Final score: Storm 86 – Shock 95 (L) (16-14)

Attendance | 7590

Anthem Watch | She won the UW Idol competition. Simon Cowel was apparently not a judge.

Fan Psyche | It's slipping away...

Game Highlight | Rita with a 3 to end the first half.

Halftime | Cheerleaders.

Game Photos | Game Photos (Scott Larson)

The Storm played well. The Shock played better. The Storm were missing Kamila. The Shock were missing Cheryl Ford. Our MVP candidate did her thing. Their MVP candidate did her thing. They are playing for home court advantage throughout the playoffs. We are playing for a chance to get in the playoffs. They won. We lost, and it's getting hard to be optimistic about the Storm's chances.

i have to give the Storm a lot of credit. They seemed to bounce back from that horrible shooting slump and loss in Phoenix. Like that game, the Storm came out to start the game in complete control offensively and defensively. We were up 21-2. The Shock didn't panic though and went to work chipping away at the lead.

The Shock were able to find open players under the basket any time the Storm defenders left their person for a double team. Detroit was also running down the court on every play and even when the Storm made a basket the Shock were able to fast break. The speed at which the Shock were able to score was fairly amazing. Also, instead of going in for layups on every fast break, they were stopping and hitting jump shots and threes. They were able to quietly close on the Storm's lead and then take over the game in the second half.

Coach Donovan rotated LJ, Alisa and Simone at the center and power forward positions. Danielle McCulley did not play. Even though the guards and small forwards were scoring throughout the game, the Shock defense was able to double LJ most of the time and even had a couple triple teams on her. The few times she was one-on-one, she immediately spun to the basket and took it at the Shock defender. Even against a great rebounding team, LJ was able to get another double double.

Simone did a lot better tonight, but I think I've figured out why she has so many problems hitting those 2-foot shots - she never uses the glass. Even when she is shooting a lay-up, she seems to favor a straight on shot over banking it in. LJ uses the backboard for almost every shot except for her perimeter jump shots (which ARE NOT falling). One other thing - Simone was playing with much more energy, poise, and confidence earlier in the season. I'm not sure why this has changed, but it has. I think that last San Antonio game here in Seattle was the big turning point (it may have actually happened sooner, but it was most noticeable in this game). Margo Dydek's presence forced Simone to not even consider shooting the ball. In that game, Simone looked a lot like she has in previous seasons. Since then, she hasn't been as tentative, but that hesitation is still there. I don't know if this difference is because early on she wasn't expected to score a lot or be aggressive so she was able to play more comfortably and now that she is being forced to play big she has tightened up. On the other hand, she was 7-10 from the field tonight, so I could be completely off on all of this.

Alisa looked better than she has in the past, but probably because of her knee and back she wasn't very mobile and was getting burned on the defensive end by the more agile Shock centers and forwards. She missed one pass from Sue right under the basket, but it wasn't her fault. She had driven deep into the paint and had a relatively open shot and instead did a bounce pass to Alisa that bounced at Alisa's feet. She and everyone else expected Sue to shoot (which is why Sue passed I'm sure), but because Sue was basically open she probably should have just taken it.

Amanda did a decent job on Swin Cash - when she wasn't sitting on the bench because of foul trouble. The refs were calling a weird game tonight. They were ignoring a lot of crap in the post and instead calling ticky tacky stuff on the perimeter. Amanda was the subject of the timeout video and she ended it by looking for someone to hook her up with a tricked out 1997 Mustang.

On the whole, the bench produced better than they have for quite awhile - 24 points and 8 rebounds. Unfortunately, the Shock bench contributed 39 points including some killer threes by Kedra Holland-Corn (yes, even now Sacramento is trying to do us in). As I wrote earlier, Danielle did not play. She was suited up and is not injured. She's been practicing with the team the whole season. I understand going to a shortened bench for big games - most teams only go 8 or 9 players when things get down to the wire - but with a decimated front court and with her performance in the preseason why not play her?

I didn't think I was going to write much about this game. It was hard to watch it get out of reach in the last few minutes and to watch how the team is not handling the frustration of losing. Lauren committed perhaps her first obvious frustration foul tonight when she purposefully tried to trip Swin Cash after their legs got tied up. Sue was working hard late in the game to take control, but the Shock just wouldn't go away. LJ was scowling at the coaches. Coach Donovan looked like she was going to get medieval on the refs. Sue was biting her shirt. It was not fun in the second half.

I'm not going to say that this is it and we're out of the playoffs. we still have a chance, but we now have to hope that either Sacramento or Minnesota stumbles. Personally, I've been hoping that Sacramento would need a win in the last game of the season here in Seattle to make it into the playoffs just so that we can beat them and knock them out. I know, it's mean but the Monarchs have been asking for it. I'm afraid my wish is going to come true. The only problem is going to be that we might need to win that one to make it into the playoffs ourselves. I didn't think it would go down to the wire like this, but here we are.

Other notes:

Kamila got a standing ovation when she came out at the beginning of the game. Vodichkova_rules was able to get 2 cards signed for Kamila. She gave the first one to a Storm staffer to give to Kamila. Later, she got an escort to the tunnel and delivered the second one herself. There is no way KV can not know how much we all support her, or how important she is to this team.

NW basketball greats were honored during the game. The biggest applause went to the women who were introduced, naturally.

Sheila Lambert had a large contingent of family and fans in attendance. They were all wearing t-shirts with her name and chanted for her several times during the game.

Adia was limping a bit, but she was missing the knee brace. I don't have any experience or knowledge about the ACL injury or the rehab involved after the surgery, but she is amazingly mobile.

Lauren's mom and dad were in the family and friends section above the tunnel. She threw them a t-shirt after the game and her mon caught it.

The refs sucked.

A new fan fixture is emerging - the guy with the tie sitting behind the south basket. He is doing a great job making a lot of noise and getting the crowd going during free throws. I don't know who he is, but I like it.

Page 2 »