Final score: Storm 70 – Sparks 52 (W) (14-7)

Attendance | 8230

Anthem Watch | Opera guy.

Fan Psyche | We're winning this game. No doubt.

Game Highlight | Sheryl coming in a going steal crazy.

Halftime | 3 acrobats with some serious abs (at least the small one had some strong abs).

SF.O Keyword of the Game | There's no place like home.

Game Photos |

It's been another long while since I've been able to write a Gameday report. With such an early game today, there's no work, lack of sleep or any of the other reasons that have kept me from posting.

I wasn't really worried about this game before it started. Even without LJ, I have been confident that the Storm can beat LA, Sacramento, or just about anyone else in a playoff series... except maybe San Antonio. I know that is the minority opinion since all of the basketball media has already crowned LA the winner of the first round and are only waiting to announce that LA is also the winner of the conference finals because their Parker is The Next Coming™ bias would be a little to obvious.

But, as Sheryl said in her postgame interview, at least the people in this arena knew the Storm could win.

The game started out very tight and there was definitely a sense that every possession was going to be important and that whichever team was able to string together a push here or there could take control. Through some tough defense, the Storm were the ones who were able to put together those pushes. If a few more of the chippies had fallen early, the Storm's lead would have been 15 or more in the first quarter. As tough as the Storm's defense was, their ability to hold onto the ball on offense didn't match up and they frittered away several opportunities with early turnovers.

The Storm were able to hold the Sparks to single digits in both the first and second quarters — truly an excellent defensive effort.The only Sparks player to score any significant points was Delisha Milton-Jones, and most of her production came from the free throw line.

On offense, the Storm were really getting stuffed in the paint. Anyone going in for a layup was getting swatted at by Parker and Leslie. Yolanda had a horrible time trying to hit her shot and ended up with an 0-for.

The Storm offense stalled often because the ball ended up in Tanisha's hands way too much. Coach Agler has been playing her as the point guard with Sue running around, coming off screens as the 2 guard. Fine, that helps Sue work her way open for her own shot, but it also means that it gives Tanisha the chance to dribble around the perimeter, gesturing for her teammates to move this way and that, and then make a drive through the lane that all the defenders are expecting. Tanisha is too predictable as a point guard. And, I really don't like how many times the shot clock gets down to 5 or less and the ball is in Tanisha's hands, especially when Sue or Sheryl are out on the floor. For that matter, any time you have any of our good perimeter shooters out there, it's time for a drive and kick out instead of drive and hope for the foul. Part of being the point guard is knowing where your teammates are and trusting them to hit the shot. From that standpoint, Tanisha is a bad point guard and isn't very good at all at getting her teammates the ball in scoring position, especially with nothing left on the shot clock.

I also disagree with this game's box score as to who was credited with the turnovers. Tanisha is listed with no turnovers. BS. If she's the one delivering a bad or uncatchable pass, she should be getting the TO. Someone at the scorer's table was taking it easy on her in the stat line.

The Storm blew the game open in the third quarter and almost doubled their score from the first half. They threatened to again keep the Sparks to single digits in a quarter, but LA managed to hit 14. With a 21-point lead at the end of the third, the game looked in the bag.

Not quite though since the Storm relaxed or something, got sloppy with the ball and through some defensive lapses and mind-numbing calls from the refs allowed the Sparks to hack the lead down to 7.

The Sparks started the quarter on a 13-0 run over a 5-minute period. They turned up their own defense and stymied the Storm with blocks, forced turnovers and a shot clock violation. All the Sparks' earlier crying to the refs — OMG does Parker whine to the refs — started to pay off and they started getting those ghost foul calls on every possession. I sometimes think that the refs see a player like Leslie or Parker go up for a shot and miss and think that someone had to have fouled them, even if the shot had no real chance of going in. There were a few of those tonight, coincidentally right after Parker or Leslie had just finished jawing at the refs.

I used to like Marie Ferdinand-Harris. A lot. She was one of my favorite non-Storm players. She had a great shot. She played straight up ball. And then she joined the Sparks. Maybe I was blind to her faults before, maybe not. Maybe she learned the ways of the dark side after listening to Darth Cooper whispering about how flopping and whining is the way to true power. She was in full flop mode tonight, and she was getting the calls. She also went after a ball on the baseline, stepped full out of bounds and didn't get called. Sue gets pushed out of bounds coming down the sideline and gets called for a turnover. I like how that worked.

And if you really want to puke, take a look at this. God I hate the Sparks. And to think that our real nemesis was the Monarchs or maybe the Silver Stars. Nope, it's still the freakin' Sparks.

Anyway, the Storm put the brakes on the Sparks' surge with about 3 minutes left and held them to just 2 points from there on to the end of the game. The Storm hit most of their free throws and put the game away.

Moving forward, we need to see more out of our posts — Yo, Little and Ashley. They were getting brutalized in the post and they need to turn that around, big time. We also need to see better decisions out of Tanisha if she is going to be playing with the ball in her hands so much. Even if she doesn't like it, she needs to start thinking like a point guard and adjust to the game instead of forcing herself on it. You've got great shooters on your team, Tanisha. Get them the ball and let them do their thing.

I'm not really that worried about Game 3. I'm confident that the Storm will win and will withstand the Sparks' physical play and their constant bitching to the refs. I'm hoping that Sac beats San Antonio and we keep home court in the next round. I'm really hoping the Storm find a way to make it to the Finals and LJ can make it back onto the court. If that happens, whew, I like our chances. A lot of ifs and hopes in this paragraph, but I'm feeling pretty good about them.