August 4th, 2018: Indiana at New York

It's not fun. Don't do it.

I hate this dump more and more every time I have to visit it. And yet here I am, getting ready to see the travel-lagged worst team in the league take on the most disappointing team in the league, as the Indiana Fever have wended their way to Westchester after travel woes to take on what's left of the New York Liberty.

They downgraded the shuttle bus and downgraded the snacks from cheese-and-cracker packs to a handful of Ritz in a Ziploc bag, and I hope whichever intern they had doing that washed their hands frequently.

Spoon took quite a hit off Brittany Boyd. Must be practicing how to finish through contact. Boyd, I mean, not Spoon.

Uh-oh. Got the coaches out on center court having a serious-looking conversation. God, I hope they're not talking strategy with Indiana on the floor.

And now they're mopping the entire floor. Either we're going to have a pregame curling exhibition or there's condensation from the difference between the air conditioned parts and the non-air conditioned parts. Because this place is a dump. Have I mentioned that this place is a dump? (Turns out they were mopping the floor for the martial arts group that was performing beforehand. They were not that good. And then they were hawking coupons in the stands.)

I think the "PUT IN SUGAR RODGERS!" guy is here. Though I have not heard the call of "I WANT TO SEE SUGAR RODGERS!" so maybe that was a different guy.

Can y'all turn down the volume a little, please? I didn't want to be that kind of disrespectful to the anthem, but it was physically painful to hear a kid with good projection belting the anthem through the over-cranked sound system. (She's young, so her voice still needs to mature, but she holds notes well.)

Indiana got off to a horrible, sloppy start, and that’s pretty much why the Liberty still have a lead. We looked really good in the early going, but unlike most games, our bench let us down, and Indiana's starters got their second wind in the second quarter.

There's a dude here from the Knicks, who's either here to get used to what pain feels like or to get used to the arena he's going to call home in the G League.

Favorite moment of the game so far has been Sugar helping count down the lights. Also enjoyed the tangle between Boyd and Erica Wheeler that ended with Wheeler helping Boyd up. They seem to have a healthy mutual respect for each other.

We were up four at the half. We were up fourteen at the end of the first. Everything is terrible and I want to cry. And they had the audacity to run three season ticket renewal ads during that goat rodeo masquerading as a basketball game. If I'm going to suffer such exquisite and ongoing pain, and pay for the privilege, it better involve a handsome young man in leather, and possibly a whip and handcuffs. This bus is an unrelenting sinkhole of misery, and somehow people have decided Brittany Boyd is a ballhog and it's all her fault. Sure, okay, Marissa Coleman is a non-entity and Kia Vaughn can only hit a quarter of her shots at the rim, and Candice Dupree murdered us stone-cold dead in the second half, but this is somehow the point guard's fault. Please send help, I am trapped in a spiraling mire of absurdity and despair.

The Mississippi State fans who came probably enjoyed the game, though. And I imagine that the dude in the Dupree jersey was pleased as punch with that second half. At least someone gets to be happy.

Okay. I suppose you lot want notes. I'll see what I can do. I'm not making any promises, because if the Liberty can't bestir themselves to score more than two free throws in a quarter, I shouldn't have to make an effort.

Is Kayla Alexander hurt, or just in the doghouse? An inquiring mind wants to know. It's me. It's my mind.

Either Indiana is going to have to start initialing their Mitchells, or they're permanently going to have to have extremely different hairstyles, because for some reason I'm having the world's hardest time telling them apart. I shouldn't. I know that. Maybe it's just not watching enough W this year. It doesn't help that they usually came into the game together and played a lot together. Anyway. The ongoing attempt to turn Kelsey Mitchell into a point guard is still extremely ongoing. I think the nicest way to put it is that she's ball-dominant and hasn't adapted to the longer WNBA arc; a lot of her shots seemed to be falling short. Tiffany Mitchell seemed more assertive in the paint- she got the free throws that put Indiana ahead, IIRC.

I was surprised not to see that much of Stephanie Mavunga and Erica McCall. I guess you go with what's working, but I thought McCall was good on the boards (or at least getting tips) and Mavunga could body people up.

I suspect Cappie Pondexter Googles her own name- she certainly searches it on Twitter enough- so hi, there! Guess what? Your team is better when you aren't taking all the shots! Admittedly, her teammates seemed almost as surprised as I was when she threw them passes- Dupree fumbled one beautiful feed that comes to mind. She could hit shots when she got open- the three was on a play where the entire defense was drawn into the paint, somehow managing to forget her very existence. Erica Wheeler manages to be both regular fast and sneaky fast going into the paint. She hustled hard after loose balls. I think I remember why we gave her up, but on days like this, it looks like a bad idea.

Victoria Vivians doesn't always hit shots, but when she does, she does so with style. Her two buckets were a three that kissed the glass gently before dropping down, and a deep three that she didn't necessarily have to take from Starkville. She's handsy, though. There was a sequence where she pulled Marissa Coleman out of position on offense, and Marissa looked at her like, "um, that was quite the move, shouldn't that be a foul?" She's got to be more careful with that. Natalie Achonwa would probably have spent a couple of minutes in the box in the NHL for simulation on her falls. She had one where she didn't start going to the floor until after the whistle blew. I mean, come on. She was amazing at scooping up rebounds and tipping them out to teammates. If she'd been able to finish at the rim more often in the third quarter, we might have been able to start drinking sooner. And Candice Dupree was absolutely unstoppable in the high post and in the midrange game. Whatever she floated up seemed to go in, whether it was the baby hook or the jumper. She's so smooth. She's so slick. She gets in and she makes things happen.

Indiana swarmed us relentlessly on defense. I think that, more than anything else, was what keyed their fourth quarter run. They found their second wind, and we were not ready. Once they took the lead, it was like they had stolen our collective souls and it was just a matter of time before we died.

Rebecca Allen blocking shots is fun and somewhat unexpected. Rebecca Allen beating her teammates for rebounds and blowing fast break lay-ups is, sadly, not fun and also not unexpected. Because we were going small, and because we had injury problems, and because of a slew of depressingly good reasons, she got entirely too much playing time in this one. I like Bec, because who doesn't like Aussies? But she hasn't been good. Kiah Stokes looks like she wants to be in White Plains about as much as I do. She's been a resounding disappointment this year. Amanda Zahui B stepped up defensively, but her offense suffered for it. (Tina is not that tall.) We needed her, and we got a lot out of her. We also got a lot of primal screams. She does that.

Kia Nurse was all over the place. Her energy was good, but her shot selection was dubious. I'd still like to see more of her at the three than either Marissa or Bec, though. Bria Hartley communicates well on the floor- we could hear a lot from her. I like when the quick threes go in. I like that a lot. They're not as fun when they don't.

I do hope Kia Vaughn is okay after what looked like a sprained ankle. She came up gimpy and went back to the general area that I suppose is considered the locker room. She started the game well, but seemed to fade back to her usual shrug-emoji self.

You know w hat? I'm tired. The team is tired. The team was uninspired. About the only thing I can really question is why people were getting on Brittany Boyd's case. I'm not impressed with her vision in this game, to be fair, and sometimes it seems like she's trying too hard to deke out the opposing defense by making the flashy pass where a plain pass would do. But here's the thing: she's trying. How many players on this team can you not say this about? Sadly, I don't think it's a non-zero answer. This team is a mess and I love them still, but it's not fun anymore.

And when it stops being fun... why do it?