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 →

WNBA Today, 08/02/2011: Mini-Update

I had every intention of covering tonight’s early-evening games in this column, but events conspired against me. Or more accurately, the WNBA’s disappointing and shambolic LiveAccess service conspired against me. The thoroughly annoying ‘Technical difficulties’ screen was a part of all three broadcasts tonight, and for no good reason in the case of the first two (seeing as they were running fine elsewhere). So blame WNBA.com and the Turner group that handles their online services. It’s a mini-update instead. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/01/2011: Two out of three ain’t bad

We may have only recently passed the halfway point, but the brevity of the WNBA season means that you can already feel the intensity ratcheting up. At least in a lot of games you can. Sunday started out with the first meeting this season between the top two in the Western Conference, a game which inevitably carried a little extra spice as the teams fought it out to be top dog. The day continued with a hard-fought Eastern Conference battle played with the physicality and aggression of a playoff game. And then it closed out with a cross-conference matchup where one team quit after about five minutes. We’ll get to that one later. First let’s deal with the teams who deserve to be talked about.

The opening game featured Minnesota travelling to face San Antonio in Texas. By an odd quirk of the schedule, this is the first of their four meetings this year, and it’s going to be an interesting series between two teams that have proven themselves as strong contenders in the West. Each was without a talented member of their bench for this game, with Monica Wright still missing for the Lynx dealing with family matters (her father reportedly had a heart attack) and Danielle Adams out for San Antonio due to her foot sprain. Considering how little use Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve has made of Wright this season, it seemed likely that Adams would be the more significant loss. Both teams started the same fives that have begun all their recent games.

The opening skirmishes seemed to favour Minnesota. Lindsay Whalen was penetrating at will and creating good scoring opportunities for both herself and her teammates, while San Antonio were firing up threes as their main source of offense. However good a shooting team you are, relying on threes to keep you in games is never a good idea. Late in the first quarter, however, things began to change. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/31/2011: Are they still zebras if they don’t wear stripes?

Don’t you hate when it’s impossible to discuss a basketball game without talking about the officials? I try to leave them alone whenever possible, because I fully accept that it’s a damn hard job, and that even when you do it well no one gives you any credit. Refereeing any basketball game is difficult; officiating at the professional level is exponentially harder because of the increase in speed and physicality. But I’m sorry, you just can’t fully discuss Saturday’s games without mentioning the zebras (I know they don’t wear stripes in this league. Tough. I like the nickname). Well you can’t fully discuss two of the games, anyway. As ever, Tulsa contests could be refereed by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the Little Mermaid without much difference to the outcome.

The first game of the night was in New York, where Phoenix were the visitors. We probably could’ve guessed that this would be a tough game to marshal. After forcing a trade to New York prior to the 2010 season, Cappie Pondexter’s matchups with her former team have been a little spicy to say the least. She was thrown out of the first encounter last season for her part in a fracas, and then channelled her energy more positively to shoot the Merc off the floor in the second meeting. Beyond the history with Pondexter, Mercury games frequently end up chippy. Diana Taurasi and head coach Corey Gaines both bitch about every call, and Taurasi constantly creates contact at both ends of the floor. It can’t be fun for the refs. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/30/2011: Ohhh, we’re half way there…

You know we’ve hit the meat of the WNBA season when a day with only two games feels like a nice, relaxing, easy evening for me. I’m also reliably informed that while last weekend may have been the official mid-point of the season in terms of date, last night’s games took us to exactly halfway through the schedule. 102 games down, 102 to go. Then the playoffs, of course. And WNBAlien just keeps on ticking.

The basketball gods even made it ridiculously easy to choose which game to focus on last night, offering up one tight contest and one overwhelming, comprehensive blowout. Considering the first game was top vs. bottom in the East, while the second featured last season’s champs against the current Western leaders, you might’ve thought the latter would’ve been the close one. You’d have been about as accurate as a Nicky Anosike fadeaway.

Aw, that’s a little unfair. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/29/2011: Ever decreasing circles, WNBA-style

Five games yesterday in the WNBA, and there were fewer points scored in each contest as we went along. It’s a good thing there weren’t any more games or we might’ve ended up with a soccer score. With so many games I’ll be keeping it reasonably brief today – or at least brief by my standards – so let’s get underway. (Editor’s note (yes that’s me as well, humour me): I intended to keep it brief. Level of success is questionable.)

Camp day for San Antonio meant Phoenix were tipping off at 9.30am as far as their fans back home were concerned. Players don’t tend to enjoy these extremely early starts either. The Mercury at least had the benefit of facing the Silver Stars without Danielle Adams, who was in a walking boot and using a crutch after her right toe injury suffered in the Tuesday’s game. Considering she put up 16 and 22 points in the two previous games between these sides this season, that should’ve been a significant bonus for Phoenix.

The Mercury played the first quarter like they still wanted to be in bed. Too many sloppy turnovers and defense that was leaving perimeter scorers like Becky Hammon far too open. San Antonio happily took advantage, Hammon had 13 by the end of the first and Diana Taurasi capped off a grumpy opening period with her fifth technical foul of the season (remember, numbers seven, nine, eleven etc. carry one-game suspensions). Continue reading →