Final score: Storm 80 – Monarchs 70 (W) (2-0)

Submitted by psheehy

My game started with Kara Lawson's foot in my face as she stretched out, followed by her dropping trow to have the trainer wrap her back.

Seattle City Council members, Jan Drago and Bruce Harrell read a proclamation naming that day Storm Day in Seattle to celebrate their 10 years in the city.

Refs on hand:
Scott Twardoski #17
Byron Jarrett #21
Michael Price #39

The opening video was a CGI heavy burning fire in a roman like stone area with video clips of historic moments in team history circling it. It was emotional but not in a revving you up kind of way. Ackerly's starting the team, drafting LJ, Sue, LJ's MVP award, Championship, Force 10 buying the team, 16-1 home record were the clips that I caught.

The crowd was polite for the Monarchs intros with Lawson, Paris, Walker, Powell, Penicheiro and Boucek eliciting applause and cheers from the Storm fans.

The arena filled up quickly and was VERY loud for introductions, but the entrance of Lauren Jackson must have set off the earthquake detectors at the UW. LJ gave the obligatory first game microphone pitch and had to pause for more cheers.

Pee Wee plays on a sprained knee.

The dance team had the boys in red tee shirts under their jerseys. I have no idea what the song was, but the kids look better every year. They are becoming a really tight dance troupe. Missed seeing some of the kids who have been regulars, but must be too old now. Some great new kids including one very athletic young man with crazy hair, a la Anderson Varejao on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

They aired Part 1 of a 6 part video series on the history of the Storm. It was an interview with Karen Bryant about the founding of the franchise and covered a lot of Lin Dunn doing what Lin did best. Loud applause for both Lin and Kamilla as the first player on the franchise. (can they get her over here this season?? it would bring down the house to have both her and Simone)

They did a Doppler schtick giving away a backpack full of Storm goodies...all in packs of 10. Doppler smacked a guy in the face with a cake. Made quite a mess.

Jamie Redd was recognized in the crowd. They gave a shout out to the 2009 NCAA champion UW Women's Softball team. Jamie is working full time for the Department of Corrections and coaching at Pacific Lutheran University. She thanked the fans for making everything possible for the Storm.

Red Panda was the halftime act, though I missed it saying hi to my family and meeting Q from Rethinking Basketball.

Dance team performs a second number with all of them in red tees.

There was not as much Comets red in the crowd as I had hoped, but there were definitely patches.

We got a video montage of Stormin the Lake. It was a gorgeous looking day that I missed with my sprained ankle.

They announced the Train...rather than just starting it up. It was crazy as usual. It must have been a TV timeout because it lasted a long time and ended with Doppler flopped on the floor midcourt.

The post game interview was with Swin Cash.

Submitted by StormFanNo1

Batgirl is in the house. She was introduced during the player introductions, but didn't play. I guess she has to learn the team offense and defense sets before she can start playing. Still, it was nice to see her in the house in a Storm uniform. Welcome back batgirl

We got off to a fast start when LJ scored Storm's first 8 points while Sacto had only 2. She was soo dominating in those early minutes. She looked like in a league of her own out there.

We took the lead very early and never relinquished it. 5 minutes into the game we had a 15 pt lead and it looked like the game was over. However Sacto slowly found its footing and made a run at the end of the first quarter to close the gap to 7.

We always had a lead of 5 to 13 pts rest of the game. When Sue and LJ was in the game, we would push the lead to double digits. When they sat on the bench to take a breather, Sacto slowly crawled back into the game. Then LJ and Sue had to come back. We had a comfortable lead, but never seemed to put away the game. I share other people's worry on this thread about how much we are dependent on Sue and LJ.

Other people who played well today: Little, Cash and T.

I love Little's hustle in the paint. She steals, blocks, rebounds, defends and opportunisticly puts back those offensive rebounds. She follows her shots and gets the rebounds when it doesn't go in. She started today and deserved to start.

Swin played better today than I have ever seen her play all last year! If this is because she is injury/pain free, having that operation was the best thing she did for herself and the team. If she keeps playing like this, she will be a key player for the Storm soon.

T did great defending and attacking the basket. She didn't fare all that well when she was handling the ball. So I really hope we mostly play her at 2 or 3 where she is most useful and effective.

JB seemed a little off rhythm and played tentatively today. Hopefully that shoulder of hers isn't bothering her much and she will be back into her groove pretty soon. 0 rebounds for her in this game is a little worrisome.

Gearlds knocked down some nice shots but didn't do much otherwise.

Robinson and Walker didn't really play that long to have an impact in this game.

Pee wee should be coming off the bench and replacing Sue at the point when she gets a breather. She is not running the offense as well as Sue, but at least she is not sloppy with the ball, and can be effective for about 8-10 minutes a game.

Going forward I see Sue, LJ, Cash, T and Little starting, with pee wee coming off the bench. If JB or Batgirl start playing really well, they might replace Little as a starter.

One thing that riled me up in the fourth quarter: Lawson really gave a hard push to JB when she was going for a layup. JB ended up on the floor and had trouble getting up. Lawson was called a hard foul. I thought it meant that we had the posession after the free throws, but I was wrong. So what is the difference between a regular foul and a hard foul. Does anyone know?
A couple minutes after that Lawson tripped and fell hard. She could not get up right away and looked like she was in pain. The first thing that came to my mind was "Good, you deserve it". Of course I felt guilty afterwards for thinking that way. I never wish any injury to happen to any player on the floor, but she really annoyed me with what she did to JB earlier.

One sad thing: The Sonics and Storm shop was closed. It looked empty and dark. The only Storm merchandise we can buy during the games is cheap Storm t-shirts that is sold around the concourse. I miss the Sonics and Storm shop. I miss the high quality mesh polos, jackets and all kinds of other trinkets we had there. I hope to see it reopen soon, even if it is only during the game days.

Half time show: RED PANDA
The Chinese girl on a unicycle who can throw up to 5 plates with her leg and have them all stack up on her head. I have seen her about 7-8 times so far, and she still amazes me. She has never dropped a plate, not even once.

The arena looked mostly full while there were small pockets of empty seats here and there. I am surprised that the attendance was around 9800. It looked more like 12000 ish to me. The crowd was energetic and loud though. So the empty seats didn't make a difference.

We made a good start this year. I expect the Key's reputation as a very difficult place for visiting teams will continue this year.
To be a championship contender, we need better help in the post. One or two of A-Rob, Walker, JB or Batgirl have to step up and provide relief for LJ and Little. Fortunately we still have time to work on that.