Final score: Storm 84 – Monarchs 66 (W) (2-1 preseason)

Submitted by Norwester

I'm optimistic for the season. I would have been happy to have the season starting in any case, ecstatic even, but to see our team coming together so well, and to witness several impressive individual performances was a treat. I will mention her name several more times this report, but Ashley Robinson in particular left me with a warm feeling about our depth in the post.

It was fun to see fans already lining up at the doors before they opened. I swear in previous years we did not see it to this degree. This town must be starved for good basketball. My initial impressions were borne out by the size of the crowd by the time the game started. I haven't looked it up, and I'm not the best at estimating, but it looked like a regular season game in there, and the crowd for the most part was loud and responsive (particularly when the team gave us reason to be...mostly in the second half).

It was also nice that new merchandise was already available. I remember some time in the past couple of years that they hadn't even moved the Sonics merchandise to the back of the Team Shop by opening night, probably the year they made the play-offs. It possibly has a lot to do with the new Adidas contract.

While waiting for the game to begin we were treated to an Arenavision sequence about Stormin' the Lake. It was all about honoring the fans for their commitment and support, and how that was something they specifically addressed with new players coming into camp: being available to the fans. As it happens, apparently our reputation precedes us, and according to the coaching staff their words were superfluous: new players come to camp expecting a certain player-fan relationship and are prepared for it. Half of me takes this with a grain of salt because everyone calls their fans the best, but the other half of me wants to believe because who doesn't like to be the best?

After that was a Game Day Breakdown on the Arenavision with Kevin Pelton (who was a bit of a low-talker, but then he wasn't holding the mic) and Alan Horton talking about who was having a good camp, the win in Connecticut, and how the Monarchs are reportedly shaping up.

It was really nice to be back in the Key on Game Day. I took a moment to look up at the Championship banner. My out of town guest was impressed that our banners were hanging up there as prominently as the Sonics banners. Rightfully so.

Jenny Boucek ran over to our bench to greet our coaching staff pre-game. She also got good applause from the crowd during intros. Yo did too, which I understand, but Kara? Nicole Powell? OK, we have a bunch of new Tennessee players, so perhaps that's bringing those fans out to cheer for Kara, not that that's a real excuse. But who are these Stanford fans invading our midst?

Before the game there's this Honorary Captains segment in which Sue and Lauren and the other team's captain(s) meet at center court and sign balls for some kids. For the night Wendy Palmer and Betty Lennox were our captains (and Yo and Kara were for the Monarchs).

Blake was at the Mariners' game, but we were treated to a lovely rendition of the anthem by Maegan McConnell, who is apparently starring in a production of West Side Story.

The lovely Wendy Palmer took a few moments to address the crowd specifically, and tell us how much they appreciated us for coming out to support our team. Aww. It's our pleasure, but all this praise is going to give us swelled egos.

I didn't know whether they would have the opening sequence up, that's supposed to whip us into a lather, but they did. I don't know if it's finalized, but it was only pre-season and I couldn't hear the song above the crowd. Note to the Key Arena crew, or whoever handles this things: there needs to be more emphasis on the downbeat!; we tried to clap along but gave up very quickly on the whole. Hopefully this doesn't dog us all season.

I'll reiterate that I was really impressed with the size of the crowd, particularly on a night the Yankees were in town. I talked to more than one person not attending the game due to their plans to go to the baseball game, so this was doubly great. Go Seattle.

To begin with our offense seemed a bit disjointed, and we couldn't buy a rebound. I stayed pretty Zen about most things, even the refs (who made some dumb calls, but really didn't bug me; it's pre-season for them too, and there was nothing that really impacted the game or its flow), since it was an exhibition game...who knew Tanisha would score first for us? Sadly, we were standing up for like 2 minutes before that happened, but I wondered if perhaps all the verbal praise from the coaching staff about her camp was justified. We were a touch rushed on offense, but on defense we got some spectacular blocks! I love me a good block. JB went out of the game just a couple of minutes in and did not return (reported shoulder spasm/stinger...no need to further aggravate it in exhibition), but Ashley Robinson was a monster in there, jumping around and swatting shots away. We got glimpses of this athleticism last season, but a lot of times it almost seemed like it was because she happened to be in the right place at the right time. Last night she was there with purpose and it was awesome. You can tell she did a lot of work in the off-season, and it paid off. In addition to her great defense, and rebounding presence, she displayed a nice soft touch from the perimeter.

