Final score: Storm 64 – Comets 63 (W) (5-1)

Attendance | 6116

Game Photos | Scott E | Rick | Scott L

Submitted by Norwester

Firstly, I was rather hesitant coming in to this game. Houston isn't striking fear into anyone's hearts right now, though they've played us very well historically: we're just a good match-up for them. I expected that we may have something of an emotional let-down from the beauty of our SASS win. I think I was right. We won, and we showed that we can win ugly. It was a real gut check, but despite practically everything going wrong that could, we were still in there scrapping at the end. We were down by 6 at the end of the 3rd, and still managed to scrape the bottom for that last little bit of effort that put us over the top. And it was our defense that ultimately did it.

I felt similarly at the end of this game, as I did at the end of Game 2 of the Finals when Sales for some reason missed that wide open shot. Not quite to that degree, but it was the same we did everything we could to lose, yet we didn't sensation in the pit of my stomach. Different reasons, though. And of course the implications weren't as dire as play-off elimination. To continue the comparison, in that game we had Betty; in this game we had Swin and Sue putting this team on their shoulders (along with Tanisha) and willing us to victory. Sheryl looked flat, Lauren looked sick (though still managed to get 13 rebounds). We had 19 made field goals all game. And we won.

To put my annoyance with this game another way, you know how un-fun it is to watch a close game at the end when one team is fouling on purpose in a desperate attempt to win? The last three minutes seem to take 2 hours. Well, that's what we had going both ways for 3 quarters all night. On a pretty non-physical game. I blame us for our missed gimmes, but I blame the refs for the ugly.

It took the fans a while to trickle in, and I'm sure we only had about 6,000. Was the 6 PM start confusing? I do think they could have emphasized that more at the last game. But the crowd was responsive, so that was good. Houston chose to start the wrong way . After everyone left the court from warm-ups there was Tina Thompson, still out there shooting around, then stopping and signing autographs as she left. I like Tina.

Pre-game Sue was presented with her official Olympic jersey (the jersey's look pretty neat) at center court. <Cheers & Applause> It was also announced that Tina made the team. <Applause> They mentioned the Olympic roster annoucement to cheers later as well. The other important thing was that Sheryl was sitting at steal #599 for her career. Oh, and Mabika is on the injured list with a sprained left knee. Ouch.

Haben Abraham sang the anthem. 10 years old. A little slow, but solid. She got all the words right, and hit that high-high free note (although a bit shakily). Doppler almost ran over several Dance Troupe members on his scooter as he came out for intros. Does that happen every time?

The Comets jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead, after winning the tip. Sue hit a nice jumper with just over a minute gone to sit us down. The Refs were #13, 15 & 53. That's important because they kept the game under their stern, sensible shoes the entire way. Case in point: 53 personal fouls were called. It's only a 40-minute game! Swoopes picked up her 600th steal, but lost the ball right back for a Houston score. Some weak fouls were called that should have been steals, in my opinion (a couple on Yo as the refs bit on every bit of Houston melodrama, and Michelle Snow is quite the arm-flailer ) and Sheryl checked out subbed by T. We cheered her for her announced 600th steal.

Our guards really kept us in it early. T put us up 7-6. The refs had some trouble calling the out of bounds possessions on our end of the floor (#13 I'm looking at you). I mean, it really didn't seem like they were seeing reality out there. I can't really explain it...it was like they were calling a game they thought they should have seen based on player reactions, versus what actually happened. I don't know. It was certainly bad both ways, but it made for an ugly game with no rhythm for either team. Meanwhile we had some turnovers that were good ideas, and we had some painfully bad turnovers.

Our shots still weren't falling, but we kept scrapping. T shorted a shot, but followed it as Pee-wee went to the ground and dove after it, kneeing Shannon in the gut and tying it up. And Ajavon had a break-away lay-up at one point and Swin chased her down and denied it (with cheers for the effort). We missed more shots, and our D did not look sharp; LJ was clearly frustrated and having to work through a ton of Houston contact, none of it being called (even the obvious push-offs on rebounds), and after missing a few bunnies starts passing it back out rather than going up with authority. A far cry from the 10-0 run to start the last game. 1Q: 9-12, Houston

The refs started compounding their sins. I mean, clearly our missing repeated chippies was an issue, but when a Comet jumps up into the air and lands on Swin Cash (who's holding the ball) and there's no foul (and it's the 2nd instance of contact since she got possession)? There was a ref two feet away, and Swin let her know about her displeasure after Coach called a time out; I wonder what the ref had to say for herself?

