Final score: Storm 97 – Mercury 74 (W) (8-1)

Submitted by | LaurenRules

Officials
Cameron Inouye, Scott Twardski, and Branda Pantoja

Attendance
7827 (including some very noisy and excited Girl Scouts who screamed enthusiasm as the colors were presented).

Pre-Game
This one was a bit hectic, as I had to track down StormTracker to pick up my DVDs from the last game (thank you, StormTracker!) and then tracked down another recipient to hand off a second one. I also discovered, the hard way, that NO ONE is selling espresso in Key Arena! Of course, Starbucks is gone, but they used to have lattes by somebody and now they don’t. Bummer. It must be the only place in Seattle without espresso.

Oh, and I also had to buy a pen, because I forgot mine. Sheesh!

Very nice moment of silence for the late Coach John Wooden.

Anthem and colors
Girl Scouts of America. Anthem done by Chandler Fish, who was a bit breathy and scoop-y for my liking, but did fine. I was wondering if she’d manage to hit the high notes. Diana Taurasi shuffles around a LOT during the anthem. A lot of the players move, but she was practically dancing in place. A bit distracting. It was a bit incongruous to see Nicole Ohlde standing next to Tangela Smith, because Smith looks SO much thinner. Also, DeWanna Bonner is INCREDIBLY thin.

Alison Lacey was dressed, but still looked really pale and wan and was a bit hunched over. Neither Sue or Lauren appeared to feel any ill effects from Friday’s game, although I thought I saw a pretty significant-looking bruise on Sue’s knee. Ouch.

Corey Gaines looked like Mr. GQ in a very nice gray suit with a dark silver tie. It was very amusing to hear the Empire Strikes Back Theme for the Mercury as well. Guess they’ve joined LA on our hated teams list.

Our players really didn’t look tired or drained at all. I was impressed.

First Quarter
Lauren won the tip, and passed it to Sue. Unfortunately, Swin turned it over. We seem to have started the last few games with a turnover – well, if it keeps us winning…. Taurasi missed a three pointer, but Dupree grabbed the rebound and put it back in. Ouch. Sue drove and missed a jumper, but Swin grabbed the rebound and put it back in. Tangela Smith scored off of a nice feed from Penny Taylor – Smith really is graceful. Camille scored on a beautiful post move. Taurasi had a nice jumper, answered by an equally lovely fadeway from Lauren. The first few minutes of the game looked a lot closer than it later ended up.

The difference-maker really proved to be rebounds. Sue grabbed a defensive rebound off of a missed three-point shot by Taurasi and Camille scored. Phoenix didn’t grab any sort of rebound, offensive or defensive for over four minutes – they’d put up a shot, the shot wouldn’t fall and instead of crashing the boards, they’d hurry back on defense. Swin scored. Sue scored. There was a messy interval when both Lauren and T had their shots blocked, but, again, Phoenix couldn’t by a rebound. Temeka Johnson finally scored, but Le’coe made two beautiful jump shots in quick succession. TJ scored again, but we patiently just played our offense and Lauren hit a THREE! Bedlam. Storm up 21-10 with 3:01 to go.

Amusing interval during a timeout – during the Alaskan Airlines seat upgrade, Doppler fired his confetti gun, but instead of falling to the ground quickly, this was some sort of new kind that floated and floated and floated in the air, keeping the broom pushers very busy. Doppler himself was spotted trying to swat the confetti back over to the audience.

Vesela came in. Storm had three substitutes playing, but the exciting thing was, our game hardly dropped off at all. Bonner scored. Swin missed a three, but Jana grabbed the rebound and Swin put back a layup off an assist from Sue – who had FIVE assists during the first eight minutes of the game. Scary good. Swanier missed a jump shot, Svet grabbed the rebound. Swin missed a jumper, but Le’coe grabbed the rebound and fed Svet, who HIT A THREE! Fans up and screaming. Ohlde scored. Man, that girl is big – not as big as Bales, but she’s more agile. Smith fouled Le’coe hard, and she hit both free throws. Bonner hit a three to close out the quarter.

SEA 28 – 17 PHX

Second Quarter
Jana fouled Ohlde, who hit one free throw. Scoreless drought for about two minutes. Dupree scored off of a backdoor cut, getting a nice feed from Taylor. Lead down to single digits. Sue hit a jumper. Svet snitched the ball away from Taurasi, who retaliated with her first foul. Sue missed a jumper. Phoenix on the run. Dupree hit that nice backdoor cut again. Lead down to eight again. Normally, it’s Taurasi, Taylor and Smith that give the Storm fits, well, last night, it was Dupree and Johnson, at least during the first three quarters (more on that later).

