2008/34 - Storm 77, Dream 72 (Part Two)

And now, the "Tale of the Tape" as they call it. All of these comparisons, mind you, are massively misleading. Sue Bird didn't play. Yolanda Griffith didn't play. Sheryl Swoopes didn't play. Swin Cash and Lauren Jackson were injured. These stats are the Dream vs. the Seattle "White Team", as I think one of the players said on the radio last night. (I assume there is a "white team" and a "green team" for Seattle's intrasquad scrimmages, the green team being the starters.)

Shooting: Seattle's B squad smoked us, 47.5 percent to 41.3 percent. However, note that 41.3 percent. When we shoot over 40 percent, we have a good chance of winning, and the final score shows we hung in there.
Offensive rebounds: Basically even, 11-10. Overall rebounds were basically even, 32-30. Seattle's rebounding was highly commended for their second unit.
Turnovers: Seattle beat us 12-14. Not much to say there.
Free throw visits: Virtually even. Seattle B squad went to the line 21 times, we went 20. We also shot virtually even, with the B's leading 76 percent to 75 percent.

Flow of the game: Looking at the quarter by quarter score is really misleading - it suggests a game where the lead swung back and forth a lot. We won the second and third quarters, they won the first and fourth quarters. However, we only had the lead one time in this game, a brief one point lead in the bottom of the third quarter that evaporated in ten second. Most of the game, we were limited to being tantalizingly in reach, but never getting there.

Shooting efficiency: Us, then Them

Us

Young: When Betty Lennox went out of the game with achilles tendonitis, Young stepped up in a big way. She scored 20 points in 16 attempts. Tamera Young was the Dream's Player of the Game.
Feenstra: 16 points, 12 attempts, 5 rebounds. I was tempted to give Kit POG honors, but Katie can't drive an offense. Tamera did.
Izi: 10 points, 19 attempts. Absolutely horrible, and sort of like Izi all year. If she gets hot, she stays hot and if she starts slow, she disappears.
Latta: 7 points, 9 attempts, 4 assists. One three pointer. I don't know what to think of that.
De Souza: 5 points, 4 attempts, but only three rebounds.

Them

Little: 21 points, 18 attempts. A career high. Also six rebounds and four assists. I'd name her Seattle's Player of the Game, easily.
Gearlds: 20 points, 21 attempts.
Wright: 14 points, 15 attemps, 4 rebounds.
Santos: 8 points, 7 attempts, 5 rebounds. The Seattle announcers gave her a lot of credit for her defensive intensity. However, that might just be hyperbole. That man was screaming his head off every time the Storm touched the ball.
Ely: 7 points, 12 attempts. Horrible shooting, but great rebounding. Eight rebounds.
Robinson: 5 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds.

Southern Belle Milk Carton of the Game: To give it to Kimberly Beck of the Storm is very tempting, but I have to give this one to Izi for her horrible shooting. Izi was 3 for 15 on the night.

(* * *)

Whew. That's it. No more games until next year. Very sad. No lessons to be learned, either. They'll be forgotten by the end of the year.

Here's the near post-season in a nutshell. Today, the Dream will be returning to Atlanta around 3 pm EST. There will be a contingent of fans to meet them there and say their final goodbyes and thank them for their work this season.

On the 14th and 15th of this month, I understand there will be "exit interviews". Meadors will talk to each of the players individually, probably with either suggestions ("you need to stop going for the dribble drive, Ivory") or with the sad news ("Chioma, we have no plans to resign you. You'll have to fight for a spot on the roster in training camp like everyone else.)

After that...the Dream will scatter. European seasons, like the Spanish (Young), Polish (Terry) and Turkish (Latta) begin in October. The Dream will be playing ball for their new teams, and it's my hope to find out how well they're doing and report back.

(* * *)

Now, a few comments about our record.

Our record of four wins is about a .100 winning percentage (.117 to be exact). The old Washington Mystics of 1998 had a .100 winning percentage (3-27). The 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA had a historical bottom of 9-73, for a .109 winning percentage. There have also been a couple of NBA teams that have crossed the 70 loss mark.

Let's look at the best records of WNBA teams. The 1998 Houston Comets went 27-3 for a .900 record, and the 1999 and 2000 Los Angeles Sparks had 28-4 records for two years in a row, an .875 winning percentage. In the NBA, the amazing 1995-96 Chicago Bulls went 72-10, for a .878 winning percentage, the best ever in the WNBA. The amazing 1971-72 Lakers - who won 33 straight games at a time - went 69-13, for an .841 winning percentage.

In baseball, the rule is that "you'll win a third of your games, you'll lose a third of your games - and the rest is up to you." It's very rare for a baseball team to either win more than 108 games or lose more than 54. Teams that cross either benchmark are rarely encountered.

So it looks that the Dream's experience in 2008 has given us a rule for basketball like the rule for baseball: "you'll win a tenth of your games, you'll lose a tenth of your games - and the rest is up to you".

Basically, the only games we won were "random gimme games". It wasn't so much that we were playing brilliantly, it was either a) our time to win our one out of ten games that every basketball team gets to win, or b) the other team's time to lose its one out of ten games that it's destined to lose. (This rule does not apply to college basketball, as teams can be of wildly divergent strengths).

We have to face the cold truth. The Atlanta Dream was about as talentless as a WNBA team can be and still be called a WNBA team. That's okay. We'll get better.

But, there's also a truth for the Seattle Storm, who just beat us with their B squad: "Don't get cocky." For Los Angeles, it just might have been one of those statistical one-out-of-ten games where nothing was destined to go right for them. Our win over the Sparks might have not testified to talent on our part, but failure on theirs.

My suggestion for the playoffs: you might want to start Sue Bird this time....

Iziane Castro Marques vs. the Los Angeles Sparks

This YouTube imbed was posted at Painel do Basquete Feminino, a Brazilian basketball blog.

Watch Izi shoot right over Lisa Leslie. It's butta.

The Dream: Last in Wins, First in Fan Loyalty?

This link is from Dream Diary, the official Atlanta Dream Blog. They mention an AP article which was posted on the ESPN website. Read this:

The Dream rank in the top six in three different key categories: average attendance, full season tickets, and individual game tickets. Not so bad for a that finished with a 1-16 record at home this season.

Atlanta averaged 8,500 tickets sold per game and had three sellouts. The league's last expansion team before Atlanta, the Chicago Sky, averaged 3,642 a game in 2006. The Sky play their home games at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion, which holds 6,958.

You think we'll be there next season? Damn straight. Now if only the media will take notice.

2008/34 - Storm 77, Dream 72 (Part One)

No Art, this is Betty's BROTHER. See the sign? Brought to you by SPMSportsPage.com. Go see 'em.

It's the very last game of the season. So rather than go for accuracy, I'm going to go with familiarity and tune in to the great Art Eckman.

1) The Dream start Latta, Lennox, Castro Marques, De Souza, and Bales. It looks like Meadors has finally found a consistent starting lineup.

The Storm start Little, Ely, Gearlds, Wright, and Santos. I guess they're saving Bird for the playoffs. According to Art, Seattle is starting their second unit.

2) Betty's father is courtside, which is kind of cool. Even though Betty is no longer in Seattle, he is still supporting the Storm (when they don't play the Dream). Also very cool that both Betty and Izi have gotten standing ovations, and according to Art, the ovation brought Betty to tears.

UPDATE: It's not Betty's father, it's her brother (see the comments below). Oh well, Art Eckman's not exactly Wikipedia.

3) Lauren Jackson is back, which is cool. Art's microphone cuts out to complete silence when he's not speaking, which makes me suspect that the game is being broadcast by ham radio.

4) "Politics has moved the Seattle SuperSonics franchise to Oklahoma, where the state tree is a telephone pole." - Art Eckman

5) Art says that he's having to broadcast from far up. I think he means it. So much for Art. I'm switching to the Seattle feed.

6) Kelly Santos is just whipping up on Atlanta. She's scored four of Seattle's 10 points, and Marynell is calling a time out. The Storm lead 10-4. It doesn't help. Santos scores over Feenstra. Before we know it, it's 15-4 Seattle, the Storm going on a 9-0 run.

7) Feenstra walks, and turns over the ball. According to the Storm announcers, the Atlanta Dream are just dead, playing listlessly. The announcers state that the Seattle Storm's defense has just clamped down on Atlanta. The Seattle Storm remain resolute, and they lead 17-10 at the end of the first. The Storm lead in every sense of the term, and the Dream have four turnovers to the Storm's one.

8) Now the Dream are on an 8-0 run to close it to 17-14 in the second quarter. The announcers say that Marynell Meadors said that they'll have Chantelle Anderson next year. Interrrrresting.....

9) Pass to a wide open Kasha Terry in the second. She fumbles it. Out of bands, Atlanta. Good thing Gearlds has missed her last four shots. However, the Dream get three wide open layups, and two offensive rebounds. Result: 0 for 3.

10) Seattle continues to go cold. Seattle is missing a ton of shots and the Storm's poor shooting is keeping Atlanta in the game. Feenstra is leading all Dream shooters with eight points, and she's playing great defense.

