Tag Archives: Los Angeles Sparks

WNBA Today, 08/24/2012: Comebacks, non-comebacks, and the Sparks send a message

Last night in the WNBA was all about comebacks. One superstar returned for her first appearance of the year; one was supposedly on the brink, then yet again absent; another was a hot topic of conversation despite her team not even having a game. There was even a storming comeback to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in one of the games, while the dominant performance in the evening’s big matchup was by a player in her first season back after years out of basketball.

So read on, enjoy, and please come back again soon.

 

New York Liberty 89 @ Phoenix Mercury 77

  • So Diana Taurasi was supposed to play in this game. The Mercury swear her name was on the lineup sheet, and she was even going to start. Then apparently she felt dizzy and light-headed in warmups, so Phoenix head coach Corey Gaines pulled her. She spent the rest of the night offering encouragement from the bench. Now it’s perfectly plausible that someone who had multiple wisdom teeth removed last week, and has been on prescription drugs since, might not feel 100% when asked to play professional sports. And you’d expect the Mercury to be extra-careful with her, especially considering they have few remaining reasons to win games this year. But you just had to laugh. She’ll probably play eventually this season, and the Mercury are bad enough to carry on losing even with her on the floor, but on the face of it the excuses are becoming increasingly ludicrous. Maybe she’ll miss Saturday’s game with a hang nail.
  • Continuing the comeback theme, New York’s star and leader is Cappie Pondexter. She made her name and won a couple of titles with the Mercury, before forcing a trade to the Liberty. She’s had some spiky encounters with her old team in the years since, including one minor fracas that got her ejected. Plenette Pierson and Kara Braxton both have chequered histories with the Mercury as well, but without quite the same profile.
  • Same starting five again for New York; Nakia Sanford arbitrarily in for Avery Warley in the post for Phoenix. The Mercury also had recent signing Briana Gilbreath in uniform for the first time, and with their pile-up of injuries, she had to join the action pretty quickly.
  • The early minutes were just like every other recent Mercury game. Terrible defense, allowing the Liberty whatever they wanted inside or out; and DeWanna Bonner and Sammy Prahalis taking virtually every shot at the other end, mostly from long range. With Pondexter leading the attack and point guard Leilani Mitchell knocking down threes, New York inevitably grabbed a comfortable 30-16 lead by the end of the first quarter. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/22/2012: Western powers roll; Sun survive a scare; Sky keep falling

Five games last night. They really don’t think about the poor writers when they come up with these schedules. For those of you who prefer the standard article format, rest assured that it will return on nights when there are fewer games to discuss. But for now, on to the Bullet Point Breakdown of all five games from Tuesday.

 

Tulsa Shock 80 @ Connecticut Sun 82

  • Starting forwards were still missing for both teams, Asjha Jones with her achilles issue and Kayla Pedersen presumably still suffering from the flu-like symptoms which kept her out on Sunday. Mistie Mims was again the replacement for Connecticut, while Tulsa went with Chante Black this time to fill Pedersen’s spot. Presumably in the hope that Black could help slow down Tina Charles. Ivory Latta also received her first start since the Olympic break, at that revolving wing spot where Gary Kloppenburg keeps rotating through his options.
  • The opening minutes were a little embarrassing for Kalana Greene. She’s basically out there for her defense, because she doesn’t offer a great deal at the other end of the floor. Her assignment to start this game was Roneeka Hodges, who was ridiculously open for two three-pointers to kick off Tulsa’s scoring.
  • In Greene’s defense, Hodges was wide open for her third triple as well, seconds after Greene was finally benched. Some of it came down to Connecticut’s defensive scheme, rather than individual failings, as became increasingly clear all night.
  • Connecticut’s defense, most of the time, is based around a similar idea to a lot of defensive systems in this league: the basic view that there aren’t that many players in the WNBA who can consistently knock down the three. They try to cut off penetration, and if anyone gets beaten off the dribble, the help sags inside to cover. Inevitably, that leaves shooters open on the wings at times, because that’s where the help is coming from. But they’ll live with that if they have to. You rotate and recover as quickly as possible to challenge the three if the ball gets kicked out, but that shot’s an acceptable risk compared to the potential layup attempt you’d otherwise give up. Tulsa got a bunch of those open threes on the wing in this game (and didn’t actually hit that many – so the plan mostly worked). Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/19/2012 (Part Two): Eastern power holds; LA complete Storm sweep

On with the slightly more timely coverage of Saturday’s games, where Eastern clashes went exactly as the standings would suggest, and home-court advantage wasn’t enough to compensate for injuries and absences in the one Western contest.

