Tag Archives: New York Liberty

WNBA Today, 07/16/2011: So close, but yet so far

Another quad-game day in the WNBA yesterday, and as they all had their own interesting elements for once, we’re simply going to take them in chronological order. Keeping it a little shorter today as well, which might well be considered a good thing for those who were struggling through my 5,000-word dissertations.

New York hosted Connecticut having won four in a row and six of their last seven. The Sun, in contrast, had lost their last two and were 1-5 on the road coming in. However, the Liberty were without starting power forward Plenette Pierson after her left patella strain against Atlanta on Wednesday, which left their post rotation looking distinctly shaky. Quanitra Hollingsworth was the choice to replace her. Connecticut made a switch in their starting lineup as well, bringing in Danielle McCray for Kara Lawson, probably to give them a more natural defender for Cappie Pondexter from the tip.

It was a very even game early on, with the most noteworthy element being that Nicole Powell seemed to have maintained her shooting touch from New York’s previous game. Losing Pierson significantly cuts into New York’s grit, toughness and offensive versatility, but that starting front line of Hollingsworth and Kia Vaughn is huge. Tina Charles was getting most of her points by running the floor on breaks – getting anything inside against that length was tough in halfcourt sets. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/14/2011: Run and Gun Fun

Four games yesterday, and it’s not too hard to work out which game to concentrate on. Let’s see, we had a) a blowout, b) a blowout, c) a near-blowout that only got close because Tulsa are so bad that teams are starting to relax too much against them, and d) the highest-scoring regulation game in WNBA history. Hope no one objects, but we’ll be going with d. Of course, seeing as it’s me, the other three games will get their due coverage later in this piece, but we’ll start with the one that was actually entertaining.

Phoenix arrived in Minnesota off the back of eight wins in their last nine games, a streak that’s making you start to wonder if they might just be for real this year. They still essentially ignore the defensive end of the floor, but there are hints here of the Mercury teams from past years that simply outscored everyone anyway. Still, circumstances do seem to have fallen their way in several games this year, so a first meeting with the new-breed in Minnesota seemed like a true test of the Mercury’s mettle. It also meant a contest with the team that is actually outscoring them in fastbreak points so far this season, a category you don’t often see anyone leading Phoenix in. So we knew going in that this one was likely to be fast, exciting, and distinctly high-scoring.

While Maya Moore is the only rookie in the Lynx starting lineup, Minnesota started the game like a team that had never faced Phoenix before or even seen them on tape. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/11/2011: When the Spark is Gone

Two games in the WNBA yesterday afternoon, but we’ll get to those later. The big news late last night was the second head coaching casualty in the last few days, with the Los Angeles Sparks deciding that Jennifer Gillom’s time was up, replacing her with assistant Joe “Jellybean” Bryant (or “Kobe’s dad”, as ESPN insists on calling him). Gillom’s foibles and failings have been well-chronicled in this space, so any regular readers will know how I felt about a lot of her moves. Nonetheless, it’s still something of a surprise that LA would make this move quite so quickly.

The Sparks started the season so well. Not only were they 4-1 out of the gate, but the players looked like they were having fun on the court, appeared united, and seemed like a cohesive unit. Gillom herself even looked like she’d grown as a coach, finding her veterans more rest, and actually utilising the deeper bench that had been provided for her this year. There was a heavy reliance on Candace Parker, but when you’ve got one of the best players in the world on your squad, that’s what you’d expect. Who wouldn’t place most of their faith in Parker on that squad?

It would be easy to put the Sparks’ negative turn (and Gillom’s demise) down to Parker’s injury. LA were 4-2 when she hurt her knee, and was ruled out for six weeks. But to simply throw that out as an excuse would be missing the point. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/08/2011: Bringing Liberty to Texas

Ludicrously little has happened in the WNBA this week. Including very little basketball being played. I got tired of coming up with random things to talk about, so decided to simply wait until some actual games had been played before writing today’s update. Hence here we have analysis of the game that finished a couple of hours ago between New York and San Antonio. I’ll get to the No-Defense Bowl between Phoenix and Tulsa in tomorrow’s column.

The Liberty’s last game before heading out to Texas was a win over this same Silver Stars team last Friday. If you remember, I mentioned then that San Antonio were a good matchup for this squad, and that they’d be looking to take advantage of that in their second and final meeting with them this week. San Antonio move the ball well and have good spacing but their lack of size inside means they have trouble offering a threat in the paint, where several teams have gone to town on the Liberty this year. Their best interior scorers are Sophia Young and rookie Danielle Adams, both of whom are barely 6-1 on a good day, and neither of whom exactly posts up much. That makes things easier for the Libs with their fronting, over-playing, desperately-bringing-help-over-once-you-get-beat defense to work. They might’ve had the best record in the WNBA through the first month, but Liberty head coach John Whisenant would probably be happy to play San Antonio every week.

Of course, the Silver Stars are still a very good team, with a lot of talented scorers, so this game was hardly a foregone conclusion. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/02/2011: Whistles, whistles everywhere

You know how some nights the games just don’t seem to want to end? Yeah, last night was a long one in the WNBA, even though we only had three games. Maybe a directive went out from the head office that they hadn’t heard enough whistles in the first month of the season, because we sure got plenty of them to kick off July. Sometimes it really feels like they want us to watch the three people out there in those ugly beige-and-orange shirts more than the ten wearing the basketball uniforms.