11) Kevin Pelton will be back for 2009, according to Seattle. That's great news; I enjoy reading his website.

12) In the first eight minutes of the second quarter, the Dream have outrebounded the Storm 10-2. The Dream is hanging anywhere from within two to seven points throught the quarter. With one minute left, a Castro Marques free throw closes it to 28-27, but the Storm score the next basket. The Dream get the basket with 14 seconds left, but Latta is forced into a desperation shot.

At halftime: Seattle Second Unit 30, Dream 27.

13) Minutes played by:

Sue Bird: 0:00.

14) Atlanta is being outshot 41 to 33 percent at halftime. The Dream have taken nine shots from behind the three throw line and missed all of them - a major difference from the Los Angeles game.

15) HOLY CRAP. The starting lineup for the second half for the Dream is Latta, Izi, Young, Feenstra....and Lacy. The Seattle announcers speculate that Betty might have hurt her ankle...but Betty has been in Meadors's doghouse before.

16) Izi finally hits her three. We tie 32-32 early in the first quarter. The Dream are in a 1-2-2 fullcourt press. The Storm score six straight, but we answer with five straight. We're still hanging in there, pressing like crazy. We manage to hang within one point in the third quarter for what seems to be forever, about the first five minutes. Brian Alger still hasn't brought in his big guns, and Betty is now out for the game with achilles tendonitis. It seems that no one has scored in like...forever.

17) Tamera Young steps up and ties the game again, 43-43. At this time, she's leading all Dream scorers with 12 points.

18) By 2:48 left in the third, the Storm is only leading by three points. The Storm is starting to rebound much better. The game seems interminably dull. It's probably the fact that I know that if we get close, Agler can put in the starters whenever he wants to. Swoopes, Griffith and Bird are still perfectly rested. Furthermore, We've seen the last of Betty Lennox for this season.

19) Listening to the Seattle announcer, my first thought is "Boy, is this guy loud!" It's not at all like Art. Art manages to keep this composure whenever the Dream score; this guy sounds like he's going to drop a load with excitement.

20) Tamera Young scores another three to close it to 51-50. She's now taken over the role of Betty Lennox, leading all Dream scorers with 18 points. It has been Tamera Young who has kept us in the game in the third quarter. With 15 seconds left, a bucket by Erika de Souza puts us in the lead 52-51, but Camille Little answers back and grabs the lead back, 53-52 at the end of three.

21) Latta is having another horrible night. Three points. A bounce pass to nobody. Feenstra inexplicably on the bench. The Storm pull out to a five point lead early in the game, 57-52.

22) The Storm lead by about five or six, but can't really pull away. The Dream still have a chance to win it if he doesn't put Bird in. Latta hits two free throws and we're down 65-61 to the Storm. However, Seattle is shooting much better.

23) A pair of free throws put the Storm up by 10, but Young hits a shot with 3:40 keeping the Dream within eight points.

24) Late in the game, the Dream have the advantage that Seattle's over the limit in fouls. Seattle's announcer is swearing with every bucket, "That might just do it!" but Seattle's lead has been tenuous at best this quarter. We're down by seven with 1:18 left, 75-68. Then Young hits another shot to close it to 75-70 with just 59 seconds left. Can the Dream steal another game?

25) In the last minute, Feenstra grabs the rebound on a missed Storm shot, but she dribbles the ball on the endline. However, Kristin Haynie gets the steal and has the ball with just 25 seconds left, still down by five.

26) The ball makes it into Young's hands, and she shoots for a three...but misses. The Storm get the rebound, Katie Gearlds gets the two free throws. The Dream get a couple more points, but the Storm get the win, 77-72 and the Dream become the first team in WNBA history to lose 30 games in a season.

It's a sad moment. No more Dream basketball until next year. It's late. I'm tired. Tomorrow for the post-mortem.

AJC Update: Scarab Writes to Mike Knobler

Dream fan Scarab posted the following to the Atlanta Dream Message Board. She sent Mike Knobler an e-mail about the missing Dream article, and here is her message and his response

(* * *)

(Scarab writes)

Here's the response I got about there not being anything in the AJC about our win against the Sparks (FYI, Knobler's done some of the more recent Dream articles in AJC):

From: Mike Knobler [mailto:MKnobler@ajc.com]
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: What about the Dream win last night?!


There was an Associated Press story about the Dream's victory in the edition of the AJC delivered to my house. It was on page E8. If it was not in your edition, it means that your edition was printed earlier than mine. Los Angeles is on Pacific Time, which means the game finished too late for the story to appear in all of our editions.

Thanks for your interest in our sports section.

Mike Knobler

P.S. — Here is the final AP story (even the edition delivered to my house did not have this version, but an earlier one without any quotes):

BC-BKL--Dream-Sparks, 2nd Ld-Writethru,0437

Dream rally for 83-72 victory over Sparks
Eds: Dream 83, Sparks 72; UPDATES with quotes.
AP Photo LAS102, LAS101, LAS103
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Iziane Castro Marques scored 15 of her 23 points in the fourth quarter as the Atlanta Dream rallied for a 83-72 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday night, snapping a 10-game losing streak.
Betty Lennox added 21 points and Ivory Latta tied a career best with 10 assists for the expansion Dream (4-29), who avoided breaking the WNBA record for losses in a season. Atlanta closes the season Friday night at Seattle.
"We grew up a lot tonight," Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors said. "L.A. by far has the best talent of anybody in the league. But our team controlled the tempo, especially in the last part of the third quarter and in the fourth quarter. I thought that was the difference."
Candace Parker had 23 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks for the Sparks (19-14). DeLisha Milton-Jones added 21 points and Lisa Leslie had 16 points and nine rebounds.
"We knew that this team had nothing to lose," Parker said of the Dream. "But we were very sluggish. When we play bad, it's bad. But when we play good, we're capable of being in the hunt for the championship."
The Sparks held a 63-57 lead with 8:52 to play but scored just eight points during the next 7:54. Meanwhile, Castro Marques scored 15 points in a span of 5:57 as the Dream built a 79-69 advantage with 2:12 remaining.
"I just had open shots off the plays we had," Castro Marques said. "I was more aggressive, too, in taking it to the (basket) on fast breaks."
Los Angeles trailed 49-37 before using a 12-0 surge to force a 49-49 tie with 4:42 left in the third quarter.
Margo Dydek, the WNBA's all-time leader in blocked shots, made her season debut after signing with the Sparks on Aug. 27. The 7-foot-2 Dydek, who gave birth in April, did not score in 2 minutes.


(* * *)

And that concludes this whole shocking tale. We now return you to your regular stations.

Ivory is a Good Sport

Ivory Latta has been named by the Atlanta Dream as its nominee for the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award, according to a poster at RebKell. According to WikiPedia, it is given "to the WNBA player who has exhibited the best sportsmanship in the league during the season".

Here are the nominees team by team:

Dream: Ivory Latta
Sky: Armintie Price
Sun: Tamika Raymond
Shock: Taj McWilliams-Franklin
Comets: Shannon Johnson
Fever: Allison Feaster
Sparks: Kiesha Brown
Lynx: Kristen Rasmussen
Liberty: Cathrine Kraayeveld
Mercury: Cappie Pondexter
Monarchs: Ticha Penicheiro
Silver Stars: Vickie Johnson
Storm: Sue Bird
Mystics: Nakia Sanford

AJC Dreams On

...but in Atlanta, you might not know that the Dream had beaten anybody.

There isn't a single "Dream beats Sparks" article anywhere on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website. Yes, the win came past the print deadline, but this is the internet era, baby! How hard is it for you to throw the AP writeup on the web page?

I'd write a nasty e-mail, but guess what? There's no general comments e-mail address to be seen anywhere on the AJC.

This, among several other reasons, is why I don't bother picking up the local paper. If I need Georgia Bulldogs football coverage, I'll head to the nearest f@#$ing bar and pull up a seat next to the local drunk.

2008/33 - Dream 83, Sparks 72 (Part Two)

What? We won? You gotta be kidding me!

Okay, it's time for the post-mortem and a few thoughts about last night's win.

Shooting percentage: The Dream had the edge, 42.6 percent to 36.4 percent. When the Dream doesn't shoot at least 40 percent, they have virtually no chance of winning the game. Beating the Sparks in shooting was a necessity to get a tough road win.
Offensive rebounds: The Sparks won - but not by much, 15-13. What is even more astonishing is that the Sparks virtually tied the Dream in overall rebounding, 36-35. Either the Sparks failed to be aggressive under the basket, or the Dream stepped up to the challenge of getting the ball.
Turnovers: The Dream led this category, but it was a virtual tie, 15-16.
Free throw attempts: The Sparks easily led, 29-18. They were sent to the free throw line much more often than the Dream were.

So where does the Dream win come from? We'll have to look for it elsewhere. First, let's go back to free throw shooting. The Dream went 17-18 from the line, for 94.4 percent shooting. Despite Los Angeles's 29 trips to the line, they only hit 23 shots for a 79.3 percentage. For all the time the Sparks got sent to the line, they scored a measly six more points than the Dream.

