July 6th, 2016: Seattle at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Storm made it interesting, but the Liberty rode first and third quarter surges to a 78-74 win. Tina Charles and Tanisha Wright each had 18 points to pace New York, with Sugar Rodgers adding 14. Breanna Stewart made a statistical splash for Seattle in the loss, with 24 points and 16 rebounds.

For musings on names and stardom, parenthetical asides, bailando con sabor, timing issues, missing guards, defensive lapses, and grit, join your intrepid and surprisingly philosophical blogger after the jump.
Hey, gang! It's gameday at the Garden, which is the best of all possible days. Tonight the Liberty host the Seattle Storm, in a game that'll surely have UConn fans of all eras filling the place. It's also a good day to be an international tourist (Tok gets a lot of touristy attention).

Hello to all my fellow fans taking in their first WNBA games! I know there's at least one of you!

Seattle, as always, continues to be exceptionally accommodating to fans along the tunnel, both in terms of being willing to stop and in leaving one by one instead of in a Zerg rush. (And Alysha Clark came back when she said she was going to come back! Is this a Sun Belt thing? Because she and Crystal Kelly are the only ones I've ever seen keep their word like that.)

I actually feel kind of bad for Breanna Stewart. Yes, she has phenomenal cosmic powers talent, but she's been constantly in the spotlight for more than four years now. ESPN won't leave her alone. Fans won't leave her alone (and yet while part of me regrets being a miniscule part of that burden, that didn't stop me from pulling out the Sharpie). She needs a break. Start the overseas season a couple of weeks late, Stewie. Go off and be yourself without everyone else wanting you to be who they think you are. If you belong to everyone, that means you belong to yourself too.

At halftime, the Liberty are up six, 39-31. Could be more, but we got a very long stretch of five reserves on the floor, so we really didn't push the offense as much as we could. Breanna Stewart got hot late in the second to lead Seattle with 12. Tina Charles has eight to lead a balanced and scattered Liberty attack.

Our halftime entertainment has been Spanish-flavored ballroom dancing. Sexy dresses for the ladies, and sleeveless vests for the men. I'm down for that. Equal opportunity ogling is best ogling.

National anthem was an intriguing blend of chorale and drum rhythms. Whoever in the chorus has delusions of being Kristin Chenowith, STAHP PLZ.

Oh, loveable neighbor, the second my butt hits the seat cushion is not the second you should decide you need to get through. The second before my butt hits the seat cushion is that moment.

That game was tighter than it needed to be, but the Liberty made plays down the stretch. Both teams left the door open, Seattle with free throw shooting and the Liberty missing bunnies at the rim. Very fierce game, and entirely too much fun to watch.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis showed her offense, both on jumpers and on one hard-nosed drive through the lane (though I'm not actually sure how much interest Sugar Rodgers had on playing defense that possession). Defensively, she was surprisingly pesky. I don't know if she's a player who would have been worth last year's #1 overall, but she's starting to look like a high-caliber offensive player who can play a little defense. I find it very hard to believe that Noelle Quinn played over eight minutes the way the box score said she did, because she did so little of note that I thought she was only in to bridge Bird's rest through the quarter breaks. I'm sure she's a lovely person, but I can't for the life of me see what she brings to a basketball team.

There was a sequence where Jenna O'Hea boxed out so hard she forgot to rebound. (I think Seattle ended up with the ball in the resulting scrum, but Shavonte Zellous made 'em work for it.) But that's the only thing I really remember about her. Krystal Thomas was in mostly for height (she didn't play in the second half until the last possible play). She fouled Amanda Zahui B.'s hair, and I think Amanda was deeply, gravely offended. DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN HAIR. Ramu Tokashiki has mastered the backdoor cut to the point where I wonder what it would take to get her on the Liberty (because we rock that backdoor cut). She got foul-happy in the fourth quarter, and couldn't quite get out of that mindset.

Things I do not understand, part something of many: Alysha Clark is one of Seattle's best defenders, so why put her on arguably the second least offensively adept member of the Liberty's starting lineup? Don't get me wrong, she shut Swin Cash down completely, but it seems like Seattle could probably have gotten a better +/- by getting fewer points from Tina Charles in exchange for maybe letting Swin score an extra basket. Crystal Langhorne started the game red hot, because we plan for superstars, not necessarily All-Stars. I like the work she does in the paint, getting to the glass. Breanna Stewart is pretty amazing. She has the range, she has the feather-soft touch in the paint, she has liquid flexibility. I feel like she's being asked to do a lot for Seattle, and it's wearing her down physically- there were stretches in the second quarter where she wasn't moving around a lot on either end of the floor. I realize that if there's a W player she should model herself on, it's Delle Donne, but that doesn't mean Boucek should be cribbing notes from the Chicago offense, because Chicago's offense is a terrible thing.

Things I do not understand, part another of many: Jewell Loyd is a fantastic athlete, one of the few players in this league who can play above the rim on a consistent basis, skilled at creating her own shot. Why would you waste that skill set by trying to turn her into a facilitator? I get expanding a player's skill set and all, but this doesn't seem like the most effective use of her physical gifts. I think we were able to take away the shots she wanted and force her into more difficult shots. Sue Bird still has the knack for finding her teammates, and she hit a big three late that brought to mind her Rebkellian nickname, but her age, in basketball terms, is beginning to show. I don't think I've ever seen Bird telegraph a pass as thoroughly as she did tonight, or botch a handoff as badly. It was strange. She's still brilliant, but less consistent. Her mastery of the game was not as apparent as it once was.

