July 21st, 2016: Indiana at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Indiana Fever started strong and finished stronger in a 80-68 Camp Day win at the New York Liberty. Lynetta Kizer had 21 points on 10-14 shooting to pace the Fever. Tina Charles of New York had game highs of 25 points and 13 rebounds, but no other Liberty player had more than 10 points.

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I hate Camp Days. I hate Camp Days. I hate Camp Days.

I'm saying it three times, because we're on our third camp day of the season, and this one has been a hot mess. I'm not even talking about the basketball. I do not appreciate security checking my ticket, but not the ill-behaved camp counselors' tickets. So far, the kids are fine- the counselors are being jerks.

Shoutout the kid in the Shenise Johnson Miami jersey. You're pretty awesome.

Fantastic Broadway anthem, but the kid didn't even need the mic.

After the debacle with the fines, the Liberty are back to the regular warm-up shirts, and Tina Charles, in an act of most awesome rebellion, has turned hers inside out.

At halftime, the Fever are up 45-38, because Lynetta Kizer is having the game of her life with 15 points. Tina Charles already has 15 points and five boards for the Liberty. We're getting whooped by the Indiana support players. That’s usually what we end up allowing, but it seems more prevalent today because our bench mob isn't stepping up like they did yesterday.

Some mornings you have it, and some mornings you don't. This was one of those days where we just didn't have it. I don't think the bench mob was recharged after the big game yesterday, and the starters weren't ready to resume being the stars of the show. Meanwhile, Indiana exploited all our weaknesses. They're almost built to destroy us.

Marissa Coleman destroyed us with corner threes in the fourth quarter, as if she had telepathically discerned that we were considering the possibility of a comeback and was going to nip it in the bud before we got started. Her length was a huge bonus on defense. You can't leave Shenise Johnson open for jumpers. You'd think we'd have figured that out by now, but we haven't. She created space for herself and used it effectively. Indiana didn't roll very deep, so the minutes she gave subbing for Catchings were huge. Tiffany Mitchell was instant offense- she gets a moment of space, especially beyond the arc, and there she goes. She still has work to do on defense, but she's a rookie and it's not the first thing on her task list, so if I'm Indiana, I'm perfectly okay with that.

Briann January makes things happen. She hustles, she defends like crazy, and somehow she so often ends up being the beneficiary of her teammates' work. I didn't think she had studied at the Cobra Kai dojo- there was a play where she pretty much literally swept the leg on Shavonte Zellous. Her jumper was off today, but she made up for it in the lane. Erica Wheeler got off to a hot start, hitting the first two baskets for the Fever, but her streakiness started to show later in the game- she was playing faster than her body could catch up to. She seems to have a good handle on that backdoor cut (I think we taught her that).

Tamika Catchings hit a couple of shits, and she really seemed to be forcing things near the end to try to get into double figures, but while Catch can score, that's not what she's known for. She's known for her defense- reading passes, getting steals. She's known for her motor, for never giving up on a play, for her physical play and her rebounding and the thousand things a team needs. That's what she did today. There was one sequence where she poked the ball away, chased it down, saved it, poked it away again, and saved it again to January for the lay-up. If that ball was a pinball, Catch was the flipper, except the flipper doesn't literally chase the ball across the table. I'm not going to miss her getting the benefit of the doubt from the officials, though. Erlana Larkins is slick, especially with the screens, and she's not afraid to sacrifice her body (which we already knew). She's got more range than the scouting report apparently gave her credit for, because our defense was backing off her in the midrange. I'm starting to think New York has never credited passing and facilitating centers enough. Lynetta Kizer had probably the best game of her career, which seems to be a pattern when she plays the Liberty. She was scoring at will with pull-ups, elbow jumpers, backdoor cuts- the entire repertoire of a mostly-power forward. She got physical on defense, and we were hoping that she'd get deeper into foul trouble in the second half, but no such luck.

It's strange watching an Indiana team that doesn't depend completely on Catchings on both ends of the floor. I think their defense will be shakier once she retires, but their offense seems to be be rolling along pretty solidly.

Shavonte Zellous. Oh, dear. I love Z as a person, and overall I think she's been a positive to the organization, but dear heavens was she awful today. Stupid fouls. Slacking on defense. Terrible shot selection- she was pressing way too hard and seemed to think she was the best option on the floor at all times. Careless with the ball. The only facet of her game today that was anywhere near being on point was her dance game. Brittany Boyd brought speed, and probably should have brought more of it, to be honest. I love that she's learning to control her speed instead of playing at breakneck speed every single moment, but I think she might have been taking it a little too far in the final few minutes she played. Her passing was on point and I love it. Shoni Schimmel played, but if you're expecting detailed analysis of fifty-five stat-less seconds, you won't find it here. I just find it ironic that the people next to us who yell, "Put Shoni in the game!" left right before Bill put her in.