 

New York Liberty 74 @ Connecticut Sun 85

  • Two teams which had faced each other only two days earlier in New York clashed again. Connecticut were looking for a quick rebound, after a pretty miserable loss on Thursday night. They were still without Asjha Jones due to her achilles injury. As you’d expect, New York kept faith with the same lineup that helped win the previous game.
  • It was quickly apparent that Connecticut weren’t going to perform as they had 48 hours earlier. Tina Charles, who was utterly anonymous on Thursday, was straight into the action with a little jump hook over Plenette Pierson. Kara Lawson, also terrible in the last game, immediately started knocking down shots. A couple of days to think about their performance and rest up, plus the return to their own home court, appeared to have helped the Sun enormously.
  • Although while their offense was much improved, Connecticut couldn’t stop New York at the other end in the early stages. Nicole Powell and Cappie Pondexter in particular were firing away and making shots, keeping pace with Connecticut. In fact, the Liberty held a narrow lead after a high-scoring first quarter, 26-23.
  • Turnovers began to hurt the Liberty, and Connecticut took more of a grip on the game as the first half progressed. For possibly the first time all season, Sun coach Mike Thibault decided to simply ride Charles as far as he could, letting her play the entire 20 minutes of the first half. She rewarded him with 9-13 shooting for 19 points by the break, largely on layups and finishes around the rim. This was a Tina Charles making a statement, showing definitively that Thursday night was merely a blip. The Sun were up 47-43 at halftime, despite allowing New York to shoot 55% from the floor to that point. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/13/2012: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

Finally it’s upon us – the end of the first-half of the WNBA’s 2012 season. Heading into yesterday, every team in the league had one game left before the month-long break that splits this year’s schedule. Apart from the 13 players heading for London, everyone finally has time to kick back and rest their weary limbs, before spending some time in the gym to work on whatever’s been going wrong in the first half. For the vast majority of teams and individuals, this is a welcome respite in a season that’s suffered from a host of injuries to important players.

The first teams to close out their pre-Olympic schedules were Tulsa and Minnesota, sneaking the Lynx’s Camp Day in just before the break. At 3-14, the Shock have once again done a whole lot of losing this season, but with a few renewed signs of promise. Minnesota have dropped so many games recently – a three-game losing streak broken only by a win over Tulsa on Tuesday – that they’d fallen into a tie with Connecticut for the best record in the WNBA at 14-4. Still, after setting a new WNBA record by shooting virtually 70% from the field against the Shock in their last game, the Lynx were looking to complete back-to-back wins and head into the break on a small upswing.

The starting lineups were the same as two days earlier, with Maya Moore at power forward in the absence of Rebekkah Brunson, Jessica Adair and Devereaux Peters. Minnesota started out pushing the ball up the floor quickly, looking for early offense. Besides their halfcourt ball movement, this is how the Lynx pile up easy points when they’re in rhythm – speed and an attack mentality, finding their way to the basket before the defense is even set up. It’s part of what they’d been missing during the losing streak, and they re-discovered it during the two games against Tulsa. We’ll have to wait until after the Olympics to see if they’ve improved their own play, or if it was largely caused by the step down in opponent.

Tulsa managed to hang around through the first quarter, primarily because they started trapping and playing high-pressure defense, which knocked the Lynx briefly out of their stride. Alongside that, Riquna Williams came into the game off the bench and started firing away – as always – and produced some scoring that hadn’t been on offer from the starting unit. Her offense pulled the Shock within 22-21 at the end of the first.

