10/2010 - Dream 90, Silver Stars 83

Past meets present.

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After watching the Seattle game and the Chicago game, I finally got what I was looking for - a suspense-filled game that never failed to keep my interest and ended in a Dream victory. So I'll give you my minute-by-minute impressions.

1) Erika, Iziane, and Yelena Leuchanka were shooting around before the game started. It's kind of an odd trio, since as far as I know Leuchanka doesn't speak Portugese. They seemed to get along fine, though....

2) ...or maybe, it's just Leuchanka's personality. Before the game, Edwige Lawson-Wade of the Sparks walked up to Leuchanka and the two chatted a little while. Without going to basketball-reference.com, I don't quite know the Leuchanka-Lawson-Wade connection. Maybe they played together in Turkey, or somewhere in Europe. I dunno.

3) It seems that every coach except for Marynell Meadors was out there working on drills with the Dream before the game start. I definitely saw Carol Ross. I could have sworn I saw both Fred Williams and Sue Panek out there. With eleven players and three coaches, it looked like the Dream were holding a convention on their side ofthe court.

4) Ross was working with the posts again. This drill involved long passes to the posts from the perimeter, with the goal of the posts to bank it in or otherwise make the bucket. Ross can really heave the ball - I wonder if Ross could hit a 3-pointer if she wanted to?

5) Early on in the crowd, I saw a fan walking to find her seat. She was wearing a Silver Stars T-Shirt - #25, Hammon's jersey.

Reading RebKell, I've discovered that there is an unwritten kind of jersey protocol. As far as I can tell, this is how jerseys are "supposed" to be worn by fans. In descending order of preference:

a) Atlanta Dream jerseys with current players
b) Atlanta Dream jerseys with previous players (Lennox, Latta, Holdsclaw....)
c) Retired Hall-of-Famer jerseys (Cooper, Griffith)
d) Jerseys of the corresponding NBA team, if it exists - for Atlanta, this would be Atlanta Hawks jerseys
e) Jerseys of the enemy team (Hammon, in this case) - the person wearing the jersey can be teased, but abuse is classless unless the wearer of the enemy jersey is provoking abuse
f) A "personalized" Dream jersey with your nickname instead of the player name and a number not in use
g) A "personalized" Dream jersey with your real name and a number not in use
h) A "personalized" Dream jersey adorned with the number of an existing player, but not that player's name - say, wearing Shalee Lehning's number (#5) with your last name instead of "Lehning" (the crime is that you've obliterated the player)
i) Any overly "femmy" jersey in pastel colors - if your jersey is pink because it was worn by a Dream player during their Breast Cancer Awareness game, you get an exception

This protocol isn't listed anywhere, it's just what I happened to have picked up following various threads. Supposedly, a male wearing any WNBA jersey is at the bottom of the list, because it's supposedly the gHey. On the other hand, most of the writers who came up with that rule seem to be douches, so if you're a guy and you want to wear a WNBA jersey, let your freak flag fly, baby!

6) And then, I saw them - Chamique Holdsclaw and later Michelle Snow wearing black and silver. Enemy colors. At Philips Arena. I don't know how to think about that. On the one hand, good for you that you've found another team where you can practice your considerable basketball skillz. On the other hand...black and silver. Enemy colors. Holdsclaw and Snow, you're violating the jersey code!

7) The National Anthem was sung by R&B singer Crystal Renee'. I thought it was okay. It could have been great for all I know; I'm no Simon Cowell.

8) Twice during the game, three superfans were honored by the Dream. The name of one was (I think) Arthur Fisk, and I never caught the name of the other two.

Why are they superfans? They climbed Mount Everest, and displayed the banner of the Atlanta Dream at basecamp. For these fans, the Dream is clearly on Top of the World.

9) Before the game: very quiet for some reason, the calm before the not-Seattle storm.

10) And then, I saw them again. The Brazilians! I tried to get a snapshot with my camera but my camera failed. They always sit in the same section and bear two big Brazilian flags, and are always wearing gold-colored shirts. This means that they are obviously Kansas State fans here to root for Shalee Lehning.

11) San Antonio's starting lineup: Lawson-Wade, Hammon, Young, Holdsclaw, and Snow. The big question - would the Atlanta faithful boo Holdsclaw? The mix was right down the middle, cheers and boos. Call Dream fandom ambivalent.

Atlanta's starting lineup: the usual - Lehning, Lyttle, Erika, Iziane and McCoughtry

12) Participating at the ceremonial ball exchange: Valdosta High School. No word as to if they brought their own posse.

13) A representative of Kia Motors was on hand on center court - Meadors and the Kia representative presented the Eastern Confererence Player of the Month award to Angel McCoughtry. McCoughtry's going to have to build extra shelf space for all of these.

14) Before the game, the jumbotron showed Lehning and McCoughtry singing "Ticket to Ride". No, that's not true. Rather, they were giving directions to the Dream. The game was about to start.

15) If there was a word to characterize the first quarter, it would be intense. I told myself, "it looks like "first team to crack up loses". The refs were determined to blow their whistle, and that meant that the Dream would be tested at the free throw line early on.

Before the game, the Dream's free throw average was hovering at a dismal 64 percent. With nine minutes to go, Sancho Lyttle would be the first Dream player to be tested at the charity stripe. She hit both of her shots - a good portent - and the Dream were up 4-2.

16) The Dream and the Silver Stars were determined to match shot for shot. Lehning hit a 3-pointer from the right side to put the Dream up 9-8...but Edwige Lawson-Wade matched that with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to bring the Silver Stars back up 11-9.

Before Lawson-Wade got her hands on the ball, McCoughtry had it, and it seemed that McCoughtry had a little trouble with handling the ball.

17) With about 4 1/2 minutes left to play in the first quater and the game tied at 11-11, Sancho Lyttle was called for her second personal foul. It's like clockwork - expect Lyttle to have two personal fouls, right away. I don't know if it's due to Lyttle's (relative) inexperience or if its due to the fact that post players pick up a lot of personal fouls. But, based on non-scientific observation, it appears that Lyttle always picks up two personal fouls early and sits down.

Alison Bales came in to replace Lyttle, Bales being our first option off the bench. Holdsclaw took a breather. Our first option off the bench immediately made a bad pass that helps you understand why Bales, even with her talents, isn't starting.

18) With the Silver Stars up 14-13, Toby Wyman (the Dream's COO) came out to honor the executive director of an organization called L. E. A. D. L. E. A. D. is an Atlanta organization designed to develop leadership, but I don't know what the initials stand for, and I couldn't find out at the website. I believe the honoree was Kelly Stuart, but I can't be positive about the name speling.

19) Sign watch: I haven't seen many fans carry signs into Philips so far this year, but someone was carrying a sign honoring Ali Bales. Anyone can carry a sign honoring Angel McCoughtry, or bring in a couple of Brazilian flags, but when your sign honors the future 2010 Sixth Woman of the Year, that means that you're a hardcore Dream fan. Either that, or a hardcore fan of very tall women.

20) At the beginning of the game, I looked at the empty seats surrounding me and I thought, "Well, that's just swell - a second game with only 2,000 in attendance." But with the first quarter halfway over, the fans were still coming in. I said, "Hmm...this crowd is starting to fill out a little...."

21) San Antonio extended its lead to 17-13 after a 3-pointer right of the arc from Edwige Lawson-Wade. Clearly, Shalee Lehning wasn't the answer to Lawson-Wade, so Lehning was yanked and Kelly Miller came in.

McCoughtry got a layup, and then Kelly Miller fed Erika de Souza for the basket, and suddenly it was a 17-17 game all over again. That's when San Antonio brought Holdsclaw back in.

22) The Dream are still wearing their tattoos to honor Kyle, this game's honoree of the "Armed With a Dream" program from the Atlanta Children's Hospital.

23) A great play near the end of the first quarter. Chamique Holdsclaw had the ball, and was ready to drive to the basket. Her sole defender was Alison Bales. Holdsclaw tried to post up the ball over Bales, but found that 6 feet 7 inches was simply too great an obstacle. The ball didn't fall, and McCoughtry ended up with the ball and sprinted to the other end to tie it at 20-20. The quarter would have ended at 20-20 if not for a 3-pointer by Roneeka Hodges with one second left to end the quarter with the visitors up 23-20.

24) At the end of the game, both teams were fairly evenly matched statistically. The Dream was shooting 42.9 percent, and the Silver Stars were shooting 41.2 percent. However, the Silver Stars were 4-for-7 from the 3-point line.

25) Yelena Leuchanka came out to start the second quarter. Leuchanka is our second option off the bench in the post and clearly, she's no Alison Bales. First, she threw the ball away with a bad pass. Then, she had a shot blocked by Michelle Snow. But eventually, the Dream found her and she hit a wide-open jumper to bring us back to 23-22.

26) Both teams had a sweet mid-range game going, with jumper after jumper falling in. It was 29-26 in favor of the visitors with 6:31 left in the half.

This is when the Dream had their "Stars at the Sun" promotion, to convince fans to vote for Dream players for the All-Star Game. Angel McCoughtry gave the intro, then Lyttle, Iziane and Erika added "and me!" and Lehning wrapped it up. The way Erika said "and me!" you'd suspect that they were the only words in English she knew...but she said them with enthusiasm.

27) With about 4 minutes to go in the half and the score tied, people were still marching in. The crowd was now looking pretty good. I thought that it was going to be...maybe...announced in the 7,000 range. Crowds this big usually get announced in the 7,000 range.

28) After calling their second full-time out, the Silver Stars seemed to settle down. Hammon scored one of those under the basket "loop-de-loops" at Marynell Meadors calls them to put the Silver Stars up 33-29. Hammon was staring to get warmed up.

The Dream were down 35-33, and Lehning made a diving save to the ground that made me wince, given Lehning's history of shoulder surgery. While the Dream were playing, it made it back to me that Candace Parker had suffered a similar shoulder injury and was headed to the hospital. Maybe Lehning needs to play with one of those giant braces that Parker plays in, just as a protective measure.

29) Just before the half was over, Lyttle made her third personal foul. She left the floor. Sophia Young drove to the basket, and Ruth Riley followed with a layup to give the Silver Stars the 39-35 lead. The last basket by the Dream was off a drive by Erika de Souza, and the Dream entered the halftime break down by two points, 39 to 37.

30) Halftime: as the fans aren't privy to what goes on during a halftime speech, we instead got to look at a Zumba party. (I told my wife that I got to see a Zumba party at the Dream game, and she said, "What, the vacuum cleaner?"

Zumba, for those who don't know what it is, is a new exercise craze that looks a lot like Latin dancing. Now, no one has ever confused me with Michael Jackson but if dancing and exercise are your things, you might want to try the Zumba. It looked kind of cool.

They also had more "person bowling". I think I explained this in a previous post. Seven gigantic plastic pins are set up at one end of a court, and a person sits on a small wheeled platform at the other end. His or her partner pushes the person on the platform down the court into the plastic pins.

I don't think they got more than three pins in either attempt. No strikes or even spares. Clearly, it will be a long time before person bowling becomes a demonstration Olympic sport.

