15/2009 - Dream 91, Lynx 77: "Cheer Up Sleepy Jean"

"Hey. I won't let them beat you up."

The Dream manages gets an important road win, and they'll need that momentum as they head into Indianapolis tomorrow night to take on the Indiana Fever, winners of 11-straight. If you've got a lucky cabbit's foot, time to rub it, cause we're gonna need it.

Let's take a look at Dean Oliver's Four Factors:

Shooting percentage: The Atlanta Dream hit 53.1 percent of their shots, and that number is the end point of a decline. Atlanta started out shooting almost 70 percent and that shooting boost put them over the top against the Lynx, who only shot 35.6 percent.

I've written about how a team that has good 3-point percentage can overwhelm a better shooting team. However, the Dream was 7-for-9 at 3-point shooting, and the Lynx were 5-for-24. Nineteen missed opportunities, some of which were undoubtedly converted into Dream rebounds and later scores.

Offensive rebounds: Rebounds were generally equal, but in offensive rebounds the Lynx had a 12-5 advantage. In general, the Dream were kept away from the offensive boards, with Iziane Castro Marques - a guard - leading the ream in offensive rebounds. Charde Houston and Nicky Anosike had enough to match the Dream's offensive rebound total by themselves.

Turnovers: Even.

Free throw visits: The Lynx went to the line 25 times and the Dream 18 - however, the Dream shot 90 percent and the Lynx shot 80 percent. The Lynx could only take a four-point advantage away from the free throw line.

Now, we look at the Minnesota Lynx:

Nicky Anosike: 22 points, 5 rebounds. Oddly enough, she was rebounding under her average of 6.9 rpg. She had 4 personal fouls and 3 turnovers.
Charde Houston: 15 points and 12 rebounds for the game's only double-double. 4 assists to boot.
Roneeka Hodges: 12 points, but 1-for-7 shooting from the 3-point line.
Candice Wiggins: 7 points, with 2-for-10 shooting.
Renee Montgomery: 8 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists. And in just 24 minutes of play. She'll be good for the Lynx.

And now let's look at the Dream. As you can tell from the poll that's up, some don't care much for the post-mortem awards. So I'm going to take the sting out of it by referring to everyone under assumed names. See if you can guess which was which...and can you identify where the aliases come from?

The Knick: The Knick had an extremely good game with 28 points and 7 rebounds. She started out hot and stayed there. As a matter of fact, The Knick is not only the Dreamer of the Game, but this was the second best performance from an Atlanta Dream player all year, falling short of McCoughtry's amazing game against the Sky where Angel scored 26 points and 8 assists. The Knick will end up in the Hall of Fame, and games like this are the reason why.

Sacred One: Sacred One had 9 points and 10 rebounds, almost picking up the second double-double. Add three steals to that, and the hope is that even if Sacred One can't make the All-Star starting roster, she can at least make the reserves.

Estrela: Whenever our shining star has a good game, it usually means bad news for the Dream, but Estrela picked up 20 points with atypically good shooting. She hit 4 out of 5 3-pointers and finally provided some power behind the arc.

Homecoming Queen: It's great if your point guard can get assists. It's even better if your point guard can score and get assists. Homecoming Queen managed to get that done with 11 points. Not exactly a homecoming if it takes place in Minnesota, but it will do.

Preacher's Kid: The preacher's kid is always the one getting into trouble, and we wonder when she's going to get out of Marynell's doghouse. The PK had 12 points with 5-for-7 shooting, providing a lot of value for just 12 minutes played.

Above the Rim: 6 points and 4 rebounds, but a -9 plus/minus. However, she kept her personal fouls down to two.

The Beast: Not nearly as scary as she usually is. 3 points and 5 rebounds, but a +23 plus/minus.

Spin Move: Only took one shot - and missed it - but she had 5 assists.

Babadep: In the last five games, four of them have been subpar. This was one of them. Only played six minutes, while Shalalal scored an identical two points.

West Coast: Took three shots. Missed all of them. Bizarre defense played in the second and third quarters. Also picked up a couple of personal fouls. Sorry, West Coast, but you've got to take the Still Snoozin' award. That's okay. You'll need your sleep for Indiana.

15/2009 - Dream 91, Lynx 77

With the "largest crowd anticipated" of the year according to Tom Hanneman of FSN Sports - the crowd didn't look that big to me, seriously, until the campers got back from the concession stands - the Dream faced off against the Lynx, managed to stare its demons in the face in the fourth quarter, and not only win but win by 14 points. The Dream faced a gut check and for once they weren't sent scurrying to the port-a-potty with a bottle of Kaopectate.

Hanneman and his broadcast partner Lea B. Olsen did a fairly nice job. One problem was that Hanneman kept calling Castro Marques "Castro Mar-QUEES". It took one year for the league to explain how to properly pronounce Erika de Souza's name; is this now the prefered pronunciation of Izi's name? Does Izi's last name rhyme with "says" or "cheese"?

Coco Miller was announced as the starter, but before the game Marynell Meadors made a switch. Shalee Lehning would get her very first start as a point guard for the Dream. Was she a Sue Bird level point guard? No, but she had had some good games and it would be good to see how she did as a WNBA starter.

The starters for Atlanta would be Holdsclaw, Lyttle, de Souza, Lehning and Castro Marques. Minnesota, missing Seimone Augustus, would answer with Hodges, Houston, Anosike, Wiggins and Kelly Miller, Coco's twin sister.

If there's such a thing as "intangibles", then Shalee must have brought them in spades. The Dream skyrocketed to a 16-7 lead, with a 13-2 run behind them at one point of the game. It was Chamique Holdsclaw that had a hot hand of shooting, scoring at least 12 first-quarter points. Not only could Holdsclaw make impossible shots but she could pass bullets, including an NBA-level bullet where she found Sancho Lyttle downcourt, who passed it back to Holdsclaw as she crossed the dividing line, who hit the shot.

At one point, the Dream were shooting 69 percent, blazing hot. The Dream were 9-0 on fast break points alone in the first quarter.

Meadors brought Ivory Latta in to play point in the first, and she showed that she had finally managed to kick the rust off after the enforced layoff. The Dream had left Latta in a situation where there would be no pressure to produce immediately. She scored a bucket and the Dream led 27-18 after the first quarter.

Coco Miller came out to join her sister Kelly in the second quarter, and both traded baskets to start the quarter. Michelle Snow looked good - at least in the beginning - and was making one handed shots and generally terrorizing the Lynx. The Dream had 24 points in the paint to Minnesota's 12, and led the Lynx 11-2 on fast break points, building up a 39-25 lead - their biggest of the game - following an Ivory Latta fast break.

(* * *)

Random Thoughts:

1) They are still playing that "every-BODY-clap-YOUR HANDS" song at the WNBA arenas, and the Lynx is no exception. More on this phenomenon later.

2) This is the first time I've ever heard a Green Day song played at a WNBA arena. The song? "Brain Stew". It might betray my taste in music, but this might be the coolest song ever played during a WNBA game.

(* * *)

The Dream felt it safe to bring in Jennifer Lacy, and something immediately changed. The Lynx answered right back with a 12-4 run of their own. The Lynx were starting to feel comfortable with the 3-pointer, hitting 4 out of 10 of their attempts at that point. Angel McCoughtry came in and got a 3-pointer of her own, but that didn't stop the run.

The only joy of the run was watching Alex Chambers, of 13 Teams, 1 Journey, who is visiting every WNBA team in the league. It was his turn to come to Minneapolis, and Hanneman and Olsen chatted with him for a while. There was no comment on what was going on on the court, which must have annoyed Lynx fans but which made things much easier for me to bear.

