Monthly Archives: August 2011

WNBA Today, 08/11/2011: Everybody’s Still Playing!

On to the second-half of Tuesday night’s WNBA sextuple-header. Apologies to the fans that had to wait until I got to their team – there are only so many hours in the day, even for me. Plus, y’know, abject laziness tends to play a part too.

Atlanta and Washington went into their game on Tuesday night as technically the bottom two teams in the Eastern Conference, although the Dream only sat behind Chicago on percentage points. The comments to the press from Mystics brass about still making a playoff push were pure PR spin, but if they had even a miniscule belief that it was possible this game was a must win. Chasing down Chicago and Atlanta was only ever going to be possible if they won all their remaining games against the those teams. After blowing out New York on Saturday, the Mystics also should’ve been heading into this game with renewed confidence that they were capable of winning games. Coming off their own overwhelming win over Seattle on Sunday, the Dream were hardly lacking in belief either.

After spraining her ankle in the game against Seattle, Armintie Price was replaced by Coco Miller in Atlanta’s starting lineup. Price was in uniform, but stayed on the bench – for the time being. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/10/2011: Everybody plays!

So, six games yesterday in the WNBA, because apparently the league wants to punish me for something I did in a previous life. However, they made the mistake of leaving today free, which means I can spread things out. In this column you get the top teams from either conference, because if you’re in first you earn the right to be discussed first. Plus I threw in the LA-Tulsa game because I figure barely anyone watched it so a recap might be useful. The other three games will be covered tomorrow. The WNBA’s plan to exhaust me by overloading their schedule on certain days is foiled again.

So we start out with Indiana, looking to rebound from their disappointing loss in Chicago on Sunday with a home game against San Antonio. The Fever haven’t had to face a great deal of adversity this season, besides working out what to do when Briann January went down (which was a pretty straightforward decision). Losing one game to the Sky was hardly a disaster, but the manner of the 19-point loss to a team that they’ve dominated in the past necessitated a response. You don’t want games like that to linger. San Antonio have been patchy themselves lately, losing three straight before beating Tulsa by just eight points on Saturday. The recent record would look a lot prettier if they’d had just a little more luck in either of two last-second losses to Minnesota, but their offense has struggled at times since Danielle Adams suffered her foot injury. They’re still battling for wins, but everything becomes more difficult when you lose a key weapon.

The first quarter was dominated by defense. There were several turnovers on either side, but this was less the sloppy giveaways that we’ve seen from teams like Tulsa, LA, Phoenix and Seattle this season, more two hard-nosed defenses fighting each other tooth and nail. These were forced turnovers, not aimless passes sailing over teammates’ heads for no good reason. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/09/2011: Sextuple Tuesday

Yes, six games tonight in the WNBA, as every team in the league takes to the floor. In honour of that (and the fact that there were no games yesterday), WNBAlien brings you some game notes and things to watch out for in all six contests.


Atlanta @ Washington, 7pm ET (ESPN3 in the US, LiveAccess in most other places)

This one could actually be pretty interesting. The Mystics have played some decent stuff lately, finally grabbing their fourth win of the year against New York on Saturday. They also keep claiming that they’re still chasing a playoff spot, and if they honestly believe that then this is one of the games that they have to win – Chicago and Atlanta are the obvious suspects to track down if they were to somehow pull it off.

Crystal Langhorne and Matee Ajavon have been carrying Washington of late, Ajavon especially exploding against New York, but they may struggle against Atlanta’s weapons. The Dream can match up with the Mystics’ speed, although after Armintie Price hurt her ankle in the last game they might be without the most natural option to guard Ajavon. An increasingly healthy Sancho Lyttle could make things difficult for Langhorne inside, but when she’s in the mood Lang can score against anybody. On the opposite side of the ball, Marissa Coleman’s defense may be improved from what it once was, but it’s still hard to see how she’ll keep up with Angel McCoughtry. The Mystics defense will have to be alive and offer Coleman a lot of help to keep McCoughtry quiet.

After two disappointing losses, Atlanta creamed Seattle on Sunday afternoon, and will be looking to carry that momentum on into this game. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/08/2011: Lesson One – Turnovers are Bad

A quad-game Sunday in the WNBA this week, and we’re going to start at the very beginning – because apparently it’s a very good place to start. Seattle went into Philips Arena in Atlanta on a three-game win streak, but also with a 4-7 road record for the season that’s a little misleading. Two of the wins were in Tulsa, one in Washington, and only the victory in Phoenix just after the All-Star break really meant anything. This is a team that’s still struggling to perform without the support of the Key Arena crowd. That simultaneously makes winning a few of these games even more vital, because they’re in a three-way battle with San Antonio and Phoenix for second-place in the Western Conference. Which would result in home-court advantage for at least one round of the playoffs. Hopefully Lauren Jackson will be back by then, and perhaps lower the Storm’s reliance on their own floor, but that #2 spot could mean more to them than any of their rivals.

