Final
score: Storm 51 Monarchs 59 (L) (17-15)
Attendance
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10691
Anthem
Xtra Notes | Lots
Anthem
High Note | She had many, many high notes
Anthem
Style | R&B ish
Fan
Noise | Really loud for Edna
Signs
| Payback!
Fan
Psyche | Us: Have your little win. We're going
to the Big Show. Them: Trying to prove something
Halftime
| Tumblers
About
the time that the Storm set a 9-0 record as their goal to
end the season and make a bid for the playoffs, Angie and
I decided that the final game of the season at Arco may just
be the one that makes or breaks the Storm's chances of reaching
their goal. We wanted to be there to support them in a hostile
environment and to see the last game of the season.
Well,
since the playoffs were clinched with the Utah game and we
would have at least one more game at the Key in the first
round of the playoffs, this game's impact dwindled to nil
and it was kind of an anticlimactic. But, like the players
had been quoted in the papers, we were looking for this game
to be fun instead of a must win. With a group of 18 like-minded
fans, we descended on Sacramento looking for a fun time.
Before
the game, we met at the hotel, made introductions all around
(from the forum, we had Salvo, Sass, InsaneStormFan10, Leighway,
BirdJack, Scott Larson, StormFan7, Jezzie and 2 friends, RabidStormFan
and a friend, Trinity and a friend, Socks_fan, Jrod, myself
and the Mrs.) and got to the business of making some signs
for the game. People may believe that Seattlites are weather
wimps, but the near 100 temps, perma-haze (what is that stuff
anyway) and no wind made for some uncomfortable people. Add
to that the intoxicating fumes of Sharpies hard at work and
you had a hot, sticky and smelly hotel room. Once the signs
were completed and all of us were suitable dizzy, we piled
into the vehicles and headed for Arco Arena.
Arco
Arena. You know, after watching and cheering for the Kings
to beat the Lakers for so long, I had assumed that Arco Arena
was some fantastic basketball dream arena. Umm... no. It is
smaller than the Key (or seemed like it) had wood (wood!)
floors with old school style seating made out of plastic.
There are Arco logos everywhere. There is a giant Pepsi cup
sculpture in front of the main doors. When I say giant I mean
20 feet high. The arena vision was small and the scoreboard
was hard to read and there were neon Kings' logos at each
corner. There was tons of parking (Arco is out in the middle
of nowhere, but then so is Sacramento), but it was $8. I was
missing the Key in a big way, can you tell? They did have
Krispy Kreme booths on the concourse. I guess it wasn't all
bad.
As
we walked up to the doors, we passed by these four guys who
were having way too much fun in an empty parking lot. They
recognized all the green and started doing Storm cheers to
us. We got to talking to them and found out that they all
work for an airline, fly for free, and have been going to
Storm away games this season. We were happy to find some kindred
but slightly drunk spirits and asked them to join us (we just
happened to have 4 extra tickets - long story). They definitely
increased our volume potential.
The
tickets the Sacramento ticket agent sold us were supposed
to be behind and slightly to the right of the Storm bench.
We were directly across from them. They could still see us
(we were all in green shirts and had the marker-stinky signs),
so that wasn't too bad. Once we got inside, we were able to
walk around mostly unmolested by power-hungry ushers (one
improvement over the Key) and went down to the edge of the
court during warm-ups. We tried to urge Takeisha to dunk again
as the Storm went back into the locker room, but she missed
on 3 attempts.
Back
in our seats (not as grouped together as we had been led to
believe by the aforementioned ticket agent, sensing a pattern?),
we met some of the Sacramento fans around us. For the most
part, they were fine with us being a bit loud and we enjoyed
some playful give and take (including one of them taking Angie's
"Big Dog" sign and not giving it back for awhile).
There were also others who weren't so nice. One woman actually
clapped when Felicia went down on one play in the second half
and didn't get up. I don't mean that she clapped in support
when Felicia got up and hobbled to the bench as most fans
do when a player gets hurt. No, she was shaking her head "yes"
and clapping in support of the injury. Classy. There were
also a smattering of anti-Storm signs based on the Monarchs'
erroneous belief that the Storm win earlier in the season
was unsportswomanlike "Payback," "Lin Dunn,
Classless in Seattle" and other similar signs were on
display. They didn't get the payback they were looking for,
but they won so maybe they'll shut up about it now. I will
give a couple of their fans credit though. When we told them
that the Storm's worst loss ever was to the Monarchs (by 33,
last game Season 1) and it happened when we had prime players
hurt, they got an "Oh" look and were quiet afterwards.
