Monday, September 11, 2017

September 10th, 2017: Washington at New York

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Don’t wanna, don’t have to, can’t make me.

I’m not sure whether this should be “good afternoon” or “good evening”. 5 PM is a strange start time, but I’ll take it if it means getting something that vaguely resembles coverage.

We have rally towels. They’re white, and still kind of stiff. They need the newness shaken out of them.

Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe is trying out another new hairstyle, from the looks of it. She’s even harder to recognize now. And he fogot her pants again. I’m starting to think this might be a thing, but I’m not sure if it's intentional or just absent-minded.

Looks like it’s going to be tight in the lower bowl. I’m okay with this. It’s good to see all the Usual Suspects in place.

I’ve been informed that a couple of busloads of Mystics fans will be joining us fo rthis game. For the most part, I’m okay with Mystics fans on the road. They tend to behave themselves, they know where to sit, they don’t take our giveaways, and they’re passionate for their team without talking trash about the other team. (Delle Donne fans are somewhat more annoying, but that’s to do with their myopia.)

Slow-arriving crowd, and a lot of red. Folks, the Jets game is over, you can come to the Garden now. I can’t guarantee we won’t trip over each other and turn over the ball that way, but I’m pretty sure we’ll look more competent than the Jets did. I know, famous last words, but really. Mom always taught me to take the Bills when they’re playing the Jets, but that’s usually because they’ll cover, not because they’ll win.

Beautiful anthem.

At halftime, it’s 41-35 Liberty, after a hot start got negated by the injury to Shavonte Zellous and some questionable officiating. (I mean, really, Tianna Hawkins, I didn’t know you were also on the diving team at Maryland.) Tina Charles has put in work for the Libs with 11 points and four rebounds, but I also love what Epiphanny Prince has been doing on loose rebounds and from the perimeter. Kristi Toliver has come out of her shell (as it were) and been putting up points.

I really don’t feel confident in this lead without Shavonte. She’s our best defensive player, especially at forward, and that’s exactly where we need a defensive ace. Unless someone can work some shenanigans with a time machine and get Crystal Robinson on the playoff roster for the second half, we’re going to have a problem.

Our DJ’s hype man might maybe want to switch to decaf for the next couple of minutes before ratcheting it back up for the second half.

Okay, seriously, to the woman in front of me: it’s a single-elimination playoff game, all or nothing, winner goes home, and you show up in all your Yankee gear and keep your face glued to your phone for updates on a Yankee blowout? WHY ARE YOU HERE? WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE? Why are you spending almost $50 on your seat and being territorial about it? You can watch the Yankee game form any other damn seat in the arena.

This will teach me never to say that we can’t suck worse than the Jets on any given day, because boy howdy, was that second half a giant stinking turd pile for the Liberty. I don’t know what happened. I don’t think I entirely want to know what happened. But I stalked out of the Garden with my hands clenched into fists, unkind thoughts in my head, and rage boiling in my heart. I’m used to the Liberty disappointing me in the playoffs- after all, four Finals and no rings still rankles, even after all these years. I even remember last year. But I’m sick and tired of it. I’m tired of this nonsense. I’m tired of this playoff system already. I’m tired of having fantastic regular seasons where it look like all the pieces are coming together, and then following those with playoff games where the team looks like they’re not entirely sure they recognize these other people who happen to be wearing the same jersey they are. I keep saying I can’t do this anymore, and I keep doing it, and someday it’s going to be true that I can’t do it anymore. My heart hurts. My chest hurts. What else can I do? What more could we have done in the stands?

I suppose at this point I have to say nice things about the Mystics now, since they won the game, and it would be uncouth not to. I don’t necessarily want to, though. But that’s my temper speaking. The original purpose of this blog was to report on games for fans who couldn’t see how their team was doing on the road; the advent of League Pass and ESPN hasn’t changed the fact that there are still details you misss. And there are DC fans out there who I like. So I’ll try to give it a go.

