Submitted by | scowl

The grouchy guy was behind me again. I was able to shift to another seat (my section is pretty empty) but that only pissed off yet another grouchy jerk who has trouble keeping his ass off a seat for three minutes. I'm not allowed to stand for any reason now. The Storm simply can't score before this guy's legs give out.
 
Not only was there no Lindsay Whalen -- the Sun's bench is really empty. Even with Debbie Black their team has to be the least enthusiastic WNBA team I've ever seen. At the beginning of the game they looked as sad as the Mystics do at the end of games. They did not seem to be enjoying the game. I wonder if their coaches work them hard. There was one "discussion" that Asjha Jones had with an assistant coach that looked pretty heated, at least from where I was sitting.
 
Katie Douglas went way over the top of Betty for a rebound she had no chance of getting. Not only did she get called for a foul, she rolled off of Betty's shoulder and ended up on the floor.
 
Coach Thibault was wearing a nice retro-50's tie. Maybe they aren't retro for him.
 
The Sun has some great moves under the basket. Palmer and McWilliams did some great fakes that fooled everyone. So why all the outside shooting? Their offense was doing a great job of getting their outside shooters open but what good is that if you miss 70% of them?
 
Sheri Sam loves that turnaround fadeaway jumper on the left side. Swoosh! Unfortunately she always shoots it at the same spot on the court. I hope the defenses don't figure this out like they did with Sandy's jump shot last year. Don't tell anyone!
 
Sue's new move: the jump pass! You think she's going to shoot, hah fooled you!
 
The dumbest calls -- offensive foul on LJ for turning with her left elbow extended (you have to bend your elbow to get the ball above your head!) and travelling on Taj McWilliams for turning on her pivot foot too quickly.  
 
Horray for Kamila for saying what everyone else was thinking during DL's agonizing questions, which was mainly "When is this guy going to stop talking so I can figure out what he's asking?"  Then when he asked a dumb leading question, "Why does the Storm play so well in the Key?" I loved her answer. "Mmmm the fans?"  No more complemetary Starbuck's coffee for DL!

Submitted by | Shobe

Kamilla is back (18pts)  It took a few weeks, but now we have our fourth scoring option back.
 
When Sherri Sam hit Kamilla on a fast break with 15 minutes to play in the second half, this is when the Storm stayed ahead for good.  This basket marked the third consectuive possesion in which Kamilla got a bucket.  That put the Storm up by 10 and they managed to hang on the rest of the way.
 
Coach Donovan was not pleased with the game other than the result.  The truth is the Storm could not put UConn, I mean Conneticut away.  I was not expecting a blow out, but the Sun just kept coming after the Storm and did not let up.   With Lindsay Whalen out, Katie Douglas having bang up her ankle and only playing eight minutes in the first half, and Nykesha Sales clanking up the joint, the Storm should have been well in control of the game.
 
Despite being the third leading scorer in the league, Donovan appears to be expecting more from Lauren.  Donovan said she is still waiting for LJ to have the breakout game she is capable of.  Coach may have a point.  LJ did score 22 points, but only had two rebounds and was 7-18 from the field.
 
The Storm appear to be one of those team's who get rusty when they have an extended break.  This was the second time this season they had five days to prepare for a game and came out flat.  Sure they won, which is good, but they had a similar situation in Phoenix last month and laid an egg.
 
Damn! I missed the moment of silence before the game for Ronald Reagan.  Well, I had more important things to do, like hang out with Storm Fan 43 before tip off.
 
Anne could not have meant it when she said Reagan was one of our greatest president's after the Sacramento game?  Maybe she should read more about it on Stormfans.org
 
Sass, how could you tell that was me driving past you on the way to the game?  Did the University of Oregon, Raider, Lakers, and John Kerry sticker on my back window give it away?
 
Now you know why they don't do the Choo Choo earlier in the time out.  The line just got too long, and it took much longer to get those kids back to their seats.  Plus with the extra amount of kids, the coaches were running out of places to huddle during the time out.  Big congrats goes to Michelle Greco, who high fived practically ever kid who came by her.
 
I like Kevin Colabaro, but please Mr. P.A. announcer, don't claim he is the best play by play man in the NBA.  That is besmirching to good name of Half of Fame Laker announcer, the late, great Chick Hearn.
 
Sure, I took a lot of good natured ribbing for wearing my Shaquille O'Neal replilca road jersey to the game.  On the way out, a 6 year old kid name Marcus come up to me.  He is wearing a gold Kobe Bryant jersey and say, "Give me five Laker man."  How cute was that?  I went up and talked to his family, and they were all fans of the purple and gold.  They also turned out to be close friends of Simone.  Laker Love, it's a beautiful thing.
 
Eclair, now that your son has shaved his fro, does that mean he is not going to grow up and be Luke Ridnour now?
 
Uggggggh! We have to wait over a week for our next home game!

Submitted by | Leighway

Okay, I finally have a moment to sit down and write a game day report... not that everyone has not covered it all but what the heck.
 
