Wednesday, September 9, 2015

September 9th, 2015: Connecticut at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Epiphanny Prince had 25 points on 10-15 shooting, and Tina Charles added 16 points and 13 rebounds, as the New York Liberty clinched the best record in the WNBA with a 74-64 win over the Connecticut Sun. Kelsey Bone led Connecticut with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

For traveling fans, boom de yada, fancy dresses, birthday shoutouts (hi, Mom), benches being adorable, fashion pointers, slight loopiness, history, chemistry, and other subjects, join your intrepid and exiled blogger after the jump.


Good evening, wanderers of the Internet, appealers of swish, spotters of blog! It's Fan Appreciation Night at the Garden, though this game against Connecticut is not the home finale for the New York Liberty. But someone decided our final home game of the regular season would be on the 11th of September, and it would be insensitive to have Fan Appreciation Night on 9/11.

I'm going to take a moment to appreciate one particular fan, the one who started this whole crazy thing in the first place. Happy birthday, Mom. I swear I'll buy you something pretty this weekend.

Today. Today of all days not only is the bus late but the driver is coming off his shift and the relief is late. Good thing I didn't sign up for the ice cream social- I'll never make it. I didn't get to my seat until around 6:30. One of the suggestions we're making is to push back all the starts to 7:30, not just the Friday ones.

I did not see any pre-game entertainment. I'm told that the ice cream at the social was sub-par, but hey, it's free and it's on short notice, you take what you can get and you like it.

That was not the prettiest game in the world, but I'll take our 23rd win and the best record in the league. They don't all have to be pretty. I'd rather have played our key players less, but we can always relax against Indiana and lull them into a false sense of security. Yes, that's the plan.

There were lots of different dancers at halftime, but I wasn't paying attention, since, y'know, mom's birthday. I went and spent time with her. They seemed good at what they did.

Connecticut seems to be in that weird place where you can argue the bench is better than the starters, or at least more electric. Part of that might have to do with the lineup being scrambled because of injuries and recovery thereof. We'll see what Connecticut looks like in 2016. I thought it was interesting that Anne Donovan went to a Gray/J. Thomas backcourt for a stretch in the second half, allowing Gray to shift to the two spot.

Shekinna Stricklen killed us last time out, and we stuck to her pretty tightly because of that. I'm not entirely sure putting Candice Wiggins on her sometimes was a wise decision, though. Major size imbalance there. Chelsea Gray is a big guard, but she moves pretty fast for it. She's got great court vision, and I swear she could knock the dust off the rafters with that high, high arcing three. I mean, that is crazy unpredictable.

Alyssa Thomas did it precious few times, but when she chose to, she penetrated through the defense like a hot knife through butter, like she had stolen an invisibility cloak and donned it before driving. Not sure if the reverses were due to injury, style points, or comfort, though. Also, that shoulder brace has to come with a concealed carry permit. Otherwise, she can't hide those guns. I was less enthralled with her habit of bulldozing Liberty players, though. Nikki Greene played physical defense down low. I feel like I should say more, but she was often part of collapsing double- and triple-teams on Tina Charles, so it was part of a team effort. Kayla Pedersen had a nice block on Kiah Stokes, and was helpful in opening up the Sun's perimeter game.

I was afraid it was going to be a long night when Kelly Faris started hitting jumpers, since that has not been a very large part of her WNBA success. But it was a brief blip and then she returned to her usual defensive specialist who can't shoot role. It was reassuring. Jasmine Thomas's luck was not with her today- the rim robbed her at least twice. She seems to make unremarkable yet smart decisions, save one drive fairly early in the game where I may or may not have asked if that was what she was using a Duke education for.

Camille Little may have had the most impressive -19, 0-7, 1-rebound game I've ever seen. She just knows where to be on the glass, and how to make the plays on a slightly lower level than the heights the rest of the post players had ascended to. I like to watch her play. Jennifer Lacy was a non-factor, except for her shooting. Kelsey Bone brought power moves down low, but her aim wasn't always good, and when a bad play happened, she let it get into her head; you could see her shoulders slump on a missed shot or a foul call. I think that's ultimately what led her out of New York- that's not something you can survive under Bill Laimbeer.