Allison Hightower’s shot has not returned from rehab the same way the rest of her has. Her length and defensive instincts make her a useful situational piece, but if she can’t shoot, she’s a long-term liability. There was nothing worth mentioning in the 47 seconds of Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Asia Taylor. I have to remember that it’s not Asia Taylor’s fault Minnesota chose to bring her to a game where I was looking to see Nadirah, and thus her existence should not by itself cause me to grind my teeth even further into powder. (Hi, my name is Rebecca, and occasionally I hold irrational grudges for far longer than I have reason to.)

I cannot believe that it took me until the end of the season to notice that Natasha Cloud has a pun on her jersey, one that would have been even more evident back in the day where the name was on top. (She’s Cloud 9! Why did I not see it before? How?!) She was showing off her dance moves before the game and swooping athletic drives to the basket during the game. I don’t know if she fits this roster, but she’s definitely an interesting piece. I could do without her inciting the traveling DC fans from the Liberty logo, though. I could also do without Ivory Latta and the rest of the Mystics bench pumping up those fans on the road. It’s one thing to do it before the game (readers may remember one of my favorite memories of Kara Braxton being her doing the Maddie stomp at Connecticut) and doing it during the game. She had a nifty dribble drive around Lindsay Allen that she managed to put in. Tianna Hawkins had a blatant dive at the end of the first half and still can’t seem to hit her threes, but did work on the glass. She’s got a really tough build; I’m always surprised we don’t see her mix it up more inside.

Krystal Thomas made broken plays whole again. I think all of her offensive rebounds resulted in baskets, and the other two were nice finds along the baseline. Her defense was tough and her toughness was remarkable. She’s got to understand that even if someone else initiates contact, refs will call retaliation, especially if someone else is Tina Charles. She’s been in the league long enough that she should understand that. Emma Meesseman ws the only Mystic who looked discomfited by the Liberty defense. She wasn’t getting good looks, and she wasn’t hitting the good looks she did get. Small mercies, I suppose. She did okay on the glass. Elena Delle Donne didn’t really get loose until after Shavonte Zellous left the game with the ankle injury, and we had to change up the defense. The problem is that we had no other single defender who could stay with her, and the doubles were not only ineffective against her, but also left other shooters open, and that was so far beyond okay it entered into some kind of zen state vaguely resembling okayness from the other side.

Tierra Ruffin-Pratt couldn’t hit water falling out of a boat for most of the game, but her defense was on point. She’s tough, and she’s tenacious, and she follows up on defensive plays exceptionally well. She’s problematic offensively for the Mystics, but her defense is still a net positive, especially when facing a team that has, or at least is under the impression that it has, one or more perimeter threats. Hey, there’s a nice segue to talking about Kristi “where have you been for the last three months?” Toliver, who decided that this would be a wonderful time to go bananas from beyond the arc. If this was the Liberty’s defensive game plan, then perhaps it should have been adjusted sometime between the fourth and fifth threes. She killed us out there, and it’s so infuriating that I think I can hear my teeth cracking under the pressure.

I just- how can you watch somebody do the same thing over and over againa nd not get a hand in her face, not adjust the defense to handle her, not do anything to affect the shot? Yes, I know shooters get into a rhythm, but this is absurd, this is ridiculous, this is obscene, this is unreal.

The Mystics settled down after the first quarter and really started to play more within themselves. They weren’t settling for the first shot, or the most convenient shooter, as much as they were early on. That gave them the momentum they needed.

I don’t know if Amanda Zahui B would have been of any help, but it couldn’t have hurt as much as anything else we tried would seem to have. Rebecca Allen was at least able to make the first defensive move consistently, but couldn’t make the follow-up play- she might disrupt a shot, but then not be ready for Washington to get the offensive rebound, or make a deflection but not be ready for the recovery. That’s an improvement from the beginning of the year, but not enough of one. Lindsay Allen had a pretty pass to Tina Charles, but defensively she wasn’t up to the task.

