May 2nd, 2017: Los Angeles at New York

Just the Facts, Ma’am: The New York Liberty clamped down on defense in the second half for a preseason win against the Los Angeles Sparks, 81-65. Kia Vaughn had 14 points to lead the Liberty, who won the battle of the boards 41-20. Karlie Samuelson had nine points to lead Los Angeles.

For unexpected rookies, bus schedules, nail polish, chatter, so very many players, indifferent stars, and some nice defensive plays, join your intrepid and disordered blogger after the jump.

I shouldn’t even be able to do this. But I couldn’t get the week before the All-Star game off, because reasons. (Do you care about office politics as they relate to other people’s romantic mistakes? Neither do I.) So after some thinking, then some more thinking, I decided to take the week of May 1st off. Going to the May Day rally didn’t happen, but the rest of my plans are in place.

I’m writing the prologue to another round of meandering notes on a bus headed north on I-95. We’re somewhere in the vicinity of Port Chester, or maybe Rye. Since most sane and sensible people are working, I have enough room to type. We’ll see how it goes on the way back. The timing of these games is not ideal. Starting an hour later, improbably, would have been better. (It makes sense in context. The two relevant buses are the 1PM that leaves Mohegan at 9, and the 2:30 PM that leaves Mohegan at 10:30. I’ll be on the 10:30 in either case, but as a stand-by, not as a guaranteed seat, and that’s the last bus back to NY for some time.) (Operation Make The Last Bus was a success for the first day. Kind of worried about that window opening, though.)

There’s something different about the route every year. The ticket office moves; the bus pick-up moves. The route changes. Businesses along the way open, or close, or change their facades. What strikes me is how green everything is. I’m using to seeing the scenery in summer, or even autumn. The flowering trees are usually long out of bloom. But it’s the first week of May, and it’s warm. Amid the green there are flashes of pink and white. Anticipation lingers in the air.

Holy Toledo Rockets, I just noticed there are USB ports in the roof of this bus. BRB, recharging.

I know the superstars won’t be in this game, but that’s okay. That’s totally okay. I’ll see Epiphanny Prince and Kiah Stokes all through the regular season. I might not see some of these kids next week at Columbia.

If you’ve seen my black clipboard, please let me know. I can’t find it and I’m rather nervous. My copy of Shot Clocks is absolutely irreplaceable. (No, seriously. Among the players who have signed it is Margo Dydek.)

Two days, two games per day. First up... oh, I’ve already forgotten which combination of Liberty or Sun versus Sky or Sparks it is.

The on-board entertainment has switched from some show with messed up family dynamics to what appears to be Chinese Idol. There’s someone singing, and there are three judges in black leather chairs watching him. I don’t know if this is the audition stage or the competition stage, though.

OK, Mohegan, no comps, no regular season trips. $36 per seat is not going to happen on a regular basis.

So far the one other Liberty fan I’ve seen appears to be three sheets to the wind. It’s quarter to four, lady! (There were a couple of others around, including a couple who served as part of the Sun fan tunnel to start the second game. They were better behaved.)

Shoutout to my neighbor Van, a passionate Sun season ticket holder who seemed to enjoy shooting the breeze with a friendly Liberty fan. I don’t know if I really needed to see the x-rays of his collapsed spine, but other than that (and one awkward moment discussing the dance team) we got on like a house on fire. He loves his team. How can you not love that?

Mohegan is still feeling their way through the preseason. New staff on hand, new protocols in place, training underway. Well, preseason is the best time to work out all the kinks. Shame it didn’t extend to letting my bag through, but it is what it is.

Look, Sparks, y’all have got to stop with the random signings. I wasn’t prepared for Aundrea Gamble.

I think I might have overdone it on the chatter at Brittany Brown, but I really did enjoy watching her play at Florida State. (I’m a sucker for the ones who play defense like they want to tear your throat out.) She was really friendly, and a little confused as to how someone in Liberty gear had seen her play. (LIU Turkey Classic, by the way. Maybe other games? There are tags.) Her teammates seemed happy to leave her taking the shots at the end of the shot clock, and she was all, “Fine, if none of y’all want to shoot...” Chelsea Hopkins is tiny and quick, and she’s got some moves. Something about her doesn’t seem durable, though. I can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t see her being viable for any real length of time. Ah-Ra Go got a lot of support from the bench when she hit her basket, and she was tenacious defensively. Not ready for the next level, though. Jamie Weisner was in to take shots from deep. I was unimpressed. As unprepared as I was for Aundrea Gamble, I think Gamble was less prepared for the game. Somewhere in there is a joke about them signing a player named Gamble in time to play at the casino, but I am le tired.

Methinks we should have changed the play signals after people left. Avery Warley-Talbert, at least twice, was calling out our plays on the defensive end. I thought the big knock on her was she didn’t take in information well? Apparently what she does take in sticks. She was physical underneath, then tried to play it off. So did Mikaela Ruef, whose screens were not kosher. I do not like that woman. Jessica Jackson played a couple of unremarkable stretches. Nina Davis seemed to come on stronger on her second shift. She didn’t have a statistical impact, but I like the way she slithers into small spaces. She hasn’t figured out what to do with those spaces yet, but maybe after a couple of years overseas she’ll lose the hesitation.

