May 23rd, 2004: Houston at New York

New York Liberty 68, Houston Comets 62

The Game Notes move down for the night and enjoy the view.


(Just as an FYI, I cross-post these notes to wnbatalk.com and espn.com SportsNation. So if a reference doesn't make sense to you, it's probably someone from the other board.)

Dude. I am so f*cking thankful. Out of the more-or-less-blue, LibertyMascot up and decided to buy me and my mamacita seats in Section 85. How cool is that? We were close enough to watch VJ and Kym sharing a moment, close enough to see Maddie keeping Tari company as she stretched, close enough to see far too much gum-chewing (notable offenders were Kym Hampton and Kedra Holland-Corn- dudette, no one cares what kind of gum you're chewing, keep it to yourself). We could see the look of frustration on Elena's face when she missed a defensive assignment and hear the calls that the refs would occasionally and notably screw up. It was so COOL! Okay, so it had the disadvantage of having disinterested fans in front of and next to us, but hey, ain't nothing perfect. And then Admin Kate hooked me up with Seattle stuff. *applauds the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer* The Lynx-Storm game got the front page of both sports sections. How cool is that? The Liberty never get a photo chunk of the front page!

Okay, enough me babble. Y'all want to hear about the game. Straight up, it was awesome, and not just because the Liberty won. The place was rocking, even though it wasn't a sellout. It was a game well-played by both teams, tough without too often crossing the line (though Becky didn't really need to head-butt Tina Thompson). This is a rivalry of respect, not one of near-hatred. Tina put everyone on notice that this is her year- what did she end with, 35 points? It was more than half of the Houston total, I know that much. She has entered the pantheon for real. Everything was going in, and she was even getting the princess treatment from the refs. *pauses* Did Houston have more than two or three triples? I know she and Sheryl went deep, and I think someone else did too, but I don't remember the words 'three-point goal *insert Comet name here*' coming over the PA that often. The guard rotation for the Comets was interesting- seems VanChan the candy-throwing man (my nick for him) was operating on the one strike and you're out rule for his guards. Sheryl doesn't look right- she went down hard once, and absolutely hustled after one ball in particular. Kedra Holland-Corn is a one-woman press- she picked several pockets and hassled anyone who even looked like they had the ball. And plase God, make Tiffani Johnson go away.

Sure, Becky was high scorer, but Elena was the story, at least of the first half. A dobule-double by halftime? Sweet. I think international-play-Elena has arrived in the WNBA. DeTrina White was also very impressive- her hustle reminds me of a time long gone. And it looks like we're back to the 'let's throw the ball as far as we can and make VJ chase it' school of fast breaks. Fortunately we're getting away from that. Somewhat. K.B.'s regressed slightly, but she runs the offense well and still does some neat trick dribbling when people knock her down, and got totally shafted on an over-the-back by Tiffani Johnson. VJ was as solid as ever. Heck, even Crystal was getting in on the rebounding thing. And Becky managed not to have Sheryl pick her pocket too many times. Bethany didn't get too much time, didn't impress when she was in. Tari is still coming back slowly, but I'm sure Tina picked up her slack on the VGM end. The team gelled well. It was pretty- a lot of passes, a lot of nice passes (notably a thread-the-needle look from Elena to DeTrina). The problem I have is that Shameka Christon looked an awful lot like Lindsay Whalen yesterday. And think, we could have had Nicole Ohlde. The other problem is that they can't keep up the intensity- it ebbs and flows. Not of the good.

The refs were the usual refs- inconsistent, lax, but fortunately tolerant of people yak-yak-yakking at them, otherwise we'd have seen some T's tonight. They blew a couple of calls, especially one on Crystal where she was *so* in position deep in the paint.

Got to chat with Glenn a while, and that was cool (and dude, don't think I didn't see you blowing Becky that kiss near the end of the game). Saw Joe with all his pins and such. If I conversed with any other posters, didn't know that I did. I'm the one with the impressive cap and the medium black bag, who tends to know where everyone's been and where everyone is now. I usually sit up in 210. Stop by.