Friday, May 22, 2009

Preseason May 21 2008: Monarchs at Storm



There was a contrast between the announced crowd of 15,000 at Madison Square Garden versus the announced crowd of 4,875 at Key Arena last night - making me wonder how many really showed up as the Storm beat the Monarchs 64-55.

The box score is here.

For the Monarchs, Nicole Powell led all comers with 15 points. Courtney Paris made her debut in a WNBA uniform, only scoring two points but picking up five rebounds in 16 minutes of play. Ashley Walker of the Storm had a better go of it, with 10 points and 5 rebounds in 26 minutes of play.

Miao Lijie showed up for the Monarchs for the first time since 2005. She played six minutes and scored three points.

Kasha Terry is already at her seasonal form. 11 minutes played, 3 points, and four personal fouls. (Kasha Terry holds an interesting WNBA record - fewest minutes played in a game before fouling out.)

The Monarchs turned the ball over 23 times. Gonna be a long season in Sacramento.

I suspect that the reason the attendance was so low is because, oh, Sue Bird didn't play. And Lauren Jackson didn't play. And Swin Cash didn't play.....

UPDATE: It appears that Q at Rethinking Basketball was actually at the game last night. And his analysis is a lot better than mine is. Go to the website. GO!

2 comments:

Q McCall said...

The funny thing is I stupidly went to the ticket window yesterday and asked, "What's the best available?" The guy looks at me like I'm crazy and says, "Courtside...." :) (which, by the way, was a perfectly reasonable $55...outside my current budget though).

Anyway, I would guess the attendance number was indeed inflated... a lot of empty seats.. :/ but those present were plenty enthusiastic. Fun night.

pt said...

$55 is definitely reasonable for a courtside seat. Then again, those might be preseason prices. I don't think I'd play $55, but the great thing about the W is that you can get good seats with not that much expenditure.