Final score: Storm 69 – Comets 55 (W) (10-7)

Attendance | 6718

Anthem Watch | We have a new choral-style speed record.

Fan Psyche | Just call her Mach, as in Mach 5.

Game Highlight | LJ sending a Houston shot attempt into the 2nd row.

Halftime | Meet the Dance Team.

Game Photos | Game Photos (Scott Larson)

This isn't going to be much a report on the actual game. To be honest, I wasn't paying that much attention to the game tonight because Angie and I had a whole new perspective on the fan experience. We got to sit in the row directly behind the Storm bench. When I say directly behind, I mean I was a part of each Storm huddle - well almost. In the past when we've sat near courtside, I haven't liked it as much as sitting higher in the stands because it's harder to see and keep track of the flow of the game on both sides. After tonight though, we may have to rethink that a bit. We could get reeeeal used to sitting less than 5 feet from the bench (thanks to the fans who let us buy the seats - you may be hearing from us again).

The main thing that I am always reminded of when sitting that close is how truly physical this game is. I think that any naysayer who constantly dogs the WNBA should be given comp courtside tickets for one game. Then let's see what they say. The only true difference between the level of play in the men's game and the women's game is the greater force that the men can exert due to their size and strength. Pound for pound, the women fight and scrap just as hard as their male counterparts.

Being as close to the bench as we were, I was able to listen in during some of the Storm timeouts. Still, even being that close it was difficult to hear Coach Donovan at times. During the second half, she was all over the team to quit fouling the Comets so that they could keep Houston off the line. She also anticipated Houston's move to a zone defense about 3 plays before they went to it. She warned the team that Houston would be coming with a zone soon (this was about 12 or 13 minutes left in the second half - I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the clock so that could be off) and that they'd probably be seeing the zone for the rest of the game. She repeated "Inside outside" during every timeout. She also gave LJ a perpetual green light to be the person to break down the zone. Coach D told Lauren to take whatever shot the Comets gave her, outside or inside (although she strongly suggested inside was better). She also kept encouraging Sue to drive to the basket. Sue came out after one such drive that didn't completely work and Coach D gave a "That's what we want" pep talk once Sue got to the bench.

A direct quote from the burly cop who sits at the end of the scorers' table (after someone talked to one of the assistant coaches before the game), "They hire people like me to keep people like you away from people like them." Funny, but don't push your luck.

Adia was acting as a sort of on-the-job-trainer for our new addition to the team, Mactabene Amachree (Mach for short). As soon as Mach made it to the bench during a timeout when she was in the game, Adia was right there talking to her, giving her tips about the Comets' players. She also took on the role of bench cheerleader letting the players know when they did something great - like LJ's monster block in the second half. Adia looked like she was moving around really well, just as she has described in the press. I did she her limping slightly once, but otherwise she looked very comfortable. The Storm didn't give her the Get Well card during a timeout as I had heard they would, but they did put her up on the big screen and let the crowd give her a nice round of supportive applause.

Sandy was also constantly talking to the players as they came off the floor for timeouts and giving suggestions. I think from observing her this close, it is clear that she is definitely playing the role of the seasoned veteran with the younger players.

The coaches had the names and numbers of the refs taped up on the side of the scorers' table.

Missy Bequette, the Director of Basketball Affairs and one of the only staff holdovers from Lin Dunn's group, was in charge of keeping track of all the stats for the team. She had a scoring card and kept track of timeouts, fouls, etc and relayed the info to the coaching staff so they knew what their situation was at all times.

Sue's and LJ's intensity was almost a physical force anytime they were on the bench. While they both do get goofy sometimes, when the game is on so were they and it was fascinating to watch the level of concentration and determination on their faces and in their body language.

When the video highlights of the All-Star game played on the big screen, Sue had a small smile on her face and LJ turned beet red, especially after they showed the between the legs pass and lay-up connection. I'm not sure why she got embarrassed, but her ears were flame red.

