May 15th, 2016: Dallas at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: New York went up 11-0 and never trailed in their 79-71 win over the Dallas Wings. Tina Charles and Sugar Rodgers each had 24 to pace the Liberty, with Charles adding 11 rebounds. Dallas got 14 points each from Odyssey Sims and Theresa Plaisance.

For Broadway, bright colors, questioning greens, new neighbors, herding cats, forgetting the damn wheelchair ramp, bad passes, big shots, and a Sugar high, join your intrepid and sleepless blogger after the jump.


Good evening! It's Opening Night at MSG, and the New York Liberty are hosting the Dallas Wings. As I type this, it's halftime, and Montell "This Is How We Do It" Jordan just finished performing a customized version of "This Is How We Do It" for the New York crowd.

I don't actually know what the most hideous part of the Dallas color scheme is, the chartreuse or the red. I like their blue, but it doesn't go with either of the other two colors.

Bridget Pettis is one sharp-dressed woman. Rocking that suit.

Amanda Zahui B was joking around with all the baby posts for Dallas before the game, so they seem to have left on good terms with her. (Though I noticed Plenette Pierson was all business.)

(We're now in the postgame, and we just had a crowning moment of Canadian. Adut Bulgak and Ruth Hamblin just swapped phone info or something. Holy crap, someone has an original '97 jacket signed by the '97 team... including developmental players. She left before the picture could be taken {it took a while to herd the cats} and that's a shame, because otherwise I would have told her, "Holy crap your jacket is awesome TELL ME ALL YOUR 1997 STORIES".)

Dallas really misses Skylar Diggins. They really don't have a consistent second option without her. Without her, Plenette Pierson and Odyssey Sims were both forcing the issue a lot, especially in the first half. Diggins tried to give it a go in warm-ups, but that knee is still braced, and she was walking very gingerly. She would have been at maybe quarter speed if she'd had to play, and I don't think she was very happy about it; when she came out of the tunnel, she was with the trainer and there was a virtual thundercloud over her head. (It also really doesn't help their rotation.)

Ruth Hamblin played very briefly in the first half and was very unremarkable. She seems friendly, though. Well, she's Canadian. Theresa Plaisance shoots very well, and I think we forgot that she likes to do that. She wasn't very smart on defense, though. I got the feeling that mama Coach Plaisance may have thrown something at her League Pass-enabled device when Theresa committed that foul with .6 left in the second quarter. It was a stupid foul. Jordan Hooper was out there, but not very memorable. I think she was getting beat on defense a fair amount.

Brianna Kiesel is taller than I remembered, but also slighter. She brought speed off the bench, but an unwillingness to shoot and a paradoxical missing step on change of direction. She did have one nice play to completely am-scray a Liberty fast break, though. Aerial Powers has phenomenal athleticism and a very high ceiling. Her midrange jumper was on point, less so her three-ball. For some reason I thought I remembered her having more of a slashing game in college, but here she was strictly a jump shooter. I wonder if Fred Williams was encouraging her to take threes even when they weren't falling, just to work on that facet of her game more.

My goodness, Plenette Pierson doesn't think she's ever committed a foul in her life, does she? Her surprised expression after getting caught with an arm bar was priceless. No, Plenette, you can't hook your assignment's arm and then claim she did it first. She didn't. Really, Plenette, you've been in the league longer than is healthy for me to calculate, everyone's kind of on to that patented trick of yours. She was frustrated early on- her points all came in one big spurt in the fourth, when the game was pretty much out of reach. She was physical. Her posing tendencies came out strong- I don't want to say she telegraphs her moves, but she does take a little bit to get into them. She fell a lot, sometimes with help, usually with not as much help as she tried to give the impression of. Courtney Paris is a lot of woman. I'm not saying that as either a good thing or a bad thing, merely a statement of fact. "Glacial" is a fair description for her- she's not very fast, but she's inexorable. She will get to her spot when she wants to get to her spot, and if you happen to be in her spot, you'll be moved. Other players served as decoys for her and draw away the defense, and there she was for the uncontested lay-up. I'd like for her to stop throwing elbows, though- she fired up a couple that seemed to go unnoticed by the officials. Also, driving into her is a terrible, horrible, very bad idea that people should not do.

Karima Christmas is a fantastic piece to have for a team- but she's not a starter, and having to start her in the absence of Diggins is a problem for the Wings. She does all the little things- she hustles for loose balls, she traps well in the corner, she defends like nobody's business- but she's not a scorer. I was surprised to see her hoisting so many threes, but then, that's our weakness. Odyssey Sims hits the floor like the second coming of Ivory Latta in her Tar Heel days. It gets to the point where you can't be sure she's actually hurt until and unless the trainer carries her off. She found her groove in the third with a couple of quick threes that tied the game for Dallas, but it didn't last long. She drove a lot, but her shots weren't falling. She didn't get good angles because of the defense. Erin Phillips ball-hawked like her life depended on securing the basketball. She got a little bit of offense going in the third quarter, but her most important job was defense.

