23/2009 - Dream 80, Shock 75: Driving on Flats

The Dream's performance was pretty bad on Thursday. It was obviously, patently bad. However, it was marginally better than the loss against the Sky five days earlier. Sometimes when you're driving on a flat, you're screwed, but other times you can get where you want to get on three good tires.

We'll start by looking at Dean Oliver's Four Factors - you can think of them like a car's four tires.

Field goal shooting: The Dream hit 40.7 percent of its field goals and went 4-for-9 from 3-point range. That's an effective field goal percentage of 45.7 percent. However, the Shock only went 3-for-13 from 3-point range. This gives Detroit a field goal rate of 39.1 percent and an effective field goal percentage of 41.3 percent. Give the Dream a slight edge.

Turnovers: The Shock wins this one. The Dream have returned to their free handling ways, giving up the ball 20 times compared to just 17 from Detroit.

Offensive rebound percentage: Both teams had the same number of offensive rebounds - 12. However, the Dream got more of the defensive rebounds, lowering the Shock's offensive rebound percentage to 30.8 percent and raising the Dream's to 33.3 percent. It's really a wash.

Field goal visits: The Dream had 37 visits compared to Detroit's 26. I condemned the Dream for not being able to hit its shots in the first half, but they shot 75.7 percent overall, compared to the Shock hitting 69.2 percent of its free throws - "European levels". You can say that the game was won at the free throw line.

Now, let's look at the Shock's individual performances:

Deanna Nolan: 20 points, but it took 25 field goal attempts and 6 free throw tries to get there. She went 0-for-6 from 3-point range and once the Dream switched off on Nolan in the third quarter they began to take control of the game.
Katie Smith: 17 points. She fouled out, but she hit all of the Shock's 3-pointers.
Cheryl Ford: 15 points, 8 rebounds. She's slow now, so think of what she'll be when/if she recovers.
Shavonte Zellous: 10 points, 4 rebounds.

And now, let's look at the Dream and how they did.

Sancho Lyttle: The Dream organization named Erika de Souza the Player of the Game, but Lyttle had 10 points and 12 rebounds of her own. She had fewer personal fouls, didn't miss any free throws, and got back up from a shoulder to the ribs that sent her to the locker room for a while in the fourth quarter. I think an argument can be made that Lyttle was the Dreamer of the Game.

Erika de Souza: ...then again, there's a lot to be said for de Souza: 15 points and 13 rebounds is nothing to turn your nose up against. De Souza is starting to show more emotion in her game; I don't know if that's a good thing or if de Souza should return to her former calm and cool state.

Chamique Holdsclaw: 14 points and 7 rebounds. She was 2-for-10 in shooting, and had 7 rebounds and 3 assists. If she had hit more of her shots, she'd be a contender.

Shalee Lehning: 6 points and 5 assists. Lehning needs to both score and initiate the offense and she's learning how to balance those responsibilities.

Angel McCoughtry: There needs to be a stat called the "McCoughtry" - scoring 10 points in less than 20 total minutes played. If it existed, she'd be the league leader. She scored 11 points but had some problems with turnovers and fouls.

Iziane Castro Marques: 16 points, but 5 turnovers and 4 personal fouls. Castro Marques let Deanna Nolan roam freely in the first half. Egad. Castro Marques scored 16 points, but how many points did she give up.

Coco Miller: Played four minutes, attempted a 3-pointer and made it. Thank you.

Ivory Latta: Almost had a "trillion" in the stat line. Latta didn't take a shot in the four minutes she played. She had a steal, but also had a turnover, and the second immediately followed the first. Kind of a wash, really.

Armintie Price: Did not play. Kind of surprising, but when you've got Iziane Castro Marques playing 36 minutes and Shalee Lehning playing 35, there's not much of a call for the Dream's newest player. She does look nice in the uniform, though.

Jennifer Lacy: Took one free throw, and missed it. One point.

Michelle Snow: 14 minutes with 1-for-4 shooting. Four rebounds, but 3 turnovers. Hmm. Do you give the nod to a bad performance that was short, or a performance with both bads and goods that takes up more time? We're going to split the infant here and give both Jennifer Lacy and Michelle Snow the Still Snoozin' award. Neither Lacy nor Snow are known to sleep in that much, and hopefully Seattle will wake them up.