When the game started, I was a little tentative with how loud I was yelling. But, as the game wore on, I got back to my old self and even broke out the megaphone. The new trainer assistant was sitting right in front of me and he did flinch a couple times. The people in that section are very vocal and with the back-up group in 113, I'm not sure why I was worried.

The players do look up into the crowd more than I thought they do - they are just very sly about it. I'm sure they aren't as obvious about it because they have to keep their attention on the game, but for those of you with signs and those of you who are yelling out zingers at the refs (Sass), there is no doubt that the players hear and see you.

I've got to mention some things about the game, so here goes.

Before the game, they displayed the season stats for each team on the big screen and they were basically dead even. The game, for the most part, played out that way. The Storm built and kept a lead through a good portion of the game, but the Comets were never really that far behind and we were waiting for Swoopes and Arcain to go off at any moment. The main story from this game has to be that the Storm were able to keep the Comets at arms' length and were able to withstand the Comets' runs as well as their own lulls. This wasn't necessarily a pretty game, nor was it very high scoring, but it definitely felt like two fairly evenly matched teams duking it out.

Before I go on, let's savor that idea for a moment. The Storm are basically evenly matched with the Comets. True, the Comets were minus Tina Thompson, but we were minus Adia - that's professional sports. How far has this team come to be legitimately playing for second place in the Western Conference. Ahhhhh.

Back to the action. Player of the game - hands down, up and all around - Kamila Vodichkova. Holy moley did she uncork one tonight! One of our pre-game rituals, if you want to call it that, is to park in a numbered spot for the player we think is going to have or needs to have a monster night. We almost parked in 7, but saw 15 open and reasoned that LJ would be feeling pretty good after the All-Star game and would go to town against the Comets. We should have gone with lucky 7 because then we could have taken a little credit for her offensive explosion. As it was, she didn't need our parking spot choice to help her out. I think that anybody interested in playing basketball needs to study Kamila's shot mechanics - she has one of the best looking shots I've ever seen. She had a mini-lull at the beginning of the second half, but came out of it and ended up with her season high.

Sue had a fantastic, but quiet, game yet again. There are some people who claim we don't talk about what Sue produces enough, but to watch her actually play - she catches you by surprise with her numbers. She was two rebounds short of a triple-double tonight. I remember looking up at the score board with just a few minutes left on the clock and being surprised at her numbers. I think it is because she is so good at picking her spots for scoring and not forcing her game. She doesn't run off 8 points in a row or tries to shoot every time down the court. She plays within the flow of the game and before you know it is on the verge of a triple-double. She came out of the game with a couple minutes left or so when it was clearly in the bag. When she got to the bench, Adia (now playing junior stat person) pointed out that Sue only needed two more rebounds for the triple. Sue smiled and said, "I got my double-double."

Mach played 8 minutes and was credited with one rebound - I think she contributed to a couple "team" rebounds - and one basket. What the stats don't show is that she was definitely playing like someone trying to earn a spot on the team. She came in with a lot of energy and was really fighting for the ball. Her one shot also looked great - a mid-range jumper that was all net. I don't know, but if she brings that level of intensity to each game, she won't be a replacement for Adia, but she, Sun and Amanda may be able to get the job done at small forward.

Amanda also didn't have a great stat line, but she was guarding Swoopes the whole time and had her hands full. Swoopes ended up with 17 points, but she was only 7-22 shooting. I think some credit for that has to go directly to Amanda.

Sheryl Swoopes and Janeth Arcain are scary good. I think that Janeth Arcain may be one of the best players in the league that doesn't get much attention. Her shot is so pretty, and it looked like she could have had her way with the Storm guards if she had been more offensively minded. She shot 15 less shots than Swoopes and still had 16 points. Towards the end of the game when the lead was stuck at 10, I just knew that she was going to start bombing from the three-point line. It was a relief that she left the shooting to Swoopes - although that usually isn't in the other team's favor. Tonight, Swoopes was a little off so it was a good thing for us.

All in all, a great game, a great win and a great experience for me and Angie. The second half of the season is going to be hard, but with Houston 3 times (including tonight), Minnesota 3 times, Sacramento twice and San Antonio twice, the Storm have the power to make it into the playoffs in their own hands. They are in a perfect position and have the opportunity to make a solid run at second place and potential home court advantage in the first round. Tonight was the first step in the right direction.

