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.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
June 26th, 2009: Indiana at New York
Monday, June 22, 2009
June 21st, 2009: San Antonio at Connecticut
Connecticut Sun 71, San Antonio Silver Stars 58
The Game Notes spend Father's Day at the casino, appreciate Asjha Jones, and are tempted by cookies (but who isn't?)
And once again, the eleven-woman roster takes a giant bite out of a team's chances of winning. Considering that San Antonio started off both halves even up with the Sun, then faded in the second and fourth quarters, you can't tell me that doesn't have to do with fatigue.
Girl Scout Day. I have got to learn to read the schedule more carefully. I hate kid-themed events. I know it was also Dads and Daughters day, but I tend to ignore that because otherwise I start laughing at the idea of my dad at a basketball game. Not his scene, to put it mildly, and I had to do a lot of groveling to go to this particular game.
Kids, anthem, nothing to write home about, except for the one bass. If it was coming from the stout blond kid, then I think we may have had a crossover from an animated universe, which should not be happening.
So the Stars' bench was even shorter tonight because Crossley's knee flared up. Katie Mattera did better against Tamika Whitmore than she did against the Liberty posts, but that's not saying much. Belinda Snell took a lot of shots, but the biggest one was the one she took from Chante Black's elbow to right under her left eye, which opened a gash 'bout an inch long that bled like the dickens. It took several minutes for them to track down all the blood on the court, since she'd crossed the timeline by the time they could get an injury timeout. Frazee didn't do as well as she did against New York, but I suspect her time will still be considered "quality" minutes, the same way a barely acceptable start is considered "quality" in baseball.
Lawson-Wade switched with Snell, and while the Roaring Rampage of Revenge factor did not come into play, she had a decent game. Sophia Young seems to be over the flu- either that, or her teammates noticed she existed again. With Lawson-Wade's shots not going in quite as much as they did Friday, and with the all-intents-and-purposes absence of Erin Perperoglou, they went to her early and often, and she showed off some real range. Darling- and Lawson-Wade, for that matter- seemed to be defining defense as reaching out and latching onto their assignment whenever she had the ball. I thought Darling ran the team better on Friday than she did on Sunday, but I will grudgingly respect her vocal leadership on the floor- there was one point, either before a timeout, or during the stoppage of play while CSI dealt with Snell's libation to the gods of sport, where she had the team around her and was giving them whatfor. Riley looked good. Though the folks around me were bitching about how she'd become a dirty player, I really didn't see it, except maybe one elbow, and Tamika Catchings will testify to how long Riley's elbows have been flying. But she was hitting that pretty little outside shot, and her teammates actually seemed to be looking for her this time. I'll credit that change in the game plan to Dan Hughes.
Dear Ms. Whitmore: especially after putting on weight, you are most definitely not a 3. Please return to the painted area of the court effective immediately, and remain there until August 19th. It's one thing to take those shots and hit them the way Young or Lauren Jackson does, it's another thing to take them and miss them badly. I did, however, approve wholeheartedly of the wicked pick that sent Darling crashing to the floor like the car hitting the wall in those crash simulations. That's a good use of extra weight. Tan White's settled nicely into the Sun rotation- though I thought she was more of a slasher than a jump shooter? Might just be me being an idiot. I'm good at that. Kiesha Brown was solid but unremarkable. I thought Lauren Ervin played Mattera really well on the defensive end- maybe couldn't get position against her on offense, but taking Mattera out of the play might well be a more important contribution. She also kept a lot of balls alive. She and Black might make a good pairing on the floor. Turner... I just don't know anymore. I suspect Thibault doesn't either.
Whatever Thibault said to Lindsay Whalen at halftime, he needs to say it more often, except when they play the Liberty. The first half was uneventful for her, then she came out and made some amazing defensive plays. She should have been credited with at least two steals. Chante Black looked really good. She was going for putbacks, mixing it up inside, and hitting that pretty little midrange jumper. The injury really freaked me and my neighbors out, because we still have no idea what the hell happened- there was no contact! Phillips came on strong in the second half. So did Gardin, whose game I really like. Her block at the end was the exclamation point on the game. But the night belonged to Asjha Jones, who showed off her range, her power, and her moxie. She looked really good. Really smooth.
