Tag Archives: San Antonio Stars

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 →

WNBA Today, 06/12/2011 (Part Two): She’s on Fire!

Part One of today’s coverage was posted earlier here, if you missed it

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Friday night, the San Antonio Silver Stars blew out that rec-league team from Oklahoma again, moving to a completely meaningless 2-0 record. Saturday night, they finally had to play a real basketball team, when the 0-2 Atlanta Dream came into the AT&T Center searching for their first win of the season. Atlanta finally had their full roster available, with Angel McCoughtry starting for the first time this year after recovering from her knee sprain. The first play of the game was McCoughtry’s layup attempt being smacked right back in her face by Ruth Riley, but Atlanta still took the initiative early, opening up a six-point lead by the end of the first and a 35-28 advantage by halftime. As the scoreline might suggest, this was by no means the prettiest game of basketball you’ve ever seen.

As expected by anyone with eyes and a modicum of sense, Atlanta’s size was giving San Antonio problems, especially on the glass. Continue reading →

WNBA Today, 06/05/2011

Four games yesterday as the season got going in earnest and we got our first look at how most of the WNBA teams are shaping up in 2011. Phoenix were in Seattle as the Storm collected their championship rings and then picked up right where they left off last year. Seven straight times they beat the Mercury last season, and it always felt like they were in control of this one, despite reigning MVP Lauren Jackson only taking one shot in the entire first half. The Merc could never get their running game going which left the whole contest being played at Seattle’s pace, and in the face of that the Mercury are never going to have much chance. Seattle are more precise in their execution, far smoother defensively, and when it comes to Phoenix they’re actually deeper than their opponents as well. The Storm blew the game out to a 19-point lead with under 5 minutes left before a late charge led by 11 Taurasi points in the space of 90 seconds reduced the scoreline to a respectable 78-71. Phoenix made a mess of trying to foul to stop the clock in the final seconds, but it wouldn’t have made any difference. Continue reading →

WNBAlien 2011 Previews: San Antonio Silver Stars

PG: Tully Bevilaqua/Danielle Robinson

SG: Becky Hammon/Jia Perkins

SF: Scholanda Robinson/Roneeka Hodges (yeah they’re both mostly guards. Someone‘s gotta play here)

PF: Sophia Young/Danielle Adams/Porsha Phillips

C: Ruth Riley/Jayne Appel

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Head Coach: Dan Hughes

Significant additions: Perkins, maybe Robinson, maybe other Robinson, and throw Tully in there as the latest in their line of point guards who don’t score. Hughes back as coach could be the most important change.

Significant losses: Chamique Holdsclaw, Michelle Snow, and purely because they’d been there so long, the two-headed pointless point-guard pairing of Helen Darling and Edwige Lawson-Wade.

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So considering I’m writing to this two days late, and as a result we all got to see San Antonio win by 20 last night, I should be all upbeat and positive about their season, right? Right? Yeah, not so much. Continue reading →