At one point, the Lynx scored on eight straight possessions, closing the gap to 45-41. They brought Lehning back in, but she turned her ankle and that was the end of her for the half. The Lynx scored on 11 of their last 14 possessions.

How bad did it get? With the Dream up 49-45, Candice Wiggins - who hadn't done much of anything all game - made a last burst of energy for a final fast break as time expired. Angel ended up fouling her, Wiggins hit both free throws, and all the Dream got out of it was an extra foul on McCoughtry. Atlanta, which led by 14 points, now hung on to a two point lead at halftime, 49-47.

Atlanta was still shooting hot, at 62 percent going into halftime. The Lynx, however, were shooting 47 percent and were keeping up on rebounds. Claw had 13 points, but so did Charde Houston of the Lynx. We scored 32 points in the paint, but the Lynx could shoot the three. Only the fact that the Lynx had turned the ball over 10 times in the first half saved our lead.

(* * *)

Random Thoughts:

3) We finally got a chance to see the Lynx's camp day crowd, consisting mostly of little girls from basketball camp. They filled the arena out nicely.

4) Renee Montgomery was interviewed by FSN before the game, and they showed the interview at halftime. Apparently, Beyonce Knowles is going to be performing in Minneapolis, and the Lynx bumped into her at a restaurant or something. Beyonce gave out some tix and Montgomery got one of them, claiming that she "might give it away on Twitter". I'm sure there were a lot of Minneapolitans anxiously loading and reloading Twitter, hoping for a ticket pick-up.

5) The halftime show for the Lynx - the brief part I saw of it, anyway - was a martial arts display. I generally find martial arts halftime shows pretty dull. It's hard to make chopping a board in half interesting, but the kids in the crowd enjoyed it. The camera panned to three hyper young boys who had been temporarily possessed by the spirits of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Chuck Norris.

(* * *)

This took us to the third quarter. The same starters would come out for the second half with the exception of Lehning, now replaced by Ivory Latta. Izi started the second half with a 3-pointer and the Lynx missed their first eight shots. It was now Atlanta's turn to run and the 10-2 run started a getaway - Izi hit another three and Latta added one of her own - to put the Dream up 64-51 with 5:29 left in the third. For a few moments there, I thought this was were the Lynx were going to go to the map and stay there. Even when Sancho Lyttle picked up a foul, she was pumping her fist, and going "Woooo!" like she had the Holy Ghost.

If there was a WNBA basketball goddess, however, she changed the channel and the Dream's prayers to end this game in the third went unanswered. Minnesota found the basket and despite the fact that we were still shooting over 60 percent, the Lynx began chopping away at the lead. Meadors throw McCoughtry out there to stop the bleeding, but that didn't help. Lacy just looked awful and a 9-0 run cut the lead to 64-40.

With about 1:27 left, Lehning came back in. Anosike crossed the 20 point line, with 11 of Anosike's points coming in the third quarter. A pair of free throws by Renee Montgomery closed the lead to two points, 66-64, but Holdsclaw hit a 3-pointer - her 20th point of the game - and Angel hit a basket with four seconds left to send us to the fourth with a seven-point lead.

(* * *)

Random Thoughts

6) In the beginning of the fourth quarter, Michelle Snow was compared to Kevin Garnett by the FSN announcers, at least in terms of having a long, lanky appearance and not necessarily in terms of being able to dominate a game.

7) The arena started that stupid "CLAP-YOUR-HANDS" song. I know why they play it; it's a friggin meme, a brain worm. It started playing, and I started clapping along...until, to my horror, I realized that I would be clapping for Minnesota! AGGGGHH!!

(* * *)

Atlanta was starting to dip below 60 percent in shooting as the fourth quarter started slowly. It was clear that the Lynx were going to be a bit more methodical, and it was working. Montgomery stole the ball from Lehning, and then Lehning fouled her, compounding the mistake. Charde Houston got a steal from Iziane Castro Marques, but couldn't make the shot.

However, Houston was hitting her free throws and Anosike - who had been phenomenal; she should have started as center for the West in the All-Star Game - was hitting as well. Houston scored a bucket, and with 6:21 left in the game the Atlanta lead had been cut down to one point again, 73-72.

By this time, I was almost nuts and cursing up a storm. I thought I had reached the end of my patience. We were going to lose a second straight game in the fourth quarter after establishing a commanding lead. I cursed the basketball gods, Players X, Y, and Z, coach Meadors, the Atlanta Dream front office and fate itself for making me fall in love with the Atlanta Dream. I even cursed tape delay - if the game wasn't on tape, I couldn't stop it and watch moments over and over, which would force the game to go by at the speed of real time and therefore faster.

And who should step up to the plate but...Iziane Castro Marques? Streaky Izi. She hit a 3-pointer and then followed that with another bucket, and suddenly we led 78-72 with 5:04 remaining. Ivory Latta came in. "YMCA" started playing on the overhead, but even the Minnesota crowd of screaming, enthusiastic Lynx-loving little girls couldn't stop the Dream.

Holdsclaw hit a couple of free throws and it was an 84-74 game again. With 1:21 left, Candice Wiggins made a 3-pointer to close it to 84-77. It was Wiggin's seventh point of the night - had she woken up?

Wiggins followed with a foul of Izi. Izi calmly sank both attempts to score her 19th and 20th points of the night. We were up 86-77 - three possessions - with 1:00 remaining. With the next possession, Candace Wiggins tried to follow up with another 3-pointer....

...which missed. Holdsclaw got the rebound with 52 seconds left, and the Lynx realized that if they were going to have any chance to win, they'd have to send Atlanta to the line and pray for misses.

But Minnesota never hit another shot for the rest of the night. The Dream hit three of its next four free throws. When Montgomery threw a pass into Lyttle's hands, she made the layup that put us up 91-77 with 26 seconds left. Montgomery would try a 3-pointer, which would not go in. Erika got the ball, dribbled down the rest of the clock, and the Dream turned a 2-point lead into a 14-point victory.

Very nice win. Our next game will be against Indiana in Indinapolis on Friday. I'll write more about this game later, but let's put an end to Indiana's 11-game winning streak on their home court. We have everything to gain, and they have everything to lose.

Dream Gets Road Win Against Lynx on Wednesday

The Lynx would see a lot of this.

After a nail-biting fourth quarter where the Lynx cut our lead down to two points, the Dream finished the job, winning 91-77 on the road. An interesting piece of Trivia is that in the four times we've played the Lynx since the Dream have existed, we are 2-0 in Minneapolis and the Lynx are 2-0 in Atlanta. Neither team has won a game at home against the other.

Nomaan Merchant's article from USA Today is here.
Jeffrey Williams's article for SPMSportspage.com is here.

A gallery of images can be found here.

It's going to be a busy day at work and I have a dentist's appointment. Hopefully, a writeup is coming soon.

Aggravation

I'm watching the replay after avoiding anyone or anything that would tell me the final score of the Dream-Lynx game.

It's 6:14 left and the Lynx have closed it to one point, 73-72 Dream.

If the Dream lose...well, keep me away from children and the helpless, that's all I'm saying.

UPDATE: Atlanta is now safe. You can unlock the doors.

The Five Rules for League Survival

In 1981, William "Bill" Haarlow, retired vice president of AT&T, proposed to restructure the then-still-surviving Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL). In 1981, the league was in trouble and he proposed to become the new commissioner of the WBL. In his proposal, he stated five rules which he thought the WBL had failed to follow - rules which impeded its chances for survival.

The rules are all direct quotes from Haarlow and come from "Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League".

1. A commitment to strong centralized league leadership is required. League leaders must not be intimidated from bold action. There must be a clearly defined #1 executive or executive committee who has power and room to maneuver and the leadership must provide realistic and continual reappraisal of long term growth objectives and strategy.

