September 20th, 2008: New York at Connecticut

Connecticut Sun 73, New York Liberty 70

The Game Notes of Doom have to fight off some nagging urges to smack people upside the head, or possibly kick them in the knee.


Heartbreaker. That's the only word for it. To be honest, that would have been the only word for it no matter which way it went, because if the Sun had lost that game, it would have hurt even more for their fans than it did for those of us who made the trip from the land of Liberty.

And make the trip we did. There were Liberty fans everywhere we looked at Mohegan. While we didn't take advantage of the arrangement the FFO made with the SunFO, we still found ourselves only a few seats away from some very loud and proud Liberty fans, and took great advantage of this fact to make some serious noise in that joint. We probably annoyed the Sun fans near us- there were a couple who got up and left in the second or third quarter- but I'll say this: the people we were sitting near were mostly cool with us being our usual selves. Bear in mind that our usual selves make the call along with Mike W. on every basket. My throat still hurts, but it was worth it.

*checks* Yep, the next morning, my throat still hurts. Just wanted to make that clear, since we got in past two in the morning.

My worst fears came true. We did the reverse of what we did on Thursday- we stopped Whitmore but didn't stop Whalen and Jones, and the two of them did more than Whitmore did on Thursday, ergo we were screwed. It did not help the Liberty that Thibault can actually coach and therefore changed his starting lineup to reflect who was playing well and who was not. Shocking, isn't it? This is why the man gets the big money, and the shiny objects. (Congrats to Coach T for the award, too. He deserved it. We were part of the standing O for him.) So Abrosimova started for Holt, and both players were better for it- Holt brought some key points off the bench, and Abrosimova's quick hands (and uncalled reach-ins) made life a living hell for the Liberty ballhandlers. Whalen was much better than she was on Thursday, which I credit both to two days' worth of improvement on the ankle and the fact that Essence Carson could not get her goddamn shit together, about which there will be more kvetching later. But because Whalen was stronger, faster, and better able to get her passes off- and more willing to take her shots when they were there- the Sun's offense was better all around. Jones also got her shots down, which more than made up for Whitmore's ineffectiveness. (Hmmm. Perhaps whatever curse was placed on the Liberty accidentally included her because of her former ties. Things to think about.) Gardin played sparingly, but starting her allowed for much more power in the beginning, which forced the 'kids to do some stupid things. Strong bench play from the Sun- Turner, Phillips, and Gruda all had key plays. Someone not employed by the casino needs to find Barbara Turner and get her to blow on their dice. Jesus Christ, she's had two unbelievable shots in the last week. Talk about a heartbreaker. I find Thibaults way of playing the matchups interesting- he's such a chessmaster. I'd bet good money that the minute counts for Phillips and Leilani, and Gruda and Jessica, match up within a few seconds. (And I'd only win half that bet- Gruda played four more minutes than Jess, but the only reason Leilani and Phillips don't match to within a second is because Whalen was at the line at one point when Leilani came in.)

Loree finally came to play. Good of her to show up. Now, if she could go back and find Cathrine, Essence, and Jessica, that would be really fucking helpful. Yes, Cathrine hit the big threes in the second half. She also committed two incredibly stupid fouls at the end of the game and seems to have forgotten six-four and broad-shouldered. Essence acted like she had some sort of paranoid fear of the state of Connecticut most of the game. Jessica was half-asleep. A few good whacks upside the head might cure what ails them. Just a frustrating performance all around until the kids got down and started climbing out of the hole. Well, okay, not all around. Erlana played hard and played tough. Loree brought it in the second half. Ashley makes things happen, statistically or not. And Erin Thorn is a fuckin' gamer, man. She stepped it up today. And you know team solidarity is on when our maybe-possibly-kinda-sorta Mormon has a temporary tattoo. I am desperately trying to remember if Lisa did anything out there, but I can't.

Is there any particular reason they managed to miss Erin wide open in the corner twice? The first was on the 24-second violation, and you could actually see her mime a jumpshot with a puzzled look on her face as she came back up the floor on defense. The second was the very end of the game, the last shot that ended up going to Janel for three, which, no.

Fucking idiotic incompetent asshole refs. No, we were not attacking as aggressively. That's fair. However, I'm pretty damn certain- though I could be wrong- that the third foul called on Janel (who wears #4) was supposed to be called on Lisa (who wears #40) and the second hand never went up. That led to Janel's real third being her fourth, and her real fourth being her fifth, and things going all to hell and back again. And the over and back (oops, almost forgot the spaces there!) on Cathrine was fourteen kinds of bullshit. 26-5 is fucking ridiculous. What bugs me about some of those calls is that it took a repetition of the same event in the same play to trigger a call. I'm thinking specifically of the charge on Whalen- she ran into Janel once, no call, continued the play, and ran into Janel again. You'd think she, of all the players, would know that that's grounds for a Darwin Award, not just an offensive foul. Gah. I can take incompetence. I can take inconsistency. I'd just like it to be even-handed incompetence and inconsistency. Is that really too much to ask?

So frustrating. Just. So frustrating. Come on, Libkids, you can do this on Monday. Just everyone take a deep breath, sip some of Ashley's Red Bull, smack a few of the underachievers upside the head, and DO THIS THING. Force the foul calls, play D, play smart. You can do this. We believe.