Category Archives: WNBA Today

WNBA Today, 08/21/2011: Wild West heating up

Saturday was a big night for the WNBA’s Western Conference, as all five teams still in with a shot of the playoffs featured. With one superstar having already returned, another making her first appearance in months, and a third taking the night off due to pain, it’s all gotten a little extra-interesting as we head into the final weeks of the regular season. The one East-only matchup had an exciting finish as well, but we’ll get to that at the end. First, the West.

Opening up our Western slate, the Los Angeles Sparks travelled out to face the league-leading Minnesota Lynx. With Candace Parker back in the fold, LA – somehow – managed to beat East-leading Indiana on Thursday night. To my eyes, as regular readers will remember, it was far more down to an inept performance from the Fever than a particularly impressive one from LA. Still, it had to give them extra confidence heading into the game with the Lynx. Compared to San Antonio, LA’s schedule is very straightforward for the rest of the season, meaning their playoff hopes are still alive despite being three games back prior to Saturday night. A win in Minnesota would get that playoff push off to a heck of a start. It hardly mattered, but the Lynx went into this game knowing that a win would officially, 100% statistically confirm that they’d made the playoffs for the first time since 2004. It’s been a foregone conclusion for weeks, but when you’ve been on the outside looking in for so long, it’s always nice to make these things official. There’s also still the small matter of home court advantage throughout the playoffs to fight for.

Minnesota’s starting five has barely changed all season, and nothing was any different for this one. LA stuck with the five that ‘worked’ against Indiana. The Sparks’ defense immediately presented itself as the exact same style and concept that they offered against the Fever. They were switching on everything, not bothering to fight over or around any screens regardless of the players involved. Lindsay Whalen’s not dumb. She brought Taj McWilliams-Franklin out to set screens on three Lynx possessions within the first three minutes of the game. Each time, LA switched and Taj was left being defended by Ticha Penicheiro. Yeah, that’s not going to work. Three easy buckets resulted, two for Taj on layups and one for a wide open Rebekkah Brunson when the ball was kicked to her. I hate this LA defense with a passion. It’s dismal.

The scary thing was that Minnesota started messing it up. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/20/2011: With a Lyttle Bit of Luck

Just one game to look at from Friday night in the WNBA, but first the quick injury report from Saturday – Jackson’s back but Taurasi sat with a bad back. Try saying that five times fast. I’ll have coverage of all four of tonight’s games in tomorrow’s column, including a couple that went right to the wire. For now you’ll have to make do with Connecticut‘s visit to Atlanta, which was no mean contest itself.

The usual starting fives that these teams have settled into took the floor to open the game. After a crushing overtime loss in New York the night before, Connecticut were looking to rebound quickly a get back to winning ways. However, as always in this league, fatigue can be a serious issue in the second half of back-to-backs. After completing a four-game roadtrip on Tuesday in LA, Atlanta were undoubtedly happy to be home, but they hadn’t had much trouble on their travels. 3-1 on that trip, and 9-3 overall in their last 12 games, it’s been a month of progress for the Dream that they were hoping to continue against the Sun.

The first quarter was entertaining, but no one managed to create much of an edge. It took Renee Montgomery barely two minutes to throw two terrible passes into lanes that simply weren’t there, before deciding she’d just start shooting and score instead. That’s a positive way to avoid turnovers. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/19/2011: A New York state of desperation

There were three games in the WNBA yesterday, but one turned out to be the game of the night by some distance. So we’re going to concentrate on the top contest and worry about the others later. After blowing out league-leading Minnesota in their previous game, Connecticut headed into last night on a high. Having won 10 of their last 13, they were looking upwards with hopes of chasing down Indiana, rather than worrying about what was going on behind them. Despite being just one place lower in the Eastern standings, and only 2.5 games behind the Sun, things haven’t been quite so rosy for New York of late. They finally scraped a win over Washington on Tuesday night, but three losses in four prior to that and some tired-looking performances had left them glancing over their shoulders at Atlanta and even Chicago. A win over Connecticut would’ve provided a much needed fillip, and resurrected faint hopes of catching the Sun for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. It also had the potential to reassure players and fans alike that they were going to make the postseason in the first place.

