May 26th, 2007: Los Angeles at Connecticut

Los Angeles Sparks 88, Connecticut Sun 68

Taj McWilliams-Franklin returns to Connecticut, and the Game Notes are there for the occasion.


The game notes of doom would first like to apologize for missing the Washington game earlier this week, and hope that this report from the Land of the Shooting Sun makes up for the lack.

I got to the arena around 3:15 and bought my ticket at the box office. Pretty crappy seat, but when one buys tickets fifteen minutes before tip, one ought to expect such things. (I would have been there earlier, but I spent an hour getting lost on the Lower East Side looking for my casino bus. I'm a cheapskate and I can't drive. Anyway.) The arena wasn't as full as it should have been, and if it isn't sold out next week, I'm going to have to start worrying that Sun fans are fair-weather types who only like the team when they're winning, and if I do that, I'm going to end up tying it to my perception of UConn fans' entitlement, and I really don't want to do that. I'll just chalk the non-sellout today to the holiday weekend.

The anthem was a duet performance by a couple of country guys, and it was actually pretty damn good. One of the things I like about Connecticut is that they post the lyrics to the anthem so that you can sing properly even if you're not quite sure of the words. No flinching when someone screws up. Also, the crowd tends to be more respectful of the anthem than the Garden crowd, another trait I approve of.

I really don't like the new PA guy. I know he's new and all, but I'd like to think Connecticut would have searched for someone with a personality. I'm a Liberty fan and all, but I can still recite Big Red's calls pretty well, and did find myself doing so during the game after some of the shots. Maybe he'll develop some cadences over time, but I'm really not impressed. I also don't think he knows when to get involved and when not to; he sounds awfully disappointed on foul calls, and generally that's a good time to sound politely neutral.

Taj got major love from the crowd, and I suspect the announcer had been warned she would, because he tried to hurry the introductions along. No real disapproval of the Sparks, not even Cooper, which I find surprising- you'd think Connecticut would be booing a Vol and a Laker. This state confuses me.

Taj also played like she wanted to prove a point, and in a sense, I think she did. Holdsclaw seemed surprisingly comfortable as the point guard- maybe she likes having that level of control over the game, in a position where she's expected to control the game, instead of being forced to control the game from the forward slot (although Cooper did use other ballhandlers, namely Fernández and Mabika, with a couple of, um, interesting moments with Taj). She was in Katie Douglas's head, which is a pretty impressive feat. Fernández- wow, what a find. How did she not come over to the W before this? She's got a good eye for the ball and an interesting semi-hook that I find quite attractive. Very quick on the break, too. Christi Thomas held her own against Margo for quite a while, although I'll be the first to admit that she's pretty much the only Spark ever to whom I will ever grant the benefit of the doubt. Mabika played like she was about five years younger, which had been the amount I calculated was necessary for the Sparks to get needed production out of her, so, um, crap. Murriel Page seems to have put on weight, though her arms are more cut, and she absolutely abused Douglas on one play, which just had me going 'whaaaaaaa?'. LaToya Thomas, I remember for the shot that I knew had the Sun screwed- a sweet three from the top of the key, which, the last I checked, has never been one of her shots. Willis was a DNP, presumably because of the ankle.

Okay, so, um, if the Sun play the rest of the season the way they played three quarters of this game, New York might not only make the playoffs, but steal the third seed. For much of the game, the Sun looked passive and awful, and like they were the ones without a point guard; I honestly thought at some points that the other four Sun players on the floor had no idea who Lindsay Whalen and Jamie Carey were, which doesn't make any sense whatsoever, and I'm expecting Coach T to emphasize knowing who your bleeping point guard is for the next game. Asjha Jones… oh, man, she was a mess out there. Looked like she was trying way too hard to be Taj, when all she has to do is be Asjha. Dydek was embarrassingly soft; there was one play where Fernández boxed her out, and that's almost as shameful as getting boxed out by Becky Hammon. For most of the game, I was certain Katie Douglas had been replaced by a pod person, because she was getting burned on defense and not really hitting her shots- half her points came in one burst. Keesh performed as expected. If Le'Coe Willingham slims down much more, she's going to have to develop a jump shot, because she will be a small forward. I was impressed with only two Sun players: Megan Mahoney, who came off the bench and seemed to decide, 'damn it, if no one else on this team is going to make an effort, I'll make it for all of them!'- and Érika de Souza, who played like she had something to prove, and also sets quite nifty screens, a talent that is sorely underappreciated in this world.

I'm not sure if I like Cooper's freestyling, but it seemed to work, so there isn't much I can say about it without looking foolish. I liked Thibault's rotation, although I might have inserted Hairston a bit in the second half, since she provided a bit of a spark when she was in, and for the love of all that is sweet and holy, sat Asjha down when it became clear that she would not be getting the round thing and the orange thing to make friends.

So, who won the trade? Well, Taj and de Souza pretty much canceled each other out, so that's a wash, possibly even in Connecticut's favor, since de Souza's likely to be around longer. On the other hand, the players who were supposed to step up in her absence, Dydek and Jones, were simply awful. There's a rematch, and we'll know more about how these two teams stack up after that.

Once the game was over, I hung out, since my bus wasn't due to leave for some time. Hung out in the box office, watched various and sundry folks wander out. For some reason, Rebecca Lobo rather liked my jersey. ;) Ended up wandering up to the hotel lobby with several Sun fans and netting some Spark signatures- at last, Mabika! Spencer's another Bible-verser. And then there was Taj, dressed to kill- not quite a little red dress, since a little *anything* wouldn't fit Taj, but mostly backless and quite striking. And I have been around this game for a long while, and the only other player I've ever seen work a room the way Taj did is Teresa Weatherspoon. They both have a way of reaching out to those around them and making them feel special. (Tamika Catchings is similar, but in reverse- she draws people to her instead of reaching out to them, for the most part; it's a quieter version of the charisma.) That is an intense woman.

Grabbed dinner at Geno's. It's a thing that's appropriate (basketball and all) and inappropriate (since I'm a Liberty and Rutgers fan) at the same time, and therefore a thing that I like doing. It's a sad state of affairs when Asjha Jones is a better pasta dish than she is a power forward. (I almost ordered one of the paninis, but I was afraid that if I ordered it, wearing my usual jersey, and sitting under the Rebecca Lobo photo, that would count as a triple invocation of her name and I'd accidentally summon her, and that would just be rude.)

And my parting view, the one that would be my last impression of the game? Taj- still in the not-so-little red dress- and LaToya Thomas, dressed like she just rolled out of bed, in line at Ben and Jerry's. Apparently the Dark Side of the Force is permitted ice cream, despite its association with innocence.

All in all, it was an interesting expedition, and it's providing fuel for a blog entry once I regain consciousness- these notes are being written upon arrival home from an overstayed casino visit.