Indiana Hog-Tie - Liberty Lose

Balls.

Indiana 79, New York 63

This was just a kick to the nut-sack (or the ovaries, depending upon your chromosomal make-up). Going into the All-Star break on a loss isn't the hottest way to work your way into the last part of the season, but at least we're over .500.

The playoffs just seem so far away...

The Liberty started off as they should have, putting the Fever in a 7-1 hole. But the Fever just kicked into high gear like they forgot that the light was green and zoomed past (22-6 for the rest of the quarter), leaving the Belles in the dust and never trailing again.

Anybody get the license number on that Truck?

The Libs actually did manage to hit their threes (over 40%), but also allowed the Fever to take just as many quality shots from the arc. Defense, while not awful, certainly wasn't up to the task, while the Fever continued their meteoric rise to the top of the Eastern Conference.

She's already getting sized for WNBA Championship ring.

The Fever were solid on defense and offense, but not so much that it was astonishing. Save for the first quarter (as is their strategy), they didn't overwhelm the Libs. Frankly, the major reason why we lost the game was the Liberty's refusal to play according to their ability and hand it over when they were in need.

Marx is not happy.

Only three over ten points, with Christon and McCarville (again) leading the way for the Libs (each with 13). Loree Moore had 12 points (decent, but also with a large clump of them and then spread out sparsely), while Thorn could only manage 8. Every rose has its Thorn, I guess...

I'll stop! I'll stop!

Now for the bad news. Dutch was on the floor for over 16 minutes and didn't register a point. Ashley Battle wasn't much better, being on the floor for almost 19 minutes and scoring just 4 (1 rebound and 1 assist, as well). Davenport briefly awoke from her slumber, scoring 6 points in a little under ten minutes, before fading quickly away.

Sleeping Beauty: Jessica Davenport's Unauthorized Biography.

By the end of the game, Indiana was putting in the scrubs and New York couldn't mount a decent game. It was back and forth through the whole second half, and by the end of the 40, it just seemed that the Libs wanted off the court.

Let's get the hell out of this stinkin' state.

That puts us at 10-9 for the season. 15 more games left. Let's try to work over the Shock and get home for a good-ol' fashioned ass-whupin'.

Brought to you by the friendly folks of... Ass-B-Kicked!

GAME NOTES

• Tamika Catchings: 9 points, 10 rebounds.
• Indiana only had one player out (Kasha Terry). Every other Fever player was on the court for at least four and a half minutes.
• Martina Weber: still on the bench.
• Decent crowd (for an Indiana game): over 7K
• A telling stat: Liberty points in the paint = 14. Fever's = 32.
• Five Days until our next game. In Detroit. At noon. Someone please sack the scheduler.

In truth, the game sucked, but at least we can go into the All-Star break with a very, very good shot at making the playoffs. We're not struggling uphill, here. We just have to fend off the Sky and make it to the end of August. Right, ladies?

:::muttermutter:::


AROUND THE LEAGUE...

Comets 87, Lynx 77
Shock 78, Sky 65
Sun 82, Monarchs 78

Well, seems like the Lynx can't handle the pressure of being the best of the worst, can they? Houston's on the rise, my friends. Be wary of the comet's tail.

The Shock beat the Sky. Ho-hum. Am I surprised?

Yeah. Sure.

Now, the Sun/Monarchs game was a battle that I would have liked to have seen. The Sun were down in the first, up at the half, and then squandered their lead into overtime. They managed to make a few decent shots and hold the Monarchs to the perimeter, however, and came out with a win. Chicago is now on the outside looking in and the Sun are finally able to take a long-deserved (All-Star) break. Of note: The Monarchs hit a paltry 14% from the arc. The Sun? A hideous 9.1%.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

No games today. Or tomorrow. Or until Tuesday (unless you count pointless media whorage, which will happen on Sunday).

The WNBA site has a slew of stuff for those of you who just can't get enough of meaningless games. Okay, okay... you get to see some famous gals float the ball around and the WNBA briefly rises above foreign cricket coverage on ESPN2.

I still don't like it.

Week in Review to come in the afternoon. Peace until then, you faithful few...

See ya, Space Cowboy...