The first game to tip off at least had a modicum of flow to it, with New York and San Antonio battling it out in the wilds of New Jersey. The sparse crowds at the Liberty’s adopted home (where they’re intending to play for the next three seasons) aren’t providing much of a home court advantage so far, and there was more bad news for New York before the tip. Essence Carson, one of their bright spots this season, suffered an eye injury in warmups and couldn’t play, not even appearing on the bench through the course of the game.

The first half was pretty painful for us neutrals. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 07/01/2011: Dream alive, Shock need CPR

Only two games in the WNBA last night, and only one that actually resembled a contest, so let’s focus on that one first. New York went to Atlanta off the back of two wins, but neither of the victories over Tulsa and LA had been particularly convincing. Atlanta were 2-7, had lost twice in their own arena in the previous week, and were still trying to get their season started. Suffice it to say that both these teams could’ve desperately used the win, and outside of playing Tulsa and Washington last night might well have been one of their easier opportunities.

The Dream were still without Sancho Lyttle, knocked out of EuroBasket in Spain but still too banged up to appear for Atlanta. New York had all 11 available, assuming you count that ghost wandering around in the #14 Liberty jersey as actually being Nicole Powell. The very first possession of the game was both a reminder of the issues New York have had this season and a taste of what was to come for the rest of the night. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/27/2011: Deep Thinking

Three WNBA games yester… oh no, wait, four WNBA games yesterday. Almost forgot the gripping Tulsa-Washington matchup. Safe to say that we won’t be spending very long on that one. The most important event in Sunday’s games might well turn out to be the injury suffered by yet another key player, but before we get to the disappointing news let’s worry about the game of the day. Minnesota, coming off that disappointing loss in Seattle where the Storm held them to 55 points, welcomed the Eastern Conference-leading Indiana Fever to the Frozen North for their yearly visit. Two teams that had shown some form in the early stages of the season, and the first matchup between Tamika Catchings and Maya Moore – this one had all the signs of being interesting and entertaining, and it didn’t disappoint.

Indiana stuck with their new starting unit featuring Jessica Davenport at center, while the Lynx starting five was the same as it’s been all year. Part of the intrigue with this game was how the rest of the rosters would produce. Minnesota went into the year with everyone talking about how much talent they had, and whether there were enough minutes to go around. As it’s turned out, head coach Cheryl Reeve has ended up relying heavily on her starting five, while her bench players have struggled to produce, especially at the offensive end. Indiana, on the other end, have recently discovered some depth, with Erin Phillips, Jeanette Pohlen, Shavonte Zellous and even the recently demoted Tammy Sutton-Brown all offering important support from the pine. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/24/2011: Sky win a barnburner. Apparently.

For once, it’s not my fault that this update is being published later than originally intended. I wanted to bring you coverage of everything that happened in the WNBA yesterday, which would’ve included analysis of the obvious ‘game of the day’ between Chicago and Connecticut. However, for whatever reason, WNBA.com’s LiveAccess service failed to broadcast the game and as of this evening, hasn’t uploaded an archive video either. So the only people who’ve seen the game were the couple of thousand who made it to Allstate Arena in Chicago, and anyone who was watching CN100 on local Chicago television last night. Which doesn’t include me.

What I can tell you is that the game went to double-overtime, finishing 84-84 at the end of regulation and 93-93 after the first extra period. The Sky pulled away in the second OT, running out 107-101 winners. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/22/2011: Night of Celebration finds a Hollywood Ending

It was WNBA madness yesterday, with five games spread from lunchtime until midnight on the US East Coast. I spread the load a little with a Pseudo-Live Game Diary of the early game between Atlanta and Chicago, so now we get to focus on the four late games. Here’s the quick tale of the first three: two decent teams beat two crappy teams even though they were without a key player for most or all of the night; and one mediocre team beat another mediocre team who were missing a key player of their own. The end. Okay not the end, and I’ll cover all three games in a little more depth towards the end of this article, but first we’re going to skip to the night’s showpiece event – New York @ Los Angeles, a rematch of the first ever WNBA game, commemorating the WNBA’s 15th season.

Firstly, this was the most entertaining game we’ve had so far this season, so if you didn’t watch it, I’ll wait while you go and check out the archive. Go on, I’ll still be here when you get back. You can even just click here and it’ll start for you. See how good I am to you?

Anyway, on to the analysis. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/18/2011: Four times the Fun

Four games last night, and the first to tip off was one of two that turned out to be somewhat competitive, with the shorthanded Dream travelling to Minnesota. With Sancho Lyttle off playing for Spain for the next couple of weeks, everyone and their dog was predicting yet another big game for Rebekkah Brunson, and we weren’t to be disappointed. Atlanta went big to start, replacing Lyttle with 6-7 behemoth Alison Bales, and it was reasonably successful for a while – but it didn’t last. A fun back-and-forth first half between two teams that are happy to push the tempo ended up 39 apiece, but in the third quarter the Lynx made their move. With Whalen pulling the strings and Brunson racking up the rebounds, Minnesota went from 43-41 down to a 54-43 lead in the blink of an eye. Brunson made a couple of typically athletic plays, Augustus hit a pretty jumper, Whalen dropped in a couple of buckets and Maya Moore had a steal that led straight into a breakaway layup. That’s the scary thing about this Lynx team – they can hurt you from essentially any spot on the floor. Even when they go to the bench, you’ve got the likes of Candice Wiggins and Monica Wright coming in, but it’s that Whalen/Augustus/Moore/Brunson/Taj starting lineup that’s doing most of the damage. Stop one or two pieces, and they’ll just come at you from another angle.

Continue reading →