The pre-game news for New York wasn’t good. Quanitra Hollingsworth was still in street clothes due to her ankle sprain, limiting the Liberty’s post options for the second straight game. Joining her on the bench was Nicole Powell, out due to a bone bruise or a left-knee contusion, depending on which injury report you wanted to listen to (they’re essentially the same thing, just phrased differently). Powell hasn’t had the greatest of seasons to say the least, but losing your starting small forward rarely increases your chances of victory. Essence Carson replaced her in the starting lineup. The Sun had everyone available, and stuck with the same starting five that they’ve used throughout their 10-3 run.

The first half was nip and tuck all the way, without either team managing to take control. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/18/2011: Searching for Answers

Because of the very useful tools that came with setting up WNBAlien, I can see how people arrive at this site. In the same way, I can also see which search engine terms people have used in order to be referred here. Typically it’s obvious stuff like ‘wnbalien’, ‘wnba alien’ or ‘wnba’, but some of them have been interesting, amusing or downright bizarre. Some of them have also been questions that have led people here, but weren’t actually answered on the site. So I’m taking this opportunity to hopefully entertain and amuse – and to answer those questions. I figure that if someone was interested enough to search, and kind enough to visit my site as a result, it’s only fair that I provide a few replies. Plus maybe I’ll gain a few extra readers if they plug the same search back in again and wander back. So here we go – all the bolded phrases were the exact search terms that have led people to WNBAlien during its brief existence, with semi-colons separating the different searches. All spelling errors have been left in for the sake of accuracy.

 

how much was chastity reed’s contract with the tulsa shocks worth; how much does natasha lacy make; courtney vandersloot contract salery

First a few easy ones. Chastity Reed was on the first year of a third-rounder’s rookie-scale contract before Tulsa dumped her, meaning she would’ve earned $36,570 if she’d survived the whole season. She lasted under half the year on the roster, and ultimately made around 16 grand.

Natasha Lacy was signed by Los Angeles as a free agent for the league minimum, and as a player with under three years of WNBA service, that’s also $36,570 this season. Unlike Reed, Lacy will receive all of it. Taking the question in its entirety, Lacy will likely make more over the WNBA offseason, where this year she’ll be playing for Ceyhan in Turkey. Although she obviously won’t be making the large sums that the stars can earn on European teams.

Like Reed, Vandersloot’s a rookie, but as a top-four pick she makes rather more. This season, she’s on $46,708, which will progressively rise to $59,552 by her fourth year in the league (assuming nothing’s gone horribly wrong and led to her being waived).

 

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There were more too, but I think you get the gist. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/17/2011 (extra): You can go home again, but you might not enjoy it

Told you I’d be back with the final game from Tuesday night. Hope no one was holding on with bated breath, because it really wasn’t worth it. With Minnesota heading out to Connecticut, all the talk was about just one person – Maya Moore. Returning to the area where she had so much success in college, the first appearance of the WNBA’s presumptive Rookie of the Year back in Connecticut had helped the Sun sell out the Mohegan Sun Arena for this game. Moore’s team has had a couple of tight contests recently, and even dropped a game in Phoenix, but they’d still won 11 of their last 12 games. Hilariously, they’ve already won more games this year than the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves managed in the entire 2010-11 NBA season. The T-Wolves played 82 games; the Lynx only needed 23 to surpass their win total. However, the Sun won’t have been cowering at the prospect of facing the WNBA’s hottest team. 9-3 themselves in their last 12 games, Connecticut are still chasing after Indiana for the top spot in the East and have only lost twice at home all season. They won’t have wanted to make Moore’s homecoming a pleasant one.

The usual fives took the floor to start the game, without any fresh injuries or absences to report. Moore put a three in the air on her first touch of the ball, but when it rimmed out the stage was set for how the opening minutes were going to play out for her and the Lynx. Many of the fans may have showed up to see Moore, but it was the Sun they’d end up cheering for. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/17/2011: A streak ends, and a superstar returns

Last night in the WNBA was packed full of nailbiting finishes. We already looked at two of them in yesterday’s column, but there’s plenty more to come. Seems like those basketball gods are still looking favourably upon me (although for those waiting on an update, Megan Fox is still yet to arrive).

