July 29th, 2007: Connecticut at New York

Connecticut Sun 67, New York Liberty 61

Something's gotta give, and I'm not sure if it's going to be the fan base, That Moron, or Erin Thorn's temper.


Another day, another game that we could and should have won but instead lost. Yawn. This is starting to sound like a broken record here. Something's gotta give, and I'm not sure if it's going to be the fan base, That Moron, or Erin Thorn's temper.

Got to the game later than my wont, as it was raining and most of the folks I like to talk to are out of town or couldn't make the game anyway. As it was, just about as soon as I arrived, people were talking shit about Jess- yes, she needs to trim down and get stronger, but that's no reason to make fat jokes, okay? Skipped the giveaway, because I have more than enough tchochke water bottles from this team and the league, and I really don't need any more water bottles that I don't use anyway. Got a good spot on the rail, and for a change, having a good spot on the rail actually meant something; the Sun players were very accommodating to the fans. Whalen wasn't warming up with the rest of the team, but I've gotten used to that over the years- it bothers me a little bit, but I'm sure she has her reasons.

We were pleasantly surprised by the sight of Martina Weber in a jersey, warming up. Now, That Moron had pulled a fast one on us once, letting Martina practice and then deactivating her at the last possible moment. Martina has such a wonderful, bubbly personality. She's a joy to be around. I've always tried to avoid comparing her to Linda Fröhlich, but they really do have the same joie de vivre.

I'm getting tired of the Garden bringing in crappy anthem singers. Okay, at least they know the words, but there aren't that many frills that need to be added into the song.

Apparently it was Mothers and Daughters Day, but judging from the lack of graphics and videos with players talking about their mothers (as compared to Dads and Daughters Day, when a lot of the team talked about how their dads had influenced them), it was hastily thrown together, perhaps in response to fan reaction to Dads and Daughters.

So, the Sun. I've seen them so many times up at Mohegan Sun that I'm starting to get way too familiar with their game. For example, when Katie Douglas starts getting hot, there's no way to stop her, and your only chance is to keep on her teammates and hope she gets cold without someone else heating up. That being said, she should have had Ashley on her all game, since no one else on the team can really cover her. The other Sun player who persists in impressing me is de Souza. I like the way she moves- she's very smooth and she's got good instincts. If it's true that we really could have gotten her… wow, things would be different, wouldn't they? But she's in Connecticut, and there's not much we can do about that. As for the rest of the team… I like Lindsay Whalen less and less every time I see her play. I'm not denying she's talented and fearless, but she also strikes me as reckless and perhaps too intentionally physical. The way she went into Shameka on that one play really bothered me (and why does it always seem to be Shameka hit by flying stars, anyway?), and no one in their right mind intentionally runs into a set Ashley Battle unless they either think they have a friendly referee or they're mind-bogglingly stupid. Up front, Jones seemed to have decided that she was going to try out this small forward thing against Cathrine, and she took far too many bad outside shots- and I'm not just talking about her sweet free throw line jumper, I'm talking out beyond the three-point line. That's not her shot. On the other hand, this was my first live view of Maltsi, and I like her instinct for the game, although she made a questionable decision near the end of the game that could have backfired on Connecticut. She's good for them, especially with Sales clearly not 100%. It's weird to see Dydek and Sales both coming off the bench, but in both cases it's merited, because Dydek is still also clearly suffering from her back injury, judging from the way she's moving. Carey was unimpressive, and she's one of the examples of how ridiculous the blonde trend is getting in this league. Blondes don't actually have more fun, y'know, it's just easier to keep them amused. Ahem. Anyway. Willingham probably wishes she'd put up nine billion instead of breaking her line with turnovers and fouls. Hairston was a surprising DNP-CD; has Maltsi been that much more effective than her to take all her minutes?

Libkids. Seriously, Libkids, get it together. Cathrine had horrible luck shooting- all her shots were well-placed but either rimmed out or went just off. That, however, does not excuse her lack of defense or her inability to communicate with her team. She was involved in one of the most frustrating plays of the game: Erin had the ball and was gesturing at someone, anyone, to move ass. The back of the paint was free for a cutter, like, say, Cathrine, who really needed to move her ass before she got called for three seconds anyway. Erin threw a catchable pass. Cathrine watched it go out of bounds. Guess who That Moron blamed for the error? Hint: the sub who jumped off the bench didn't go in for Kraayeveld. Shameka brought more aggression to the table than I've seen her play with before, but in a lot of cases it was misplaced- too often she got mixed up with her teammates, causing the ball to go out of bounds off New York. Not to say that I don't like her playing aggressively, as long as she isn't forcing ugly shots (because her form drives me nuts, always has and always will unless someone works with her on it), but like all good things, it's possible to have too much of it. It needs to be channeled and properly trained. Janel was Janel. After that hit Whalen put on Shameka, I thought for sure Janel was going to do something drastic, and that would just have caused a collective brain explosion across the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. At the guard slots, I would have liked to see Erin with a little of Shameka's aggressiveness… directed at people and things other than the coaching staff, because she was pissed as hell after she got pulled after the pass that Cathrine ignored. Could she have kept up with Katie Douglas? No, and not only is that not her strength, there's hardly anyone in this league who can stop Douglas. I still think our best bet would have been to let Douglas do what she was gonna do and make sure there was no one else to help her out.

In the end, the Liberty really didn't have much of a shot. The Sun have more talent, although the gap is shrinking, and a smarter coach who can make up for most on-court shortcomings.