Sydney Wiese started the game on fire, but streaky shooters giveth and streaky shooters taketh away, and once our defense started making her think, she started hurting the ballclub. Odyssey Sims can be a pinball out there, which was fun for the Sparks on defense- she had a fantastic steal on Kia Vaughn that may also have relieved Kia of her wallet. She got to the line well. Karlie Samuelson was very impressive- good perimeter shooting mixed with good play on the inside. If Agler is auditioning Wiese, Weisner, and Samuelson for one roster spot as the token shooter, last night’s performance might give Samuelson the edge.

I still don’t understand how Tiffany Jackson-Jones doesn’t get called for traveling. Her footwork is abominable. She was very physical on defense, and couldn’t understand why she kept getting called for fouls. TJ, it’s like you’re using your arm as a hammer or something. You’re not baking soda. Saicha Grant-Allen sets screens with elbows, and I don’t like that. I admire her fearlessness in the paint. She’s going to be a good complementary piece somewhere, but I don’t think it’s the WNBA, and I don’t know how European teams feel about post players who are mostly there to facilitate for their teammates. She did admirably as an understudy to the Sparks’ posts, in that case, bearing in mind their top three weren’t available.

I get the sense that this Sparks offense wasn’t designed to emulate anything LA will be doing in the regular season, but instead to gauge who on this roster will survive to the regular season. That has its perks, but at the same time, it might take longer for Agler to figure out how the survivors fit in with the regular rotation. (On the other hand, the man has championships in two leagues, so he probably knows more about this than I do.)

Ameryst Alston is still too tentative out there. Shoot the dang ball, Ameryst! I’m sure she’s a nice kid, even if she did go to Ohio State, but Bill keeps giving her chances and she keeps showing she’s not ready. Jacki Gemelos showed some of the same tentativeness early on; on the other hand, the three at the end of the game was completely unnecessary. Her shooting is nice, but shooters are streaky, and I wasn’t impressed with her lateral movement on defense. She can’t keep up with the switches. Bria Hartley looks very well recovered from the baby. Bill tried her out for a stretch in the fourth quarter as the lead guard, and it didn’t go as badly as I was expecting. She had a sweet feed to Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe down low that got the paltry crowd going. Shacobia Barbee is stockier but shorter than I expected. She had a nice crossover move on Weisner (I think- can’t tell if that scribble is 5 or 15) but nice doesn’t count if you don’t hit the shot afterwards. I’m hoping to see a little something more out of her against Chicago to see what Bill sees in her. Brittany Boyd brought her usual speed, sheer stubbornness, and rebounding presence to the floor. She hits like a freight train, and trying to step in front of her is a life decision a defender will regret if they don’t time it correctly, because not only will it hurt, it’ll be a blocking call.

Cierra Burdick got off on the wrong foot, not getting her warm-up jacket off fast enough and drawing a delay of game warning from Tiffany Bird. But her first play was to chase down a rebound on the baseline. I know I’m biased, but I just love what she brings to the floor. She needs to get better at doing some of the big things, but she does all the little things out there. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe is stronger than her build would indicate. She’s not afraid to mix it up down low. She had a really nice play where she recovered from what I thought was a block on Rebecca Allen by Chelsea Hopkins and got the putback. Renee Bennett’s outside shooting touch is intriguing, and she sets screens worthy of the number she wears (Cathrine Kraayeveld’s 33). I’d like to see her do more work on the inside; I think the Chicago game will be very telling for her. Ivey Slaughter’s minutes all came in the second half, as near as I could tell (the Sun’s PA announcer wasn’t always on the ball with announcing subs) and were surprisingly effective inside. I don’t know if she’ll make the cut this time around, but she’s interesting. I like how she works the baseline.

I know Lindsay Allen’s a rookie, and maybe I shouldn’t be expecting a lot from her, but I do expect a four-year college player from an elite program to at least be able to attempt a lay-up from the “wrong” side of the basket, not to cross the lane, open herself up to defensive pressure, and miss the shot anyway. I don’t think she fits our system, I don’t think she fits our style, and unless she really applies herself a la Sugar, I don’t think this was a good idea. Sugar Rodgers wasn’t terribly involved in the game, but I don’t think Bill wanted her to be. She didn’t play a lot and was fairly passive when she did, except when she was committing stupid fouls.

Tina Charles made it clear she looks at preseason games the way a certain former Sixer looked at practice. At least pretend to rebound, Tina, the ball’s right there! On the other hand, she was doing a lot of individual work before the game, working on those power moves with the coaches. And Tina is still Tina. It’s just less obvious in the preseason. Kia Vaughn was strong inside, but reacted too slowly when the defense swarmed her. She has that unfortunate tendency to pose when she gets the ball and is ready to make her turn, and other teams know that, and they’re ready for her. This is probably not going to work against Chicago. But when Tina’s fully engaged, and Kia’s not getting so much defensive attention, this could be very, very fun. Rebecca Allen looked tentative in the early going, like she wasn’t ready for this and didn’t want to get dragged into it. She still looks like she’s finding her feet and not yet ready for the pressure of expectations.

I <3 this team. There’s just something about them I like and I don’t know what it is. It’s going to be really confusing once we have Kiah and Kia in the same place, with Bria on the side and maybe still Kai. All we need is Gillespie, the former Terp, to really confuse things. (Kiah, but she pronounces it Kai-ah) I thought Jeff Smith had really good control of the game from the officiating end. Things didn’t get too crazy, and he was right on top of the clock when there were some stoppage issues. Tiffany Bird seemed to be letting Bill Laimbeer under her skin. I understand that under a ref’s skin is his normal domicile, and he was still riding her after the Liberty got the call, but you can’t let it be that obvious. Change partners and go for tomorrow!