September 14th, 2008: Detroit at New York

Detroit Shock 61, New York Liberty 59

Meaningless game is meaningless, but Ashley Battle in "Thriller" is worth the price of admission.


Well, that was dull. The word ennui keeps floating through my head when I think about this game, and gee, I can't think why. ;)

*Love* the I-design shirt. You know what made it even better? The feather that Ashley wore behind her ear during shootaround. It was the precise shade of peacock blue that surrounded the ball in the design. Mr. daspoon was kind enough to snag a picture from an equally kind bystander of AB modeling her feather.

I like Taj. I like her a lot. She seems like a good person who knows how to work a room. I didn't realize she and Kym Hampton had history, though I suppose with as long as the two of them have been around, they have to have crossed paths repeatedly. But after Kym did the anthem, Taj came over and hugged her, and it was very sweet.

Speaking of musical accompaniment, no just no to Karina and the high notes that almost blew out my eardrums. More training is necessary ,young lady; you're only 16, so you certainly have time to fine-tune your vocal skills, cut down on the shrieking, learn how to hold a note, things like that. Kym, on the other hand, had one of her strongest anthems yet, and Lord have mercy, did she nail it down at the end. I do love the tradition of the team surrounding her- for that matter, I kinda miss standing under the basket instead of at the free throw line the way every other team does.

Fair warning: in terms of actual analysis, these are going to be right down there among my worst ever, because there was so little to analyze and because I've been fucking around on the Internet trying to avoid writing the notes.

Hornbuckle's got good hands on defense. I like Sanni doing work on the inside. Sam's still got a little something left in the tank, just enough to do damage to a young team. I do not like Pierson. Going over the top to Braxton is a good play when she's awake enough to catch the ball. Do not leave Shields open for three- the number she wears should give you a hint about what she does. Where was that shot when Schumacher played for us? Very aggressive team defensively, especially in the passing lanes.

Why were they force-feeding Janel early? The offense only started to flow better when Janel stopped shooting. She's clearly hurting, and 16 minutes was about ten minutes too much. Essence's shots were good, just not falling, and I would have put her back in in the fourth quarter sometime before the three-second mark. Solid game by Loree, except for some of the passing. Fun as it is to watch Cathrine shoot threes, I'd much rather she tried to work inside more. An old complaint, I know, but very valid today. Granted, she did the best job of following her shot of any of them. Didn't need a lot from Shameka today, wasn't expecting a lot from her today. Erlana kicked ass. (If there are any Tar Heel fans out there, can you please state for the record if she pronounces it Er-lay-na or Er-lah-na? Our usual PA announcer goes with the lay-na, but the sub today went with the lah-na, and she didn't haul off and slug either of them, so that doesn't narrow it down.) Jess kicked slightly less ass, and goddamnit, woman, I'm tired of saying this already, HOLD ON TO THE REBOUND, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD, HOLD ON TO THE REBOUND. Love Lisa's shooting, and apparently I missed her cross-checking someone at midcourt. She's improving fast, and I like that, but she needs to be a little faster with her decision-making- then again, the whole damn team does. Erin had such an unmemorable game that I had to look up whether she played or not. Fluffy little bunny did what she had to do, and then actually got to wear nasty pointy teeth at one point, which just made me happy because it seemed so appropriate.

I think we've all established that the Thriller video was the highlight of the night. Ashley played the role to the hilt. Shameka makes a great straightman (straightwoman?), and I really want a still from the part where she's cowering behind the ball rack so I can caption it "Aaaaaaaaaaaah, not the '80s!"

After the game, we were hanging out by the Detroit bus (I still lack a bunch of the Detroit rookies), and Taj once again worked the room, and once again Kym wandered by. The two of them were going back and forth over the fencing, and Katie Smith looked rather like "…no, I don't know these people. Really, I don't." Detroit fans, please let us know if Tweety arrived safely- the last I saw of her, she was walking around the side of the bus that did NOT have the passenger door and never emerged from behind the bus. I'm not real fond of your team, but I'm even less fond of amazing players disappearing into the Twilight Zone.

And that's really about it. FFO, if you're out there, somewhere, Thriller needs to be re-shown during the playoffs- if nothing else, it might make the Sun think that Cat and Leilani will try to eat their brains, and they'll back off them. Or worse- they'll think Ashley's trying to inflict the '80s on them and they'll run for the hills.