2009 WNBA Playoffs, Round 1, Game 2

Final score: Storm 75 – Sparks 74 (W) (1-1)

Submitted by LaurenRules

Officials: Michael “I’m the closest thing to a decent ref you have” Price, Cameron “LA doesn’t foul under the basket” Inouye, and Josh “I’m on LA’s payroll” Tiven

Attendance: 8,854

Player intros: Tepid applause for LA, assorted boos for Cooper, Leslie and Milton-Jones. Nice rounds of applause for Storm. Not sure why we didn’t have our usual type of starting announcements since this wasn’t on ESPN. Doppler up on a ladder with a large NOISE sign for some reason.

First Quarter
Slow start. Leslie outjumped Janell. Both teams shooting cautiously, missing shots. Seattle appeared to have dialed up their defense a notch. Camille and Janell whistled for early fouls. Grrr. Harrower faked Sue out, scored on a driving layup. Sue looked very annoyed at herself. Janell picked up her second foul at 7:37 in the first. Lots of boos. Storm fans still on their feet. Milton hit both free throws. Lots of anxious looks at the scoreboard. Still 0-4, they’re not ahead by twenty.

Tanisha hit a running jump shot. Crowd went berserk, everyone sat down. Milton-Jones made a running jump shot off of a nice feed by Harrower. Sue decided that wasn’t cool, hit a three, got the ball back after a Thompson turnover and hit ANOTHER THREE. The Key went nuts. Milton-Jones turned it over. Tanisha tried to hit a layup, was clubbed to the ground like a baby seal. No call. Boos. Parker snagged the rebound. Thompson hit a three. Sparks on top by one. Tanisha tried to shoot a jumper, Parker blocked that. That might have actually been a legitimate block. Tanisha missed another layup (it looked like she was fouled), but Swin snagged the rebound and put it back in – only to be whistled for a foul during the next play. WTF, refs? 5:09 to go and Seattle has FOUR fouls - and LA has NONE? Perhaps we should just put the refs in gold Sparks uniforms and be done with it. This is the worst officiating I've seen since the Hawks went to the Superbowl.

Milton-Jones hit both free throws. We got a makeup call in the form of Parker stepping out of bounds. Suzy hit a three. Seattle back on top. Parker hit a turnaround jumper. Swin missed a jump shot. LA had several shots, several offensive rebounds. Their height advantage was killing us. Parker put another one in. Lovely feed from Tanisha to Swin to tie it up. Camille “fouled” Parker. Still no calls on LA. I wondered how long it would go before they actually called something on them. I hope Karen Bryant rattled Orender’s – or someone’s – cage about this. Parker missed her first free throw. Vociferous applause. Sue missed a jumper. Thompson called on a carry, fouled Sue in frustration. Hey! Look! It’s a foul called on LA – the first at ONE-FRICKIN’-TWENTY-SEVEN to go! Idiots.

Sue hit one free throw, missed the second. All tied up at 16. Parker hit a running bank shot. Shannon hit a jumper. Veteran on the board in her last playoff series! A-Rob STUFFED Parker’s shot down her pretty little throat. You go, Ashley! Lennox got a nice feed from DMJ (damn it). 18-20 LA.

Second Quarter
Shannon got us out to a GREAT start – sunk a three to begin the quarter. Parker hit a turnaround bank shot. She is annoyingly good. Shot clock ran down too far, forcing Janell to take a boneheaded shot at the top of the key. Parker missed a jumper. Janell grabbed the rebound. Shannon turned the ball over (ouch!). Crowd getting restless. Betty hit a jump shot. Janell made another boneheaded move, this one a pass, that was picked off by Quinn. Ow. Quinn missed, got her own rebound (wince) and scored. Camille hit a layup. Lennox hit a jumper.

TANISHA made a boneheaded move, this one a bad pass (to be fair, Quinn has some quick hands). Quinn scored. Suzy missed a three and LL grabbed the rebound and scored. LL still has the moves, but she was looking a hair slower and out of synch tonight. Suddenly, Seattle down by nine and the air was leaving the arena. Timeout, Agler.

Interval: Annoying-but-cute-Doppler skit involving breaking boards.