Second, let's look at the shooting. The Sparks tried 12 3-point shots and only hit one. Whereas the Dream tried 24 shots - and hit eight of them, for a 33.3 percent 3-point percentage. It was the combination of poor free throw shooting by the Sparks and the deadly 3-point accuracy of the Dream that did the Sparks in on their own home court.

There's a third factor that might be overlooked: the "X" factor. The Sparks, as I wrote yesterday, are only 2-7 when behind at halftime, which is an odd statistic. When the Sparks get behind, they tend to mentally snap. I suspect that Lisa and Candace get frustrated with the rest of the team, the rest of the team responds in kind, and everyone breaks down. The Spark played with a distinct lack of oomph, and the faces on the Sparks bench did not betray frustration, but rather resignation. "We lost this game...oh well."

Flow of the game: The quarter by quarter score portrayed a seesaw affair. Even in the fourth quarter the Sparks still held the lead, but were outscored by the Dream 26-13 to lose it yet again.

Who is guarding who?: It was Ferdinand-Harris's job to guard Betty Lennox when Ferdinand-Harris came off the bench. Ferdinand-Harris lasted a grand total of 7 minutes and 16 seconds. That wasn't working.

Los Angeles starters in the backcourt were helpless. Kiesha Brown and Shannon Bobbitt combined for a grand total of two points.

It seemed as if Alison Bales was guarding Candace Parker and Erika de Souza was given the thankless job of guarding Leslie. Neither were very effective. Parker would score a double-double and Leslie woued come close.

Shooting efficiency: Us, then Them

Us:

Castro Marques: 23 points, 18 attempts, 4 for 9 with 3-point shooting. Castro Marques is clearly my Player of the Game for the Dream.
Lennox: 21 points, 26 attempts. Five rebounds. Not that great a game considering Los Angeles's lousy backcourt.
Lacy: 9 points, 7 rebounds. Astonishingly, she wasn't throwing bricks out there.
Latta: 7 points, 12 attempts. Horrible shooting, yet her 10 assists makes up for it. This is the second time in Latta's career that she's had 10 assists - she had 10 assists in a 97-76 loss to Detroit where she scored 26 points.
Young: 7 points, 7 attempts, 6 rebounds. She actually got significant playing time.
Bales: 6 points, 6 attempts, 9 rebounds. Alison was doing a Erika de Souza-type job.

Them:

Paker: 23 points, 24 attempts, 11 rebounds, 7 assists. She'd be the Player of the Game on the Sparks's side.
Milton-Jones: 21 points, 21 attempts, 7 rebounds. Not bad at all.
Leslie: 16 points, 23 attempts, 9 rebounds. Leslie's free-throw shooting was particulary bad, as she went 8 for 12.

Could been a billionaire....: Raffaella Masciardi and Margo Dydek. Only the act of taking a shot - and missing it - kept each of them from amassing a completely blank statistical line.

Southern Belle Milk Carton of the Game: Shannon Bobbitt of the Sparks. Oh-fer-5 in shooting, no free throws, one rebounds. Started the game. Played almost 15 minutes with nothing to show for it.

(* * *)

And now, let's look at the implications this game has for the Dream.

The 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers amassed a staggering record of losses in an 82-game NBA season. They went 9-73 for the year, for a .109 winning percentage. In my opinion, this is the worst winning percentage of any major pro franchise in history (that isn't football, which has a very small number of games).

The Dream challenged this record, but with their fourth win, they are guaranteed at least a .117 winning percentage (assuming they lose to Seattle tonight). The Dream are not the worst pro franchise in history. That's saying something.

Are they the worst franchise in WNBA history? It depends on what benchmark you set.

Do they have the fewest number of wins? No. The 1998 Washington Mystics went 3-27.
Do they have the most losses? If they fail to beat Seattle tonight, then yes. The 2006 Chicago Sky went 5-29. A loss tonight would be the first 30-loss season in the WNBA.
Do they have the smallest winning percentage? No. The 1998 Mystics finished with a .100 winning percentage.

There is another method to measure a "worst team". After the season is completely over, we'll see how the Dream stacks up against historically bad teams.

What does all of this mean for coach Marynell Meadors? She has the excuse that this an expansion team with a lot of bad players. What has happened to the coaches of bottom-feeding expansion teams?

1997: Denise Taylor of the Utah Starzz managed to keep her job after finishing 7-21 in the first year of the WNBA's existence. However, after heading towards another bottom finish for the Starzz in the Western Conference, she was fired in mid-season in 1998.

1998: Jim Lewis of the historically bad Mystics lost his job just 18 games in the season, after a 2-16 start.

2000: Lin Dunn managed to survive a 6-26 opening season with the Seattle Storm. Not only did she manage to survive, she's head coaching the Indiana Fever.

2006: Dave Cowens resigned after his 5-29 first season with the Chicago Sky to join the Detroit Pistons coaching staff of the NBA.

It's hard to read the tea leaves, but history suggests that the head coaches of expansion teams that finish at the bottom usually don't get fired. If Meadors ends up in the toilet again in 2009, she'll probably lose her job. I would put money, however, on Meadors keeping her job and leading the Dream (hopefully) to victory in 2009. She'll make the decisions regarding who we draft and her signature will be on the team for some time to come.

All right. Enough yakkin'. Enjoy the win. Let's go to Seattle, whip them, and then plan for the off-season.

2008/33 - Dream 83, Sparks 72 (Part One)

How did I get this typed up so quickly? Call it “Live Blogging!” Well, not exactly live blogging, but more “I typed this while I was watching the game at home.”

Can the Dream manage to steal a victory against the Los Angeles Sparks, a team that held the Sparks to 26 percent shooting in Atlanta? We’re going to find out.

1) Interesting fact – Betty Lennox has led the team in scoring in every game since the Olympic break. That dark period where Lennox was being held in the single digits appears to be over. But can Ivory break out tonight?

2) Starting lineup: De Souza, Castro Marques, Bales, Lennox, and Latta. My God. I think this was the lineup from the last game!

For the Sparks: Milton-Jones, Parker, Leslie, Bobbitt and Brown. And Margo Dydek, #12, being held in reserve.

3) Whoa! Alison Bales scores the first five points, including a three pointer – but she’s not much of a match for Candace Parker. The Dream is hitting their shots, and when the first time out is called, the Dream are leading 11-9!

4) The commentators talked to Latta before the game. Latta supposedly likes her situation in Atlanta with the Dream – she gets along with her teammates and they get minutes on the court. If Latta doesn’t start shooting efficiently, however, she could jeopardize this good thing she has.

5) Twice in the first quarter, Izi has tried to find Erika on a pass and has thrown it 3 feet over her head. And for our Brazilian readers, that’s 0.98 meters. Ugh.

6) Ferdinand-Harris faked Betty out of her underwear in the first quarter. That’s going to go on someone’s highlight reel.

7) Neither team is really working with an offense; everyone’s just trying to make individual shots. Most of the Sparks’s points are in the paint, most of Atlanta’s are elsewhere. Both teams are shooting evenly at the end of one, but the Sparks are strong under the basket. However, we’ve managed to tie the Sparks, 22-22 at the end of one.

8) Atlanta rolls off a 7-0 run to start the second to lead 29-22. I got to see a sweet behind-the-back dribble by Latta, but Latta is still trying to drive in towards thebasket. Lennox, however, is shaking off Ferdinand-Harris. Coach Michael Cooper of the Sparks is forced to call a time out.

9) NBA TV does not have the commercials timed right. It’s annoying, as sometimes they have to immediately cut away from a commercial for action. I don’t mind missing the commercial; I mind missing the action.

10) The Atlanta run is extended to 13-0. Jennifer Lacy hits a three – she’s finally hitting something – and the Dream lead 35-22 with almost six minutes left in the second.

11) Our run is broken up. I understand why. “The foul is on Kasha Terry, who just entered the game….”

12) First, Lacy doesn’t take a pass – not paying attention – and then when she gets the ball, she basically throws it away. Can our reserves actually hold it down?

13) Candace Parker has played almost the entire game at this point, going into the bottom part of the second quarter.

14) Interesting stat: Atlanta is the worst team in the league with assists, averaging 14 a game. By 4:13 in the second, Atlanta had 11 assists.

15) The Sparks finally start to box out and rebound. Los Angeles goes on a 10-2 run to begin closing the gap, and at 1:49, Margo Dydek sees her first action. We finally get to see Dydek vs. Feenstra!

16) Amusing point – when Latta dribbled right past Dydek, who must have been thinking, “I’m going to have to reach down if I’m going to stop her. “ No, Dydek would have had to stoop down. By halftime, the Dream led 42-35.

17) Looking over the halftime stats, we might be leading by 15 if we didn’t keep sending the Sparks to the line. Betty Lennox had three fouls at halftime.

On the other hand, Los Angeles was shooting 31 percent. Atlanta was 15 for 36 from the field at 44 percent. Oh, let us keep up the hot hand!!

18) Did the halftime announcer say that the Sparks shot 3 for 17 in the second quarter?