31) With the start of the third quarter de Souza made another layup and we were tied 39-39. The Dream didn't leave the locker room cautious: on the contrary. Erika de Souza tried a lob pass to Iziane Castro Marques under the basket, and it would have been a perfect play except for the fact that Erika threw it just a little too hard. Iziane was forced to lean backwards to catch it, and she had no time to correct her posture before shooting.

32) Both sides went back to trading baskets again. One of those baskets was a semi-"alley oop" to Sancho Lyttle, or it would have been a true alley oop if Lyttle could leap that high. It was a high lob pass to Lyttle's outstreched hand when she was at layup distance from the basket.

33) Becky Hammons hit a 3-pointer with 6:34 left to give San Antonio a 51-47 lead. I say "Hammons" because that's what the announcer said, and the announcer is always right. (Hmm...whatever happened to Art Eckman, by the way?)

34) With about 5:40 left on the clock, Holdsclaw hit a jumper to put San Antonio up 53-48. Sancho Lyttle followed that with a bank shot and Iziane drove to the hoop and before San Antonio knew it, the game was almost tied again at 53-52. Time out, San Antonio.

35) During the time out, the celebrity dads and daughters came out and did some sort of dance contest. Among the participants were Ryan Cameron and his daughter or daughters, and I could swear that they mentioned that the daughter of Ludacris was there.

I found it very hard to pay attention, and didn't know who won the contest. The reason being that I was distracted by the Atlanta Dream mascot, Star. Star was dressed in a blue and red padded suit with red flowing cape - Star had transformed himself into "SuperStar"!!

36) ...and that's pretty much when the Dream transformed itself into SuperDream.

Angel McCoughtry once said that basketball is a game of runs. There was only one real run in this game, though. For almost the entire final six minutes of the third quarter, they just shut down the Silver Stars defensively.

Atlanta went on a 17-0 run. Steals. Free throws by Lehning. Lay ups by Lyttle. A bad 3-second violation call in Atlanta's favor. San Antonio going over the limit in personal fouls. Fate had suddenly tilted in the Dream's favor and San Antonio couldn't untilt no matter how hard they tried.

Down 53-49, the Dream found themselves up by double-digits at the end of the amazing run. They led by 66-55 with 39.4 seconds left in the third. Only a basket by Michelle Snow broke the run, and the Dream took a 66-55 lead into the fourth quarter.

37) All of a sudden, little dots could be seen at the top of the Philips Arena dome. It was time for another Aaron's Parachute Dog Drop! Aaron's Inc. is one of the Dream's sponsors and every now and then, little Aaron's mascot dogs - Lucky the Dog, I believe - parachute into the hands of waiting fans.

Those damned things were everywhere, but the fans didn't mind. I found myself grabbing one of those, but then I caught myself - hey, I don't have any kids - why do I even want one of these things? - after I grabbed it, I slung it in a random direction.

Unfortunately, I had slung it away from the "second place finisher" - the man who almost got it before I threw it away. My friends told me the poor fellow looked crestfallen. He probably had a kid, too, that would have liked that pup. I learned a valuable lesson that day - never get between a man and his dog.

38) The fourth quarter started, and it looked like the Dream wasn't going to keep its double-digit lead for long. The Silver Stars began to claw their way back into the game with the help of "The Claw" - Holdsclaw, who scored three points in the first half, five in the third quarter and was steadily gaining speed. She hit a jumper and then a couple of free throws to bring it back to 68-61.

With the score 70-61 in favor of the Dream, Armintie Price was called for a foul. I could see Shalee Lehning jawing with the referee. Oh, Lehning. Her image is of sweetness and light, and there she is giving the ref a hard time. You keep this up and we'll have to call you Diana Lehning.

39) San Antonio was determined to get the game down into 6-point territory come what may. Price was doing her damnest out there. With the Dream up 72-65, she got a steal but she couldn't hang on to the ball, and ended up doing an impromptu split on the Philips Arena home floor.

With 6:02 left in the game, the Dream called a full timeout.

40) During the full timeout, it was time for Dream Karaoke. The singer this time was Sancho Lyttle, who was singing some completely unrecognizable song which turned out to be "Glamorous" by Fergie. The contestant figured out Sancho's song, and then said to the crowd, "I'm glad Sancho can play ball."
40a) Did you know every Sunday home game they have family free throws at Philips Arena? After the game, the families can come out to the court, stand in line, and take a toss from the free throw line. That's kind of cool.

41) With less than five minutes left, McCoughtry got to the basket on a dubious skip step that put the Dream up by double digits again, 76-65. Holdsclaw got a couple of free throws and then another drive to the basket to close back to single digits, 78-69.

On the boards, it was another story. Atlanta got two second chances due to their offensive rebounding muscle, and Bales got the foul. Two free throws by Bales and it was 80-69.

42) With the Dream up 80-71, I saw something I had never seen...at least, I think I have never seen it. Lehning was moving the ball into the post area and generally, when Lehning gets the ball in that far she flees - she'll try desperately to kick it out rather than take a shot even if it's a wide-open shot.

She had the wide open shot and she hesitated a little - but she managed to calm herself and take the close up shot which she hit. 82-71 Dream. I suppose Lehning figured that she needed to make shots before Kelly Miller snapped up her starting position.

43) The Dream led 86-75. There was 2:01 left in the game. The Dream had entered the RuPaul Zone, where all you needed to do to win is to "don't f**k it up".

With exactly one minute left, Holdsclaw hit a basket to bring it to double digits, 86-77. The Silver Stars, needing points fast, but the ball into the hands of Edwige Lawson-Wade.

With about a minute on the clock, she hit a 3-pointer. 86-80 Dream. The ball ended up in McCoughtry's hands, but Sophia Young got the steal. Becky Hammon put the ball in Edwige Lawson-Wade's hands and she hit another 3-pointer with 28.7 seconds left. The score was now 86-83 Dream, and it looked like the Dream might need to LipSync For (Their) Life.

Needing to invoke the powers of SuperStar, the Dream handed the T-Shirt Shooting Gun back to Star - a sign of desperation, since Star once had it taken away from him after he aimed it at Bill Laimbeer.

44) With the Dream having the ball back with 28.7 seconds left, the Silver Stars would have to foul to get the ball back. Helen Darling and Edwige Lawson-Wade fouled in sucession, and McCoughtry visited the free throw line with 24.5 seconds left.

McCoughtry made the first shot. And the second. 88-83 Dream. San Antonio called for a 20-second time out, and then another one, back-to-back.

45) During the time out, it was odd to see Carol Ross giving instructions to the huddle. Marynell Meadors hung around outside the huddle as if she were Brittainey Raven.

46) Third time's the charm, right? When the Silver Stars got the ball they gave it to Lawson-Wade again, but she missed the 3-pointer with 8.9 seconds left. Snow got the rebound...but she was called for the travel with 7.6 seconds left. The ball was back in the Dream's hands. Iziane would bring in the ball and she was directing traffic on the court with her free hand.

47) 6.2 seconds left. The Silver Stars got Lehning on the foul. Lehning to the free throw line. If she hit both shots, the game was essentially over.

However, Lehning missed the first shot. That's okay. If Lehning hit the second, the Dream would be up by six and San Antonio would need two 3-pointers just to tie.

Then...Lehning missed the second shot. The shot bounced off the front of the rim and there was a mad scramble. Lehning got her own rebound and tried to lay it up but Snow blocked her shot. The ball ended up in Sancho Lyttle's hands and she made a shot with less than a second left.

It went in! 90-83 Dream. San Antonio got the ball back, to no avail! The game was over. A few minutes before the game was over, Lyttle had been named the Player of the Game. She finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds, and the crucial final rebound and basket.

Great game! And more about it later!

10/2010 - Liberty 91, Dream 79: Doghouses and their Construction

The Dream came up short in New York, 91-79. Well, come up short is probably the wrong word as the Dream never led at any time during that game. After winning six straight to start the season, the Dream have lost three of their last four. For some fans, that means that its time for panic to set in. The Dream play again at home on Sunday against the Silver Stars on a game scheduled for NBA-TV and no one knows if they should look forward to it with expectation or dread.

Once again, WNBA Live Access delivered a dud. I might try to catch this game if it's archived, but it seems that me (and my computers) and Live Access are simply never going to get along. I watched a short of a halting version of the game for the first half before frustration set in. Most of the time, I could hear the audio, but the New York announcer got so many elementary facts wrong - who knew that Alison Bales was a rookie? - and even had trouble providing an accurate score. It was just damned frustrating, although I did see Leilani Mitchell - all 5-5 of her, soaking wet - block a shot from Shalee Lehning. (Hint: It's not a good idea to begin your shot from somewhere below your knees.) In 76 career games Mitchell only has six blocked shots.

So let's look at the box score and see if we can learn anything:

Box score quarters: The Liberty won the first three quarters of the game. Unlike the previous matchup, the Liberty avoided a Dream comeback in the second half. The Dream got close in the third quarter, when an Angel McCoughtry layup with 6:56 left closed the gap to 46-44. The only quarter the Dream won was the fourth, and by that time the Liberty's lead was in double-digits.

Dean Oliver's Four Factors

Field goal percentage: The Liberty were the better shooters - they hit 47.1 percent of their attempted shots (32-for-68) compared to the Dream's 44.0 percent (33-for-75). But if the Dream were a better rebounding team, then why didn't they make up the 2.9 percent gap?

The answer is that the Liberty were far more effective with the 3-pointer than the Dream were. Atlanta was 2-for-13 from 3-point land. The effective field goal percentage for Atlanta was 45.3 percent. However, the Liberty went 9-for-20 from 3-point range. Leilani Mitchell hit all three of her 3-point attempts. So did Sidney Spencer. New York's effective field goal percentage was 56.3 percent, so if you're looking for a key to New York's victory, it was that their long-range bombing knocked us off the court.

Turnovers: New York 14, Atlanta 15. However, Atlanta had two more team possessions than New York, so New York's turnover percentage is just a sliver higher.

Offensive rebound percentage: Atlanta whipped up on the Liberty on the glass, with a 34.1 percent-15.6 percent advantage in offensive rebounding. Lyttle and de Souza both had double-doubles, but without scoring from everyone else it was wasted.

Free throws: A clear advantage to New York. New York was the best free throw shooting team in the W coming into this game, and Atlanta was the worst. The results tell the story:

Atlanta: 11-for-21, 52.4 percent
New York: 18-for-19, 94.7 percent

In a high-fouling game - the Dream had 21 personal fouls, the Liberty had 19 - every trip to the free throw line was another nail in Atlanta's coffin on both sides of the court.

And now, let's look at the individual players.

Erika de Souza: She had 21 points and 10 rebounds overall, shooting 9-for-13. However, she had four personal fouls and went 3-for-8 at the free throw line. Ugh. Even so, Erika's shooting accuracy made it a good game for her and she was the Dreamer of the Game.

Sancho Lyttle: 15 points, 14 rebounds. And three steals! However, she had four personal fouls and three turnovers. As it turned out, Lyttle only played 28 minutes and De Souza played 30. Without watching the game, I assume that fouls kept them on the bench more than they should have been. Still, good game for Lyttle as well.

