May 26th, 2005: Indiana at New York

Indiana Fever 67, New York Liberty 59

The Game Notes would like to be wrong about Ann Wauters, the Fever are kinda awesome, and there's too much jiggling going on.


By the grace of wnbatalk.com's adminitrix Kate, I got to go to this game. And sit courtside with two screaming maniacs in boas. Life is good, at least until gametime.

Such a nice bunch, those Fever players. Tamika Catchings must be catching. (I tried to avoid the bad pun, but it's eleven at night and my brain is in a happy place without me.) Okay, so maybe I wish Kelly Schumacher would settle on a hair color, but that's just me.

It's never a good sign when your anthem singer comes from a national 'singing in the shower' competition. Nice enough voice, no range.

How long has Ann been this good? If she can keep it up, I will gladly admit that I was wrong about her. While she still shows too much of a propensity to not bang, she's more willing to mix it up on the inside than Elena (okay, so maybe everyone up to and including Erin is more willing to mix it up on the inside than Elena, but still). She showed a gorgeous little hook shot that made me squeal, clutch my heart, and then clutch the person next to me. Now if only we could get her to the point where she can outjump Kelly Miller... Meanwhile, back on the ranch... y'all know I love Crystal to death, but I gotta be honest here. She's starting to look a little like Stint in the front and Jen Gillom in the rear, if you follow what I mean. And trust, that *hurts* when you're trying to go up for a jump shot. At least she hit some of those jumpers today, and she's still being tenacious on the boards, but her defense was a bit suspect tonight. Becky... Becky needs to learn that that trick only works once, maybe twice, a game. They catch on eventually. She's getting better defensively and as a floor leader, though. VJ was VJ, back to her old self. Elena is still struggling, and that bothers me, because I heart Elena. Edwige has impressed me; it's good to have a solid point guard coming off the bench, so let's hope she doesn't get sucked into the vacuum that is Point Guard Purgatory and has sent a couple of point guards on to Hell. Erin got points, yay! (Erin also lost track of her defensive assignment, so she and Edwige got mixed up on a defensive series. Bad Erin. No cookie.) Amisha Carter is not yet worthy to wear #24, although she showed flashes of hustle. La'Keshia must have said something about Patty's momma, because she only got three minutes, and there were times when she would have been more effective than Amisha or even Elena. DeTrina did her high jumping and rebounding thing, plus a pretty lay-up. Shameka... ah, poor Shameka, scared to shoot. It wasn't like anyone got a buttload of shots tonight, but three shots does seem a bit low.

Catch was off tonight shooting-wise, but she dished the right ways at the right times. Her presence opened up Kelly M., Tully, and whoever else happened to be open. I love to watch her make her moves; she's poetry in motion, the intelligent-design template for a basketball player. Natalie Williams still got it. She still knows how to move people around, both by brute force and by making them realize she's there so that they move of their own volition. Kelly Miller nearly turned on the waterworks in the first half. Then she went and turned on the scoring works instead. I'd forgotten how much of a nice shot she has; I'm usually too busy telling her to shut up already from my old safe seat up in the 200s. Likewise, I'd forgotten how much of a scoring threat Tully Bevilaqua could be if left open. A shooting point guard, gee, why does that seem so novel? Stormfans will note that she officially made it a game at 16:54 of the first half. She brings a sense of fun to the court that a lot of players don't. Tan White is the real deal- cocky and with the game to back it up; she's a streak on the court when she needs to be, with a nose for the ball. (I don't mean cocky as in a bad thing; I mean it as in she knows she belongs in the W.) For some reason it feels like Deanna Jackson made a contribution, though I'm damned if I remember what she did. Yo Paige looked a little out of place, but that may just be 'cause I think she looks an awful lot like Adrienne Goodson. Ebony- psst, if Curves offends your belief system, there are other gyms out there, but whatever the case is, lay OFF the KFC. I should not see anything between bustline and waist jiggling. Despite that, she has a pretty shot, if not the world's greatest vertical.

Someone forgot to tell the refs that tackling is illegal in basektball. I made a joke one day about what would happen to a poor soul if Natalie Williams sat on her. I didn't think it would come true this soon! Poor Ann.

Halftime was dorks on parade. Okay, one dork and one dorklet. The dorklet was cute, but if I want to see dorky white people doing dorky things, I'll go to a family reunion or something. Honestly, if you're going to line up shitty halftime entertainment, make sure there's a giveaway to entice people.

The Liberty need remedial lessons on clock management. For starters, try *looking* at the clock. They botched the play at the end of the first half because Crystal thought she could pass it to Becky instead of putting up a heave. If there are 27 seconds left in the game, and you're down seven,and you're still pretending like you have a shot in hell, don't throw a bad pass for a two, okay? If it's three seconds left and you're down ten, don't foul, even if you've had a bad night and copping a free feel is the only way you're going to walk out of the arena on a positive note. Of course, the Fever could serve themselves well by sitting in on the end-of-game-clock lessons; if you're up two or three possessions, with less than a minute to go in the game, you probably shouldn't bother making a quick play- just end the motherfucker already, some of us want to go home.

I think we've established that 'send in the starters' as a substitution pattern doesn't work. The benchies get a good rhythm going, and then it all goes fruit-shaped. She needs to not do it all at once; I think that's the problem. We really do need a longer preseason.

Most bizarre and random moment of the game: Tan White, for no apparent reason, feeling Erin Thorn's abs- just a momentary touch that seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever. Psst, rook: next time, try that trick with someone who *has* abs, like Tweety Nolan.

Sitting courtside is fun. You get to hear the cussin', the complaints, the orders, and the commentary. You know VJ's pissed if you can hear her when she's under the basket comlaining about a call on Ann.

Kym was around for a while with kidlet and dude, sitting under the basket closer to the road bench. She took off sometime in the first half. Dude skedaddled with kidlet early in the second.

There's something missing about this team- not heart, not hustle- maybe familiarity? They don't seem to click properly. I just hope time is the only problem about that. If they're not better by July, then there are issues that need to be addressed.