June 14th, 2009: Atlanta at Connecticut

Atlanta Dream 67, Connecticut Sun 62

Ennui.


You know, guys, if you didn't want to play the game, you should have told us all in advance so I could have stayed home, slept late, made nice with my dad, and saved $35. No, seriously, that was such a hot mess of a game, in terms of intensity, style of play, and overall quality, that I wondered for the first time what the hell I was doing there.

Not that the day started off well for me, but you don't care about the trials and travails of trying to get on the damn bus. I got there later than I would have liked, and it all went downhill from there. Shame, too, because the Sun at least started the "Heroes and Champions" festivities right. Firefighter rappelling down from the rafters to bring the game ball to center court = made of WIN. The little kids doing the anthem were cute, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they had a British accent while they sang.

Sancho Lyttle, oh my goodness. She was everywhere, and Atlanta did a great job of setting her up in the lane. The Dream absolutely dominated the paint while she was in the game, and I'm pretty sure Connecticut's big runs were while she was on the bench. I do wonder about her stamina, though – is that why she didn't play the kind of minutes you'd expect from her, or is Meadors trying to keep Snow from pouting, or what? Holdsclaw did not look comfortable on the court- okay, except when she was launching that silky fadeaway- but there were a couple of times when I saw her looking like she was hurting on the baseline. She stepped up and kept the pressure on the Sun. DeSouza got yet another pronunciation of her last name- I'm going to need someone who's actually Brazilian to tell me how to say it, because I don't like getting names wrong. I don't think she was as assertive as she could have been, especially given her matchups with Black, but she wasn't bad. I keep forgetting how fast, and how lanky, Izi is- and she seems to just be going by that, if being announced as "Izi Castro Marques" is enough of a hint. Not sure what's up with the hyphen, though. Teasley looks like she's still working her way back up to where she once was.

Dear Michelle: if you want to play more, work harder and don't whine quite so much at the officials. I keep forgetting how much I don't like her attitude until I see her on the court again, just being a punk. Coco was pretty steady, though she almost cost them a possession when she didn't bring the ball up quickly enough. Tamera Young's pigtails are adorable, but she didn't do much on the court- the first play I remember her making was dribbling the ball off her foot. Lacy did not suck as much as I expected her to, and to be honest, I think Atlanta works better together when she's on the floor than when Snow's on the floor, though that might just be the aura of "I've been here before, I have confidence" that was the door prize for surviving Atlanta 2008. Lehning's a nice kid with a pretty autograph, but she's got a lot to learn, and I don't think Meadors is going to teach it to her. Ditto for McCoughtry, who played reasonably well. That elbow to Gardin's face didn't look intentional to me.

I really do think Whalen has decided, "Fuck it, y'all really aren't going to do anything, are you? I gotta do all this myself, don't I?" And in the first half, she was, but she seemed to disappear in the second, but I don't know if that's because she wasn't getting it done or because she wasn't getting playing time. Black did a nice job on the boards. Phillips kept trying to make things happen, but just couldn't. Gardin wasn't much of a factor, though I'm not sure I agree with the implications of her plus/minus. Jones just couldn't get her shots to fall- and a lot of them were good looks that she usually hits, so I don't know what was up with that. I'm not sure what was up with Thibault, either, to be honest; he didn't seem to be on his game the way he usually is.

But if we want to get into fail, let's go to Tamika Whitmore's day. This is starting to turn into a broken record, but at least she's not on my team anymore. I continue to wonder where Turner's basketball IQ has gone, since she's been making a lot of dumb plays lately. Ervin continues to show me why Thibault picked her up- she's got the moxie that a lot of players don't. Kiesha Brown made a couple of good plays, but since she doesn't have history with Atlanta, the Roaring Rampage of Revenge went on hiatus. Cirone wasn't terribly effective. These notes are brief because it's Tuesday, and I really stopped caring about this game sometime in the third quarter on Sunday. Sorry, Sun fans. Not my fault I stopped caring the same time your team did.

Blah blah blah inconsistent referees who can't count and can't make the same call on both ends of the floor. Gulbeyan and Courteau.

Deadest crowd I've ever heard at a Connecticut game. I wasn't sure all of them were even alive. And the way they streamed out the doors before the final buzzer was shameful.

One of these days, I'd like to know what's in the third box. I do wish they'd tell us.

Is it just me, or is Geno's getting more popular? You wouldn't believe the line at the deli.

All in all, if I had known that this game would be so unpleasant to watch that it would take me almost two days to write these notes, and if I had known the rest of my day would plummet down the shitter, I'd have taken the other Atlanta game on my six-game pick 'em plan.