Last night's game: Los Angeles @ Washington

I watched last night's Los Angeles / Washington matchup on ESPN. I was hoping for a Los Angeles win simply to keep Washington from picking up any speed in the Eastern Conference.

I don't have any deep analysis to give you.  I still can't identify the pick and roll when it happens.  I can tell you that:

* Nneka Ogwumike, still recovering from a high ankle strain, can single-handedly bring an abysmal Sparks team up to the level of the San Antonio Stars.  Who can figure what she can do when she's fully healthy?

* Emma Meesseman is the real deal.

* It is funny when a player whose hair is dyed purple puts on the "what, lil' ol innocent me?" look when called for a foul.  That's the same player that made a stupid foul on a buzzer-beating shot in the first quarter that sent the player to the line.

* Yes, Ivory Latta can come up big in games, but there are nights when she won't hit anything.  She a "high variance" player in statistical lingo.  Generally, it is better to have a player who will either score 5 points or 25 poitns on a night than a player who will score 15 every night - those 25-point games will bring you closer to a championship if you have a good bench.

* Big game for Tierra Ruffin-Pratt.

* Everyone really hates Carolyn Peck/Pam Ward.  I can see why they do, sometimes they get caught up in their own little universe and completely ignore the play-by-play aspect of the game.  But they also tell you things that you might not have known - that Meesseman is as quiet and unassuming as Latta is talkative (and Latta is very talkative), that Thibault looks for high IQ basketball players and that he doesn't buy into the "Power 5 Conferences Only" theory of drafting.  Useful information to know.

Sparks Owner Writes About the Dream/Sparks Game

If you were unaware, Kathy Goodman - an owner of the Sparks - has a blog on the Los Angeles Times website, where she writes about the Dream's recent victory.

We did not play a good game on Thursday night against the Washington Mystics, so I was, not surprisingly, a little pessimistic coming into Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Dream, which is atop of the Eastern Conference. I took some time on Saturday to get a little perspective and inspiration by visiting the Martin Luther King Center and the Carter Center in downtown Atlanta. By game time, I was fairly philosophical and just wanted us to play some good basketball, win or lose. So why is it the Sparks had to start so strong and get my hopes up all over again?

...

As the fourth quarter began, I was wondering whether I would have preferred it if I thought we had never had a chance in the game. Atlanta was first in the East; the Dream had scored over 100 points when we played them in Staples earlier in the season; I didn’t have a real reason to be hopeful. Except that first half. When we played the kind of basketball I knew our team could play. If they played like the first-half Sparks, we’d be good. If they played like the team that played the first three minutes of the third quarter, it would be hard. Although we started the final period by pushing the lead to four, in less than two minutes, Atlanta forced a tie. Philips Arena, which had been fairly quiet during the game, erupted. Within another minute, the Dream took the lead for the first time and never looked back. Castro Marques, who had been held to four points in the first half, exploded for 21 in the second half. Yelena Leuchanka, coming off the bench for DeSouza, scored six of her eight points in the fourth quarter, all in the paint.

Maybe Ms. Goodman needs to invite our owner, Kathy Betty, to a Sparks game in Los Angeles. Or failing that, I'll go. All I need is a round-trip plane ticket, c/o the Pleasant Dreams Blog.

Dream Sweeps Sparks for the Season with 89-81 Win

With the help of Dizzy Izi who scored 25 points, the Dream beat the Los Angeles Sparks for the season sweep. The Dream are 4-2 lifetime against the Sparks.

Pierce W. Huff puts it on virtual paper at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Associated Press releases the news.

The Dream needed a 13-0 run against the Sparks in the fourth quarter to put it away. Atlanta goes up to 11-4, and keeps a 1 1/2 game lead in the Eastern Conference. Up next: Phoenix on Tuesday night.

I might write more, or I might not. Very busy around the old homestead.

Atlanta vs. Los Angeles, Sunday June 27

Who: The Atlanta Dream (10-4) take on the Los Angeles Sparks (3-9) in an interconference game.

The Dream are led by Angel McCoughtry, who is scoring 20.6 points per game. Sancho Lyttle (15.3 ppg/10.9 rpg) is an All-Star post, and Iziane Castro Marques (16.6 ppg) will be playing on the Brazilian national team at the end of the season with Erika de Souza (12.6 ppg/9.0 rpg). The Los Angeles Sparks will have to depend on Tina Thompson (13.6 ppg/5.7 rpg) and Delisha Milton-Jones (12.6 ppg) with Candace Parker out for the rest of the season.

What: The second of two regular season games against the Los Angeles Sparks. On May 30th, the Dream won 101-82 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Where: Philips Arena in Atlanta.

When: Tip-off is at 3 pm Eastern time, Sunday June 27th. The game will be shown on NBA TV, but will probably be blacked out in Atlanta. However, you should be able to watch the game on Sports South - if not live, then game-delayed.

Why: This is a rare down year for the Sparks - the Sparks are at 3-9 and are threatening to win the Maya Moore sweepstakes in the 2011 WNBA Draft. Candace Parker will have surgery on her easily-dislocated left shoulder and will miss the rest of the season. Parker was averaging a double-double with 20.6 ppg and 10.1 rpg. Betty Lennox - remember her? - will probably have knee surgery sometime next week and she'll be out for four to six weeks. The Los Angeles Sparks are clearly a team in disarray.

Remember last year when Pat Summitt brought all of her close personal friends to fill up Philips Arena? Tennessee faithful hoped to see Chamique Holdsclaw and Candace Parker square off last year. What a difference a season makes. Parker's out, Holdsclaw and Snow have skedaddled to San Antonio and unless the rosters shuffle before tomorrow there won't be a single player with a Tennessee Lady Volunteer pedigree on the court.

Los Angeles's performance could depend on Tina Thompson, the final survivor of the inaugural 1997 WNBA season - so if you need a reason to come, it would be to see a legend playing at Philips. Thompson scored 24 points at home against Connecticut and lost by three; the Mystics stomped out the Sparks by 15 in Washington when Thompson was held to nine points. If Thompson has another bad game, the Dream could (hopefully) pick up their 11th win before the season is even half-over.