Atlanta are in the midst of their own playoff battle, but in their case it’s a matter of overtaking Chicago to even make the postseason. Losses to New York and Connecticut in their last couple of games haven’t helped, so they needed to get back to winning ways. Head coach Marynell Meadors shook up her starting lineup in the hope that it would reenergise her team, reinserting Angel McCoughtry and Sancho Lyttle as the starting forwards. It’s still unclear exactly why McCoughtry was ever removed, but it makes sense to open the game with your leader and star on the floor. With Lyttle, it was just a matter of waiting until she seemed healthy enough to take her place – she’s clearly the best option at power forward for this team, as long as she’s in one piece.

The opening stages were, unfortunately for the Storm, a microcosm of the entire 40 minutes. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/07/2011: It’s a Kind of Magic

Two games in the WNBA on Saturday, one East, one West, and each featuring the worst team in the respective conference. So it was another night of blowouts and garbage time, right? Not so fast.

The Washington Mystics have been playing slightly better basketball lately. They’d lost nine of their last ten and sported a hideous 3-14 overall record coming into this game, but they keep coming close. In fact, their last four games were lost by seven, six, four and two points, in that order. Keep up the pattern, and barring an even more excruciating one-point loss, they had to finally win this one. New York broke their own pattern on Thursday, finally winning two games in a row for the first time in weeks. But they managed it by beating Chicago in one of the more hideous games the WNBA has seen in recent times, so we’re trying to forget that one.

Recent Liberty addition Kara Braxton was yet to join the team, although Sidney Spencer has already made her way to Phoenix, so New York were down to ten for this game. Washington’s injury issues are still the same – no Beard, no Currie. The first quarter set the scene for most of what was to follow – in other words, it belonged to Matee Ajavon. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/06/2011: Is it a Bird? Is it a plane? Right the first time.

Regular WNBAlien readers may have noticed that unless there’s a compelling reason not to, I typically look at the games in chronological order. Well, when the opening contest is Tulsa being stuffed for the 527th time this season, it gets relegated to footnote status. There was one game last night worth talking about, and it was Connecticut’s trip up to the Pacific Northwest to face Seattle. So we’re going to start there.

Both teams went with the starting fives that have served them well lately, producing four wins in the last five for Seattle, and seven out of eight for Connecticut. The Sun have even rectified their appalling road form of late, winning their last three outside the Mohegan Sun after starting the year 1-5 away from home. This was an intriguing encounter even for those who aren’t fans of the University of Connecticut, who seem to provide most of the players on display.

The first 15 minutes of the game were all Seattle. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/05/2011: Lynx leave it late, stretch streak to eight

So after yesterday afternoon’s excruciating display of offensive ineptitude by Chicago and New York (discussed here), the top teams in the WNBA’s Western Conference had last night all to themselves. San Antonio had lost their previous two games, dropping dangerously close to Seattle and Phoenix in the standings. In fact, a loss in this game would create a three-way tie for 2nd/3rd/4th in the West. One of those Silver Stars losses was at home to Minnesota last Sunday, although it took a Lindsay Whalen jumper with 1.5 seconds to play to snatch a one-point win out of the fire. The Lynx had won seven in a row heading into the re-match last night, six of them over Western Conference rivals and the seventh over East-leading Indiana. Already three games clear at the top of the standings, another win over San Antonio would create a four-game gap over everybody and leave Minnesota the hot favourites for home-court advantage in the playoffs. Even with 15 games to go.

The lineups were the same as last week – same starting fives, and Danielle Adams and Monica Wright missing due to injury and family matters respectively. Now both these teams are very sound defensively, but this was a Western Conference matchup. Remember the West? That’s the side that’s supposed to be full of running and scoring, while the East has all the physical battles in the paint. Surely we were going to be served up more offense than New York and Chicago had offered in their struggle earlier in the day? Well, no. Continue reading →

WNBAlien Special – Grading the Trade: Braxton moving again

For the second year in a row, Kara Braxton has found herself packing her bags just before the WNBA trade deadline. Less than 12 months ago she was brought in by Phoenix in the hope that she’d be the necessary final piece to win another championship, at the expense of a first-round draft pick. This time, they’ve given her away for the very last player on the end of the New York Liberty bench. What a difference a year makes.