Also, for heaven's sake, when Chelsea Gray flips a nifty pass to Camille Little, who finds you at the basket with a perfect look, hit the shot the first time, don't leave it short twice before hitting the shot the third time. Honestly, Kelsey.

So. This Erica Wheeler thing so far is not a thing that is working. I'm not actually as worried about the interminable dribbling directly into and through the teeth of a double-team as I am the shooting. If you're going to bill yourself as a three-point shooter, and wear #3, and plaster your three-point shot all over your Twitter, you should not come up short on both your threes. Candice Wiggins was more effective on the bench than on the court- that is to say, she fired the team up during huddles. During one timeout, while Bill and the coaches were sort of mired in that feeling of *facepalm*, Candice and Tanisha took the team in hand. There appeared to be a lot of yelling. She was unremarkable on the floor, but you can't deny the leadership she brings to this team. Sugar Rodgers was part of a three-guard set late in the game, but was more of a decoy than anything else. Either that, or Bill got tired of the guy who kept yelling, "I WANNA SEE SUGAR RODGERS!" and decided to throw him a bone because it's Fan Appreciation Night. (But not a Bone. That would be a very strange mental image, and hazardous to people's health.)

Kiah Stokes converted off a pretty pass from Tina Charles, and picked up loose change off the glass, but she made a lot of rookie mistakes on both ends of the floor- no matter how weak you think the defender is, you can't just go straight up on someone in the pros. Even if it's Kayla Pedersen. She's also got to learn to pick up the tenor of the officiating to avoid some of the stupid fouls she can commit. Essence Carson was hit or miss tonight- she had a couple of big shots, including a three that was behind the line for a lovely change of pace, but she was getting beaten too easily on offense for me to be comfortable. I love Essence, I really do, but it's hard seeing her not be good at the thing that's her specialty.

Epiphanny Prince is cold-blooded. I'm a little uncomfortable with her holding the ball as long as she did this game- we need to move more, both with the ball and without it- but if she can consistently convert with two seconds left on the shot clock, I think I can force myself to learn to live with that. Tanisha Wright is tough as nails. She'll make mistakes with the ball, taking stupid shots (even when they go in and get the crowd going and should totally be on SportsCenter) or trying to make a thing happen that isn't exactly available. But she's tough on defense and she makes a lot of heady plays. She's the kind of player you need in a deep playoff run.

Swin Cash has nice chemistry with Carolyn Swords- Swin gives Carolyn the passes, Carolyn finds Swin's tip-outs. Somehow she makes things happen. I'm not always sure how. But sometimes I understand why she starts over Kiah. You need someone with experience. Carolyn had the game of her life, or at least of her Liberty career. She was pulling down boards early, reading missed threes beautifully. She went to her knees for a loose ball in echoes of Sue Wicks (visually, Carolyn looks like a bulkier Sue; some nights she plays like it!). She was brilliant when we needed her to be. So was Tina Charles, even through the triple-teams draped over her like laundry. She backed off a little bit, and I still have no idea why she was even in position for a bailout three at the end of the shot clock on one play, but it's a bad idea and I don't like it.

I'm worried about the amount of time we had to play our starters, especially Piph and Tina. I'd like for them to be able to rest against Washington, except to correctly game the system, we have to beat Washington but lose to Indiana for Indiana to go into the Chicago series. It's a cruel complex game we play.

Officiating was so-so, but I expected nothing better than a technical for daring to complain about something when Michael Price was one of the refs.

Heartwarming moments: Essence doing the Maddie letter stomp during pregame, something that is normally Brittany Boyd's solemn duty. Also, the best- the little girl counting down to lights out for intros was named Avery. So the bench turned to Avery Warley-Talbert and counted down with her.

My personal choice for Erica's Cheesy Musical Hook is "Wheel in the Sky", but first she has to hit a shot.

Fashion report: Love the leather jacket look for Brittany Boyd, but not so sure about the looooong gray shirt. Love the cut of Chiney Ogwumike's dress, but not sold on the dull striped fabric. Yes, my dad has been a dressmaker. Moving right along.

There's usually more stuff for Fan Appreciation Night, but the prizes were all fairly huge (oh, what I could do with $500 of MSG gift certificates...) so that seems fair.

So I'm not sure what to think about the Washington game. We need to win if we want to play DC in the first round. But we don't really need to win for ourselves. We've already sewn up best record and team record for wins. What do we have to prove?

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