Katie got some good applause when she came into the game, and every time she made a shot. There's a lot of good will from the fans behind her success. And she looked solid. Her shot wasn't falling at first, but she also didn't panic and appear to be forcing it. She did step back into a point guard role from time to time, and pass rather than shoot, but then she seemed to just let the game come to her, and I was impressed with the authority with which she took shots.

Wendy seemed a little rusty on offense. She says it still feels like she has two left legs. But she was grabbing plenty of good rebounds, and was a solid presence. Hopefully her rehab continues to move along.

There were some weird calls. Izi got called for traveling, but Haynie didn't on what I thought was a more obvious play. Happily they didn't all go the Monarchs way, either, and at one point our defense forced them into an 8-second backcourt violation. This is different from last year when it was 10 seconds. In fact, we picked up the Monarchs in the full court a lot this game. It's nice to see how much defensive energy we were expending as a team. We'll see where this goes.

I don't know quite what to say about Tanisha at point guard. She says that she resisted primarily filling that role in the past, but that she's pretty much accepted it at this point because that's where she was playing in Israel as well. Perhaps getting past that mental block will help her develop more, but I don't have much to say beyond that. I've always seen her as a natural shooting guard, and I could see her starting with some team in the WNBA at that position. I can't really see her ever starting as a point guard. That's kind of sad, but perhaps she'll surprise me this season, if she really can throw her all into developing in that area, and stay confident. Meanwhile, during the game she shared point guard duties with Katie Gearlds, and even Betty, which was strange, but seemed to work just as well. But that's the thing, I don't necessarily expect Betty or Katie to be stellar at point guard, but that's not why they're on the team, so expect more from Tanisha. She did fine. At this point I'm not cringing when she touches the ball. She does seem to be in a better place mentally, where she doesn't let every mistake get to her. We'll see.

I mentioned the extra cheers Katie got. Everyone got extra excited when she made a shot with 6 minutes to go in the half to put us up 19-18, then followed that up about a minute later with an awesome block on Haynie (that garnered her a bogus foul call, and the refs some boos, particularly after the replay), but that didn't take away from our excitement. There wasn't much to get all excited about in the first half, but Tanisha got us riled up a bit with and &1 with 3 minutes to go to put us up 22-21. At this point the Dance Troupe was also introduced for the first time. They got a lot of love from the crowd too, and it was good timing because we were in a good mood. The incomparable Adia Barnes and Alan Horton (our radio team this year on AM 1150) were also introduced to the crowd complete with spotlight and further applause. Good times. Did they introduce Adia as "Storm Legend"? Though you have to admit we have an extra soft spot for everyone involved with the 2004 Championship Run.

Another bright spot in the 1st half (and all game) was Izi's pleasantly aggressive play. She had some trouble finishing at the basket, and will have to work on that. Her frustrated pummeling of the basket standard indicates that she realizes that. But she went to the free throw line several times, and also started knocking down her outside shots. It's her aggressiveness that will really help us this season, though, and give her game that extra oomph, since we've always kind of relied upon her speed and outside shot. Izi finishing with contact? That will be priceless.

HT: 27-29, Sacramento

We shot 27%, hit 0 3-pointers, had only 3 assists, and like 10 turnovers. Not a very good line. We were also out-rebounded, but hit 11-15 free throws to Sacramento's 6-8, and had 5 steals and 5 blocks. Decent.

Izi scored right away to start the 2nd half, much better than the long-stand of the 1st quarter. There were several ties during this quarter. Ashley tied it at 34. Then Izi hit a 3 to put us up, followed by giving the extra effort diving for a loose ball, getting her a ton of love from the crowd. Not much later Ashley and Izi connected when A-Rob used her long arms to get a rebound that seemed out of reach, then fired the ball to Izi, subsequently skying high into the air to tip in Izi's miss &1! Now she just needs to work on consistency from the free throw line.

