May 20th, 2007: Chicago at New York

New York Liberty 83, Chicago Sky 71

Did we say cautiously optimistic? Yeah, forget that cautious bit.


I don't want to say that I was keyed up for this game, but I was up at five-thirty. I survived on chocolate and adrenaline today. I have Katie Douglas eyes right now. I don't care. I LOVE MY TEAM.

Janel looks very trim- don't know how that's going to affect her game, but she looks good (okay, except for the hair, but that has no impact on how she plays). If Loree and Ashley start hanging out together on a regular basis, the world could come to an end.

Girl Scouts out of harmony for the anthem. I still applauded them, though, if only because the tourists behind us didn't seem to understand the concept of respecting the anthem. This is me vociferously grumbling.

Monique Currie shirtless is not a thing that needs to be seen. Is it really too much trouble to put one's jersey on before gametime instead of waiting until one is on court and about a minute from being introduced? Coggins must have been a bit uncomfortable with the whole situation.

So, Armintie Price. Her body control is either going to get someone hurt or get her hurt in practice. She's got great hustle, but it's accompanied by an awful lot of extra motion. That being said, she reminds me of what Candice Dupree would be like if Dupree came in guard size. Dupree- ah, so smooth, so swift. I love to watch her play. Brooke Wyckoff was more of a four than I ever recall her being in Orlando/Connecticut- she was giving Cathrine fits, but more on why that was later. Way too many blondes on this team. I am easily confused. Because there was Stacey Dales, with gears I don't even recall her having when she was in DC, and then there was Cathy Joens, and both of them were open for threes (which, again, more in the Liberty section). Monique Currie… man, she's rough. Put a hit on… damn, forget who the unfortunate Lib was, though it might have been Erin. Jess proceeded to knock the stuffing out of her. Strong player. Very strong. Also, does not shut up and had a horrible moment of borrowing TSB's 8th Avenue hooker strut. Honestly, Chicago is a top-notch center away from being a full-on contender- pick up a solid-if-unspectacular point or use Canty there, Price starting at two with Dales as sixth woman, Currie and Dupree across the front line with a high draft center, and Overton having a clue unlike Cowens, suddenly this is a very, very good team.

Erin. Holy crap. Erin in the corner. It's almost like she remembers how everyone thought we should have kept Joens and cut her instead, and was like, 'okay, so, proving myself now.' She and Loree have great rapport, although they both need to work on the throwing and catching of said passes. I like that they push tempo together, though. And Shameka… her shooting percentage turned out ugly, but her shots came in the flow of the offense, for the most part. I've been hard on Shameka the last couple of years, probably harder on her than she deserves. So much has been expected of her, and she hasn't delivered what was expected. The games I've seen her in this year, the light has gone on. She realizes that this doesn't need to be her team, she needs to be part of the ensemble. I'll take 14 and 6 with hard defense from her every night. Cathrine- oh, the poor woman was run into the ground. We honestly thought she was either going to pass out on the court or refuse to come back in after a timeout. She was turning shades of red previously only seen on tomatoes, the planet Mars, and Richie Adubato. Solid all-around game from her, although by the end she was very, very passive- Wyckoff played circles around her in the waning minutes. Jess had way too many misses, but that was no reason to essentially bench her the entire second half. Both of them had monster blocks. Ashley, the sole guard off the bench, was fierce and wonderful, but that's because she's Ashley Battle. Tiffany didn't get nearly enough run, and I would have liked ot see her get a couple of Cat or Barb's minutes. Janel got 61 seconds, threw a neat pass, set a sharp screen on… I want to say Price.

(As an aside on Janel. I see why the Gopher fans love her and want her on their team: she does non-statistical things that fans and probably teammates appreciate. I see why the Lynx will never trade for her: you don't trade for dirty-work players, you either develop them or sign them as free agents, so that in case they bust, at least you haven't given up a valuable asset. I see why it's hard to tell her value: stats are too much of the story for observers. That being said, I'd like to see the post rotation a little more equitable.)

So they announced Kym, and we applauded. Sometime in the second half, someone sat down next to her. Somewhere along the line, I noticed said person's braids and general bone structure and wondered whether said person was Spoon. Then she smiled, and I knew instantly, about five minutes before the cameras arrived, that that was Spoon. Did I mention that I sit in the upper deck, about three tiers of seats above the court?

Despite the double-digit win, I did have some major issues with the game. The defensive rotations were slow- Erin got burned several times, and Loree wandered off three-point snipers. And Patty needs to use her damn bench. We actually HAVE one now, for fuck's sake. Yet she uses Ashley and Barb like Becky and Sue. DNP for both Shay and Sherill? Not cool. Five minutes between Tiff and Janel? Almost as bad.

That's the thing about this team. They need to be tested. They need to be trusted. They need to be believed in. They need a chance. Otherwise they'll stagnate, and we'll see what happened to Loree as a rookie all over again- indecisive, insecure, terrified of screwing up and thus screwing up. What we have here has the potential to be special, special like those two ladies in the front row, special like second chair at St. Francis, special like the small forwards for San Antonio and Washington. If Patty fucks that up because she refuses to trust them, that would be the worst thing she ever did as a person involved with basketball, and if she fucks these kids up, that is a thing that cannot be forgiven.

Somehow, every time I talk about the Liberty, it seems to boil down to me stuttering and saying "I LOVE THIS TEAM." That may end up being in every set of these game notes, but it's true. I love this team. They seem to get it in a way the Liberty haven't for a long time. They play with passion. They play like they understand that this is the Garden floor and it is their sacred duty to defend it from all comers. They are a team more than any collection of Liberty players has been since 2002 finished- strange to say when someone goes off for twenty-eight points, but it works. For the first time in a long time, I don't feel completely embarrassed to be a Liberty fan. Just help me shove Patty out the window before she screws the kids up, 'kay?