Dallas tried to play to their strengths- interior passes to Paris, driving and dishing- as well as to our weaknesses out on the perimeter. I don't know if they're going to shoot like this all the time.

The woman, the myth, the legend, the Shoni. She played briefly in the first half, had a nifty three, but was otherwise unremarkable. The defense still needs work, but this might be a recording at this point. Shavonte Zellous came off the bench for some good solid minutes, getting buckets when she was open. Lindsey Harding was invisible at point, but in the good way, in the sense that she facilitated the offense for her teammates instead of over-forcing it. She still needs to get used to that weird 14-second reset off offensive rebounds- she was losing track of the clock a couple of times in the fourth. She's fitting in better than I expected.

Kiah Stokes is a defensive specialist, yes? She's good at defensive things, yeah? But she epic failed on Paris today. She kept wheeling to help, and Paris kept hitting lay-ups. That's a lot of woman to overlook, I'm sorry. She did well drawing fouls, but I'd still like to see her be more assertive on the offensive end. 0-0 is not acceptable in 20 minutes. Amanda Zahui B had herself a day. She did work in the paint and drew fouls. She still needs to find where she fits in the schemes, on both offense and defense, but I think she's going to be just fine.

I'm worried about Brittany Boyd. I don't know if it's the wrist, or if she doesn't like the personnel decisions, or if something else is going on in her head, but she's not herself. She's letting mistakes get to her, and that's causing her to make more mistakes. The shots aren't falling, and that's going to happen. She's got to be more careful with the ball. Sugar Rodgers, on the other hand, was phenomenal. She took the right shots at the right time, and the shots she didn't take were almost as important as the ones she did; it means she's learning better self-control within the flow of the offense instead of just chucking it whenever. We usually talk about the big step forward in the third year for posts, but Sugar's making me wonder if it's just as valid for guards. I'll need a statistician to look into that. She played an all-around fantastic game,a nd the only quibble I have with it is the question of whether she can keep it up.

I'm not digging Tanisha Wright at the three. Yes, the three-guard set gives us more options if one of the guards is struggling, and it makes us a little bit faster. But there were too many defensive mismatches for my comfort. I think it affected her shot, too- she got open looks, and her shot didn't look right when she got them. I appreciate her toughness and the defense she brings, but this is not 1997, and you can't start a two-guard at three anymore. (I also understand that this is likely a temporary, makeshift measure until the 24th, thanks to the scoop from Excelle, but it isn't a great makeshift measure.) Carolyn Swords was inconsistent, and I worry about her playing too low to the ground. She brings the ball down way too much, and was having trouble grabbing high passes- the passes that need to be high to go to her and her alone. Her basket came on a very pretty cut to the hoop. Tina Charles started the game like a house on fire. It was glorious. I love to watch the way she moves when she's feeling it. I'm not as sanguine about this long-two thing as the rest of the team seems to be, but I recognize that I have some old-fashioned expectations of frontcourt players. That being said, if you're going to take them, at least follow them instead of admiring them.

I feel like I'm harping a lot on the negative, which is funny in a game where we got out to an 8-0 lead and never trailed. I suppose I'm contrary that way. A lot of people did what was expected of them and not much more. Sugar was phenomenal. Tina did a lot and tried to do too much down the stretch. We need better balance behind our scoring options.

Inconsistent officiating will be the death of me, or at least the cause of my banning from a basketball arena. If you're going to call ticky-tack offensive fouls, then call the trips on both sides. If you want to call a tight game, then call Courtney Paris for throwing elbows. If you want to let 'em play, then don't call touch fouls. Figure out if you care more about the letter or the spirit. And I don't know who peed in Amy Bonner's Cheerios before the game, but she was being very anal about pace of play rules. Dallas got hit with a delay of game warning early on, and almost got another one because it took slightly longer than the requisite time to bandage up a cut on Sims's arm. Amanda got one too, for getting excited about a play and leaping forward onto the Y in the endcourt.

The national anthem, as sung by the Schuyler sisters from Hamilton, was fantastic. I think the waiting list for tickets just got a month longer, and that's under the assumption that people at the game were already on the list. I could have done without the second round of "God Bless America", though; if you have to sing multiple verses, sing the actual verses, not the first verse twice.

I prefer the black jerseys, but the seafoam aren't horrible.

We have new neighbors in the section! Very excited! And they seem to like us being loud. This is a good sign. I like neighbors. Fan community is as important a part of the W experience as the game and the players.

A good showing for opening day, but the Sparks and The Wrath Of Parker will be more of a challenge.