarlet Knights kicking around, including our erstwhile draft pick.

The Hustle is not a good song to put on the PA for a raffle. The Monarchs are not a good team to go cold against. Whether it was just because Sacramento's D makes anyone look bad or because we really *are* that bad remains to be seen. Unfortunately, I don't think Connecticut is going to be a fair bellwether of that, either, because the same argument can be made for the Sun as for the Monarchs.