Wednesday, June 1, 2016

May 31st, 2016: Minnesota at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Minnesota Lynx went up big early and used that cushion to cruise to a 79-69 win over the New York Liberty. Maya Moore led the way for the Lynx with 25 points, adding six rebounds. Tina Charles led New York with 23 points and 11 rebounds; Shavonte Zellous added 12 points off the bench.

For troubling patterns, twirling, the beauty of the Maya, not using the bench, pacing, veterans, missed shots, and irritability, join your intrepid and disconnected blogger after the jump.
Time for the showdown. All hands need to be on deck for this one. When the defending champions come to town, everyone needs to be on top of their game. And that goes double for TV games.

I'm not sure the seafoam green and the sea blue are going to be the best color combination on television. Those who are prone to motion sickness should take Dramamine before watching.

This is why I'm the spotter- helped one of my buddies get Jia Perkins for her collection.

This Maya Moore running out at the speed of light thing is not convenient.

Well, this was a thing that happened. It's 46-31 Minnesota at halftime, thanks to crappy defense by the Liberty, good reads on switches by the Lynx, and some folks coming down with a painful case of stupid. I know Swin Cash isn't as stupid as the fouls and the passes straight to the opponent are making her seem. I know we can play better than this. Tina Charles needs help. Someone's got to be consistent without getting into foul trouble.

"God Bless America" singer was trying too hard. Anthem choir was powerful enough that they really didn't need the mics. I approve.

Getting good crowd noise, at least. It's not a large crowd, but all you need are a few people at the right time.

The well-mannered response to your child's crying is not, "Shut up!", woman behind me.

The halftime entertainment looked good, but I didn't see a lot of them. I was busy typing out GNoD. These are the sacrifices I make for you, my loyal readers.

It has only now occurred to me that there's a remarkable concentration of Sting on this model of the Lynx. McCarville, Perkins, Patterson, Reeve... I approve. Our lost franchises should not be forgotten.

Bill seems to think you get a bonus if you take timeouts with you. There's trusting your team to sort things out on their own, and there's letting the opponent go on 10-0 runs.

I'm getting very tired of following the same old routine. It's only May and I'm already tired. I'm tired of fourth quarter substitution questions and I'm tired of trying the same old thing even when it's not working. This is not the turn of the millennium WNBA, where a single superlative star can carry a team. This is not a league where one star can light the way. Tina Charles took the bit in her teeth in the second half and tried to take the game over, and I can't fault her. But missed lay-ups and blown assignments, idiotic passes and stupid fouls, killed us. Minnesota isn't the kind of defensive team that forces you into mistakes. You can't make stupid mistakes against a team as loaded as Minnesota.

Natasha Howard showed her athleticism on defense. There was a play near the end where she had a long-armed deflection that made me think someone finally got around to showing her that Sancho Lyttle game tape I always say she needs to study. She's still raw, but she's in the third year. We all know what that means. Janel McCarville had a slick little drop pass to Howard (I think) for a good shot, but the shot was missed. She bodied up on people (look, Janel, I know you like to gamble, but Kiah is not a slot machine, please do not pull her arm) and hit midrange jumpers. I do not like that woman, and I don't mean it in the respectful "she just dropped 20 points on 70% shooting" manner.

Jia Perkins still has terrifyingly quick hands. She wasn't feeling her shot tonight, but it was only a little off. She was pesky on defense, and you can see the veteran in her Does she take the crown of Most Talented Underrated Player from Janeth Arcain and Vickie Johnson? I don't know, but she definitely follows in their footsteps. Renee Montgomery drove like a pinball through the lane and annoyed the living daylights out of the ballhandler. You know she's going to shoot when she gets the ball, but I honestly don't remember her passing as much as the box score says. Part of me admires her toughness, but part of me wants to apply my clipboard directly to her forehead. I suppose that's a gesture of respect, in a twisted way.

Maya gonna Maya. She combines speed, grace, and vertical in a way I haven't seen since Swoopes. There was one play where Shavonte Zellous was in perfect position to get the rebound, and then Maya happened behind her. Whatever Maya wants, Maya gets. You get the idea. Nobody rebounds quite like Rebekkah Brunson, with that hunger and desperation and innate sense of where the ball is going to be on some kind of Zen level. I don't know if Cheryl Reeve wanted her taking quite so many midrange perimeter shots, but who knows these days with fours? (As an aside, the dye job works when she's got her hair braided, but not when she's got it straight down.) Sylvia Fowles missed some bunnies on the inside, which surprised me. She made up for it at the other end with monster blocks and rim defense. Also, I am immensely jealous of her cheekbones.

Seimone Augustus isn't as phenomenal as she used to be, but gosh, that's whatever the opposite of damning with faint praise is. She hit the open looks she got when the hand was just a fraction of a second too late going up. She's no longer as smooth as she once was, but she's still very good, and in a veritable murderers' row, she's as lethal as she ever was. Lindsay Whalen is the maestra, able to set up her teammates and make herself a threat when the defense steps away from her, hitting shots falling away. Her toughness is pretty impressive.