I think this was the same crew from Friday, and I don't know whether they were tired, or Dan said something they didn't like the other day, or there were just more reasons to make bad calls in this game, but they weren't so great this time. San Antonio got eight points on blatant procedural mistakes- a three off what should have been an eight-second call, another one on an up-and-down, and a two on another obvious travel. Not quite as much dicey stuff as the Sun fans thought there was, but still not up to the standard they set in Friday's game. Both Thibault and Hughes were hot- funny, I don't remember Hughes having that much of a temper, but Brondello had to guide him back towards the bench on one particular play.
Very quiet crowd, except when there were t-shirts being thrown. I think I did more yelling than some of my neighbors, and this isn't even my team.
Made of win: the contingent of Silver Stars fans in section 17, especially the lady in the Sophia Young shirt and the lady in the Perperoglou jersey. I only saw one piece of Hammon gear, and a couple of Hammonites that I knew from New York; I suppose those who bought tickets just to see Hammon decided either not to come or not to wear their colors.
Post-game included watching Brondello and Lange try to parent an adorable little boy. I'm presuming he's theirs because he looks just like Olaf. Lots of awwwwing ensued, though I can't help but think that kid's going to have an odd accent when he starts talking a lot- German dad, Australian mum, raised in Texas. Also: Megan Frazee at Geno's. The WNBA might be "flush with worldly temptations", but just about the only one a second-round draft pick can actually afford is a big soft chocolate chip cookie at Geno's. Nom nom nom nom nom.
Friday, June 19, 2009
June 19th, 2009: San Antonio at New York
New York Liberty 77, San Antonio Silver Stars 61
Some returns are happy, some aren't, and the Liberty do what they have to do to put a mark in the wins column.
Look, I know San Antonio was hurtin' and lackin' and sick. I don't care. If it takes feeding on carrion and picking on the weakest kid in the schoolyard to get our first win, that's what it takes. Fuck it.
Was rolling with mom today- God love her, she got a hip replacement fifteen days ago, but she was bound and determined to make it to this game. Of course, then VJ had to miss the game (yes, I know, perfectly reasonable explanation, and my heart goes out to VJ and her family).
It's much harder to tell who's who when they're all wearing the same warm-up shirts. I mean, Katie Mattera stuck out from the crowd, and Janel's hair is fairly easy to recognize, but that's about as far as I could go on first glance.
San Antonio is disturbingly pale, except for Sophia Young. She... stands out, especially with VJ not there. It bothers me.
Man, Shanna Crossley can shoot it. Her shots were almost effortless, the way they went up and in, and she put 'em up fast. I don't know that she does much else, but she's damn good at that. Katie Mattera is good at being big, but that's about all she managed. And while you might take the girl out of the Shock, you can't take the Shock out of the girl, or something like that- one of her fouls came on a play where she shoved Shameka to the ground. We are not amused, Mrs. Mattera. Not amused at all. Megan Frazee played quite well in her time on the floor. I can see why they decided to keep her. But the reserve of the game, who played more minutes than three of the starters, was Edwige Lawson-Wade, who took a page out of the Kiesha Brown Handbook On Roaring Rampages Of Revenge and went all out on the Garden floor. She hit one unbelievable shot-clock-beating three, played tough defense, and distributed well. If it hadn't been for her, I don't want to think about how badly the Silver Stars would have gotten beat. I liked her when she was with us.