Dream: 2-5 record when leading at halftime.
Sparks: 2-7 record when trailing at halftime.

19) Cooper calls a timeout – a FULL timeout – with less than two minutes in the third quarter passed after Izi drops a 3 on the Sparks. Boy, he looks pissed.

20) Awful play by the Dream. The timeout has helped the Sparks, who have gone on a 8-0 run. Latta trying another useless drive to the basket. Izi trying another implausible three point shot. Betty trying to work through a double team. The Sparks close it to 49-45 with 5:39 left in the quarter.

21) Good Lord. Leslie scored, fouls by Feenstra. 49-47 Dream. Then another failed Latta dribble-drive. The Sparks tie it, 49-49, going on a 12-0 run. Leslie and Feenstra are really going at it.

22) What the hell? Offensive foul against Atlanta against Feenstra. That was a “make up foul”, for not calling the foul earlier. I hate it when refs try to correct their mistakes.

23) With 1:37 left in the third, Kasha Terry (who else) fouls Delisha Milton-Jones to put the Dream over the limit. Milton-Jones hits two free throws to put the Sparks ahead for their first time since the first quarter, 55-53.

24) And another foul by Kasha Terry with 43.9 seconds. We are not going to have a chance to win games as long as Kasha Terry is on the roster. Thank goodness Leslie missed both of the free throws. Then Kristin Haynie fouls Candace Parker…who hits her two points.

25) At the end of three quarters, the Sparks lead 57-55. This is the stat that tells the story:

Free Throw Attempts at the end of 3 Quarters:

Atlanta: 9
Los Angeles: 25

26) The Sparks take a 6-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but Atlanta closes it right up after Betty Lennox t=comes back in and it’s a tie game again, 63-63.

27) DAMMIT! Parker drives and doesn’t hit, but draws the foul. We cannot keep sending the Sparks to the line and expect to win this game.

28) Izi comes in, drives, makes the bucket and draws the foul. Then, she makes the bucket. Atlanta leads again, 66-65, with 5:49 remaining in the fourth.

29) Izi gets a three-pointer! Then Latta gets the steal from Candace Parker, and then the foul! Atlanta leads 70-67. Latta hits both shots, and the Dream lead by five, 72-67.

30) Dammit! Foul on Erika de Souza. I’m hoping that we’re not reaching the limit as we approach the four-minute mark….

31) Izi hits two in a row! The second shot is a three pointer! We lead 77-69 with 2:37 and the Sparks are forced to take a full time out! Holy Moley, here we go! Don’t let this game end the way the Fever game did!

32) With 2:12 left, Muriel Page fouls Ivory Latta. Iziane Castro Marques goes to the line. Michael Cooper is looking down at his hands.

33) I can’t tell, but I think that the Sparks are over the limit. Lennox hits her first free throw, and then her second. Atlanta leads 81-71. There’s 1:10 left and we have a full 24 seconds to shoot….

34) 55.5 seconds left. Erika de Souza commits a foul, her sixth foul, and fouls out. The Dream isn’t over the limit. Boy, the Dream is going to make this a close one.

35) They find Tamera Young inside. 83-71. 28.4 seconds left. Lisa Leslie misses her first free throw. She hits the second. 83-72. The Dream call a time out with 28.4 seconds remaining. All the Sparks can do now is foul. Atlanta is smiling, but there’s none of that bouncy-bouncy exuberance. I suspect Atlanta won’t believe they’ve won until the final buzzer.

HOLY SHIT! WE WON! 83-72! IN LOS ANGELES!

I’m going to bed! The post-mortem will be tomorrow!

CafeMerc: Me Likee

Q over at Rethinking Basketball has an entry about CafeMerc, a social networking site for Phoenix Mercury fans. What's amazing is that the site appears to be hosted off the WNBA's servers.

If anyone from the Dream organization is reading this, I have a question: how do we get one of these? I'd definitely be making blog entries on such a site, even if they were duplicates of the ones on the Pleasant Dreams blog.

9/11 and the WNBA

This article from WISH TV in Indianapolis points out something I hadn't noticed - the gradual move from 9/11 being a "memorial day" with no events scheduled to a day not unlike any other on the sports calendar.

Of course, there will be tasteful memorial ceremonies at the games. There are living families who lost relatives at the World Trade Center. However, the games will take place as scheduled.

I don't know if the author is correct, but the author claims that this is the first day since 9/11/2001 that the WNBA has actually scheduled games on 9/11. Baseball is of course scheduling games and I believe it has scheduled games on 9/11 for a long time. I suspect that if 9/11 fell on Saturday or Sunday, the college or pro football schedules would remain unaffected.

I think this is a good thing, of course. The best response to terrorism is not to have the terrorists disrupt one's daily routine.

However, I'm sure children born after 9/11 are going to see the whole remembrance thing as a bit odd. As time passes, 9/11 will become less and less significant. In about sixty-five years, 9/11 will be about as significant as 12/7 is to us today. (December 7th is the anniversary of the Japanese attack on an American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.) What people forget is that life simply moves on, no matter how much we might expect or wish otherwise.

The WNBA and Minority Viewers

Which American sport has the lowest percentage of non-Hispanic, white fans (and therefore, the highest percentage of "traditional minority" fans)?

According to this link, the list goes as follows:

1) WNBA: 60 percent non-Hispanic white
2) soccer: 61 percent non-Hispanic white
3) men's or women's tennis: 67 percent non-Hispanic white
4) NBA: 69 percent non-Hispanic white

What sport has the highest percentage of non-Hispanic, white fans? The NHL with 85 percent.

Interesting.

Does Any Dream Player Have a Shot at 5000 Points?

With nothing going on until Thursday night's Dream/Sparks game, I've been surfing the internet, and have found a great web page from frequent RebKell poster "pilight".

He mentions a tool originally created by baseball sabermetrician Bill James called "The Favorite Toy". The Favorite Toy is a tool to determine what chance there is of a player hitting 400 home runs or 2000 RBIs or whatever, based on the player's age and previous three years output.

pilight shows us that the tool can be adapted for basketball. So I used data from the current seasons and previous two seasons for all active Dream players on the roster and set a very high benchmark - 5000 points.

There are only a few players in the WNBA who have scored 5000 points - among them Lisa Leslie and Katie Smith. As the league has only been around for 12 years, one expects the number of players with 5000 career points to naturally increase over time.

According to the Favorite Toy Metric, do any members of the Atlanta Dream have a realistic shot at 5000 points?

Betty Lennox is 31 and has scored 3,454 lifetime points. The metric puts her chances at 75 percent, which is pretty damned good. There is only one other player on the Dream roster with even an outside shot - Iziane Castro Marques, who has an 11 percent shot given her age (26), the number of points she's scored already (1,305) and her output from her last three seasons.

Everybody else? Sorry. The chances are less than 1 percent. Out of these ridiculously small percentages, the best chance would be Ivory Latta - but I'd bet money against it.

P. S.: I just finished some other projections. Katie Feenstra has a 3 percent chance of reaching 3,000 career rebounds. The closest assist benchmark any Dream player can reasonably reach is 1,000 career assists - best chances are Kristin Haynie (31 percent), Betty Lennox (23 percent), Ivory Latta (18 percent) and Iziane Castro Marques (13 percent).

Toyota to Reliant

I found a blog post from a Houston Comets fan that details her decision not to follow the Comets from the Toyota Center to the Reliant Arena.

It might have been the change of venue that doomed the Comets. Interesting theory.

P. S. As a thought exercise, would you attend Dream games - or the games of your local WNBA team - if they were played elsewhere? Would certain venues be off-limits?

Crystal Smith Acts Like a Thug

Whenever players write anything from their hearts, it rocks! Bernice Mosby shares some random thoughts on the Pass The Ball blog:

As for Kia , she's still asking 100 questions in practice and Andrea has the biggest booty I have ever seen on a basketball player. Crystal Smith is still trying to ack like a thug . The things she says is just out of this world. Crystal Langhorne is still in lala land or can I say space. MoM o called her a space cadet three days ago in practice and Tasha calls her mask, but in reality Crystal is just a nice sweet girl. Yesterday was Krystal Vaughn’s birthday. As for Nikki Blue , she's just in love, can’t say nothing bad about her, she is a child of God and I am too somedays. Laurie is still eating salad and stealing the fruit from the locker room on game days and taking it back to her house. Well folks thats about it !! We are just tying to finish strong and play for our respect and dignity and also to win. At the same time we are still the Mystics and still are going to have fun and be a team with weird individuals on it. Stay tuned next week for the conclusion of the mix between Making the band 4, F lavor of L ove, and Nancy Grace all put together. Yep, we need our own reality show.

If you want to find out what Mosby has to say about Washington's GM, I suggest you click the link and run over to the blog. I agree that the Mystics need their own reality show.

Ivory Latta to Turkey; Kasha Terry to Poland

Ivory Latta will be playing for Turkey in the offseason, according to SPMSportspage.com. After searching the internet far and wide, I found that she will be playing for a team called Ceylan Belediyespor. As of now, you can see her on the Ceylan team front page.