Swin hit a three, Leslie missed a jumper, Swin “blocked” on a shot (that was her ARM, you idiots!), but Camille got the rebound and put in a layup. Tanisha picked BL’s pocket, Suzy hit a jumper and, just like that, we were right back into this thing. Only down by 2. Arena getting LOUD. Leslie hit a jumper. Game flattened out offensively – LA was crashing the boards, but couldn’t hit anything for over a minute. Thompson finally hit a three. Wince. Seattle down by six. 2:19 to go. JB missed a layup, but Swin snagged the rebound (with golden-clad Sparks bodies crashing around her) and SOMEHOW managed to hit a jump shot, despite Parker fouling her. (Her FIRST foul at 1:27 to go in the half. Why, no, I’m not bitter, why do you ask?).

Swin missed the extra point. Quinn sank a running jump shot. Janell missed a jumper, got tangled up with LL, and lost possession in the ensuing jump ball. Leslie missed her layup. T grabbed the rebound, but sent another bad pass and Leslie got it groan. DMJ whistled on a charge – she hit JB HARD. Ow. JB left the game – I think she got hit in the nose? We had no bench left, except for A-Walk. This is when I’m really grateful for that one extra post player. Camille came back in. DMJ booed soundly. To make up for our call, Inouye whistled Suzy on a “charge.” Um, I’m sorry, but that defender’s feet were SO moving. More boos. Betty scored. We missed both shots to close out the half. Storm down by nine. 34-43 LA.

Halftime interval – Shellie interviewed a young lady who won the WNBA junior skills challenge. Garfield High Drummer Corps. They are very good. Weird to see an all-male corps at a women’s sporting event, though.

Third Quarter
Sue missed a three and DMJ hit a two. LA up by eleven. Swin and T each picked up fouls. More booing. Harrower missed a three. T hit a jump shot. Suzy stole the ball from Parker, who wanted a foul called. T fed Sue for a three. Crowd went crazy. Harrower turned the ball over. It’s such a pleasure when your opponent chucks the ball out of bounds. Suzy drove and scored. She uses her size well against LA – they’re taller, but she muscled her way through. Swin stole the ball from Parker (who whined to the ref). Leslie CLUBBED T to the ground and T calmly just hit her free throws. Clutch, clutch play. Parker hit a layup. Suzy drove to the basket, but Thompson hammered her arm, and Suzy hit HER free throws.

Camille picked up her third “foul.” Massive boos that turned to cheers when Sue picked Thompson’s pocket. Missed shots on both sides. T scored and picked up a +1 off of a Quinn foul. Storm AHEAD BY ONE.

Pandemonium in the Key. Hope no one in Queen Anne wanted to go to bed early tonight. Leslie scored. Parker fouled Swin who hit both free throws. LA had numerous missed shots and offensive boards again (A-Rob, where are you?). Suzy whistled for “foul” on Leslie. Guess she blew on her. A-Rob came in. Leslie, uncharacteristically, missed a free throw. Sue snagged the rebound, fed T for a jumper. All tied up.

A-Rob whistled for a “foul.” More boos. Fans increasingly frustrated that LA was playing hack-and-slash under the basket and were whistled for one foul for every three committed – if that. Much yelling at refs. Leslie missed a free throw again. Yay. Swin hit a jumper. Storm within one. Shannon “turned the ball over” (looked like Leslie hit her arm on that). Thompson and Camille traded layups – Camille’s off of a very nice feed from Tanisha. 56-55 Storm.

Interval: Stormy awards results. A-Rob won (deservedly) and started to make her acceptance speech, but Camille broke in a la Kanye West, leaving A-Rob looking like someone ran over her puppy. HILARIOUS. Great acting from both.

Fourth Quarter
Seattle started the quarter on a BEAUTIFUL run – Sue hit a fadeaway jumper, Swin made a layup, but was hammered so badly by Parker, even the refs couldn’t ignore it. AND ONE! Leslie tried to put up a layup, only to find herself BLOCKED by Suzy BB, who promptly scored. Seattle up by EIGHT. Parker turned it over, A-Rob turned it over and BL hit a three. Groan. Our offense went momentarily dry as Leslie made a running hook shot – won’t miss that after she retires – and BL scored and added a +1 on a “foul” from Sue. All tied up again. Groan. Arena got very tense. Thompson scored on a turnaround jumper. Sparks up by two. T hit a jumper to break our offensive logjam. All tied up.

