August 6th, 2018: Seattle at New York

Just the Facts, Ma'am: A fourth quarter collapse did the Liberty in once more, as Seattle ended the game on a big run to win 96-80. Breanna Stewart poured in 32 points, while Natasha Howard had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds and flirted with a quadruple-double with five assists and five steals. Tina Charles and Kia Nurse each had 20 points to pace the Liberty, with Amanda Zahui B adding 17 points and 11 rebounds off the bench.

For being tired, so tired, jokes about Iowa, references to euthanasia, annoying children, forces of nature, and counting down the days, join your intrepid and ever-so-cheerful blogger after the jump.


Good morning from Madison Square Garden, the place that is truly our home, as the New York Liberty take on the Seattle Storm.

We don't even get to play on our own court. Our real court is at That Dump. There's no logo in the middle. What's Maddie going to stomp? (They brought out the Torch Patrol with the letter signs from "Gotta Get Up" and raised them as Maddie did the stomp.)

No Marissa Coleman for this one, though she warmed up and chatted with Crystal Langhorne. Goody. This probably means 25 minutes of the Rebecca Allen Experience. We're gonna get cheesed. We're gonna get aged-cheesed.

I just watched Jewell Loyd bounce a ball to Breanna Stewart for a tip-in. This is going to be fun to watch, even if there's going to be a lot of crysobbing going on.

Did everyone on Seattle forget to go to the bathroom before the game? I think I've seen three different players run off the floor and come back.

Very good mixed vocal and orchestral version of the anthem from a local music school; they're also doing the halftime show. I think I like their strings better than their vocals. And though I'm not a fan of performing "God Bless America" at games, the singer was very good.

We're not losing. I'm confused. It's tied at 44 at the half. I'm starting to think that this team might like playing in actual arenas as opposed to That Dump. Kia Nurse got the start for Marissa, and has 11 points. Gosh. You mean letting Kia Nurse play might give her confidence or something?

The groups in the upper deck must be looking at some of the swathes of empty seats in the lower deck and wondering why they can't be down there. Some of them have filled in, but it's not a good look.

Today is not BHA, but they're advertising it at the next game, and I think this is the first time I've noticed different teams doing their fundraisers for different- and local- charities. The Liberty are donating to a fund in honor of Clare Droesch.

You know who has not had enough vodka for this Liberty season? Me. It's me. I have not had enough vodka for the Liberty rolling over and dying in the fourth quarter after looking vaguely like a basketball team in the first three. Thank the sweet hypothetical baby Jesus I only have to put up with one more game of this season's dying throes before being able to switch completely to a team that seems to actually care about this basketball thing.

Mercedes Russell spent a minute and a half on the most tightly compressed revenge tour I've ever seen. She was brutal from the midrange. Courtney Paris got run in the first half, but not much in the second. That is a whole lot of woman, and running into her is a terrible idea. She snagged a ridiculous steal off (I think) Amanda, just plucked it out of the air. Crystal Langhorne seems to have adapted well to the bench, and to being a role player who can score a little and rebound a little as necessary.

Quiet game for Jordin Canada. The only play that stood out to me was the rookie foul she committed on the push-out. She'll learn. She's in the right place for it. Sami Whitcomb continues to be a Liberty-killer. She comes into the game, and we don't learn, and we leave her open, and she gets buckets on us. Like I said. We don't learn. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was not terribly useful, but she didn't have to be. I was surprised they didn't set her up more beyond the arc.

I think this is the first time I've gotten a good look at the new and Most Improved Natasha Howard this year. She's put all the pieces together. She goes up and over players with the greatest of ease, claiming rebound and putback in one motion. She is the player Crystal Langhorne would have been had Langhorne been blessed with Howard's talent. At least, that's the stylistic and effort-based match that made sense to me. Your mileage may, of course, vary. She had a massive two-handed block on Kia Nurse that hurt my soul. Breanna Stewart looks gawky until the moment she strikes, and then she's so ridiculously smooth that you know the shot's going in. It's more of a surprise when it doesn't. She wrecked Kia Vaughn on a block in the third quarter. Alysha Clark seemed thrown off by the two arcs on the floor, since I think both the pro and college arcs, or the men's and women's arcs, were on the court. She flashed back to her Belmont and Middle Tennessee days with her shooting, and it did not go well. Her defense was stronger- she had a fantastic steal that comes to mind immediately. She was better close to the basket.

Sue Bird continues to slay her enemies, rejoice in their lamentations, and drink their tears from beyond the arc. She hit that shot- you know the one I'm talking about- in the fourth quarter, and I knew we were dead beyond hope of a saving roll. She doesn't look like she's been in the league for 16 years. She looks fresh as a daisy. We're all doomed. Jewell Loyd needs approximately a nanosecond to get her shot off, whether it's on the run or on the drive. If you blink, she scores. If you blinked twice, then Breanna Stewart also scored. She's so quick and she gets up so far, and this is just not fair.

