Monthly Archives: September 2012

WNBA Today, 09/08/2012: Finals Rematch Produces Instant Classic

There were five WNBA games played last night (all of them overlapping – thanks for making my job as difficult as possible, WNBA). All of them had at least some relevance to playoff positioning or qualification, but ultimately one stood head and shoulders above the others in terms of pure entertainment value. So it gets its own column (the other four games will be covered in another piece later tonight).

In a lot of ways, Atlanta’s visit to Minnesota was one of the least meaningful games played last night. The Lynx had opened up a four-game lead at the top of the West, and it’s going to take something unlikely to shift Atlanta out of third in the East before the playoffs. But neither team was going to treat this game lightly.

Minnesota have been rolling since the Olympics, winning all seven games before this encounter (9 in a row including games prior to the break). However, their bench has been in something of a slump, and this was one of only two home games left for the Lynx in the regular season. This was no time to relax. The Dream are still in recovery mode after the departure of head coach and general manager Marynell Meadors, and the return of Angel McCoughtry from suspension. Recent wins over Connecticut and Indiana have shown signs of piecing things back together, but they need to keep that push going heading into the postseason. There’s also the basic fact that the Lynx swept them in the WNBA Finals last year, beat them again a couple of weeks ago, and could well be awaiting Atlanta if they find a way to the Finals again next month. The Dream were tired of losing to this team.

The starting fives were as anticipated, which meant McCoughtry coming off the bench again (based on how she’s played so far, that doesn’t seem to be bothering her. Yet). The opening minutes were ugly, with neither team making anything, but when the points did start to flow, it was only at one end of the floor. It was all Atlanta. The Dream weren’t just on top; they were dominating on Minnesota’s own floor. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/07/2012: Dream hold off Fever in likely playoff preview, while it’s blowout-city elsewhere

Apologies for the lack of update yesterday – your WNBAlien correspondent was at the Paralympic wheelchair basketball, watching the USA lose to Australia in the semi-finals for a change. For the record, the women’s semi ended with the kind of screw-job by the officials that would’ve caused years of bitching and moaning from Americans, if it happened in a version of the game they actually pay some attention to. Fortunately for the referees in question, the Paralympics appears to be an even smaller blip on the radar in the US than the WNBA.

So, back to our regularly scheduled programming. In an effort to catch up, we’re going to discuss the one game from the last couple of days that’s worth talking about in detail, then Bullet Point Breakdown the remaining two (which were such consummate blowouts there’s not much to go into). So first up, the probable playoff preview from Wednesday night in Atlanta.

Indiana were the Dream’s visitors, and while nothing’s set in stone just yet, there’s a strong chance that these teams will be meeting in the first round of the postseason. Indiana had narrowed the gap with Connecticut at the top of the Eastern Conference to two games before this matchup, but it’s still going to take a strong finish to have any chance of overhauling the Sun. Atlanta, even while enduring the recent mess surrounding their coaching change and Angel McCoughtry, have continued to win enough games to comfortably hold off New York and Chicago in third. So there was a little extra spice to this game, because everyone knew going in that they were likely to meet again in three weeks’ time, in far more meaningful circumstances.

Indiana opened the game with the same starting five we’ve grown used to; Atlanta still had Angel McCoughtry coming off the bench behind rookie Tiffany Hayes, although Armintie Price regained her starting spot ahead of Cathrine Kraayeveld at the other wing spot. Inside five minutes, Price had picked up two fouls, leading to another sign that the Dream’s recent history is starting to be put behind them. When the same thing had happened a couple of weeks ago (while Marynell Meadors was still running the team), Kraayeveld came into the game as Price’s replacement, sending a message to McCoughtry. This time, McCoughtry subbed in. The franchise is trying to move on, and the only reason Angel is still a ‘reserve’ at this point is that Hayes has played so well as a starter. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/05/2012: Conference leaders keep rolling

The Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx both led their respective conferences heading into the WNBA’s Olympic break, and both still sat in first place heading into their games last night. But their paths since the midseason hiatus have differed. Connecticut looked the more comfortable leaders in the first half of the season, but with injury issues in their post corps and some inconsistent performances, Indiana have been narrowing the gap. Minnesota had their letdown period and injury issues before the break, but have gotten healthy and are yet to lose a game in the second half of the season. Meanwhile, nearest Western challengers San Antonio and Los Angeles have started slipping up. The Sun and Lynx remain the favourites to meet in the WNBA Finals, but it’s Minnesota who’ve started to look more certain participants.

