July 15th, 2003: Washington at New York

Washington Mystics 77, New York Liberty 64

Richie Adubato fails logic, Lindsey Yamasaki is decorative, and the Game Notes are not amused.


Sorry for the delay- couldn't get online last night.

The offense is sputtering, the defense is lacking, sixty percent of the starting lineup is not playing starter-worthy basketball, players are desperately trying to get their coach’s attention by removing their warm-ups, the players that are playing well are being worn out, and the coach is most likely going senile. Other than that, the Liberty have no problems whatsoever. We'll get back to this.

The Mystics are nice, but sparingly so. Only Helen Luz and Murriel Page signed for everyone. Nakia Sanford, Chamique, and Asjha Jones all signed/posed very sparingly. At least Annie Burgess apologized. They looked a little scattered and confused out there. This team looks like one that doesn’t really know what it wants to do. Oh, and it was pretty much agreed that the Jam sucked monkey butt (or in my namesake’s words, sucked pond scum off a Timberland boot).

Non-valuable prizes go to whoever spotted Kym Hampton seated in the lobby. Semi-valuable prizes go to whoever spotted Kym Hampton coming in with her handlers. I think something might be up with Elena; she totally dissed those of us who were yelling good luck to her in Russian. Yeah, so she was twenty minutes late, she can’t turn and wave, or smile, or something? Piffle. At least Tari (who I have dubbed Tall, Dark, and Late- girl never met a clock that she couldn’t ignore) gave us a smile as she dashed in.

Spoon just did the most complicated secret handshake with Murriel Page and Chamique Holdsclaw. Strange. And that was the fastest damn rendition of the national anthem I have ever heard in my life. They said she’s a singer/actress. She should stick to acting. We have Kym in the house, for heaven’s sake. Couldn’t they convince her to do it?

Tamika is doing strange things to her pants. It makes sense, what with Tamika being a strange person and everything. I wish she would pretend that she gives a shit about the game, though.

Okay, ew. Now I have the image of Tari’s face crammed between Murriel Page’s legs stuck in my head, and I’m fairly sure neither of them swings lefty. Meanwhile, the refs have been ignoring some pretty chippy play down there; my neighbors have already berated me for my language. But come on. Coco Miller and Some Days Stacey (thanks, Kem!) were snatching and swiping at the ball, pinning Spoon against the endline, and they call nothing? Murriel Page doesn’t let Tari get up and they don’t call anything? Asswipes, the lot. Or perhaps assmonkeys (thanks, stormaniac/Admin Scott).

Tari’s spent most of the game on her butt so far. Murriel Page has whacked her around, Aiysha (sp?) Smith just knocked her down, and she played elbows a little bit with Asjha Jones, I believe. It’s been a very chippy game so far.

Tamika spent much of the game in whatever dimension it is that she goes when she meditates, and that’s including the time she got bonked in the head and looked woozy. Crystal hasn’t been able to find her stroke, and she couldn’t defend Holdsclaw (granted, few can, but Holdsclaw faked her out too much). Spoon spent too much time dribbling around aimlessly. Elena had some good moments but seemed a little disinterested in the proceedings. I’d comment on K.B., but she really didn’t get to do enough to be graded on. Tari hustled her butt off, though her hands were a little slippery at times. VJ, of course, played her game, but I get the feeling that she’s sick of the crap that her teammates call their game. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s been screaming at the team every chance she gets. This was just… god, it was fucking awful is what it was.

Richie… man. I’d like to know what passes for logic in his mind. Why put Crystal in with four fouls and a bad ankle when Tamika got clocked? Why put Tamika back in when Crystal turned her ankle? Hello, you’ve got ten players on your roster, feel free to use any of them, any at all. Linda hustles and Erin shoots. Candidly, I don’t know what Lindsey does, other than make the Asian-American community very proud. But Richie seems to have gone away from the eight-woman rotation he was using when Becky was still playing. He uses the same rotation now, except that it doesn’t have Becky. Erin and Linda have been completely lost in the shuffle, and we only seem to see Lindsey when the shit hits the fan (a la Crystal with mucho fouls and Elena already in the game). His substitutions have been lousy and his timing even worse. I wonder if he’s going senile or something. Scary thought, that. Maybe that’s why Spoon was getting her instructions from Pat Coyle and Jeff House at one point while Richie stalked the sidelines in rage. Unless this team starts winning real soon, I don’t think Blaze and her friends are going to have very much patience for this crap. He’ll be seeing the door, bar a Liberty comeback. Come to think of it, Blaze’s job might also be on the line, to judge from some of the loser draft picks she’s gotten. So far Tari, Becky, and K.B. have really saved her bacon, but if Crystal’s act doesn’t get together, she’ll be another first-round flop, and that would pretty much make all our first-round draft picks crap; Sue and Crystal were the only ones to even last on the roster any period of time, and compared to what was available in those drafts, they weren’t all that. (Please don’t jump down my throat. I adore Sue, I really do. I just point out that she was drafted the same year, and before, a couple of players that became All-Stars and have had longer careers.)