Final score: Storm 65 – Shock 70 (L) (10-7)

Submitted by | Beancounter

Well, if you think this was depressing to watch on TV, you should have been there with us. Dang. I haven't read the rest of y'all's comments yet, but here's Beancounter's report from behind the Storm bench:
 
That blonde ref is Sally Bell, right? I knew it was a bad sign as soon as I saw her. And I was not disappointed -- especially when she overrode the out of bounds call at the baseline -- while she was at half court.
 
Okay, first the initial fluff. We were all excited to see this game, because we've all moved away from Seattle and are no longer STHs. So this was our first chance to see all the new chicks in person. We've seen some TV games, so it was funny how Betty and Sheri seemed like they've always been with the Storm.
 
One of the Shock promo kids approached us to "perform" in the time out contests. He offered the wheelbarrow race (no freaking way) or bungie ball. Nobody in our foursome would bite, so no go for us. Terri (one of my friends from Oregon) said they only wanted to embarrass us for being Storm fans. Oh well, chance at 15 minutes blown just like that.
 
Terri has a little bit of a crush on Sue Bird. So we made her take the roster card over and get Sue's auto. Sue was the Storm representative on the card. Wheee!
 
The giveaway was a Swin Cash photo ball for kids 14 and under. They gave us 3. I don't know why they did, but we took'em. Scott, I'm sending it on to you to distribute as you see fit.  Well, now that I think about it, they gave them to us because they knew they wouldn't give them all away otherwise. There was nobody there.
 
If Simon Cowell were judging the anthem, he'd say "I don't mean to be rude, but that was abysmal."
 
Rebecca Lobo was looking at Black + White photos of LJ on the monitor, but she (LJ) had clothes on. Airbrushed I assume for TV consumption.
 
Detroit fans don't stand for the Shock introductions or when Swin tells them to stand up (via Jumbotron). They're pretty quiet overall -- except at the end of this game when the ass-kicking was evident.
 
I'm guessing there's some piling on already, but this game was over before it began. The way we saw it was a lot of bad attitude from Betty at the very beginning (in reaction to piss poor officiating) and it seemed to catch on and go downhill from there. I was most disappointed in the way Sue let it get entirely under her skin. She seemed like a pouting spoiled child the whole night. Then it got contagious to LJ, and to varying degrees with the rest of the team.
 
There was no happiness on the bench, among the coaches, nothing this game. Heck, we even caught it. We were cranky and hardly talked to each other on the 1-1/2 drive home.
 
The Storm started out looking anxious and sloppy: driving too far to the baseline, taking ill-advised shots. At 14:10 I wrote "it's going to be a long afternoon: 13-6." Oh, and it's my fault that Kamila missed her first FT - I had just said that she never misses.
 
Tully hit the floor for the first time at 10:40 -- seemed like a game for real and I got a little excited. But then they called her for a block on it. Oh well. Same song, different verse as far as this game went. That was when Mr. Beancounter said "they're lucky to be in this game. The turnovers are killing them."
 
Happy side note: The Sue to Kamila dishes under the basket were tasty.

high jump type of thing where they kept raising the bar until each dog was eliminated. Awesome.
 
I guess I didn't need to take a break from my previous post because I don't have a lot left to say. When the Storm busted ahead at 34-32, I thought they were really going to come back into it. But no.
 
If I were the Shock (or any team) I'd drive baseline on Kamila every time. She keeps no one out from under the basket. It was depressing. It didn't take Cheryl Ford long to figure it out.
 
At 15:55 in the 2nd half, they posted the following stats:
 
Fast break points: 15-4 Shock
Points in paint: 24-12 Shock
Turnovers: 10-14 Storm (in a bad way)
 
Terri noticed that in the 2nd half the Storm stopped blocking out on rebounds -- the one thing they had done pretty well in the first half. Mr. Beancounter said that he had never seen Sue looking so undisciplined and down and lifeless. We all noticed how she had decided to let the refs ruin the game for her. I think that was the biggest bummer of the whole game for us. Just watching Sue mope from one end to the other. Ick.
 
At the late play in the game (I didn't note the time) when it looked like the Storm could steal the game with one more good play, AD called time out. But when the team came back on the floor, nobody knew what the play was! Everybody was looking around all confused, the ball was inbounded, everybody flipped out and Detroit ganged up and it was OVER. Dang. Overall, they looked confused and like a team that had never seen a double team or any ball pressure. It broke my heart.
 
Okay, final fluff. Korie Hlede comes up to about Bill Laimbeer's stomach.
 
I see Simone doesn't play anymore. Why is she still on the roster? Isn't Stacy Stephens available now? Jackie Stiles? Somebody?
 
The announcers carried over from the NBA championships and would say "Deeee-troit BASketball." Cute. Not.
 
There were a LOT of men in the crowd. And by themselves or with other men. Not just with wives, kids, etc. Interesting.
 
Sorry to have such a downer report. But this was a bummer.