Tag Archives: Phoenix Mercury

WNBA Today, 09/18/2011: Do-or-die brings the best out of Libs and Merc

Part of me hates these best-of-three playoff series that the WNBA uses for its first two rounds. You play for months to get here, and then everything can be over in the blink of an eye. A slightly shorter regular season allowing longer playoff series would be a better framework in my eyes. But you can’t deny that it makes the postseason instantly exciting. After losing their opening games, New York and Phoenix went into Saturday’s games in do-or-die situations. Win, and they’d have a chance in a deciding game on Monday night; lose, and all the hard work all season long would’ve been for naught.

After a forgettable performance in the opening game in Indiana had still left them with a shot to win at the buzzer, New York had every reason to believe that they could turn things around in Game 2. The Prudential Center out in Newark might not have the history of Madison Square Garden, but their 12-5 regular season record there showed that the Liberty made it feel like home pretty quickly. Combining the home crowd with the extra impetus of having their backs against the wall, New York had to come out and remind everyone that they were a better team than Thursday night suggested.

The starting fives were the same as Thursday, although Shavonte Zellous was back in uniform on the Fever bench to add a little extra depth to their reserves. The necessary urgency was there from New York in the early minutes. There seemed to be more energy about their play than in Game 1, and there was more effort on the defensive end. Offensively, both Plenette Pierson and Kia Vaughn looked far more interested in being part of the solution than they had on Thursday, with Pierson knocking down two early jumpers from midrange. Even more important, Nicole Powell seemed to have discovered the shooting touch that eluded her in the previous game, finishing a layup inside before nailing each of her first three efforts from long-range. The only negative for New York in the first quarter was that once again Katie Douglas was winning her personal duel with Cappie Pondexter. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/16/2011: And they’re off!

So last night, the real stuff got underway in the WNBA. You play the whole regular season to make the playoffs, and now they’re here. Screw it up now, and you might as well not have bothered. It’s time to put up or shut up, go hard or go home, and any other cliché you can remember that I’m forgetting. This is what it’s all about.

The first game saw Indiana hosting New York in the #1-#4 matchup out East, which you’d think ought to make the Fever strong favourites. But the Eastern Conference has been so tight this year, and the Liberty finished just two games behind their first round opponents – in reality this was arguably the most unpredictable playoff series of the four. For what it’s worth, Indiana lost five of their final seven regular season games, and New York two of their last three, but you can typically throw form out the window going into the playoffs. Everyone starts 0-0, and history doesn’t count for much.

Indiana were back to what’s become their regular starting five, with Tamika Catchings returning after sitting out the final regular season game and point guard Erin Phillips back after recovering from her ankle sprain. The only player out was reserve guard Shavonte Zellous, who sprained her own ankle in the last game against Atlanta. New York had their standard five out to open the game as well, with Cappie Pondexter reportedly still rehabbing her ankle but ready to play regardless. It’s the playoffs – if you can walk, you can play.

The early stages of the game belonged to Indiana. Continue reading →

WNBAlien Playoff Previews – Western Conference Semi-Finals: Seattle vs. Phoenix

#2 Seattle Storm (21-13) vs. #3 Phoenix Mercury (19-15)

 

Regular season series: Seattle 3-1

@ Sea 06/04: Storm 78-71

@ Pho 07/26: Storm 83-77

@ Pho 08/16: Mercury 81-79

@ Sea 09/09: Storm 85-70

 

Well this one feels like it’s been coming for a while, doesn’t it? Since Minnesota started pulling away at the top of the West and San Antonio and LA fell away, it became increasingly likely as the season progressed that these two would be running headlong into each other in the first round. It’s become an oft-repeated fact that the Storm have beaten the Mercury in nine of their last ten meetings, including the game that essentially decided home court advantage for this series last Friday. But most of those games came in 2010, when the Storm were a significantly more dominant force than they have been this season. Do the Mercury have what it takes to turn the tables and upset the team that dumped them out of the Western Conference Finals just last season?

While they ended up right next to each other in the standings, these teams are an exhibition in contrasts. The league’s slowest-paced team (and Seattle took it by a mile this year) faces its second-fastest (Atlanta once again finished just ahead of Phoenix in possessions per game). Seattle’s #1-ranked defense faces Phoenix’s #1 offense (it’s #9 offense vs. #10 defense at the other end, but that doesn’t sound nearly as impressive). And if you’ve watched these teams play in recent years, you really don’t need the numbers. The Mercury don’t change. They will charge up and down the court at every opportunity, looking for breakout chances and ideally layups before the defense can get set. They will then proceed to play some fairly lackadaisical, pathetic defense at the other end. The likes of LA and Tulsa have shown just how terrible defense can be in the WNBA this season, but the Mercury weren’t much better and they’ve been at this for years now. They’re experts in the art of playing barely any defense.