Angel McCoughtry: 12 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists. McCoughtry only played 19 1/2 minutes of the game.

Given the Chicago-Atlanta game where the Dream fell by double-digits because McCoughtry ended up in Coach Meadors's doghouse. McCoughtry's 19 minutes for the game was the fewest minutes McCoughtry has played in a game since the preseason. This has led some fans to ask if McCoughtry has ended up back in the doghouse. Yes, McCoughtry's 6-for-12 shooting was more than decent but her -14 in raw plus/minus meant that the team slid backwards when she was on the court. She had three dimes, so I can't believe it was a case of selfishness.

We do know that McCoughtry ended up in the doghouse last year, if only briefly. Frankly, it's just too damned early in the seson to make catastrophic predictions, and professional athletes are great at looking ahead and not looking back.

Kelly Miller: 0-for-4, including 0-for-2 from the 3-point line. However, Kelly had six assists in the game. Whether Kelly Miller was being asked to perform Lehning's duties of push and get out of the way, I don't know. Besides, four shots taken are sometimes more than Lehning takes in a game.

Armintie Price: 4 points, 5 rebounds. Played 16 minutes, but she had five personal fouls.

Yelena Leuchanka: We're now getting into the realm of mediocre play. Four points, and she hit both of her shots. However, two personal fouls and a turnover in only 12 minutes played. Leuchanka had only two rebounds. One plus: Leuchanka's raw plus/minus was +0 in her 12 minutes on the court - her presence there neither hurt nor helped the team.

Iziane Castro Marques: Iziane should have done better at wiping the popcorn grease from her hands. Yes, her 17 points were second overall for the Dream. However, five of those points came from free throws. Outside of that, she was 5-for-15 from the floor and 2-for-7 from three point range. It was another night of Iziane taking crazy shots that didn't go in.

Alison Bales: Two points. 2-for-4 from the line in 10 minutes played. Two rebounds. -1 in raw plus/minus. Meh.

Coco Miller: The other Miller had 4 points in 2-for-4 shooting, only playing eight minutes.

Shalee Lehning: Okay, now we've reached the "bad game level". In the 14 1/2 minutes that Lehning played, she took two shots, and missed both of them. She had only one assist. Leilani Mitchell blocked one of her shots. She was pretty much negated when she was on the court. The last time Lehning played this poorly in 2010 it was when the Seattle Storm took her to school.

Lehning has to move her game a step up to stay in the WNBA. It didn't happen during this game.

Brittainey Raven: You can't blame Raven - at least she tried. Played 2 1/2 minutes, took a shot and missed it. When you're only getting a handful of minutes a game, you gotta make those shots.

As a result, both Shalee Lehning and Brittainey Raven both were both Bad Dreams - and Lehning's hogging up most of the bed space.

Okay. File it and forget it. The San Antonio Silver Stars come to Atlanta on Sunday. Let's be there to cheer on the Dream and sweep the Silver Stars for the season.

One Quarter of the Way

The Atlanta Dream are actually one quarter of the way through their season. They've played nine games and the season is only thirty-four long. I was hoping that I could watch games and comment on their results through the power of WNBA Live Access, but WNBA Live Access has proved punchless all year. I think I've only seen one game on Live Access that I could follow from beginning to end without technical errors. (Of course, when the team is on NBA TV you bet your bippy I'll be watching it.)

So how does the Dream shape up in the first quarter of the season? Which players are dreams and which ones are duds? Here are my reports regarding various players of the Dream.

1. Angel McCoughty: She's lost about 6 percent of her shooting touch, probably because she's playing more minutes and facing tougher defenses. Even so, McCoughtry is talked up as a potential WNBA Most Valuable Player for 2010. With all the things she juggles - US National Team Membership and being named a Dream co-captain - what's most surprising is that McCoughtry doesn't care about honors at all. McCoughtry has that rare quality of a superstar - the ability to will her team to win.

Best of '10: A 97-82 win against Connecticut where she scored 32 points and 10 rebounds. She could have broken her career scoring record in that game if she wasn't cooling her heels on the bench near the end.
Worst of '10: The 66-62 win over Indiana, which was our first home win of the year. She scored 11 points and shot 4-for-13 from the field.

2. Sancho Lyttle. Lyttle might be the most overlooked player on the Dream. The world is waking up and finally noticing Erika de Souza but they appear not to be sold on Sancho Lyttle's abilities. Lyttle has just gotten better and better as time passes. Part of it is due to the fact that she started basketball late in life; she always had the athleticism but each year adds to her understanding and sense for the rhythm of basketball.

Best of '10: When she was a big figure in that 97-82 home win against the Sun. 27 points, 11 rebounds. She was overshadowed however, by McCoughtry's amazing game listed above. Those two players combined for over half the Dream's points.
Worst of '10: The 86-77 road win against the Liberty. She played less than 20 minutes, shot 2-for-7 and had five fouls and just five points.

3. Erika de Souza: Is there anything that Erika de Souza can't do? She dominates the post, she's got height, she can knock Candace Parker off her pins and in the off-season she does it all over again in Spain. If there were something called an "All-World MVP", de Souza would be the #1 contender.

Best of '10: Our recent 86-79 overtime road win against the Mystics. Erika shot 11-for-15 from the floor and had 23 points and 11 rebounds.
Worst of '10: The 80-70 loss against Chicago at home. She scored zero points and shot 0-for-6 from the field. De Souza was essentially a non-factor.

4. Iziane Castro Marques: When McCoughtry and Iziane are hot, the Dream is unbeatable. One out of every three games Iziane is absolutely on fire, and when the Dream are playing well with her, we usually win. Will this be the year the "Iziane Effect" goes away?

Best of '10: The opener in San Antonio, where the Dream won 75-70. She scored 23 points with 9-for-18 shooting and had four steals for the Dream.
Worst of '10: The very next game after that - typical Iziane. Against Indiana, she only scored 5 points and was 0-for-5 from the 3-point line.

5. Armintie Price: A real surprise of 2009. After a mid-season trade to the Dream in 2009, Price seems to have recovered some of her confidence - being reunited with her old college coach Carol Ross didn't hurt. I don't think she'll ever be a consistent starter, but she'll be an adequate role player.

Best of '10: A 14-point game during our win against Indiana. That could have been a 20 point game with a little more luck. Price might be one of the best finishers in the WNBA.
Worst of '10: Against the Mystics she only had two points on 1-for-6 shooting.

6. Kelly Miller: The Dream moved up to Miller from Miller Light. When the Dream need the kind of offense that Lehning can't bring, they go to Kelly Miller. Miller's assist-to-turnover ratio isn't as good as Lehning's though, so she'll be playing behind Lehning for the time being - the name of the game is to get the ball to the Big Four.

Best of '10: Our 96-93 road win in Phoenix. She scored 10 points and two assists in just 17 minutes of play. She was 2-for-4 from the 3-point arc.
Worst of '10: The opener against San Antonio. She only played six minutes and had three turnovers.

7. Alison Bales: If Bales doesn't win Sixth Woman, she might win a Most Improved Player award. After a year off, Bales figured out a way to extend her career another year. If she keeps playing like this, she'll extend it another year.

Best of '10: The home win against Indiana where Bales had six blocked shots.
Worst of '10: Bales had no points and no blocks in the game against Washington and was at the bottom of raw plus/minus with -10.

8. Shalee Lehning: Many people who are Dream fans have strong opinions about Lehning. Should she be starting on the Dream? I don't think she scores enough and from point blank she can't shoot at all. However, all she's asked to do is to push the ball into the post and she does it well - Lehning usually leads in that classic stat assists/turnovers. If she learned how to shoot she'd be dangerous, but without that teams will be tempted to leave Lehning unguarded when she has the ball.

Best of '10: The win against Connecticut was the classing Lehning game. Zero points...ten assists.
Worst of '10: She was schooled in Seattle and Kelly Miller had to pick up the slack.

9. Yelena Leuchanka: Leuchanka's return to the WNBA hasn't exactly been the second coming of Lisa Leslie, but she's been effective in spots.

Best of '10: She had eight points in 15 minutes against Seattle. Her +6 in raw plus/minus was a bright point during a night full of minuses.
Worst of '10: Her debut against the Connecticut Sun. 0-for-3 shooting, zero points and 3 personal fouls.

10. Coco Miller: Maybe with the arrival of Kelly Miller Coco has figured that she doesn't have to produce. If her game doesn't pick up her only value to the Dream is going to be strictly promotional.

Best of '10: She had five points in just four minutes of play during that awful 80-70 loss against Chicago.
Worst of '10: The Phoenix game was the opposite of that. She shot 0-for-3 and only played four minutes.

11. Brittainey Raven: She won't get better unless she plays. And with so many good players on the Dream, she'll never get any minutes - Coco Miller is the only player with fewer minutes per game than Raven, and she's playing better than Raven.

Best of '10: She scored six points in garbage time against Seattle.
Worst of '10: Hard to pick one because she's played so little. Only two minutes played in Washington, made a shot, and missed it.

8/2010 - Sky 80, Dream 70

"Arthur, we're not always this bad."
"I believe you. I'm still waiting for MY ring."

All right. I'm going to have to revisit this one, but God knows what I'll write about it. It's just one of those memories that you don't want to return to, when you were at some teen function and someone insulted you to uproarious laughter and you came up with the perfect comeback - two years later. In this case, it was the Sky that insulted the Dream and the Dream had no comeback, just shriveling away.

My observations, again:

1) Tonight was "Green Night" for the Dream. The last time we had a Green Night at Philips Arena we beat the holy heck out of the Phoenix Mercury 106-76. Maybe we needed the exact same color of green, but hey, we were 1-0 during our attempts to improve environmental awareness, and we were 1-6 all time against the Sky. If the Green Mojo was going to work, it would be for this game.

2) My first concern was Iziane Castro Marques. Usually, the Dream do some sort of shootaround before the game, one of those weaves where a player shoots, then runs over to a forming line of players on the opposite side of the court to make her next shot. Most players jog through these drills, trying to get some pep going.

Iziane was walking through drill. (This will not be a "practice" rant that most NBA fans have used regarding Allen Iverson.) I thought, "wow, if Iziane can't get into this game who else can't?"

3) The National Anthem was sung by Dream season ticket holder (called STHs in WNBA parlance) and Dream ambassador Emile Worthy. He did a servicable job, singing most of it in a low baritone. He wasn't a professional singer, but at least I should give him credit for not trying (and failing) to stretch the song into a two-octave range: the man knew his limitations.

4) Looked for Dream fan pilight. I never saw him in the crowd. Later, I learned that he arrived late due to traffic. He didn't miss anything.

5) Dream starters: Lehning, McCoughtry, Lyttle, Iziane, Erika.
Sky starters: Canty, Perkins, Christon, Kraayeveld, Fowles

6) There's usually a Dream ceremonial ball exchange, where the Dream come storming out of the tunnel, get a basketball and hand it off to some deserving fans. This time, the ball exchange invitees were from Williams Sullivan High School. When the name of the school was announced, there was a roar from the crowd. Williams Sullivan High School has their own entourage! Represent, Williams Sullivan!!

