Tag Archives: San Antonio Stars

WNBA Today, 07/15/2013: Injury bug continues to play key role as Silver Stars, Mercury and Dream all fall

 

Sunday saw a triple-header of WNBA action, so it’s off to the Bullet Point Breakdowns to cover it all:

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 84 @ Connecticut Sun 86

  • Both teams stuck with the same starting lineups they’d used in their last games. For San Antonio that meant second-year wing Shenise Johnson retaining her small forward spot ahead of Shameka Christon; for Connecticut, Iziane Castro Marques continued to start with Kara Lawson still coming off the bench in her second game since returning from injury. Castro Marques has been desperately ineffective since joining the Sun, whether starting or as a reserve, which in truth is only a continuation of how poor she was in Atlanta and Washington the last two years. At some point, WNBA teams will eventually stop signing her. At the very least, her minutes will continue to disappear for Connecticut with Lawson back and Renee Montgomery reportedly approaching a return as well.

 

  • The first half was remarkably streaky, eventually ending up in virtual stalemate. Both these teams are deeply flawed. San Antonio, lacking stars Becky Hammon and Sophia Young, don’t have the same level of scoring threat that they’ve possessed in previous seasons. They’ve also been one of the worst rebounding teams in the league for years, and nothing’s changed on that front. Connecticut still have the same gaping hole at power forward that they started the season with, the injuries have hurt the backcourt, and Tina Charles has lacked offensive support all year. It all balanced out and ended up even.

 

  • Charles settled for too many jumpers in the first half, just like she has all season, despite San Antonio sending far fewer double-teams at her than she’s seen from most opponents this year. Most teams have seen the lack of firepower around Charles and swarmed her, forcing any other Sun player to try to beat them. The Silver Stars sent help occasionally, but largely trusted Jayne Appel to do the best job she could while everyone else stayed home.

 

  • At the other end of the floor, San Antonio missed a procession of layups, whether under pressure or not. As a team that doesn’t usually take many shots near the rim, maybe they were too close. After trailing by as many as 11 points earlier in the first half, once they stepped back and started firing jumpers, Jia Perkins and Danielle Robinson shot San Antonio back into the game. The Silver Stars trailed just 34-32 at halftime.

 

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WNBA Today, 07/13/2013: Sky overcome one-woman team in Connecticut, while Mystics’ depth holds off San Antonio

 

Once again, yesterday saw a pair of WNBA games on the schedule, with the action tipping off in Connecticut where the Chicago Sky were the visitors. It’s games like this where the Sky have to continue proving that they’re a legitimately improved team from previous years. They’d won five of their last six, and they were visiting a struggling, understrength team – it’s a contest they should have gone into confident of success, but the kind of game they’ve blown in previous years. Even sitting pretty in second place in the East, there are still plenty of scars from all the years of failure. They’re still working to consign those memories to history and become a real power in this league.

 

Historically, Connecticut have been one of those powers. But with Mike Thibault gone, Asjha Jones taking the year off, and a variety of injuries in their backcourt it’s been a rough season so far for the Sun. The positive for this game was that they had one of those guards back, with Kara Lawson in uniform after missing their last four games with a bruised knee. Iziane Castro Marques was still starting at off-guard, but Lawson was ready to play from the bench.

 

By the time Lawson made her first appearance – after barely three minutes of action – the Sun were already trailing 12-0. It was an ugly, ugly start for Connecticut. As has become the pattern for them, if Tina Charles touches the ball anywhere near the rim, double and triple-teams instantly surround her. If she successfully kicks the ball out to a teammate, they invariably clank a shot off the iron. And more often than not, Charles becomes frustrated with that process down low, so she drifts further and further away from the basket to receive the ball. For a post, she’s a pretty good jumpshooter, but they’re lower percentage shots and result in very few drawn fouls. It’s been an ineffective way to try to win games this season.

 

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WNBA Today, 07/11/2013: Flying Fowles lifts Sky past Mystics; sloppy Mercury upset by Silver Stars

 

We had a pair of early tip-offs in the WNBA yesterday, as thousands of kids descended on arenas in Chicago and Phoenix for their yearly Camp Day games. Sometimes players struggle to wake themselves up time to perform in these games, but it’s always nice if they end up as watchable contests – we have to encourage the next generation of WNBA fans to keep coming back.