The refs had to shoo Houston back to their side of the court when they started dispersing before the timeout was over. Then the Storm promptly turned the ball over on the inbounds out of the timeout. Yo picked up her 3rd foul. Coach Agler was quickly switching line-ups around, looking for something to start working. He went big with Swin, Ashley, and LJ. He went small with Shyra, Katie and three guards. At this point specifically Sue got a rare rest. We were down 16-21, and T and Beck did pretty well: when Sue came back we were down only 22-23. LJ went to the bench. Swoopes was playing with a big band-aid on her forehead partially in her left eye, but managed steal #601 (a better and more productive steal than #600).

With 3:36 left in the half LJ finally hit her first field goal. <cheers> The refs continued to call frustrating fouls at both ends; very knee jerk. It felt like the Comets were out-rebounding us. T stripped Dixon! #53 called a pretty bogus foul on LJ that garnered a bunch of Boos. Sue went to the line and stopped when she got the ball to complain to the ref that they were letting Houston break the rules about number of players around the key. Another bogus call on Swin <Boos>. The replays both looked pretty clean, but the fouls weren't what put the lid on the basket.

We did not make a three-pointer all game. KG had some good looks, for naught (though she did have a long 2-pointer). Sue had some good looks. Nothing. LJ was called for another foul off Houston-melodrama, and ended the half with 2 points but Sue tied it from the line with 7 seconds to go, giving her 14 points for the half. Practically the only shots we hit all half were Sue's from around picks. HT: 32-32

The Comets beat us in the paint in the 1st half 12-4. They also barely out-rebounded us, and actually hit some 3-pointers. And I have to think we were losing the turnover battle too. However, we're a 2nd half team, right? It's got to get better. LJ has to start hitting shots. You'd think so, but no.

Katie looked frustrated during pre-2nd-half warm-ups. She missed some shots. As a team our energy didn't look very good, though Sue was full of piss and vinegar. Coach kept Lauren near the bench for a couple of extra words, and Sue came bouncing up and threw a couple little punches into Lauren, trying to buck her up. We tried to go to LJ early, and she did get to the foul line early on an awkward drive for two free throws, sitting us down, but this didn't start a trend of trying to get her more touches.

And everything kept going wrong. There was a pile-up on a rebound, and somehow the refs decided Swin had kicked the ball. Swin gets knocked to the ground, and the PA Guy mistakenly announces the foul is on #2 Swin Cash versus the proper #2 Michelle Snow. Booos! Sheryl looked extremely stiff out there: her shot was not floating off her fingers, but rather leaving her hands rather flat, and she almost fumbled the ball just dribbling down the court!

Despite her offensive woes, LJ was doing the other little things like being a beast on the boards (13 for the game). At one point she stripped the ball from Tina, at the other end she drove in and a foul was called. The PA Guy mistakenly said it was on LJ (even though the refs signalled #13: Yo) and that sure got the Boos going. Not that it was any better to get a crap call on Yo. So the refs called a really quick 3 seconds on the Comets at the other end. Are you kidding me? This is Bush League crap.

Nothing got any prettier from there. More fouls. Swin put us up 39-38 from the line. Everything was ugly, but we kept putting our heads down and working away. Sigh. Dixon picked up her 4th personal foul. Pee-wee uncharacteristically (as of late) kept killing us from the outside. Sue had an uncharacteristic turnover and suddenly Houston was up 41-48.

We just looked flat (except Sue) and frustrated (except Sue); no one was taking shots, we didn't seem to have any offense running, and LJ was getting no touches. Shyra missed a wide open lay-in , but we got it right back to her next possession and she converted. That's good team chemistry. Then Shrya was mugged taking a shot at the buzzer: no call? 3Q: 47-53, Houston

We stayed small to start the 4th: Sue, Swin, Katie, T and Shyra. The fans got up and loud to encourage the team. Sue and Tina collide and fall to the ground as Sue guards her in transition. Sue got up laughing at her fall, but Tina came up a bit lame, so Sue ran over to make sure she was ok, and they slapped hands before play continued.

Shyra's ball-control woes continued as she totally fumbled , the play completely broke, and Swin came up with the ball and put it through the hole. Whew. A couple minutes later we had continued to scrap it out ugly, and the crowd gave the players a standing ovation into the timeout, only down 53-55. Swin tied it. T put us up! And everyone got on their feet and it got LOUD in there.

