August 13th, 2017: Los Angeles at New York

Just the Facts, Ma’am: The New York Liberty ran off a 20-0 run to take control in their 83-69 win over the Los Angeles Sparks. Tina Charles had 21 points to lead the Liberty, with Shavonte Zellous adding her 19 at critical moments. Odyssey Sims had 18 to lead the Sparks.

For shiny objects, defense, a couple of lingering concerns, and a good crowd, join your intrepid and nostalgic blogger after the jump.


Let’s hope I manage to get these up on a more timely basis than I did the last batch. Night games wreck my sense of timing. It's gameday at the Garden once more, as the New York Liberty take on the Los Angeles Sparks.

It’s Breast Health Awareness Day, so shoutout to all y’all who have kicked the ass of breast cancer and other associated diseases (hi, Mom!) and much respect for those we lost. I loathe pinkwashing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good cause.

Sparks lineup appears to be bugged, unless Williams is not only back from injury but starting.

There is a man behind the Sparks bench who is either Tina Charles’s dad or someone who wants to get into a fashion war with him. It’s very difficult to win a fashion war with Tina’s dad. From here I can’t tell if the suit and hat are Sparks yellow or Liberty orange.

Uh, Sue? Are you okay? Poor Sue Wicks looks like twenty years just slapped her in the face at once. (I worry about people. I worry about people I should probably not be worrying about.)

Pink jerseys today. Very pink. Joy. Rapture. My eyes already hurt.

Good anthem singer, but she tried to hit notes she couldn’t quite manage.

At halftime, it’s 44-35 Liberty, after the Sparks ended the first quarter with an 11-point lead. Epiphanny Prince and Tina Charles are leading the way for New York. Candace Parker has 10 and 4 for the Sparks, but midway through the second quarter she hit the deck and was very slow getting up. She got up and got back in, but it looked like her hamstring was bothering her.

There’s someone on the baseline who looks like Cappie disguised as a Rastafarian. I don’t know if it’s her, though it would be funny as hell if it was.

The dance troupe at halftime can certainly move. Equal parts beefcake and cheesecake. It’s a balanced diet.

Shoutout to the dude who was so hyped for the Tina Charles trade that he bought a custom jersey before the black jerseys were ready. The #31 looks weird on blue, let me tell you.

Refs are letting us play.

Good eye by Maj Forsberg on disallowing the basket from Shavonte Zellous. Basket came on the second shot attempt, which was after the shot attempt on which she was fouled.

Well, that was fun! Parker’s injury/cramp was really the turning point in the game- that spurred the Liberty’s big run, which in turn gave the Libs enough of a cushion to hold off the periodic attempts by Los Angeles to come back. We definitely had advantages, and I don’t think this is sustainable, but it was definitely fun!

Sandrine Gruda came in at the end of the game, put up a weird-looking jumper, and did nothing else of note. I honestly expected to see more of both her and Tiffany Jackson-Jones in this game, with Ogwumike’s foul trouble and whatever was bothering Parker, but Agler gonna Agler; where he’s going, he doesn’t need reserves. I would have liked to hear Jackson-Jones get a proper introduction so she could get a proper round of applause on BHA day; she certainly got a lot of high-fives at the tunnel during halftime. I don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t want to be thought of as “the breast cancer survivor”, but if we’re gonna have BHA against the Sparks, it seems appropriate to honor her.

Jantel Lavender really seems to have drifted outside, at least offensively. I know the midrange-take-a-step-back-and-it’s-a-3 jumper is a big part of her arsenal, but she seemed to lean far too towards dancing around outside on offense. She was still rebounding well and boxing out well, but I feel like she might be more useful to them going hard in the paint. Sydney Wiese soaked up the reserve minutes at guard, and while she showed some interesting moves, she didn’t bring a lot else. There were stretches where she looked like she was panicking, and the opportunities she had she didn’t take well.

But Los Angeles really didn’t rely on their bench much. Even when it seemed like it might have been a good idea to pull Nneka Ogwumike out because of foul trouble, or Candace Parker after she made it clear that she wasn’t 100% after going out in the second quarter, Agler rode his starters. Credit where credit is due, Ogwumike was able to work around that on both ends of the floor. She was solid inside and out, physical in the first half but more of a help defender in the second half. It wasn’t a spectacular Nneka game, but I don’t think it was ever going to be. Candace Parker didn’t seem the game after leaving in the second quarter- yes, she walked it off and came back into the game, and played almost all of the second half, but she looked more hesitant. Her ballhandling wasn’t as fluid and her rebounding was more tentative. She backed off of shots she normally takes. What astonished me today about her was the fine ball control she has with her hands. The kinds of plays that normally seem to go off other players’ fingertips were corralled when she got her hand on them. It’s fascinating, and must take ungodly strength, dexterity, and skill to pull off.