If the Dream wins tomorrow, it will be the first season sweep of the Sparks in the Dream's history and give the Dream a 4-2 lifetime record against Los Angeles. (It will also be the Dream's first ever home win against LA.) Covers.com has Atlanta as a 10-point favorite, but I'm not counting this game as wrapped up until the final buzzer sounds.

Chanel Mokango Premieres in Los Angeles

Last night, Chanel Mokango took the court during Phoenix's visit to Los Angeles. With Phoenix up 67-64 in the third quarter and 1:01 left, Mokango replaced Noelle Quinn on the floor while Delisha Milton-Jones was taking a couple of free throw shots. Milton-Jones hit the first, and missed the second. Both teams attempted a couple of shots, with Brook Smith sinking a 3-pointer for Phoenix, giving Mokango a raw plus/minus of -3.

Mokango's box score line was a "billion" - a number of minutes played followed by a row of zeroes.

However, Mokango had one accomplishment. By earning a brief amount of time on a WNBA court, Mokango allows Molly Creamer to retain her record of being the highest-ranked player never to appear in a WNBA regular season game.

(The above picture is Mokango at the game. You can see some great full-sized pictures over at the They're Playing Basketball blog. Go check it out!)

Dream-Sparks Gallery

I'd call this a "mismatch".

This is from Eric Wade over at SportsPageMagazine.com.

Some great pics, so come over and take a look.

Outdoor Classic II: Sparks, Storm to "Play Outside" on June 5th

Maybe Phoenix vs. Indiana in 2011?

From the Associated Press via USS Today:

The Los Angeles Sparks will host the Seattle Storm in the WNBA's second outdoor game.

The Sparks said on Monday that the night game on June 5 will be played in the Home Depot Center's tennis stadium, which has a capacity of 8,000.

Before we begin open celebration of Outdoor Classic II, let's review Outdoor Classic I, which took place two years ago in July 2008 when the New York Liberty hosted the Indiana Fever at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY. Even though the court was the same, the conditions were very different - 90 degree weather in a stadium whose sightlines were built for tennis.

And we didn't exactly see the greatest basketball game in the world. The Liberty shot 28 percent from the field and were held to eight first-quarter points. They were held to seven third-quarter points. Both teams had over 20 turnovers and it was probably of one of the worst games played that year.

Shameka Christon shot 2-for-13. Janel McCarville shot 3-for-10. Tiffany Jackson led the Liberty with six rebounds. Indiana was shooting well from behind the arc, but 3-points don't bring people back.

I'm hoping that Outdoor Classic II is better than Outdoor Classic I. And if it threatens not to be, I hope it rains.

Fred Williams to Coach the Sparks?

At the They’re Playing Basketball blog, Sue F. reports a rumor:

There's a rumor that Fred Williams is the main candidate for the Los Angeles Sparks coaching job. That would be a good choice.

Fred Williams, in case you didn’t know, is an assistant coach on the Atlanta Dream coaching staff. Since each team may only have one assistant coach next year, this would probably move Carol Ross up to the successor position.

New Atlanta/Los Angeles Gallery; Sparks Autograph Woes

Hoopalonious at the They're Playing Basketball blog also has a gallery of pictures from the Atlanta/Los Angeles game. They aren't the zoom photo courtside shots you'd see at Sports Page Magazine, but I think they're good pics nonetheless.

Hoopalonious also bemoans the way the Sparks have treated the season ticket holders:

There have been almost no post-game autograph sessions this year. And tonight I got home to see a tweet by the LA Sparks that there had been a player appearance at the ESPN Zone from 5-7 p.m. I went back and checked my email, but there was nothing sent to MVPs about that.

It's an inevitable fact that when a franchise gets going and/or new owners take over, there are more perks, and that those opportunities slowly dissipate as the years go by. But I think the Sparks should re-establish more of a connection with their fans. If they did, I bet what happened last night wouldn't happen again: when I got up to leave with 15 seconds to go, I turned around and saw that everyone in the eight rows behind me had already gone.

At least we send a couple of Dream players out every night post-game. It might take them a while to get out of the locker room, but they're there.

Dream/Sparks Gallery at Sports Page Magazine

Battle of the Titans.


Sports Page Magazine has the new gallery of images from the Atlanta-Los Angeles game.

There are some great pictures of the Dream there, so check it out.

30/2009 - Dream 84, Sparks 79

This is going to be an abbreviated review of the game. I can speak about the first half of it from experiencing it - or at least parts of it. The second half I gave up on entirely. The problem? WNBA Live Access.

Let it be said that I am not knocking WNBA Live Access. Last year, if I wanted to watch an Atlanta Dream game that was not televised, it was tough beans. Now, I can watch those games on WNBA Live Access. However, I also had Art Eckman on the radio. I couldn't see the games - and good old Art Eckman isn't exactly the most accurate transcriber of what he sees - but Eckman made it entertaining and barring bad reception, the radio station was dependable.

However, WNBA Live Access still hasn't worked out its technical bugs. Some people have no trouble with Live Access, some have a lot of trouble. Given two fans in the same city, one fan can see the game crystal clear and the other is perpetually plagued with technical difficulties. And the next game, the roles of those two fans can switch places! President Donna Orender says that they're working on WNBA Live Access. I just hope we can get some consistency, 'cause when Live Access works, it works great...when it works.

So what I can I say about the first quarter and parts of the second quarter:

1) Larry Burnett, the voice of the Sparks, said that Chamique Holdsclaw would be back next week. Before you get your hopes up that she'll be playing in one of those back-to-back games, just remember that those two games occur September 4th-September 5th. We're still looking until September 11th at least before The Claw can take the court again.

2) The Dream starters: Lehning, McCoughtry, Castro Marques, Lyttle, de Souza.
The Sparks starters: Lennox, Milton-Jones, Parker, Thompson, Leslie. What was strangest of all is that Betty Lennox was playing point guard. Can that really work? Who is to say that if you give Lennox the ball she just won't shoot it every time she touches it? The Sparks were going to find out.

