June 8th, 2007: Detroit at New York

Detroit Shock 67, New York Liberty 57

You cannot stop Deanna Nolan, Ivory Latta needs to switch to decaf, and Martina Weber's in a bit of a hurry.


I knew the ride had to end sometime, pilight's grandiose predictions notwithstanding, and if the ride had to end, at least it ended in a game that was winnable, there but for the grace of shots that rimmed out and shots that should have gone in. It was an ugly, low-scoring game, reminiscent of the old Libs. It wasn't all that much fun to watch, but it wasn't as deflating as it ought to be- well, mostly. I'm still a little disappointed.

Dear SFO: There are two railings at Madison Square Garden. There are fans on both of them. In this case, the railing you skipped happened to be home to a fan with a Shock card and a genuine disinterest in the fact you were ever a Piston. I find it hard to believe you missed the same railing three times. That takes talent. I expect better of you next time. PS- Switch Ivory to decaf. I think she's starting to vibrate.

I suppose I shouldn't single out Latta for being so… ah, energetic, because pretty much all of them are hyper. I think I understand why jersey calls them the Jolt- they all act like they've downed large quantities of terrifyingly over-caffeinated soda substance.

Anthem tonight was a solo performer, a young woman with a nice voice- not so great mechanically, but she knew all the words and she didn't abuse any notes too badly.

You can't really stop Deanna Nolan, can you? You can only hope to contain her. Once she started getting screened for, forget it. Erin was having enough trouble keeping up with her straight up; factor in a screen and Marion Jones couldn't keep up with her. Watching Braxton and Jess was like watching a car crash; Braxton was giving position and giving position, and Jess moved like an avalanche. Might have been more tolerable in fast-forward. Ford did her thing, although she missed more easy shots than I recall her doing on a regular basis. I thought the substitution pattern that left Cash and Braxton coming up shorter on minutes than (or at least close to even with) Pierson and Feenstra was interesting- especially when it meant there was a legitimate argument for having a starter in at the end of a clearly-won game. Cash had a couple of nice moves, and surprisingly little kvetching. Pierson, of course, made things happen. I remain impressed with Smith's role, although I find it interesting that while I enjoy watching her ballhandling and shooting, her ballhandling ought to be called for carrying, a LOT. Maybe it's just the force she puts into everything. Maybe that's what I find intriguing. I'm trying to think of things to put in here, but someone described this game as "shvah", and I think that's a good adjective. Lot of powerful blocks by Detroit, though. Those are all too memorable.

Loree, where has thy groove gone? Where was the rebounding? Where was the shooting? (Let alone the hitting?) Where was the defense? The passing was there, but one of the things that's made Loree so wonderful this season is that she's the first real point guard we've had who's also a scoring threat. (Spoon wasn't a scoring threat. Becky wasn't a real point guard. Okay?) I'd like to be able to credit the Shock defense, because at least that way I'd know it would all be back, but she looked like she'd let the Shock get to her head, and that's not good for a point guard. Erin… had some moments, when she was hitting her shots and sacrificing her body, but slow feet make anyone look bad against Tweety. Both of them had trouble running the team; there were a lot of possessions where the shot clock was worn down to the nubbin, which led to bad shots, which generally didn't lead to Liberty rebounds. Don't even get me started on the shots that should have gone down but didn't, or the shots that were badly taken when the open looks were there (Cathrine, hon, I'm looking at you). Sista Christon scored a lot of her points when the game was already well decided, something like seven in the last minute. Jess did her best against the Shock posts, but she got stuffed several times because she just wasn't fast enough to deal with them. Cathrine got hot early, but after the first time she was subbed out, she never really got her groove back. Ashley was really out of it tonight; maybe Pierson canceled her out or something. And Jackson and Pierson were going at it like they have unfinished business, and I didn't think they'd ever played against each other. Tiffany was awful tonight- a lot of rookie mistakes, a lot of over-aggressive play. We got to see a couple of minutes of Sherill, and this time she didn't do the job asked of her- she couldn't stay in front of Nolan and… well, look at her line: five billion. Barb brought some toughness when she was in, but I think she still thinks Pierson's the player she practiced against, when Pierson's made leaps and bounds of improvement over the last couple of years. At the end of the game, I think it became clear why Shay isn't playing- she looks like she's a little gimpy out there, bad ankle and her hand wrapped up, but if that's the case, why is she active guard and not Bowen? Sense it does not make.

June Courteau was on this crew. I think that says everything that needs to be said about the refereeing, other than the fact that SFO proved once again that kindergarten lessons are not important and that occasionally throwing a temper tantrum *will* get you your way.

The Maddie Award of the game was a line from Dumb and Dumber. Sista Christon performed both halves of the line and thus won the feature in a landslide. The boy and I have concluded, after watching now our second "Cutting Room Floor" feature, that Janel and Cathrine get plastered before even attempting to do this, and I honestly can't say that I blame them one bit.

Speaking of the boy, guess who successfully unscrambled Davenport down at the free throw line? That's right. That's my boy. He won a very nice prize pack that he turned around and gave to our neighbor kw, because it was her birthday and if the Liberty couldn't give her a really nice present, he could at least wangle one for her.

The problem with the Liberty voting campaign is that it implies you can vote for all six suggested Liberty players, which means a lot of guard votes are gonna get thrown out. As a reminder: you have to choose two of Loree, Sherill, and Erin. Personally, Erin's making our hundred write-in votes look bad, and if I can find a ballot in that place before Alfonso gets his hands on it, I may start writing in Ashley.

Before the gates opened, a bunch of us saw one of the funniest things that I have seen in my years of hanging out. We're all staring out towards the gates, and suddenly Martina- in uniform shorts, shooting shirt, and no jersey- comes flying out the exit, leaps over the rope, runs like her shorts were on fire through the box office and the lobby, vanishes for a bit, then runs back through the lobby and the box office again, leaps over the rope again, and vanishes again. I have no idea what it was all about, but it was funny. They wished her a happy birthday on Gardenvision; I think it would have been very nice to activate her for her birthday, since the minutes thrown to the end of the bench players don't tend to count for much in the long run.

Cathrine's folks were also (still) in the house. Wow, clearly Cathrine gets her height from her dad's side of the family.

Kym, but no Spoon. Maybe that was part of the problem. Maybe the karma got screwed up. There's a delicate balance to luck. Maybe some of those threes that rimmed out would have gone in with Spoon willing it so.

Dear Liberty: please stop exhorting us to raise the roof. Some of us do remember when Cynthia Cooper did that, and I'd wear a Lindsay Whalen jersey before I'd associate myself with the team that used to kick our asses on a regular basis. Also, the rally song is not to be played while we're being beaten like a red-headed stepchild, especially when this year's lyrics reference the things that we neglected to do in this game. Tradition, motherfucker, do you even vaguely hope to comprehend it?

All that being said, and I realize these game notes of doom are bitchier than usual, I still do believe in these kids. This is still my team and I still love them. I think the problems are fixable, as long as they don't let this get them down and instead learn from the experience- that's all I ask of this team, win when you can, learn when you can't. They can't afford to get down in the dumps, not with a rematch against Indiana coming up at Conseco.

In conclusion, same as it ever was: I do love this team.