July 15th, 2011: Connecticut at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Second-half shooting woes nipped a comeback in the bud as the New York Liberty lost 68-59 to the Connecticut Sun in Newark. Kia Vaughn led New York with 15 points and nine rebounds. Tina Charles had 15 points for the Sun.

For late arrivals, non-arrivals, and far too much time spent on TV Tropes, join your intrepid and uninspired blogger after the jump.

I'm not feeling an auspicious start for this team. It's past six and I'm still in Brooklyn. With all apologies to the Langhorne family, words cannot sufficiently express how much I hate the MTA. I'm going to miss tip-off, and my season ticket rep is going to hear it again about our renewal being predicated on the ability to make it to the game on time.

Tina Charles is beasting in this first half. She looks unstoppable. I have a feeling of impending doom about this, although we're only down one.

It got kinda church up in here at halftime. I'm really not sure what to think of a church group dancing to gospel music on the floor here. I don't bring my basketball to your church, do you have to bring your church to my basketball?

I... do not think it is a brilliant plan to encourage people to wear youth basketball gear on the day Spoon is being added to the Ring of Honor. Encouraging people not to wear Liberty gear? So they can get a free shirt which is also not Liberty-branded? This... is not exactly what I would call a great marketing strategy, kids. You want your logo plastered on everything, and you certainly don't want people to be afraid to cover up something that isn't team-branded with something that is.

I missed the start of the game thanks to the sterling service of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, so I can't tell you anything about the anthem, or why Danielle McCray started, or any of that other good stuff.

Allison Hightower saw time to stop the hot hand. Five billion is quite an impressive number to put in the box score, but probably not the kind she was looking for. Kara Lawson came off the bench, and people, you cannot leave her open behind the arc. She brought some physical defense, too. Kelsey Griffin did her work on the boards with some nice positioning. Jessica Moore has been taking acting lessons from DeMya Walker. Tan White was relentless and a bit annoying.

Tina Charles could have done a lot worse to us tonight, so I'd like to thank her for going easy on Quanitra Hollingsworth and Kia Vaughn. We did a better job than I expected of keeping her off the boards, though. Danielle McCray started, presumably to take advantage of our lack of size, and she played solidly. Renee Montgomery is fast. I feel like I keep saying that, but she is. I also think she's been spending a little too much time with her friend the football player, because I'm pretty sure that you can't throw low blocks in basketball. Asjha Jones got her work done in her usual style. Same for Kalana Greene, with a dose of hard-nosed defense- I think she played a large part in Cappie Pondexter's inability to put on her cape and save the day.

Felicia Chester scored! And okay, she put in decent effort, and she's got that famed “pro body”. But she needs to get overseas this winter and hone her game. I assume some of the problems about not knowing the plays and where she needs to be on the floor will be resolved with time. However, her footwork and her ballhandling need a lot of help. Sydney Colson had eighteen seconds to look kinda pretty on the floor. Sidney Spencer was, um, out there. Somewhere, at some point. Unfortunately, she did nothing relevant. Essence Carson was back to her inability to see; looks like someone needs new glasses to adjust to the lighting. At least Alex Montgomery discovered this strange new thing called offense that is so rarely seen at Georgia Tech. Her defense suffered for it, but we must all suffer for new and exciting experiences.

Paging Nicole Powell's shot. Would you please come home? We miss you very much. If you miss the robot jokes, I can totally bring them back if it means Powell finds her shot again! Because I'm sorry, no professional basketball player should miss a breakaway layup and follow that up with missing an open three. Her rebounding was all right, but she was slow on defense too. Argh. Grr. Kia Vaughn had some nice moves in the post, and did a nice job on the boards, but her passing and ballhandling were sloppy. I must assume that something's wrong with Leilani Mitchell, and that's why she wasn't diving for loose balls or exerting much of anything that could be considered proper effort. Her shot was off, her defense was lousy... we really need a bigger point guard. All apologies to Leilani and her fans, but I'm running out of patience. Quanitra Hollingsworth got the start in place of Plenette Pierson, and she did a nice job on defense, but offensively... Q, it's okay, you don't have to solve Fermat's Last Theorem in your head, you can settle for calculating the parabolic arc of your free throws. And Cappie Pondexter... I suppose I should be grateful that she wasn't trying to take over the game, but at the same time, that's what she's paid to do. Connecticut's defense did a nice job on her, but she had her moments where she could have taken over and didn't.

Our defense was pretty damn good. Our offense, however, would put the Keystone Kops to shame. Sloppy passing, sloppy ballhandling, tipped rebounds off teammates, tipped rebounds to opponents... it was a hot mess.

The officiating didn't help, either. It got a little chippy out there; perhaps playing in New Jersey brought back UConn-Rutgers memories for the five Huskies and three Scarlet Knights. There were some sketchy out of bounds calls.

Donna Orender was at the game, and was duly honored (though I do hope that they consulted with Kia before giving the Prima Donna a #15 jersey, I'm just saying). She worked her way up and through the crowd, schmoozing the night away.

We were also graced with the presence of Tweety Nolan. I am intrigued by this development.

I'm too tired to give really substantive analysis at this point, but I do think we need to pull it together on offense. We had our chances in the fourth quarter and blew them because we couldn't hit water if we fell out of a boat.