 

The first game was in the Windy City, where the Washington Mystics were the visitors. For once, both teams had healthy rosters, with Tamera Young returning from the ankle injury that kept her out of the Sky’s last game to give Pokey Chatman a full bench to utilise. The Mystics reached two significant marks with recent wins – Mike Thibault went past Van Chancellor on the all-time WNBA coaching wins list, and the franchise equalled the highest win-total from the Trudi Lacey era. With 22 games still to go. Now they can just concentrate on continued improvement.

 

While much of the talk last season around the Sky surrounded Epiphanny Prince’s breakout year, and most of the discussion this year has been about rookie starlet Elena Delle Donne, one important player used this game to remind everyone that Chicago already had a superstar before either of those two arrived – Sylvia Fowles. Big Syl was aggressive and active from the very start, running the floor hard, fighting for position in the paint, and leaping after every rebound. While she’s put up pretty solid, consistent numbers this season, too many times she’s been performing relatively quietly while rarely touching the ball in Chatman’s largely predictable offense. This was the Fowles we always want to see, a dominant presence at both ends of the floor who demands the ball inside, or just goes and gets it on the offensive glass. All this despite playing through a bone bruise on her foot and still recovering from a recent ankle sprain. Maybe she needs to be slightly injured even more often, if this is the result.

 

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WNBA Today, 07/07/2013: Sparks blowout, Charles blow-up, and Thiabult breaks a record

 

Pretty typical trio of WNBA games this Saturday – another blowout in Los Angeles, another serious-looking injury, another disappointing night for Connecticut and Tina Charles, and a game that was virtually unwatchable until the final couple of minutes. Sometimes, we end up with exactly what we should’ve expected – the interesting part is how we got there. On to the Bullet Point Breakdowns to take a look.

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 66 @ Los Angeles Sparks 93

  • It was all change for San Antonio at the start of this one, but in a good way. Four new starters began the game, with Becky Hammon, Jayne Appel, Shenise Johnson and DeLisha Milton-Jones all returning from injury. Johnson and DMJ had only missed the loss in Atlanta, but Appel had been sorely missed for five games since suffering a concussion in practice. Hammon, the team’s leader for years now, was making her first appearance all year after breaking a finger in preseason. Shameka Christon was out after hurting an ankle in their last game against Atlanta, but four in, one out seemed like a positive exchange.

 

  • The Sparks have been dominant at home this season, but San Antonio kept pace with them through the first 15 minutes of action. There were far too many turnovers at both ends of the floor, with LA in particular giving the ball away too cheaply and allowing San Antonio to run back at them. All the returning players looked in pretty good shape for the Silver Stars, with Hammon sliding into the backcourt alongside Danielle Robinson like she’d never left. Appel was maybe a little rusty, but she gave them the physical presence inside and on the glass that had clearly been missing in recent games. San Antonio also created space and mismatches with their movement and off-ball screening, leading to the switches that LA’s defense always falls back on. When Kristi Toliver ends up trying to guard Danielle Adams under the basket, something’s gone wrong.

 

  • Then disaster struck for San Antonio. Driving along the baseline, Hammon’s left leg buckled and went out from under her. There’s been no official diagnosis yet, but she had to be carried from the floor and everyone fears the dreaded ACL tear – something Hammon’s suffered before, although it was the other knee and a decade ago. We can only hope for the best when she undergoes further examination back in San Antonio.

 

  • The Silver Stars didn’t noticeably fall apart due to Hammon’s injury. Obviously, they’re used to playing without her at this point, and she hadn’t even done that much during her 12 minutes on the floor. But a Milton-Jones jumper put them ahead 24-21 seconds after Hammon was carried off, before LA ran off an 18-5 push before halftime that eventually became 26-5 when you included the start of the third quarter. More than anything else, the death of San Antonio’s offense led to the Sparks’ steak, with perimeter jumpers bouncing off and turnovers allowing LA to push. The Silver Stars also struggled all afternoon to handle the athleticism and activity of Nneka Ogwumike, who was involved in the LA offense from early in the game and kept her momentum rolling through the entire contest. While Appel could at least put a body on Candace Parker inside, without Sophia Young the Silver Stars didn’t really have an answer for Ogwumike.