Ceylan finished 11-11 last year in the Turkey Women's A League. This was good enough to get them to the quarterfinals, but they were eliminated in the first round. Hopefully Ivory can put them over the top.

Kasha Terry will be playing for Utex Row Rybnik in Poland in the off season, according to 2X Inc, an agency that primarily represents women's basketball players. Rybnik finished fifth with a 14-10 record, but was knocked out by AZS Gorzow in the quarterfinals.

I'm going to add the link and create a new category called "Player Agents" and add the 2X Inc website. There are a ton of WNBA players represented by 2X Inc, including Jennifer Lacy. Lacy has not signed anywhere for the off-season as far as I know.

2008/32 - Fever 81, Dream 77

Losing this game was like missing a six-foot put in sudden death. So close, and yet so far away. When I was with my friends, they were exhorting to me cheer just a little bit harder - but I held back, because I was so exuberant that I didn't want to commit myself completely, and have my emotions shattered with a loss. I hoped at best for a tie that would send the game into overtime. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

It's probably going to be hard for me to write about this loss, because most likely it was our final realistic change to get a win before the end of the season. Our next games are away games at Los Angeles at Seattle, two teams fighting for position in the Western Conference. For the Sparks, the Dream are not their final home game...but we are the final home game of the Seattle Storm, so our chances of not getting blown out too badly are marginally better in Los Angeles.

1) Before the game started, season ticket holders who attended all of the home games were rewarded by being allowed to walk out on the court and...do something. Once again, this 6:30 p - 6:40 p window - 20 to 30 minutes before the game - is the window of death, because no one is in their seats and the arena is almost empty.
You should have given the season ticket holders something better, say guaranteed first place spots in the autograph lines at the end of the game. Either that, or the Croix de Guerre for all that they had to endure during the season.

2) The posters that were being offered really rocked. I'll have to take a picture of one and post it on the blog.

3) AT last, we got to see the new Adidas Shooting Shirts! It looks like a few changes were made. The "Reflection of a Dream" was moved to the top of the skyline and the red cursive font was replaced with white block font. Furthermore, the Dream logo was made more prominent and moved to the bottom. I don't think either choice reduced the visual impact.

4) One of the attendees was holding a homemade Tamera Young poster, the only poster I could recognize in the crowd. Good to see Tamera getting some love.

5) The Fever came out for the final shootaround and immediately began to practice...rebounding. They'd line up, throw the ball against the backboard and the next following player would have to rebound, then she'd throw the ball, etc. etc. At the end of the game Coach Lin Dunn credited the Fever for their rebounding.

6) Our final National Anthem singer - 9 year old Jasmine Smith. She creaked a few notes, but hey, I'd be nervous too. She's got a lot more guts than I do.

7) There were a lot of cheers for Tamika Catchings of the Fever. I thought Tennessee contingent must have traveled here again, because I saw a couple of fans wearing orange shirts. At the end of the game, I got a closer look at the fans. The fans were wearing the shirts of the Charlotte Sting. If they traveled that far to see the Dream, bless 'em; if they didn't, I admire their kickin' retro style.

8) Once again, the Dream came out dancing in the warmups. I suppose that after a few home games, everyone on the Dream has let down their hair, figuratively speaking.

8b) Guess who was NOT dressed for the Fever? Kristen Mann, formerly of the Dream. Since her trade, she's played in four games for the Fever with a grand total of...zero points.

9) GAMETIME: Gametime started out with Erika de Souza dominating. She scored five points in the first quarter to lead all Dream scorers. All of those points were scored in the first 4:15 of the game, and she got at least three rebounds. Some member of the Dream would find Erika inside and she would just bank the ball in off the glass for a quick two.

10) The first quarter was going to be a sloppy one. There were a lot of calls on time violations. An eight-second violation for Atlanta (too slow bringing the ball out of the backcourt). A three second lane violation for the Dream. A 24 second shot clock violation for the Fever.

11) The Dream were really trying to move the ball instead of individual players deciding, "hey, I have to create my own offense". We were really moving the ball around well, but there were a few glitches, like when Ivory Latta threw the ball to absolutely no one. Remember, Ivory, it is always the guard's fault if the player doesn't catch the ball.

12) The announcer announced the appearance of "TAKasha Terry". Takasha. I think she's a friend of Yuko Oga.

13) We managed to hang around within four at the end of one quarter. The Shooting Stars came out to entertain between quarters, and I have to say they have been a truly professional group all year. They are truly skilled dancers. I don't know if they get paid for what they do, I don't know what their plans are but we have to have these entertaining young women back next year.

14) At about 8:15 in the second quarter, Betty Lennox got the ball on a fast break, chased all the way by an Indiana defender about two feet behind her. The crowd all got on their feet and cheered wildly, but Lennox missed the bucket.

15) Atlanta FINALLY has the T-Shirt Gun back! Ninety percent of the time this year T-shirts and the like have had to be hand-tossed. How come we can't have the T-shirt gun every game?

16) I was rather unimpressed with Tamera Young. She was looking to pass the ball out every time, and I watched her pass up an open look. If you have the open shot, you take it.

17) Ivory Latta, unfortunately, has still not abandoned the tendency of wanting to drive to the basket instead of hitting the mid-range jumper. Tonight, however, she was hitting those drives which made the crowd very, very happy.

18) The Shooting Stars were tossing little round balls to the crowd as some sort of free promo. One of the Shooting Stars was throwing in one section and some guy chased down the Shooting Star and asked for a ball. I find that rather uncool. These aren't handouts. Not everybody gets a ball.

19) Despite shooting only 33 percent after two quarters, we managed to stay within four points, 34-30. Indiana was only 2 of 10 from three point range. We managed to shove the Fever outside to the perimeter because our posts were too dominant, so the Fever should feel emboldened when they play Connecticut in the first round - the Sun ain't got no height.

20) HALFTIME. Entertainment was something called "Quickchange". Two prop magicians did tricks involving instantaneous changes of costume.

You might disagree with me, but for some reason magic acts and sports events do not mix. Probably because magicians (like this guy) wear tuxedos, and tuxedos and professional sports don't match. The lovely assistant did most of the clothes-changing, but the guy did a transformation where he changed from his tux to a Dream uniform. (Jennifer Lacy's jersey, for those keeping track.)

I didn't care for it, but the crowd gave him a standing O.

The next time killer was...golfing? At midcourt? It was some sort of putting contest. At least they could have brought in the little rotating windmill to add a degree of difficulty.

21) When the third quarter started, the Dream went on a six-oh run. We managed to take the lead, 36-34. Unfortunately, Erika de Souza picked up her third and fourth personal fouls, which meant we wouldn't see her again until the fourth quarter. It was a good thing that Latta was really making that drive work, somehow finding the basket in spite of being surrounded by players a good three to four inches taller than her.

22) Tammy Sutton-Brown had a few words to say to Katie Feenstra during the third quarter - wonder if we can get the unexpurgated version?

23) Indiana took the lead in the third, but we were hot on their tails, no more than five points away at most. The crowd was on its feet when Katie Feenstra made a pair of buckets that closed the gap to one point, 55-54. Ivory Latta was standing at the bench and waving her towel around, trying to spark a rally. Unfortunately, Jennifer Lacy made a couple of fouls that let the Fever keep us (barely) at arm's length and the Fever still led by four, 62-58 going into the final quarter.

24) In between the third and fourth quarter, they have a free-throw shooting contest between two chosen members of the audience. A large woman was throwing nothing but air and didn't hit a single shot.

I've probably told this story before, but the Dream personnel wanted me to go out there and shoot free throws. I declined. I would have loved to win any price they gave me, but I knew that I absolutely suck at playing basketball.

25) They put Tamera Young on the floor to start the fourth. The first time she gets the ball, she throws it away. Of course.

26) The Fever began to pull away to start the fourth. First Doneeka Lewis hits a shot. Then Tan White (who would score 12 in the fourth quarter) hits a three. Then she adds another three. Before we know it, we're down 70-60 and the crowd is noticably mute.

27) Then Erika de Souza returns to the game. Izi hits a couple of free throws. Then Erika hits a shot. Then Alison Bales hits a shot, and gets the foul. By now, the score is 70-69 and the crowd is batshit wild.

28) White hits the next bucket. Then, Erika blocks White's next shot and White makes a bad pass. There's an official time out. Eighteen seconds later, Iziane Castro Marques hits a 3-pointer from just outside the line.

72-72 all. Heart attack time!

29) This is the part fo the game that sucked. We were fouled twice, sending both Ivory Latta and Erika de Souza to the line.

Latta only hits one of her two free throws.
Tammy Sutton-Brown is called for her fifth foul.
Erika de Souza goes to the line. She misses both free throws.. Atlanta only leads by one point, 73-72.

30) As the 24-second buzzer sounded with 1:04 left, Tamika Catchings made a basket that put the Fever in the lead by one point, 74-73.

Then....

31) The National Parade of Foul Shots. Both teams were now over the limit, and the referees wanted to be noticed. So first Atlanta would go to the line. Then Indiana. Then Atlanta. With 38.3 seconds left, Betty Lennox hit the second of two free throws to put the Dream up 77-76.