2. Markets must be selected based on potential. There must be a determination of the criteria that is most likely to influence the league's appeal and the economics of a franchise, i. e. size and growth of market, degree of saturation by other sports, target audience, operating cost, and previous experience with an attitude toward other leagues or teams. The league must avoid expanding into new markets at the expense of the talent pool.

3. There must be a commitment of balanced ownership resources. The league must balance the urgency to close a franchise sale against the commitment by new owners of capital to team and market development. Women's basketball has to confront building primary demand which is a costly marketing proposition that requires knowledgeable and well-funded programs. There should be a five-year building plan and owners with the same perspective and building power should be attracted.

4. The league must build and sustain the support as a dynamic entertainment medium. There must be an evaluation of alternative formats and rules to make the sport appealing to the widest range of potential patrons and viewers. For a new sport, the live experience is critical to building viewership for ultimate video revenue.

5. Non-gate sources of revenue should be built. A commitment must be made to professional league headquarters marketing services, video strategy and negotiation, licensing and advertiser-sponsor development. This function must be undertaken gradually as the sport develops and grows.


His proposal to become commissioner was rejected. Marhsall Geller, the owner of the San Francisco Pioneers, thought that a new commissioner was a cosmetic solution to a league whose very survival was almost day-to-day. Geller might have been right. In September 1981, Dallas Diamonds president Dave Almstead made the public statement that the league was finished. The league still had some life in it, but he was essentially right - the 1980-81 season was the final season of the WBL.

However, Haarlow's rules were not bad rules. Has the WNBA managed to avoid the pitfalls identified by Haarlow? Let's look at the reign of WNBA president Donna Orender in particular. Orender became WNBA president in 2005.

Is Orender a strong president with freedom to move around? I believe that the answer is "yes". If there are owner/president clashes, I've not heard of them so far. (With one exception, stated later.) Granted, the open secret of the WNBA is that NBA Commissioner David Stern provides finanical support, and one would assume, guidance. However, Orender and Stern appear to be on the same page. No one has accused David Stern of being hemmed in by owners who are too independent and contentious, and the problem doesn't seem to exist in the WNBA.

How have markets been assigned? In only two instances in Orender's career has she been in charge of opening up new territory for the WNBA: the Chicago Sky in 2006 and the Atlanta Dream in 2008.

Chicago was the third-largest media market in the United States and the largest American inland market. Chicago, however, had a slight problem with saturation from other sports. The Cubs, White Sox, Bears and Bulls were all big in Chicago, and it would be hard for a WNBA franchise to draw attention away from "big name" sports. However, Chicago had hosted an American Basketball League franchise - the Condors - which appeared to be fairly solvent in the brief number of games it played in the 1998-99 season. Clearly, there was some interest in women's college basketball in Chicago.

As for Atlanta, Atlanta was a major cable programming center and was the 7th (or 8th) largest media market in the United States. Atlanta, too, once had an ABL franchise - the Atlanta Glory - but that franchise folded at the end of the 1997-98 season. The University of Georgia had a great women's basketball team, but even that team was smothered by the popularity of University of Georgia men's sports - even successful pro teams like the Atlanta Braves had trouble filling seats sometimes, but never the Bulldogs. One person stated that Georgia sports was "(Bulldogs) football, spring football, football recruiting, and the Gymdogs". (The U of G gymnastics team.) In terms of professional sports, however, loyalties to pro teams were much weaker in Atlanta than they were in Chicago.

Looking at either city, one could hardly claim that Orender has chosen poor locations for the expansion of the WNBA. Over-expansion has not been an issue, with the size of the league staying between 13 and 14 teams during her term.

In terms of ownership, there have been several changes including the Storm, Sparks, and Comets. If any mistakes were made in Orender's management of the WNBA, granting Hilton Koch the ownership of the Houston Comets would have to be the most prominent. Koch was already claiming finanical problems in his first year, and my understanding is that Koch and the league clashed over financing. His tenure proved to be such a financial disaster that the Comets were forced to fold. Koch's tenure was the last major ownership change in the WNBA - William Davidson of the Shock passed away but his family now own the franchise - and time will tell if Orender can not only find owners, but find owners with both the money and the patience to build a league and make the five-year investment mentioned by Haarlow.

In terms of the live experience, clearly, the league has done the best that it can. Arenas are professional and clean, and there are lots of in-game entertainments, activities and diversions. As for rule changes that might make the game more exciting, the WNBA is loathe to experiment. Rules, such as say, forbidding the coach to stop game action with a timeout (in international play, timeouts must be reported to the scorers table and only come into effect with a stoppage of play), have simply not been considered.

Why the WNBA has not experimented with rule changes that might make the game more exciting is uncertain. It could be that the WNBA is already wary enough from the bashing of the sports media, some of whom act more like sexist louts than the Gatekeepers of the Fourth Estate. Significant rules changes might inadvertantly support the argument from ignorance that the WNBA is not "real basketball". Furthermore, fans might want the WNBA to mirror the NBA's rules or international rules as clearly as possible - even thought this might adversely affect the quality of the game - in the belief that adherence to conventional rules give the WNBA gravitas.

As for sponsorship and alternative forms of revenue, the WNBA has made galloping strides in 2009 - partly out of necessity. In order to find a source of revenue, the WNBA has sold the naming rights to jerseys in Phoenix and Los Angeles, and a third team might follow. The WNBA has embraced social media and now broadcasts over 95 percent of their games on the internet. Increased web hits correlate with the potential of attracting advertisers.

My conclusion is that if one is looking at Haarlow's guidelines, one can argue that President Orender and the WNBA are doing things right. If the WNBA falters like the WBL faltered, it will not be because of poor management.

Bennies

In the 2008 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the WNBA and the WNBA Players Associated, the players get the following benefits:

a) The player gets free housing. The housing is either provided by the team, or they get the average cost of a furnished one-bedroom apartment in the market where the team plays. This is a cost of approximately $1700/month in Atlanta. If you want better digs, you pay more.

b) During training camp, you have the option of a hotel room: two players per room option only.

c) If you're on the road, the hotel accomodations are "first class" (whatever that means).

If you have five years service, you get your own room. Else, you have to share a room with someone else.

d) If you get traded, the club will reasonably reimburse you for the cost of moving your junk to the new club. You also get one coach airline ticket to get there. $1000 will be alloted for moving your car.

By the way: All air travel while you're in the WNBA that's paid for by the club will be coach.

If you get waived/terminated, you get one coach airline ticket back home, wherever you call home. Moving your crap is your own problem.

Exception: If you live less than 200 miles from your club...no plane ticket.

e) The basic "per day" meal expense while on the road is $67/day. There are partial allowances when you are spending half-days in a city.

f) You get two free tickets for all home and all away games.

That's pretty much it.

None Dare Call It Conspiracy? Diana Taurasi and the All-Star Vote

A bunch of stat-heads have been tossing the ball around regarding Diana Taurasi's jump from front-runner to third place within one week of All-Star voting. (I believe the time frame between the first round of voting and the final round was one wek.)

My first impulse was that the shift in voting was clearly a conspiracy of the WNBA to make sure that Taurasi wasn't voted a starter. Taurasi, as probably everyone knows by now, was arrested for drunk driving and was found to have a 0.17 blood alcohol level. The conspiracy-theory concludes that the W didn't want Taurasi as their headliner on one of the occasions where the media would turn its brief attention to the WNBA.

However, is this really true or not? Can numbers tell us anything about whether such a change is possible?

In the first round of voting, Taurasi was leading all of the Western guards with 21.6 percent of the vote. Suppose we wanted to find, say, the 95 percent confidence interval of Taurasi's true percentage of votes. According to simple stats,
we should be 95 percent confident that Taurasi's true percentage should be between 20.3 percent and 22.9 percent.