3) It didn't look like there were many fans at Los Angeles. With September and school now upon us, regular season games might take a hit. Playoff attendance should be good, though.

4) I found out about the Los Angeles Sparks's mascot, Sparky. Sparky was conceived in the minds of Carla Christofferson and Kathy Goodman, the co-owners. Before 2007, the Los Angeles Sparks were too good to have a mascot. (Do the Yankees have a mascot? Do they?)

I don't know where they got this "inspiration" from, and I'm sure that Sparky is a good dog ("Bark!"), but the New York Liberty should sue the Sparks for plagiarism. Sparky does the exact same things that Maddie does, down to jumping on every letter of the Sparks logo as the crowd shouts out "(jump) S....(jump) P...."

Maybe Sparks and Maddie belong to the same litter. I don't know.

4b) What is it with this holy logo stuff? If I were a member of the opposing team, if the home team gave me grief but we won the game anyway, I'd be sorely tempted to jump on every letter of the home team's logo in derision. As far as I can tell, neither the Sparks logo nor the Liberty logo has any magic mojo, unlike the Baltimore Ravens logo which is know to mess players up who fool with it.

Star, don't get it into your head to jump on the letters of the Dream's logo. We're only two years old, the logo is there to remind The Claw that she doesn't play for the Mystics anymore.

5) In the first quarter, the goal of the Dream seemed to be "get it down low to Erika de Souza, and let her make something of it". De Souza, however, wasn't cooperating and she went 1-for-6 to start the game. Iziane started the game with a 3-pointer, but the Sparks scored the next six points. This must be because someone named "Erika de-SOW-za" replaced Erika. At least that's how Larry Burnett was pronouncing her name.

We weren't having any luck under the basket. McCoughtry missed a point-blank reverse layup. De Souza missed point blank on the high-low. Lisa Leslie would score 12 first quarter points alone and at one time, the Sparks led 15-9.

6) The Dream scrapped back and followed with the next six points. Lehning wasn't getting anything done and she was replaced by Ivory Latta. The plan on having Lennox run point appears to have been scrapped with Atlanta tied 17-17, and Shannon Bobbitt came in for Lennox. With 0.2 seconds left, Latta made the final jump shot of the game. The zebras considered whether Latta made the shot in time or not.

She did! The Dream led 21-19.

7) This is when WNBA Live Access went into a coma. The damned thing wasn't even buffering. At least I had the first quarter stats. Los Angeles was hitting 50 percent of its shots, but it seemed that all of those shots were being hit by Lisa Leslie, who was 5-for-6. Iziane Castro Marques had 7 points, and Sancho Lyttle had 6 points.

We had three offensive rebounds as well. Los Angeles, despite having Leslie and Parker, didn't have a single offensive board in the first 10 minutes.

8) WNBA Live Access stirred from the coma, to mutter to itself fitfully. My video feed sounded like a record with a scratch in it, skipping all over the place, only providing chunks of images (before freezing) and word hash. Shannon Bobbitt started the second quarter with a 3-pointer to put Los Angeles up 22-21. Somehow, however, the play-by-play reduces Los Angeles's poitn total to 21 points after Snow's jump shot.

9) For the next 2 1/2 minutes, only Atlanta would score. They took a 28-21 lead. During Atlanta's run, Larry Burnett made a joke about how great it would be for Los Angeles to have Ivory Latta. Then, they could call her "Ivory Latte", after the coffee. His anecdote finished with, "...and you know how we like our lattes in Southern California." This is why Mr. Burnett is doing the Sparks play-by-play and why Jay Leno can sleep safely at night on top of a pile of money.

10) Interesting stat: Vanessa Hayden picked up a personal foul at 8:42, 8:03 and 7:31. Three personal fouls in about three minutes. It was at this time that Michael Cooper had the idea of replacing Hayden with Leslie.

11) Los Angeles came right back, helped by the fact that the Dream missed four of their first five free throws. Live Access was still stuttering. Los Angeles closed to within one point and a layup by Lisa Leslie tied the game 32-32 with 4:12 remaining. At 3:27, the Sparks went into the lead on a Tina Thompson layup and from that point on, Lisa Leslie helped the Sparks take a 5 point lead, which they would take into halftime 42-37.

12) Los Angeles was winning the battle of field goal accuracy, 47 percent to 36 percent. They had made up their offensive rebounding deficit. Atlanta, however, only had five first half turnovers. Lisa Leslie had 16 first half points and Tina Thompson had 14 points. No Atlanta player had broken into double-digits.

It was at this time that I simply threw up my hands in despair with Live Access. I didn't want to watch the WNBA's slow-updating box score all night, so I went to bed and hoped for the best.

(* * *)

It's now that I abandon personal experience and just look at the play-by-play. I see that the Sparks were also strong in the third quarter. Leslie's ability to score hadn't diminshed during the half-time break, and the pair of free throws that she hit to put the Sparks up 50-41 were her 19th and 20th points of the game. However, a pair of 3-pointers by Iziane and Ivory Latta helped the Dream to close back to within four points, 55-51 with 4:17 to go. With 3:49 to go, Iziane hit another 3-pointer - her 15th point - to close Atlanta to within one point, 55-54 Sparks.

Then the Dream fell asleep for about 3 minutes. This allowed Los Angeles to slowly put some distance between itself and Atlanta. Unfortunately, the Sparks were over the limit in fouls. Michelle Snow marched to the line with 44 seconds left in the third quarter to hit a couple of free thrws to close Atlanta to 61-56. And with seven seconds left in the third....

...Armintie Price was at the line! (I'm sure that Atlanta fans that were still awake and could see the game were biting their pillows.) Price, a notorious free-throw shooter with Shaq-like accuracy, managed to hit both of her free throws...and amazingly, the Dream were down by one possession after three quarters, 61-58 Sparks.