Connecticut were the first on-court last night, facing their fifth and final meeting of the season with the hapless Washington Mystics. Unsurprisingly, considering Washington were 5-21 coming into the game, Connecticut had won all of the previous four encounters. The Sun were still without starting power forward Asjha Jones due to her achilles injury, but at least her backup Mistie Mims was available again, after recovering from her own quad strain. Mims went right back into the starting lineup ahead of Kelsey Griffin. For the second straight game, Washington started Noelle Quinn on the perimeter and Ashley Robinson in the post, ahead of previous regular starters Matee Ajavon and Michelle Snow.

The official attendance released after the game read 5,980, but the number of people watching looked like it probably fell in the three-digit range. In that spirit, and due to the fact that it’s increasingly difficult to find anything worth saying about Mystics games, this report will hopefully remain reasonably short.

It’s not that this Washington team are completely untalented or consistently useless. If that were the case, they’d be losing every game by 30 points. They simply have too many breakdowns at either end of the floor, and too many mental errors to beat better teams. Their main chance of winning games at this point is the hope that a random player or two might get hot from outside, and their opponent might take them too lightly. Connecticut did their best to help Washington out early in this game, sleepwalking through the opening stages and allowing the Mystics to hold a 5-point lead at the end of the first quarter. Crystal Langhorne, Washington’s one true star-quality player, was the central figure in their offense, knocking down jumpers from the top of the key and finishing with her usual tenacity inside. The Sun seemed to have largely forgotten that they had Tina Charles as an option in the paint, and their only decent offense came from Kara Lawson jump shots. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/03/2012: Atlanta’s conquering heroine returns, while Sparks are exposed again

Maybe the USA should have more public holidays. Two WNBA games yesterday, and anyone who took the time to catch them during Labor Day weekend saw some decidedly entertaining basketball. Or for those of us in different countries, it was just a nice Sunday.

The games began with what hopefully was also a conclusion. Atlanta were hosting Connecticut, and Angel McCoughtry was in uniform and ready to play. She’d missed two games prior to Marynell Meadors’s departure as Dream head coach and general manager, then missed two more while ‘indefinitely suspended’ by Meadors’s replacement, Fred Williams. On Wednesday, he’d reportedly presented her with a written list of requirements that she needed to sign and comply with before being reinstated to the team. Presumably, she’d agreed to his terms, because Angel was back.

Not back in the starting lineup just yet, however. Rookie guard Tiffany Hayes continued to start, and the only change for Atlanta was Cathrine Kraayeveld beginning the game ahead of Armintie Price (possibly because Price missed a practice to attend a funeral, rather than a strange coach’s decision). Connecticut once again had Kelsey Griffin starting at power forward, with Asjha Jones and Mistie Mims still out due to injury. The Sun post corps is scraping by with about two-and-a-half options at the moment.

Besides the inevitable McCoughtry drama, the post is where much of the interest lies in this matchup. Connecticut were a better team than Atlanta for much of last season, and finished ahead of them in the standings, earning home-court advantage for their first-round playoff series. But largely because of the job that Erika de Souza did on Sun star center Tina Charles, Atlanta swept Connecticut out of the postseason. With Erika having skipped the first half of the 2012 WNBA season to prepare for the Olympics with Brazil, this was their first encounter since that playoff series (meaningless USA-Brazil international friendlies don’t count).

The big centers started going at each other from the opening possessions. Charles wasn’t backing down, but as always the physicality of de Souza was making things difficult for her. Erika forces Charles to work hard for everything she gets, including the initial post position she can set up in. While many of the efforts were moves and shots that she typically takes against everyone, it was noticeable that every attempt Charles took in the early stages – and for most of the rest of the game – was either a face-up jump shot, or a post move that took her away from the basket. Practically nothing was with Charles moving towards the rim. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/02/2012: Triple-header topped off by Merc surprise

Triple-header Saturday in the WNBA, with the three games neatly spread out so that you could catch all of them with a little rest inbetween, or pick and choose to your heart’s content. Of course, inevitably, the only one worth watching finished when the sun was coming up in my part of the world, but you still have to applaud the effort of the schedulers. This was a significant upgrade on nights when four games take place simultaneously, WNBA.

On to the Bullet Point Breakdowns.

 

