Friday, May 11, 2018

May 8th, 2018: Los Angeles at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The New York Liberty held off a third-quarter run from the Los Angeles Sparks to come away with the 81-75 preseason win. Kia Nurse led New York with a team-high 19 points, while Reshanda Gray added 11 points and 14 rebounds. Cappie Pondexter had 17 points to lead Los Angeles.

For young point guards, details I've assuredly forgotten, and impatience, join your intrepid and much belated blogger after the jump.

The crazy part of this whole thing is that after doing the double header and getting home at 1 o'clock in the morning, I'm turning around and doing it all over again.

Folks, if you want to kick up a fuss about where you're sitting, you show up early. You don't roll up at ten to twelve and block everyone else from boarding while you argue with the guide. Jerks.

Guys, whatever I did to my neck, don't let me do it again. It is so stiff. Ugh. Unfortunately, I think what I did was spend too much time on buses doing basketball things. I hope no one expects me to be coherent in real life for the next few days.

Note to self: I'm going to have to find a new go to meal at Mohegan. They changed the way they store the ingredients for the taco bowl, and it looks kind of gross. It still tastes okay, but the proof will be in a few hours, or rather, will not be in a few hours. (Did not have an abreaction, but I still think I need to find a new meal.)

Being the loudest person in the arena, or at least in the section, does make one memorable.

“We're going to make the entire state of Connecticut glow orange.” Part of me wants to go full Dalek and yell, “THOSE WORDS ARE BLASPHEMY” at Matt. Given how many old Husky fans there are here, I can't be the only one.

Yeah, Tina isn't warming up. Time for another round of “quick, act surprised!” It also looks like we're not trying to fake anyone out with Brittany Boyd, either. Nor do I see Shavonte Zellous. 404 error: no damn to give found.

Blaze, don't hit Erin Phillips in the face with your flag.

22-16 Liberty at the end of the first. Kia Nurse is off to a hot start. There's no one within two sections of me, so I'm basically in St. John's mode, wherein I make as much noise as possible because no one else will. I'm getting echoes up here.

36-33 Liberty at half. But I may pop a blood vessel if we keep giving Cappie Pondexter the weak-side midrange corner. We've left her open there three or four times, and after she missed the first time, she didn't keep missing.

Does Brooke McCarty not realize that you're supposed to jump for a jump ball? Forcing them on much taller players is only half the battle. Unless she's expecting the other team to be laughing too hard at the contrast between her and Mercedes Russell to react, all she's doing is delaying the inevitable. I know we scored on one, and we may have scored on the other.

Sidebar: the ushers in my section both days were absolutely delightful. Kelly on Monday was super sweet, and David on Tuesday was very friendly.

58-55 Liberty at the end of the third, which is better than it could have been, since LA took a lead in the middle of the quarter. The STH in front of me has arrived, so I have to turn down the volume and put my shoes back on.

81-75 Liberty final! Both teams got after the refs. Differential was 4-0 against us, and in college would have been more, since there was an offensive foul or two tossed in the mix. Then Katie put the fear of Katie into the rookie ref, and the fouls went against LA in a torrent. I thought we got away with more in that run.

Someone needs to find Kaylee Jensen a better bra. I was starting to get sympathy pains up front by the third quarter. I was surprised by the smoothness of her three-point shot. She's not Danielle Adams, but she does seem to have a little bit of range. From the way she was racking up fouls at the end of the game, I wonder if she has a stamina problem. Taya Reimer got a few minutes in the third quarter, but I have nothing down on the scoresheet for her. At least Kathryn Westbeld distinguished herself by going after loose balls on the floor.

Karlie Samuelson shoots threes. This is not a recording. She got into less foul trouble this time, but I think she also had less time to get into foul trouble. If I were forced to make a choice, I'd keep her over Wiese, but I wouldn't keep either of them if I didn't have a choice. I like Brooke McCarty's heart and hustle, but she's got to get stronger if she wants to play in the WNBA. Her slightness is more of a problem than her height, IMO. I didn't see anything out of Gabbi Ortiz that impressed me or made me think she's more than a space filler until one of the guards gets back.

Shakayla Thomas's jumper was somewhat less effective in this game than it was against Connecticut, but her length and constant motion on defense made her very dangerous in the passing lanes. LA is going to need to either keep her or trade her, because in these two games, she's looked too valuable to merely cut. Mistie Bass set up Sydney Wiese for a three with a vicious pick. I don't think there's room on the roster to keep her, but she's still incredibly useful, even after a surprising number of years in terms of an athlete's career. Essence Carson hit a three-pointer! No, I don't mean a foot-on-the-line long two, although she had plenty of those as well. I mean an actual counts-for-three-points-on-the-scoreboard three. If she's finally figured out where the line is, after all these years, LA just picked up another four to five points a game. Y'all think I'm exaggerating, don’t you? She looked really good.