In the fourth quarter, the Dream were waxing but could never quite break into the lead. They stayed close, tieing a couple of times. The game slowed down midway through the fourth. Noelle Quinn put the Sparks up by four, 69-65 with about five minutes left, but Jennifer Lacy and Sancho Lyttle hit layups to tie the game once more, 69-69 with just 3:47 left.

With 3:12 left, Atlanta finally broke into the lead. A Lisa Leslie personal foul sent Erika to the line, where she hit one of two free throws. Iziane Castro Marque hit a bank shot with 2:36 to go to put us up 72-69 with 2:36 to go....

...and then, the rest of the game became "Superstar: The Iziane Castro Marques Show." (Starring Iziane with special guest superstar Iziane.) She hit back to back 3-pointers and the second one put Atlanta up 78-73 with 95 seconds to go...but the night wasn't over for Iziane.

With 29 seconds to go, Candace Parker made a layup to make it a 78-75 game. But seven seconds later, Parker would earn her fifth personal foul to send Iziane to the line. (I don't know if Iziane was holding the ball.) Los Angeles was now over the limit.

Iziane came to the line for two shots. She hit both of them to put the Dream back up 80-75 with 22 seconds left. Lisa Leslie tried a 3-pointer with 15 seconds on the clock, but missed it. Delisha Milton-Jones made bad pass after the rebound, and the ball was back in Atlanta's hands!

It forced Candace Parker to foul in hopes of getting the ball back. It was Parker's sixth foul. Parker had fouled out, and Angel McCoughtry - who was 2-for-8 from the floor and only had four points - went to the line for two free throws. She hit both of them, and the Dream were up 82-75, a 3-possession game with 13 seconds left.

With five seconds left, Marie Ferdinand-Harris hit a hook shot to close the Sparks to 82-77. But the game was essentially over. All the Sparks could do was foul. This gave Iziane two more free throw attempts, and she hit both of them. Marie Ferdinand-Harris would hit another couple of free throws, but the game was over.

Atlanta had did it again. We had won on the Sparks's home court, 84-79. I wished I could have seen Iziane hit both of those 3-pointers. She finished with 27 points. Maybe I'll get a chance when the game archive comes up.

A statistical post-mortem will be forthcoming.

Kathy Goodman and The Dream Mojo

Kathy Goodman, the co-owner of the Los Angeles Sparks, wants to know what the hell is up with the Atlanta Dream:

I looked at the box score from Tuesday's game, and it took me a while to sort out what exactly happened, even though I watched every minute of the game. Parker ended up with another double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Leslie showed again why she could continue playing in this league for as long as she wanted to, scoring 24 points, six rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Tina Thompson shot 67%, and was two of four for three. Our field goal percentage was higher than Atlanta’s; we had more rebounds, more assists and more blocks. We had more of just about everything other than points. What is it about the Atlanta Dream that gets us so frustrated?

I don't think we'll be able to keep this win-every-year-at-Los-Angeles streak up forever, but for now, I have to grin.

"Let's Do It Again": Dream Win in Los Angeles

Last night, the Atlanta Dream beat Los Angeles 84-79 in LA. They've only played twice in Los Angeles in their history and they've won both times.

Some time later I'll write up the game - or the quarter or so I was able to watch when WNBA Live Access cooperated. But yes, I know we won, and I'm very happy.

Atlanta vs. Los Angeles, Tuesday September 1

Who: The Atlanta Dream (15-14) take on the Los Angeles Sparks (15-14) as both teams sprint to the finish in their respective conferences.

The Dream have Angel McCoughtry (12.4 ppg) as well as All-Star Team members Sancho Lyttle (13.2 ppg) and Erika de Souza (11.2 ppg). The Sparks are virtually an all-star team that includes Candace Parker (12.5 ppg, 9.0 rpg), Tina Thompson (12.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and in her final year of competition, Lisa Leslie (15.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg)

What: The second of two games this year against Los Angeles. Atlanta lost the first game August 23rd in Atlanta as the Sparks won 91-87 in front of a sellout crowd.

Where: The Staples Center in Los Angeles.

When: Tipoff is 10:30 pm Eastern on Tuesday, September 1st. The game can be seen on WNBA Live Access.

Why: Despite losing three of its last four games, the Dream have managed to keep their head above water and remain in second place in the Eastern Conference. Why? Because the overwhelming parity has meant that just as soon as one team challenges the Dream, another Eastern Conference contender drags the challenger down with the rest of the pack. Mechelle Voepel said it best that the race to the conclusion might be one of those ice skating races where the competitors are bunched up in a pack, then something happens and everyone goes crashing to the floor - last player standing wins.

Playing in Los Angeles will be tough. Much ado was made about the Spark's long stretch of home games near the end of the season, but the Sparks have won as easily on the road as they have away, winning seven of their last eight. (Including a win at Philips Arena.) Los Angeles's turnaround mojo might have to do with Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker being closer to their physical peaks now than they were at the beginning of the season. When those two are having a good night, the Sparks are nigh unstoppable.

But not unstoppable. One of the Dream's four wins last year came at the Staples Center, proving that in the WNBA, there isn't a team that's free from challengers. Another win in Los Angeles would be a high point for the Dream's season.

Chamique Holdsclaw remains at home, trying to rehab from knee surgery. The Dream have been looking for another leader but no one appears to have stepped up. Angel McCoughtry went 5-for-14 and Iziane Castro Marques went 6-for-23 in shooting in the Seattle loss and the Dream can't afford a night like that. On the other hand, Erika de Souza had six offensive rebounds against the Storm and Atlanta won the battle of the boards against Seattle. If the Dream can keep the Sparks off the glass - a mighty big if - it could be another amazing Atlanta/Los Angeles game.

SLAM Examines the WNBA

SLAM Online has one of the best articles I've read about a WNBA game. John Krolic covers the Sky/Sparks game and this is what he has to say:

So, what did I learn from this foray into the highest levels of women’s basketball? First off, don’t let all the jazz about how the women’s game is a fundamental, almost Marxist affair on the court fool you — this is just as much of a league of stars as the NBA. The division between the money players and the role players might be even more pronounced than it is on the men’s side of things, and the stars are just as impressive to watch. Watching Dupree explode from the high-post and look at once forceful and serpentine as she got an and one, Leslie work like a professor in the paint at both ends of the floor, and Candace Parker do just about everything that can be done with a basketball is just as impressive as watching the LeBrons, Wades, and Kobes of this world, believe me.