We’ll start with the game in Phoenix, where Seattle arrived looking for a turnaround. The Storm were demolished on their own floor by Atlanta on Saturday night, and their only win in their last four games was over pitiful Tulsa. They’ve also been dismal away from Key Arena this season, so combining their recent form with a flight out to an opposition venue didn’t bode well. On the positive side, they were playing Phoenix. Over the last two seasons, Seattle had won the last nine in a row over the Mercury, including their one decent road win this year (two in Tulsa and one in Washington barely count). If there was a single place where the Storm might be able to create a change in their own fortunes, it was Phoenix. For the Mercury, this was the perfect opportunity to finally break their dismal run against the Storm. They’d suffered a poor loss of their own in LA on Friday night, but in general had improved since the trade that dispensed with Kara Braxton. Plus without Lauren Jackson, Seattle don’t have a low post presence who can punish them like Jantel Lavender did on Friday.

Sad news for the Storm further increased Phoenix’s chances of victory. Tanisha Wright’s mother died on Friday, so she was understandably absent dealing with family matters. That pushed Katie Smith into the starting lineup for Seattle, shortening the bench of a team that already receives precious little from their reserves. The positive news was that Lauren Jackson warmed up with her teammates and reportedly looked strong, but that wasn’t going to help them in this game. LJ still isn’t quite ready to return to game action.

Regardless of their missing players and poor recent performances, Seattle came out firing and relishing the opportunity to face Phoenix’s ‘defense’ just as much as usual. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/16/2011: Liberty stop the rot; Fever keep rolling

Nothing happened in the WNBA on Monday, but there were five games Tuesday night so I figured I’d offer a little quick-fire coverage for once. We’re going to look at the games featuring Washington in New York and Indiana in San Antonio in this piece, with tonight’s other three games coming in tomorrow’s article. Apologies for the fact that this piece will only truly be released on August 16th for those on the US West Coast. Or maybe Alaska. It’ll be a nice little taster for you over breakfast if you only found it the following morning.

So first up, the latest round between the Washington Mystics and the New York Liberty. All four meetings between these two teams have occurred within the last three weeks, and tonight’s game was the third in the space of eleven days. They were probably sick of the sight of each other. After losing their last two encounters with the Mystics, both at home, New York desperately needed to win this one. They were starting to fall away from Connecticut for second-place in the Eastern standings, and dropping perilously close to the likes of Atlanta and even Chicago behind them. More simply, you’re just not supposed to lose to the freaking Mystics three times in a row. Once is pretty bad, twice is a nightmare. Three times would’ve been verging on the ridiculous. Washington are essentially playing for pride at this point, but they’ve been showing a fair amount of it lately, with some decent performances. Playing spoiler with the pressure off can be fun.

The starting fives were the usual groups for these teams, but New York’s bench was a little shorthanded. Quanitra Hollingsworth, who’s been doing a solid job as Kia Vaughn’s backup at center (and lately stealing some of her crunch time minutes as well), was out with an ankle sprain. She’s listed as day-to-day. That put extra pressure on the remaining post players – starters Vaughn and Plenette Pierson, recent addition Kara Braxton and emergency option Ta’Shia Phillips – to produce.

The early stages made it look like New York were determined to avoid that third straight defeat to the worst team in the East. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/15/2011: Welcome to Big Syl’s World

Well I waited and waited, but it wasn’t to be. Unless some unlikely news is about to slide out beyond the deadline, the final day for WNBA teams to make trades this season passed without even a mild whimper. Not one single move. I’m not remotely surprised, but I am a little disappointed. Trades are fun, and they shake things up. It’s not like there are a plethora of teams who don’t need any help this season. Practically everyone has a hole somewhere, and in most cases more than one. The problem is that we’ve only got twelve teams. It’s hard to make a deal when the trading partners are so limited. Ah well, guess we’ll just have to concentrate on the basketball instead.

Two games yesterday, but the late tip involved Tulsa so it’s more like one-and-a-half. The game featuring two actual professional basketball teams was in San Antonio, where Chicago were the visitors. After losing four of their last five, and with Atlanta on a hot streak, the Sky had dropped 1.5 games out of the playoff spots in the East. It was starting to look like Pokey Chatman’s first year in charge was going to end exactly the same way as every other Sky season – counting lottery balls. So they had every reason to be up for this game. San Antonio were coming off their most impressive performance since Danielle Adams started missing games with her foot injury, a 13-point win in Connecticut that was significantly more comprehensive than that sounds. With Phoenix and Seattle having lost in previous days, San Antonio had the chance to create a little separation from those two in the Western standings if they could maintain that level of performance. Considering Chicago’s 2-9 road record, they seemed to have every chance.

