August 27th, 2017: Chicago at New York

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Strong bench play anchored the New York Liberty’s 92-62 win over the Chicago Sky. Tina Charles had 22 points in 22 minutes to lead New York, with every active player on the Liberty roster contributing at least one point to the effort. Stefanie Dolson had 22 points to lead Chicago.

For unraveling, hustle, rebounding, defending, high energy, and a Chicago team that maybe isn’t sure they want to make the playoffs, join your intrepid and distressed blogger after the jump. (Distressed for non-basketball reasons. Try not to worry about it too much, but I apologize in advance if my notes are even less than coherent over the next couple of weeks.)

Good afternoon and welcome to Madison Square Garden, the World’s Most Famous Arena, as the New York Liberty look to keep their winning streak alive against the Chicago Sky. One team’s chasing the playoffs, the other chasing a bye. It’s nice to have a game be meaningful to both teams this late in the season.

If youu’re going to call your group Sparkle and Shine, you should have glitter or sequins on their uniforms, or something like that. I was underwhelmed by both the costumes and the dancing.

Nice touch: both Katie Smith and Teresa Weatherspoon spent a good bit of time talking to Adut Bulgak before the game. I get the feeling that the Liberty never wanted to cut her in the first place, so I’m glad she was able to make it back into the league. (Given the current political climate, I’m happy she was able to get into the country, period.)

Girl Scout anthem and color guard. Girl Scouts are awesome, and your intrepid blogger will never let you forget it.

At halftime, the Liberty are up 46-29 behind Tina Charles putting up 18 points and the team playing awesome defense.

JJ! Hiiiiii! (At least I am, like, 99% sure that was Janee Johnson, one of my most favorite Pirates in the history of all things pirate-y, including actual literal pirates.) (Actually, scratch that qualification. JJ is one of my most favorite collegiate people in the history of ever.) (And we are inches closer to the ultimate goal of spending a game next season with JJ, Phee, and Coach Del Preore and possibly getting banned from Mohegan Sun.)

I can’t say enough about the defense we’ve been playing. Lots of poke checks on the ball, lots of hustle plays.

Sue, if you’re going to try out the hair chalk, go all in.

I was not expecting to butt-whoop Chicago this badly. I thought we would win, but not dominate so thoroughly. Not when Chicago still has position to play for. Not when they’re fighting just to make the playoffs. (Unless they’re not.)

Amber Harris played briefly in the fourth quarter, when the bench was in the game, and was pulled quickly for Kahleah Copper. I didn’t remember her being so stocky. Makayla Epps had one nifty acrobatic lay-up off a steal, but was otherwise unremarkable in her limited time. I’m surprised Stocks hasn’t tried to use her more; it seems like there’s a shortage of guards on that roster, and trying to rotate 3s into the 2 spot isn’t a great decision. Bashaara Graves got her name messed up by the announcer when she entered the game, and provideda little physicality down low.

Man, has Adut Bulgak put in work since she left New York. She was fantastic. She rebounded well, sliding into small spaces. She defended well at the rim- trying to defend Tina Charles isn’t easy for anyone, but especially a second-year reserve. I suppose she had an advantage from a few months of practicing regularly against her, though. Jordan Hooper got a lot of run, brought some energy, and gave Chicago a halfway decent outside threat. I guess. For lack of a better word. Cappie Pondexter reminded everyone why New York doesn’t necessarily miss her. (And honestly, I don’t know how she piled up the assists. But it’s hard for me to look at Cappie objectively.)

Stefanie Dolson was the star of the show for the Sky, especially in the second half. She finished at the rim and in the midrange, even extending her jumper out ot the three-point line. But I think the deficit got into her head, slowly but surely; by the middle of the third quarter she was starting to show a lot of negative emebounding that’s a good sign she’s figuring out where to be.rself a technical for yakking at the refs. She doesn’t take well to not doing well. (And I miss the purple hair. It’s the little things.) Jessica Breland started off on fire, going to the rack and shooting jumpers with equal aplomb. Clearly our defensive game plan did not consider her a priority. We did a better job of helping on her in the second half. She’s just so solid for them. Good to watch, if you’re into the success of the Chicago Sky. Some people are, I hear. Kahleah Copper’s agility and ability to bend into tiny spaces is astounding. She twists around defenders like she’s the secret love child of Reed Richards or something.

