June 26th, 2009: Indiana at New York

Indiana Fever 82, New York Liberty 81

Being a Liberty fan is like hitting your head against a wall, except that you feel worse if you stop.


FLAMES. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE. DIAF, PATTY. DIAF RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.

Not that dying in a fire would have been very effective, given the number of firefighters in attendance for the game, including the (operatic, but not very well phrased) anthem singer. But a girl can dream.

What was up with the lady in the Betty Lennox Dream jersey behind the Liberty bench? B-Money has played for six different teams, but none of them were New York or Indiana.

Lin Dunn, what the fuck? Just. What the fuck? I have seen Indiana before, and they'v always been physical, but this was beyond the pale. Whether it was Hoffman tripping, January slapping, Douglas holding, TSB elbowing, or Catchings grabbing, Indiana played like cornered animals. It was ridiculous. And the Liberty let it get under their skins. Shameka is high-strung, but I don't think I've ever seen her ready to fight someone. Janel was getting into it with Douglas and a couple of other Fever players. Loree and Ashley both had their moments with January. It got ugly and remained ugly.

I have to give props to Katie Douglas. Whatever was said at halftime, she found a way to get open and stay open. The Liberty defense helped by somehow forgetting that Katie Douglas is left-handed, and she took full advantage of that. She was scoreless or damn close to it at half, and then BAM. She got rolling. Speaking of BAM, the Tamikaze was back in full force. I think she done lost her mind on defense and on the boards. She's always been reckless, but she was downright mean tonight. She hit the big shots, though, and that's what makes her Tamika Catchings. Hoffman didn't really feel like a factor tonight, except on the boards. "Honey, we're being outrebounded by Ebony Hoffman. No, not by Indiana. By Ebony Hoffman. This isn't good." See prior paragraph re: tripping, though. Tully hit the floor hard a couple of times, and while Dunn went away from her in the second half, she came back in overtime and made the critical defensive and loose ball plays that won Indiana the game. Tully's the only Fever starter I'm not varying levels of pissed off at. Sutton-Brown was much as we've come to know her: she'll commit a lot of stupid fouls, she'll block a lot of shots, and she'll occasionally throw a cheap elbow.

Briann, don't slap people. This is not the Pac-10, and you are not playing Washington. She played a decent game, but I can see why she was moved back to the bench- she's a little too aggressive, even for Dunn's tastes, and makes rookie mistakes. She's getting the time to work on them, though, and assuming she gets a coach as good as or better than CTT, she'll be a solid W player (but Dunn is not that coach). Jessica Moore gave them not-bad minutes, especially when TSB fouled out. Tamecka Dixon looks so different with her hair down that I didn't recognize her. I don't know if blowing by Sidney Spencer proves she still has it or not, but that might just be a matter of the spirit being willing but the flesh being a 13-season veteran. Jessica Davenport got in, hit a shot, got fouled on her next attempt, missed two free throws, and was introduced to the bench for the rest of the game. Stop me if you've heard that one before... Christina Wirth came in as a decoy for two offensive possessions, and helped set up the play that forced the OT. Also, she does a very good impression of a ballgirl.

Shay Murphy gets her own little paragraph because she was nice before the game, and didn't play in the game, so she didn't do anything to make me dislike her. It was very nice of her to say "enjoy the game!" to a Liberty fan. She had no idea what was coming.

Which was more WTFery. Shameka was awesome, but for some reason- whether That Fucking Moron is, in fact, That Exceptionally Fucking Dumb Moron and stopped drawing up plays for her, or Indiana tightened up their defense- she disappeared in the fourth quarter. Meka, you gotta be more aggressive with the staff. Right now you're the closest thing to a star we have- gun-to-the-head-time, you gotta have the ball. Statistically, Cathrine didn't have a great game, but she ws finally going in the right direction- going towards the basket, taking the ball inside, then taking Hoffman outside to extend her range. It was nice to see her crashing the boards, too. Loree was all right early on, but she and January got into it, and I think she lost her head a little- that might be why she was taking a lot of shots late in the game. Essence... just. Not her night on either end of the floor; when defense is your bread and butter, and Katie Douglas starts the ball rolling by roasting you twice in rapid succession, sit yo' ass down. Statistically, Janel played well... except for the eight fucking turnovers. I thought the best part of her game was actually the rebounding she didn't do: she did a great job keeping balls alive so they could be tapped out to her teammates, which doesn't count as a rebound but does maintain possession.

Bench play. What bench? Sure, Cathrine and Janel are both turning interesting colors, but why play your energy post (Tiffany) or your big first rounder who looked good in the short time she was in (Kia) when you can drive your starters to their doom with a game on the road the next day? That would actually make sense! 8:31 for Tiffany and 4:35 for Kia are inexcusable. Hell, Spencer got one long stretch of run and wasn't too bad- when Ashley was running around with a head of steam, why didn't That Moron go back to Spencer? I think the only reason she plays Leilani is because we don't have anyone else who can even do a decent point guard impersonation. And Ashley's the only reserve she trusts, which works out okay sometimes, but not when Ashley and Shameka look like they're keeping each other hot under the collar and not calming down against Indiana. Don't be fooled by the minute counts- what That Fucking Moron did was put someone in for a long stretch, sit them down, and never put them in again. Very bad player management.

Worse referee management. This crew let the game get out of control with some of the non-calls they made... and by the time they started calling things, it was too late, and then everyone was complaining about the stuff that was being called and hadn't been called earlier. When Cameron Inouye is your best ref, you might have a problem, though I noticed she's been working on her communication skills. But Gulbeyan and the other guy- we thought his name was Brady, the boxscore gives it as Breeding- were utter incompetents, and I certainly can't blame Dunn for flipping out at them at the end of the first.

The Liberty All-Star video is kind of cute, but I wish Janel had spent less time flirting with the camera and more time practicing free throws and holding on to the ball.

Lots of Knicks in the house. Maybe that explains the epic fail? Bad karma from the incompetence on the XY side of the building? Also, Kym Hampton chatting away with Renee Brown, and before the game, Blaze and Lin Dunn deep in conversation. I hope Blaze wasn't giving away too much of our gameplan, unless that's part of the master scheme to rid us of That Fucking Moron.

In tribute to Michael Jackson, they replayed "Thriller". I keep forgetting how damn good Shameka was in it. It made me miss Megan Duffy a little, though, which is just sad.

I just don't know what's wrong with this team, whether it's the coaching or players who just aren't in the game. I do know that I'm not happy, and I'm frustrated and disappointed because I want them to be good, I want them to be the team I know they can be, the team I saw last year and especially the year before that.