Tag Archives: Los Angeles Sparks

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, 08/04/2011: 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, 08/01/2011: 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, 07/29/2011: 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 →

WNBA Today, 07/27/2011: They’re back!

So the WNBA was finally back last night, with the first proper games since last Thursday. Weird how five days can feel like so long in the middle of the season when the offseason lasts nearly eight months. Anyway, even I feel like five games in one piece is a bit much to cover, so we’re going to split this up. The entire Western Conference played last night, but the five teams that still matter were encompassed by three games. So this column will cover those three contests, and tomorrow I’ll get to the East. It means Washington and Tulsa are in the wrong half, but at this point I barely consider them to count. It’s a five-team race on either side, and everyone outside of delusional Mystics front-office personnel knows it. On to the games.

The opening matchup last night was San Antonio‘s trip to Washington. So we had one team that had gone through all the hoopla of hosting the All-Star Game in previous days, and one that spent the weekend messing with their roster. The starting fives were the same as usual for both teams, but Washington had recent pickup DeMya Walker in uniform coming off the bench. Karima Christmas and Ta’Shia Phillips are both gone, as you probably know by now, but Alana Beard and Monique Currie are still in street clothes, leaving the Mystics currently down to nine.

Or eight, depending on your perspective. It’s hard to tell if Nicky Anosike’s head is actually in Washington yet. Her shooting touch certainly isn’t. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/25/2011: Where Trade Winds Might Blow, Western Edition

Before we get to the Western Conference half of the trade possibilities feature, first let’s round up the signing news from around the league. Chicago filled their empty spot by signing Eshaya Murphy to a seven-day contract (which makes my reminder that they still held her rights a couple of days ago look surprisingly prescient). After four seasons in the WNBA spread across six different cities, Murphy’s yet to shoot over 38% in any of them. So don’t expect her to set the World on fire. She will at least give them another option on the wing though, which is better than nothing. And nothing is about what they were getting from Angie Bjorklund.

No news yet out of New York on their 11th roster spot, but there was more movement in Washington today. DeMya Walker was officially acquired, but slipped into the release was the news that Karima Christmas wasn’t the only player who’d been waived – Ta’Shia Phillips is gone too. Taken by Atlanta with the 8th pick in this year’s draft, presumably on instructions from Washington who acquired her as part of the Lindsey Harding trade later the same day, it’s shocking to see the Mystics quit on Phillips so quickly. She hasn’t looked great in the brief glimpses we’ve seen of her on WNBA floors by any means, but this is a 6-6 center. And the team is terrible. These are the kids you should be building with, not discarding at the first opportunity in favour of journeymen like Walker whose careers are nearly over. It’s a bizarre move from Washington.

How do you decide that Phillips is worth the #8 pick, work with her for barely a couple of months, and then throw her away when your season’s already heading down the toilet? Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/19/2011: They call it La-La Land for a reason

Mondays are usually a nice relaxing day off for the WNBA (which then gives me a nice relaxing Tuesday). Not this week. Instead the games just kept right on coming yesterday, with the Los Angeles Sparks playing for the second night running at the Staples Center, this time against the San Antonio Silver Stars. After a pathetic collapse against Washington on Sunday night turned a 24-point third-quarter lead into an overtime loss, the Sparks had a chance to turn things around quickly against a Western Conference rival. Having broken a three-game losing streak on Thursday against Seattle, the Silver Stars had an opportunity to build some momentum and inflict more pain and suffering on LA. Most teams tend to enjoy doing that regardless of their own situation.

Los Angeles went with the same starting five that Joe Bryant had used in each of his three games since taking over as head coach, including the victory in San Antonio a week earlier. The Silver Stars stuck with Scholanda Robinson ahead of Jia Perkins as their third perimeter starter, after that switch worked against Seattle in their last game. If I’m honest, I can’t reprint here most of the notes I took in the first quarter, because it was largely just expletives about how awful LA were. Continue reading →