Miss And One (aka Swin) hit a layup and drew a foul from Swanier, and then proceeded to live up to her name, sinking her free throw. Storm back up by eleven. TJ hit a three, off an assist from Taylor. Taylor didn’t shoot the ball well, but she did a good job finding open players. The game leveled off for a bit. Swin ostensibly fouled Bonner, who only hit one free throw. Swin got CLUBBED to the ground by both Ohlde and Taylor, though Taylor was whistled for the foul and missed both free throws. Yikes. That doesn’t happen very often, thank heaven. More flat offense, bad passes and missed shots. Johnson scored. Phoenix within five.

Tanisha hit a three and a jumper, and, just like that, we were on top by ten points again. Unfortunately, Taylor hit two free throw off of a Lauren foul and Taurasi hit a three and Phoenix was back within five. Camille drove, hard, and drew a foul against Bonner, hitting both free throws. Taurasi scored. Groan. She was NOT the player we wanted to see get hot! Sue hit a three. Camille stole the ball AGAIN, this time from Johnson and scored – and sank a free throw when Johnson committed a frustration foul. Johnson’s woes continued, as she missed an easy jumper and Sue grabbed the rebound. It’s worth noting that Sue had four rebounds during the first half.

Swin hit a layup off of a nice feed from Svet. Bonner missed a clunky three (a really bad shot), Smith got the rebound, but threw it away, out of bounds. Storm ball with 25 seconds to go.

Sue let the clock run down and hit a jumper. They really should guard her more closely on those pre-halftime plays. Taurasi missed the halfcourt shot, and we were into halftime.

SEA 50 – 35 PHX

Halftime Interval
Girl Scout cookie-eating contest. Some random guy won. Shellie Hart wearing a girl scout vest – did anyone know she was a Girl Scout? She distributed leftover cookies to random fans about the arena, but did NOT make it over to my seat! FAIL. (I was starving, too!)

Halftime Stats
They weren’t shooting well and we were killing them on the boards. Oh, apparently Swin grabbed her 1,500th rebound around 1:30 or so, but neither my notes nor the WNBA play-by-play have her getting a rebound anywhere near there. Either we both screwed up, or her rebound was actually around 3:29. In any case – congratulations, Swin!

Third Quarter
The quarter got off to a great start when Camille stole the ball yet AGAIN, and fed LJ for a THREE! Holy cow. Storm up by eighteen. CD grabbed a rebound off of a Penny Taylor miss and went on a little run of her own, but fortunately, Swin and Camille were able to answer with a layup apiece. Smith clubbed Tanisha pretty hard and then Phoenix was whistled for delay of game. T hit both free throw.

A few missed shots. Sue whistled for her second foul. I can’t remember the last time Sue had more fouls than Camille or Tanisha, but whatever. Taurasi hit. Smith fouledLJ who hit. LJ was getting mobbed, so more often than not, we found other ways to score. Camille “Quick-Hands” Little stole the ball from Taurasi, handed it off to Sue and was able to finish the shot on a really pretty layup. I really can’t say enough about Camille’s play – in addition to all of those steals, she was playing monster defense, lunging out-of-bounds to save the ball and generally doing all of those little things to keep us alive.

TJ missed an easy layup – the air was really starting to go out of the Phoenix players by then (even though WE were the ones on a back-to-back), Camille grabbed the rebound and T put up a great layup. She’s at least half a foot shorter than some of the players out there, but oh, so strong. Just like that the Storm were up by TWENTY-THREE with 6:50 to go in the third. Holy smokes. Another quiet interval. Smith hit two free throws off of a T foul. Swin hit a THREE. The first two bench players came in. Svet ostensibly fouled Taurasi from three. DT hit two of three. Storm still up by eighteen. Dupree hacked at Lauren again. Swoosh. Swoosh. TJ missed a layup, and went down hard. Swin grabbed the rebound, and lobbed it to T, who sank a gorgeous layup. TJ still down and had to leave the game.

Bonner fouled Lauren, who went back to the line to hit her last two points of the game. Svet stole the ball from a rattled Bonner and set off coast-to-coast, only to get HACKED in the face and head by DT. I had the exact angle to see this, and she was MAULED. Fans up and SCREAMING. Super-loud boos, the kind previously reserved for the Sparks. DT sauntered off with a “who me?” look, and affected nonchalance as she was whistled for a flagrant. Svet made her pay, though – she only hit one free throw, but hit a jumper. 77-45 Storm. Wait, the Storm were up by thirty-two points in the third quarter? Incredible.