By that time, there had been around 150,000 votes cast. 150,000 votes is a good sample size. If you have 150,000 votes in, that sample size is good enough to determine the probabilities to about 1 or 2 percent or so. Taurasi was clearly in the lead, with Sue Bird far behind at 14.4 percent.

But at the end of the voting, 600,000 votes were cast and Taurasi's 21.6 percent among guards had plummeted to 12.3 percent. Even if we were outside of the 95 percent confidence interval, Taurasi's true percentage shouldn't have been that far off. What the hell happened?

Conspiracy! Clearly, the WNBA simply fudged the vote count.

Or did it? The problem with the first sample - the sample with 150,000 votes - is that is might not have been a random sample. If the sample was biased, we have to rethink the results. Concluding that Taurasi's true percentage was 21.6 percent might be akin to concluding that John McCain's true percentage in the 2008 presidential election was 55.6 percent...simply from counting Texas's votes.

The first returns of the ballots were on July 2nd. Let's look at WNBA schedules since then:

Home Games Played Before and After July 2, 2009

Phoenix: 7/1
Seattle: 3/3
San Antonio: 4/2

We notice that Phoenix's game schedule before July 2nd is top heavy with home games. Let's make an assumption for which we have no proof - namely, that voting is heavier at the arena than it is on line. If this is true, Phoenix players had an advantage at the first round that couldn't be seen in the totals. Phoenix fans inadvertantly stuffed the ballot box for their favorite players.

However, Phoenix would have only one home game between the first round results and the final results. Seattle would have three home games and San Antonio would have two. In short, Seattle and San Antonio had opportunities to catch up with arena-based fan voting that Phoenix just couldn't match.

If this hypothesis is true, it should affect Phoenix players all across the board and not just Taurasi.

Phoenix Player Percentages Before and After First Round

Taurasi: 21.6/12.3
T. Johnson: 11.6/10.2
Pondexter: 17.8/11.7
Bonner: 11.4/7.1
T. Smith: 21.9/12.6

The numbers hint at about a 6 percent (or more) drop at every single position except for Temeka Johnson. This doesn't prove the hypothesis, but it grants it some support.

Now look at Seattle:

Seattle Player Percentages Before and After First Round:

Bird: 14.4/14.5
Wright: 2.6/2.9
Jackson: 12.1/14.7
Cash: 11.4/13.0
Burse: 8.6/15.9

In every case for Seattle (except for Janell Burse) the percentage of votes remained pretty much the same between rounds. The Storm had three home games before the end of the first round, and three home games after it. It leads further credence to the hypothesis that first round voting percentages for a particular player and number of home games played by the player's team have a strong correlation.

I think I'm convinced. The only conspiracy was in the schedule that gave Phoenix only one home game between the end of the first round and the final All-Star vote. In short, there was no conspiracy.

Of course, you can still ask, "Why did Taurasi's numbers drop the most?" It could be one of two reasons: either the kind of voters who vote from arenas (as opposed to on-line) don't like Taurasi as much as Phoenix fans like her, or that there was simply an additional drop off caused by the notoriety of Taurasi's DUI arrest. Combine those two untested hypotheses with the illustrations above, and the "mystery" solves itself.

Starters for 2009 All-Star Game Named

The starters for the 2009 All-Star Game have been named. The winners:

Eastern Conference:

G: Katie Douglas and Alana Beard. Beard has dropped a little since I considered her an All-Star starter; I don't know if I'd still make her one. She was, however, good when the voting was taking place. Katie Douglas? I can deal with that decision.

F: Candice Dupree and Tamika Catchings. No problems with the vote.

C: Sylvia Fowles. You could always let Erika de Souza start in her place, but I think that Big Syl might be healed up before the festivities start.

Western Conference

G: Sue Bird and Becky Hammon: Bird, OK. Hammon? Either it was the Hammonites flooding the ballot box or Diana Taurasi was deliberately screwed by the WNBA. I call shenanigans.

F: Lauren Jackson and Swin Cash: Jackson, definitely. Cash? I don't know which is the bigger goofy choice, Cash or Hammon. Both great players, but not deserving of All-Star starts in 2009.

C: Lisa Leslie: Sentimental vote entirely. Not deserving of the honor, though. Maybe people voted for her because she was the only player they had heard of.

Oh well. The really interesting announcement will be the reserves. I'd like to see both Lyttle and de Souza named as reserves; I'll settle for one of them.

Diana Taurasi to Face Three Counts of Something

From this link: looks like Diana Taurasi's blood alcohol level was 0.17. And this was blood drawn, and not the breathalyzer. The trial date is July 22nd.

The worst place to get pulled over for DUI is in Phoenix, due to the psychotic sheriff there. This is going to be interesting.

(Note: the title of the article is "Taurasi Faces Extreme DUI Charge". Sponsored by Mountain Dew. "To the EXTREME!")

Putting Together a Winning Team: Offense vs. Defense

Marynell Meadors has become the focal point of criticism for many Atlanta Dream fans. This is understandable. The team almost set a record for futility last year with a 4-30 finish and fans are impatient for the team to get to the playoffs after the acquisition of Chamique Holdsclaw and after seeing the solid post play of Erika de Souza and Sancho Lyttle. However, this begs the question: could the fans honestly have done much better?

The fact is that the team had to be put together from the castoffs of other WNBA franchises. Furthermore, the Dream was not granted an advantageous draft position, denying them the chance of acquiring a Candace Parker-like game-changer. This left us with players who were either never very good to begin with, or those who through physical (or mental) infirmity were found wanting by other teams. (The proof of the postulate: almost the entire team was sent packing in the 2008-09 offseason.)

Putting together a team requires having an answer to the question of how a team should be put together. One can almost think of it as a question on a bar exam:

"Given: You are hired by an owner to be the coach of his expansion league WNBA franchise. Please state, in detail, the principles you would apply to building this team to a championship caliber club within the next five years."

This exam is strictly pass-fail based on one question, because your job depends on it. What is your "franchise philosophy?" so to speak? If you had to explain what the Atlanta Dream was "about" in 20 words or less what would it be? Some examples:

Detroit Shock: "Mental toughness. Veterans." (at least when Bill Laimbeer was coach)
Phoenix Mercury: "Run and gun. Fast players. Good shooters."
Los Angeles Sparks: "Tough post play."
Minnesota Lynx: "Youth development."
San Antonio Silver Stars: "Good character players. No Milos."

A team's philosophy of play - its Bible, if you would - should also answer one of the most common questions asked of any coach: "offense or defense?" Fire, or water?

In football, the pat answer is "defense wins championships", but there's no pat answer to this question in basketball because each club has roughly the same number of possessions. The problem facing any coach is that he or she must play an equal number of possessions as an offensive and as a defensive squad.

Oddly enough, the "offense or defense" dilemma merges with another question, "everything or one thing". Do you want to be the kind of team that does all things well (to a limited degree) or do you want to have a reputation for doing one particular thing well? I'm sure that most fans would jump up and say "my dream team should do everything well". The problem is that in real life, this can't happen - it's hard to find even a single player who does everything well. If I were building a team, I would probably stress doing one thing well, at least in the beginning.

In my opinion, one must lean towards either offense or defense, one or the other. My decision would be to go with offense. Why? My goal would be for my team to win a WNBA championship. I would look at past WNBA champions, and see what made those teams champions: offense, or defense. The stats below come from the offensive and defensive rankings assigned to a team by basketball-reference.com.

