Final score: Storm 100 – Mercury 87 (W) (2-0)

Submitted by Norwester

It's always tough to know what to write on a game that was televised (and broadcast on the radio). So I'll try to stick to the off-camera stuff (though you know I'll be unable to render my opinion on so much else ).

Coming in pre-game Sue and Lauren were the only Storm players shooting around. Sue seemed to pause a lot to cough or catch her breath. Then Penny came in and she and LJ spent some time chatting over in the corner. Meanwhile Izi was also out on the floor, sitting under the basket with the Mercury while they stretched, talking to Moises (from Brazil). They all seemed pretty loose, and all smiles. Some guy with a camera came and grabbed Sue and made her run towards him dribbling the ball repeatedly. I don't know whether he was testing the settings or the lighting, or if it was B roll (or whatever) for the FSN broadcast. It was kind of funny to watch, though.

The Phoenix warm-up pants look weird to me. The Storm ones were black, at least, but the Phoenix ones were this gray/off-white color that made them look like cheap, baggy slacks/khakis or something. I don't know. They just looked odd to me.

At around 50-minutes to game time the rest of the Storm players came out on the court, with stretch bands and such. Betty was out there too, so we were reassured that she would be starting, despite the crisis she was reportedly dealing with.

There's a new commercial for Storm tickets being looped on the Arenavision that features LJ's shot at the end of the Houston game, reminiscent of the dunk they always showed for the Sonics tickets commercial. It was pretty fun to relive that over and over.

StormVision, hosted by Sabrina, featured the Sonics and Storm summer basketball clinics, including footage and interviews with adults who got their kids or nieces or whomever involved. The goal of the clinics, in the words of a staff member: #1 Have Fun; #2 Learn some basketball skills. They said it's especially fun to watch the same kids return year after year, and watch their development. So if you have any kids in your life, perhaps you'll want to get them involved in this. 206-283-DUNK.

Adia and Alan ran through their StormVision Game Breakdown:
With such a short season each game is important.
This is clear by Phoenix just missing the play-offs the past few seasons by like one game.

Particularly in early games establishing a good rotation is a key goal.
Our starters didn't seem to miss a beat from the Houston game, and Janell looked particularly good by comparison. I was initially a touch worried because Phoenix has a good roster, and they've also had a year to work on the Paul Ball system. But I find that the Storm just run really well with Phoenix. I don't know if we do particularly better than other teams, but I do know that I generally like our style when we match up with them. Perhaps it's also fun that Sue's and Lauren's competitive juices are flowing to beat Taurasi's team. I'm not as happy with our bench, though, after this game. Of course, it's tough to judge them, coming in cold at the end like they did. Plus, individually we've gotten some really good performances from Wendy (good rehab time tonight, boxing out, getting rebounds, battling for loose balls) and Katie Gearlds (she's not hesitating; even though her shots aren't currently dropping, her shots look good, and she's taking the ones she should; keep shooting, Katie). The couple of times Sue was rested, though, our offense seemed to stagnate. It would be nice to have an answer for that.

Mentioned the Sue/Diana connection between Seattle/Phoenix
I thought the blog between the two of them was hilarious.

One key to the game would be to stop Phoenix in transition.
Did either team play defense this game? Janell at the end said that she felt like they were playing pretty good defense, but Mercury shots would keep falling. We definitely had our good moments. I think I was more impressed with the way Phoenix played transition defense, keeping us from running many fast breaks. They also had some instances of great ball movement; so much so that I kept wishing for something similar from the Storm. But we got some licks in that way too.

Cappy got more seasoning in the off-season overseas; look for her to be a force this year.

No argument here. I'm paraphrasing a friend, but it seemed like you could blind-fold her, spin her around, and she'd still find the bottom of the net. She's probably a better pure shooter than Taurasi. Her play was pretty remarkable.

Important to set the tone defensively. We did a decent job, particularly getting hands in their faces.

Waiting to come out of the tunnel the players were cracking up, it seemed particularly at something Ashley was saying or doing. It's nice to see that kind of team chemistry.

Um, I don't know who was thinking that they'd group up the three refs we got for a televised game. Roy and Bonita (or whoever) were bad enough. I cringed upon seeing them out there. But the third Eric guy turned out to be one of the worst of the bunch. I think they only called about half the out-of-bounds plays at my end correctly. And fouls were called strangely. I think Penny Taylor probably got the worst of the brunt of it, but Lauren and Sue had plenty to say about it at my end.