 

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WNBA Today, 07/01/2013: Blowouts and pain, as injuries and defense dominate Sunday’s action

 

After two games that failed to catch fire on Saturday night, Sunday featured three matchups in the WNBA. And it’s fair to say that if you’re reading this to find out what you missed – you didn’t miss much. But don’t go away just yet. There were one or two moments of interest as the league finished off its June schedule, so check out the Bullet Point Breakdowns below for the details.

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 67 @ Atlanta Dream 93

  • With Atlanta sitting pretty at 9-1 before this game, it’s fair to say they’d have been strong favourites over visiting San Antonio (3-6) even if both had been using the same squads they’ve had available for most of the season. But when news emerged before the game that DeLisha Milton Jones (medial tibial stress syndrome – shin splints) and Shenise Johnson (sprained right knee) would be joining Becky Hammon, Sophia Young and Jayne Appel on the sidelines for the Silver Stars, it became even more of a mismatch. That’s basically five of their top eight players – similar to the injury list that’s led to Indiana’s horrendous start to the 2013 season.

 

  • There was an atmosphere of inevitability around this game from the opening tip-off. Atlanta broke out to an 8-1 lead, and ultimately led for the entire afternoon. The Dream were racking up their usual pile of steals and breaks in the first quarter, leading to a lot of layups, and only their own sloppiness with the ball limited their lead. There were 16 turnovers between the teams in the first quarter.

 

  • When her head’s locked into the game – and to be fair, that’s been the case for the majority of this season – Angel McCoughtry is an outstanding offensive leader for this team. She’s shown off her scoring talents and ability to get to the rim or draw fouls during her time in the WNBA, but she’s exhibiting more of a willingness to pass this season. She seems to be showing a greater appreciation of the fact that if two (or more) defenders are challenging her, then there’s a teammate wide open somewhere to dump the ball off to. It makes her a nightmare to defend, and she’s one of the primary candidates for league MVP so far this year.

 

  • McCoughtry’s also leading the league in steals, but she can be a remarkably frustrating defender. There are only so many times you can get away with standing around and whining or pouting after an offensive breakdown, while your teammates are playing 4-on-5 defense at the other end. She does it repeatedly, and it’s not cute. She also gambles constantly – but that’s pretty much intrinsic to the Dream defense, so it’s usually acceptable – and often loses track of her man so just randomly double-teams instead. She’s got great instincts for the ball, and incredibly quick hands – it’s just the basic stuff that sometimes breaks down.

 

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WNBA Today, 06/26/2013: Dream coast home, while Taurasi-Griner tandem too much for Silver Stars

 

Yesterday saw two contrasting games in the WNBA. An early inter-conference game in front of thousands of kids, where the result seemed like virtually a foregone conclusion; and a late game on national TV between two Western Conference rivals that was nip and tuck until the final seconds. Both had their moments, but it’s safe to say that ESPN2 will be happy with their choice.

 

Indiana made the trip to Atlanta with yet another injury to add to their ridiculous list. Rookie guard Layshia Clarendon tweaked her ankle again at the tail end of their loss to Chicago on Saturday, so she joined Tamika Catchings (back), Katie Douglas (back), Erin Phillips (knee), Jessica Davenport (tibia) and Jeanette Pohlen (ACL) on the sidelines. A team that now has 14 players on their roster thanks to all the exceptions they’ve been granted was down to 8 healthy bodies once again. Atlanta were still without Sancho Lyttle due to her commitments at EuroBasket Women, but after temporarily suspending Lyttle and signing Ruth Riley to fill the hole, they had 11 players available.

 

The Fever made a change to their starting lineup, after backup center Sasha Goodlett had been unimpressive enough on Saturday to be benched after one start. Jessica Breland moved into the spot. Elsewhere everything was as expected.

 

Yet again, Angel McCoughtry was the dominant personality in the first quarter. Either she’d heard the comments of people who didn’t appreciate her 33-shot display against Connecticut on Sunday, or her coach had asked her to be a little more unselfish, because she came out looking to pass. She was penetrating and trying to kick out to teammates, rather than constantly flinging up shots. However, some of the passes were horrible and blind, leading to turnovers rather than open looks. And when those plays dissolved, or if she drove and didn’t get the call from the officials she wanted, Angel stood around pouting and whining in traditional McCoughtry style. Barely four minutes into the game, Indiana already led 10-4 and Atlanta had spent multiple defensive possessions playing 4-on-5 while McCoughtry chose bitching over working back in transition. Dream head coach Fred Williams sat her ass down on the bench.