Rebecca Allen played briefly, but left no impression. (She hung out with Abby Bishop before the game for a long while. I <3 Aussies.) Amanda Zahui B. got some first half run, but after the play where she attempted to field the ball with her hair, well, that pretty much ended her night. She's got such potential, though. I'm hopeful for what we can do with her during the Olympic break (Sweden's not in the Olympics, right?) Kiah Stokes can't be missing shots right at the rim- she had a couple of relatively easy ones and missed them. She was a beast on the boards, though, especially offensively. She anticipates so well. Shavonte Zellous got hot at key moments, but not nearly as hot from the field as she thought she was. I was having flashbacks to Cappie with some of her decision-making. She was solid on defense, though, making all the hustle plays on the floor. Shoni Schimmel got some minutes in the first half, but she was tentative on offense and completely lost on defense- there was on possession I remember very clearly where she was in the middle of the floor and looking wildly from side to side, like she had no idea where she was supposed to be. (So now I'm worried about Brittany Boyd, because she was a DNP, and there were plenty of situations where her services were required. Please don't be hurt, Boyd! You're fast and you're super fun to watch!) (Y'all may be wondering why Brittany Boyd, unlike any other home team player, is listed by her last name, and that's because the name Brittany fits on her like an extra-small jersey fits on Danielle Adams. Much like Tweety Nolan or Pee-Wee Johnson, the first name is a forgotten legality; the only difference is that the sophomore doesn't have a cool nickname yet, just Flav's "yeahhhhh, Boyyyyyy(d)!" Even the spelling matters; the implicit extra syllable in Brittany as compared to Brittney has a fru-fru effect to it that is... not relevant to the woman and player she is.) Seattle, Imma need you not to hit Tina Charles in the face when she's wearing a face mask. The Storm got a three-pointer on a play where she was out of the defense because she was holding her face. Her shot is so ridiculously high-arcing, getting over the defense and looking like it's going to go every which way but in. You wonder just who she had to spend her life shooting over. She didn't have the three-point shot in this one- both of the threes she took from the top of the arc were well short. Swin Cash hustled, but she didn't play a lot- Bill went with Shavonte down the stretch. She got her points mostly on jumpers, but the jumper was very hit or miss. Carolyn Swords got her game on whenever Kiah or Amanda were in the bullpen. She set tough screens, almost to her team's detriment. I could do without the missed free throws, she's got to move her feet better, and ball security is super important, but she gave good minutes. I'll swear on my honor as a former Girl Scout (troop 4839 4 lyfe, yo) that Sugar Rodgers played most of the second half injured. She took a hit that I think was a domino effect from a crushing screen by either Tina or Carolyn and came away holding her left side very stiffly. I couldn't tell if it was her ribs or her hip, but you're not going to tell me Sugar passes up an open jumper with an optional drive to the hoop without being hurt. But because Shoni can't defend and Boyd was unavailable for reasons, she played, and she came up with huge defensive plays at the end of the game. Her third-quarter threes- boom, boom, boom- were emotionally a stabilizer; it was as if she said, oh, you wanna play the long game? I can play that to Seattle. The talk before the game was about the Huskies, either Tina versus Stewie because of stardom or Kiah versus Stewie because of that one block. The talk after the game, unfortunately, was still about Tina versus Stewie. The talk should have been about Tanisha Wright. T had one of the best games I've ever seen her play in a Liberty uniform. She still needs to work on ball security, though at this point in her life, that's probably not changing very much. But when we needed a big shot, she hit it. When we needed a stop, she got it. She frustrated both Bird and Loyd in equal measure- watching her and Bird, the two former backcourt partners, go at it was a pleasure. She took over, and she deserves all the credit in the world.

I think we took Seattle, and their collection of useful parts behind their All-Star five, too much for granted. That stretch in the second quarter, where the reserves played most of the way, allowed Seattle to come much of the way back, and to believe that they could come all the way back. I wouldn't have wagered my life on Sue Bird missing a game-tying free throw, and I sure wouldn't gamble a game on it. (That being said, this was some solid end-game management from Bill, which is a refreshing change.)

The UConn poke-check in action: near the end of the second quarter, Tanisha had the ball, Bird on her, Stewart closing fast. They're both going for the ball, and T can't hold it for the last shot the way she wants to. They force her to pass and initiate the play a good nine seconds earlier than intended. It ended with a basket by Carolyn Swords- but that gave Seattle time for an answer by Stewart.

The call that gave Bird the free throws was a pretty weak call, but the Liberty were getting the benefit of a lot of contact early on. I'll let it go, since we won, but I think Roy Gulbeyan has something against Sugar. Must be the son of a dentist or something.

Someone needs to give our organist coffee. It's one thing to let the crowd dictate the pace, but on a night with heavy walk-up, in a close game, it's time to step up and lead the noise. Two loudmouths and one clipboard can't go it alone.

I'm not sure how okay we'll be for Chicago's perimeter attack next game, with the potential injuries to our backcourt, but we got through this and got a win we needed. Seattle's still one or two players away from making real noise- and in my opinion, they might be a head coach away, too.