Rating of Offensive and Defensive League Rank
WNBA Champions

1997 Houston Comets: 1st/3rd
1998 Houston Comets: 1st/1st
1999 Houston Comets: 1st/1st
2000 Houston Comets: 1st/1st
2001 Los Angeles Sparks: 1st/6th
2002 Los Angeles Sparks: 2nd/2nd
2003 Detroit Shock: 4th/3rd
2004 Seattle Storm: 1st/3rd
2005 Sacramento Monarchs: 6th/1st
2006 Detroit Shock: 7th/2nd
2007 Phoenix Mercury: 1st/12th
2008 Detroit Shock: 3rd/5th

Most of the time, a championship team is ranked higher offensively than defensively. The goal in basketball, like any other sport, is to score more points than one's opponent. Do you want to do something yourself, or hope that you can keep someone else from doing it? The first is easier to control than the second.

There have only been three teams that ranked higher in defense than in offense, and only in 2005 and 2006 was the defense of the eventual WNBA champion significantly better than the offense. In 2007, the Mercury had a porous defense, but won the championship under Paul Westhead, a man dedicated to running up 140-point scores and simply tiring the opposing defense into a coma. More than half of the championship teams had the best offense in the league; only a third had the best defense.

Defensive evaluation in basketball is difficult to measure statistically. Let's look at a situation where Player A on offense faces Player B on defense. Assume that Player B's "true defensive rating" is high - we might not have any metrics that accurately tell us how good B is, but we'll say that B is a very good defender. B might not be able to steal the ball from A or block A's shot, or break up the play with a touch, but B has the potential to do all of those things, and A knows it. A might decide to take a worse shot that she usually might take or decide that the balance between A and B is poor and pass the ball off to a weaker offensive scorer. The weak scorer misses the ball - a shot that might have been made by A if A were matched up against a weaker defender. B gets no defensive credit for the play, or at least nothing that goes in the line of the box score.

We're getting there, however. There was an article about how a particular player in the NBA - I can't remember who - forced Kobe into making shots from parts of the court where Kobe was less accurate. A detailed analysis proved that this was the case. Since basketball is a game of continuous motion, it might be years before we find the right metrics to get those kind of statistics with our daily box score.

My point, however, remains the same. I'd rather have players who can make the shot than have players who can stop it. Due to the difficulty in measuring defense, at least a patzer like myself can see offensive production my own eyes. And I'd rather be the one forcing the door open than the one stuck with the task of keeping it shut.

Leaders in Drawn Fouls

Swanny's Stats gives us a look at a WNBA stat that you don't see much of: "drawn fouls". What kind of players can other players just not resist fouling?

Sancho Lyttle is 17th in the WNBA so far this year. Angel McCoughtry is tied for 18th with Laura Harper of Sacramento. The leader in drawn fouls? Nicky Anosike of the Lynx with 73 drawn fouls.

The list for the Atlanta Dream:

Lyttle: 42
McCoughtry: 41
de Souza: 39
Holdsclaw: 39
Castro Marques: 32
Snow: 31
Lacy: 16
Miller: 16
Lehning: 15
Teasley: 12
Young: 11
Latta: 1

Shalee Lehning and Her Uncle's Surprise Party

From Jamie Miller Images: the story of a quiet man thinking he is about to watch an Atlanta Dream game in safety on the internet, only to be surprised at the arrival of 60 people for his birthday party.

I'm sure Shalee would have been there if she could. I hope the party was on July 5th, that way he missed the loss to the Indiana Fever.

P. S.: That is a sweet looking shirt.

How Much Does a WNBA Referee Make?

From the Wall Street Journal:

Women's Basketball: Not all refs are rewarded this handsomely. As you might guess, refs in less popular sports command smaller salaries. According to a 2007 article on sports site scout.com, WNBA refs earn between $600 and $800 a game during the league's 32-game season. That's a floor of just over $19,000 a year for a pretty rigorous job. As the same article notes, women's hoops refs are better off officiating a major-conference college game at $1200 a pop than working a WNBA tilt.

Isn't the rule in life "you get what you pay for?"

Shalee Lehning and the Power of Girls

Shalee Lehning writes a new blog entry for her hometown paper. Lehning worked with the Power of Girls mentorning program and she got a chance to go bowling:

"We were separated into teams and we competed against each other. As you can imagine it got pretty competitive. Before I tell you who won, let me explain what the atmosphere was like. The place we bowled at was called 300 Atlanta. It was the coolest bowling alley I’ve ever been too!"

"To top it off, my team won! I was with Tamera Young from the Dream and then we were with a few people that work for the Dream and a girl from the mentoring program. It was total domination so that made the night even more enjoyable. Not to mention the bragging rights that Tamera and I have now."

She also mentions an interview with the website HollywoodJesus.com, a pop culture/spirituality website where she talks about her Christian faith. But the interview reveals more than just her faith journey:

"Her contributions on the court are starting to pay off as she adjusts to the speed of the game and continues to get better. Currently, she’s second on the team in assists (2.2 per game). As a point guard, Lehning told me that she models her game after Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns. She’s watched hours of film on him, noting that his style is to pass first, shoot second, and keep defenses honest. In addition, he’s found ways to make defenses better, sacrificing his own game in the process."

If you want to know why Lehning wears #5, give the website a visit.

The ABL Tontine

A "tontine" is a scheme where either money or some other object of value is given to the last survivor of a pool. The most common tontine in literature is a bottle of win to the last surviving member of a club. An illustration in popular media would be the tontine of Abe Simpson's Flying Hellfish in The Simpsons.

I'm keeping my eye on the "1997 WNBA Tontine", awarded to the last member of the WNBA still playing from the original 1997 season. With Sheryl Swoopes, Latasha Byears and Mwadi Mabika still looking for work, and with Lisa Leslie and Vickie Johnson committed to retiring after this season, it looks like it's going to come down to Tamecka Dixon vs. Tina Thompson. Both players are not only still playing, but they've played in every WNBA season since 1997.

However, there is another tontine: the American Basketball League tontine, devoted to the remaining players from the old ABL which existed from 1996 to 1998. When the ABL folded, a lot of the ABL players went over to the WNBA.

From the 1996-97 season, I only know of three players that qualify. Stacey Lovelace-Tolbert is probably still looking for work, and I doubt that she'll be re-signed. Sheri Sam is not officially retired, but she hasn't been signed by a club. That leaves, among others, Katie Smith, who is still playing for Detroit. Smith played all three years in the WNBA with the Columbus Quest, and one of her teammates on that team was Shannon Johnson who is also in the WNBA. The final is Taj McWilliams, who played for all of the incarnations of the Richmond/Philadelphia Rage during her three years.

There is a sole survivor who started her career in the 1997-98 season. It looks like Yolanda Griffith might not come back next year, so Delisha Milton-Jones is left standing. She played both seasons for the Portland Power.

There are three remaining players who started playing in the aborted 1998-99 season: Anna DeForge, Barbara Farris and Chasity Melvin. All of them just played a few games, but they count nonetheless as ABL survivors. DeForge, recently picked up by the Shock, was in danger of not making the list.

When these final seven players are gone, your chances of seeing an ABL player live and in person will be gone for good. Make the most of your opportunity.

Izi Won't Come Back to Brazil if Bassul Coaches

The Painel do Basquete Feminino reports from Brazilian media that Hortência Marcari, the head of women's basketball in Brazil, was told by Iziane Castro Marques that she will not play for the Brazilian national team as long as Paulo Bassul is the coach.

Castro Marques's statements regarding the matter?

"We never closed the door for selection, but Paul and I have not able to work together. He does not accept my basketball, I said that."

"I will not have respect for a person like Bassul and he will not be able to teach me anything."

Bassul didn't argue, saying that Iziane has the right to think what she wants to think. Hortência hasn't completely given up, but she's now saying that the Brazilian team will simply go on without Castro Marques if necessary.