However, the opening minutes of the game offered a glimpse of how the entire afternoon was going to play out. Sylvia Fowles hit a layup; Sylvia Fowles grabbed a board; Sylvia Fowles grabbed another board; Sylvia Fowles hit another layup – I think you can see the I’m trying to paint here. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/14/2011: Sun rise; Fever warm; Storm rained on

Okay, before we look at last night’s games, first the really important news. Tomorrow is the WNBA’s trade deadline. After that there’ll be no longer be the possibility for LA to dump their vets, or Kara Braxton to be traded again, or practically every GM in the league to sit around doing nothing whatsoever. Oh wait, they can carry on doing that last one. Outside of free agent pickups, they’ll be stuck with what they’ve got when the clock runs out tomorrow night. Considering Braxton-for-Spencer alone makes this one of the more eventful periods leading up to a deadline in recent seasons, I’m not expecting a flurry of movement in the next 24 hours. But you never know.

I know I say this a lot, but we really are going to skate through yesterday’s games with more speed than usual. I promise. Plus the analysis is going to become briefer as we work our way through the games, because the games became progressively less competitive. First up, Connecticut hosted Washington, which despite featuring second vs. last in the Eastern Conference, was ultimately the closest game all day. The starting fives were the same as usual, and Danielle McCray even managed to open the game well enough to stay on the floor rather than being benched inside the first two minutes, as has often been the case recently.

The entire first half was nip and tuck. Connecticut were cold from outside early on, which allowed Washington to develop a 17-10 lead, but that quickly disappeared once McCray and Tina Charles hit a couple of shots. From there, no one could break away, and the scoreline was repeatedly tied or separated by only a single point. The Mystics were hot from downtown, with Marissa Coleman and Kelly Miller especially firing away and hitting more than they missed. Even power forward Crystal Langhorne knocked down her first triple of the season. Connecticut couldn’t find any consistent offensive rhythm, but created enough turnovers and scrambled enough points to stay right in the contest. In fact, the Sun led 44-43 at halftime, a surprisingly high-scoring game for these teams.

Connecticut came out for the second half with a clear mandate to pound the ball inside with Charles. She wasn’t scoring much, but she was drawing repeated fouls, including Langhorne’s fourth of the game inside the first minute of the third quarter. Whenever you can force the other team’s best player to the bench, something’s going right. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/13/2011: Sometimes, prayers are answered

Who knew that the basketball gods were WNBAlien readers? The day after I give in, admit defeat and ask for close games over any kind of tedious blowout, they deliver with three nailbiters. They even spaced the schedule out nicely so that the games didn’t clash. Do you think they only deal with basketball, or would the same powerful beings respond if I asked for Megan Fox?

While I wait for Megan to arrive, let’s take a look at last night’s games. Forgive me if I gloss over the first 35 minutes of most of them – we’ve got a lot of crunch time to deal with today. The opening game of the evening was in Washington, where the Mystics had returned to their familiar style of finding a way to lose against Atlanta on Tuesday night. Yesterday the visitors were New York, who were looking for revenge after losing in the same arena less than a week earlier. When you’re fighting for playoff position, you’re not really supposed to lose to the worst team in the East once, never mind twice.

There was nothing much in it for most of the first quarter as the teams felt each other out, but late in the first and running into the second, the Liberty made a push. It was mostly on threes that they built their advantage, with rookie Alex Montgomery knocking down a couple, Leilani Mitchell adding one and then Nicole Powell joining in. In the face of the barrage, Washington lost their rhythm and started turning the ball over, which only made it more difficult to halt the tide. New York led 34-21 by the middle of the second period.

Matee Ajavon, the primary perimeter weapon for Washington most of this season, had been kept quiet to that point. Directly up against former college teammates Cappie Pondexter and Essence Carson, you never know quite how a player is going to respond to facing people who know her game inside and out. Continue reading →