Over and Under the Weekend - Liberty lose Two

Some tequila… and leave the bottle…

Indiana 74, New York 63
San Antonio 70, New York 63

These are, like, the times that try men’s souls, and stuff...

This weekend probably makes the Liberty wish that they had picked up that game against the Sky a week ago. These two losses put us at 7-6, still above .500, but dropping our home record to 5-3 and putting us only a game above Chicago.

Say it ain’t so!

When the Libs only score 8 points in the first quarter, and are held to 22 in the first half, you can’t expect them to win a game. Indiana, despite some fluctuations in the second half, proved why they’re neck and neck with Detroit. They ran the ball, played solid defense, and utterly shut down the core of the Libs, limiting our starters to 36 points.

The rabbit comes out of the whole, circles the tree six or seven times…

Shay Doron, in her second start in as many games, only managed three points and zero assists. The Middle-Man only had a point and a rebound in 11 or so minutes of play, while Ashley Battle, only scored 2 (after having a field-day on Friday against the Stars). All of the reserves got out there, as Erin Thorn was out, hurt, and Christon was “sick”.

I am, too, Thor.

Lisa Willis (G) and Janel McCarville (C) picked up some slack (12 and 13 points, respectively), when they could, but as they didn’t start (and didn’t receive as much court-time as Kraayeveld and Battle), were limited and sputtering. The rest? Not so much. Check out the boxscore, but be warned…

It ain’t pretty…

Indiana opened the game 10-0 and never trailed, going into the half leading 44-22. Their starters were a machine for them, with Catchings (18), Whitmore (15), Sutton-Brown (11) and DeForge (10) scoring in the double-digits.

Freakish…

It really wasn’t a great game for anybody from New York. The Silver Stars continue their ascent of the Western ladder, while the Libs try their best to keep neck-and-neck with the Sky.

Be careful about stick out your neck TOO far…

GAME NOTES

• The Liberty began to find their groove in the second half (outscoring the Fever by 5), like every other game this season, but couldn’t did themselves out of that 22 points hole.
• Thorn is out for at least four weeks, though the team doctors are optimistic that she will be fully recovered by then.
• Patty seemed to be scrambling to come up with solutions at points.
• No one was truly impressive out there, sans Hammon.

As for San Antonio…

This is the best metaphor I could find.

Patty put some new blood out on the floor to start this game, with Lindsay Bowen and Shay Doron starting. This was the Hebrew Hammer’s first start of her professional career (let alone season), but she only stuck around to play 1:48 before making way for Moore and Willis.

…mumblemumblestupidcoachmumble…

And what did those two do with their combined thirty-five plus minutes? Willis got three points in 11+ minutes, with a single assist. And Moore? 0 points in about twenty five minutes, with a “juicy” four assists.

Stop sullying my name! I can do that myself!

Hammon scored 19 points, saying after the game “It was a little awkward coming out of the tunnel, which way to turn, right or left. Sitting on the other bench was a little different. It was nice to come back and a get a win. It was emotional at the same time. I just wanted to play basketball.''

Translation: Suck it, New York!

The rest of the Stars played well enough, picking up 37% of their shots from the field and keeping the ball out of the hands of the Libs, including their second-half comeback, outscoring the Liberty in that time by 16 points. Vickie Johnson (14 points, 6-10) and Camille Little (11 points, 6 rebounds) led the non-Hammonites of the Silver Stars. Our leading scorer? The non-starting Ashley Battle (17 points), while the starters were held to 37 points.

Thor was thunder-less with 8.

Now, it is possible that I am entirely misreading this situation. The Liberty COULD have played a very nice game against the Silver Stars, as shown by their competence in the first half (leading S.A. 37-28). However, when Hammon made two free-throws and the Stars went on an 8-1 run, leading by 6 with less than a minute left, that was it. People left in droves, and the Liberty resigned themselves to their fate.

Twenty lashes! And make ‘em good!

But the fact of the matter is that San Antonio out-rebounded, out-scored, out-drove, out-shot, and out-played the Liberty in every category of the game. The Liberty’s saving grace? They had a game on Sunday to make up for this awful-

Dammit! I had just gotten it out of my mind!

GAME NOTES

• Christon was nowhere near peak performance, although she could have been “sick”.
• The Libs shot a barely decent 38.5% from the field. Indiana? 37.1%.
• Average crowd of 8.6K+.
• Did not get to see “Sicko” after all (sold out). My buddy didn’t want to go see a WNBA game. Instead, we got loaded and played “Three-Man”. Not the best night of my life.

All in all, a horrible, horrible weekend. There’s enough blame to go around, really. The Liberty need to find their opponents weaknesses earlier, the bench needs to be consistent, and the starters need to regain their early-season form. It’s hard to say “play the bench” now, as ALMOST everybody…

Sniff sniff…

… got some playing time over the past two days. However, I will say that no one’s spot is safe after going 2-6 in our last eight. Davenport, despite my love for her, shouldn’t start “just cuz”. If McCarville is outplaying her, put Davenport on the pine to prove a point. We haven’t gone far enough in this season to play favorites yet. We need to work on it, especially during the next game, against…

Dammit!

We’re going to California with Ashley Battle, Barbara Farris, Cathrine Kraayeveld, yadda yadda yadda… and we need the win.

Tuesday.
ESPN2 (YEAH!)
10PM (D’OH!)

If you have (extended) cable, have fun! I’m going to be dreaming about gorillas stealing my alarm clock at that time. Full game preview tomorrow.

AROUND THE LEAGUE…

No games today. My picks over the weekend were interesting, however. The Shock won (no surprise), while I picked up on upsets on the Houston-Washington and L.A.-Sacramento games. Connecticut did beat Indiana, however, and the Lynx did knock out the stammering Storm…

POW!

Things are looking even worse for the Mercs. Taurasi was served a two-game suspension for “inappropriate conduct toward game officials” during Phoenix’s game against Detroit.

That’ll learn her!

ESPN has a nice article about some of the ineptly run components of the WNBA. Read it if you like a well-written and researched article (though not one that adequately quotes its sources), but stay away if you’re having a good morning and don’t want it to be tarnished.

Keke Palmer is going to be appearing at all 13 WNBA venues this summer, while also keeping up a blog. It just started, and it’s through the WNBA page, so there isn’t a lot of originality to it, but it promises to be a good look at the inner-workings of the WNBA from a semi-outsider perspective. I’m not a huge fan of Palmer’s music, although it IS a load better than a lot of the other garbage out there right now…

…case in point (oh man, TWG is going to kill me)…

Check it out when you get a chance. Liberty Belle will be up in the afternoon. Until then…

See ya, Space Cowboy…