August 24th, 2007: Detroit at New York, Eastern Conference First Round

New York Liberty 73, Detroit Shock 51

This is how it's supposed to be. This is how it's going to be, with the team we've got. But this is how it's supposed to be. The Garden was rocking, the crowd was pumped, and the team kicked ass. That's how it used to be; that's how it will be again. I believe this with all of my heart and soul. For this year, yeah, maybe it's a fluke. But they believe now. They believe like we believe, and that's always been the ingredient that took the Liberty far further than their talent would have allowed.


Everything was clicking. Shameka, pregame, rocked a little black dress slit up to hello-how-are-you; Barbara was also rocking the little black dress, a bit more demure and a bit better worn. And the one thing I thought was a bad sign turned out to be pretty damn awesome: Megan, our darling season ticket rep, messed up our seats, accidentally selling us seats for the Finals when they ought to have been tonight's game. She offered us her tickets in section 92. Hey, cool, upgrade, so we took them. About seven o'clock, I got a text message from Kate, the erstwhile administrix of WNBATalk- she's sick, she can't make the game, would we please take her seats? I argued with her a bit, seeing as how I didn't want to look Megan's gift horse in the mouth and we didn't have physical tickets for her seats. She talked me into it.

Did I mention that Kate sits behind the bench? Or the next best thing to it? I ended up yelling in Matt's ear all night. (Um, sorry, Matt. I hope you survived the experience with most of your hearing intact. I tried to bring the octave down.)

The anthem! I love those guys, and while this wasn't their best work, it was still almost enough to bring me to tears, not to mention it hearkened back to '04, and we all know what the Liberty did to the Shock that year…

And that intro. Okay, my first reaction during the pan was "whose Kermit is that?", but then they panned to the old jackets, and a blind woman could recognize Spoon, and then they shucked the jackets and those were real black jerseys and then they talked about tradition and loving the team, and I felt chills down my spine. The place went off like fireworks on the Fourth of July. If you haven't been following this team, or don't know the history, you're not going to get it. But if you know the history, if you understand what Spoon and Kym meant to this team, if you know what the team did in the black… that was everything. Everything old is new again.

Except for Ivory Latta, who I am beginning to believe is fazed by nothing, the Shock seem to have lost their swagger. They were all business when they came onto the floor, and that might well have cost them. They were not themselves, not the team that won 24 games. Deanna Nolan, once she started shaking herself free of her defender, was knocking down everything in sight… until Patty did something smart and switched Shameka onto her, and the bigger, longer defender shut her down. Without her, the Shock had nothing. Katie Smith didn't bother to show up, which both deprived them of an offensive option and completely killed their ball movement. (Not to mention that her whiteness is terrifying close up, and this is coming from someone who describes herself as white-ass white.) Cash isn't 100%, and that was one of the reasons Shameka could switch over to Tweety: Cash was no threat, thus a lesser defender could be switched onto her. Ford… again, you could tell she was giving it all she had, but she didn't have very much. Without her ups, she couldn't get on the boards at either end as she would have liked. There was one play where Erin successfully blocked her out, which is disturbing on so very many levels. She tried to make up for it by being more physical than usual, but that's not a great move to make with Janel, or even Cathrine. Early on, it looked like Katie Feenstra might make some noise in the game, but she got kind of quiet- she did a good job of forcing Janel into jump shots early on, but then she started playing… almost scared, I'd say. There was one play where she proved that even 6'8" centers have blonde moments- I think it was one of the many moments of miscommunication among the Shock. And Braxton was a complete waste of space. (Not to mention that she needs a new sports bra. Seriously, I get sympathy pains in my chest when she's flopping around out there.) Pierson as a starter loses a lot of her effectiveness, although I got to see up close just how hard her screens can be- she accidentally clocked Smith near the end of a Liberty possession; it was the closest thing to a Screen of Death I've seen all season. Pee-Wee was a spark early, and I wouldn't be surprised to see her starting in Detroit. Latta was a spark late; she's got one spot on the floor from which she's money, and she's the last Shock player with the swagger, so I wouldn't be surprised to see her get more minutes in Detroit. Bill knows he has to shake things up, and he's smart enough to do it.

You know who Shameka Christon was that night that she hasn't been in ages, to the point where the name was almost lost in the sands of time? Baby Swoopes. That's right. Never thought I'd be the one buying into it, but the way she was shooting, the way she was defending, the way she was fierce and proud and damn near unstoppable when she put her mind to it. She was a difference-maker. She was awesome. She was what we needed to get everyone else started. I still don't want to see her ballhandling, but that's about the only criticism I can level at her from that night. Loree was solid all across the board, though I'm worried about her hand- she came off shaking it after one play where Pierson whacked her. Erin was very, very quiet, and then she hit those threes to keep the run going. And I don't care if Ford is injured, it takes big brass ones for a 5'10" guard to try and box her out. Cathrine had horrible luck with some of her shots, but then, again, threes, and that and-1. Janel forced shots to get fouls, so her percentage kinda looks shitty, but she started heating up late, and I think the Janel we'll see in Detroit is the second-half Janel, not the first-half Janel. I'm also betting we'll see Janel in full Mohawk glory by the Finals, if we make it that far, but that's a whole other story. Off the bench, I loved Tiffany's toughness, although that layup over the basket was pretty gross. And Jess with those big quick hands- although, Jess, hon, you are not Tim Dunca, you are not the mistress of the glass, please stop trying to bank *everything*, okay? I do love her stroke, though, because I seem to have a soft spot for left-handed shooters. Ashley needs to stay on her shooter, damn it, but that layup in the lane was sweet. And it was so nice to see a little bit of Lisa, Barb, and Shay- oh, man, if Shay's three had gone down, the roof would have come off the building.

During timeouts, it was hysterical to watch Martina, Lindsay, and occasionally Shay, Lisa, and Tiff paying attention to the entertainment. I hope Lisa's as good at watching the ball on defense as she is in following it during the shuffle game, because it looked like she had the ball with the logo in the entire time, whereas Shay lost it about a third of the way in, to judge from how they were watching the screen. Best moment: during the balloon popping contest, one of the contestants wet her pants. Lindsay was standing behind Shay, watching the whole thing while Shay watched the huddle like a good little active player. A moment later, Lindsay leaned forward, and Shay got this "Oh, my *God* (as it were)" look on her face- eyebrows up, clearly trying to hide her incredulous smile behind her hand. These kids really do like each other, and while it does seem to shake down to the guards and the posts, there are enough cross-size currents that there aren't really dangerously separate cliques forming, at least as far as I can tell.

After the game, when we went out to dinner, we had the pleasure of having a waiter who was up enough on the league to remark, "Bill must have been upset" when we told him the final score. That was a perfect ending to a perfect night.

Okay, the Libkids know what they have to do. Take down Motown. I want this again in the conference finals. I'm not ready for the ride to be over.