7) The announcer made note of two celebrities in the crowd. I believe they were here for the "Celebrity Dads and Daughters" promotion.

The first one was owner of the Atlanta Falcons Arthur Blank. I was glad to see him here, helping out the Dream just by showing up even though he didn't have to. The other one was Mike Smith, the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. As he was announced, he got a scattering of applause, except for one man who waited until the applause died and screamed "BOO!!"

Maybe Mike Smith needed to bring his own entourage, or at least give Williams Sullivan High School a call.

8) The first sign this was going to be a bad game for Angel McCoughtry was very early in, about two minutes in. Jia Perkins of the Sky and Angel McCoughtry were going at it and McCoughtry just shoves Perkins out of her position. It was an offensive foul, McCoughtry's fault on the touch, and yet McCoughtry had some words for the officials. Two shots for Perkins, and it's later 6-2 Chicago.

9) Someone sent me some mail recently asking a question so I rewatched the part of the first quarter up until the 5:34 mark. This is when the Sky had a 12-6 lead and McCoughtry was suddenly yanked. McCoughtry had made a grand total of one shot, and the Dream failed to get the ball to her when she was open on at least one occasion.

Looking again, the matchup was clearly McCoughtry vs. Perkins. McCoughtry looked very tired, sort of jogging rather than sprinting. I don't know if it was lack of effort or just exhaustion but Perkins clearly knew that McCoughtry wasn't going to give her any problems. During the time McCoughtry was on the court, Perkins was 3-for-3, contributing six points of the Sky's twelve.

10) When McCoughtry was yanked for Price, it seemed to wak up Atlanta. A pair of drives to the hoop by Price and then by Iziane, and Atlanta was just down 10-12. A 3-pointer from Kelly Miller gave the DReam their first lead of the game, 15-12.

11) Mike Smith learned the perils of sitting courtside - Armintie Price knocked a ball into Mike Smith's direction, and the coach of the Falcons almost had a souvenir.

12) The lead didn't last long. An Epipphany Prince jumper was followed by a layup by Sylvia Fowles, who got fouled and picked up the free throw. The Dream were down 16-15.

Both teams were beginning to bring their second units in. Tamera Young - remember her, Dream fans? - attempted a drive to the basket and Sancho Lyttle just hacked Young. Lyttle had her second personal foul, seemingly always starting the second quarter with two personal fouls. Young got one of two free throws to make it an 18-15 game.

13) With the first quarter winding down and Sylvia Fowles off the court, it seemed that the Dream couldn't catch a break. With no time on the shot clock, Erin Thorn uncorked a basket as the 24-second buzzer sounded to give the Sky a 22-15 lead. Armintie Price was fouled while shooting for two shots with 22.9 seconds left.

Price hit the first shot. She usually only hits one of two. Every time the announcer says, "Armintie Price shooting two," I mutter back, "and hitting one."
She got the first shot but the second was wiped away when Yelena Leuchanka stepped into the lane too soon.

Thorn's final shot missed, and the Sky led 22-16 at the end of one. Both Angel McCoughtry and Erika de Souza were scoreless, and the Dream had eight turnovers.

14) McCoughtry came back out at the beginning of the second quarter but she was still having a few problems. Tamera Young came out to guard McCoughtry.

McCoughtry went right. Young went right.
McCoughtry went left. Young went left.
McCoughtry went right. Young went right.

McCoughtry's initial drive was negated. She ended up missing her first shot, but she helped with a mini-rally. Down 25-18 after a 3-pointer from Erin Thorn, McCoughtry found Yelena Leuchanka who scored and then hit a 3-pointer of her own to close the gap to 25-23.

15) However, Shameka Christon fired a long three of her own and the Sky were further away again. It seemed that the Dream were going to stay within about 6-7 points of the Sky - never getting a run long enough to close the gap but never allowing the Sky to sprint away. And so it went.

16) The Dream are still wearing their "Armed With a Dream" tattoos. This is a promotion with Aaron's Inc. and the Children's Hospital of Atlanta where Dream players will wear a stick-on tattoo of a patient's name during the game. On the name of the upper arm of every Dream player was "Catrina", this game's honoree.

Someone told me that McCoughtry had hers on upside-down. I have no graphic evidence, not yet anyway.

17) We had another celebrity in the house: Vivica Fox. I thought she was known as "Vivica A. Fox", myself. Don't try to visit her website unless you have a computer that can handle Matrix-level graphics.

Hmm. I wonder if she's here in Atlanta to film a show. "Kill Bill Part Three?" "Tyler Perry's Vivica A. Fox?"

18) I happened to catch Kathy Betty (owner of the Dream) hobnobbing in the front row with Arthur Blank (owner of the Falcons). It would be interesting to know what they were chatting about, even if it were only small talk. Maybe Blank is telling Betty that what the Dream needs is a brand new stadium somewhere in Doraville.

19) I always seem to be of three minds regarding Iziane Castro Marques. When both she and Angel are on fire, the Dream can't be stopped. I'm perplexed, however, at her sometimes indifferent defense and her attempts to shoot in front of three defenders.

However, Izi can amaze you. She hit a 3-pointer to close the game to 33-28 and when she got the ball back she executed a beautiful behind-the-back dribble in motion that left me amazed. Clearly, Iziane Castro Marques is a skilled player, but how do you get the best out of her?

20) Dominique Canty got the ball from Sylvia Fowles on a drive to the basket to put the Sky up 35-28. When Canty got the ball back again, Angel committed a shooting foul that sent Canty back to the free throw line, where she hit one of two.

36-28 Sky. 4:22 left. Meadors yanked McCoughtry once again, and we didn't see her for the rest of the first half.

21) With the second quarter winding down, the Dream tried to provide at least some defensive intensity. It was the offense that the Dream couldn't get right - they just couldn't move the ball in the halfcourt. All in all, the Dream committed 13 first-half turnovers.

The only thing that saved the last few minutes of the second half was Coco Miller. Not Kelly Miller, Coco Miller although it's hard to tell because each player has the name "MILLER" on her jersey with no initial. (They might simply be wearing the same jersey, with one Miller hidden in the wings for the hand-off while the other claims the need of a bathroom break.) Coco Miller hit a sweet 3-pointer and then saved an Erika de Souza miss on a putback with 11 seconds left after the offensive rebound to close the Dream within five points, 40-35 at halftime.

22) At least the halftime show was interesting. Human bowling. At the end of the lane an ersatz bowling alley was set up with gigantic plastic pins. Contestants pushed their partners down the court while they rode a platform with wheels on it - one person was the bowler and the other sitting on the platform was the ball. I think one of the contestants lost her slipper.

The Dream was outshooting the Sky, 44.4 percent to 41 percent. However, the Sky had taken 12 more shots than the Dream had. Furthermore, the Sky were leading the offensive rebounding battle which is unheard of. Atlanta's rebound game had disappeared. Erika had six rebounds, but Sancho Lyttle only had two. The Dream had been held to just two offensive rebounds in the first half...and Coco Miller had one of those.

23) Other announcements. Brian Finnerman was announced as being in attendance late in the second quarter. I had no idea who Brian Finnerman was. He's a wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons.

24) There was more halftime joy from the High Velocity Super Dunking Crew. This was the third or fourth time I've seen the Crew, and let me tell you, they can put on a shot. However, the Dream's bad luck seemed to rub off on them, as they missed two point-blank dunks. The Super Dunking Crew is usually more sure-handed.

25) Recieving the handoff in the beginning of the second half - some kids from Walker High School. They didn't seem to have the entourage that the Williams Sullivan High School kids had.

26) Angel started again in the third quarter. Her line from the first half: 1-for-4, 5 points, 10 minutes played. She spent ten seconds on the dribble against Jia Perkins and couldn't move the ball against her. Perkins was on McCoughtry like Teflon on a non-stick griddle.

As it turned out, no one else was going to move the ball either. The Dream looked like they were sleepwalking - always a half-step off, never in rhythm. They lacked fluidity, the sign of a well-running team. When a team is in the zone, it seems that every pass is crisp and every rebound decisive. Every opportunity falls into their hands. None of those descriptions characterized the Dream.

The Sky went on a 16-6 run to start the third quarter. Sancho Lyttle picked up a blocking foul, her third. Erika de Souza picked up a blocking foul. De Souza still hadn't scored. The Dream simply couldn't find her on the court, and when you can't find Erika de Souza on a court, you know that you're going to have problems.

The run ate up almost five minutes of the third quarter. If it weren't for Sancho Lyttle - who scored all six points for the Dream in the first five minutes of the third - it would have been a 16-0 Chicago run. All the Dream had to show for it was two turnovers, two personal fouls and three missed shots.

The Dream only took four shots in that five minute Chicago run. You can't win games that way. The Dream's lack of activity just killed the crowd.

27) To keep the crowd interested, Mike Smith and Brian Finnerman faced off with a 3-point challenge. Finnerman proved to be the winner, hitting a single 3-pointer in the alotted time.

28) Tonight's Karaoke singer was Brittainey Raven, who sang Keri Hilson's "Knock Me Down". I didn't recognize the song, and definitely not due to Raven's singing. Raven's vocal range is two notes.

So why wasn't Raven in the game with the Dream down 56-43 and 4:13 left on the clock? That's the life of a third-round draft pick that makes the team - the only time you're going to get is when you're up - or down - by twenty points.

29) What I didn't like: on a possession both Alison Bales and Shalee Lehning passed up shots that I thought either of them could have made. Ladies, you're down by double-digits, what on earth are you waiting for?

30) The officiating: not good. I'm not going to whine too much about it, but it was clearly substandard. It's not to blame for our loss, though.

31) For a few moments, there was a raw of hope. Down 58-46 and with about 2 1/2 minutes left, Iziane hit a 3-pointer off an assist from Shalee Lehning. Thirty seconds later Price found Iziane all alone and Iziane downed another three.

58-52 Chicago! There was still hope!

32) And then, twenty seconds later, hope disappeared. Alison Bales was called for a phantom foul - Shameka Christon tripped without any contact from Bales and the ref from the other side of the court called an illegal screen. The ball went back into the Sky's hands, and Bales was called for a foul trying to defend Sylvia Fowles. The Sky had the momentum again.

Fowles would get one of two free throws. Lehning would get a couple of free throws and Prince would score under the basket. The Sky had a 61-54 lead at the end of the third quarter.

33) The Dream were still outshooting the sky. Even without the help of Angel McCoughtry or Erika de Souza, the Dream were shooting 46.3 percent from the field - but the Sky were shooting 44.4 percent and had taken 13 more shots. The Dream put together a 13-5 run to end the third quarter, which is why they were only down by seven. The Sky was still winning the battle of the glass.

34) As the fourth quarter started, the hope was that the Dream could stir from their doldrums. McCoughtry was sitting on the bench as the fourth quarter started. Lyttle scored the first points of the fourth with a layup that closed us within five points - but Shameka Christon fired a rainbow 3-pointer that put the Sky up 64-58.