Camille had one of those fabulous lunges, grabbed the fall and fed Sue, who hit a three for HER last three points of the game, and the lead stretched to 35. 80-45.

Phoenix had some success in drawing fouls – Bonner hit one and Ohlde hit two free throws – but nothing else. Meanwhile, Camille hit a fadeaway jumper, Le’coe made a layup and Bonner made an extremely silly foul with 1.6 second to go. Camille hit one, we grabbed the rebound, but then the siren went and the quarter was over. Only it wasn’t. After protracted conversing between the refs (and the shooing away of a bunch of little kids who had come down onto the floor for the interval), the clock and floor was reset with 0.5 seconds to go. Ridiculous, right? Only… not. Svet fed Jana who put up the ball with a Dirk Novitzki-like motion and sank a jumper.

SEA 87 – 48 PHX

Interval
All-Star ballot competition. It should be noted that the team shop was featuring some very pretty yellow T-shirts, with a “Vote Lauren,” “Vote Sue,” “Vote Tanisha” theme, with each player getting her own tag line.

Fourth Quarter
Both coaches emptied their benches. Jana continued her strong showing by hitting a running jump shot, giving Seattle a 41 point lead. Bonner hit a three. Phoenix crept in, thanks for a hot shooting streak from their tiny rookie, Taylor Lilley. (She is so not five-six. And if she weighs anywhere near 130 pounds, I’ll be extremely surprised). One funny moment, though, was when Lilley tried to get around A-Rob and just bounced right off of her. Also, when A-Rob crossed her arms for a screen, they appear to be right on the level of Lilley’s face – but, fortunately, no flagrant fouls from there.

Really wish Alison had been able to play. As it was, it was the four benchies and T. Jana scored again. Sequoia Holmes hit two free throws off of a clear path foul from Tanisha and Swanier hit a jumper. The game definitely slowed down. Abby still looks confused from time to time – was whistled for a foul and a turnover in about a twenty-second interval.

Phoenix went on a mini-run, but thanks to Svet and T, we were able to answer. A-Rob had one good shot, one really bad shot and a FABULOUS block. Abby missed a great three that looked like it was going in – Lauren was on her feet, WILLING it to fall – but no. Jana hit another running jump shot. She really looked great out there and made a solid case for herself to increase her playing time – four for four with four rebounds and two blocks in about seventeen minutes. Svet tried to take a three to get us to the century mark, but no such luck. Fans were heading to the exits at the buzzer.

Final score: SEA 97 – 74 PHX

Final Notes
It will be interesting to see if Lilley can keep up the hot shooting once she’s scouted and guarded properly. She seems fast, but she is also TINY. She also looks like she is about twelve.

It was great to see the starters relaxing and chatting on the bench.

One scary stat line – ALL of our starters in double figures – Camille, Lauren and Sue each had sixteen, T had thirteen and Sue had twelve. Lauren had sixteen points and six rebounds, when she played just over half the game.

Sue had eleven assists in just over 25 minutes of play. Methinks someone is heading toward another Peak Performer award.

Camille was icing her shoulder while she sat. I hope she’s okay.

On the Phoenix side, Bonner has tremendous hops. I wouldn’t be surprised if she could dunk if she felt like it.

Jana's jumper at the end of the third quarter TOTALLY deserved to be the Play of the Day, but we're always getting robbed of those. Come ON, WNBA. We have an 8-1 record, you CANNOT keep ignoring us for POD.

Phoenix really just doesn't play defense at all. Which means, on an off night, they have nothing left to fall back upon. I think that's the worst I've even seen Penny Taylor or DT play. BTW, I think I like PT better as a blonde.

Speaking of hair color, Lauren's hair really is red now. Well, orange-y red, not that strawberry blonde color. I'm not sure it favors her - but, then again, it's not my hair.

That’s the most pleased I’ve ever seen Agler look. Usually, he is Mr. Deadpan – but last night, he definitely looked satisfied.

Submitted by | Norwester

One of the things I'm liking most about our offense is the spacing. Sue is getting more rebounds than I ever remember, and I think that's both that she's in a different mental space these days, and the places she ends up in our offensive schemes when shots go up.

As far as the mental space, she's talked about wondering where that fearless driving point guard of her rookie season went, but getting two traumatic injuries (i.e. broken noses) has to make you subconsciously shy away from certain contact, no matter how much you tell yourself it's out of your head.

I think over the past couple of seasons we've seen that turn around, coupled with Brian's encouragement of how he wants Sue to play the game. It's so enjoyable to watch Sue run this offensive scheme. I know that Coach Agler has worked with great point guards in the past, but Sue just seems like the perfect point guard to run his offense, and it must be as much a pleasure to coach as it is for us to watch.