 

It was 20-12 Fever by the time Williams put McCoughtry back in, late in the first quarter. Karima Christmas and Shavonte Zellous had done a nice job of attacking off the dribble to create points for Indiana, while the Fever’s constant double-teams whenever Erika de Souza touched the ball down low were forcing kick-outs to Dream shooters who couldn’t hit. Of course, Angel’s still Angel – love her one minute, hate her the next. She had an assist and a long jumper before the first quarter was even over to ignite the Dream comeback.

 

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WNBA Today, 06/24/2013: Nailbiters early, relative comfort late on quad-game Sunday

 

Four games yesterday in the WNBA, with a couple of nailbiters to liven up your Sunday afternoon, and then more relaxing fare to ease you off to bed. Isn’t it nice how the action sometimes fits to our needs? The Bullet Point Breakdowns cover it all for you below.

 

San Antonio Silver Stars 78 @ New York Liberty 77

  • After a quiet game in her first start of the season last time out, Shenise Johnson was moved back to the bench by San Antonio head coach Dan Hughes, with Shameka Christon reassuming the starting role. Once again, Danielle Adams started at center in the absence of Jayne Appel due to concussion. Becky Hammon was in the arena, but still in street clothes. New York’s first game in nine days saw the same starting group again, although Cappie Pondexter was wearing ‘Wicks’ on the back of her jersey to recognise former Liberty favourite Sue. It was a nice touch as part of the Liberty’s Pride celebrations, and Wicks was honoured at halftime.

 

  • San Antonio got out to a hot start, behind a constant barrage of jump shots. I lament their lack of interior scoring at times, but when they get rolling they can kill you from outside. New York looked like they’d unofficially extended their eight-day layoff to nine, and trailed 17-4 after less than four minutes of basketball.

 

  • The rest of the first half was about New York battling their way back into the game. The Silver Stars couldn’t stay that hot from outside, and when New York managed to avoid turning the ball over they were finding ways to produce. Plenette Pierson finished inside, Avery Warley made her debut as a member of the Liberty and quickly produced hustle rebounds and putbacks, Kelsey Bone showed off some nice passing vision out of the post, and by halftime they were only down 34-32. Despite a hideous 12 turnovers.

 

  • San Antonio play quick, aggressive defense, and they’re excellent at getting their hands into passing lanes, but this was far from the first time New York had suffered from turnover issues this season. They’re trying to force passes into gaps that aren’t there, especially with their constant efforts to run plays through their bigs either down low or at the elbow. Defenses know where they want to go, and balls get poked away. Cappie Pondexter, besides her shooting woes (36% from the field, 28% from three-point range), is also second in the league in turnovers. They ask her to do a lot so a high number is understandable, but we’ve seen too many drives into traffic with nowhere to go, or instances where she leaves her feet before desperately searching for someone to kick the ball to. The positive angle is that they’ve been winning games, despite a turnover rate higher than any WNBA team has managed since the league switched to a 24-second shot clock in 2006. If they can get the problem under control, who knows how good they might be. Head coach Bill Laimbeer’s comments after this game sounded like he’s reaching the end of his rope with rookie guard Kamiko Williams, so we may see someone new being given a chance to help out the backcourt soon.

 

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WNBA Today, 06/16/2013: LA’s life made easy by San Antonio capitulation

 

It’s fair to say that last night’s sole WNBA game was not a classic. In fact, when one team quits barely halfway through, it doesn’t exactly encourage people like myself to spend much time writing about it. But if you’re going to cover an entire season, even games like this fall under the umbrella. So here goes. Just don’t expect me to like it.

 

After an ugly second half in Phoenix the night before, the Los Angeles Sparks flew home looking to bounce back. It was a soulless, rather lazy performance against the Mercury, so Carol Ross clearly wanted a response from her squad. They had to make do without point guard Lindsey Harding, who took a smack to the face late in the third quarter in Phoenix, and was held out of this game as a result (after many viewings of the replay, I’m still not sure if Lynetta Kizer hit Harding from in front, or if Diana Taurasi’s wild swipe caught her from behind). It turned out to be a straight swap in the backcourt, as Alana Beard returned after missing a couple of games due to an ankle injury.