It was time for another Sky run. The Dream would go cold to start the fourth as the Sky took a 10-4 run over the first four minutes to take a 73-61 lead. The Dream was back down by double digits again. The hope was that either Cathrine Kraayeveld or Shameka Christon - each with four personal fouls - would hit foul trouble and that Chicago would need more of their second unit.

The crowd certainly wanted to jump in. They screamed when Kelly Miller hit a 3-pointer for the Dream's 61st point. But it seemed that the Sky would stay up by double-digits for a little while. The Sky only had five minutes left in the fourth quarter and Chicago was entering RuPaul territory - the man who advises his aspiring drag queens to "Don't f**k it up." If the Sky didn't screw up, they'd have the win. Who knows, this was the Chicago Sky...the Sky might indeed f**k it up. We could only hope.

35) With 3:48 left in the fourth, McCoughtry had been back on the court for around three minutes. She hit a 3-pointer, her ninth point, to bring Atlanta back up to 76-66.

Steven Key, the Chicago coach, has a new nickname from me: "Pope". It's because when he complains to the referees, he has both arms outstreched as if he's giving an imaginary benediction.

36) A pair of free throws by Atlanta closed it back to 76-68. With 2:15 left, McCoughtry committed foul #4 of the game.

37) Over the final three minutes of the game, only six points were scored. I suspected that both teams wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. The Sky wanted another win. The Dream players just wanted to forget.

The crowd was starting to head for the exits at Philips Arena. They weren't leaving. They were fleeing. Fleeced once again by Chicago. Beaten by Steven Friggin Key.

38) With 13 seconds left, McCoughtry broke into double digits in scoring. A layup closed the Dream to 80-70. But we needed a lot more than 13 seconds. The game was over.

Thank goodness! Let's hope for a win tonight against the Mystics!

6/2010 - Storm 90, Dream 72

Former Connecticut player Iziane Castro Marques wishes she were back in Brazil.

(Picture above comes from Chuckarelei's gallery at SportsPageMagazine.com.)

Yesterday, I spent most of the day counting the minutes to Atlanta-Seattle. I have two cats who are not Atlanta Dream fans - yet - and I wondered how much of my time I'd have to spend corralling one or the other of them.

Maybe I should have spent the time with the cats instead. The Dream lost 90-72 on the final game on their four-game road swing. Don't let the score fool you - that could just have easily been 100-72 if the Storm wanted it that way. The Storm got into the car, climbed into the driver's seat, and simply zoomed off into the distance leaving Atlanta to chase behind like a dog after a car.

1) You'd think that Key Arena would have been packed to the rafters, but I was surprised. The crowd was what I'd call "average to good" without having any other standard by which to measure. I wonder why? Was there some sort of NBA game on to compete?

2) ESPN2 started with a look into each team's locker room. Generally, there's not a lot to be learned from these visits. Locker room talk isn't like that of Vince Lombardi even in the most dramatic of situations...you might learn a little bit but it's usually a pedestrian reinforcement of points the players should already know.

For Brian Agler of Seattle, the emphasis was to put pressure on Atlanta's passers. Meadors was committed to the transition game: "They can't defend what they can't catch." Agler wants to deny the transition game; Meadors wants to emphasize it.

3) There was some brief discussion of Chamique Holdsclaw's departure, a loss that seems like it happened a year ago instead of a month ago. The motto of the Dream players? "Play on" - Holdsclaw never showed up in training camp and the players simply assumed that she'd never be back and prepared for the post-Holdsclaw era. Wise decision.

Regarding the Holdsclaw hullabaloo - fans thought that, "yes, this is it, Meadors has let another player go and is destroying the Dream." I am inclined to invoke a rule called "Stengel's Law" after Casey Stengel of the New York Yankees.

Stengel's Law: On any team, 20 percent of the players love the coach. Another 20 percent of the players hate the coach. The other 60 percent of the players are indifferent - they just want to play basketball.

Most likely, the bulk of Atlanta's players stayed out of the Holdsclaw brouhaha - they would have played ball with Maddie (the Liberty mascot) if you could get her into a Dream uniform. Meadors also seems to have mastered the Corollary to Stengel's Law: The secret to a long life as a coach is to keep the 20 percent who hate you away from the 60 percent who are indifferent.

4) Atlanta starters: Lehning, Iziane, McCoughtry, Lyttle (Sancho, not Camille), Erika
Seattle starters: Bird, Wright, Little (Camille, not Sancho), Cash, Jackson

5) Seattle in dark green, Atlanta in home white. I've not seen enough games to know if this is a general rule for Storm games.

6) And the game is underway! It took a few glitches - a Sue Bird overthrow to Lauren Jackson, followed by a travel by Erika de Souza - before some points were put on the board with a pair of free throws by Jackson. 2-0 Seattle.

7) Shalee Lehning had two quick turnovers - she turned over the ball, but Erika de Souza saved the first turnover when Camille Little made a bad pass. Then Lehning got the ball back and turned the ball over again. Egad. Lehning followed her two turnovers with a blocking foul shortly thereafter.

8) Almost immediately, one could tell that something wasn't quite right. It seems that the Dream were relying on bank shots instead of jumpers, trying to play pool against the Storm instead of basketball. Part of the problem was that the Storm were all over Angel McCoughtry. Lauren Jackson stripped the ball from Iziane Castro Marques...when it's usually the other way around.

9) The announcer said something to the effect that "Iziane Castro Marques is an eight-year player out of the University of Connecticut...." To which I replied "say what?"

I've got a post percolating in my head regarding the relative value of WNBA coaches. Part of that post is the idea that WNBA players are relatively "finished" when the arrive to a league in that their game is pretty much what it's going to be forever. However, I think the only coach that could make Iziane stop shooting is Geno Auriemma, who would cause Iziane to return to Brazil when Geno benches her and Iziane refuses to return late in the second half of a UConn-Rutgers game.

10) As we approached the halfway point of the first quarter, the Storm were up 7-4. The Dream had five turnovers, and Sancho Lyttle had picked up her second foul. I wasn't worried about the second foul, as in a lot of games it seems that Lyttle picks up two quick personal fouls. (The five turnovers, on the other hand....)

11) Meadors to a referee: "They're pushing us into the screens!" The refereeing was...pretty bad. Not the worst I've seen, but bad nonetheless. If we had lost by six or less, we might have been able to blame the refs for the loss, but in this case, it wasn't the refs that did us in.

12) The Dream then went on an 0-8 cold shooting streak. Seattle increased its lead to 12-4, taking advantage with a mini-run. Kelly Miller came in and took a 3-pointer that a blind man could see wasn't going to fall.

13) The supporting cast of the Dream was switched out. Price came in. Leuchanka came in. But the supporting cast wasn't the problem. The problem was McCoughtry taking crazy shots. McCoughtry would find herself double (and maybe triple-teamed once or twice) and simply fail to kick out, trying a bank shot that was destined not to go in. She started cold, ending the quarter 1-for-8 from the field. She hit a 3-pointer later in the quarter to close the score to 15-9, but Swin Cash followed with a rolling in shot at the end to finish the quarter with a 17-9 Storm lead.

14) It could have been worse - the Storm only shot 37.5 percent from the field (6-for-16) but the Dream only shot 18.2 percent in the first quarter (4-for-22). McCoughtry was 1-for-8 and Iziane was 1-for-5. When the two hottest shooters on your team are 2-for-13, you know it's going to be a looooong night. Swin Cash and Lauren Jackson had seven points each.

Meadors told her team that "we're not pushing the ball". But as we'd found out, that was easier said than done....

15) McCoughtry appeared to calm down at the beginning of the second quarter. She got a steal, and a pass to Yelena Leuchanka closed the gap to 20-13. She followed with a travel call, but the Dream would get the ball back and Kelly Miller would find that 3-pointer to close the score to 20-16.

It could have been 20-18 if Armintie Price was not mugged by the Storm on the way to a drive. It was clear that Atlanta had finally picked up the aggressiveness they needed. Would Seattle wilt like so many other teams?

16) The Dream were on their way to a 11-2 run of their own. McCoughtry drove to the basket. Leuchanka banked it in past Lauren Jackson. McCoughtry hit a fade away prayer and the score was tied, 22-22.

17) Seattle surged ahead. The Dream were determined to get that three pointer against a determined Storm defense, and missed a couple of attempts. That misguided agression let Seattle score the next six points. Kelly Miller got another 3 pointer to fall and it was back to 28-25 Seattle.

Erika de Souza, having two personal fouls, returned to the game. Almost immediately after her return she was tagged with a third personal foul. By this point of the game, Erika had zero points.

18) With With the score 30-27 after Iziane hit a shot just as the 24-second clock expired, it looked like Atlanta would hang around for a while, never more than a basket or two away from Seattle.

Then...the Lauren Jackson show started. Jackson hit a three, and Iziane and McCoughtry couldn't answer. McCoughtry looked clearly frustrated. Jackson got loose near the basket and the Storm were up now by ten points, 37-27. The half ended with a pair of Jackson free throws

What happened? Jackson scored nine of Seattle's last 11 points. Swin Cash and Tanisha Wright pretty much had McCoughtry wrapped up with a bow, and the Storm took a 39-27 lead into halftime.

19) Seattle was shooting 50 percent compared to just 29.3 percent by the Dream (12-for-41). This surge in scoring was caused by Lauren Jackson...who now had 18 points after her mini-explosion at the end of the first half. Camille Little had eight points, and Swin Cash had seven.

McCoughtry had gone 3-for-14 in the first half and had seven points to show for it. When Kelly Miller and Yelena Leuchanka are your second leading scorers - six points each - it's not a good sign. Lyttle and de Souza had been negated by foul trouble. Kelly Miller's six points came from 2-for-4 shooting, each shot from behind the 3-point arc.

20) Chantelle Anderson officially weighs in on Atlanta coaching. From Twitter:

@MissChantelle I love how Marynell acts like she's the coach when it's really Carol Ross.

21) Even after a dismal first half, the Dream hadn't had the fight beaten out of them. Not yet, anyway. A 3-pointer by Lehning finally got the Dream back to within single digits, 43-34.

It was then that the announcers began to talk about an "old style point guard" or "old fashioned point guard" when they talked about Lehning. It's a meme that I've picked up on. "Lehning is an old style point guard."

The announcers helpfully provide a definition. That is, an old style point guard is looking to distribute during the first seventy percent of a possession and looking to score during the final thirty percent. That would mean that an old style point guard only looks to score during the final seven seconds of a 24-second possession.

I'll have to run some numbers to see which WNBA players are "old style point guards". My suspicion is that Lehning's so old-style she predates Naismith.

22) An interesting announcement: Shalee Lehning, Angel McCoughtry and Sancho Lyttle have been named Atlanta Dream team captains. Lyttle is a surprise; McCoughtry and Lehning are certainly not. Lehning and McCoughtry (writers of several Beatles songs) can definitely lead a team in the charisma/management sense of the term.

24) The Dream were at least keeping it interesting. McCoughtry closed it back to within single digits again with a 3-pointer to close to 47-39. She would have to do it alone for a while, because we were halfway through the third quarter and Erika still hadn't scored.