The Storm, on the other hand, will play physical, tough, hard-nosed defense. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/12/2011: East finally shakes out as regular season comes to a close

Sunday was the final day of the WNBA regular season, and there were still issues to be decided. Most importantly, the seeding and resulting first-round matchups in the Eastern Conference were still up for grabs, but the remaining games all carried some level of interest. Records were broken, a scoring title was won by the narrowest of margins, and we finally discovered who the hell would be facing whom in the postseason. Not a bad way to finish out the preamble before the real fight begins on Thursday night.

The opening game of the day, tipping off four hours before anyone else, was in Connecticut. Both the Sun and their visitors, New York, had every reason to go all out for the win. A Connecticut victory would confirm them as the #2 seeds, bringing with it the first round home court advantage that was vitally important to a team coming into this game with a 14-2 home record (and just 6-11 on the road). A New York win would’ve given them a chance to sneak into second place as well, although they would then be reliant on Atlanta beating Indiana in the game later in the afternoon. A loss for the Liberty would mean third or fourth, again depending on the later result. Regardless of the winner here, at least one team would be hanging on what happened in Indiana, but ignoring the permutations it was essentially like any other sporting event – win good, loss bad.

After a long ceremony to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, which can’t have helped the concentration levels of the players, the standard starting fives took the floor. Maybe the teams cooled down after such a long gap was created between their warm-up and the tip-off, because the first quarter wasn’t pretty. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/09/2011: Taurasi terrific, but Smith helps Storm survive

The battle for playoff positioning in the WNBA’s Eastern Conference is heading to the final day of the season (see all potential scenarios here), so tonight’s Indiana-New York contest is relegated to tomorrow’s column along with the Tulsa-LA game that only a mother could love. Tonight, we look at the crunch matchup between Phoenix and Seattle out West, the game that would likely decide who had home court advantage for their impending playoff series.

After Phoenix beat Tulsa last night, nearly everything was sorted in the Western Conference. We knew the matchups, we had dates for every game, we even had tip-off times and TV channels. The only thing we didn’t know was who would have Games 1 and 3 at home, and who would be left with just Game 2. The Mercury pulled level with Seattle in the standings after last night, and a win tonight would’ve evened the season series, but the Storm held a far superior conference record. That meant that a Phoenix win tonight wouldn’t have completely sealed matters – they’d still need either a win over Minnesota on Sunday or a Seattle loss to Chicago the same night. For the Storm it was simpler – win tonight, and home court in the first round was theirs.

Bad news for the Mercury before the tip, as Penny Taylor remained on the sidelines due to back spasms. She was warming up before the game, but presumably didn’t feel ready to go. It’s the smart play if she was still hurting. Considering Seattle were 13-2 at home coming into this game, 6-11 on the road, it obviously would’ve been huge to take home court away from the Storm for the playoffs. But far bigger than that is having Taylor in one piece. At some point, the Mercury were going to have to win in Seattle, either tonight or in the playoffs. If Taylor wasn’t ready, you leave her on the bench and try to pull a game out in the postseason if the rest of the squad can’t manage it without her. DeWanna Bonner continued to start in Taylor’s place, while Seattle went with their established starting five.

The early stages of the game were ugly for everyone, as practically nothing would drop through the hoop. Still, the signs seemed reasonably positive for Seattle because they were working to produce offense in the paint, not just firing up jump shots. Phoenix, on the other hand, were almost exclusively jacking up shots from outside. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/08/2011: Merc set the stage for tomorrow night; Lynx can’t stop winning

There were two games in the WNBA tonight, one completely meaningless to both teams, and one involving Tulsa on the road. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the dog days of the WNBA regular season.

Let’s start with the game that at least remained vaguely relevant to how the season might play out. Phoenix hosted Tulsa knowing that they needed to take care of business before their crunch matchup with Seattle tomorrow night. A win would tie the Mercury in the standings with the Storm. If they could follow up with a win in Key Arena, then beat a Minnesota team with nothing to play for on Sunday, they’d steal home court advantage in the first round from Seattle. Also, mathematically, San Antonio could still catch Phoenix for the #3 seed, and a win tonight would take care of that small possibility. Tulsa, being Tulsa, had nothing to play for but pride and that fourth win of the season that would allow them to avoid the worst record in WNBA history.