Washington Mystics 73 @ New York Liberty 79

  • Both teams made changes to their starting lineups. Trudi Lacey shuffled her Mystics pack yet again, promoting Noelle Quinn over Matee Ajavon at shooting guard (for the second time in 10 days), and Ashley Robinson over Michelle Snow at center. Shifting deckchairs on the Titanic, again.
  • New York’s changes at least seemed to serve a purpose. Essence Carson replaced Leilani Mitchell in the backcourt, while Kara Braxton came in for Kia Vaughn at center. Essentially, John Whisenant was putting all his scorers on the floor from the beginning. Using Carson over Mitchell would seem to put more pressure on Cappie Pondexter to run the offense, but Carson can pass the ball as well and offers more of a threat to score. Vaughn’s barely been involved in the offense lately, while Braxton is always looking to score while she’s on the floor – even if she can’t keep moving for long. This was a clear effort to create more offense.
  • It sort of worked in the early stages, but a lot of New York possessions were boiling down to Carson or Pondexter going one-on-one. That’s useful on occasion, but you don’t want to revolve your entire offense around it.
  • For Washington, Monique Currie was driving, drawing fouls as she often does. Crystal Langhorne was finishing inside, as she typically does when they can get her the ball. And the guards hit a couple of threes. That was enough to hang around in the first quarter.
  • However, Washington’s offense disintegrated in the second period, as their common affliction – turnover disease – returned with a vengeance. The Liberty still had Pondexter and Carson making plays, and received a boost when the aggressive and effective version of Kara Braxton made an appearance. She and Michelle Snow – a similarly talented yet painfully frustrating center – went at each other, and both scored buckets past the other’s half-hearted defense. Braxton eventually came out on top by making one or two extra plays, and having guards who could find her in better positions. The Liberty were up 45-32 by halftime. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/01/2012: Lynx Survive Shock Scare

The Minnesota Lynx and Tulsa Shock were in very different situations following the Olympic break. Minnesota had a rocky patch just before the hiatus, had several players returning from injury, and three more who’d been working for gold in London. But with LA and San Antonio hot on their heels at the top of the Western Conference, they had the incentive to keep fighting for wins to maintain the top spot and hold on to home court advantage in the playoffs. Tulsa, on the other hand, have been fighting for nothing but pride for quite some time now. They had only three wins in the first half of the season, and with the Griner lottery looming many might’ve expected them to be comfortable with piling up more losses. Instead, both these teams have continued to scrap for every last point and every possible victory since the WNBA re-started.

This isn’t the running joke of a Tulsa Shock franchise that we saw for the last couple of years any more. Gary Kloppenburg has worked hard with this group, and done a very impressive job, and even without much interior presence besides rookie Glory Johnson they’ve become a legitimately competitive team. They still don’t have the talent of a lot of other franchises, but this is an organised, professional WNBA team now. You have to prepare and show up in the right state of mind or they’ll take you apart. As they’d illustrated by winning three of their previous four games, beating Chicago, Atlanta and LA.

But this was still the reigning champs, on their own floor, with Tulsa coming in on the second half of a back-to-back. However improved they might be, Tulsa were always going to have their work cut out for them last night. The Lynx had their well-established starting five opening the game as usual, while the Shock were once again without Temeka Johnson (ankle/abdominal injury) and Kayla Pedersen (longest flu ever?). Once again, Ivory Latta filled in at the point, while Chante Black started in the paint.

The Lynx got exactly what they expected from Tulsa in the first half, but knowing what was coming didn’t help them to stop it. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/31/2012: Five games, zero trades

Apologies for the lateness of this posting, but while yesterday was the trade deadline in the WNBA, today was the transfer deadline for English Premier League soccer teams. And because something actually happens on deadline day over here, following those events was higher up my priority list than detailing last night’s WNBA action.

In case there’s anyone still wondering, no trades whatsoever took place before the WNBA deadline. No big deal for Angel McCoughtry, no tiny deal for the 11th player on the end of a lottery team’s bench. In Connecticut, Tan White signed contract extension for an extra year and Jessica Moore was signed through the end of this season. That was it for transaction news league-wide. Ah well, maybe next year. On to the basketball.

 

Indiana Fever 76 @ New York Liberty 63 and

Washington Mystics 59 @ Atlanta Dream 82

  • Yes, for the first time in WNBAlien history (but probably not the last) we’re combining two games into one Bullet Point Breakdown entry. Two tight but exceedingly dull first-halves led into comfortable second-half victories, so this is all they deserve.
  • New York and Indiana had their expected starting fives on the floor again, while Atlanta and Washington were also both the same as in their previous appearances. Which meant Matee Ajavon kept her starting spot for the Mystics, and Angel McCoughtry was still nowhere to be seen for the Dream.
  • Again, remarkably tedious first-halves. In New York, Indiana’s offense was largely coming down to whether Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas could hit shots, and their limited accuracy kept the Fever’s offense from being particularly effective. The Liberty themselves were turning the ball over so often that they barely even seemed to have the chance to take a shot. Indiana led 30-26 at halftime.
  • Meanwhile in Atlanta, the turnovers were just as plentiful, but more evenly spread between the opponents. Sancho Lyttle – thank the heavens – was looking to pass more from the top of the arc rather than fire up threes, but the Dream were missing a host of layups even when they held on to the ball long enough to shoot. Between Crystal Langhorne’s ability to actually finish inside and Monique Currie hitting a few shots, Washington were actually competitive in the first half, and finished it up 33-31. Continue reading →