25) We were still managing to stay within about 10 points of Seattle. Lauren Jackson hit a bucket midway through the third quarter to put the Storm up 51-40. It was Jackson's 20th point of the night.

The game was getting a little bit weird, though. Lehning had the opportunity on a drive to the basket. Iziane passes to Lehning, Lehning is shooting at point blank range - and misses. I've seen it more than once in Lehning's career.

Yes, I'll get five mail messages that say that Lehning can shoot and that Lehning just doesn't want to shoot and that that missed gimme was an aberration. So I won't go there, for now. I will say this - Lehning is definitely no finisher. You give Armintie Price point blank range and it's two points, for all of Price's other perceived failings.

26) Lehning, however, might have just gotten hacked. She gets a visit to the free throw line for two shots.

The camera pans to Marynell Meadors talking to Iziane Castro Marques on the sideline. Meadors tells Izi, "We get two shots and the ball." This is incorrect. This hypothetical four-point play becomes a one-point play when Lehning hits the first free throw and misses the second.

27) A Sancho Lyttle jumper beings it the closest we've come in a long time: 51-44 with around four minutes left in the third.

28) 3:31 left in the third. Erika de Souza picks up her fourth personal foul. I hope that she found some coffee in Seattle that she liked.

29) The Smart Play Highlight: Lehning picked up a steal from Lauren Jackson on a drive - which is rather amazing given the difference in height and how smart and accomplished Jackson is as a player. Later, when Wright tried to drive to the basket, Lehning planted herself perfectly and Wright was charged with the offensive foul.

30) The score was down to seven points again, 53-46. McCoughtry was being defended with the same fiery intensity that she was being defended in the first quarter. And then...

...for some inexplicable reason, the Dream decided that they'd play zone. And leave Lauren Jackson out on the perimeter, challenging her to take 3-point shots.

Swish! Storm 56, Dream 46.

Swish! Storm 59, Dream 46.


There were less than two minutes left and the Dream had gone from a three basket deficit to a six basket deficit, all from two shots by Lauren Jackson. It was a mistake that the Dream wouldn't recover from. The Storm finished the third quarter with an 8-2 run and led 61-48 going into the final quarter.

31) Seattle was shooting at 51.1 percent, thanks to Lauren Jackson. The Dream had managed to crawl into mediocre territory - 35.7 percent shooting. However, in offensive rebounding - Atlanta's major strength - the Dream actually fell behind Seattle due to the prolonged absences of Lyttle and de Souza. Yes, they had two more offensive rebounds overall at this point, but the Storm was winning the battle of the glass on the Dream's end of the field.

Jackson had 26 points. Little had 14. McCoughtry had finally crawled up to 16 points, but when you take a lot of shots to do it and when the Storm are pulling down the defensive rebounds the points McCoughtry was putting on the board weren't making the Dream stronger.

32) There was still the slim chance of a Dream comeback in the fourth quarter. A couple of minutes passed, however, and the Dream were no closer than they were at the end of the third. With the Storm up 67-55, Jackson got the ball again, hit the basket and then picked up a foul from Armintie Price.

And one. Storm up 70-55. And then Bird found Jackson for the three pointer. 73-65. But that's okay? McCoughtry would answer with a 3-pointer, right?

Nope. Abrosimova got the rebound, Cash drove to the basket and it was a 75-55 game.

33) With the Dream down by 20 points and 5:58 left in the fourth, Meadors released the franchise...Brittainey Raven! Raven scored six points in the final quarter (and three personal fouls) but it was against Seattle's second string.

34) For the rest of the game, I had one single hope - not to be utterly embarrassed. There's not much to say, I simply defined in my own mind what "utterly embarrassed" meant, which would be not losing by twenty points.

With 49 seconds left, Svetlana Abrosimova hit a pair of free throws. 90-67 Storm. It looked like the Dream were going to go home whippped.

However, Kelly Miller saved the game for us - or at least for me, anyway. Miller hit two free throws after a foul by Ashley Robinson. Leuchanka stole the ball from Abrosimova, Bales made the pass and Kelly Miller hit the three pointer with 20 seconds left to keep the Dream from losing by twenty on the road.

Storm 90, Dream 72. Game over, and thank goodness. More on the game later, just to help us all forget.

2/2010 – Dream 66, Fever 62

Preach it! Atlanta is 2-0!

(Once again, great pictures from SportsPageMagazine.com!)

Ah, for opening day in Philips Arena. There’s nothing like sitting with a bunch of fans to remind you that basketball season is here. One can watch games on television, but no matter how loud I scream at my TV my chances of catching a thrown T-shirt are zero.

1) Something different in the air…starting out with the choice of music. The warm-up music has gotten a little more “poppy”. In the last two years, the warm-up music was by a lot of obscure (to me) rap artists. (The good thing was that the music was so catchy that I wanted to look up who the performers were. How else would have I have discovered Soulja Boy?)

The first song pounding out of the speakers was the inescapably catchy but auto-tuned “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus of all people. Funny, when I think of Miley Cyrus I don’t think of WNBA warm-up music. “Telephone” by Lady Gaga also made an appearance, which begs the question: do the players pick their warm-up music or is it someone else?

2) Jordan showed up from the “Armed With a Dream” program. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the Dream has teamed up with the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta (through Aaron’s Inc.) to wear the name of a patient at Children’s Hospital as a stick-on tattoo. Jordan, the honoree for this game, was rocking a mini-Dream jersey and was walking the court and surveying the 2010 Atlanta Dream.

3) The staff seems to be a lot more polite than usual. Maybe it’s just because of the first home game, but DAMN they were on the ball.

4) There were a few fans sitting in the upper bowl. I thought that the goal for the 2010 Dream was to have everyone sit in the lower bowl of Philips Arena to increase the intimate feeling. I guess season ticket-holders just like their seats.

5) The Aaron’s Inc. name is on the court.

6) With ten minutes before tip-off, the crowd is rather thin looking. There were some traffic issues, definitely – I saw more than a few orange cones on my way to parking – but I thought we’d really have a better turnout.

As it turned out, announced attendance was 7,337 – not a sellout, even under the guidelines of WNBA sellouts. My wife thought that with the following day a school night, that really kept a lot of families from attending a 7 pm Sunday night game. I agreed, but now I’m really rethinking that. What other sport would make such an excuse? Just remember, if you don’t show up, the only thing the bean counters will conclude is that no one cares.

7) Nerae Bailey – forgive the spelling – was the National Anthem singer. I was distracted, but she seemed to do an okay job.

8) And now, it’s time to announce the players. We had DJ-E doing…something…and as the players came out onto the court, there were literally fireworks. As in big explosive BOOMS! with a cascade of sparks from the sky!

My God! I thought this game was taking place in Poland, where they know how to celebrate women’s basketball! That got the crowd up on their feet, and fast! More, please! It was going to be a party atmosphere.

9) We got a guest appearance from WNBA President Donna Orender. Supposedly, she was supposed to be at a season-ticket holder function but didn’t show. Apparently, she made it to the game just in time to introduce new Dream owner Kathy Betty.

Betty thanked our new sponsors, Aaron’s Inc. and Coca Cola Enterprises. She then introduced the Dream fans as the “12th Player”. My question is that is the WNBA roster expand again, will the fans lose their “12th Player” status?

10) The starters:

Atlanta: McCoughtry, de Souza, Castro Marques, McCoughtry, Lehning

Indiana: Catchings, Sutton-Brown, Douglas, Hoffman, Bevilaqua

11) The Dream come out of the gate fast, perhaps fearing more fireworks. The first quarter will set the tone for the rest of the game – a very close game, with neither team separated from the other by more than a couple of baskets.

The Dream set an athletic pace, and manage to build a momentary 10-4 lead. I was watching Iziane Castro Marques, who was matched up against Tully Bevilaqua. By this point in the game, Tamika Catchings hadn’t yet scored and if the Dream could keep that from happening we had a good chance of winning. Angel McCoughtry was a real problem for Indiana as they tried to move the ball without her getting her hands on a pass.

12) Halfway through the first quarter, the game shifted back in the direction of Indiana but the Fever could never go up by more than a basket.

Regarding Iziane Castro Marques – if she wants to shoot, she’ll shoot and defense be damned. I watched her go one-against-three, driving to the bucket for a basket. A friend of mine said, “Izi’s going to shoot, and she doesn’t care.”

13) Entering the game around the end of the first quarter – Armintie Price and Brittainey Raven. Raven officially enters the WNBA record books as this is Raven’s first WNBA game.

14) First quarter stats were a pretty even match-up. Both teams shot equally well. Atlanta had more rebounds, but Indiana had eight assists to the Dream’s three.

15) For the entire second quarter of the game, the margin of any team’s lead would be no greater than three points – a single WNBA basket. Alison Bales, in her second game since the end of the 2008 season, got a piece of a block. She blocked the shot, passed the ball to Kelly Miller, who was fouled by Jene Morris. Miller would hit both free throws and tie the game.

16) However, the Dream often found themselves trying to grab a greased pig of a ball. The glittering diamond for the Dream was Armintie Price, who scored back-to-back baskets – she was in top form during this game – and found herself alone again in the back court when the Fever called a quick timeout to keep Price from scoring six straight points on them. Price single-handedly turned a 23-22 deficit into a 26-23 lead.

17) For a few brief moments of the second quarter, both Alison Bales and Erika de Souza were on the court. Big athletic women who can move (well, Bales can move some of the time). The thought of both Bales and de Souza had to be giving Indiana fits.

One of the reasons that Bales is so dangerous is that despite being a 6’7” big woman, Bales can actually hit a three pointer. An equivalent height in the NBA would be 7’1”. Indiana left Bales alone behind the arc, and Bales calmly set up and sank a 3-point shot that restored the lead to Atlanta again, 33-31.

Of course, Tully Belivaqua answered with a three of her own and Atlanta was down again.

17b) During a commercial break or timeout or whatever, the Dream had a celebrity dads three-point contest. One participant was Roi McCoughtry, Angel McCoughtry’s father. The belief was that Angel inherited her athletic prowess from her father, but if I recall correctly Roi McCoughtry was a forward at Coppin State and looked positively awkward trying to sink a 3-pointer. He managed to sink one, but he definitely had both feet on the boundary line, turning it into a long two.

I suspect daughter could beat dad in a 3-point shooting contest.

18) The end of the second quarter marked both sides swapping pairs of free throw attempts, with players usually hitting just one of two and not breaking the logjam. With the Dream up 37-35, Indiana’s last shot of the first half came on a 3-pointer by Katie Douglas – a shot that required a lot of passing by Indiana just to set up as McCoughtry was on the prowl. Douglas’s score puts the Fever up 38-37 at halftime.

19) McCoughtry had been missing for a big stretch of the second quarter. Only at halftime did I learn where McCoughtry had been. Apparently, she had taken an elbow to the face. She lacerated her lip, and the resulting injury required three stitches. (Marynell Meadors would later say five stitches but everyone else says three.)