Erin Perperoglou looked washed out, and I think she was feeling it too, from the amount of time she spent trying to keep herself limber during stoppages in play. Young didn't look as strong as I'm used to her seeing, though she seemed to get better as the game went on. I hope they thought to pick up some chicken soup while they were in New York. We make the best here. Snell looked out of rhythm. Maybe she's not used to starting. Maybe she put too much bleach in. (Sorry, Belinda, but what works for Lauren does not work for you. Go back to black.) It almost looked like Hughes was setting her up to fail so there'll be a reason why she's buried on the bench when they're at full strength, or possibly even the cut when Wauters finally shows up. Darling looks like she's lost the baby weight, but her decision-making was not the best. Somehow, though, she seems to emit the aura of a baby animal in distress; two different times, Liberty players picked her up off the floor. Clearly, none of them were watching the league when we dubbed her the Headless Chicken. This is a dangerous woman if you let her too close to you. Riley got her blocks, and got open in the third quarter for a couple of those pretty little mid-to-long range jumpers she's been swishing since goddamn Tamika fucking Whitmore was the one not defending them for New York, and then San Antonio promptly forgot about her viability as an offensive option.
Ashley. Oh, Ashley. Whatever's wrong with you, whether it's a shortage of Red Bull or a mysterious mental malady, get it the fuck fixed right the fuck now. I'll gladly help. But the bad decision-making, the horrible dribbling- they need to stop. Leilani, while to so effective at our end of the court, stuck to Darling and Lawson-Wade to keep them from being as good as they previously were at theirs, so that's something to be said. Tiffany- yeaaaaah, that's what I'm talking about. Very efficient game. I'm glad to see her getting back into the thick of things, and glad that Coyle was going sporadic with her for caution, not because of stupidity. Very little Erlana, and none of it great. Very little Kia, and most of it unexciting. Very little Spencer, and none of it memorable.
The starters, on the other hand, mostly kicked ass. Cathrine was the exception. STOP SHOOTING THREES, CATHRINE. GET IN THE LANE, CATHRINE. Sorry for yelling, but I figure you might want to get an idea of what it was like over in section 209 tonight. She had one really nice boxout that I remember, and the last three did go down, but damnit, you'd think a football player's daughter who's six-four and broad-shouldered would go inside more often. Janel kicked ass. I think there might have been a little more of it to kick, but 18 and 6 is nothing to sneeze at, and her teammates were sharing it. Loree really hit the boards- it was good to see her looking strong again. Sista Christon's my pick for player of the game, personally- 18 might be more than 15, but 6 equals 6 and six assists beats three assists. Shameka was back on form, and I couldn't have been happier.
Play of the game for San Antonio: Lawson-Wade's three at the shot clock buzzer. Alas for San Antonio, you only get one of those a game, because she needed a second one.
Play of the game for New York: late in the game, Janel, sitting on 18 points, gets a feed into the post. She goes up for the shot... fake and passes to Kia, who puts it in for her first two of the night. A gorgeous fake, and more importantly, a classy move, giving her teammate a shot instead of going for 20.
The referees did not noticeably suck tonight, which I credit to Denise Brooks. While there were little procedural things that didn't get called, nothing got out of hand and nothing got unbalanced. (As an odd aside, is this the first time there's been an all-African-American crew in the W?)
The Liberty All-Star video is hysterical- a parody of "Single Ladies". The synchronization was surprisingly good. Janel was surprisingly smooth. My brain is still slightly broken, though.
There was a Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover for entertainment. No, not really, just some exhibition group from a dojo, but when one group wields nunchuks, a bo, and sais, and the other has three guys and two girls, what else am I gonna think?
Beautiful anthem- nice clear voice, though the vibrato began to wear after a while.
Woo-hoo, we had a Knick sighting. This is the sound of me not giving much of a shit.
Decent crowd, though the groan that came up at the announcement of VJ and Hammon's absence indicates who everyone was there for. I thought there was gonna be a riot.
It was good to see a win, and good to have mom back at the arena. Clearly this was the missing piece, and now that she's off the IR, we can get on with this whole winning thing.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
June 7th, 2009: Connecticut at New York
Connecticut Sun 66, New York Liberty 57
LEILANI MITCHELL YOU GUYS. Wait, what do you mean there's another half to play? Aw, fuck...
Opening Day, done as right as you would expect from this squad. Some hits, some misses, but mostly hits. Well, until the third quarter...