Missed shots and turnovers on both sides. Lennox hit a three. Suzy turned the ball over, but T’s defense forced a turnover on Quinn and Suzy hit a three. Tied again. Camille whistled on her fourth “foul.” Bogus call. Parker hit a jumper. Sue and Lennox traded missed shots. Swin made a layup. Leslie made quite an amazing tip-in shot with 27.9 seconds to go. I will not miss her at all. I’m just saying. The noise in the arena reached epic proportions.

Seattle lost possession on the next play – I think T lost the handle and ended up in a ridiculous jump ball against Leslie, who, of course, won. (I think A-Rob could outjump her, though). T fouled someone – Thompson? – and then Camille fouled her, and she hit both free throws. Storm down by four with 14.3 to go.
INSANE play by Sue – she faked out Thompson and put down a three. ARENA WENT CRAZY. Cooper called a timeout. A-Rob came in. She hovered over Quinn, who sent in a lousy pass. Camille speared it, got it to T, T fed Camille. LAYUP GOOD. SEATTLE UP BY ONE WITH FIVE SECONDS TO GO!!!!! To quote Dick Fain, UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

Arena so full of noise you could almost see it. Ball knocked out of bounds. Was that a foul? Please, noooo!!!! No, that wasn’t a foul. Thank God. A-Rob all over Leslie, who sent up a crappy airball/pass. DMJ snagged it, put up an off-balance shot that bounced off the bottom of the glass. NO GOOD. SEATTLE WINS!!!!!! BEDLAM ON THE FLOOR. Camille scooped Sue right off of her feet! (I missed some notes here, as I was busily crying happy tears). Final Score: 75-74 STORM

Notes:
Parker is a whiner. Every time she didn’t get a call she wanted, she was pouting to the refs.

The refs were HORRIBLE. I swear, Orender has instructed them to tip the deck for LA. NO calls under the basket. DMJ with TWO? Come ON! A few times, Tiven reversed calls that were in our favor – from several feet away. A “basket no good” became a “basket good” for instance. You know you’re in trouble when Michael Price is your best ref. Bleah.

No "Ride the Train" this evening. Doppler, Jason and three other Key personnel ran through the arena with S-T-O-R-M banners.

Great postgame interview with a very happy and very tired Suzy. She made it a point to thank us, #6, the fans. You’re VERY WELCOME, Suzy! She got a nice ovation when she went into the game for the first time.

A note: A-Rob DOES shut down Parker. She also has DMJ’s number. She STUFFED one of her shots, and whenever DMJ got within reach of the beautiful and intimidating A-Rob wingspan, she missed shots, turned the ball over, and generally screwed up. Considering that DMJ is one of my least favorite players in the WNBA, that made me VERY happy. A-Rob did an excellent job of shutting down the middle. Only one foul, too, with the most anti-Seattle, whistle-happy crew I've ever seen. I’m very happy for her.

That was the single most exciting sporting event I have ever seen. My throat is raw.

Clarence in the house, looking spiffy in black and yellow. He told me he was rooting for US tonight, not LA, because he wanted Betty to have to stay two more days. All bets are off on Sunday, though. Seeing him boo the refs, Parker, DMJ and Leslie was a kick.

Didn't see what the Double T on Camille and the LA Resident Thug was for, but, VERY FORTUNATELY Milli kept her head and didn't get tossed, moronic refs notwithstanding.

HOW did we do that?? Amazing. My neighbors all thought LA had it in the bag. So did LA, judging from all of the jumping and carrying on at their bench. But they didn’t.

I am so unbelievably proud of this team, I can’t see straight. Lauren hurt, Sue hurt (but better), Tanisha hurt (but better), Janell clubbed in the face, leaving us with our #4 and #5 post players, bad refs, biased media, down a game and WE FRICKIN’ WON. We WON! SO much heart. SO much toughness.

The noise level and fan intensity were UNBELIEVABLE as Dick would say.

Oh, if anyone got this on DVD, would you be willing to make me a copy? This is one I’d like to see again (and again and again and again and again….)

In addition to her 15 points, Tanisha set a personal best of NINE assists. Swin (18 ) , Sue (15), T (15) and Batgirl (14) all in double figures. (Now if JB, Camille and/or A-Rob gets going, Sunday will be something else!)

Onto Sunday. No matter WHAT Jayda says (I'm ticked at her right now), you can do it, Storm! We BELIEEEEVVVEEE!!!!

GO STORM!!!