I do not know where Swin Cash left her brain tonight, only that it did not accompany her to the World's Most Famous Arena this evening. She came off the bench and immediately committed stupid, unnecessary fouls. The stupid, unnecessary fouls weren't even the worst thing, in my opinion- the mindless pass to McCarville was pretty embarrassing, and she had very good looks right at the basket that she missed. If you're going to come back and cost a young player a chance to develop, you'd better bring your A game, and that was F-game. Kiah Stokes worked hard on the boards, and she had a gorgeous block on Fowles, but for the love of all that is sweet and holy, she has got to hit her free throws. I'm hoping that this was a one-night aberration and she goes back to a less Drummond-esque performance on Friday, because drawing contact means diddly-squat if you don't hit the free throws.

That means you too, Brittany Boyd. It actually goes more for Boyd than it does for Kiah, because while Kiah was contributing on the glass, Boyd's impact was mostly pell-mell drives that went for naught because she missed the shot. Her demeanor was more promising this game, but the shooting percentage has to improve. So does her handle, but that was an issue for more than one player this time around. I won't say I'll give her a pass, but it wasn't the biggest concern for her. Shavonte Zellous, at least, came to play, or at least came to drive the lane and get the rolls. She brought hustle and fire (though she needs to learn to step awaaaaaay from the big fiery torch during intros) off the bench, and we're going to need a lot more of that from her.

Carolyn Swords looked like a whole lot of useless out there. She put a body on Fowles a couple of times, so at least she knew to do that much, but at six-six and broad-framed, she has to be more assertive offensively. She missed too many easy putbacks and surrendered too many opportunities by passing out or letting the ball slip out of her hands. Ball security is a recurring theme in these GNoD, and she was one of the worst offenders. I put none of this on Tina Charles, though. She did everything she could, especially in the second half, to drag this team back into the game despite all their best efforts. She was tripled and quadrupled, and she still made things happen. If anything, she tried to get her teammates too involved by trying to pass out of double-teams to players who weren't ready for the pass. She's phenomenal- but she can't do it alone. Someone has to be a second option.

After the hot start in the wins, Sugar Rodgers has settled back down to earth. She's being a little more closely marked, so she's not getting the open looks she was, and it's in her head a little. When she thinks too hard about what she's doing, she hesitates and the moment is lost. If she takes her shot in one swift motion, catching and stepping and shooting, it's automatic. If she has to move, then there's a problem. She's got to be smarter on defense, too- too many stupid fouls. Lindsey Harding was a complete disappointment. She didn't do anything spectacular, but she didn't do anything good, either. She simply existed, and ate minutes, and lost her assignment (I seem to remember she got deked with regularity by Montgomery, though I'm sure there were others as well). It felt like she might be horribly scared of something, and I don't know what. Tanisha Wright's handle was abysmal. Five turnovers might actually be generous. She was at least somewhat more willing to step into her elbow jumper than she had been the last couple of games, but she's got to be smarter on defense. Just because Minnesota has a propensity to foul doesn't mean we should take this opportunity to foul as well. I'll grant you that Minnesota is no easy defensive assignment, but the reaches were stupid.

That all being said, these were also pretty lousy officials. I don't necessarily mind the bump by Tanisha on (I think) Augustus going to the hoop- it was the correct call. I do object to Roy Gulbeyan blowing the whistle a full four seconds after the contact, when the shot had been missed and the rebound was in play. I don't think this was an easy game to call, not with a team that can get as physical as the Liberty and not with a team that can get as handsy as the Lynx. But the WNBA has led me to expect great, and I hold trained professionals to a high standard.

That includes coaches as well, and I'm starting to wonder if Bill Laimbeer is still the right coach for this team. I can't be sure how many of the on-court decisions are play-calls from the bench and how many are the players going off script, but personnel moves are all on the coach. If Carolyn isn't providing anything, and Swin isn't providing anything, and Kiah is strictly providing help on the defensive end, why not consider trying the bench? I'm pretty sure Amanda Zahui B can lay a body on someone. Honestly, if you're 20 points down, what's the harm even in testing Adut Bulgak against Natasha Howard? Give her a couple of minutes to see if she really can stretch a defense or create pandemonium for an opposing offense. If you're in dire need of a shooter late in the game, when it's a two-possession game, what is the worst possible thing that can happen by putting Shoni Schimmel on the floor? If a thing is not working, why keep doing the same thing? If the other team is on a 12-point run, why sit on your timeouts? I realize that stocking up on timeouts for the end of the game is important to advance the ball, and Cheryl Reeve's timeout management was almost as bad in the other direction, but there has to be a happy medium somewhere. If your team is having trouble with fundamentals for multiple games in succession, why not drill them on those fundamentals until they get it right? That's on the coach, although I recognize that that part of my mind may still be in college mode, where there's more of a responsibility to teach fundamentals.

Janel, you are not an airplane.

Maya spinning on her butt before getting up from stretching will never stop amusing me.

Amusing musical choices: during intros, the team plays a mildly amusing song gently teasing the opposition. The choice for the Lynx was "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota".

I really miss green as the Lynx primary.

We haven't done all that well with extra time to prepare for teams. Maybe we'll do better with a quick turnaround against Indiana. I have faith in these players. I just don't know if I have faith in the people who are supposed to tell them what to do.

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