July 25th, 2008: Los Angeles at New York

New York Liberty 69, Los Angeles Sparks 68

The New York Liberty, sponsored by Maalox. But we love them anyway.


BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! It still rings in my head with the rest of the noise from that crazy end of the game. If you gotta go out, like we do for the break, dear God, what a way to go out!

Lots of people in the house. Far too many of them wore purple, orange, or other pro-Sparks/Sparks players paraphernalia. The entire section next to us, and the row behind us, were cheering for Los Angeles- well, no, cheering for Parker, although at least the people behind us recognized DMJ and Temeka Johnson. And there was a guy in AAMCO's section who was being very obnoxious and really made me want to go Lauren Jackson on his dreadlocks.

Wonderful anthem. Absolutely nailed it. A little bit of Whitney and a little bit of Martina McBride. And that always puts me in the mood for a game.

I realize that the events of the brawl have me in a really anti-Sparks frame of mind, or at least in a frame of mind that feels like saying "fuck you" to the favorites, but really, I'm not liking Parker that much. She gets away with complaining too much- far more than I would expect from a Tennessee alumna, even if I'm given to understand that Summitt went easy on her. She had some beautiful moves, I'll say that, but she wasn't the freak of nature I've been led to expect. Leslie put up some gaudy numbers, but those were strongly helped by Cathrine's inability to box out properly. Also, those shenanigans with standing in the inbounder's spot when it was Liberty ball? Very immature. My high school team behaved better than that. Milton's a piece of work too, but we all knew that going in. Kiesha Brown really looks like she's come into her own in Los Angeles. While I wish it didn't have to be Los Angeles, I'm glad for her- she's been around so long that it's good to see her finally shine. I just wish she wasn't on the Dark Side of the Force, and that she hadn't almost kicked our asses. Not impressed with Ferdinand-Harris- the spirit is willing but the body doesn't go that fast anymore. Johnson's got a nice little jump shot, but I thought things went more smoothly with Brown in the game. Jessica Moore's reason for existence seems to be to be called for the fouls that she's in the vicinity of- not necessarily all of them committed by her, although she certainly does her part. Very little of Spencer- why not fight fire with fire, what's the worst that can happen?

Janelllllllllllllllllllll McCaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarville for the win! (Literally.) Has Nellie made it clear to everyone yet that she fears no one and nothing? What a move, what a game. And Miss Jackson- whew, she's tough. I'd like to see her go inside more instead of trying to take that jumper she's not so good with, but hey, it kinda worked tonight, so let's roll with that. Cathrine, while her defense was atrocious beyond belief, even more so than usual, displayed a knack for making some very big plays- in that regard, she reminds me very much of Elena. The late points, the late rebound, the late block. If they ever get bored with Captain Caveman, perhaps "Ride On Time" would work for her? Essence came in for defensive purposes and took some really, really bad shots. Like, seriously, E, you are not going to get a foul call one-on-four on a contested layup- pass the gods-bedamned ball and get the easy two for your teammate. Shameka hit one unbelievable three that had us all going "OH GOD TOO LONG" right until it swished through. She wasn't the Meeksiah, but we didn't need her to be. Ashley stepped up big tonight, when we needed her at both ends. About the only complaint I had about her was that she didn't use enough conditioner, and if I can see that from the upper deck… yeah. Leilani was solid, and ballsy- when you've got a fluffy little bunny throwing her body at a Sparks post, you might have a fluffy little bunny with nasty pointy teeth on your hands. Loree, watch your back. Lisa didn't have the world's greatest shooting night, but for that block, all can be forgiven.

I booed the three fighters. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I also screamed myself raspy trying to outshout the obnoxious Sparks fans around us. My humble apologies to the Finnish (?) fans in front of us. (Either Finnish or Slovakian. I'm not so good with the recognition of Eastern European languages; while the writing on the bag looked Finnish, it amused me to think that the girl in the McCarville jersey was from Kosice.)

Refs suck, what else is new? I thought Erlana was robbed of the and-1 on that play. And Leslie came damn close to being T'd up more than once.

Did anyone else see the Lady Blazers? They must have been heartbroken that Bobbitt had to miss that game. They have damn nice uniforms for a high school team- yes, I know, they're not your typical high school team, but I get to thinking that Piph must have thought she was going down in uniform quality when she went to RU.

How much do I love these Libkids? Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much. And more.