To turn this into more of a game report, I was rather worried going into this one. Phoenix often wins in the fourth quarter because with their superior conditioning from all that running, their opponents run out of gas. With us on a very quick turnaround back-to-back, I was not optimistic about the stamina of our legs. Turns out, we solved that problem by running them out of the arena in 3 quarters! Why didn't we think of this before?

Despite our (evidently habitual) turnover to start the game, our offense looked solid to start the game. Sue was racking up the assists, and we were pretty much having our way with the Phoenix zone to the point that I always wonder why we haven't been doing this all along...but then I remember some of the growing pains we've had in this system as a team. Times when we looked confused, and the game had no rhythm because our players seemed to be thinking too hard, versus playing. We've worked really hard to get to even this point, and fortunately, for as good as we looked, there are still areas to improve in. That makes me optimistic, because being the paranoid Storm fan that I am, I'm waiting for the rest of the League to hit their stride and knock us off ours. I'm comforted by comments by players and coaching staff that they aren't taking this stretch for granted, and they fully expect the competition to step up. It will be interesting to see how our Eastern Conference road trip turns out; is the competition really so much stiffer over there?

Anyway, offense was clicking, but even better was our effort on every possession. I don't know why Phoenix looked lackluster. There were certainly moments where they made us look silly. They seem to be integrating Dupree into their offense better. Taurasi still has unbelievable moves. Taylor still does the little things that matter. Bonner is smooth. Maybe they're all still learning their new roles in their scheme (since everyone moved down a position with the acquisition of Dupree)? I'm unsure...it can't just be our defense, can it?

Our offense stuttered for a couple of minutes when Sue sat for some extended time in the 2nd quarter, but we adjusted. We were a little lackluster until T found her offensive rhthym again, and suddenly we were up 25 and it was half time.

I mentioned it last game, but I'm really impressed with how every player is out there doing her utmost to contribute. Camille was fantastic. Swin is amazing. It's nice to see T regain her stride a little. Sue and LJ we're used to great things from, but to have such a great supporting cast around them. And a bench! I know that Agler was driven to sub early and often due to the game the previous night, but hopefully this gives him even more confidence. Svetlana and L'Coe are really giving us a lot out there. And Jana was a revelation. Hopefully we can build on all of that, and get Abby more time too. It's just really a shame that Lacey was sick. Our mission should be some more blowouts so that she can get playing time. I think that we need to nurture a young back-up point guard for the future, and there's no time like the present for that.

I didn't think that Taurasi's block of Svetlana in the 3rd was particularly dirty. I'm ok with the flagrant call as a deterent, because the head/neck area is vulnerable, as some have pointed out. But honestly, I think the flagrant was called because of a combination of fan reaction, and Taurasi acting like nothing happened (which helped spur the fan reaction). We played so well, the officiating was a non-factor, but there were some strange, strange calls out there tonight, and a couple times I heard comments like, "that was the stupidest call I've ever seem" from fans around me.

As the starters were subbing out towards the end of the 3rd, we were applauding them like they were leaving towards the end of a win. It was nice to have Sue hit that final 3 to lock up a double-double. 11 assists in 3 quarters! Swin apparently got her 1500th rebound, and Lauren her 400th assist.

I think the loudest the fans got all night was when Vesela made that alley-oop shot with 0.5 seconds to go at the end of the 3rd. It was solely her hustle that set that shot up. On the missed shot it looked like the Mercury would get the rebound as time ran out, but she was bothering their player, who dribbled on the base line. It was correctly before time ran out, but I figured it was so close they were going to let it go. It was rather amusing for the officials to have to herd everyone back off the court so that play could resume. And it was awesome to have them run that play they usually use for Lauren for Jana. 8) The crowd went crazy. Those are the moments where it's better to be there in person.

I actually don't have much to say about the 4th. There was some sloppy play by the bench, keeping us from reaching 100 points, and it's not particularly aesthetically pleasing to watch Tanisha run the point for such an extended period of time. I'm just saying. She had some good scoring, though. Abby got ignored wide open in the corner by T and Svetlana a little too much, which was a shame. Abby also seems to be the new player to be a foul magnet, and I found myself wondering what the motivation of the refs was to keep stopping a blow-out game on ticky-tack crap. Really? Was that necessary? 10 points in a quarter is nothing to write home about, and we were playing against the Mercury scrubs, so there's really no excuse. I'm sure the playing time will pay dividends in the future, though.

I want to point out that we're undefeated since I got back into Seattle for my vacation. You're welcome.

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