Final score: Storm 88 – Silver Stars 92 (L) (13-13)

Submitted by Norwester

My frustration and bitterness with this game rivals that of the Houston play-offs and the US loss to Russia in the World Championships. I'm sure I can't be harder on the team than they will be on themselves, but I honestly felt like it was 10 on 5 there at the end. The Storm vs the Storm & San Antonio. Seriously. We lost this game. Sure, the refs were second only to the Detroit game in sucky calls, getting even Anne off the bench to scream at them, but we still had chance after chance after chance to win, and we squandered them all with bone-headed non-plays and turnovers. I don't even know that I want to write anything about this. I'm really frustrated with this team right now. Like in New York and DC we at least kept battling back each time we dug ourselves another hole. But that's not going to cut it this time. We should be getting rebounds down the stretch. We should be playing crisply, not frantically. We had this game in the palms of our hands, and we let it dribble through our fingers like so much worthless sand. It's like mentally we were more comfortable striving from behind, versus taking a lead and owning it. Despite our miserable play down the stretch our offense wasn't too bad. And there were instances of good defense. There were whole stretches when I was extremely impressed with Sue's defense, particularly on Hammon. But like earlier in the season even when we seemed to be trying, other teams would score at will, and there were stretches where we were consistently a step slow on getting even a hand in their faces. We weren't rotating crisply. And could someone please step up so Lauren can get a couple of breathers per game? She was bending over and gulping for breath every chance. We still have a lot of basketball left, but an effort like tonight's will not cut it. I hope the team is as angry as I am at this loss and comes out with some pride and some fire in their bellies. We do not have to settle as a play-from-behind team. We're better than that. Now we have to believe it.

The crowd was excellent tonight. They were loud when needed, started a grass-roots chant or two, and seem to really be catching on to Aussie x 3: M-V-P. The refs were booed as needed. And when the team wasn't performing for us, we'd make noise in support, but it was a pointed kind of noise, it seemed. There was one stretch where we totally gave the ball away again and the crowd refused to chant De-fense, even with the video prompt; it was still loud, but we're not going to give away our effort if they're not going to give us theirs. Come on, Storm. Play basketball and knock off this Keystone Cops imitation.

It was disorienting for me to see the Storm in their road greens. Typically thinking of the Storm on the road doesn't conjure happy thoughts. JB had an excellent game overall, though when we needed the key rebounds down the stretch, we couldn't come up with the ball. This isn't only on JB, though. She started out the game the only one scoring for us. We got off good shots; they just didn't fall. I felt LJ was particularly frustrated with a couple of heavily-guarded chippy-type that she missed, flashing to the basket. We combined this with some defensive lapses and dug and early hole, but the refs were liberal with their whistles, mostly against SASS, and we fought our way back into it with good passing, though I kept waiting for us to buckle down on defense. I always believe that this team can eventually generate offense (despite that unfortunate stretch of a few games ago where we lost even that), but it's our defense that will win us games. Perhaps a cliche, but a truth in this instance also. Betty put us up with a nice floater at the end of the quarter, but we could have had even more if Wendy hadn't drawn an awful foul as Anderson fell trying not to travel (and by awful I mean a ridiculously bad call). Trust me, that one was right in front of me. 1Q: 20-18, Storm

LJ finally scored to start the 2nd, to the delight of the crowd. She followed it up with an &1. We seemed to be getting a groove going, up 29-22, but then the refs had to stick their noses in and mess up the flow of the game. I mean, honestly, what are their instructions this year, to make sure teams can't get into an offensive rhythm? Since LJ started scoring, I guess she drew their attention, because seconds later she'd drawn both a questionable travel call (I don't know the rule, precisely, so this could have been a good call; she jumped up to shoot, decided to drive instead, and put the ball on the floor to do so before her feet hit the ground, so she was in the act of dribbling before either foot landed...travel or not?) and a ticky-tack foul, and a similarly weak offensive foul. I guess SASS whined enough in the right ref's ear. The general consensus was that #10 needed to swallow his whistle, and the crowd was all up on the refs. Meanwhile, I guess the frustration was contagious, because we committed a couple of consecutive tough, ugly, basically unforced turnovers, the second a pass to Izi's feet from Sue that rolled backwards between her legs and out of bounds. We developed butter fingers, missed gimme shots on good plays, and went soft on defense, while not following our shots. Again, a team began to out-hustle us for loose balls and rebounds; SASS seemed to recover every one and the crowd was audibly frustrated. After SASS entered the penalty in the 1st with 2 minutes or so to go (the Storm did have like 3 fouls), suddenly the Storm were at a 5-1 foul disadvantage with 2 minutes left in the half. Something was wrong there. But as quick as the crowd was to express their frustration, they were even quicker to express appreciation when the Storm finally pulled their heads out. The crowd came up immediately upon being prompted as time wound down, something I never saw on the road. LJ hit a 3 and Sue got a lay-up. Ferdinand quieted us but no one sat down. Then Betty made the Microsoft Play of the Half hitting a half-court 3 to make it a ball game and the place went crazy!. It took the refs forever to review the shot, but it was clearly good, and they replayed it over and over on the AV until the refs finally made the obvious (and correct) call HT: 42-43, SASS

