Final
score: Storm 63 Monarchs 76 (L) (13-10)
Attendance
|
7411
Anthem
Watch | They did it with all the lights on
- weird.
Fan
Psyche | Yeah! Hurt them! Put them back in
their place!
Game
Highlight | Meh.
Halftime
| There is nothing I wanted to remember.
Game
Photos | Game Photos
(Scott Larson)
Before
we all agree to never speak of this game again, I need to
do my brief game report.
This
game was ugly, painful, sloppy, distressing and just this
side of horrible. As good and as dominant as the Storm played
the night before against Phoenix, they played equally bad
and lackadaisically against the Monarchs. Say what you will
about back to back games, road fatigue, or a bevy of other
sports cliches (whether they are accurate or not) - the Storm
were outplayed at every turn in this game.
The
biggest two reasons the Storm lost - 22 turnovers and 2 bench
points.
The
turnovers were the most obvious result of the overall slow
gear that the Storm were in. The Monarchs were hyper aggressive
and the Storm were on their heels. Every time the Storm put
together a run or even traded baskets with the Monarchs, Sacramento
answered bigger with steals, fastbreaks and threes.
The
pivotal point of the game, in my opinion, came near the end
of the first half. The Storm had gotten the lead down to 12
and had the ball. They were showing signs of fighting off
the Monarchs determination and taking control of the momentum.
Instead of sharply executing their offensive set and getting
a good score, they turned the ball over on a bad pass and
the Monarchs were off on another fast break. Before we knew
it, the half was over and the lead was back to 17.
The
Storm seemed to come out of the half with some new energy,
but everything they did was again answered or stymied by the
Monarchs who quickly built a 20-pt lead. With the starters
scoring all but 2 of the points, the Storm were able to scratch
their way back to 12 or 11, but no closer.
The
bench just didn't produce. You could argue that they didn't
get the chance to produce. They only played a combined 26
minutes while the starters played a combined 174 minutes.
In that 26 minutes, they only took 2 shots, had 5 rebounds
and 5 turnovers. A far cry from their performance against
Phoenix. They may have done better had they been in longer,
but while they weren't producing, the Monarchs were having
them for lunch so Coach Donovan had the starters in most of
the game.
Coach
Donovan was as mad as any of the Storm fans in attendance
had seen (the group included myself, Angie, Leighway, Birdjack,
Jezzie, StorminInCali, Trinity, Trinity's hubby, Scowl, Stormfan7,
Shed and GoShorty - although we weren't all sitting together).
She argued with the refs during the game and even chased them
down after the game while they were trying to leave the court.
In one exchange, a ref I didn't recognize (a woman with long,
bushy, light brown hair) gave the Monarchs the ball after
it had pretty clearly gone off of Kara Lawson right in front
of the Storm bench. A timeout was called and Coach D went
up to the ref and argued the call. The ref seemed to agree
with her and even said, "Okay," but didn't reverse
the call. Coach Donovan replied with an incredulous look on
her face, "What do you mean, okay?"
Coach
Donovan was also fairly stern with the players. Every time
someone came out of the game, Coach made sure they sat at
her end of the bench. Most of the time, she let Jenny Boucek
do the "instruction." When a player had really screwed
up - like when Lassiter allowed two of the Monarchs' forwards
to get loose and uncovered for two early game back-door cuts
and easy buckets - Coach D did the talking. It was not pretty
by any stretch of the imagination.
My
only hope is that from this fairly brutal loss, the Storm
will choose to rally, come together and reestablish their
game, their tempo and their style of play. We have the right
coach. Our All-Stars are producing like they need to and are
peaking at the right time. The Storm will be primarily playing
against other playoff-bound teams the rest of the way, so
their playoff fate is still in their own hands.
Other
notes:
The
only good thing about Arco Arena was that they had a live
DJ near the floor playing music and taking requests. That
was pretty cool. The rest of Arco's high school gym-like "amenities"
left us unimpressed. The seats, lighting, scoreboard - everything
pretty much was under par compared to the Key.
The
Monarchs' fans were a mixed bag too. There were good ones
like the woman who came up to us before the game and who turned
out to be a friend of Quacy Barnes (a former Storm player
for the newbies out there) and talked to us for quite awhile.
There was also the two women we first saw in our hotel and
then found sitting just a section away. Jezzie and then the
rest of us talked to them for awhile after the game. We also
had our share of jerks, like the woman who yelled at us to
shut up when we cheered for the few good things that happened
for the Storm, or the people who threatened Leighway when
she went up to the concourse alone, or the multitudes who
clapped and cheered when Sue got knocked to the floor.
Except
for the game - the whole reason we were there - our mini-group
road trip was a lot of fun. We spent the day on Sunday in
San Francisco and Monday chilling at Birdjack's sister's house
outside of Sacto. Our flight back was delayed and we ended
up stuck at the airport for a few hours, but we made our own
fun (and I'm sure we had our fellow passengers convinced we
were all drunk - we weren't). Next year - Phoenix and maybe
the All-Star game if it is on the west coast.
The
other thing to report is that, for good or ill, we kept bumping
into the team. I say it could have been both a good and a
bad thing because while each instance was purely coincidental,
I think they thought we were stalking them or something. 5
of us ended up flying down on the same flight as the team.
We choose the flight because it was the cheapest. It also
happened to be the earliest flight out that morning, which
they are required to take. We ended up at the same hotel.
We chose it because we wanted a nice hotel downtown. Once
we got there, we decided to have breakfast - and found the
coaching staff in the hotel restaurant. When we were getting
together in the hotel lobby to go to the game, who do we see?
The Storm making their way to their own transportation to
the arena. After the game, we came back to the hotel to get
some food and "beverages." As we waiting to be seated,
who walks in but the team. Kamila stayed for awhile and joined
us. Simone chatted with us while she waited for some "take
out" to take back to her room. The rest of the team went
the other direction. I don't blame them - I'm sure the last
thing after that game they wanted to do was to chit-chat with
a bunch of fans. That was too bad because as a group, we were
the fans least likely to bug them with dumb questions or for
autographs. In fact, with all the opportunities we had, the
only things any of us really said to them were a couple "good
game" comments before the game and then after the game
I asked Tully how she was and how she was injured during the
game (a Monarchs' forearm across the nose). My concern is
that in their minds all fans have been categorized in the
psycho mold - autograph hounds, never ending picture takers
(I only take pictures during official events and didn't even
try to get them when they were on their own time), constantly
asking the same questions and/or wanting something. If this
is the case (and again, I understand their need to protect
themselves and to be wary), it's a little sad.
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