Sugar Rodgers’s numbers look good, but she launched a lot of those shots, including at least one of the makes, in the waning minutes of the game, when it was garbage time. She didn’t bring the tenacious defense that’s normally been offsetting her disappearing offense, either, which made me wonder exactly why we were playing her and what we needed her for. Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe fought for rebounds in the paint and finished well at the rim. She’s one of the only players who I’m not deeply disappointed in right now. She put in effort. She put in work. Kiah Stokes was unimpressive, and the block she has in the box score should be credited to Tina- Tina hit that shot from behind while Kiah fronted the shooter.

But to be fair, Kiah was more effective than her counterpart. Kia Vaughn did not have her head in the game. There was one play- I think it was in the second quarter- where she was gifted a layup right at the rim and blew it badly. She was a disaster on both ends of the floor, and I’m reminded of all the times I didn’t want her on the roster, both the first time and the second time. Tina Charles had stretches of being her superstar self, at one point finishing through a triple-team. But she started to wear down in the second half, and I don’t think she was able to keep her head in the game (there’s a play that’s coming to mind where Bria passed her the ball and she was facing the wrong way to receive it). Tina can’t do it alone, nor can she be left with the impression that she has to do it alone. She needs backup. She needs support. She didn’t get a lot of that today.

Bria Hartley shot well, and at least tried to keep us in the game that way, but she made too many stupid mistakes with the ball. Some of them may also have been on her teammates (I think the aforementioned pass that Tina should have been ready for was put down as hers) but she was careless, and we couldn’t afford to be careless if our defense wasn’t pressuring the ball away from them. Shavonte Zellous put in work defensively, and until she hurt her ankle, she was shutting down Elena Delle Donne. She gave it a go in the second half, but her explosiveness and lateral movement were missing. She probably should have sat out, but we couldn’t afford to not have her, and I don’t think she was going to pull herself out of a game this important. I probably should fault her judgment, but I can’t question her heart and her passion. Epiphanny Prince was decent, but not remarkable, and in a game like this someone else needed to be remarkable. I don’t think she fits with this roster as it’s currently constructed. There’s just something missing there, some next step that she hasn’t taken and that it might be too late for her to take.

I don’t know why the team’s energy level cratered in the second quarter and kept falling through the floor. Shavonte’s injury was a turning point, but if a 31-point swing hinged just on her, then the team relies on her too heavily and something needs to be done about this unhealthy fixation. All the rebounding intensity that we were keeping up during the winning streak? Gone. The hustle, the heart, the drive, the willingness to sacrifice for loose balls? Gone. They played like they didn’t care, and sometime in the third quarter, it turned into playing like they had accepted their inevitable defeat. I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS.

The officiating didn’t help, but I’m not going to blame them for the breakdown of our defensive plans, or our lack of intensity. We had this game, and we let Washington get back in it, and then we let Washington take it over.

What really grinds my gears about the Liberty’s collapse was that the crowd was behind the team. We had spontaneous cheers. We had noise and passion and glory. We were there for the team, and for a little while it was the old magic again. And this team that we believed in, that we watched knock off the top three teams in the league in a row, squandered that chance. How many of those fans do you think will come back after another soul-crushing loss? How much more of this can we take?

I’ve calmed down from last night. I’m not quite so inclined to set everything on fire right now. But I don’t think Sugar and Piph can co-exist, and I’m ready for Bill to retire again and take Katie with him. We need an impact player beside Tina- she needs her Nneka, or her Big Syl. She needs someone who can consistently take the pressure off her, and right now I don’t see anyone else on this roster who can do that. We thought it could be Piph; it’s not. We thought it could be Sugar; it’s not.

I’m heartbroken. I’m tired. (There’s a secret, ruthless part of me that’s relieved I don’t have to pay for further playoff tickets. Reality sucks.) I don’t know if I’m going to watch the rest of the playoffs.

See you all in November. Spreadsheet’s almost done.

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