2002 WNBA Playoffs Round 1, Game 1 (best of 3 series)

Final score: Storm 61– Sparks 78 (L) (0-1)

Attendance | 9686 (no upper bowl tonight)

Anthem Xtra Notes | Only in a couple of well placed spots

Anthem High Note | Yes indeedy

Anthem Style | Gospel, powerful Gospel

Fan Noise | We were trying our best

Signs | It wasn't so much the signs as the Fairy Godmothers

Fan Psyche | So this is what playoff basketball feels like. Can we go back and beat Utah again?

Halftime | Dogs! Go Corgis, go!

We knew this wasn't going to be easy.

There are a lot of things that I think Storm fans will point to in this game as valid reasons why it was lost. But, I think that for as much as the refs screwed up, or as much as the Storm were sloppy with the ball or were walking instead of running most of the game, the biggest reason the Sparks won is that they shot the lights out, pure and simple.

Think about it this way. Sure the refs were missing calls, letting the Sparks beat up the Storm, and generally disrupting the flow of the game, but even through that the Storm were right with the Sparks in just about every statistic at the end of the game except one - FG%. You can look at the stats and say that the Sparks outrebounded the Storm, but most of that lead came in a couple of streaks at the end of the second half. The two teams were nearly even on assists, turnovers, blocked shots, rebounds (until the end) and fouls (even though it seemed to be all Storm for awhile on that one). The Sparks nearly doubled up the Storm on shooting percentage. They shot 61% in the first half for crying out loud. The Storm played the Sparks straight up, despite the bad officiating, but couldn't match the Sparks' shooting over the course of the game.

I will comment on two instances where I think the refs totally blew it and did, in my opinion, contribute to taking the wind out of the Storm's sails. The first was the missed call on the first half buzzer beater by Adia. The replay showed that the ball had left her hands. It was close and the replay was in slow motion, but that's what having trained observers is for - they are supposed to be able to see that stuff. I thought Karen Bryant was going to have an embolism. She was sitting at the end of the courtside seats on that end of the floor and was literally hopping mad. Howard Schultz and Karen double teamed the refs as they left for the half, pointing up at the arena vision. The Sparks won by 17, how much of a difference could those 2 points have made? That basket would have made it a 5 point game. The crowd would have been going wild instead of cursing helplessly. The team would have gone into the locker room on a roll instead of being deflated. That call may have been a game breaker. I know the NBA is going to start allowing replays at the end of the half and game for this very reason. The WNBA should follow suit starting next season.

The other instance that I want to comment about concerning the officiating is an issue that has been driving me crazy the whole season. Tonight, it was so blatant a couple of times that I almost lost it completely. The jump ball call. This has got to be the most overused way for the refs to avoid calling a foul that I have ever seen. On two occasions tonight, a Sparks player reached around a Storm player's body from behind to tie up the ball and was rewarded with a jump ball call. Because players know that the refs are going to default to a jump ball instead of call a foul, they are in there slapping, grappling with and basically mugging the player with the ball. The refs have allowed players to cross the line from playing aggressive defense to an anything goes style of grabbing the ball, many times with no real chance of actually gaining possession of the ball. That should be the real determiner for a jump call. When both players have equal possession, then jump it. If one player has a hand in there and is flailing around looking for a call, give her one only call it a damn foul.

Enough on the refs. Nothing we say will ever change anything. I just want consistent and fair calls.

As much as I hate to say it, you have to give some credit to the Sparks for holding off the Storm. Every time the Storm made a push and got the score within a couple of buckets - we even had it within 2 at one point after LJ got a score and a foul - the Sparks came back and immediately pushed the score back up to 7 or 9. I know that some may argue that the Sparks were getting away with assault and battery and that they were literally beating the Storm down. Maybe, but that doesn't explain away Mwadi Mabika. I think that outside the Los Angeles city limits, Lisa Leslie and Delisha "potty mouth" Milton are nearly equally reviled. Yes, they are highly skilled players, but their attitudes and overflowing arrogance stinks. Mwadi Mabika stays above that fray and was the dagger in our hearts tonight. She was down right unbelievable. She was hitting everything from everywhere and it was killing us. True, the Storm, for some unfathomable reason, kept leaving her open again and again and she was burning them every time, but even when she had Sue or Adia draped all over her, she was lighting them up. If she wasn't in the gold and purple, Mwadi would be one of my favorite players. But she is, so I just have to watch in quiet frustration as she backs up all the smack talk her big-mouthed teammates spew forth.