The other lesson, and this is one that could inform how we watch the men’s game, is that the WNBA really is a bastion of all the skills that many have lamented no longer exist in the men’s game — post moves, floaters, bank shots, mid-range jumpers, weak-side feeds, ball rotation, flex sets that take three screens and five passes before a good shot. But it’s also apparent that women utilize all of these things because they’re forced to — as beautiful as a made basket ends up looking in the women’s pro game, it cannot be ignored that the baskets also come far less frequently. The women can’t explode to the rack or drain three-pointers as well as the guys can, so they’ve been forced to adapt with mid-range strategies. The mid-range game in the NBA is a casualty of logic — dunks and threes are the focus in the NBA because they work, to put it simply. The WNBA game is wonderful to watch because the women have to show the kind of ingenuity and perseverance to get buckets that was necessary in the NBA’s early days, but it should be realized that the nostalgia for these skills in the NBA game is what it is — a desire for strategy to take a step backwards on the macro level, even if the game appears dumbed-down on the micro level.

26/2009 - Sparks 91, Dream 87: More Shots Matter

The Atlanta Dream/Los Angeles Sparks games have proven to be pretty memorable. There was that amazing road win in 2008. There was that great Pat Summitt game a couple of days ago. Not that a statistical post-mortem is necessary, but let's look at the game a little bit:

As always, we look at Dean Oliver's Four Factors:

Field goal shooting: The Dream was held to just 40.2 percent shooting overall, compared to 47.8 pecent from the Sparks. Adding in 3-point goals for effective field goal percentage bumps the Dream up to 45.7 percent and the Sparks up to 50.7 percent. Either way, the Sparks had an advantage in field goal shootings.

Turnovers: This might be a key to the game that no one has considered - the Sparks were good at hanging to the ball. The Dream coughed up the rock 19 times, which is about their average. However, the Sparks only lost the ball 12 times during the game, a decisive advantage.

Offensive Rebounding. The Sparks had 11 offensive rebounds, and the Dream had only 10. But when you look at offensive rebounding percentage, the Sparks's percentage was 34.3 percent and the Dream's was only 24.3 percent. Another advantage for the Sparks.

Free throw visits: 25 for the Sparks, 17 for the Dream. And the Sparks hit 84 percent of their field goals, particularly the crucial ones in the fourth quarter. The Dream only hit 71 percent of theres.

It's odd. We lost every single one of the four factors, but only lost the game by seven points. Then again, we took 15 more shots than the Sparks did.

And now, the individual Sparks players:

Candace Parker: 23 points, 8 rebounds. 8-for-13 shooting. I think someone at Full Court Press reported that Candace Parker is only at about 80 percent of her pre-pregnancy form. Well, 80 percent of fantastic is pretty fantastic.
Betty Lennox: "Noox" scored 14 points and 8 rebounds. Her +11 raw plus/minus was best among the Sparks. Clearly, Lennox had something to prove, and she proved it.
Tina Thompson: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists.
Delisha Milton-Jones: 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists.
Lisa Leslie: Only 6 points on 2-for-9 shooting.

(* * *)

Now, let's look at each player from the Atlanta Dream:

Angel McCoughtry: With Chamique Holdsclaw not playing, McCoughtry had The Claw's shoes to fill. She did an admirable job with 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 steals. She shot 11-for-20, the only Atlanta player hitting more than 50 percent of her shots. But McCoughtry has to share her award with....

...Iziane Castro Marques: 26 points from Castro Marques, but her 9-for-23 shooting is awful. However, Castro Marques had 7 defensive rebounds and four assists. Togther, McCoughtry and Castro Marques are the Dreamers of the Game.

Erika de Souza: A very good game, but not as good as McCoughtry or Iziane. De Souza went 5-for-10 with 13 points and 9 rebounds. However, she had five personal fouls.

Shalee Lehning: Lehning only got 21 minutes, due to her lack of effectiveness. She scored 3 points but had 4 assists and no turnovers. Compare that with....

Ivory Latta: Latta had 10 points on 2-for-6 shooting. Eight of those ten points came during a brief window of time in the second quarter; after that, not much of anything. She also got five personal fouls although she didn't deserve a couple of them. Sorry, but this Lehning vs. Latta bout comes up with a "no decision".

Jennifer Lacy: An average game for a WNBA player, which is a good game for Lacy. 10 minutes, four points, five assists.

Coco Miller: She only played 7 minutes, and went 1-for-4 in shooting. Her -10 in raw plus minus, believe it or not, wasn't the worst.

Sancho Lyttle: 27 minutes played and just two rebounds. Those Sparks had Lyttle's number and reduced her effectiveness to that of Chamique Holdsclaw, who was sitting on the bench. Despite her +11 in raw plus minus, she shot 3-for-10 on Sunday.

Michelle Snow: we have three true posts, and the Sparks made two of them disappear. Snow played 12 minutes, took two shots, missed them both, and had a -16 in raw plus/minus.

Armintie Price: Played the fewest minutes of the game. We needed her out there with Holdsclaw on the bench, but Price was no help. Picked up a personal foul and a turnover in her 150 seconds of play. Took a shot and missed it. -4 in raw plus/minus in just two minutes. I'm going to give Price the Bad Dream award. She really needs to turn on the power for the Dream, whether it's on the offensive or defensive side.

26/2009 - Sparks 91, Dream 87

Old meets new.

It's odd that I've been to about 20 or so Atlanta Dream home games - probably more - but have never been to a major college basketball game. I'm not going to put down Georgia Tech and the fine work they do - I see a lot of Tech games - but they can't fill the rafters at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, and that's a shame. Atlanta has a great women's team of its own and it's just being ignored. (The local media probably isn't much help, but I don't want to turn this into an ongoing rant.)