Tamika Catchings found Tan White, who hit a mid-range jumper with 28.3 seconds left to put the Fever up 78-77.

It's okay, right? 28.3 seconds left? We get the ball one more time? We win? Right? Right? RIGHT?

32) With 9.2 seconds left...Ivory Latta drives in...AGAIN...and misses. Everyone goes up for the rebound. Alison Bales is called for the foul. Tamika Catchings goes for two....

...she MISSES THE FIRST SHOT. But she hits the second. 79-77, Fever. We still have a chance for a shot...

and Alison Bales is called for a foul...again...this time a loose ball foul. With 3.7 seconds left, we have to hope that Tamika Catchings misses one of her two free throws.

...the first one is GOOD. The crowd sinks. Oh, Tamika, miss this next free throw!

...the second one is GOOD.

33) Betty Lennox tries a miracle backcourt shot...which misses. It wouldn't have helped anyway. Our last home game is over.

FINAL: Fever 81, Dream 77. We beat ourselves as much as they beat us.

(* * *)

Let's look at the four keys to victory:

Shooting percentage: The Fever beat us there, 43.9 percent to 39.7 percent. It wasn't that much of a diference.
Offensive rebounds: The Dream win this stat, 9 to 7. However, we got outrebounded 34-30 overall, and Coach Lin Dunn of the Fever credited the Fever rebounding for keeping them in the game to win it.
Turnovers: Another Dream win, 13 to 18. We scored 24 points off Fever turnovers.
Free throw visits: We got three extra trips, 31 to 28. But it didn't help, as each team hit 23 of its free throws.

Basically, the Fever played well enough defensively - including overall rebounding - to keep Atlanta's shooting percentage down and out of the game. A bunch of shitty calls helped at the end, but you can't blame the referees. If we were any damn good a bad call or two wouldn't have been a factor.

Flow of the game: The Fever led the first quarter, 19-15. Both teams tied every successive quarter, giving you an idea of just how close this game was.

Shooting efficiency: First us, then them.

Us

Lennox: 19 shots, 24 attempts. It really wasn't a good day for Lennox. Dunn also credited the Fever with keeping Lennox below twenty.
Feenstra: 15 points, 11 shots.
De Souza: 11 points, 13 shots. Seven rebounds.
Latta: 11 points, 15 shots. The only reason she managed to break her single-digit game streak in scoring was because she took a lot of shots.
Izi: 10 points, 9 shots. Six assists. I'd have to give either Izi or Kit Player of the Game honors for the Dream.
Bales: Only 7 points, but 9 rebounds.

Them

White: 24 points, 19 shots. Went 4 for 7 on the free throw line. A season high for White, giving her Player of the Game automatically. (Note: what was her last season high? When she dropped 21 on the Dream earlier in the year.)
Catchings: 20 points, 10 assists, six rebounds. 20 shots. Efficient shooting.
Sutton-Brown: 15 points, 16 shots. But it was White and Catchings that carried the team to victory, particulary Catchings at the free throw line at the end.

Southern Belle Milk Carton of the Game: Easily Tully Bevilaqua, who must be still working out jet-lag. 26 minutes played. 1 for 3 shooting, two points scored.

(* * *)

Listening to the final two games is going to be a true labor of love. The Dream will probably be playing for individual accomplishments.

Will Betty Lennox dump 40 points on Seattle?
Will Ivory Latta ever have an efficient shooting game? Latta's shooting percentage has dropped to an abysmal 36.9 percent. Some of the fans were saying that they didn't think Latta would be back next year.
Will Katie Feenstra continue to score in the double digits?
Will Jennifer Lacy ever hit a basket when it counts?
Will Chioma Nnamaka get any garbage time?
Will Alison Bales stop wearing that dark eye shadow that makes her look like a raccoon?
Will Tamera Young be seen again? Or is Coach Meadors forcing her to sit under Kasha Terry's chair for the final two games?

For the answers to these and other questions, tune in next game, same Dream Time, same Dream Channel.

Atlanta Dream Auction Begins

The first Atlanta Dream items are up on auction.wnba.com. Right now, it's just a couple of basketballs, but I expect other stuff up soon.

Bid now. It's for a good cause.

Alternate Sources of Revenue

I've just read a PDF file called "The Coming Revenue Revolution in Sports". Unfortunately, there is no way to obtain the full contents of this PDF file unless one has Lexis-Nexus. (If you're a reader and you have this service, care to send me the full .pdf?)

From the part I was able to read, the article divides sports revenue into traditional sources:

1. gate revenue
2. rights fees to TV
3. merchandising
4. sponsorships
5. team ownership
6. concessions

The other parts of the article name what are called "other revenue sources", which are probably sources that have only recently been used and understood:

1. architecture
2. luxury suites/club seats
3. pay-per-view
4. satellite radio
5. personal seat licensing
6. media access charges
7. naming rights
8. sport as entertainment
9. international expansion


The final part of the article deals with what are called "nontraditional revenue sources":

1. housing related to the sports complex
2. computers at your seat
3. projected ads on field/court/ice
4. name plates on seats
5. headsets that would connect the fan to the field
6. flat screens in restrooms
7. interactive TV
8. broadcast license for trains and airlines
9. fan blogs (with advertising)
10. gaming

Let's look at which of the non-traditional revenue sources are plausible for the Dream....

1. housing - not really plausible. When you think of "housing", you usually think of golf courses where a member of the club can buy a house right next to the golf course. Dream fans tend to be a bit cost conscious. Is a fan really going to buy a condo because it's right next to Philips Arena? It's also a pain in the ass to manage such properties. Maybe a Dream trailer park is more our level.

2. computers at your seat - I know that Philips Arena has wireless internet, although I don't think they'll be letting every fan bring their laptop any time soon. What this can be used for is to have concessionaires roam the aisles with nothing more than a computerized device, like they do at the Braves games. An order for concessions is taken at the seat and "beamed to" where the food is prepared. Then, the concessionaire brings the food to your seat.

I've used this at Braves games. And I've enjoyed it.

3. projected ads on field - This would definitely work. I wouldn't mind seeing projected ads, although if the Dream is losing by 25 I don't want to see an ad for "fast headache relief" (or maybe I do)

4. name plates on seats - sorry, but the Hawks or Thrashers would get first pick. Unless the nameplates could be unscrewed when the Hawks/Thrashers aren't playing.

5. headsets that would connect the fan to the field - Oh, hell yes! Let's say that the Dream had two broadcasts that could be picked up by transistor radio - one of the Dream bench and one of the opposing bench. We could hear Meadors curse up a storm! (Of course, the R-rated nature of such broadcasts would be known.)

Two mikes would be positioned near each bench. Whenever there was a timeout, the mikes would be turned off to keep play calling private.

6. flat screens in restrooms - It works only if the patrons pee standing up.

7. interactive TV - I'll be happy with "regular TV".

8. broacast license for trains and airlines - why not? MARTA could show Dream games instead of those boring old newscasts. Furthermore, Dream games could be broadcast at the airport as well.

9. fan blogs - sorry, you ain't getting my fan blog riches (Did you know I swim in a pile of hundred dollar bills every night? Thanks, readers!)

10. gaming - I'll play any sort of WNBA electronic game if it comes out, even it it's a text sim. But it has to be the entire WNBA roster, not just a few select players for NBA Live.

Just a few thoughts. Even though attendance is great, I don't mind squeezin' that ol' nickel until Thomas Jefferson screams.

Dog Bites Orender

An amusing note from the Hartford Courant writeup of the Sun's loss to the Silver Stars yesterday:

WNBA president Donna Orender was at the game. She visited the Sun locker room after but may have wished she hadn't when [Asjha] Jones' puggle puppy nipped her.

Sources from the Connecticut Sun believe that the dog will be okay.

Fever Camped Out in Atlanta

This is from the Straight from the Messenger blog, the official Indiana Fever blog:

With an extra day of travel built in between games at Detroit and Atlanta, the Fever did not practice on Saturday -- a rare opportunity to sleep in before a 1:30 flight. A few players including Tammy Sutton-Brown underwent some morning treatments with trainer Ruth Helland, and after a 4 p.m. arrival in Hot-lanta, there was about an hour of light weights and some cardio, mostly for conditioning and maintenance. Players went their own directions on Saturday evening, with some coaches and staff, including myself and Chris Denari, attending the Atlanta Braves baseball game. Khadijah Whittington was the only player to join the baseball contingent.

The Nationals beat the Braves 8-5 in 10 innings. I don't know if that's a good omen for us (the Fever was robbed of entertainment) or a bad omen (the Atlanta team lost). All I konw is I hope that the Liberty knocks the Sky out of the playoffs. Tipoff is at 1 pm.

I hope the Lions kept the Fever up all night partying and that the Fever come into Philips exhausted. Just sayin'.

Swoopes Knocked Unconscious in Seattle/Minnesota Game

The link is from Rebkell. If you follow the link, you'll find a picture of Swoopes in a neck immobilizer being carted off the court.

I hope she's okay.