Of course, athletes suffer injuries like this all the time, but if I had taken an elbow to the lip that required three stitches, I’d be squalling like a 3-year old girl, and you better believe I wouldn’t be back on the court. All together now: WNBA players are tougher than you are, Pet.

20) Halftime stats had both teams shooting evenly: Indiana 46 percent, Atlanta 44 percent. The Dream had 11 turnovers but also 18 overall rebounds to Indiana’s 14. There wasn’t much room in the box score anywhere for one team to gain an advantage.

Ebony Hoffman led the Fever with 11 points and Tamika Catchings had 10. Erika de Souza and Armintie Price had eight points each, and Kelly Miller had four first-half assists.

20b) One thing I noticed a couple of times – Douglas wanted to sneak up behind Lehning a couple of times and strip the ball from her. She almost succeeded. Lehning better learn to watch her back.

21) Halftime entertainment was from some performers named…Craig? I don’t really know how that’s spelled. I don't know what Craig? is all about. It seemed like a whole lot of dancing, but nothing really spectacular. Then again, I wasn't paying attention, trying to get updates on McCoughtry’s injury and answering questions from people who wanted to know the truth about Holdsclaw’s holdout.

22) In the third quarter, for the first time since the first quarter one of the teams managed to pull out in front by four points or more. Unfortunately, that team was Indiana. Ebony Hoffman hit a mid-range jumper, Tammy Sutton-Brown scored from point blank range, Catchings hit a jumper and before you know it, Indiana was up by five, 44-39.

Erika de Souza still looks beat. Didn’t someone at the Painel do Basquete Femenino Blog say that de Souza looked overweight? I don’t think that’s it, but she looked tired. She was fresh enough to score off a backdoor pass from Iziane, but when Izi missed her fourth three-point attempt of the night, Meadors decided she didn’t like what she was seeing and called a time out.

23) One problem was that Angel McCoughtry couldn’t get her shots going.

24) Indiana was charged with a 24-second violation this quarter. Remember that.

25) Both Angel McCoughtry and Sancho Lyttle went to the line for two shots, each hitting just one free throw. If Lyttle had hit both the Dream would have tied the game, but the miss of the second shot left the Dream behind 44-43.

Ebony Hoffman followed up with a long two-pointer just inside the arc. Tamika Catchings would hit a mid-range jumper to put the lead at five.

Shalee Lehning got the ball inside, but instead of taking the shot – which she should have done – she dished the ball back out to Iziane Castro Marques, who never met a shot attempt she didn’t like. Her 3-point attempt was an airball.

Ebony Hoffman would be fouled by Erika de Souza on the next possession. Hoffman sank both of her free throws, and the Fever led 50-43, the biggest lead of the night.

26) With Izi helpless from long range and with McCoughtry adding another 3-point airball, it was up to Alison Bales to hit the Dream’s second three-pointer of the night to bring the Dream back to 50-46.

27) It was about this time that Price really went to work. I was surprised at how aggressive and athletic Price was. When Price was one-on-one, she was…unstoppable. This was the Armintie Price that everyone thought would come out of the 2007 draft. She basically willed it in, picked up a foul from Allie Quigley, and got the free throw to close the score to 50-49.

28) With less than three minutes left, McCoughtry was called for a foul and spent some time jawing with the referee. I was later told that you don’t really feel the pain of stitches in your lip until the next day.

29) The Dream then gave up the next five points. Part of the problem was that the Dream were over the limit in fouls. Indiana got to the foul line for two visits and hit three of four free throws.

The only highlight of the last couple of minutes was Price scoring on a breakaway, all along on Indiana’s side of the court. Price almost closed the gap to one point on a long buzzer-beater that was marked as a 24-second violation. Briann January ended the quarter by making the final shot, and Indiana was up 58-55 going into the last quarter.

The Dream’s shooting had slipped to about 40 percent by this time while Indiana still held strong at 45 percent. The rest of the box score was the same old log jam.

Ebony Hoffman had 17 points for the Fever, with Catch right behind at 16. The Dream’s scoring leader was…Armintie Price with 13. Kelly Miller has six assists at this point in the game.

30) And then, suddenly out of the sky, hundreds of dogs appeared…. It’s Dogmaggedon!

…no, you’re not reading science fiction. It was the Aaron’s Inc Dog Drop! Several miniature Lucky-the-Dogs – the mascot of Aaron’s Inc. – parachute dropped individually from the roof of Philips Arena down into the stands.

The crowd absolutely ate it up. I loved it. It was just a great reward, and it got the crowd in a fantastic mood for the fourth quarter.

31) A side note: my wife and I have Comcast, which uses a DVR system. The box that allows us to change channels also has a hard drive that allows us to record shows for later viewing.

However, there can be…delays between our box at home and the home Comcast server located down in the depths of Mordor. Every hit pause on your DVR and then be unable to play anything for five minutes? That was the Indiana Fever during the entire fourth quarter.

32) To describe the fourth quarter would be like trying to describe the moon landing with the introductory vocabulary list of Let’s Learn English Significantly! used in Japanese grade schools. The only vocabulary that comes to mind is that from Doctor Who, where temporal mechanics are described as “wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff”.

Suffice it to say, the Fever just…stopped. Paralyzed. Immobile. Oh, Atlanta wasn’t doing anything either for long stretches of the fourth quarter. You’d look up at the scoreboard and see a 58-56 Fever lead and then you’d come back two minutes later and it would be 58-56 and there would be a timeout or someone would ask you for the popcorn, and you’d look at the score later and it would be the same one – 58-56. I almost thought I was in the movie Groundhog Day and expected to hear “I Got You Babe” playing over the speakers at Philips.

Even I don’t know what happened! And I was there!

32) During the approximate five minutes of time-lock, the Dream were just all over Indiana defensively. They acted like that little sister with you in the back seat who keeps going, “I’m not touching you!” while violating every other boundary of social distance. Indiana looked completely flat, like the older brother remaining perfectly still, trying not to be provoked into something stupid that would earn a smack on the back of the head.

33) An Armintie Price drive was negated on a foul by Briann January that, in my opinion, would have resulted in a basket.

Price had at least three shots taken away from her. One on a buzzer-beater that didn’t beat the buzzer according to the refs, that Briann January foul and a later shot that rolled around in the rim before being coughed out by the basketball goddesses.

34) During Slow Time, Indiana had not one, not two, but three 24-second violations. Over a minute of that Slow Time was caused by Indiana just not doing anything. If the plan was for Indiana to hang on the ball for long enough for the Dream to make a mistake, that plan wasn’t working.

35) While the Philips Phaithful hoped for someone (preferably the Dream) to score, we got our first Karaoke participant – Armintie Price, jamming to “Proud River”. For those who don’t know, Price is really cool up close and personal.

In the house, undoubtedly listening to karaoke – Steve Smith of the Hawks. We were glad he was there, but I’m sure everyone at Philips was wishing he would have been on the court in an Eastern Conference Finals game. Maybe next year.

36) About the crowd – it wasn’t a big crowd, but it stayed until the end. The crowd was in a better mood that I’ve seen in a long time. Everyone was happy. No one was sitting on their hands. The joint was jumping. I think the crowd’s energy was contagious – a positive for the Dream and a negative for the Fever.

37) At 5:15, the logjam was broken. Erika de Souza took a shot and missed it, but got the tip-in on her own offensive rebound. The game was tied at 58-58.

38) Armintie Price was still performing magic tricks. I’m sure there are better 1-on-1 players in WNBA history – but for this game, at least, Armintie Price is the best 1-on-1 player I’ve ever seen in a game.

Chamique Holdsclaw beats you with her timing. Price beats you with her lateral movement, able to go either direction in a flash and able to twist her limbs in such a way that there’s a free path from her release to the basket. Amazing.

Price picked up the foul on the drive. She hits one of two free throws and the Dream lead 59-58. It is the first Atlanta lead since late in the second quarter.

39) The Fever answers back on a Catchings jumper. Brittany Raven takes the second shot of the night from her that I thought was badly timed – the kind of shot that has no prayer of going in.

Raven might not have figured out how to shoot in the WNBA, but you can’t doubt her work ethic. In my last game writeup I complained about how Lehning would stand around in the back court. Raven, needing to make it to the other side of the court to assist defensively, simply took the long way around, following the path of the three point arc.

40) We have less than three minutes to go. Indiana, the defending Eastern Conference Champions, have been held to two fourth-quarter points.

The Dream does its “Cam Dance” feature to the tune of the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Apache”, a crowd pleaser. An eighty-plus (?) year old woman in a white shirt hiked up to her rib cage does a handkerchief dance that wins the Cam Dance competition in a rout.

41) The Dream manage to force a turnover. McCoughtry hits a long two-pointer to give Atlanta back the lead, 61-60. With less than two minutes remaining, the Fever bring the ball back across the court…slowly….

…too slowly. EIGHT-SECOND VIOLATION. Dream ball. The crowd goes wild.

42) Brittainey Rave attempts another 3-pointer – and once again, misses, but gets her own rebound. Alison Bales manages to sink the jumper for Atlanta and the score is 63-60.

One minute left.

44) Indiana tried in vain to tie the score. They worked the clock as much as possible. Ebony Hoffman tried a 3-pointer and missed, and Atlanta got the ball with
37 seconds left. This time, it was Atlanta's turn to work down the clock.

Unfortunately, Tamika Catchings showed why she's a great defender. She stole the ball from McCoughtry and attempted a 3-pointer...and missed. Team rebound to the Dream.

45) The Dream crowd is kicked into frenzy as “Apache” plays once again, with video clips of the Rockin’ Granny of Atlanta.

46) Indiana has to foul. With 8.8 seconds left, Kelly Miller comes to the line for two free throws. She manages to sink both shots giving the Dream a 65-60 lead with a few seconds left.

Katie Douglas sinks the lay-up at the other end three seconds later. 65-62 Atlanta. With just 4.2 seconds left, Indiana has to foul again on the inbounds and hope that Atlanta misses both free throws.

47) The Fever foul McCoughtry. If McCoughtry sinks one free throw, the game is pretty much over….

…McCoughtry…misses the first one. But she hits the second. 66-62 Dream.

In the brief amount of time left, Indiana can’t do anything. The final buzzer sounds, McCoughtry embraces Price and this game is in the record books.


(* * *)

Wow. What a game! I really feel pity for anyone that missed it. I know, maybe a game on Sunday night would be impossible for a lot of out-of-towners. But Tina Charles and Connecticut come to Atlanta on Friday night, so you don’t have any excuse to miss that one.

1/2010 - Dream 75, Silver Stars 70

The secret of Izi's success? Blow on your opponent's hair.

(By the way, that picture above came from a cool gallery from SportsPageMagazine.com which you can find here.)

Before I start, I have to say that Fox Sports South rules. They broadcast the Atlanta-San Antonio game from San Antonio, so I didn’t get to miss a moment of high-definition Atlanta Dream goodness. There’s a major difference between watching a game on WNBA Live Access and watching it on a broadcast network. When watching it on WNBA Live Access (at least last year) the graphics were…well, let’s just call them primitive. They usually reminded me of junior high AV graphics…and I went to junior high a lonnnnnnng time ago.