There was a brief little scuffle early in the second quarter between Candice Wiggins and Temeka Johnson. Wiggins has a tendency to get under the skin of opponents with her pesky defense and endless jawing, while Johnson seemed to be in a bad mood all afternoon, but there was nothing much in it. The officials handed out technicals to the pair of them. There was no real reason why that moment should’ve been a turning point – the Lynx are experienced enough not to need a brouhaha to energise them – but the game was tied at 31 when it occurred. Barely five minutes of game time later, Minnesota were ahead 52-33 and the contest was virtually over. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/11/2012: Early Starts, Same Results

Apologies for this piece being posted after subsequent games have taken place, but all these Camp Day games are throwing my schedule out of whack. Everything would be fine if it weren’t for those meddling kids. Anyway, four games yesterday, all witnessed by hordes of screaming children. And the same four teams won that you would’ve expected to win in front of the standard bunch of adults and families. So let’s get to it, and I promise not to whine too much about the high-pitched background noise prevalent throughout every game.

 

Connecticut Sun 77 @ Washington Mystics 70

  • Lineups as expected for both teams. Mike Thibault’s rotation is growing increasingly short, however – both Danielle McCray and Kelsey Griffin failed to log a single second of court time in this game, having been pushed out by other players performing better in their positions.
  • Matee Ajavon got off to a nice start for Washington, being aggressive offensively and knocking down perimeter shots. Mystics GM/head coach Trudi Lacey has been jerking her minutes around lately (and this game was no different), so maybe Matee felt she better get those shots off while she had the chance.
  • After that early Ajavon burst, Connecticut dominated the first quarter. Asjha Jones and Tina Charles were both far too good for Washington in the paint, and while the Mystics were grabbing multiple offensive rebounds, it only led to extra misses. The Sun lead was as high as 14 points.
  • Connecticut relaxed too much over the rest of the half, and allowed themselves to be dragged down to Washington’s level. Charles spending several minutes resting on the bench stalled their momentum as well.
  • Crystal Langhorne, looking only semi-healthy thanks to the ankle she sprained a few games ago, got involved offensively late in the half, and helped Washington hang around. They trailed just 34-30 at halftime despite being largely outplayed – thanks mostly to a 12-0 advantage on the offensive glass (led by Michelle Snow with 6). Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/09/2012: And on the seventh day, blowouts

After the exertions of Saturday night, Sunday was a much more relaxing quad-game day in the WNBA. The games were more spread out, and they all ended with double-digit margins. It was like the basketball gods took pity on your poor, tired WNBAlien correspondent and took it easy on him. Which isn’t to say that our coverage will be any less comprehensive than usual, of course. All four games, Bullet Point Breakdown style to get right to the point. Enjoy.

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 94 @ New York Liberty 81

  • New York were still without Plenette Pierson and Kia Vaughn, leaving them down to the bare bones in the post. On the bright side, Sophia Young is pretty small herself for a power forward, so San Antonio are one opponent where playing Nicole Powell at the 4 doesn’t leave you horribly undersized.
  • The Liberty tried to force the ball down to Kara Braxton on early possessions, but Jayne Appel did a decent job of making things difficult for her, and Braxton lasted only three minutes before being subbed out by John Whisenant. While it’s primarily her brain and the dumb mistakes she makes that are frustrating about Braxton, her physical fitness limits the number of minutes she can play even when she’s mentally engaged.
  • Of course, with Vaughn and Pierson out, Whiz doesn’t have many options, and rookie Kelley Cain got abused by Danielle Adams on multiple possessions after she replaced Braxton. The kid’s doing her best, but there are reasons why Whiz barely used her until injuries forced his hand.
  • Outside of a very occasional feed into their posts, the vast majority of New York’s offense in the first half came from perimeter jumpers. Fortunately, Cappie Pondexter and Essence Carson were both shooting well, and both are well capable of creating their own opportunities when necessary. Without much of a post presence left, the Liberty’s in-to-out offense has dried up, which leaves a lot of it being generated by individuals in isolation. Liberty shot-making was keeping them right in the game, but San Antonio were moving the ball noticeably better.
  • And good ball movement hurts this Liberty defense. So much of their defensive system relies on help coming across from the weak side, but an unselfish team can move the ball away from that help to the open shooter before the defense can recover. So even while shooting the lights out from the perimeter, New York were giving it all back at the other end. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/08/2012: Welcome, my friends, to the night of WNBA basketball that never ends

It felt like there was a hell of a lot of WNBA basketball played last night. We’ve had four-game evenings before, but with an early-evening start and late-night finish, and with all the swings and roundabouts that the games took us through, there was a lot to see and talk about. So this time I’m making no promises about keeping things short. Skim-reading is acceptable if you don’t have several hours to dedicate to careful perusal of WNBAlien.