Other notes:

Other notes is going to be fairly light - I paid little or no attention to the extra stuff during the timeouts and such since I was trying so hard to eavesdrop on the Storm huddle.

I am the proud owner of a Tamika Catchings signed jersey. I "won" it in the charity auction the Storm had on the concourse by the Info Booth. "Won" being an interesting term since I had to outbid two other bidders in the waning moments of the halftime. I scribbled the winning bid on the sheet with about 5 seconds left on the clock. He shoots - he scores! And then pays! It's all good - I got a jersey from one of my favs and the money goes to the Storm's TEAM foundation which in turn supports the community. Sweet, all around.

One of the hot auction items was a KV jersey. Coach Gym Rat and Stormfan7 were in a bidding war over that one, but were beat out by some deep pockets. I think it went for $500. Likewise for the Sue and LJ jerseys - $500+ on each. The person I beat for the Catchings jersey won the LJ jersey, so I didn't feel too bad.

The importance of picking your spots for yelling out pithy things at the refs was driven home to me tonight by our one and only Sass. She consistently got some good zingers in and made sure that she did them at just the right quiet moments. She had us cracking up, and I know the team could hear her. Good job Sass.

Coach Donovan is one of the coolest cucumbers I have ever seen. That woman is the definition of calm and collected. Of course, she didn't have the need or opportunity to be otherwise - like she was during the Mystics game. I imagine the up close and personal Coach D is a different story when she wants it to be.

The officials sucked, which was too bad since they've been generally decent the last few games.

Last note - there was some sort of fan dance-off during one timeout that had two people competing for a prize for their sections. The woman worked everything she had, ahem, and won the contest. Wnbafanforever, who was sitting next to me, said at one point during her performance, "Good Lord." I jokingly replied, "The Good Lord had nothing to do with that." I give her a lot of credit - I wouldn't have gotten out there and danced in front of 7000 people.

Submitted by | jezzie

Who’s large and in charge? Yo – it SO ain’t Marge. Kamila came up big for us tonight. At one point StormFan7 was shaking her head in amazement, cuz Killa had 10 of our 12 points. Scott, I busted out the “We’re Not Worthy” bow but it wasn’t the same without you.
 
Mr. And Mrs. Admin looked especially sexy tonight. Perhaps it was that dose of courtside glamour?
 
LJ was missing her shots and it was looking ugly until seattlegaucho suggested I use my supa effective Spirit!Fingers (more effective than StormFan7’s, anyway) on her perimeter shots.  Good call, SG.
 
On the defensive end: NewSocks – we need a refresher course on whatever we’re supposed to be doing during the opponents’ free throws. Felt like we weren’t plugged in or something.
 
Sue and LJ tried to bring a bit of the All Star Flash to the game. If LJ had finished that shot, I would have peed on myself. So nice to see Lassi get some PT again, she was determined out there. Tully gets the bulldawg award again (but in a good way). That girl plays smotherin’ D. Sandy turned it on in the last 3 minutes, I just love having her in a Storm uni. The Nigerian Princess gets 2 Big Thumbs Up. I liked her athleticism and tenacity. Can’t wait to see what happens once she gets comfy with our system. Simone grabbed some key rebounds. I’m always so relieved when she holds onto the ball.

Submitted by | Coach.Gym.Rat

LJ kept chest bumping everyone and it looked like Kamila really got Loz good on her turn. Ouch.

It is Kamila's world and we just live in it.

SF7 is a big stinky poo poo head and she sucks.

Dude in front of me got silly stringed (I know that's not a word - deal with it) via doppler. Teach ya to be a comet fan in storm country!

Isn't Doppler sporting a new jersey?

Coach Chanselor has the BIGGEST diagram board I have ever seen. Overcompensating for something? Hee hee - you are in third place - naner naner naner...

Dmac got some PT... all of 26 seconds. Woo and hoo for her.

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