Once
the game got started, it seemed clear that Coach Dunn didn't
have the team going with their regular intensity. She subbed
in the bench players pretty quickly and seemed to be resting
the starters and letting this game go. The game got a bit
ugly. The team's record low for points in a first half is
17. They only scored 19 in the first half of this game and
were stuck at 15 for several minutes (it seemed to be as long
as 8 or 9, but that was how long it felt - I could be wrong).
One of the early highlights was seeing Edna Campbell on the
court. As expected and deservedly so, she got a standing O
when she came on. When she got her first basket on a fastbreak,
the place erupted and to be honest we were cheering too. She
didn't have her typical speed (hey, she had a radiation treatment
earlier that day) and she looked like she bobbled the ball
a little on the way to the basket, but she collected herself
and took it up strong. After the game, a couple of Monarchs'
fans asked us why we had a "Seattle loves Edna"
sign. We had to explain that we had her first. No sense of
history, sheesh.
So
the Storm were getting pummeled in the first half and it looked
like a throwaway game. The last thing I expected since it
seemed Coach Dunn was playing it safe was for the Storm to
come back out and try to get the game back. Of course, that
is just what they did. Basically, Coach Dunn reversed the
rotation scheme she would normally employ in a blowout game.
Normally, you would come out with your regular game plan,
get up big and then bring in the bench. In this game, she
started with the bench, got down big, and then brought in
the starters to finish the game. At the risk of being a (plastic)
armchair coach, I see two potential downfalls to this scheme.
1/ You run the risk of messing with a player's momentum and
confidence. Lauren, Sue and Kamila all had mediocre to bad
nights. yes, they did almost come back and win the game, but
they also expended a lot of energy and didn't do that well
overall. 2/ If you are going to play the starters after all,
why start out the game with the bench in an attempt to give
them more playing time and experience when they probably aren't
going to play that much in the playoffs? It seemed like there
were 2 game plans in effect - let it go and win it. That's
just the view from the (plastic) stands.
StormFan7
had talked to Kamila before the game and Kamila agreed to
join us after the game for some food and beverages. We waited
after the game for her to come out of the locker room and
got to see the Monarchs address their fans. Shoes were thrown
to fans and Yolanda Griffith took off her jersey and made
like she was going to throw it too but then put it back on
inside-out. Most of the comments were similar to the ones
we heard at the last Storm regular-season home game (you like
that little "regular-season" qualifier?) - "you're
the best fans," "see what we can do when we're healthy,"
"going for a championship next year," blah, blah,
blah. We all know WE are the best fans in the league (Lauren
said so). They were obviously delusional.
While
we were waiting, Charmin Smith came over and said hello before
dashing out. It was good to see her again. Socks_fan introduced
me to a friend of hers who knows Edna's personal trainer,
so we gave her the "Seattle loves Edna" sign and
asked her to tell Edna that she is in our thoughts. We gave
a cheer as the Storm players filtered out of the locker room.
Most gave us a wave (and a "who are those freaks?"
look). Kamila came out and we loaded back up and went in search
of food.
The
place we intended to go was closed. Reservations had been
made and Angie called them from Arco before we left and was
assured that they would be open. They lost out because the
Chevy's next door was open so we went over there. We hung
out for awhile, had some food and beverages (Kamila had water
I think - no alcohol - Coach Klopp was there too), chatted,
and got back to our rooms at about midnight or so.
The
best part of the trip was being with the other Storm fans,
but then that has been the best part of being a Storm fan
so far (not counting the playoff clinching win over Utah).
It was great to meet and bond with more forum members, even
if it was hellishly hot and we lost a lackluster game.
One
post-game note: On our trip back, we found that the Storm's
flight out had been canceled and they were stranded at the
airport when we got there for our flight. Most of them got
on our plane and flew back to Seattle after sitting around
the Sacramento International Airport for 4 hours. They of
course had to go to Furtado for a full practice, canceled
flight or not.
Hey,
that's right - we've got a playoff game on Thursday. |
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