I've never been to, say, a Tennessee game. I'm sure that they have packed crowds. I've never been to one, but after attending the Dream/Sparks game, I understand what the charm is about. It was almost like attending a Tennessee basketball game. The intensity both of the crowd and of the players was phenomenal. It might have not been the best WNBA game I've ever seen, but it's one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had at Philips Arena. If you didn't see this game - you missed a good 'un.

My thoughts:

1) I could guess that this was going to be a hot ticket. Marynell Meadors appeared to be entertaining visitors from the bench, or just schmoozing patrons. During practice, the team was working on free throws, and they should work on free throws. At least Jennifer Lacy was.

2) On the other end, Vanessa Hayden was working out with I think Bruce Deziel, the Sparks conditioning coach. This is the first time I've actually seen someone other than the Dream run serious drills before a game started. Most of the times, the visiting teams are involved in an unfocused shootaround, or someone like Becky Hammon will work on her 3-point shooting. The Sparks were clearly doing a perimeter shooting drill.

Carol Ross, meanwhile, continues to work with our post game. We might not hit a lot of 3s, but we hit a lot of 2s.

3) B-Money was back. I saw Betty Lennox embracing Jen Lacy on the Dream side of the court. There aren't a whole lot of people left for Lennox to say hello to - Lacy, Castro Marques and Latta are the sole survivors. Lennox, however, seemed like she was in a good mood, even giving Michelle Snow a hug.

4) I managed to catch a Mystics #23 jersey in the crowd as the gates opened - this was Holdsclaw's first number when she was with the Mystics. Talk about your throwback jerseys.

5) Then, the gates opened and a flood of...orange entered Philips Arena. I saw more Tennessee gear that you could have sold in a life time, even if you opened up a garage sale in Knoxville. It was a suburban, middle class crowd that skewed older - the kind of people that could take the time to make it all the way to Atlanta for a Dream game. The joke being that you could have walked from the upper level down to center court on the heads of those wearing Tennessee gear and your feet would have never touched ground until you hit the sideline.

6) Of course, there were other jerseys - Candace Parker's #3, in both home and away versions. I saw at least three such jerseys. Some people aren't only team fans, they're player fans. (A Candace Parker Tennessee jersey would have impressed me more. Then again, I've never seen a North Carolina Latta jersey, either.)

7) Walking around on center court - Ron Terwilliger, owner of the Atlanta Dream. He had a beer in his hand. Seeing the crowd, he must have been happy. Drink up, Mr. Terwilliger!

8) The anthem was sung by LaToya Jones. It was a good performance, although I think it was a little long.

9) Game time. Of course they were going to lower the lights and pump Philips Arena full of 120-decibel noise. The crowd could have eaily matched that.

Getting huge cheers were Candace Parker, obviously. Lisa Leslie got huge cheers - the crowd knew it was her final appearance. (Unless we meet in the finals.) Michelle Snow? Big cheers too, being a Tennessee alumna.

However, Ivory Latta also got hugh cheers. Erika de Souza also got a huge response from the crowd. Maybe Lady Vols fans know their WNBA better than I thought they did.

10) Chamique Holdsclaw was announced along with the reserves. She got big cheers - but I could tell by the way she moved that she was virtually crippled. She was just hobbling out there, not limping but clearly not at full speed and with an awkward half-jogging gait.

We need The Claw. Meadors would decided not to start Holdsclaw, a wise move. Give that knee all the time in the world.

11) Starters for Atlanta: McCoughtry, Lyttle, De Souza, Castro Marques, Lehning. This was McCoughtry's second start of her career.
Starters for Los Angeles: Milton-Jones, Thompson, Leslie, Parker, Harrower. I looked forward to a Milton-Jones/McCoughtry matchup.

12) The game started out good. Tina Thompson made a bad pass, McCoughtry got the steal and went to the other end of the court by herself. 2-0 Dream.

13) Los Angeles, however, decided to put the screws to us early. They went on a 10-0 run, marked with a couple of 3-pointers by Thompson and Parker.

It was almost comical at times. Lehning thought she had an open drive to the basket, only to find Parker at the other end. Our distributor-style point guard found no one to distribute to and an ugly surprise at the end. Lehning might be good, but Lehning vs. Candace Parker is a mismatch. You can guess how that possession ended.

McCoughtry's initial solution was to just shoot over Los Angeles's height. But L. A. has a lot of height. Her jumper, arced too high, fell short.

14) Now I know where those Latta cheers are coming from. One gentleman had a sign that simply read: "LATTA!" I guess when you say Latta, you've said it all.

15) During this awful run, the entertainers for the Dream went to the audience to ask them trivia questions. The first one: "Which city is the #1 ozone-polluted city?" There were three choices, one being Los Angeles. Of course, the fan got the answer correct. The theme of "torment LA" had been established.

16) We had a hard time getting traction. Lehning would beat Kristi Harrower one possession and Lyttle would be stripped by Harrower the next. McCoughtry missed an open look shot.

At that moment, the announcer pointed out the presence of Pat Summitt in the front row. Summitt stood, and the crowd stood and applauded. Finally, they were applauding something that wasn't L. A. scoring.

17) Iziane Castro Marques sensed that we were falling behind. Usually, when it looks like we're getting buried, Iziane figures, "hey, if we're going to lose I might as well score 30 points". (The "Izi effect".) She brought us back up to within 3 points, 18-15.

It was then that Michael Cooper decided to bring Betty Lennox in. You remember "B-Money! Cha-Ching!" which was the old announcement whenever Betty Lennox scored? Well, when Betty Lennox scored the announcer said, quietly, "Betty Lennox". Sic transit gloria mundi.

18) I believe I said earlier that the key to the Dream winning is that our bigs - Lyttle and de Souza - intimidate the hell out of anyone trying to play them off the glass. De Souza has that spin move that's just fatal. Unfortunately, the likes of Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker are very hard to intimidate and they begin to push the Dream off the glass, since it's really the only game we've got.

