Take Five - Liberty Win

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!

Liberty 78, Fever 67

And thusly, we're 5-0.

Take THAT, Haters!

Truly, a monumental win. Not only do the Libs catapult themselves into the stratosphere, but they do it against a team that, at points, looked exceptionally better.

...the harder they fall...

Indiana was truly great in the first quarter. And why? It dominated in their own end of the court. The Libs couldn't get a decent shot off, as the Fever seemed to be anywhere and everywhere that the Liberty tried to set. Indiana shows why it has the stingiest defense in the league. The Libs couldn't find any chinks in the wall.

I'd shoot him, but he's doing a damn good impression of the Fever.

The Libs, however, had one of their best quarters in their own end all season, stimying the Fever at all corners. Seriously, a vast improvement over the previous games. Saint Patty must've been feeding them brick and mortar. At the end of ten, however, the score is 14-9, Indiana.

We knew it wudn't gonna be easy. Time load up Ol' Betsy...

Then... something happens. I don't know what, exactly, but the Libs come out flying.

The X-Factor kicks in.

The Libs realize that everyone's giving them shit. They don't want to play their best game all season and lose. This is their home-court. THEY'RE the ones with an amazing starting line-up. THEY'RE the ones who live in the greatest city in the world. No one is gonna come into THEIR house and push them around. And thus, it begins...

And in the Second Quarter, God Spoke...

The Liberty go on a 26-12 roll, out-playing, out-shooting, and just plain making the Fever, one of the best teams in the league, look like a bunch of fifth graders.

Sister Ellen is very disappointed.

The half ends with the Libs up 37-26, scoring 28 points in the second quarter to the Fever's 12. The Fever are shocked like a peaceful protester at an RNC convention.

It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Indiana wasn't gonna just give up that easily. This isn't High School. There's still some voodoo left in the Fever...

Play the right music, and they're back from the dead!

And thus, they come out trashin'. The 3rd is all Indiana, back and forth, the Liberty defense collapsing like the French Front in 1940. Thor is hurt by a blatant foul from Catchings. She's down for a good two minutes, but then gets up. She returns to the game in the 4th.

When one calleth down the Lightning, prepare for the Thunder

The Writer's Girlfriend pipes up, "This sucks. We're gonna lose it." TWG, however, is unaware of the strength of the Dutch resistance. Orange flows through the blood of Kraayeveld, and, after playing sub-par for the first 24 minutes of the game, opens up.

Straight from the House of Oranje-Nassau

Two-pointer from the field. Three-points from way back. Rebound in her own end. All the way back. BAM! Two-points again.

Time-out! Time-Out!

Brian Winters (Fever Head Coach) calls a desperate time-out. The Writer's Girlfriend think's there's plenty of game left to play, but the Writer knows better. You can't have momentum ruined like that and come back. The Fever have been beaten like a rented mule, and they know it. A few minutes of jobbing at the end of the 4th, and that's it.

Fin.

Kraayeveld, Moore, and Battle...

Henceforth known as the Three Stooges

... each chip in 15 points. Davenport and Thorn had 12 and 10, respectively, and at one point, all the Libs on the court had double-digit points.

I sense a great disturbance in the force...

Best player of the game? Easily Moore. While Battle had seven rebounds (six on defense) and kept the defense together, it was Moore who had the best all-around game. Five rebounds, four steals, and 3-for-3 from behind the three-point line... it all adds up to a great game. Good job, Michael Mo... I mean, Loree Moore.

Davenport and Kraayeveld were both instrumental in keeping the team together in the second-half. Both are sick (in a good way). Tamika Catchings, by the way, had 21 points. There's a reason she's got that nickname back home...

"Bad News"

GAME NOTES

• Thorn, while cooling down a bit in terms of points, had a spectacular game. On defense, she seemed all over the place, while dishing out five assists.
• Davenport continues to blossom. In a couple of years, she's going to be a wrecking ball.
• Smallish crowd (just over 7.2k tickets sold) but still rockin'. I can't even imagine the place with double that number.
• Liberty shoot a season-high 62 percent from the field. Indiana? Only 42. THAT'S how you win ball-games.
• Once the Liberty went up, they never relinquished the lead. Killer.
• Are the Liberty the comeback-kids or what?!
• First unbeaten-all match-up this late in WNBA history.
• Next one? Friday. MSG. Detroit.

This league ain't big enough for the two of us.


Once more unto the breach...

AROUND THE LEAGUE...

Lynx 90, Mercury 85
(My pick: Mercury)

Monarchs 74, Silver Stars 57

(My pick: Silver Stars)

It was bound to happen. A team can't lose every game, and the Lynx finally pulled it together against a Phoenix team that is finding itself in a bit of a free-fall.

How long is this gonna last?

As for other game, I wasn't too surprised by that win. Still, I figured that the Silver Stars would've been able to fend off the Monarchs. Guess that's why I'm still learning.

Standings for the year so far.

I'm not going to be putting the standings up on the site proper. I'd thought about it at the start, but didn't for a few reasons. A, they're easily found on other websites. Two, at the beginning of the season, they don't mean much. And D, they take up a lot of room for something that isn't the easiest thing to convert into Blogger.com-friendly HTML.

TODAY'S GAME

Comets at Fever

Toughie, once again. The Fever, while on any-given day one of the top teams in the league, just played and lost, and the Comets have had some rest and are looking to salvage their season. I'm going to go for the Comets, hoping that they can pull it together and pick up a win against a stunned opponent. Comets by 6.

Performance piece up in a few. Until then...

See ya, Space Cowboy...

EDIT: At 1:48, I added the scores that I had left blank from the other games around the league. I foolishly put the teams up but forgot to put the final point totals up.