Dream in Pink

The above picture was found on a .pdf file at http://atlantadream.net. Today, the Dream jerseys seen in the above pick are put up for auction at http://auctions.wnba.com.

Unfortunately, I've been at auctions.wnba.com and the jerseys aren't there yet. A pity. There aren't many WNBA items up for bid although the one's being bid on are part of the Breast Cancer Awareness program promoted by the WNBA. I'll keep checking and let you know when they show up.

(The current high bid? A pair of pink Becky Hammon sneakers, at $440.00, signed by Hammon herself. The ultimate dream item for the Hammonite, or Russian basketball supporter, or foot fetishist in your life.)

If you look closely, you'll see that the stars at the side of the jersey are pink and not red. These were the jerseys the Dream were wearing in their loss to the Sun when we had Breast Cancer Awareness night at Philips. (Despite the fact that the jerseys might have some bad mojo, I'd bid on them anyway.)

A few thoughts about the pic.

1) Everyone has let their hair down. It's the first time I've ever seen Erica de Souza with her hair semi-styled.
2) Tamera Young got blocked out a little by Betty Lennox's head. However, Tamera gets a separate piccie on the Atlanta Dream website.
3) The pic gives a good idea of everyone's relative height. Latta is definitely the shortest player on the Dream.
4) Who is that wearing #42 on the far right? That's Nikki Teasley! Better look carefully...this might be the only time we ever see Nikki wearing a Dream uniform.

Tina Thompson to Retire at End of Season?

I stole this link right from RebKell.

It sort of makes sense. If the Comets aren't going to be around next season, maybe Tina figures "I came in with the Comets...and I'll go out with them."

2008/31 - Liberty 82, Dream 71

This was a historic game for the Dream - their first experience at Madison Square Garden, one of the meccas of world basketball. I'd go so far as to say that it was more important than Boston Garden or Rupp Arena.

This game was being televised on MSG, and by extension, on my laptop. I had to determine if I'd listen to Art Eckman's play-by-play, or if I'd listen to the MSG announcers. Wanting a change of pace, I let the TV announcers tell the story. (I knew that at least, they could get the names right.)

1. The New York Liberty knew one thing: "win, and we're in". A win over the Dream would clinch a playoff berth. They could also clinch a playoff berth if the Sun beat the Sky in Connecticut, but New York preferred to have their fate in their own hands.

2. Two members of the Liberty would not play: Shameka Christon and Tiffany Jackson. Christon was the Liberty's leading scorer, while leading rebounder Jackson was out with a stress fracture. We had a chance, at least.

3. I'm sure every WNBA player is faced with a tough decision whenever interviewed by the media - "Do I tell the truth, or do I just feed them some bullshit?" The MSG announcers interviewed Janel McCarville, whom I suspect teeter-tottered between both options.

The first question was if she wanted the ball for the Liberty whenever things were down. The announcers were referring to her 33 point performance against the Comets in the previous game. This is a pitfall of a question, because if you answer it too enthusiastically, you come off as a ballhog. McCarville gave a non-answer answer that I don't think satisfied anyone, but you could almost sense McCarville desperately wanting to answer, "Yes! Give me the damn ball!"

The next question was how they felt about playing a 3-27 Dream team. Once again, a pitfall, because the standard answer is you-know-I'm-just-humbled-to-be-here-every-team-is-tough. McCarville smiled, and said, looking down, "We're going into it pretty confident." Not slamming the Dream, McCarville said it in the manner of "we feel good about ourselves". I suspect the answer McCarville Wanted to give was "We're going to be all over these guys like lox on a bagel."

4. The starting lineup for the Dream: Izi Castro Marques, Erika De Souza, Alison Bales, Ivory Latta, Betty Lennox.
For the Liberty: Essence Carson, Janel McCarville, Catherine Kraayeveld, Loree Moore, Lisa Willis

This would give Alison Bales the tough job of guarding Janel McCarville. Good luck, Alison.

5. GAMETIME! Betty Lennox hit the first shot of the game, a three-pointer. Despite some sloppy play by Izi - Izi trying a three-pointer that no one could have hit, and throwing the ball over Erika's head - the Dream took a 7-4 lead over the Libs, forcing Patty Coyle to call a full time out. It's always great when the Dream don't call the first time out in a game.

6. That's when I learned some of the most terrifying words to be heard by any WNBA fan. "Refereeing tonight is Michael Price." A worser person would ask which of the two teams Price had bet on, but I keep myself a level above that, please.

7. Janel had some trouble in the first quarter against Alison Bales and Erika De Souza, who could match her height. She drove to the basket and hit the Bales-De Souza wall. The added height of the Dream was a real problem for the Liberty.

Example: Betty Lennox misses a 3-pointer, and then picks up her own offensive rebound. DeSouza goes in for the layup, misses the shot, and then gets her own rebound. Latta goes for a layup, and misses the layup.

Two offensive rebounds against the Liberty. The Libs were also coughing up the ball. They'd have six turnovers by the end of the quarter.

8. Lennox was on fire in the first. She scored 11 points and was carrying the team for us. Both teams were shooting fifty percent in the first quarter.

9. Watching the game on TV gave me a chance to see

a. The Liberty Puppy: I think the Liberty puppy mascot is named "Maddie". It's a dog (I think) with a Statue-of-Liberty-tiara. Very cute looking. Sky's not as cute as Maddie, but we still love Sky.

b. Cotton candy: You know those cotton candy poles that you see people with at the Braves games? It looks like they have vendors selling cotton candy at Madison Square Garden.

It would be great if they had vendors at the Atlanta Dream games. You can get food at a Dream game, but you have to leave your seat. Just imagine...cotton candy...hot dogs...pizza...soda....

(I think I'm hungry. Be right back.)

10. The Dream had put full court pressure on the Liberty for virtually the entire game. The Dream had nine turnovers, but were still hanging around, only down by two points, 24-22.

There was a Essence Carson-Jennifer Lacy jump ball where New York got the rebound but Janel McCarville tripped over Tamera Young's outstretched leg. I'm certain it was accidental, but McCarville had this "What - the - f@#k?" look on her face. The announcers said, regarding McCarville, "She's not someone you want to tick off."

11. Erika de Souza was being forced to guard Jessica Davenport, but Davenport was winning the battle. Ivory Latta, for some inexplicable reason, had given up on her mid-range jumper and was trying to drive into the basket.

Lennox was keeping us in the game. She had 17 points at the half, with Izi, Alison Bales, Ivory Latta and Katie Feenstra having four points each. Janel McCarville led the Libs with 10, with Catherine Kraayeveld right behind her with six.

By halftime, it was Liberty 38, Dream 35. The Libs couldn't shake us. The Dream/Betty Lennox were/was shooting slightly under 50 percent. Statistically, both teams looked even. However, the Dream had a history of giving their fans two and a half quarters of good basketball, and the rest of crap basketball. I was just hoping the Dream could hold it out through the third quarter.

12. The referreeing was the typical botch job that you'd expect with Michael Price on the squad. Erin Thorn got called for a phantom illegal screen in the second.

13. Once again, the Dream were staying tough on the offensive boards. Once again, they got three chances to score. Betty tried for a three-pointer but missed it, but Alison Bales got the rebound. It was kicked back to Ivory Latta, who also missed the free throw, but Betty Lennox got the rebound. Erika De Souza would find Bales for the easy layup and the Dream would stay within three, 40-37.

14. I've come to the conclusion that Janel McCarville is the most athletic center I've ever seen. Three years ago, if I had said that you'd think it was a joke. Janel "plays like she's five four". For a big woman, she's completely comfortable with her size, whereas most other bigs are either clumsy or slow. McCarville is neither.

The scary thought is that she's only going to get better. Can we make a trade for McCarville? Coach Meadors, are you listening?

15. Just as Cinderella's clock began to chime, sure enough at the two-and-a-half quarter mark is where the Dream started to uniwinde. With the Libs up 46-44, Ashley Battle made a couple of free throws, picked up a rebound off of one of Izi's missed shots, and then found Kraayeveld for the layup.

It was Liberty up by six, their biggest lead of the game (so far). Coach Meadors called for a full time out.

16. For those who haven't followed the Liberty for thirty-some games, here's some inside info - a timeout by Coach Meadors usually don't mean shit. She might as well be speaking Linear B to our players, who undoubtedly are planning their social events post-game while nodding their head. No time out by Coach Meadors, ever, turned anything around.

But not this time. Izi shot a three. After McCarville missed one of two free throws, Izi found Erika who made a layup that finally tied the game again, 51-51.

17. Janel McCarville, however, proved that she could create plays as well as finish them. She found both Lisa Willis and Ashley Battle outside the arc. Two assists for McCarville. Six points for the Liberty.

Time out for Atlanta. Again.

18. Despite McCarville's "I'm-a-gymnast-in-a-bruiser's-body" antics, Betty Lennox already had 22 points. As the announcers said, it was as Lennox was saying to the Liberty, "Okay, who wants to try to guard me next. Essence Carson, assigned to guard Lennox, would score a grand total of one point for her efforts.