The Sparks went on a 13-2 run, interrupted only by a McCoughtry basket. Latta came in for the helpless Lehning, but that didn't help. Betty Lennox hit a couple of threes. Armintie Price came in, made a bad shot, and committed a double-dribble. (I think jaye might be right when he said that Price watches her own dribble.) By the end of the quarter, the score was 30-19. With Betty Lennox's three to start the second, the Sparks would be up by 14 points.

19) I thought the place was looking pretty full. A friend and I were talking about attendance and I said, "you know, this might be the best turnout we've had since Camp Day".

20) Ivory Latta vs. Shannon Bobbitt - a matchup for the ages. It's the first time I've seen Latta matched up with someone who was smaller than she was.

The first time Latta had the ball, she lost it. Then she hit a 3-pointer. Then another 3-pointer. Then she got the foul from Shannon Bobbitt and sank two. In 90 seconds, Latta had scored eight points.

21) Some high weirdness - Michelle Snow taking a 3-point shot from the top of the arc and having it clank off the rim. The temperature must have risen 10 degrees as Pat Summitt's heat vision bored right through Snow.

22) Iziane, on the other hand, kept the hot hand and showed Atlanta "what would the Atlanta Dream be like if they had a consistent 3-point game?" I think the answer is "unbeatable". Castro Marques began to dig the Dream out of the hole all by her lonesome. She hit a 3pointer, then later sank two free throws off a foul by Delisha Milton-Jones. Then, when Lisa Leslie missed a layup, Castro Marques hit another 3-pointer eight minutes later. The gap was down to six points, 43-37 Los Angeles.

23) There is one thing that Los Angeles can do that really impresses me - it is their ability to pass the ball. When they decide that they want to pass it, not only can they pass it with precision but their height is absolutely a killer. If they find Leslie or Parker with a lob pass, not only can either of those players bring the ball down but a smaller player can't stop them. Lyttle and De Souza can't do that since they are the targets of passes from shorter players.

24) I got to see a Georgia Tech commercial at the game! Huzzah! And guess who was at the game? Head Coach Machelle Joseph and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. (But where was Georgia State? Why didn't you represent?)

25) With 2:22 going in the first half, Lacy hit a 3-pointer to close the score to 45-40.

26) An amusing sequence:

01:55 Castro Marques Rebound (Off:0 Def:2)
01:51 Castro Marques Layup Shot: Missed
01:50 McCoughtry Rebound (Off:1 Def:1)
01:48 McCoughtry Putback Layup Shot: Missed
01:47 DeSouza Rebound (Off:2 Def:2)
01:47 DeSouza Putback Layup Shot: Missed Block: Parker (2 BLK)
01:47 Lacy Rebound (Off:1 Def:3)

After four Dream players got their hands on the ball, Lacy finally got the foul, hitting one of two free throws. It was now 45-41. Los Angeles was over the limit in fouls.

27) McCoughtry was going to the boards as hard as anyone else, but she couldn't get the shots to fall. During the last 1:15, the Dream missed four shots - although one was a desperation time-expiring shot with Angel McCoughtry playing 1-on-3. The half ended with the Sparks leading 47-41.

28) Halftime: The big spectacle at halftime was the awarding of an Atlanta Dream jersey to Pat Head Summitt. This brought the crowd on their feet. Coach Summitt's number in the Dream pantheon is #1000, or "1K". Summitt is the only NCAA basketball coach in Division I (male or female) to win 1000 games.

29) The Atlanta Dream instituted a new program, modeled after the successful "Cash for Clunkers". It was called "Cash for Cluckers" and featured Atlanta Dream mascot Star and two fans, one wearing a Dream shirt and the other wearing L. A. colors. The game was to see who could act the most like a chicken. Each fan would be blindfolded and begin imitating corn-eating fowl. The winner got a prize.

The joke was that as the Los Angeles fan started her chicken dance, the Atlanta fan's blindfold was removed and she and Star sat down and ate popcorn. Silly Sparks fan! You got punk'd! (I suspect, however, that this was not an actual Los Angeles Sparks fan. Maybe the SparksFO will plan revenge.)

30) A lot of the fans disappeared at 1/2 time. Why? The Lady Vols were out in the lobby signing autographs. I don't see why they left, since I suspect that most of these fans have enough Lady Vols signatures to fill a family bible - "The Gospel According to Pat".

31) The Dream had been held to 5 rebounds in the first half and only shot 38.9 percent to the Sparks's 46.3 pecent. We were losing the battle of the boards. On the other hand, we went 5-for-8 from 3-point land.

32) Lyttle, after being held scoreless in the first half, got her head on straight. She scored the first four points for the Dream in the third, beating Parker one-on-one for the second basket. It was now a two point game, 47-45.

33) Angel McCoughtry was the participant in the iPod Challenge. Her task was to sing "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child. She substituted a few Dream-centric lyrics and sang something which only had a slight resemblance to Destiny's Child and a stronger resemblance to a cat in a blender.

34) The Dream brought out the Sugar Hill Gang song "Apache" to move the crowd. Usually, we don't get to hear "Apache" until the fourth quarter. Maybe both teams were playing so hard that it seemed like 40 minutes.

35) The T-shirts the Shooting Stars Dancers were wearing under their red zip-ups? They read "BEAT LA". The announcer tried to get a "BEAT LA" chant going, with limited success.

36) The Dream were finally fighting back on the boards, not assuming that LA would fold. Iziane hit a 3-pointer to close the game to within one, and with 6:50 left, McCoughtry made a layup that returned the lead to Atlanta, 52-51.

37) The next minute or so categorizes Los Angeles's temporary third-quarter meltdown:

Quinn Foul : Shooting (2 PF)
Leslie Foul : Loose Ball (3 PF)
Harrower Foul : Personal (1 PF)
Harrower Foul : Shooting (2 PF)
Leslie Foul : Offensive (4 PF)
Leslie Turnover : Foul (2 TO)

Iziane hit another 3-pointer. McCoughtry hit a jumper with 5 minutes left. The Dream were up 58-53 and the attendance was announced....