I don't want to say that we were waiting eagerly for this season here, but I met up with the boy for lunch at quarter to twelve- and a few of the Usual Suspects were already in position by the side door. We had another incident of "how the hell do you lose a six-three power forward?" when Tiffany did a vanishing act. Don't worry, she came back for the game. Maybe she got her hair done- she's got a beautiful braid thing going on.
A couple of us were in Comets gear, and a few others were in red. What I find interesting was the amount of black jerseys I saw. A lot of #24s, a lot of #11s, a lot of #50s. Good times. A pretty large crowd, more than I remembered from late last season. More involved than the Connecticut fans were.
Lots of Girl Scouts. They did the anthem, starting off awkwardly but finishing strong. I hope whoever started making a ruckus during the anthem couldn't help himself, because otherwise I'll hunt him down and smack him upside the head. The Girl Scouts were also involved in the ball exchange, though I didn't realize they allowed boys. Also also, they were one of the timeout entertainments.
I like whoever's in the Maddie suit this year. He, she, it has a sense of humor. And the way they punked the Sun fan was hysterical. The contest involved putting on a Velcro-coated suit and rolling around in fake cash while blindfolded. So the first guy, a Liberty fan, did it, and got a fair amount of money. Then the Sun fan put on her blindfold... and the Torch Patrol changed out the sheet for an empty one, so she was rolling around on center court with nothing to show for it, while Mike W. and the crowd shouted encouragement. You can imagine the look on her face when she took off the blindfold and realized she didn't have any money on. I don't know if she was in on it or not, but she was a good sport either way.
LOVE the new video. It's good to see the players involved in the team media again. Now, if only the league-mandated Kat Deluna appearance hadn't put the screeching brakes on the intros, we might have had some momentum. I think it's interesting that with Loree on the bench, Janel's moved up in the pecking order- she's a co-captain now, and she got pride of place as the last player announced.
Dear Erin: this is not Aussie Rules. Please stop trying to tackle people. Your enthusiasm, energy, hustle, and other things that are necessary for chasing loose balls are starting to cross the line towards insanity and reckless behavior. At least some of her shots went in today, unlike yesterday. That was awkward. Lindsay Whalen was rebounding like nobody's business. It was absurd. But she and the Liberty were using the same "drive, then stop driving" playbook. I'm wondering if that would have been the same if Connecticut hadn't played the day before. Chante Black made a cameo appearance, but between foul trouble and rookie jitters, Thibault made it clear he didn't trust her in crunch time. Kerri Gardin continues to offense/defense platoon with Turner, though she got hot in the third quarter. Well, okay, maybe it was just lukewarm, but hotter'n noon on the Fourth of July compared to the Liberty's "offense". Asjha Jones played a very physical game, with some borderline plays at some points. I wasn't exactly happy with her. Neither were the fans; there were a few boos when she was introduced, probably from bitter Rutgers fans.
Whitmore did not have a horrible game off the bench. Kiesha Brown briefly continued her Roaring Rampage of Revenge against another team that cut her. She's really a steadying hand for that team when Whalen or Phillips have to go to the bench. Not that Cirone is doing badly, but she's more of a sparkplug. Situationally, it makes sense to put Brown in when things don't need to change and Cirone when things do need to change. Barbara Turner keeps making boneheaded mistakes. Maybe she was afraid of Anne Donovan. She almost hit a heave at the end of the third quarter, which would just have been ridiculous. Ervin did a great job on the inside. Small but critical plays. I like her. I don't know why Sun fans are bitching about Thibault. If he calls the plays and the players go off and do something else, that's not his problem. And his subbing is situational. He actually looks at matchups, unlike most coaches.
LEILANI FUCKING MITCHELL! I don't care what else the Fluffy Little Bunny did or didn't do, that shot was fucking amazing. She doesn't have the stamina to be the starting point guard a team like New York- with a coach who trusts her reserves as far as she can throw them- is going to need. Janel looked good in spurts, but if she starts thinking she's Elena Baranova and she can can threes on a regular basis, I'm going to learn some new swear words just so I can use them on her. Cathrine was at least rebounding, but once again, she was back to thinking she was a small forward. Dear Cathrine: WE HAVE SHAMEKA FOR THAT. Go set a Screen of Death on somebody. I hope Shameka's gonna be okay. We really don't need another hamstring injury. Except for the third quarter, I don't know what Essence was doing out there.