Given that they were playing the Shock, Phoenix took a couple of risks with their lineups. Penny Taylor stayed in her warmups all night, resting due to the back spasms she aggravated in the Mercury’s last game. The hope is that she’ll be fit to play tomorrow against the Storm, and once again DeWanna Bonner took her place in the lineup. It also became evident as the game went along that Mercury coach Corey Gaines was trying to use his entire roster and balance out the minutes, keeping everyone as fresh as possible to face Seattle. Tulsa began the game with what’s become their standard starting five in recent games. That left rookie center Liz Cambage coming off the bench again, despite the combined 50 points she’s scored in 55 minutes against the Mercury across three games so far this season.

Tulsa got off to a decent start, with Andrea Riley looking willing to penetrate for once rather than jack up threes from so far outside she can barely see the basket. The Shock kicked up a gear when Cambage entered the fray less than four minutes into the game. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/04/2011: Western battles roll into final week

It was all about the West in the WNBA last night, with the battles for second and fourth in the conference played out across two games. In the end, everyone survived to fight another day. Which is a slightly more generous way of saying that absolutely nothing changed. But at least there was some reasonably entertaining basketball along the way.

Leading off the evening, Seattle travelled to San Antonio for the second game of a back-to-back. The first game may have been in Tulsa but it was still a taxing journey, especially for star Lauren Jackson, who’s continuing to work her way back to full fitness. However, at 5-1 since Jackson’s return, and with a win from the previous night against the Shock in the bank, Seattle were hoping to show some more road improvement against the Silver Stars. The Storm have been atrocious on the road this year, especially while Jackson was out, which is what makes these final few games so important. Currently holding a half-game edge on Phoenix for second place in the West, if Seattle can cling on to that spot they’ll host games 1 and 3 (if necessary) in the first round of the playoffs. Game three in Key Arena, versus game three anywhere else on the planet, makes a huge difference to Seattle’s chances of advancing.

For the Silver Stars, the game was just as important. Having broken a six-game losing streak against Connecticut on Tuesday, then carried that momentum into a win over Phoenix two days later, they’d reestablished a two-game edge on LA for the fourth playoff spot in the West. A win here and a loss for the Sparks in the late game would’ve left San Antonio three up with three to play, and heavy favourites to reach the postseason. It might even have given them a shot at overtaking Seattle or Phoenix and avoiding a first-round clash with Minnesota. But that was something they couldn’t concern themselves with just yet. First make the playoffs, then worry about who you might be facing.

The starting fives were as expected – Seattle featuring Lauren Jackson despite fitness concerns about her playing on consecutive days, and San Antonio continuing their three-guard set with Jia Perkins as the nominal ‘small forward’. After making me so happy with their opening possessions against Tulsa the day before, Seattle were a complete shambles immediately after winning the tip in this game. Jackson was caught in the air with nowhere to go before offloading the ball to Sue Bird, who promptly threw a pass straight out of bounds. Uh oh. Turnovers have been the Storm’s bête noire this season, especially on the road, and that wasn’t a pretty way to open up. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 09/01/2011: When key pieces are missing, wins don’t come easy

A WNBA double-header tonight, and just for a nice change, you’re getting WNBAlien coverage of both games only hours after their conclusion. The first game to tip off was in Washington, where a miniscule crowd watched their Mystics take on Atlanta. For Washington, these games don’t mean anything. Having traded away their 2012 first-round pick, even tanking to improve their lottery odds isn’t worth the effort. However, the fans did have the prospect of Monique Currie returning from her ACL injury and seeing her first action of the season tonight. If that’s enough to make you want to renew your season tickets, more power to you. Atlanta had bigger issues on their minds. Just half a game behind New York for third in the East, and 1.5 behind Connecticut for second, the Dream’s late charge has given them a shot at improving their seeding for the playoffs. Also, mathematically, they haven’t even made the postseason yet. Although it’s going to take something dramatic from both Atlanta and Chicago to take the spot away from them.

Making Atlanta’s task more difficult was the loss of their starting center. After stepping on Jessica Davenport’s foot and spraining her ankle, Erika de Souza was on the bench in t-shirt, shorts and a walking boot. Why on Earth she even bothered to travel with the team for a one-game roadtrip she was never going to participate in, I have no idea. Can’t be much fun flying coach when you’re 6’5” with a sprained ankle. She was replaced by Alison Bales in the Dream’s starting lineup. For the second straight game, Mystics coach Trudi Lacey tinkered with her starting lineup as well, although her moves have been through choice, not injury. The three players she promoted from the bench for the last game – Jasmine Thomas, Kerri Gardin and DeMya Walker – all retained their spots, but Matee Ajavon was benched for Kelly Miller. Nope, I have no idea why either.