Braxton is an enormously frustrating player. For someone with such a huge frame, she actually moves fairly well in the paint (although often not from one end of the floor to the other). She can be an efficient scorer inside, she’s got some range, and she’s not afraid to use that big body to fight it out for rebounds. But it comes at a price. While she’s been better in recent years, she was well known in her Detroit years for boneheaded errors that cost her team points, possessions and momentum. At times, she’s a turnover waiting to happen. It’s only so annoying because you can see frequent flashes of just how gifted she is, which makes the mistakes all the more disappointing. And that’s just the negatives on the floor.

Braxton missed Tuesday’s game in Minnesota due to a one-game suspension for ‘conduct detrimental to the team’. Exactly what that was still remains a matter of speculation, but some reports suggest she ‘mouthed off’ to head coach Corey Gaines. Reportedly she wasn’t at practice on Thursday, but there was no information as to whether she just didn’t show up, or if the team told her to stay away. It’s far from the first time that Braxton has had behavioural issues. She was thrown off the team at the University of Georgia after multiple suspensions for conduct issues. She’s been suspended twice in the WNBA, for a total of eight games, for DUI convictions. It’s left her with a reputation as something of a malcontent and headcase which can hardly be considered undeserved, and makes the recent events in Phoenix unsurprising. But they knew all this coming in. The Mercury traded for her despite all the baggage, considered her worth a draft pick that they knew was going to be mid-first round (eventually 7th overall, which became Kayla Pedersen), and then gave her a max-level contract extension through 2012. Either Corey Gaines’s skin has grown awfully thin, or there was more to this than a little mouthing off. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/04/2011: Hey kids, they’re not all like this, I promise

Double the fun in today’s column, as we tackle WNBA games from both yesterday and today. Camp day games on both coasts provided afternoon action over the last couple of days, and this piece will cover both of them. This evening’s battle between the top two in the West, San Antonio and Minnesota, is being saved for tomorrow’s piece.

Today also finally brought us a trade, with Phoenix’s Kara Braxton and New York’s Sidney Spencer swapping teams. Check back in a couple of hours for a WNBAlien Grading the Trade special on that transaction.

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Yesterday lunchtime in Los Angeles, thousands of screaming kids descended on Staples Center to see the Sparks face the Connecticut Sun. Having lost five of their last six games, the sole victory being over an equally dreadful Chicago club, LA must’ve been hoping to draw some inspiration from their young, enthusiastic fans. The only other source of hope was Connecticut’s frequently poor form on the road, but recent wins in New York and Chicago have suggested they might be improving in that area. Overall, the Sun had won five of their last six games coming in and will have fancied their chances against a Sparks side that have looked shambolic in recent weeks.

Despite the run of terrible performances and constant need to find help off his bench, LA coach Joe Bryant stuck with the same starting five that have opened every game since he took over. Loyalty is a nice thing to see in a coach, but sometimes it can go too far. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/03/2011: With a Rebel Yell…

Those of you who hang around certain online portals for WNBA arguing – also known as message boards – may well have read my bitching about this year’s WNBA national TV schedule before the season even began. I had one central complaint. The game of women’s basketball doesn’t have many stars. Not true stars that are known by an average sportsfan, rather than someone who specifically follows the women’s game. Over four years at the University of Connecticut, Maya Moore became one of those rare crossover personalities. Your average American man in the street, who watches the NFL, NBA, some MLB and gets into the NCAA during March Madness actually knew who she was. Even Bill Simmons gave her some credit in his columns and podcasts during the NCAA tournament of her senior year.

So when the Minnesota Lynx won the lottery, and everyone in the World knew they’d be taking Maya, it would’ve made sense to put the Lynx on ABC or ESPN as soon as possible, right? Carry the fans over, pull in people who remember her from UConn and see if you can draw people to the pro game via your shiny new star. Apparently not. The national TV schedule came out, and the Lynx appeared once. And not only was there just a single appearance, we were going to have to wait until August for that game to take place. Sportsfans have short memories – you’re not going to create much carry-over attention when Moore hasn’t been in the public consciousness for over four months. Stupid. Anyway, last night Maya Moore finally made her debut on national television in a Lynx jersey. Surprise, surprise, it seems like she enjoys the spotlight. If only this game had taken place months ago.

Of course the night wasn’t just about Moore. Continue reading →