One would think that Castro Marques's statements should end the drama, but I suspect that it's not over yet.

Boucek Out at Sacramento

In non-Dream news, the first casualty of the 2009 WNBA coaching season happened today.

Jenny Boucek, head coach of the Sacramento Monarchs, was fired after a 3-10 start. She was 40-41 as a coach since 2007. John Whisenant, the GM of the Monarchs and head coach before Boucek, will now take over the coaching duties as well as serving as GM.

This will be...interesting.

New Poll

Hey, Blogger does polls. Who knew?

With the interesting discussion regarding the Dream/Liberty game, this poll almost wrote itself. There will definitely be more polls during the year - a shame I can't provide beer and cider like they did in the 19th century.

Vote early, and often.

14/2009 - Liberty 71, Dream 69

At least someone out there is happy.

Okay. After many sleepless hours after last night's game, I gathered my moral strength and a few shots of bourbon and began to type the writeup for the game.

Let's not mince words - this was the worst performance of the year for the Dream. There's a lot of talk about how the Liberty played up to the Dream's level. I give props to the Liberty for the win, but the statement is simply not true - there was no level by the Dream to play up to. (Maybe both teams played half-way.)

If it wasn't for the performance of Iziane Castro Marques - of all people - it could have been a lot worse. Most of the Dream's value in that game came from her; little of it came from anybody else.

At the beginning of the game, I had a lot of trouble getting WNBA Live Access to work. This is the story of my life, but in the second quarter Live Access started coming in clear with no stops or blackouts whatsoever. The first quarter? A bit spotty. I knew, however, that Izi scored the first six points for the Dream, and that was not a good sign.

Izi's Best Performances of 2009

20 points in a Game 3 loss against the Sky
16 points and 4 steals in a Game 9 loss against the Sun
31 points in a Game 10 loss against the Lynx

I'm coining a new phrase: The Izi Effect. The Izi Effect is when a particular player has good performances that combine with a lack of effort or interest from everyone else. -all of that player's good games come during team losses.

While Liberty fans were playing some sort of bizarre on-court tic-tac-toe game in the first quarter, Atlanta was establishing a 6-point lead. The Dream were out-rebounding the Liberty 12-4, Janel McCarville was off to a horrible start and the Dream looked like they were in command. They led after the first quarter 24-16, holding the Liberty to just seven rebounds.

Atlanta was shooting 45.5 percent in the first quarter, combined with 29.4 percent from the Liberty. Teams that are ahead should be warned - do not become complacent. This is what is called a "statistical dip", where the team is just having atypically bad shooting for one quarter and should bounce back the next quarter. What I didn't suspect was that this was going to be par for the course for the Liberty in Game 14. The Liberty was just shooting terribly, and if we could keep up our shooting, we looked good.

We began to build up a lead, up to 30-19 in the second quarter. McCarville was still stinking up the joint, with zero points and nine turnovers. The New York Liberty dancers - not the Timeless Torches - were probably the only entertainment the Madison Square Garden's fans were going to get. With the lead 30-21, Meadors could finally put Latta in and give her some time to warm up.

Atlanta held on to a 10 point lead, when from the depths of the Liberty bench, Kia Vaughn suddenly remembered, "Hey! I'm a first round draft pick! I should act like one!" Maybe every other big woman in the league is terrified of the Lyttle-De Souza duo, but Kia wasn't. She scored six points - all within the span of a minute - and before we knew it, it was a game again at 35-31. Iziane Castro Marques would pick up a jump ball between Kia Vaughn and Erika de Souza - then take a jump shot, be fouled by Shameka Christon, and pick up one of two free throws as the Dream took a 36-31 lead into halftime.

We were still shooting well - 45.5 percent. The Liberty was still in the sub-20s. We had 26 rebounds and Sancho and Erika has six rebounds apiece. Janel McCarville was on some other planet somewhere, but not in Madison Square Garden.

My thoughts:

1) I've never quite been able to figure out Iziane Castro Marques. "Streaky" isn't the word for it. There are times when she looks like she's near damned unstoppable, and there are times when she plays so badly I'd swear she had money bet on the opposing team to win.

2) There is this fan for the Liberty who is a big black guy who wears his cap backwards and is wearing a #20 jersey - Shameka Christon's - who is always highlighted on the Jumbotron for his dancing skills. By "always" I mean "twice" - I saw his dancing this game, and I saw his dancing during the Liberty-Silver Stars game I was fortunate to attend.

3) There was a dance troupe which I think was called "Fresh Effects". They were there to do a tribute to Michael Jackson. They looked like kids in their high school years/late teens, and they danced pretty much not the way that Michael Jackson danced. I wondered if they had even practiced before their appearance before a crowd of unhappy Liberty fans at MSG.

I mean...my God. That was just pitiful.

4) I heard some weird background banging noise, like someone kicking the Live Access microphone at New York. Never did figure that out.

5) Is Shameka Christon's last name pronounced "Christian"? According to Mike Crispino at the microphone, it is.

(* * *)

In the third quarter, we put out the same starters - Holdsclaw, Lyttle, de Souza, Castro Marques and Miller. Loree Moore hit us with a 3-pointer as the sounds of "Mo(o)re, More, Moore" by Andrea True. The Dream began to backslide, as it were, and after leading by 11 points in the second quarter, Essence Carston tied the game at 38-38. A 3-pointer by Cathrine Kraayeveld put the Libety up 44-41.

The Dream then rolled off seven straight points to take the lead again, 48-44. Kraayeveld had her fourth foul and McCarville still hadn't scored. In the interim, there was a game on the court - for swag - where a random little boy in the Liberty audience was blindfolded and asked to locate Maddie, the Liberty's doggie mascot. You'd think this would be a simple task - the game announcer would say "hot" or "cold" and the kid would theoretically change direction. But no. The kid continued walking into a straight line, oblivious to instruction. After a point, the Liberty staff just turned the kid in a right direction and let Maddie find him.

Dumb kid. I would have let him keep walking all the way out to 34th Street and 7th Avenue.

Anwyay, with the Dream up 48-44, the Liberty tied it 48-48 on the first two points scored in the game by Janel McCarville. (I actually saw Izi let a player blow by her on defense, as if Izi was just standing still admiring something off in the distance.) The game was turning sloppier and sloppier, with both sides threatening to break 20 turnovers each before the third quarter was even over. Atlanta managed to find itself on top at the end of the third, 54-40, simply because we made fewer mistakes.

On the other hand, a lot had gone bad. Our shooting accuracy had been shredded, and despite the fact that Izi had 15 points, Loree Moore had 17 points. Furthermore, there were signs that Janel McCarville was starting to wake herself up. She hadn't scored, but she had had a lot of rebounds.

(* * *)

Random trivia: Did you know Kia Vaughn has a tattoo on her bicep which reads Kia!? It's useful when you wake up in a hotel on a long road trip and not only have forgotten where you are, but who you are.

(* * *)

With six minutes to go, we had a 58-52 lead. Even though we had regained the lead over New York in the third, we could never extend it to double digits. The Liberty always stayed within two or three possessions of the Dream, too close by to ignore. Ahead 60-58, Loree Moore cranked out another 3-pointer and with 3:24 to go, the Liberty were back up again 61-60.

Iziane Castro Marques hit a 3-pointer with 2:27 left to put the Dream back up 65-61. It would be the only 3-pointer the Dream would hit all night.

We still led by four points, 67-63 when Shameka Christon closed it to 67-66 with 1:10 left. With 55.2 seconds left, Janel McCarville made her last basket of the night and was chopped on the attempt by Erika de Souza. Sinking the free throw tied the game 69-69 with 43.9 seconds left.