The anthem was sung by another actor from "West Side Story," coming to the 5th Avenue Theater: Keaton Wittaker. 11 years old. Pure voice, though a little slow for my tastes. The Dance Troupe were collectively holding up a giant flag at center court during the rendition.

Pacific Medical Center Medical Report (is this new this year? It's kind of fun): no injuries for either team. This announcement received applause.

The crowd was rather small, I guess like I've come to expect on a weekday. It was often quiet enough that the refs and players could hear you yelling at/for them, which is fun. Also you could hear they yell/talk to each other on court. Cappy got decent applause; Taurasi got the most for a Phoenix player, though.

It was nice to have JB score right away on a nifty move (after the re-jump ). Things seemed to flow really well in the first quarter. When Sue went out about half-way (clearly a bit tired) we faltered a touch. But we just looked like we were the veterans out there playing an expansion team. Lauren and Janell pretty much towered over the Mercury. Sadly, Janell couldn't seem to find the basket, even given repeated attempts at point-blank range, but she was solid from the free throw line, which ended up being huge for her, and who doesn't love rebounds? Jeez, she had at least 10 by the end of the 1st quarter.

Everyone always gave much love to Wendy and Katie when they checked in. I already commented on their play, but I'm really please with both.

Lauren could have gotten more rebounds, but she was a scoring machine. And correct me if I'm wrong, but if Diana had gotten 15 points this game wouldn't she have beaten Lauren's mark to 2000 points by one game? I believe that she got 14 points, so I guess she'll tie Lauren instead. Anyway, Lauren just looked so mobile out there. Also, I love how she'll be running around, all emotional after a play or whatever, but then be so focused at the free throw line.

I thought that Sue clearly looked tired. There were times when she'd look like her old self, but then there were others when she wouldn't even bring the ball up, but instead pass it ahead and jog slower up the floor. She had some great steals, and took good shots too. Like Katie, there were times when her shot wasn't falling, but I like the shots she made. What I really find impressive about her game is her ability to get the ball into the post. I think this is a somewhat unsung talent of hers, though she gets enough practice at it. There were some times she'd throw the ball up and I couldn't figure out where she was even aiming, but then Janell or Lauren would come down with it in great position.

Betty really had a great game as well. I thought she forced a couple of moves, but she was showing better control than I think she has in the past so that even when she was driving into the key, she seemed more patient. It was great to see.

I don't know what else to say. When our offense seemed to stagnate, Anne would put either Sue or Lauren (or both) back in and things would work better. There were some questionable traveling calls. At the buzzer for the half LJ had some choice words for the ref at our end before going to the locker room. By the second half we were getting a little more into our booing of the refs too. There wasn't much drama to the game, so mostly the crowd would get all riled up when certain players checked in or out, or certain big events happened, like Betty assisting a back-door cutting Izi lay-up, Katie hitting a 3, LJ hitting two free throws to help us reach our franchise record for points, then LJ again hitting free throws to get us to 100 points. Our starters all got standing ovations when they checked out. Sadly our benchies couldn't score any more in the final 3 minutes.

JB was interviewed post-game. 13 points, 19 rebounds. She says she just didn't feel like she was that aggressive last game, but that she wanted to be tonight. Mission accomplished. She said that now they were going on the road without us (Key Arena fans) but hopefully they can still win. We had a pretty good road season last year; perhaps we learned new winning ways. It's nice to be 2-0.

Downpour:
When Betty makes a good move or free throws or a shot a clip of that "For the Love of Money" song by the O'Jays (think theme song for "The Apprentice") plays.

They played a nice montage of last week's win complete with playing up the drama with music and graphics during the 4:49 timeout, up 19-13. I love montages.

Bring food donations to the June 2 game for "Fuel the Dream" food drive.

There was a get well soon card for June Daugherty at the fan information booth, which I thought was a nice touch, and when it was announced the fans gave the idea a round of applause.

Fast Break with Ashley Christina Robinson: Ash/A-Rob (nicknames), Thankgiving (favorite holiday), bubbly (one word to describe her), Cabbage Patch Wally (favorite Christmas present), volleyball (other sports she's good at), Will Ferrell (fav comedic actor), have kids (goals after basketball), loves chicken wings and "Titanic," would sing "Baby Got Back" at karaoke, and dressed up like a Tennessee Vols Cheerleader for Halloween (her favorite costume).

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