The Storm looked sluggish in the second half until about the last few minutes when the game was out of reach. There were about 3 or 4 minutes left on the clock when the Storm started trapping and disrupting the Sparks at both ends. I turned to Angie and said, "Where was this 10 minutes ago?" If the Storm had shown that kind of energy coming out of the half, they might have stuck with the Sparks and kept it close enough for the crowd to push them over the top. As it was, we and they were still reeling from the end of the first half and the Sparks put on the jets and started executing these mini spurts of 6 or 8 points that kept building the lead. I remember thinking at the 12:00 mark that we were only down by 12 points - 1 point for each minute left. The Storm can bring the pressure and make that 12 points back one possession at a time. Instead, the Sparks were the ones who brought the energy and they kept adding points to that lead. For the Storm, it was missed jumpers, too many missed layups (2 in quick succession when Adia and Fee were directly under the basket), and allowing the Sparks posts too many easy shots that went in.

We knew this wasn't going to be easy.

So now we are down by one and need to win two at Staples Center in order to advance. I don't think it is the optimistic Storm fan in me that is pushing me to say that it is not impossible for the Storm to win the next two games. Let the Sparks yap away and spout whatever garbage Coach Cooper wants them to say. Let them feel as high and mighty as they want. As much as I think we got our off game out of our systems, I think they got their good game out of theirs. I do think the Storm can come back from this loss having learned from it and take the next game on Saturday. The Sparks are in Humpty Dumpty mode - their heads are so big that one little nudge from the Storm at the right time and down, go boom, splat. It could happen. It will happen. I have to believe. I do believe.

Notes:

The Belles of the Ball were Stormrocks and Beancounter. They stuck to their pregame promises and came dressed as the Storm Fairy Godmothers, complete with tiaras and magic wands. We went down to the front row during the shoot around and got some interesting looks from other fans, the media people and the players. Simone was looking at them and got a little lost in the warmup routine and kept going when she was supposed to stop at the half court line. Sue did a little eye-rolling double take (that I didn't see - damn). A cameraman for NBA films came by and told us that he was on the lookout for the freaks in the crowd. I think they qualified (I just had my red poof wig on). I did promise that if the Storm make it to the Finals this season (a hastily added qualifier - this season), I would join them in full Fairy Godmother regalia. Fear the Finals.

By the way - NO RED HAIR ON LIN DUNN. I am sorely miffed about that. They had a redheaded Lin Dunn bobblehead on the big screen. They have a printable redheaded Lin Dunn picture on the Storm website, which many people used and brought to the game. How can Lin Dunn not dye her hair red at this point? Or even blonde? Come on Lin, promises were made.

The Sister Guitar band warmed up the west plaza crowd before the game started. Headed by two die-hard Storm season ticket holders, this group is very good and I would recommend anyone who likes a little guitar rock and roll to check them out. They play on a fairly regular basis locally. Check their website for more info.

At the last two Sparks games here at the Key, Coach Cooper sat in the stands incognito and watched the Sparks warm-up. Each time, just as I was about to snap his picture, he would get up and leave. Tonight, I was being very careful and inconspicuous (as I sat down with 2 fairy godmothers and was wearing a bright red poof wig), but he was no where to be seen. I actually liked him as a player. In fact, he was the only Laker I liked from that era (the high socks, the super intense defense, the high arcing jump shots). I think he picked too many bad habits from Pat Riley and is a bit of a jerk as a coach - I'll just have to keep my 80's memories.

Before the game, some of the recent quotes that have spewed forth out of the Sparks' potty mouths (at the urging I'm sure of Coach Cooper - one of Pat Riley's aforementioned bad habits), were flashed up on the big screen. The Sparks' quotes of course received healthy boos.