Once again, the most interesting aspect of the opening minutes was a defensive decision by the Dream coaching staff. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/31/2011: Postseason positioning still a perplexing puzzle

As you near the end of any regular season in a sports league, some games naturally don’t mean an awful lot. The WNBA is no exception, but thanks to tight standings in both conferences most of the teams are still fighting for something as we head into the final two weeks of the season. Still, there are certainly some games that aren’t as important as others right now, so even I’m intending to limit the depth of coverage on certain matchups. Of course, we’ve seen how that’s gone throughout the course of the season, so let’s just be thankful that there aren’t any Tulsa-Washington games left on the schedule. I’d probably have found some reason to write 2,000 words about it.

The key New York-Chicago contest from last night was covered in yesterday’s column, but taking place hot on the heels of that one was Indiana‘s visit to Atlanta. With the tip-offs only 30 minutes apart, Atlanta obviously didn’t know that Chicago would lose to the Liberty and drop two games behind them in the standings, so this was a crucial game for them coming in. Even given that Sky loss, Atlanta’s place in the postseason was hardly a mathematical certainty, so they need to keep fighting for every win they can lay their hands on. The Dream have also been on such a streak lately – 12 wins in 16 games – that they’ve crept up on the other Eastern Conference playoff teams. They entered this game just half a game behind New York, and 2.5 behind Connecticut. Rising above the fourth seed that seemed their highest target a few short weeks ago is no longer beyond the realm of possibility. Indiana have had some troubles lately, losing to LA on the road and then Atlanta on their own floor when these teams met on Saturday. Minnesota are almost out of sight for home court advantage throughout the playoffs, and Connecticut have pulled within 1.5 games for the top spot in the East. More to the point, this Dream squad is a potential first-round playoff matchup for the Fever, and they’d lost both previous games against Atlanta this season. You don’t want to head into a playoff series with a dismal recent record against your opponent.

The starting fives were the same as Saturday, the same as they’ve been for both clubs for a while now. The intriguing aspect of the opening minutes was that Atlanta had clearly come out with an effort to ‘hide’ Angel McCoughtry on defense. She suffered with foul trouble in both of Atlanta’s previous contests with Indiana, and played limited minutes as a result, so the Dream had her on Tangela Smith and Sancho Lyttle stepping out to cover Tamika Catchings. It was a smart move by the Atlanta coaching staff, but not exactly a positive statement about McCoughtry’s ability to play smart or avoid trouble on her own. Considering Angel’s defensive reputation, you shouldn’t have to hide her on a more limited offensive player.

The most positive aspect of the early stages for Indiana was that Katie Douglas looked interested. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 08/29/2011: Playoff race intensifies with quintuple feature

As the WNBA approached the final two weeks of the regular season, the five-game slate on Sunday carried significant importance for a variety of playoff battles. We’ve got teams fighting for position, teams struggling to even reach the postseason, and one or two still showing enough pride to battle it out for victories when their fates have been sealed for weeks. The final positioning was clear as mud before Sunday, and pretty similar by the end, but for individual teams these games are becoming vitally important to the success – or failure – of their 2011 seasons.

The first game to tip off was in San Antonio, where fans, players and coaches alike must have been growing increasingly worried over recent weeks. Having lost five in a row, and nine of their last eleven, a team that led the Western Conference in the opening weeks of the season is now under threat of missing the playoffs. LA’s loss at home to Tulsa on Friday night had helped them out, and maintained the gap at 1.5 games, but the fear remained. Considering Sunday’s visitors were Minnesota, that fear was well-warranted. Winners of their last four, and 22-6 overall, the Lynx were one game away from officially sealing the top seed in the Western Conference. Three games clear of Indiana, home court advantage throughout the playoffs isn’t far away either. They’re not the team you want to see step off the plane when you’re fighting for your playoff lives.

As ever, the Lynx opened with their typical starting five, while Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes kept faith with his recent lineup starting Danielle Robinson at the point. The rookie speedster has started their last couple of games, and the change has failed to snap their losing skid, but Hughes shows no signs of switching back to veteran Tully Bevilaqua. The scoreline stayed reasonably close throughout the first half, but managed to be simultaneously frightening for the Silver Stars. Continue reading →