I got to the game early, pushed through the EBay junkies to get to my seats and then enjoyed watching shoot around.  
During shoot around Bird went over to halfcourt to talk to Jones; who proceeded to hug Bird and pulled her off her feet. I don't think the two of them have seen one another in quite a while as they were comparing muscles.  They talked for a long while and were joking around about something. It was good to see two old friends catching up before a game.
 
I got Jumbo-Tron time again, I would really hurt the cameraman if he were not a friend.
 
I personally thought the crowd was into it and there was cheering as usual. But the win did not feel very satisfying to me.  I just knew they would win going into it; with or without Whalen.  But play was so sloppy and the players did not look like they had 5 days off that it was hard to really feel good about it at the end. Don't get me wrong, anytime you walk away with a W it was a good game.
 
I was watching the bench quite a bit and as everyone noted AD was pretty pissed off most of the time. I think she was feeling that same unsatisfying feeling most of us were feeling.

It seemed a couple of players got "talked" to a few times; one being Betty and the other being Burse. As a matter of fact when the players left the court at half time AD still had Burse on the court talking to her. Neither player looked very happy in the second half and Betty seemed mad to me... maybe it was at herself for not playing too well. It does make me wonder if she is able to really just be happy when they win or if she has to be the star every night. Who knows?  
 
There were some weird vibes going on in this game from both teams; Conn.'s Douglas was yelling at Black all the time. As a matter of fact all of them were a little pissy towards one another.  It was as if the frustration was just spilling over on both sides which makes for a hard game to watch.
 
The refs sucked.  The calls were so off it made me laugh, then cry.  They called for the little stupid things and then let bigger things go that could cause injuries. I'm all for letting them play but the calls need to be consistent and for both teams. It was obvious, with only 4 min. into the second half, when Seattle had like 6 fouls that something was not right.
 
Debbie Black... can this woman possibly get any more annoying? I think not.
 
Kamila, Kamila, Kamila... I don't know what to say about this woman that has not already been said. She was just unstoppable out there and kudos for the rest of the team, Bird especially for noticing that and getting the ball to her every chance she could.
 
Bird had some great drives and the only thing that upset me is that she passed out a couple of times when she had a clear shot. One was to Betty who did hit the three but I would rather she just take the shot if she has a wide open look.  I also liked her hustle when Black knocked the ball out of her hand and she grabbed it and passed it out to an open man.  Way to give up your body!
 
LJ always amazes me because when I think she is not having a great game I look up and she has 22 points. WTF? How did that happen? I did notice a couple of things that made me think the chemistry is still not there just yet.  The first was a rebound where Betty jumped for a ball when LJ clearly had it and took it right away from her. LJ gave her a look that could only be saying one thing; "Do that again and I will crush you".  The second thing was LJ was in the key with the ball and Betty was wide open on the wing and she looked at Betty, maybe thought about it for a second then took the ball in herself and made the basket in traffic.  BJV looked at me and I asked her if she saw what I saw and she nodded.  Maybe LJ just felt driving to the basket was a better shot.  Who knows? It's so hard to tell from the fans perspective what is really going on down there but they did not seem to gel too well to me.
 
All in all I'm glad that it was a win and now I hope they can get it together and win away... hell, I would take one out of the three but would rather have all three. But I'm selfish that way.

Submitted by | Gym.Rat.07

That was Kamila’s game last night. The Sun didn’t look out for her and she burned them (except at the line). That’s what is so great about this team – you don’t know who to really double team because you can’t leave someone open.

I thought Katie Dougless really messed up her knee or ankle cuz she was in some serious pain when she left the floor. Color me the shade of surprised to see her return to the game.

Taj M-F was also in some supa dupa pain. She did some major damage to a finger.

Props to the kid who remained on the court and was just chillin’ after the Choo-Choo train.

Rebecca Lobo in the house!

Looks like the coaching staff knows a thing or two more than anyone else since they used a shorter player again to guard the sideline inbounds passer in the final seconds of the game. Plus, Adia got the deflection.

David Locke: stop asking stupid questions. Even I got lost in what you were asking and I’m pretty sure you were speaking English. Is it just me or does he only do that with Kamila? Other player’s he keeps it short but with her I get the feeling that he’s trying to help out her answer by forming it into a question. This isn’t Jeopardy here – ask and then let her answer. Grrr.

Mama Gym.Rat pointed out that the team fouls were uneven at 2-6… have no fear the refs are here. It was evened up in a matter of minutes. I know things should be even like that… but it’s not right to go overboard about it. Some teams just foul more than others. The worst call that I saw was Burse getting called for hitting a player’s elbow with her face.

We are 5-2! We are FIVE and TWO! Seven games into the season and were are 1 win away from tying our wins record from the first season. I feel all a tingle.

Tully got some stupid foul called on her and wasn't getting anywhere with the ref so she goes over to a sitting down Anne, who then rises to her full 6' 8" size to defend her player. Classic team work (and funny to boot)!

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