For some inexplicable reason, we decide to chop time off the clock. With two seconds left to shoot, Sancho attempted a shot which she missed. Holdsclaw got the rebound, but she attempted an off-balance-falling-backwards shot which was probably low enough for Leilani Mitchell to block. Jackson got the rebound, the Liberty got the ball, and there were 16 seconds left to make a last-second shot.

With Kraayeveld trying to make a backdoor cut to the basket, there was a collision with someone in Powder Blue. Lacy would end up getting charged for the foul - it might not have been her, but it was somebody - and Kraayeveld went to the free throw line. Sank 'em both. New York had hit all 18 of its free throw attempts that night, and the Liberty were up 71-69.

The Dream had 16 seconds to send it into overtime. Shalee Lehning controlled the ball, brought it in - then, with no one to dish-out to, tried a left-handed jumper. Castro Marques was waiting on the wing - was the intent to get the ball to her? Lehning's shot didn't go, the ball ended up in New York's hands, and it was all over.

(* * *)

Okay, sounds like a close game, right. True, but it was a horribly played one. Last team to make a mistake wins, and the Liberty were sitting in the chair when the music stopped. We'll look at Dean Oliver's Four Factors, but not in their usual order:

Free throw visits: Both teams went to the line 18 times. The Dream were 14-for-18, and the Liberty were 18-for-18. You could plausibly claim that the game was lost at the free throw line, but the Dream had the ball at the end and a chance to send it to OT.

Turnovers: Egad. Atlanta turned the ball over 24 times. Normally, that would lose the game right there, but the Liberty turned the ball over 22 times. It was just an abysmal game, and very hard to watch.

Offensive rebounds: 15 for the Dream, and 5 for the Liberty. We out-rebounded them 45 to 28. Looks good, right?

Field goal shooting: In the most important of the factors, the Dream shot 39.7 percent and the Liberty shot 37.7 percent. We shot better than the Liberty, so why didn't we win?

I'll throw out a statistic at you: 3-point shooting

Atlanta Dream: 1-for-8
New York Liberty: 7-for-21

This is at least the third game where our opponents took 20-plus three point attempts and we took 10-minus. We don't take them because we can't hit them. They take them because we can't defend them.

In a way, you can say that 3-point shooting undoes bad field goal shooting - you might hit less often, but the impact on your shooting is greater. There is a stat called true field goal percentage, which is defined as (FG + 0.5*3P)/FGA. It's "field goal shooting + extra credit for 3-pointers".

Our field goal percentage was 39.7 percent, but our true FG% was 40.4 percent. New York's field goal percentage was 37.7 percent - but their true FG% was 43.4 percent. Counting 3-pointers means that we didn't shoot better than the Liberty - they shot better than us because they had the 3-pointer in their arsenal. Our lack of 3-point shooting was a real disadvantage, and the Liberty's free throw accuracy was just icing on the cake.

(* * *)

Let's look at how the Liberty players did:

Shameka Christon: 18 points and 6 rebound for Sista Christon.
Essence Carson: 17 points.
Cathrine Kraayeveld: 9 points, but 5 personal fouls. However, she scored the go-ahead points for New York at the end.
Janel McCarville: 7 points, 7 rebounds...and 7 turnovers.
Kia Vaughn: 8 points in just nine minutes played.

And now, time to look at the Atlanta Dream:

Iziane Castro Marques: 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Iziane could have very well had a triple-double if she would have just tossed the ball around some more. However, she turned the ball over 5 times and had 4 of her shots blocked. Nevertheless, Izi is very much the Dreamer of the Game.

Erika de Souza: 10 points and 8 rebounds. She had a little trouble with Kia Vaughn in that second quarter, but otherwise a good game.

Sancho Lyttle: She had 17 points and 6 rebounds - but she missed thirteen shots, shooting 8-for-21and diminishing the impact of her high scoring game. -5 in raw plus/minus. If you look at it from that angle, it really wasn't that impressive.

Angel McCoughtry: 6 points in just 16 minutes played. Only 2 fouls and 2 turnovers. She should have gotten some more time.

Chamique Holdsclaw: 9 points on 3-for-13 shooting. 8 rebounds, but 5 turnovers. Most of her good is washed out with the bad.

Jennifer Lacy: 4 points in 7 minutes played - but a zinc star on her paper for getting called for that foul on Kraayeveld at the end.

Michelle Snow: 2 points in 4 minutes. As you can see, we're down in zero-land in terms of value.

Tamera Young: Now we're at the zero border. Young, cleared to play, didn't even get off the bench. Even warming her buns on the bench, she still outperformed three players on the Dream by default.

The point guards: All of our point guards are at the bottom, and in 40 minutes of play, they combined for 3 points. It was a sad performance.

Coco Miller: The Point Guard Who is not Really a Point Guard. 7 minutes. No points. Assists: 2, Turnovers: 3.

Ivory Latta: 3 minutes. No points. One turnover. Ivory is losing the battle for playing time.

Shalee Lehning: Can she play point guard? Yes, she can. But all in all, a point guard is asked to do at least one of the following:

a) Score points: Shalee is not a point-scoring point guard. Lehning shot a horrible 1-for-6 and ended up with 3 points. And then there's that last play of the game.
b) Assists: If you can't score, you put the ball in someone else's hands so they can score. In 30 minutes, she had a total of one assist.
c) Intangibles: Okay, if you can't do the first two, you should add something else. Energy, whatever. But above all, nothing foolish, like turnovers. Lehning turned the ball over four times, and of the five missed shots, two of them were rebounded by the Liberty.

Like it or not, Lehning gets the Bad Dream of the Game. If you're out there for 30 minutes you have to do something, and Lehning didn't. By playing most of the minutes, she bears most of the responsibility.

Lehning will just have to shake it off and come back for the next game. So will the Dream, and so will the fans. One Team, One Dream. Beat the Lynx on Wednesday.

Bob Rathburn Queried About Dream Future

Bob Rathburn, the play-by-play man voice of the Atlanta Hawks (NBA), is interviewed by Sports Media Watch about several Atlanta sports topics, including the Atlanta Dream.

SMW: "Do you think the WNBA Atlanta Dream will be able to survive over the next five years?"

Rathbun: "It’s a legitimate question, one that can be asked of virtually every team in the league. They are much improved, and as I mentioned earlier when you asked about the sports climate here, if they win and win big they will be successful."

Dream Fall to Liberty on Free Throws by Kraayeveld

World's Most Difficult High Five.

For those who are still hungover, we lost at New York last night 71-69. I've been trying to forget this one but the memory isn't fading away. I'm still pretty miserable about it, because the Dream basically let the Liberty up off the mat. We had a chance to tie it at the end, but we couldn't get it done.

For those souls brave enough to look at pictorial evidence, a gallery of pictures from SPMSportsPage.com is here.

The New York Daily News article by Matt Ehalt is here.
The New York Post article by Brian Lewis is here.
The Associated Press write-up is here.

My report - I actually got WNBA Live Access to work starting in the second quarter - will be soon.

Atlanta Dream Looking for Success

The above is a video by WNBA.com which discusses how the Dream has changed in its second year as a franchise. Chamique Holdsclaw shares her thoughts, and Big Smooth talks to Little Smooth, and they like Angel sometimes.

"Holdsclaw Is Back in the WNBA, With a Purpose"

The New York Times has written a profile on Chamique Holdsclaw. A lot of interesting stuff about Big Smooth, so you want to go to the link and read it.

Some excerpts:

The player once approached by Michael Jordan and invited to play a game of one-on-one has recalibrated. Now Holdsclaw measures herself partly by how she chaperones the young roster as a de facto player-coach; she peppers the staff with questions about technique and strategy, even during games, then dispenses advice. The Dream is 6-7.

...