I know Rebecca Allen technically subs for Sugar and Shavonte technically subs for Swin, but Bec comes off as way more of a forward than Z does, so I reshuffle the lineups the way I see fit. That's how I roll. I like Rebecca's offense, and when she gets into the passing lane she's good on defense, but she's not quick. Seeing her, I understand the difference between being fast and being quick. And she's fast, but she's not quick, and that killed her on defense. If her shot's not falling, against a team like Indiana she's a liability. Kiah Stokes was finishing at the rim when she got her hands on the ball- there were some passes that were out of her reach or were perhaps not the best pass to throw to that particular player at that particular time. Fumbling is not a good look. She got beat on defense more than I like, too. Amanda Zahui B. was aggressive, but sometimes doesn't realize that just because she wants the ball, that doesn't mean it's a good idea to pass it to her. Her one basket came when the game was pretty much over, and to be honest, I think she traveled.

Would whoever stole Sugar Rodgers's shot please return it? It's a very nice shot, and I think we all want it, but it's hers and it needs to not be stolen. She had open looks and that instant release she's so good with, and it just wasn't falling. She rebounded well, but we need her to shoot better. And I'm harping on the shooting because she and Tanisha Wright had a brilliant connection going, with Tanisha consistently finding her across the court with the skip pass, and having those passes wasted is quite distressing. Tanisha wasn't spectacular, and her decision-making still needs work, but she wasn't too awful today. In a game like this, where there was some really bad play, you take "not too awful" and you like it.

Swin Cash wasn't hitting her shots, but she was strong in the paint, and she drew the unenviable task of guarding Catch. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I don't usually say this, but I think she should have played more today than Z did. Carolyn Swords doesn't have the sure hands that her teammates seem to think she does- too many passes went off those hands, so it might be back to the drawing board on those passing drills they've been working on with her. She had a monster block on Catch that was very satisfying. She could have used a few more touches today, if she was able to keep her hands on the ball- Indiana's posts are feisty but undersized. Tina Charles was on a mission today, and it was glorious. Her shots weren't falling short off the front iron- if anything, she was shooting it too strong, with the misses coming off the back iron. She looked like MVP Tina again, which is good, because we need MVP Tina if we want a shot at the double bye. Which, hey, maybe we don't. Maybe this team won't play as well with an extra round of rest. But what I liked most about Tina today was her choice to speak out with her shirt turned inside out. We'll see if the league tries to Photoshop in the appropriate logo for her Player of the Month picture, because she wore plain black for that.

Other than the usual biased opinion that we don't get calls and Tamika Catchings does, no real complaints about the officiating. It was a very physical game, and one that was allowed to be very physical. I'm okay with that, as long as it's called both ways, and for the most part it was.

Of course, there may have been plays I didn't see, because the camp group around us couldn't figure out what row their seats were in, and they were parading in and out of the aisle like it was going out of style. It didn't seem to occur to them that people might actually want to watch the game. This is not okay. For the most part, the kids themselves were pretty well behaved (but if your thunderstick falls in my lap, I get to keep it, it's the spoils of war). The counselors were far more obnoxious. And then the usher goes and asks for my ticket- not theirs, mine. My season ticket. Melissa- our long-suffering, painfully-educated, former ticket rep- picked these seats out for us at the border of the price change. These are our seats. We're here every game.

(Painfully-educated = survived getting her head bitten off because she wanted to make small talk while Nadirah McKenith was in the "oh God what have I done to my knee" position during the Maggie Dixon game against Baylor. Thank all the gods it wasn't an ACL, but we sure thought it was at the time, and no, if my point guard appears to have a torn ACL I do not want to talk about Christmas plans. Melissa at least learned from that. But as usual, I digress.)

This isn't the feeling I wanted to go into the break with, but we need to recharge. We'll be okay. For now, I'll take a firmly entrenched third and growth from the bench. I'll take the ups and downs.

Most importantly, we go into the break knowing who we are and what we stand for. In the end, basketball is a game- and it's a platform. I stand with the Liberty. Their lives matter. Their voices matter. So does yours.