So let’s jump in as if the last seven months never happened…..

1) The announcers for the game were Andrew Monaco and Tai Dillard. I suspect that this was a San Antonio feed of Fox Sports sent directly to Atlanta, unless they have a lot of Aaron’s Inc. commercials in San Antonio.

Yes, it looks like the Dream’s partnership with Aaron’s Inc. is paying dividends, particularly if you like watching the Dream on TV. Aaron’s – in case you didn’t know – leases furniture. Way back when Hector was a pup, I was in Germany and I found out how convenient renting-to-own was – I wasn’t going to be in Germany for the rest of my life and I wanted creature comforts without the hassle of owning furniture. So if you’re going to Aaron’s, tell me how it’s working out for you.

2) The announcers listed that Becky Hammon was fifth in MVP voting. I don’t want to take anything away from Hammon, but fifth-place finishers in MVP voting are usually trailing farrrr behind the leader. So I probably wouldn’t have mentioned that. That’s like saying that Joe Shlabotnik is the American League Leader in Wednesday night triples.

3) The Silver Stars have an interesting coaching situation, with Associate Coach Olaf Lange as the acting coach. Lange looks….well, he looks as if he’d be carded if he tried to buy a beer.

4) Starting lineups:

Silver Stars: Hodges, Hammon, Young, Riley, Lawson-Wade.
Dream: De Souza, McCoughtry, Lehning, Castro Marques, Lyttle.

5) Once again, we’ve been treated with various pronunciations of Erika de Souza name. I thought it was “de-SOZA”, with the “soza” sounding a lot like “sofa”. But Monaco pronounces the name “de-SOWZA”, with the “sow” part sounding like “cow”.

You know what? To hell with it. I give up. I’m going to do what the Brazilians do and just call her “Erika”... all of their athletes seem to go by their first names like “Pele”.

6) And now, the 2010 Atlanta Dream regular season gets off to a start. The Silver Stars take a 4-0 lead, but it’s a momentary blip. The Dream look very strong in the first quarter, and even Erika looks good despite getting off the plane on Thursday.

Sancho Lyttle suffers two quick personal fouls, so she sits down. Alison Bales appears on a WNBA court in the regular season for the first time since 2008. Down 5-2, Iziane Castro Marques makes a jumper and Erika follows with a smooth fade away to put the Dream up 6-5. The score seesaws, with Erika getting her hands on a block.

I’m surprised that Bales is playing relatively well, despite her disappointing pre-season outings.

7) After about four minutes, the Silver Stars bring in Michelle Snow. I’m worried that she’ll try to seek revenge against her former team. But the person I should be worried about is Becky Hammon, one of the greatest players ever.

Falling to the floor, she heaves up the ball and makes an impossible basket. But if you’ve watched Hammon for any period of time, her impossible baskets are routine.

8) Down 13-12, Atlanta responds with an 11-1 run. San Antonio can’t get into the groove, turning the ball over six times. (After the game, Hammon’s excuse was that the team hadn’t jelled enough. In pre-season, McCoughtry swore not to make that an excuse because every team in the league has players coming in late.)

Seven of those points on that run belonged to Angel McCoughtry. McCoughtry is stepping up in a big way.

9) While San Antonio was getting knocked around the court, the camera focused on two matters of interest:

a) A couple of what appeared to be superannuated hippies watching. (Peace out, baby!) and
b) Sandy Brondello in all of her nine-months-going-to-give-birth-any-minute-now glory. So if Lange is the coach, what is Brondello doing on the bench? Why not let Lange do his own coaching? Will the players listen to Brondello or Lange?

10) During this time, the Dream have both Kelly Miller and Coco Miller on the court. They seem to play very well together. You know, some identical twins can’t bear to be separated, so maybe this is what both their careers needed.

(BTW: The play-by-play for the game simply has “Miller” listed as a player. Talk about identical twins being close.)

11) The first quarter ends 25-16 in favor of Atlanta. San Antonio is shooting 43.8 percent, but the Dream are shooting 57.1 percent – 12-for-21. Sometimes, all it takes to win a game is a hot hand…for four quarters.

12) At the game: Tony Parker. I have no idea who Tony Parker is, but I suspect he’s an NBA player. (Helpful Wikipedia helps me. He’s a player for the San Antonio Spurs, and from France. I suppose no one told him that all red-blooded he-men of America are supposed to hate the WNBA.)

13) With Atlanta hanging on to its lead in the second quarter, we see Jayne Appel in street clothes sitting on the bench. Frisco del Rosario commented on a post at Pleasant Dreams about why Appel’s draft stock fell enough for the Silver Stars to pick her – it was because of Appel’s history of injuries. Sure enough, there’s an injured Appel sitting on the bench.

14) Atlanta seems to be falling into a pattern of turnovers. Shalee Lehning isn’t helping. Lehning is matched up against Edwige Lawson-Wade, and Lawson-Wade gets the better of Lehning…twice. An eight-point Dream lead is whittled down to four points on at least one teal by Lawson-Wade against Lehning.

15) Atlanta has scored only two points in the first five minutes of the second quarter. Things are looking tight. At some point, the Dream pulls out Lehning because Edwige Lawson-Wade is taking Lehning to school.

Something I don’t like – Lehning standing around in the backcourt, waiting for a play to finish, NBA style. As someone new to basketball, this might simply be what point guards are asked to do – “stand over there and keep out of everyone’s way”. Compare this to, say, Kelly Miller, whose eyes dart back and forth like a cat after a mouse or to Angel McCoughtry who loves picking off passes from unwary opponents.

16) An illustration of San Antonio’s problems. With just over two minutes left in the half, the Dream attempt a shot and miss it. So they rebound it. And miss it. And rebound….

…Atlanta must have gotten five or six second chance opportunities and San Antonio was only saved by the Dream not able to sink the ball. That, and the fact that the Dream committed at least 13 turnovers in the half. De Souza picked up three of her rebounds for the night on that sequence.

17) The Dream begin to stretch the lead back to what it was. McCoughtry hits a pair of free throws. Bales hits a free throw. McCoughtry scores again – her 13th point of the game – and Iziane beats a double team to extend the lead to 40-29. Only Megan Frazee’s last shot of the half – a 3-pointer – kept the Dream from taking a double-digit lead into halftime.

18) The Dream are leading about 48 percent to 40 percent in this game. That’s enough to explain their 40-32 halftime lead. McCoughtry has 13 points, Iziane Castro Marques has 11 and Erika de Souza has 8 points and 10 rebounds.

19) Both teams’ combined free throw shooting at the half – 8 for 20. Atlanta 5-10, San Antonio 3-10.

20) The same starters come in for the second half, and it looks like Iziane Castro Marques must have thought Paulo Bassul was wearing a Silver Stars uniform. She gets a steal and drive, and follows it up with a steal and drive. The Dream are now leading 44-32.

Three minutes in, the Dream look solid. Mid-range spin shot by Lyttle. McCoughtry spin jumper and foul. McCoughtry hits the free throw, Iziane is fouled and hits one of her two free throws and suddenly the Dream have a 52-36 lead, the biggest lead of the game.

21) Sophia Young is looking just a little tired out there. Sancho Lyttle lays it up over Young who makes a weak effort to stop her. With the Dream up by double-digits, San Antonio’s announcers are talking about Michelle Snow. As they tell it, Snow was busy reporting to her new team about all the things that Atlanta would do and the best ways to stop the Dream. If that’s the case, then Snow needs her coaching pass revoked….

22)…or maybe not. As the third quarter passes its halfway point, the Silver Stars go on a 10-3 run. They manage to close the gap down to 10 points again, and a loose ball 3-pointer by Becky Hammon closes the gap to 57-50. After Erika de Souza hits a free throw, Hammon scores the final points of the quarter to bring the Silver Stars within two baskets again, 58-52.

San Antonio was clearly shooting better in the last part of the third quarter, or we were defending worse.

23) In the fourth quarter, Lyttle picked up her fourth personal foul. We got to see Iziane Castro Marques use some smarts. Ahead 62-54, Iziane thought to call a time out before falling out of bounds, retaining possession of the ball for Atlanta.

24) Michelle Snow has a couple of nice early fourth quarter baskets but a pair of free throws from Iziane gives the Dream a 68-56 lead. The two free throws are Iziane’s 20th and 21st points of the game.

The Dream manage to keep a double digit lead as they go into the final five minutes of the quarter. Lehning has four assists so far in the game and will pick up another two in the final quarter.

25) Down to the final two minutes. The Dream lead 73-63. All the Dream has to do is, in the words of the philosopher RuPaul, to earnestly strive to avoid error. (*) This combined effort has a wrench thrown into it by a R. Hammon who hits a 3 pointer and, after Lehning misses on the other end, picks up a couple of free throws on a foul by McCoughtry. The Dream’s lead is now cut to 73-68 with about a minute left.

26) Sophia Young has some smarts of her own. She throws the ball off Angel McCoughtry’s leg to retain a San Antonio possession, but the follow-up 3 point attempt by Megan Frazee is too strong. Sancho Lyttle rebounds, and the Dream have a 73-68 lead with 37.8 seconds left.

27) …and this is the part of the game were it gets thrilling.

With 37.2 on the clock, Lehning is fouled on the inbounds play. Clearly, San Antonio is willing to give fouls in order to get the ball back. Lehning steps up for two free throws. The first one misses. The second one hits…but Sancho Lyttle steps into the lane. Lane violation, free throw negated, and the ball is back in San Antonio’s hands again.

28) Another three-point play is drawn up by San Antonio’s Lange/Brondello crew. This time, Roneeka Hodges hurls the three but it rolls off the rim. Lyttle picks up the rebound again, and the Dream have the ball with 22.3 seconds left.

29) This time, Lyttle is fouled. She hits the second of her two shots and the score is 74-68 Atlanta. Hammon tries the three pointer but misses, but Snow gets the rebound and the quick put-back and it’s now 74-70 in favor of Atlanta.

Lyttle sees Iziane Castro Marques on her way to San Antonio’s undefended basket. Lyttle…overthrows. There’s no way that Iziane could catch that pass, and San Antonio gets the ball back again.

30) So who will make this attempt at a San Antonio three pointer? Big Shot Becky is given the task…and fails. Sancho Lyttle is there for the rebound yet again, and the Silver Stars have no choice but to foul her.

31) With 12.9 seconds on the clock, Lyttle hits the second of her two free throws. 75-70, Atlanta. Hammon makes a running jump shot, but misses. Shalee Lehning gets the rebounds, and Edwige Lawson-Wade is forced to foul Lehning. There are 1.6 seconds left on the clock, and if Lehning can sink two free throws this game is over.

32) Lehning misses the first free throw…and she misses the second! It’s time to hang a goat horn on Lehning…

32b) …but wait! Lehning gets the offensive rebound on the second missed free throw! (It’s her only offensive rebound of the game.) The game is over, and my heart can start beating again!

(* * *)

That’s it. The inevitable post-mortem follows. Which Atlanta Dream players are “dreams”…and which ones are “duds”, at least for this game? Read on!
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(*) Or as Ru puts it, “Don’t f**k it up.”