Wednesday, May 19, 2010

2/2010 – Dream 66, Fever 62: A Tall Glass of Water



Okay, time to look back on that second game and start thinking about Friday.

Quarter-by-quarter box score: The by-quarter totals tell the whole story: tight first half, mini-surge by the Fever in the third quarter, complete and total collapse in the fourth.

Effective field goal percentage: Fever 42.8 percent, Dream 35.3 percent. In most cases, that would give the game to the Fever right there. Our shooting was horrible.

Turnovers: Dream 16, Fever 19. The Dream creep a little closer, but it isn't much of an advantage.

Offensive rebound percentage: Dream 41.8 percent, Fever 32.1 percent. You know it's a bad night when Armintie Price has more offensive rebounds (3) than any other single member of the Fever (2).

Free throw visits: Dream 20, Fever 13. The Dream only made 65 percent of those shots. The Fever made 61 percent. These last two games have showcased some horrible free throw shooting.

Now, let's look at the members of the Indiana Fever:

Ebony Hoffman: 17 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals. Great game for Hoffman.
Tamika Catchings: 18 points, 4 assits, 3 steals. The only other member of the Fever to score in double-digits.
Tammy Sutton-Brown: 8 points and 9 rebounds.
Katie Douglas: 6 assists.
Bench Players: Contributed only 10 of Indiana's 62 points.


Alison Bales: I'll bet you're surprised to see Alison Bales up this high - and I'm not writing about her height, either. Bales actually played 25 minutes. So did McCoughtry. Only de Souza and Lyttle played more minutes, with 26 and 28 respectively.

Bales scored eight points going 2-for-2 from the 3-point line. But she was impressive across the board. Her raw plus/minus of +13 led all players. She had four rebounds and three steals, and an amazing six blocked shots. If Bales keeps playing like this, she'll play herself into a rotation. Bales, in my opinion, was the Dreamer of the Game.

Erika de Souza: This was a game ruled by height. De Souza used that height to her advantage to pick up a second-straight double-double: 14 points and 11 rebounds. If it weren't for her four personal fouls and six turnovers, she'd be the Dreamer of the Game instead of Bales. De Souza is just simply fantastic.

Kelly Miller: It looks like Kelly Miller woke up after the Still Snoozin' designation from the previous game. She had six assists, a +11 raw plus/minus and had four steals. Her 1-for-6 field goal shooting puts her performance in the category of good, but not great.

Armintie Price: Price is the player that got the most attention, appearing back in double-digits for the first time in a long time with 14 points, and could have had 20 if the clock/the referees had looked the other way. 5-for-14 shooting, however, isn't that great. A rarity: Price hit 4 out of 5 free throws (her lifetime completion is 53 percent.)

Brittainey Raven: We now drop back into mediocrity, which is to be expected for a game where the team shooting percentage was 33 percent. Raven was part of that, going 0-for-4 for the night, but she had five rebounds and really hustled.

Angel McCoughtry: 11 points and 7 rebounds, but it was a mighty ugly way of getting them. 4-for-13 shooting, four personal fouls, three turnovers. However, like Raven above, it certainly can't be attributed to a lack of effort - McCoughtry was playing with a busted lip for part of the game.

Sancho Lyttle: Lyttle's five points was an atypical outing for the Spanish League MVP. She went 2-for-9 from the line and missed two free throws.

Shalee Lehning: Before Lehning fans string me up, there wasn't much difference between Lehning's game and the games of McCoughtry and Lyttle, save in baskets. With two points and 1-for-3 shooting, Lehning is now averaging 1.0 ppg in the regular season. She had two assists and only played 15 minutes.

Iziane Castro Marques: What a difference a day makes! Castro Marques went from Dream to Dud in just 24 hours. She shot 2-for-9, including 0-for-5 from the 3-point line. Her -9 in raw plus/minus was the worst of the game, and Iziane only played 18 minutes.

I'm sorry, Iziane - but you're Still Snoozin'. Maybe the game the night before wore you out. Get your beauty rest.

2 comments:

rogerio silvestre said...

I was surprised with Bales' performance! She was amazing......She did a great job, but Angel and IZZY did not have a great game at all!!

uptochallenge said...

I thought this game was won by the Dream defense. The Fever got very few open shots and we held Catchings and Douglas in check. I think the Dream are very fortunate to have Carol Ross coaching the defense. MM got the honors last year, but Ross did much of the coaching.

MM did a good job with substitutions. For the most part the players who were effective on Saturday were not very effective on Sunday probably due to the 24 hour turn around.

I saw Kathy Betty interacting with fans most of the game. She has the time, energy, smarts, and money to make this franchise work in Atlanta.