Loree is starting to walk more and more like Spoon every day, though that may have more to do with the hammy than with the channeling. She still doesn't look right out there, but what the fuck else are we going to do. Ashley made things happen, but they weren't always good things. Sometimes too much energy is a bad thing. I blinked, and apparently Tiffany Jackson was in and out of the game while I did so. Kia Vaughn still looks like a rookie out there. HIT SOMEBODY! The teddy bear wearing #15 shouldn't be making more contact with people than you do! Erlana mostly committed fouls. Spencer was a decent rebounder, but I'm still not sure why we traded for her.
Bonita Spence lost weight, but she also seems to have lost competence. I wouldn't be surprised if the play where Shameka was injured gets reviewed by the league. There were some dangerously borderline plays that weren't called that could lead to the axiomatic slippery slope. No full nelsons, please.
Awesomesauce sightings: Billie Jean King, Sue Wicks, Kym Hampton. Also, Kia and/or Essence may have had folks in the stands. There was also a ridiculously tall, skinny blonde who left around the same time as Sue. I mean really tall. She made Sue look short, while wearing flats. Our guess is that she was a former St. Francis player, Katja Bavendam.
I also love the new video for "Gotta Get Up". Ashley's little dance moves! The performance was live today, which was way cool, but I hope it's not live for every game.
Flags! Flags for the starters! Made of win! "Do you have a flag?" "Yes, actually! *plants flag in some other team's ass*"
It's good to be home. It's always good to be home. I just wish we'd had a little more offense after Leilani's shot.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
June 6th, 2009: Washington at Connecticut
Washington Mystics 82, Connecticut Sun 70
Lindsay Whalen can't do it alone, Marissa Coleman kicks ass, and kinks need to be worked out.
Let The Games Begin!
Other than the scenic tour of beautiful West Haven, the ride up for our first game of the regular season was uneventful. We got to Mohegan 'round about two-thirty, having left downtown Manhattan at eleven-thirty. Some young kid was trying to sell tickets in the lobby. He might have done better if he didn't keep asking the people who were going to will call. They already have tickets, you idiot.
Mohegan security really is getting ridiculous. Did they care about our little cameras? No, but I was informed that there were no stuffed animals allowed in the arena and that I would have to leave Kiabear at the bag check. Yeah, no. I stuffed her deep in my bag, brought her out for one photo op, and put her away. I would dearly like to know what the rationale is for that. No, seriously, WTF?
Speaking of WTF, Vicky Bullett didn't seem to be with the team today. What gives? Did something happen in her personal life, or were the Mystics only allowed to bring two assistants with them or something? Weird. Discomfiting. I was really looking forward to seeing her on the sidelines.
"I'm coming back out" is one of the biggest lies a player can tell a fan. Don't believe it.
Interesting anthem, though I note this is the second time Mohegan's used someone who's performing either later that night or the next day. He had better ideas than execution.
So. Jesus Hypothetical Christ, Marissa Coleman. Yeah, I know, skipping past the starters. WTFever. Jesus Hypothetical Christ, Marissa Coleman. She's so damn smooth. And she works. And she fits well with the rest of them- Currie and Coleman spent a lot of time out there together, and she also works really well with Harding. That's a good omen for them.
Okay, back to the starters. Harding seems to be back to herself. She's much faster than I remember her being, so her knee must have healed up. She kept that offense clicking. The ACC connection is really paying early dividends for the Mystics. There's a sense of teamwork on the floor that I'm not used to seeing out of Washington. Beard didn't have to play a lot, which must have been refreshing for her- some decent defensive plays, but nothing spectacular. Melvin pretty well owned the inside. She cleaned up. Sanford kept getting in foul trouble (well, worse foul trouble than her teammates, given the foul situation in the game, but more on that later), and I keep remembering why I don't like her. Currie kept getting to the line, which is her most marketable skill.