Okay, I didn't realize until I looked at the box score how many rebounds Wiese had. I think they were the kind you chase down when they get loose, not physical ones down low, but that's still a fantastic skill for a guard. She put up a good line, but there's something I can't put my finger one that has me doubting everything she does on the court. I'm going to have to analyze game tape at some point, because this doesn't make sense to me. Cappie Pondexter will probably not get this many shots when the rest of LA's starters are back, but she'll take them when she gets them. We kept leaving her open, which is a thing that pretty much everyone in the WNBA should know not to do at this point. Unless, of course, we were attempting to run the defense that we're going to use on LA when they have everyone back on this shell of a Sparks squad. But that would just be silly, right? Why would we show our hand without it actually being effective?

I think my favorite part was when LA jobbed themselves out of two free throws in a four-point game by calling a timeout right when Pondexter was about to get fouled. (Sidebar that I think I should have mentioned before: this time, Tonya Edwards was the coach up and about, though Agler looked more animated on the sideline than he did in the first game. I actually like the notion of letting the assistants do much of the heavy lifting in a preseason game.)

I'll reiterate the point I made after their game against Connecticut: most of these players have no chance of being involved in the Sparks' plans for 2018, and the ones who do are going to be playing very different roles. About all you can really gauge from a preseason game like this is who might be ready for primetime elsewhere and how the coaches handle their players and their business.

How does a guard even get a three-second violation called against her? Shoni Schimmel, I am side-eyeing you so hard right now I think I just gave myself a facial cramp. She's just not fitting with the personnel that we have, and she seems to be caught between trying too hard and not giving enough of a damn on the court. Worst of both worlds, and we have enough guards in camp that I don't think we need any of that nonsense. Kolby Morgan slid over to a more traditional PG role in this game, and seemed more comfortable in it than she was in the first game. Still not WNBA material, but she had one nifty steal and some good shots. She's got to realize that you can't just flick up random junk in the lane, though; the best case scenario involves missing in embarrassing fashion. Kelly Faris played like she realized her career was on the line, diving for loose balls and driving on offense. But while I realize Karlie Samuelson can be exceptionally annoying, you can't just shove her out of the way, Kelly. That's just rude. I think two of her turnovers were offensive fouls. I don't know if that performance was enough to tip the scales in her favor, but if that's closer to what we can expect from her than the Dallas game was, I'd be okay with it.

(That being said, FFS, Connecticut fans, can you applaud the players who call Mohegan Sun Arena their home more than random Huskies and Husky transfers? Maybe?)

I like what I've seen out of Leslie Robinson, even if there's no way she should make the final roster. She's got good hustle, and a pretty good passing eye. The problem is that she's not ready for the big leagues. She'll do well overseas if she wants to, but she does also have that Princeton degree to fall back on. Mercedes Russell had moments near the basket where she looked like she was actually able to use her height to her advantage, but she's stiff and slow, and if she makes this roster, it's strictly because of positional needs. Shay Murphy spent a lot of time arguing with the ref. While I can't blame her for disagreeing with his assessments, I think she got caught up in it too much, and it affected her play. She's got to keep her head in the game if she's not going to contribute statistically.

I'm even more excited for Kia Nurse's prospects after this game than I was after the last game. I love what she brings to the floor offensively and defensively, and the flexibility she gives us in our lineups. She lined up at three, but I can see her fitting in there or at one of the guard spots, depending on match-ups. I think her instinct for the game are better developed than the average rookie's, and she's going to fit in well when the rest of our veterans get back. Sugar Rodgers brought a lot of energy, but I think she was getting worn down from being so obviously the primary offensive option for much of the night (given that she was one of the few regular starters to even be in the building, let alone dressed out for the game). Lindsay Allen had another solid outing- not spectacular, not remarkable, but that's not what we need from her. Fireworks are Piph and Sugar's job. Lindsay's job is to not screw up. That sounds kind of callous, but I'm all about the steady, no-nonsense point guards.

Much better game from Reshanda Gray than the one against Dallas. She was able to get inside and get the boards that she wasn't getting position for against the taller Wings. In a game like this, I can see where she'd be a serviceable backup, but muck like my concerns about Kelly Faris, consistency is the question. If Reshanda can do this more than she can fail like she did against Dallas, I'd love to have her on board. But if she can't consistently compete against WNBA posts (and let's be honest, most of the players for LA in this game were not of the caliber she'd be facing on a regular basis, except for Mistie Bass) then I'd rather take the time to try and develop a younger player. We saw more frontcourt time for Marissa Coleman, which is also useful going forward. She's streaky, but I like her and what she gives this team. I realize that goes against the pervious statement about developing young players, but I think we can get more use out of Marissa than Reshanda, all things considered.

Tina was very loose on the bench. Funniest moment: the Sun host started urging everyone to scream. Brittany Boyd tilted her head back, and I don't know if she was pretending to scream or actually screaming, but Tina gave her the "oh no baby what is you doing?" side-eye and sort of scooted away from her like "I don't know her".

I have questions about our rotation, but that's going to depend on who's available and who's healthy for the start of the season. I think we have a lot of flexibility as long as we have everyone. But if we don't have Boyd and we don't have Piph, things could get dicey in a hurry.

I'm still ready for the season to start. I may have to watch more of it on television than I'd prefer to, and I suspect that bitterness will leak through all season long. But this is my team and I love them.

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