Houston went into the penalty with 4-1/2 to go, and the Storm predictably followed them not much later. Swin was battling it out down low and went to the line frequently, with mixed results. She kept us in there, though. With under 3 minutes to go both Yo and Swin had 5 fouls, Sue 4, LJ 3. There were a couple of Comets in foul trouble also. Yet Yo played intense stand-up defense there towards the end. She caused Ajavon to miss the go-ahead lay-up.

But Dixon hit a shot to put the Comets up 62-63, despite the noise as the crowd was all up on their feet with 50 seconds to go. Time out, and everyone was too keyed up to sit down. Yo and T came up huge on defense and stopped Dixon from scoring, LJ grabbed the ball and got it ahead in transition to--who else?--Sue Bird, who broke away from the pack for a lay-in with 6.4 seconds left to put us up 64-63! Houston time-out.

It was so loud and celebratory in there you'd have thought we won the finals. A product of tension-release, I guess. Doppler led us in the "Hey" chant with everyone on their feet and clapping. But the bad-karma was worrying me. 6.4 seconds is plenty of time. Anyway, who knows what happened in those final 6.4 seconds? Houston missed their shot and Tanisha corralled the rebound when the refs stopped game play (it was too loud to hear the whistle). Huh? Apparently the shot clock had stopped at 3.4 seconds for an unknown reason that may or may not have been an inadvertent whistle. On the replay we could all see that the clock had stopped before the Comets even took their shot. A dribble, a pass, a miss and a rebound all starting at about 3.6 seconds. Game should be over. In our minds the game was over because all time had expired. Many fans started chanting that. Both coaches stormed out to mid-court to confront the officials, who were clearly clueless. They took their time, though, and decided it was Storm ball with 0.8 seconds to go. Random time amount, but whatever.

Game Production, please don't tempt the Fates by playing "Another One Bites the Dust" before the game is actually over. Bad, bad form. That worried me a lot, but we chucked the ball in towards the opposite end, and despite Swin and Pee-wee battling for it (and Swin possibly knocking a very dramatic Pee-Wee to the ground) time expired. Ugly. But better an ugly win than an ugly loss. I don't really have words (clearly an exagerration ). 6 points, 13 rebounds for LJ. 17 points for Sue, 12 for T and 19 for Swin: the Microsoft Player of the Game (and well-deserved).

I couldn't hear much of the post-game interview. Dick Fain called it a "bizarre game", mentioning the 53 personal fouls called, but a win is a win. Swin agreed. We've managed to win in various ways this season. He brought on how we had a tough time making shots, but said how Swin put the team on her shoulder. Swin credited picking up defensive intensity with the win. Dick asked Swin what they were telling them when the game was stopped there at the end. Swin laughed and said not much, but that once they put 0.8 seconds on the clock and gave the Storm the ball, they knew they had it. Dick says she's making an statement about needing to be on the Olympic team with Sue Bird.

Run-off:

Santos has left for Brasil for a couple of weeks. Flo should get her VISA this week...might there be room for a certain UW alum to join the team for a time?

LJ's mom was in the stands.

If you want go to storm.wnba.com and read and sign the Storm's "Go Green Pledge"

Junior Captains: Shannon & Sheila met LJ, Sue, Tina and Pee-Wee at center court. High 5 Fans: Mari & Rachel.

I don't always want to harp on the Game Production people, but with all the De-Fense prompts out there, do we really have to keep using one that clearly comes from the Sonics' logo? I'm just saying.

For the Discover Car Trivia Challenge for the seat-upgrade Kyle won the flip and chose to answer the trivia question (that they accidentally flashed up on the AV before he'd chosen...whoops!) about how many NCAA championships the Storm starting 5 have. The answer was (C) 5. But is it fair to count Sue's and Swin's as separate? I think you could argue either way.

Memorabilia auction going on up on the concourse, including Sue's jersey as a part of the Jerseys Off Our Backs program.

Half-time was dancers from 12-18 years old: The Reach Dance Group. The one girl on our end didn't have a clue what she was doing, and kept following all the other dancers 1/2 step late. All in all, I think the Storm Dance Troupe is tighter.

Between the 3rd and 4th quarters we were treated to one of my favorite contests: the Doppler Kids' Club Shoe Scramble where 10 kids line up and take their shoes off, then Doppler collects and scatters them at the other end. They then have to race down, put their shoes on, and run back and make the 1st lay-up to win.

Nine Inch Nails is coming to the Key July 26, Lauren. Too bad you'll be in Australia at the time.