...11,304! A sell-out crowd! The announcer played another fourth quarter staple, "YMCA".

38) Los Angeles woke up. For the rest of the quarter, it was very intense and Los Angeles closed to a one-possession game. Latta was in the game but it seemed that the Sparks had figured out Latta. With 30 seconds left, Noelle Quinn hit a pair of free throws to finish the third quarter with a 63-63 tie.

The Dream announced Iziane Castro Marques as the Player of the Game with 23 points. My friend and I rolled our eyes. They play four quarters. I don't know if the DFO remembered that, but I'm sure that the Sparks did.

39) The "BEAT-L-A" chant came back, but in the fourth quarter, Los Angeles started with a 10-4 run. Thompson was left wide open on a jump shot. Michelle Snow threw up an airball and it seemed like Atlanta was regressing. Latta picked up her third personal foul - why, I can't figure out because I don't think she was doing anything wrong.

With 6:08 left, the Sparks had a 75-67 lead. The trivia people went out in the audience and asked which city had the worst traffic: Atlanta, New York, or Los Angeles? Can you guess the answer?

40) The Dream had an advantage - Lisa Leslie had picked up her fifth foul. The question was if the Dream could make up the deficity. Los Angeles began to push the Dream back off the boards again.

Time was starting to run out. Down 81-73, Lyttle, McCoughtry, Castro Marques (from three), and Lehning all tried shots - but the Sparks closed the basket. An Iziane Castro Marques brought it to a two-possession game, 81-75, with 1:58 left.

41) Unfortunately, Erika de Souza and Ivory Latta committed three personal fouls each in the fourth quarter. With 49.2 seconds left, Atlanta was already over the limit. This began what I call the Long March to the Payback Bar. Atlanta would foul, and try to force the Sparks to flinch at the free throw line.

The Dream sent Parker twice. They sent Milton-Jones, Lennox, and Thompson once. Ten free throws...and the Sparks hit nine of them. The game had bogged down so much that one fan screamed at the referees, "Are you getting paid by the hour?!"

42) With 13 seconds left, Thompson hit two free throws to put the game effectively out of reach, 89-82. Six seconds later, Mccoughtry hit a jumper - her 20th point - to close the gap to 89-84 with 7 seconds left. So Parker got sent back to the foul line, and as before, hit both shots.

McCoughtry hit a final 3-pointer with 2 seconds left to close the Dream to 91-87. But the Dream couldn't come back. Our 3-game win streak was over.

(* * *)

After the game, Pat Summitt spoke to the collected crowd. It was a short speech - maybe 3 1/2 minutes or so. She talked about the need to support the WNBA and women's basketball, and by extension, the Dream. I fully concur.

Whew. I feel like I just played the game. The statistical post-mortem comes later.

Dream/Sparks Gallery from SPMSportsPage.com

Craig Cappy's gallery of pictures from the Dream/Sparks game is up.

SPM sports also has an article about the game. Scout.com's "Tennessee division" has a Tennessee-centric summary as well.

A Tough Ticket

The haters love to mock WNBA attendance, but Clay of the Clay and Robbie Blog found that getting tickets to the Dream/Sparks game wasn't so easy:

I search the ticket office and found there were indeed tickets left. To my thinking, I could wait and grab the $5 off coupon from Sherie and I would be in the door for $5. At 12:04 no tickets were available. OMG I thought. What will I do? How did I left myself pass the opportunity to see Pat Summitt?

...

We parked and headed to the Box Office. OMG at all the Knoxville buses letting fans off. I swear it looked like Tennessee on football game day. I have never seen so much orange. Anyway, we walked on and one of the fans told us that Pat Summitt had bused all the fans down for free that wanted to come and had tickets. Is she not precious? How sweet.

Atlanta vs. Los Angeles, Sunday August 23

Who: The Atlanta Dream (14-11) take on the Los Angeles Sparks (12-13), a game between two potential WNBA playoff teams.

The Dream have Chamique Holdsclaw (13.9 ppg) as well as All-Star Team members Sancho Lyttle (13.4 ppg) and Erika de Souza (10.9 ppg). Lisa Leslie (15.1 ppg) and Tina Thompson (12.2 ppg) lead the Sparks in scoring, and Candace Parker (10.9 ppg, 8.8 rpg) is always a threat.

What: The first of two games this year against the Sparks. The Dream are 1-1 lifetime against the Sparks.

Where: Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA

When: Tipoff is 3:00 pm Eastern on Sunday, August 23. The game is available on WNBA Live Access.

Why: There are so many whys that it's very difficult to pick one of them. As a matter of fact, if I were only allowed to see one Dream home game this year, this one would be the one.

1. This will be the last time Lisa Leslie appears in Atlanta as a player. She's retiring after this year. She is a 3-time WNBA Most Valuable Player, is the only player in the WNBA to score 6,000 points in a career and is a four-time Olympic gold medalist. If you don't see her during her last game in Atlanta, you have no one to blame but yourself.

2. This is the final weekend home game of the year. Furthermore, there are only two more home games left after this one - Tuesday's game against Sacramento and a game in Saturday against Connecticut. Of course, there's always the playoffs....

3. Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt is going to speak to the crowd after the game. Summitt is the only head coach, male or female, in NCAA Division I basketball to win 1,000 games in a career. And you don't even have to pay extra to hear her speak.

4. The Dream have won three straight. The Sparks have won four straight. So someone's winning streak has to die.

5. If you're a Betty Lennox fan, you get to see her in the enemy uniform. Lennox was the lead scorer for the Dream during the 2008 season.

6. Dunkamania. Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker are the only two players who have dunked in a regular season WNBA game. Michelle Snow of the Dream has dunked in college, but not in the pro game. It is not out of the realm of possibility that someone could throw down.

7. Really, who doesn't want to beat the damned Sparks? They get all the popular players. They're always in the news. It's always "Lisa Leslie this" and "Candace Parker that" in the print media. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution might even show up!) It's time to develop some good old fashioned hatred and cheer for the home team against the Sparks.