Holdsclaw says she even talks to her uncooperative right knee, begging it to hurt less so she can improve her averages of 14.2 points and 28.6 minutes this season. Health permitting, she vows to fulfill her three-year contract, no matter if basketball in her 30s ultimately lowers her career stats.

Dream on The Way to New York

A win will give the Dream a 7-7 record. The Liberty are four games out of .500. Hopefully, we can beat them this time.

Game is tomorrow night. One Team. One Dream.

UPDATE: I did have a picture of Big Smooth snoozing, but a lot of images of Imageshack have been hacked by pranksters today, and this was one of them. Thus, the replacement by Dream players on a plane.

The Ultimate Fate of the Lingerie Football League

The Lingerie Football League faces a set of different problems that are sure to doom it. Unlike those who chime against the WNBA - namely, those who claim that the WNBA can't succeed because it's played by women and women have cooties - I don't claim that ads for the LFL are being "shoved down my throat" or that there is a international conspiracy to promote the league. I believe that in a universe full of 1000 channels, there is room for every sport.

Here's the problem with the Lingerie Football League - it will be forced to make the choice between being one thing or the other.

If translated properly, the league could rightfully be named the "Women's Underwear Football League". It's sort of a league for people who want to see beautiful women run around in their underwear. Maybe there's always been a fetish out there where these women toss a football around; I don't claim to know.

Most people pretty much laugh such a venture off, claiming that the league will be populated with out-of-work strippers and failed models. But in quite a few press pieces I've read, the players, or the owners, or somebody claim that "this is real football".

There is a danger in allowing these fetishized objects of desire to play real football. The problem is that if you begin playing football, you start wanting your team to win games. An owner of one of these teams might begin thinking that his team of damsels can actually win games. And when winning games becomes important - after all, there is the glamour of the sport's highest prize, the Lingerie Bowl, to think about - people become...well...competitive.

Once you put the thing on a competitive footing, you begin looking for creative interpretations of the rules. True, beauty seems to be The Unspoken Requirement for making a team, one which is never explicitly named but which everyone knows exists. However...the question then becomes beautiful to whom? You know, there are a lot of men out there who like big women. Suppose someone out there with the body of a Wendie Jo Sperber or a Marissa Jaret Winokur wants to play? Now granted, such big women can be blacklisted...but what if there's an influential owner in a big city who threatens to take his team and go home if she can't play? Once you start looking for a winning edge, your standards of beauty begin to expand.

(It would be funny if some losing owner decided to fire his entire team and replace it with a decidedly unbeautiful collection of mean women. Would the league sanction the owner for violation of a non-existent rule?)

Furthermore, if beauty is the key to making the team, is there a rule that you have to remain beautiful? If you want your Hooters girls to pick up some speed...well, there is the Marion Jones way of doing it. It comes in a bottle, and you inject it. Sure, back acne is involved, but who cares if you're two games out of first?

What if your star running back breaks her nose? Nose job time? Yeah, but what if a berth in the Lingerie Bowl is at stake? She might be the first person to say, "To hell with the break, I'll fix it later." As a result, all of the photos are of a Karl Malden lookalike.

Here's the dilemma - if you treat the competition seriously, then after a while, the beauty takes second place. The league will simply become less pretty over time. Great sports players aren't necessarily blessed with the looks of an Adonis or a Venus. Then the players will start demanding better equipment, and before you know it, the LFL establishment becomes what it probably fears becoming - real competitive football, played by non-glamorous women.

If, on the other hand, you put the beauty over the competition, what you get is a glorified version of World Wide Entertainment. A lot of people might watch it, but no one will ever take it seriously, and your fans get the reputation of yahoos. (Notice that the WWE, for all of its attention on TV and glamour, isn't exactly a hot topic of discussion at Around the Horn.)

Because, face it, beauty and competition do not naturally go hand in hand. They must conflict sooner or later, and the LFL must decide which one will prevail. You will either have beautiful women who become less and less skilled over time, or skilled women who become less or less beautiful. The list of women who are extraordinarly beautiful and can play talented seven-on-seven football in a garter belt is simply too small for the ambitions of the league.

Moral: Never let women play pretend football, because they might soon start asking to play real football.

White Sox Also Struggling: Decreased Attendance = No Trades

From the Huffington Post, and elsewhere:

" White Sox general manager Ken Williams said Tuesday he may not be able to make a big trade this season because of smaller crowds at U.S. Cellular Field."

...

"Well, if I'm being completely honest money is more of the issue now. We expected a little more support than we've gotten," he said. "I think it's a reflection upon the economy of what's kind of happen with regards to attendance and I don't know if we've played consistent enough, or been exciting enough for people to get behind us. We're still hopeful."

If the Sox are struggling, what about the other teams in baseball? Attendance is down 5.5 percent across the board.

As for the WNBA? According to the latest numbers, the WNBA's attendance is holding the same (actually up by 0.7 percent).

Of course, this is a count of tickets sold, not bodies in seats. Just about every sport does the same thing (see: Marlins, Florida) except for maybe football. But if the WNBA's attendance numbers are just lies, then why can't the major sports lie as creatively as we do?

The Atlanta Dream Team Dentist?

Original Retro Brand has an interview with Dr. Daryl Kimche, who is the team dentist for the Georgia Tech women's basketball team and also cares for the choppers of the Atlanta Dream.

I have been the team dentist for Georgia Tech since 1994. My staff and I handle dental emergencies, do preventative care and protect their smiles by fabricating athletic mouth guards. Because I have played college basketball, I am able to relate to the challenges these students face with athletics, scheduling and academics. I formed a relationship with Ms. Bernadette McGlade who was, at that time, the Associate Athletic Director at Georgia Tech.

I don't know if this is an endorsement from the blog, but I'd certainly keep her in mind if I was having dental work done.

Atlanta Dream to Honor All American Red Heads

The Red Heads, circa 1976.

It appears that six members of the All-American Red Heads will be attending the August 1st home game between the Dream and the New York Liberty. In addition, the highlight video of the All American Red Heads (via this post) will be shown at halftime on the Jumbotron at Philips Arena.

The Red Heads were one of America's first professional basketball teams, in an era where there wasn't even a professional league. They barnstormed from 1936 to around 1986, playing 200 games a year sometimes, all on the road, against teams of men, and definitely winning more than they lost.

If you can only be at one game this year, this is the game you want to be at. If it weren't for teams like the Red Heads, there might not be a WNBA. August 1st. 7:30 pm. Philips Arena. Mark it down.

Okay guys. Now it's time to give the players of the old Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL) some love and recognition, too....

Orender Being Talked Up as LPGA Commissioner - Interns' Feelings Hurt by Donna

With Carolyn Bivens, the commissioner of the LPGA, supposedly out the door all sort of names real and imagined have been suggested to fill the spot by Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun. Among those is our own WNBA President Donna Orender.

Orender spent 17 years with the PGA and was their Senior Vice President of Strategic Development. If she were to leave, despite the fact that some fans don't think Orender is honest, it would be a serious blow to the league. The talk would be that Orender was jumping a sinking ship.

Meanwhile, it looks like someone's been editing the Wikipedia entry on Donna Orender at Wikipedia:

In the summer of 2008, during marketing meetings for the new WNBA advertising campaign-- featuring the "Expect Great" motto-- Orender was purportedly seen yelling and degrading several interns who helped work on the project. Other attendees noted her "outright rudeness" during the presentation and bursts of irrationality.

Ouch. The IP address - 24.3.244.95 - comes out of Comcast Cable in New Jersey. What, did someone get their feelings hurt by Donna? Hey, toughen up interns.

Bad Message Board, No Biscuit

The Atlanta Dream Message Board appears to be down this morning. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon. A shout-out to all those message board readers out there.