Coleman was the most useful of the Mystic reserves. Tasha Humphrey kept riding a stationary bike while on the bench, and she got into it with fuzzy orange Blaze a bit, but that was because he was blocking her view of the game, and she didn't approve of that. I don't think I blame her. Langhorne was really effective against the small lineup the Sun played for stretches (of course, this has about 80% to do with Langhorne and 20% to do with her matchup, but we'll get to that when we get to the Sun's reserves). Ajavon played six minutes, took five shots, and missed four of them. That's the Matee Ajavon I came to know and detest at RU! Brief Nikki Blue sighting. Josephine Owino continues to do a job I could very easily do.
So with this backcourt Connecticut's using, sometime around the second quarter Whalen said, in so many words and actions, "Fuck it. Erin, you're point guard today. I'm gonna be shooting guard. Not like any of you fuckers are doing anything useful." So she started swishing threes while Erin Phillips wondered where the hell her shot went, or Who she pissed off, because some of those shots were in and out. Obviously her good luck got stuck at Logan, or Tweed, or wherever she flew into, and is currently languishing in baggage claim. She's still feisty, though. Remember, kids, it's not a game until the resident Aussie hits the floor. Chante Black showed that she's still very much a rookie, and her early foul trouble hampered the Sun and their rotations. Gardin was a large bundle of bad-free-throw-shooting useless. Asjha Jones did most of her good stuff late in the game, as if someone lit a fire under her ass after the third quarter. Then she started seeking out contact and getting to the line.
I think I'm about ready to give up on talking about Whitmore. Every game is pretty much the same thing. For every good play she makes, she'll make two or three bad ones, she's still flat-footed as hell, and on bad days she flinches away from contact- this one who was supposed to be the banger Thibault was dying for. Catch the ball, Tamika. Drive the ball, Tamika. Do something that doesn't suck, Tamika, as long as it's against anyone but New York. Okay, I'm done with that. :D Kiesha Brown seems to have sworn Bride-style vengeance against the Mystics, except instead of a katana, she has a jump shot. Here's one thing that struck me about her- one play, with the clock running down, away from the ball, I noticed her gaze flick up to the clock and back again. Savvy move. Most players don't remember to check the clock when they do have the ball. Barbara Turner was way off her game on both ends of the floor- she blew two open layups, and she kept misplacing Marissa Coleman. How you do that, I'll never know, but there was one play in particular where she just wandered off, at which point Coleman canned a shot (or maybe it was Langhorne, the assignments got tweaked when Turner was playing the 4, but there was epic attention span fail on Turner's part). The guy behind me remarked that Cirone looks like Carey, and I can see that- but she's less of a placeholder and more of a spark than Carey was. Ervin's got cojones, but she's gone when Gruda shows up.
Plank was really prepared. I'm impressed. Not easy to say about a Mystics coach. Their oncourt chemistry looked great.
Our section, 19, was one section over from the Official Mystics Cheering Section. You could tell because Angela Taylor was there. *g* I suspect, given that it's at an angle to the visiting bench, that we'll be hearing from a lot of visiting fans.
The refereeing was... interesting, though some of the calls the Sun fans were kvetching about were legit calls. (The most egregious example of that was when Whalen got tangled up with Melvin and got called for the foul- the Sun faithful were sure Melvin initiated.) Everything evened out, sort of.
Halftime entertainment was drumming. It sounded pretty cool, and bonus points for giving away the drumsticks.
Connecticut is attempting a train with little kids, a la Seattle. I see absolutely no way this could end badly. [/sarcasm]
The Mystics disappeared after the game. The Northeast Corridor's Usual Suspects staked out the hotel for over an hour after the game, but the only person we saw was Barbara Turner wandering around. Maybe there's some kind of magic in the air after all.
What's in box #1? The world may never know.
It was a good game, and I won money at the casino. What's not to like? If this keeps up, I might even win back the value of my tickets. *g*