Betty had been pretty quiet to this point. She drove into the tall trees a couple of times and lost the ball, and I cringed a little bit because it seemed like more of the same, but she only did that a couple of times, then stopped trying to force it. In the past it seems like she'd get even more manic and lower that shoulder and either lose the ball, get blocked, or get an offensive foul, but last night she regrouped, and really started to show us her newly developed outside shot, something she said she worked on particularly in the off-season. Around this point in the game (about 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter) Betty hit a three. Fluker got hit in the mouth somehow, and blood was everywhere, pouring out of her mouth onto her jersey and the floor. She was ushered to the locker room, and the Key Arena staff reacted like a well-oiled machine, hauling a biohazard bag out immediately, with gloves, and cleaning up the mess. I was impressed. Our offense stagnated a bit after Betty put us up 47-40 and Sac regained the lead, but she pulled us out of it with another 3 at just under 2 minutes to regain the lead. Sadly she missed her next shot, off a pretty good move, and the crowd audibly reacted "oh, Betty." Another 3 as the quarter wound down and the crowd really got into the D-fense chant. 3Q: 53-53

We continued to light it up from the perimeter in the fourth quarter, and succeeded in pulling away from the Monarchs handily for good. Ashley got several great rebounds that she'd rifle out to the perimeter (often Betty, sometimes Izi or Katie) for a smooth jump shot, often a 3. Wendy got in on that action too. The kick-out was really working well for us. Katie was looking good on a solid, confident shot with 6:48 or so to go, then she was diving for a ball she knocked away from Newton and inadvertently knocked Chelsea's legs right out from under her sending her FLYING! Poor Newton hit her head hard and it looked pretty painful. She lay there for quite a while, and Katie was worriedly hovering over her, rather shaken, until she got up and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Applause.

Betty and Katie continued to knock them down from the perimeter, to our delight. Gearlds definitely looked green, but really good too. She and Betty played a nice give and go game, and on a 3 pointer from Katie we were up 71-57 with just over 4 minutes to go, and we were feeling it. Ashley rejected a shot from Yo, and Betty followed that with a 3. After having some rebounding problems in the 1st half, a stat flashed up on the Arenavision had us ahead 22-7 on 2nd chance points.

I don't know that I saw a lot to remark about on Ely. I've heard the argument that JB and Fluker were both out, yet we really didn't experience a drop off in play. Perhaps. And I may not have been paying the best attention, but I really didn't notice her in there aggressively calling for the ball until the game was nearly in the bag at the end. She did have some really good moves in the final few minutes, though. She had an awesome move in the paint and finished to put us up 81-62, then ripped a rebound away from Sacramento they seemed to have in hand. But from what I remember of Barb from last year, she had a more dynamic on-court presence. I guess I'll just leave it up to the coaching staff. Big of me, isn't it?

They didn't have shirts for the players to throw to the crowd post-game. Betty was interviewed by Alan Horton, and though I was half expecting Ashley, Betty did have 26 points, and it was nice to hear from a newly-arrived starter. She said she was still working on lack of sleep, but that it's nice to be in Seattle. She gave the fans a shout out. She also stated that she'd been working on her outside shot in the off-season. From what I saw, it's paid off.

Alan was tres impressed with the crowd and threw around the phrase "playoff atmosphere." Sweet words from a rookie. The crowd was surprisingly good, I'll grant, but he has no idea if he calls that a playoff atmosphere.

Run-off

With about 5 minutes to go in the 1st we were treated to our 1st "Get to Know Your Storm STH" segment, and they aired throughout the night. It was charming. And several prominent members of our own Stormfans.org were featured! Looking good, ladies. "No better way to spend the summer," indeed.

Between the 1st and 2nd quarters we were treated to the always amusing mascot bowling. Go Doppler!

Half-time feature the jump-roping team which I'm personally always fascinated by.

Another fan activity featured a "clap and cheer” vote where we chose what song we’d dance to during an upcoming Fan Dance segment. Our choices were "Cotton-eyed Joe," "I Like to Move It," and "Hamster Dance." "I Like to Move It" won, fairly handily. And we did dance to it later. I kind of liked all the interactive things they had to try out on us. I still have the same quibbles about cheer prompts that we can't do anything with (the organ, the drums, etc.), but these are minor considerations. Even the scoreboard seemed to behave; everything seemed more put together than last season this early. Well done, staff.

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