We were hanging in there, but nervous about the 3rd as always, I felt we'd have to flat out ball in the 2nd half to pull this off. I felt that we could, but we needed to stop playing like we were frightened of getting a lead. The team stats were so even, we just had to find an edge. SASS came out with just shy of 6 minutes to warm-up, though they had to wait a few seconds for the half-time scrimmage to end. Betty appeared on the AV doing a "wear a life jacket" PSA, followed by LJ doing a "Green Night" Green Tip of the Game PSA about using low-flow shower heads. The team emerged at this time, with 2 minutes and change to warm up. In an attempt to fire up the team a grass-roots De-Fense chant started to no avail. JB scored, finally, and we began to battle back again, on some nifty play by Betty. With 2:40 to go we really hustled on D and forced a shot clock violation that the crowd loved , and LJ finally drew a foul. SASS is sneaky with their post play, physically bumping our players around, and surrounding them immediately (especially LJ) every time they got the ball on the block. As she turned after the foul to walk up to the line LJ had some choice words to the air (they could have been directed at the player who fouled her, but I got the sense that it was more a general frustration reaction) and weenie #58 called a technical on her right away. It was stupid. Call some freaking fouls, and the players won't be driven to that point. Hammon made the T. LJ made her free throws. 61-62, Storm. Already pretty bitter about the petty T on LJ, the crowd got incensed and began booing on an awful foul call on Wendy where she just stood there with both hand up and didn't even make body contact, and to top it off Hammon was walking all over the place. That got everyone booing, and after that for a time everything the refs did was booed just on principle, particularly as they mysteriously put SASS on the line for free throws several times when I could have sworn they weren't in the act of shooting. Do you just need to be near the paint these days? And could you at least make the heavy-handedness even? But perhaps this fired us up, because Izi tied it up, then Sue put us up with an &1 on a lay-up that got the entire arena spontaneously to their feet, cheering for all they were worth, getting even louder when prompted (the All State Good Hands Play). 69-66. Crossley hit a 3 but no one sat down, but then she obviously lowered her shoulder and pushed off of Sue, who was playing good defense, and they rewarded her with free throws! Let me reiterate, the refs did not cost us the game, but they killed our momentum repeatedly, and we just couldn't seem to get past that mentally. It was an obvious call that even WNBA refs make 9 times out of 10, or at least they do when Betty is involved in the charge. It was the timing and the sheer awfulness of the calls that just made me sick. 3Q: 69-71, SASS

SASS got hit with a couple of stupid calls early, but that wasn't near what the Storm were enduring at this point. And the 4th didn't start out any better for us. Shyra horribly missed a pretty wide open lay-in on a fast break. It was as ugly a shot as I've seen all season. We couldn't score; we turned the ball over repeatedly; every time the whistle blew it was a call against the Storm to the point that even if it was a good call, it was ridiculous that SASS was called for nothing. But even with that crap, LJ tied it at 83 with 3 minutes to play (to make up somewhat for the UGLY shot clock violation we'd committed a possession earlier with LJ getting a breather on the bench). From this point on most of the fans in the arena were on their feet. So what do we do? Turn the ball over and fail to rebound down the stretch. Turnover, Hammon 3. Sue 3 to tie it @ 86! Our offense chokes some more and SASS scores. The fans remained standing, mostly, and clapped during a timeout while the Dance Troupe danced (by the way, where did all the boys go?), but it wasn't a joyful noise; it was more like a "you'd better perform, Storm" noise. The PA guy got the stragglers to their feet, and LJ somehow managed to grab a wild pass like 3 feet above her head, but she was unable to gather it as she was bodied off of balance by SASS. No call. Another turnover, and it was just disheartening at this point. We shot ourselves in the foot with undisciplined play down the stretch. It was sick. Sue almost stole the inbounds pass with 15.9 seconds left, but Hammon went to the line to make it 86-90. We basically conceded at this point, though Betty went for a steal that #58 just had to call a foul on. That was pretty much bad form (by the ref). The player didn't even get knocked off step or bobble the ball. Let time run out for pity's sake! Sue scored at the buzzer. But the Storm were in the penalty in both the 3rd and the 4th, and SASS was no where near that. Do they just have better whining skills? I feel like I've over-used the angry face. Perhaps another tongue of disgust is appropriate.