Once again, it’s the Bullet Point Breakdown to try to keep everything moving.

 

Chicago Sky 86 @ Indiana Fever 88

  • Chicago decided to try starting small again, as Pokey Chatman grows increasingly tired of watching Ruth Riley do very little out on the floor. She was replaced in the lineup by Serbian forward Sonja Petrovic. The last time the Sky tried it, they got humiliated on the glass by Phoenix, but with Indiana’s small lineup it was an understandable switch.
  • The Fever started their usual five, but were short a player due to Erin Phillips’s concussion. That left Jeanette Pohlen and Katie Douglas sliding over to cover the point guard duties whenever Briann January needed a rest.
  • The problem with going small against Indiana, is that they can switch practically at will on defense. They want Tammy Sutton-Brown on Sylvia Fowles, but after that pretty much anyone can guard anyone. It makes defense easier.
  • The Sky were trying to trap high on ball-screens, but the Fever simply moved the ball out of the trap, rotated an extra pass or two, and were left with wide open shots when the ball movement beat the defensive rotation.
  • Indiana also drove aggressively in the opening minutes when the opportunities were available, and were quickly in the penalty. So while they missed a lot of the open shots, the parade of free throws made up for it, and Indiana led 25-15 after a quarter.
  • Largely thanks to the perimeter shooting of backups Le’coe Willingham and Shay Murphy, Chicago fought back in the second quarter. Indiana still couldn’t hit a damn thing, which also helped.
  • Indiana continue to bring a double-team from the baseline side essentially every time the ball is entered into the low post. And it consistently works. The offensive player feels her defender on her high shoulder, starts to spin into what she thinks is space on the low side, and turns right into the second defender coming across. It happens repeatedly. One time, Sylvia Fowles read it perfectly, and threw the cross-court pass to the player that the tactic leaves wide open on the weak side – and Murphy knocked down the three. But the Fever will live with that happening occasionally. The next time Chicago tried it, Tamika Catchings read the pass and picked it off.
  • Talking of passes being picked off, it’s amazing how many turnovers the Sky continue to commit. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/06/2012: Lynx lit up by LA; and San Antonio win a game of two halves

Yesterday’s pair of WNBA games got off to an amusing start with the news that Andrea Riley had only been unemployed for a matter of days, with LA picking her up after Phoenix cut her loose. Apparently, that 18% shooting for the Mercury (dropping her WNBA career percentage fractionally below the 30% line) had impressed someone in Los Angeles.

But enough about the scrubs; let’s talk about the basketball. The early game was in LA, where the league-leading Minnesota Lynx were the visitors. The Sparks had lost three in a row, by a combined 50 points (and one of those was even against Tulsa), but after a week off they were looking to improve in front of all their screaming young fans. The Lynx weren’t exactly coming in on a high either, after falling to their second defeat of the season in San Antonio on Sunday. Now they had a chance to respond against their other closest rival in the West.

The expected lineups started the game, and Adair, Anosike and Hoffman were still unavailable for their respective teams. The opening minutes of the contest favoured Minnesota, with the Sparks settling for jump shots and the Lynx’s balance finding points from all around their team. But the warning signs of what was to come were already developing. Kristi Toliver was hot from outside from the very start, and Candace Parker looked interested. Whether on length-of-the-court drives, shots in the half-court, or even actual post ups in the paint – Parker’s offense was in the building. So the Lynx led 19-11, but the advantage was short-lived. An insanely deep three from Toliver to close out the first quarter – already her third make in three attempts from beyond the arc – gave LA a 24-21 lead. Parker and Toliver had combined for 22 of the Sparks’ points.

When she’s in rhythm, Toliver’s one of the best pure shooters in the game. And Lindsay Whalen won’t be mistaken for the best defender in the world any time soon. But it was disappointing for the Lynx that Toliver was so wide open for several of her outside shots. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/29/2012: San Antonio teach LA a lesson in team basketball. Again.