Seattle plays so smart. The stupid mistakes are minimal. The on-court communication is great. And you have to credit those point guards for that. And it's nice to see Dan Hughes let them run after how slow a system he ran in Cleveland and San Antonio. Good coaches adapt to their personnel. This is a hint, Katie.

Ugh, where do I even start? I don't want to start. At least we were short-handed enough that these will be brief.

I'm pretty sure Kiah Stokes has been spending her off-hours learning how to operate a Sherman, because she is driving the tank most excellently whenever she comes into the game. I don't know what's up with her, but she has found the cliff and leaped off it with as much élan and glee as an Iowan can show by state law. She looks terrible and looks like she doesn't care. Maybe this is a pod person and we need to stage a rescue of the Seventh Avenue Block Party. At least we still have Amanda Zahui B, who is on a mission to prove that she belongs on this team and in this league. She fought for rebounds among two and three Storm players. Her midrange game was on fire, and her confidence was sky-high. This is the player who came out early in 2015 and was expected to set the league on fire, and I hope that this version of Amanda comes back for 2019. Somewhere. Anywhere.

Rebecca Allen, bless her heart. She did have a glorious block on KML, and hit a three when she got open, but she was in over her head, having to essentially sub for both Marissa Coleman and Shavonte Zellous. She's not good defensively and she's mediocre offensively. All the Rebecca are belong to us, but I'm ready to give up on this experiment now. Bria Hartley missed shots she should have made and took shots she shouldn't have taken. She's not the answer at point right now. She may never be. She seemed to be getting into it with many of her fellow Huskies as well; I think they took offense to her hitting Natasha Howard in the face, however accidental it was.

See, this was a game where the criticism Brittany Boyd got on Saturday was warranted. She was throwing shots at the rim like she couldn't think of anything better to do with the ball. Her passes were hard, and fast, and sometimes desperate. You went to Cal, Brittany; I know you're smart enough to think of good alternatives. She did well driving the lane early, but somehow couldn't adjust to the concept of Seattle defense adjusting and pasting her to the stanchion on subsequent attempts. Sugar Rodgers's confidence in her shot was unwarranted today. You can't stand there and watch it. She did a better job rebounding other people's shots. She also committed stupid fouls on people who had already either taken shots or taken themselves out of the play, and I am extremely annoyed at this on general principles.

Kia Vaughn, bless her heart. Things were going well when she got buckets at the rim, but she missed more than she hit, and she was consistently outworked on the glass. That's partly on her teammates, because Kia Vaughn can't box out and rebound at the same time, but she seemed to give up the position she got all too easily when pressed. At least she didn't get hurt this time, which is a relief, because while Kia Vaughn is a trainwreck on the floor, she seems like a lovely human being and I wish her no harm. Kia Nurse had herself a day; shockingly, when Katie gives her her head, she runs with it. She looked strong, and she looked confident. Her defense was a little shaky, but she ran into a couple of forces of nature. I can't say I'm surprised. Tina Charles is who she always is. She gets things done, even when she's double and triple-teamed, because that's what opposing defenses do to Tina. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Kia Nurse seemed to be using "This or That" to remind everyone that she's Canadian, both in referencing linguistic differences (see: flip-flops v. sandals) and musical taste. ("What kind of question is this? I'm Canadian. Of course it's Drake.") Look, if you're practically going to bleed maple syrup, check opponents into the boards that we don't have because this is a basketball game, and wrap yourself in the Canadian flag, I'm going to spend the rest of your career making Canadian jokes. I hope you understand this, youngest of the Kias.

Some of the kids behind us were cheering for Seattle for no good reason. They received death glares. (The family in front of us, with the daughter in her Storm shirt and the dad in his UCLA gear, of course did not get death glares, because we don't do that to actual-facts fans.)

Game got physical in stretches, and when even Storm fans are saying Howard should have been called for a push, it might have been a foul. And the clock kept malfunctioning, which drew the agony out longer than it needed to be drawn out. It wouldn't stop when it was supposed to stop and wouldn't start when it was supposed to start.

And of course they're still hawking season ticket renewals. Said it before and I'll say it again: I won't be fooled again. Y'all took my money and set me up on automatic renewal last year, whereupon y'all moved us to That Dump in Westchester. And y'all think anyone with a lick of common sense is going to sign up for that again? At least before we didn't know how bad it was.

I think everyone wants the season to be over. It's a mercy kill, really. Play for lottery balls and whatever tattered excuse for pride anyone has left, and let it end. I'm ready.