 

San Antonio had yet more injury problems. After working without Sophia Young and Becky Hammon in every game so far (Young’s done for the year, Hammon is still weeks away from returning from her broken finger), now they had another starter on the sidelines. After a clash of heads in practice, center Jayne Appel was out, replaced in the starting lineup by Danielle Adams. A post rotation that already looked dangerously limited was now becoming even thinner. If you can say that about a frontcourt involving Adams.

 

There were problems for San Antonio from the start, but they managed to keep the game mildly competitive through the first half. It was immediately apparent how open the lane was with Adams in the middle rather than Appel. The regular Silver Stars pivot takes a lot of criticism for the things she doesn’t do – score, or even make anyone pay attention to her on the offensive end – but they missed the things she does do. Like fill the paint, and play some interior defense. Adams doesn’t mind dropping into the trenches offensively or fighting on the boards, and she’s a more agile one-on-one defender than you’d expect, but the help defense drops off dramatically when she replaces Appel. There was just so much more space inside for LA, which led to easy lanes to the bucket, and gaps for Nneka Ogwumike to exploit for offensive boards and cuts to the hoop. When Adams sat down, leaving rookie center Kayla Alexander at center and sometimes Shameka Christon at power forward, things only got worse. Dan Hughes has pulled off some alchemy getting his team to compete this season, but there’s only so much he can do.

 

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WNBA Today, 06/12/2013: Lynx made to work hard for victory over Silver Stars

 

Last night saw just one WNBA matchup on the schedule, and once again the Minnesota Lynx took to the floor just an hour before an NBA Finals game tipped off. Unlike last week, this one was still a contest at halftime and forced fans to make a choice – or continually flip backwards and forth from one to the other. Archived video can also be your friend.

 

For once there were no real injury details to delve into before the tip – Becky Hammon and Sophia Young are still missing for San Antonio, but at this point that’s old news. The starting fives were as expected.

 

The opening possession of the game had an amusing quirk, as Minnesota dropped into a zone defense for no particular reason. It wasn’t something we saw again for the rest of the night. Dan Hughes and Cheryl Reeve know each other so well (Reeve was a Hughes assistant back in his Cleveland Rockers days) that it almost felt like Cheryl was just throwing it in for comedy effect. The very first move in the chess match between the coaches was openly declaring “yeah, I know, we’re probably not going to surprise each other without being completely ridiculous”.

 

San Antonio continued their pattern from this season of using Jia Perkins on the opposing point guard defensively, sliding Danielle Robinson over to take the shooting guard. In Minnesota’s case, that immediately creates what looks like a physical mismatch. Seimone Augustus is significantly bigger both in terms of height and sheer bulk, but Robinson has become adept at using her speed and agility to stay with bigger players and make life very difficult for them. That’s presumably why Hughes continues to use her on wing players, when the more natural physical matchups would leave her on point guards.

 

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WNBA Today, 06/10/2013: Revenge a dish best served warm for Liberty and Sky

Through an odd quirk of the WNBA schedule, Sunday saw two matchups that offered quick opportunities to avenge losses. After losing on the road on Friday night, both the New York Liberty and Chicago Sky were back home 48 hours later facing the same opponents again. It might be a dish best served cold, but sometimes it can be nice to get your own back while the feelings are still warm in the memory.

 

The Liberty had a little extra motivation, but a more limited roster than they started with on Friday. Essence Carson went down during that game, and by the time the rematch tipped off she’d been officially diagnosed with a torn ACL that ends her season. Still without Cheryl Ford due to her persistent knee issues, New York were down to nine players for this one. Veteran Katie Smith moved into the starting lineup for Carson. Atlanta were unchanged.

 

Both of these teams have star wing players who’ve been struggling to hit shots in their early games this season. Angel McCoughtry’s been successful in other areas, and her team’s been winning, but she came into this game shooting 37% from the field; Cappie Pondexter was just a tick lower at 36%. Both of them spent the vast majority of this game tossing up bricks that dropped those percentages even lower. It led to some ugly basketball at times, because neither of them is going to stop shooting. McCoughtry in particular tried her best to get to the rim – something she always needs to accomplish to be effective – but struggled to get there. Katie Smith and Alex Montgomery shared the defensive assignment, and with lots of help from their teammates they managed to keep her away from the basket. McCoughtry looked more and more frustrated as the game went on, expecting calls from the officials when she created contact and not drawing anywhere near as many as she would’ve liked.

 

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