There were positives, like stretches where we distributed the ball very well. And Sue looked for her shot, and it looked good; you can tell she's feeling better out there. And I want to repeat that she played stretches of outstanding defense. But the story isn't the stetches of time we played well, it was the fumbles and the choking under pressure. Sure, we haven't had much of that this season (meaning close games), either blowing teams our or being blown out, but let's get some mental toughness. Yes, I'm glad we didn't give up, but we shouldn't have had to keep battling back, we should have taken our chances and built a lead. We'll need more than this in the play-offs, as our history of the past two seasons should have taught us...should we manage to actually win some more games (mostly kidding; I fully expect us to). Let's not help teams beat us by beating ourselves, ok? Ahh, I'm frustrated. I need to go calm down. I'd better see something against Sacramento. I'm not cheering for an expansion team here where this sort of behavior is understandable! WTF.

Run-off

Pre-game distractions: rummage sale on concourse wherein I bought a bunch of stuff I don't need , also the GLEAM raffle

Pre-game on court: we looked focused and serious in shoot-around...too tight? Who knows. A-rob did get LJ cracking up at one point.

It was some kind of Armed Forces night, with participation from soldiers and their families from McChord Air Force Base and Ft. Lewis. They played Dodge Ball pre-game, while "Great Balls of Fire" played. Basketball at half time was a scrimmage between young men from Ft. Lewis and McChord, dubbed the McChord Fighters. They had some shooters, too. They also took part in Storm Movie Magic, with Sgt Bossley getting to guess the movie (see below) and winning a DVD recorder/player (or something).

Storm Vision interview with Ashley Robinson: She started this season energized to play basketball. Russia didn't work out for her, and she'd never been cut from anything in her life, so during her 3-4 months off she really missed basketball and it changed her perspective, and made her appreciate her opportunities to play. She helped get Shyra a try-out for the team because she felt that her style of ball would really fit in to our system. Katie is a great shooter and a great person to be around; Ashley thinks she has a bright future in the League.

Alan & Adia pre-game Storm Vision breakdown: Go-green night...which delighted them because they prefer the road unis (as an aside there was plenty of green in the stands, as fans got into it, including loveslauren's hair Even Doppler had on a green and yellow tie-dyed t-shirt). If we entered the play-offs today, SASS would be out match-up, so it was important to win this game in order to get a mental hold on this team, since they've dominated us 3 times this season, particularly since we're on our home court. Adia's most impressed with LJ's energy this season, how she's more fit and shooting so well, despite being a bit banged up. She's dominating in both offensive and defensive ways. Izi is also coming along nicely this season, and seems to be peaking at the right time, doing well inside and outside and not forcing her shot. However, SASS may be missing Erin Buescher, but they have a lot of weapons.

Like usual, Wendy had the right arm sleeve, LJ the right leg sleeve, Shyra sleeves on both legs, and Sue and Betty knee braces on their left and right knees, respectively. Also for the second game in a row Betty had a pony tail versus her more characteristic corn rows.

Refs: #10, #15, #58. You'd think those would be auspicious numbers for us. You'd be wrong.

The anthem was very cool, performed by the A Capella Joy Chorus, Washington chapter of the Sweet Adelines (correct my spelling, but it's something like that). They opened up their set singing the phrase "We love the Storm" which got them much applause and laughter, including from the players. I really enjoyed their performance too. They really telegraphed and sold the frills, and moved it along tempo-wise, with some fun variations. They were accompanied on court by a joint service color guard from Ft. Lewis and McChord Air Force Base, let by Sergeant First Class Kenneth Nolan.

Jr. Captains got balls signed by Sue and LJ, and by Hammon and Darling.

Pacific Medical Injury report. SASS: Erin Buescher, Dan Hughes (achilles). Storm: clean bill of health.

For the ball exchange during player intros they've taken to showing a picture of the group of kids participating, and introducing them. It's a nice touch. Tonight it was kids from McChord (and, one assumes, Ft. Lewis).

The PA Guy kind of muffed up the Sandy Brondello intro, not pausing for applause and such, though she got plenty; it seemed like he barely knew who she was. Hammon got decent applause also (she's the enemy, people ).

Storm Movie Magic, featuring Izi and Wendy Palmer. Izi: "Shirley you can't be serious." Wendy: "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley." "Airplane" is a classic.

A surprising number of teddy bears and stuffed animals made an appearance during the Warm 106.9 Teddy Bear Patrol to begin half time. The PA Guy started to read instructions, and the odd bear was already being chucked out onto the floor. He regained control "wait, wait, wait" then counted down 3,2,1 and a big rain of bears and animals fell to the floor. It was pretty cool, actually. This was followed by the basketball scrimmage.

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