Alana Beard brought physical defense, and definitely made her presence felt at that end of the floor. She had a big block on Bria Hartley that was very impressive. But her shooting was as bad as she made other people’s shooting. Odyssey Sims took ridiculous advantage of Lindsay Allen. It just wasn’t right. I think she had three baskets in a row in one sequence. She had one shot that pretty much put the “Lucky” back in “Lucky Lefty”, going in and out and back in. She brings a lot of speed to the game, but sometimes it’s rushing headlong speed, not necessarily practical speed. Chelsea Gray opened the game hot, both hitting shots and dropping sweet passes (she had a little bounce pass backwards to Ogwumike that might not have been an assist because Ogwumike had to take a step back to set up the shot, but it was sweet). I got the sense that when the Sparks got away from letting her run the offense- when Parker or Sims was orchestrating and initiating the offense- they weren’t as well off. She has such good vision.

(As an aside: I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a trade where both sides have benefited so spectacularly and so equally, where both players have flourished so quickly, and where it’s so clear that neither player would have had the same results had they stayed in place.)

I’d have to go back and look at entirely too much videotape, but I’m not sure if Lindsay Allen has defended a lefty as offensive-minded as Sims on the pro level yet. It was not one of her better defensive games, which is not a good sign since half the time Bill puts her in the game when he's frustrated with how Bria’s playing defense. I do like how she’s developing offensively, though; her vision is improving and she’s becoming somewhat more willing to take the shot when it’s given to her. Sugar Rodgers’s shot selection continues to boggle the mind. She’s bringing hustle, and she’s bringing energy, but energy isn’t always helpful if it’s not properly directed. Her threes from the corner, in rhythm, were good; her drives down the lane, less so. Rebecca Allen, in a reversal of her usual role, had a couple of nifty plays on the glass (a nice pass to Amanda Zahui B off a wild rebound) and on defense (an emphatic block on Jantel Lavender), but missed the wide-open misrange jumper the Sparks defense gave her. I think she was just confused at being that open.

Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe finally got her Cheesy Musical Hook, and I can’t believe I didn’t even think of pulling the “Rain” portion of her name for it. (“Love Reign O’er Me”, if you were wondering.) It was a nice little basket. She didn’t bring much otherwise, but I still think we need to see more of her. Can’t run Tina and the Kia(h)s too much; something’s going to give. Kiah Stokes was quiet statistically, and couldn’t seem to believe the fouls that were being called on her. She was physical. Amanda Zahui B had her hair straightened, and I so wanted to ask what conditioner she was using, because her hair was so shiny! She had a pretty good game in limited minutes. I think she might be getting her confidence back.

(Yes, as a matter of fact, I am distracted by shiny objects.)

Bria Hartley got off to a really good start, and even the shots she missed were good shots. She’s found her footing in these last few games, I think. I’m still not completely happy with her defense, but she’s become a more effective player on the offensive end of the floor. I’m still not thrilled with her, but I’m not frothing at the mouth about her either. Epiphanny Prince found her offense early, which was a relief. She and Sugar still don’t pair well together, and that’s troublesome if it becomes necessary to put them both on the floor, but at this point I think we’re going to have to settle for one or the other having her act together on any given day.

We can’t keep running Tina Charles into the ground. It’s going to backfire on us in the end. There was one defensive sequence where she was expected to be the primary defender on both Parker and Ogwumike, and that is not a tenable situation for someone who’s also expected to be the primary offensive option at all times. Tina’s a workhorse, but that doesn’t mean we can ride her to death. She’s powering through it, but the wear is starting to show. Shavonte Zellous was the firestarter for us and the doom of the Sparks. Whenever LA made a run, Z was like, “Nope!” and hit a big shot or made a solid defensive play. She was hitting the angle three and the midrange jumper, which is always a good sign. I love the energy she brings to the floor, and the active leadership she shows. We do need someone to be a stabilizing presence, but Shavonte can definitely be the leader-by-example. Kia Vaugh continues to be kind of aderpable and mostly not in in the clutch.

Officiating was surprisingly beneficial, though I did side-eye the Sparks only getting one foul in the first quarter.

Lots of huge steals. The defense stepped up. I think we forced five straight turnovers off the Sparks at one point. Good stuff. I’m proud of this team.