The let down for Chicago came straight from their backcourt. Courtney Vandersloot tried too hard to make fancy passes and ended up losing the ball a lot to the intense Liberty defense. She wasn’t ready for it. Everything that normally makes her one of the best point guards in the league was missing in this game. Allie Quigley couldn’t get her looks to drop, no matter what, and I think it got into her head a little bit as the game went on. Vandersloot got her points in the fourth quarter, when the game was decided and Chicago’s starters were playing against the Liberty bench.

I have no idea why Stocks decided that Copper should be the starter running with the reserves at the end of the game. I don’t know if it was a positional thing, or if somehow Stocks was blaming her for the loss (since I guess blaming the Golden Duo in the backcourt would be blasphemy).

You get a basket! And you get a basket! Everyone gets a basket! (Except for Kia, who only gets a free throw, but that’s fine, it’s still a point.) I love when even the deep bench players get a chance to shine.

Amanda Zahui B went on a scoring run in the fourth quarter, and I don’t know who was more excited for her, the fans or her teammates. She still needs to get stronger, or at least play stronger- she missed too many easy shots on the inside. But she rebounded better than I was expecting and made her presence felt on the defensive end of the floor. Rebecca Allen showed some offensive firepower in the second half as well, and I like how her rebounding has progressed over the course of the season. She still has work to do on defense, but the energy is there, and if she’s rebounding, she’s at least figuring out what good position might be. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe needs to work on her shot- she still seems way too reliant on getting the right bounce for it- but I can’t fault her motor under the basket. She brought so much hustle off the bench. She’s the kind of player who dives for a loose ball when you’re up 30 in the last minute of the game. “Springy” is a good word for her.

Kiah Stokes made herself a target down low for passes, and she finished well at the rim (except for one skeep carrying us against higher-octane offenses.hysically dominant games, and this was one of those days, with the double-double and all that. I like that she got the rebound part first, then the points. Sugar Rodgers’s shooting woes continue, but hey, at least she hit something today. She’s starting to remind me of Essence after the eye injury, only I don’t recall hearing about any kind of similar injury to Sugar. But while her shooting has suffered, she’s more than made up for it with relentless defense. No dribbler was safe from her quick hands. I’d still like to see her shot come back, but I’ll settle for her being a defensive dynamo. I thought we also got good minutes out of Lindsay Allen- she still seemed to be in a little over her head in the first half, but in the second half she seemed to have better control of the offense. She got caught on switches on defense, but that might be her teammates’ fault as much as it was hers. (Guys, seriously, don’t make Lindsay have to defend Jessica Breland more than once.)

It was really nice not to see the starters as much as we usually do. They’ve been putting in work; they deserve a rest. Tina Charles was brutally efficient in the first half, staking the Liberty to a double-digit lead. She’s just awesome. Even in a season where the MVP is obvious, she still plays like an MVP. Kia Vaughn had a quiet game, though we really didn’t need her to have a big one. She seemed to do a good job antagonizing Dolson, which got into Dolson’s head. Shavonte Zellous’s baskets were well timed, and her defense was solid. She got a lot of rest late in the game, so my impressions of her are the fuzziest. Stupid fouls, sometimes unnecessary, certainly didn’t help her stay on the floor either.

Bria Hartley’s stamina still concerns me, but I think we can scrape together enough play off our bench to give her the rest she needs. She’s been coming up with big plays at the right times. Epiphanny Prince brought back some of the Rutgers defense, though I’m still questioning her shot selection at times. She showed some nifty ballhandling, too.

I can’t stress the team element of the defense and rebounding enough. There were loose ball scrambles everywhere. There were relentless attacks on the ballhandler, leaing to turnovers, everywhere. There were sze in advance if ine and sideline. There was a lot of work from everyone on the floor, and it was so much fun to watch. I’m worried about some of our inability to finish at the rim (Sugar, Nayo, I am especially looking at you) and I don’t like that we had so many shots and missed so many shots. I don’t know if our defense can keep this up against a higher-octane offense. But it’s fun to watch while it’s working.

Officiating was marvelously inconsistent. We got the best of it on some out of bounds calls, but the refs were really letting both teams play on both ends of the floor- lots of physical contact, but a curious emphasis on handchecks. I don’t get it either.

Quieter crowd than the last game, but they got into it once the lead started to grow and grow. (Amusingly, this is when we usually check out emotionally from the game- if it’s that much of a blowout, they don’t need us to go crazy anymore, do they?)

All in all, a satisfying and necessary win. Now it’s on to the Texas teams, and what happens next will be a very good question.