It was uber cool to see the "WNBA Playoffs" sticker on the floor.

The upper bowl went back to being closed. Damn, damn, damn. I was so hoping that we would have a complete sellout. Complete meaning 17,000, a total Key experience. Maybe it was because there was a stinking Mariners' home game at the same time as the Storm game. Maybe it was because the playoff game was kind of short notice, I guess. Still, I don't know why we had 13,000 and then 10,000 for the 2 games that got us into the playoffs and then not have similar numbers for the first game of the playoffs. That was a little disappointing.

Salvo tried very hard to get the wave going. I did my part and jumped up when it got to 113, but it was already fizzling. I don't know if the wave is really a basketball thing. The game is too fast and the breaks in play really aren't that long. It worked for the midday Lynx game, but there were a ton of kids who really weren't watching the game in that instance. Salvo had much more success with his tinsel wig distribution. He brought a bag full of red, green and gold tinsel wigs and handed them out to fans behind the north basket. They were very visible and worked on a couple levels - as a reminder to Coach Dunn about the dye job, and as a reminder to Lisa "I don't have any real hair of my own" Leslie about the now fabled Olympic hair-extension pulling incident. Good job Salvo.

I have to say that even when the game started to get out of hand, the crowd tried to say in it. They were often ahead of the arena media team and would start the "defense" or "beat L.A." chants all on their own. The big screen graphics usually had to play catch-up. We were trying to do our part.

Bungie Ball (they call it Elastic ball or something - it will forever be Bungie Ball to me) made a triumphant Playoffs appearance in the second half. The pairings lately seem to be more for comedy than competitiveness - a big guy with some, ahem, ballast on his side versus a much more svelte opponent. Of course, comedy is the goal so I'm okay with that. Also, being a big guy with my own healthy share of "ballast," I'm waiting for the day when I will dominate a Bungie Ball competition. One side note, after the one-sided competition, it looked like the woman who lost was giving the guy who won a stern talking to. Hmm - a long ride home tonight and not just because the Storm lost.

The pompoms and "white out" weren't as impactful visually or aurally as the Thunderstix. It didn't seem that many people were using the pompoms and they of course made more of a "swishing" sound than, well, thunder. I hope the Thunderstix come back for the first game of the second round...

One guy who was sitting in the row in front of us got up with a few minutes left in the second half and muttered something about "the most useless coach ever" as he passed by us. I was of course in a funk from the pending loss and almost got up and sought out a more clear explanation. But, I quickly decided that trolls both real and virtual are better left ignored.

Lauren's mom was in the friends and family section, as was a couple I think may have been Jamie's parents. She was visiting with them before the game. On our way over to the first row before the game, Stormrocks, Beancounter and I walked past where they were sitting. Jamie's dad chuckled and shook his head when he saw the godmothers. At the end of the game, Lauren, as she always does when her Mum is here, tried to throw her t-shirts. None of them made it as they were snapped up by the surrounding fans.

I got to meet a couple more forum members tonight - Awase (of course I forgot to take the signed Rally Towel to the game Awase won for the Caption This contest. Sorry about that - too much playoff tension on my mind) and David Martin. It's always cool to be able to put faces with the names, especially when you have been seeing each other at games and events all the time anyway. Good to meet you both.

Well, as with the last Utah game, I'm sure that others will have other impressions they will write about in the forum. I will add them on to this report so that there is a much more complete description of the Storm's first ever playoff game. And it is important to not lose sight of what this game represents. For Karen Bryant - vindication for women's basketball in Seattle. Regardless of any misplaced early season fears about attendance or relocation, I think the Storm are here to stay and that this community is finally wising up about the team. For the fans - the first real step towards the ultimate fan experience, the WNBA Finals. For the team - a chance for some real national attention, some respect as an emerging elite team, and the sweet taste of a winning record. We may lose this series to the Sparks and we may just win it. Either way, let's not allow this loss diminish this season's overall successes.

On to Game 2...