Either by coincidence or design, the WNBA left last night free for everyone to focus on the NBA Draft (which was filled with kids who wouldn’t be eligible for the WNBA equivalent if they were female, but that’s a debate for another day). The only game yesterday was yet another Kids’ Day contest in the early afternoon, featuring the third match-up in the recent weeks between Los Angeles and San Antonio.

The Silver Stars won both previous encounters – the first in overtime, the second in a blowout – so this was a chance for either confirmation of superiority, or revenge. Having lost to Tulsa on Tuesday night in another embarrassing defeat, the Sparks needed some kind of bounce-back performance to snap them out of the funk they’ve slipped into. San Antonio were just looking to continue their development, cut further into LA’s advantage in the standings, and send all their screaming fans home happy.

The same starting lineups began the game as in the last clash between these teams, and the game picked up right where Sunday night had left off – San Antonio dominated. The Sparks started out with a couple of plays that had clearly been scripted by the coaching staff – post-ups for Candace Parker and Nneka Ogwumike – but their offense quickly devolved into far too many jump shots. Meanwhile, at the other end, the Silver Stars were picking them apart.

Once again, the most noticeable difference between these teams was the chemistry and teamwork that San Antonio exhibit. They make the extra pass, and they rotate to help defensively when necessary. This is a team to a far greater extent than LA. Their execution offensively is also far superior. They move without the ball and find the open shooter, and if someone slides open on a pick-and-roll, more often than not they’ll receive the ball. LA just aren’t anywhere near as organised or crisp, there’s a lack of communication on screens and traps, and it leaves them looking a mess. And when these breakdowns give up points on the defensive end, their heads drop and it affects their offense as well.

Of course, it helped San Antonio that they were making every shot on offer as well. LA’s weak rotations and inability to close out on shooters helped, but there’ll be days where they’re this open and still not hit much. With everything falling for Sophia Young, Shameka Christon and Jia Perkins, the Silver Stars were up 26-11 less than nine minutes into the game.

The fact that Young had 11 of San Antonio’s points at that stage didn’t reflect too well on Parker. The Silver Stars had come out with the same defensive assignments as in previous games – Jayne Appel on Parker, Young on Ogwumike – but LA had switched around. Parker was the primary defender on Young, and it didn’t work at all. All the statements about her new dedication to defense from earlier in the season seem to have been forgotten, and Candace is back to being the same defender she’s been for most of her career. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/27/2012: Dream win early, Storm win late, and Sparks suffer a nasty Shock

It was a unusual schedule for the WNBA yesterday. We had one game on so early that most people with ‘normal’ jobs couldn’t watch it; one game on national TV that everyone was petrified would be so excruciating that the league would lose fans rather than gain them; and one that was blacked out everywhere and impossible to watch until it was over. But as ever, WNBAlien is here to meet your needs, and cover all the action, Bullet Point Breakdown-style.

 

Indiana Fever 58 @ Atlanta Dream 70

  • It was the same starting five as usual for Indiana, with Shavonte Zellous starting despite the neck strain that forced her out early in Saturday’s game against Tulsa.
  • For the Dream, Ketia Swanier started once again at point guard, ahead of Lindsey Harding. If Harding’s fit to play, despite the ankle injury she suffered last week, it’s hard to understand the rationale behind bringing her off the bench. But it’s often hard to understand what’s going on in Marynell Meadors’s head.
  • The first quarter was Indiana’s. Tamika Catchings picked up two quick fouls (the first was cheap, the second could easily have been a charge on Angel McCoughtry instead), but Erlana Larkins came off the bench and filled the gap smoothly. McCoughtry was very quiet early on, and with the Fever taking good care of the ball Atlanta couldn’t get out on the break, leaving their offense utterly anaemic. So the Fever led 18-12 at the end of the first.
  • And that, frankly, was as good as it got for Indiana for the rest of the day. The momentum of the game swung entirely in Atlanta’s favour in the second period. A couple of quick shots from the Fever created long rebounds that let the Dream stretch their legs, a couple of sloppy passes did the same, and suddenly Atlanta were off and running.
  • Meanwhile, Indiana’s penetration had completely disappeared, and the only shots they were throwing up were perimeter jumpers, that wouldn’t fall. They shot 1-15 as a team in the second quarter. Continue reading →