Final score: Storm 51 – Monarchs 59 (L) (17-15)

Attendance | 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.