Final
score: Storm 54 Mercury 56 (L) (9-16)
Attendance
|
5278
Anthem
Xtra Notes | Of course
Anthem
High Note | Hit it
Anthem
Style | Dido
Fan
Noise | Great for 3:30 minutes
Signs
| A couple
Fan
Psyche | We were robbed
Halftime
| Amazing jumproping
Im
not going to bore you with a rehash of how ugly this game got
to be during the first 36 and a half minutes. Im sure that
all of the major sports news outlets that bother to cover the
WNBA will revel in how long the Storm went before getting a field
goal (6 minutes), that the Storm only scored 30 points in the
first 30 minutes of play, or that nearly half of the Storms
total points came from the free throw line (26 points out of 54).
Instead,
I am going to focus on the best part of the game the last
3 and a half minutes.
In
3 and a half minutes, the Storm play monster defense, hit some
key shots that normally dont go down, and wipe away a seemingly
insurmountable 11 point lead to tie the game with 52 seconds left.
What may have been another frustrating loss becomes a great game.
The
end of this game has to be given to Michelle Marciniak. True,
she doesnt do all of it on her own. Lauren has a couple
vital rebounds, Semeka hits a field goal, and everyone hits their
free throws. But 3M has to be given the credit for leading this
comeback. She sparks the defense with steals and being thoroughly
disruptive. She drives the lane and gets the basket or fouls (well
come back to this). She is slapping at the ball, taking hits in
the chest and keeping Phoenix from running out the clock.
So
we are tied at 54 with about 19 seconds on the clock. The Mercury
have the ball and dribble the clock down to about 10 and dump
it inside. Gillom (we think) hits the lay-up with just over 5
seconds left. Before anyone can say timeout (did we have any left?),
3M is flying up the floor and goes straight to the basket. She
gets floored, as does the defender. No basket, no foul, no time
left. The Mercury win 56-54.
Now,
as I said earlier, we come back to Michelle driving the lane and
either getting the score or getting a foul. She either commits
an offensive foul during the last play, or she is mugged by the
defender. There is no way that a foul, one way or the other, was
not committed at the end of this game. Im sorry, but the
refs have to make a call, any call, and they dont.
Its
not so much that the Storm lose this game by two points, its
that after pulling off another near miracle they get the game
yanked away from them because the refs dont have the guts
to make a call. The team takes it pretty hard, especially 3M.
Like with the last Sparks game, we hope they can take the effort
they put forward in this game and focus on the good.
Notes:
Lauren
scores another double double 16 pts, 13 rebounds
along with 3 blocked shots, 2 steals and 11 for 11 from the free
throw line. Again, if these arent Rookie of the Year numbers,
Ill eat a Lauren Jackson jersey at the end of the season.
Simone
Edwards is playing incredible defense. On a defensive team, she
is quickly becoming one of the standouts. Her stats dont
show it (6 rebounds, no steals, no blocks), but she is being extremely
active and is really clamping down on anything coming into the
key. Were all becoming members of the Simone Zone.
In
one of those it-sounded-good-in-the-meeting cross-promotion things,
tonight is Nsync night in the WNBA. At the door, we are
offered a free Nsync poster. We ask the person if we look
like the Nsync demographic. He says no, and so do we. Later,
one lucky row gets a copy of the new Nsync CD.
This is one of the few times that we quietly repeat, Not
us, not us, not us.
Cynthia
Cooper comes unglued at one point and alternates between screaming
at her players and pacing the scorers table in a seeming
incoherent rage. Coop, you need one of those stress balls. That,
or just go ahead and suit up you know you are dying to.
Yet
again, the floor is overrun with kids trying to conga with Doppler
during one of the timeouts. Sooner or later, were going
to get called for a delay of game or even a technical because
the floor isnt cleared fast enough. Tonight gets close,
very close.
Lauren
inadvertently has an Opals flashback and passes the ball to Trisha
Fallon at one point. You cant blame her, really. You couldnt
swing a useless ref without hitting an Australian tonight (Timms
and Fallon for the Mercury and LJ for the Storm were all on the
Opals last year, and Veals plays with Lauren for the Canberra
Capitals but you all knew that already).
In
a postgame Q&A, Sonja and Charmin answer some questions about
their college days and their off-season pursuits. One of the questions
is how they were first attracted to basketball. Sonja tells the
story of how when she was in the 5th grade, she was called to
play in a game so that the team didnt forfeit the game because
they were down a body. She was called because she
lived only a couple of blocks from the school. Charmin tells a
story about her first point scored. When she was 4, she played
in a league that awarded a point if the players were able to hit
the rim with the ball even if they didnt make the basket.
She says that she was very excited to get her first point, but
cant remember getting her first basket. Both play basketball
year-round to stay in shape and keep their skills sharp. Sonja
says that balancing her career as a lawyer and basketball has
been difficult at times. The last thing she wants to do after
working a full day is go to the gym and workout, but she knows
she has to do it. Charmin, who interned with NBA.com TV last year,
also talks about finding pick-up games to keep in shape. She doesnt
play outdoors much anymore because her knees are sensitive
to surfaces. Sonja says that her favorite type of law is
civil rights and civil liberties. She says she has always been
interested in personal rights and it is something that she feels
passionate about. She says that as a kid, she was a brat, now
shes a lawyer. Both women talk about basketball being secondary
to getting an education and stress that while basketball is fun,
its not forever. (Apologies to Sonja
and Charmin if our paraphrasing isn't completely accurate. Angie
can only take notes so fast.)
|