Submitted by | Wingardium

Butt-ugly fugly. Yep.
 
It was so dead in the Key that the music from one of the luxury boxes was drowning out the game noise. Never had that happen before....
 
Notes from the Wing:
 
Kamila is back, and in a timely fashion. We needed her tonight big-time, and she responded. Loved that three-pointer!! David Locke just had to try and interview her after the game... for she did deserve it... but the language barrier turned it into a poignantly painful event. At least KV got another taste of just how much she's loved by we fans.
 
LJ added an "Aussie-aussie-aussie, oi-oi-oi" chant to the opening fan warmup video on the Big Screen. It didn't go over well because (I think) many didn't know what to do, but I say keep it in... the fans'll get the idea, and it's about time we acknowledged the Aussie element on this team.
 
Clankenstein the Rally Monkey scares Doppler.
 
Most excellent to hear Ray Charles music throughout the game. Methinks I would have stood up and granted a moment of silence to his memory instead of You Know Who's.
 
Halftime had four middle-school girls running a b-ball obstacle course for fame and prizes. Funny thing was, all of 'em had a few inches on Debbie Black.  I joke about her, but I admire the little Energizer Bunny.
 
Taj McW-F was definitely needing the decaf tonight... she was emoting all over the court a la Katie Smith. Here's a tip, sweetie darling... you did those fouls. Just because they didn't call all of 'em, doesnt mean you should break out the whine every damn time they do.
 
Katie Douglas has been dubbed Slapsy Thuglas... she has her arms flailing on both offense and defense. She got carried off the court early in the game, but came back to move pretty well. The power of athletic tape, I suppose....
 
LJ doesnt seem to completely have a good lift to the ball... probably leg-related. She's still not moving very well. Never noticed before, but Loz actually has fairly skinny legs... not Whitney Houston calfless pipestems, but still slender. Of course, I noticed that when she was standing next to Kamila, and KV is rather buff.

Submitted by | norwester

My impression of the game is that is was not necessarily pretty, but it was good (we won).  The game really wasn't as close as the score implies; a bunch of mistakes kept us from maintaining/building a 12-15 point lead, and they kept creeping up there at the end.  However, our defensive intensity rarely faltered, and  watching the game I was rather surprised to look up and see less than 2 minutes remaining; there just wasn't either that drop off in intensity you see when you figure the other team can't come back at this point, or a ramp-up in effort as the end of the game approached (until the minute-mark or so, anyway).  Anne Donovan has got to like that, at least.  We held them to 37% shooting.
 
Cotton Candy:
 
I rode to the game on the bus with an enthusiastic 80-year old fan.  I hope I'm as vital when I've lived as much.  Also, it was refreshing to have a conversation with another fan.  She was a pip.
 
Pre-game entertainment consisted of a pretty entertaining dance troupe that was a mixture of African dance, ballet, and it seems like they said something else too.
 
They were playing opposite to normal as far as ends of the floor, but I didn't realize it in time enough to catch specific player reactions.  If it was a ploy, they should have taken a lesson from the LA game back when:  it doesn't work.
 
There was a moment of silence for President Reagan.
 
The anthem was a little rocky.  It was sung by the opening singer for Huey Lewis coming up, and her voice was good, but there were some mic issues at one point, and I swear she got some words wrong.  Benefit of the doubt:  she was just pronouncing them a certain way to sound better when sung.  She kept her poise well, though.
 
I had been looking forward to seeing Whalen play in person.  Another time.
 
My current pet peeve is the green cover on the half-wall separating the cheap seats from the VIPs...it's never straight or taut in our section, so there's always blue plastic showing, and people are always getting their feet caught in it as they pass causing more trouble.  A big THANK YOU goes out to the people who arrived at the half, and straightened it out when they sat down.  Have a heart for the OCD fans, people.
 
However, on the plus side of "wall issues" the ushers stayed completely away from all the kids hopping the wall to join the train dance towards the end of the game, both entering the court, and even leaving to return to their seats afterwards.  Perhaps they felt bad for terrorizing and guilting that poor little girl last time who kicked a drink or something over.
 
And speaking of train dance, did everyone else notice the lone little girl dashing up the sideline in front of the scorers table after game play resumed and LJ was shooting free throws?  Crazy.  
 
The Game:
 
On to actual game happenings, it can't have been comforting to CT to see a starter hit the ground in the opening minutes.  I'm sure someone has all the details...I think she came back into the game, but you can see I didn't even notice what was happening until it was over.
 
And anyway, Kamila quickly commanded all attention on the court.  I didn't see CC7 before the game, but if she didn't make it hopefully she has NBA-TV or a friend with that and a VCR, because the Kamila we've all been waiting all season for put on a show tonight, much to the delight of fans as we clapped and cheered for her during her post-game interview.  She had a double-double: 18 points, 10 rebounds.
 
There have been glimpses of the Kamila we know and love in games leading up to this one, but this was a game apart.  It's a good thing too, because we didn't have that much else going on offensively besides LJ's 22 (and yet, I'm telling you, people are going to say that it was a quiet performance, and I probably wouldn't argue).
 
We were all standing there waiting for the first shot to go in, and after a timeout and some broken plays, there was KV off a nice little pick and roll with Betty!  This was followed quickly by a BL 3-pointer.  You know, as long as the ball is passed around a few times before BL shoots, I don't think there's a problem with her taking shots.  She seems in much better control these last games, though tonight at times there was some frustration when she lost track of the play or something.  She had a chat with AD, though.  It's actually quite encouraging, that the players are still visibly working on their rapport, and learning the system, and yet we're already doing so well.
 
Right away I noticed that Kamila was looking a lot better.  Also, I noticed that the refs had called a bunch of fouls on CT, but few on us.  Fortunately on the make-up, they weren't on Kamila.  Bad calls, good calls...it wasn't bad overall, or at least they weren't intrusive to the point of frustration, but they weren't letting players get away with murder, either.  Are Eastern teams as physical as those in the West as a rule?  CT seemed to play a bit cleaner than MN, Phoenix or LA (duh), but my perceptions may have been off.  Tully got a lot of crap calls.
 
First half: Kamila is finally hitting the money shots from last season at the top of the key, and even had a three pointer.  Hip, hip, hooray!  She and LJ dominated.  It's also a luxury to have Burse able to come in at times for either of them, and for me not to get a queasy kind of feeling that a bench player is coming in...will this be a good game or a bad game for them?  That's part of what's making this season so fun to watch so far.
 
They showed highlights from the Sacramento game, and we all cheered B-money's last, game-winning shot.
 
An interview with Anne Donovan was broadcast about winning the gold at the 1984 Olympics in LA.  She had good things to say about the experience and winning, and playing on what amounted to a home court, but said that right away afterwards people were asking them how they felt that the Russians (the real competition) hadn't been there.  That took a little bit away from them, which was frustrating.  They showed a picture of her, and also had some shots of the display set up in the tunnel from the team shop.  It's pretty cool, so you should stroll by one of these games and take a gander.
 
Half time: 34-29, Storm.  We shot 42%, pretty even on everything else except that they attempted many more three pointers (we were 2-2 with BL and KV? her three may have been the 2nd half...it's all a bit fuzzy now), but only made three of them.
 
Half time festivities had us cheering on four contestants competing in a basketball skills challenge where you hit lay-ups at either end, and in between dribble around cones and pass into a net-target.  It was timed.  The girl who did it all in 27 seconds won.
 
The guy in a neighboring section who always complains about Kamila can continue to do so as vocally as he wants, if the result is her connecting on a 3-pointer every time .  
 
At some point LJ had her shot, and KV had hers, but where was everyone else's?  Sue's mom was in the crowd, and given face time from the crowd on the big screen.  And Sue connected on some beautiful lay-ups, as well as 6 assists.  She also cut down on those wild passes, though they were entirely absent from our play tonight (last night, depending on when I get this posted).  The team must have heard me, because in quick succession Sheri Sam shot and scored, Sue hit a 3, and Adia made two free throws.
 
During a time out Doppler ran an activity where they blind-folded a dad, and put his daughter somewhere on the court with Doppler (they moved around a bit when he got close), then he had to find them, and the signed LJ jersey his daughter held, by following the crowds directions:  cheer for the right way, boo for the wrong way.  I found it diverting.
 
LJ had a good game, even though I haven't mentioned it much.  In fact, it seemed more consistent throughout, like her points weren't grouped all together in a run, but that she just consistently found the hole, provided a lynch-pin for the offense, and while she only got 2 rebounds, she had like 5 blocked shots, including a CT 3 as game-time was winding down.  She did start scoring a bit more straight out of the half.  She was grimacing in pain at times too, but that could have been due to a couple of the good hard fouls she received.
 
At the end she signed the game ball and climbed over a few rows of chairs to hand it to a little, little girl in her father's (I presume) arms in the aisle.
 
Burse, we're happy to have you here.
 
Adia put in 15 quality defensive minutes, and even had a little more offense than we've been seeing, though at times that seemed awkward, and at others she didn't look for the shot even wide open.  She can take some of the credit for holding Sales to 6 points or something, well below her season average.  She got love from the crowd, too.
 
You've got to love having Sheri Sam on the team.  Sure, sometimes she throws up ill-advised quick shots, but on the other hand she's out there forcing turnovers, getting buckets when we need them, 12 rebounds, assists...just a little bit of everything, and that's how teams win ball games.
 
Now if we can get a little more offensive production from the bench...
 
Wrapping It Up:
 
LJ was in double figures for the 60th straight game

Our 77.3 points per game leads the WNBA

"Home court" is only accounting for barely over 50% of wins this year league-wide (of course, there are exceptions , well us and New York, anyway), a departure from past years when it was nearer to 60% on average
Seattle and New York are both 5-2 at this point, leagure leaders

We've won 16 of our last 19 games in Key Arena

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