19. At the end of the quarter, the Liberty began to gain acceleration. They finished the quarter with the last six points.

There is a famous clip of a North Carolina-Duke game where Alison Bales of Duke set a pick and no one on the Tarheels bothered to tell Ivory Latta about it. Latta, running full tilt, slams into a stationary Bales like a mini-bike slamming into a telephone pole. Latta ended up flat on her back, and it seemed as if Bales never took notice.

Well, yesterday we got to see a Version #2. It was Latta moving again, but her unwitting target was Jessica Davenport. Once again, someone forgot to communicate with Latta, once again, Latta ended up slamming full tilt into Davenport and ending up flat on their back.

I've been trying to find the complete Liberty-Dream game on line, but no luck. Just look at the hotlinked clip above, and mentally substitute Jessica Davenport for Alison Bales. It's hard, but I know you can do it.

20. We sent the Liberty to the line multiple times in the third quarter. That was what hurt us most of all.

21. Early in the fourth quarter, the Libs were up by 12, 67-55, their biggest lead of the game. Katie Feenstra was on the court, and Jessica Davenport was assigned to her.

Davenport and Feenstra are two kinds of big women. Feenstra is pretty well-proportioned for a tall woman, whereas Davenport blocks out the sun. Davenport was having a hard time guarding Feenstra, and had to resort to Hack-a-Feenstra, a play that I hadn't seen since before we acquired Alison Bales.

22. Another piece of bad refereeing: Betty Lennox made a basket where she was travelling so much that she virtually carried the ball in both arms - it was so blatant even I could tell it was a travel, and I don't know nothin' about basketball.

I suspect that the refs were not watching huge parts of the game. There was a "three blind mice" moment in the third where the refs were scratching their heads and finally called for a jump ball because they couldn't decide who had touched the ball last.

That basket made it 69-61. The Liberty called time out!

23. And then, Betty Lennox hit a three pointer to close it to five! Kristen Haynie almost had two steals in harrassing the Liberty offense. Feenstra scored again and it was 69-66 Liberty. Davenport fouled again and Patty Coyle put Davenport on the bench for a little while.

At 3:23 remaining in the game, Erika de Souza tipped in a shot on a rebound to close the gap to three points! It was 71-68 Liberty! The Dream were on a roll!

24. This play typified the rest of the game.

Loree Moore was chasing a ball out of bounds that had last been touched by the Liberty. With quick thinking, in midair, she grabbed the ball and flicked it into Erika de Souza's legs. The ball bounced off De Souza and out of bounds.

Liberty ball.

25. And then it went to hell. The Atlanta Dream was like a wound rubber band that suddenly snapped with the tension.

McCarville hit a driving layup and was fouled by Jennifer Lacy (McCarville got a free shot, which she missed.)
Loree Moore finds Kraayeveld for a backdoor cut to the bucket.
McCarville finds Thorn who makes a running jump shot.

Then Meadors gets called for a technical. According to the announcers, Meadors had been riding one of the refs all night (the ref they showed was Bonita Spence) and finally, Meadors got the T.

The New York Liberty went on an 11-0 run. Lennox would hit a free throw, and Bales would get the last shot, but it was all Liberty for the last three and a half minutes.

Final score: Liberty 82, Dream 71.


(* * *)

All right. Let's look at the box score and the four keys to victory:

Field goal percentage: The Liberty won that one, 52.6 percent to the Dream's 43.1 percent. The Dream was shooting about 47 percent at the end of three quarters but collapsed in the fourth.
Offensive rebounding: The Dream won the offensive rebounding battle, 12 to 7. It was a very good rebounding night for the Dream, but the Liberty were missing their leading rebounder.
Turnovers. Once again, the Dream won, 13 to 15.
Free throw visits. This was a double loss for the Dream and one of the unforeseen keys of the game. The Dream sent the Liberty to the line 19 times, compared to the Dream's 14. Furthemore, the Liberty hit 84 percent of their shots, whereas the Dream went 8 for 14 at the free throw line.

If free throws were a bit even, this might have been just a three-point loss.

Flow of the game. The Dream and Liberty swapped the first two quarters, and then the Liberty took the final two quarters. The third quarter was particularly telling.

Who guarded who? I know that Bales was responsible for holding down McCarville, but as Meadors said earlier in the year, few teams have an answer for McCarville. Bales would score eight points which was above average for her. Not exactly a defensive struggle on either side.

Feenstra scored 10 points. DeSouza scored 10. The Liberty had no answer for our big women.

Efficiency: Us, then them

Us

Lennox: 28 points on 17 shots. This was a breakout game for Lennox. Lennox had three offensive rebounds and seven total rebounds. Lennox is easily the Player of the Game on both sides.
De Souza: 10 points on 7 shots. Also 6 rebounds.
Feenstra: 10 points, 11 shots. Average efficiency.
Izi: 9 points, 11 shots. Meh.
Bales: 8 points, 8 shots, and six rebounds.
Latta: 6 points, 8 shots. It wasn't the disaster of the game before against the Storm. However, this is the fourth straight game where Latta has been held under ten points. Any hope of us winning a game between now and the end of the season depends on Latta pulling out of this slump.

Them

McCarville: 21 points, 18 points. Five rebounds, five assists.
Kraayeveld: 18 points, 17 shots, five rebounds.
Willis: 12 points, 9 shots. Three rebounds. On efficiency alone, Willis is the player of the game for New York.
Battle: 9 points, 11 shots.
Davenport: 7 points, and 4 shots, but when Feenstra owns you, it isn't a good game.
Thorn: 6 points, 11 shots. A lousy game for Thorn at a time when the Liberty is two players down and needs every player to produce.
Moore: 5 points, 3 shots, four rebounds.

Use of the roster: Both teams used the roster about equally. It was odd to see Tamera Young only get two minutes. What was up with that?

Southern Belle Milk Carton of the Game: It was a toss-up between Essence Carson, Kristen Haynie and Jennifer Lacy. I'm going to give this one to Kristen Haynie, but it was close.

Haynie: zero points, two shots, two rebounds. Thirteen minutes played.

(* * *)

So what can we take out of this game?

Our shooting percentage since the break has been pretty damned good. Furthermore, we're generally matching teams in offensive rebounds. Our big women are working well together.

However, we're sliding backwards. That 82-71 loss was the closest loss since after the Olympic break. Part of the problem is that Ivory Latta has disappeared. Izi is too streaky. This leaves Betty Lennox to do the bulk of the lifting.

Our inside game can get rebounds, but we don't have a Janel McCarville who can rebound and score. Our bigs are one-dimensional, meant to be parts of a whole. The Atlanta Dream don't have a whole, and they haven't had it since the beginning of the season.

The next game coming up is our final home game against the Fever. This is our best chance for a win in the final three games - and if Ivory Latta doesn't wake up, it might be our only chance, with our final two games on the road against Los Angeles and Seattle - and those two games are back to back.

What we need to happen is for Chicago to lose on Sunday to the Liberty. If Chicago loses, then the Fever clinches the final of the four playoff spots in the East. Then the Fever won't have the sense of "OhGodIneedtowinandwinrightnow". They'll feel a bit less pressure and we can sneak up on them. Furthermore, it will put more distance between the Libs and the Fever.

As Buffalo Bill Cody said on his deathbed, "Well, let's forget about it and play high five." Let's forget about it, and get our second home year of the year on Monday.

Help out the Comets

Just a reminder - if you've not already signed the petition to save the Houston Comets, please done so.

A note: after you fill out the info and submit it, the website will take you to a donations page. You might be left with the impression that you have to donate for your signature to count, but your signature has already been recorded. You can just "X-out", or leave the site.

Hoop Dreams

Southern Voice Atlanta has an interesting article called "Hoop Dreams". It's about two women, a basketball team, an on-court shootout, a community, a relationship.

Give it a read.

MLB will fold in two years. Bet on it.

Note the following news story.

I have to ask this rhetorical question about American baseball. "But is this minor talent really worth being so unattractive? That's for the fan to decide!"

Reflection of a Dream

I'd like to introduce the readers out there to the Dream's winning Adidas i-Design entry for a new team shooting shirt.. The entry is by Christy Leary and is called "Reflection of a Dream". It will be worn by the Dream players in the shootaround on Fan Appreciation Night on September 8, 2008 which will be the final Atlanta Dream home game of this year.



Suh-weet. Come to this link to see the winning designs for all teams. (I like the winning WNBA design in particular.)

Thunderstunk!

Oklahoma City unveiled the new logo and name for their new NBA team.

The name was no surprise. Clay Bennett decided to call it the Thunder. He was unable to use the name Tornadoes because god forbid a tornado hit the midwest and some clueless newsman led the broadcast with "Tornado kills five in Tulsa, and Tornadoes kill the Clippers 106-89." Thunder has never killed anybody, not yet anyway.

As for the logo, to paraphrase the old joke, "That logo wasn't released. It escaped."



Here are the rules.

NBA: plural nouns as mascots
WNBA: abstract nouns as symbols

The way it is, and the way it should be, forever and ever, amen. As a big fan of the Atlanta Dream and all the grief we got because of our name, well who's laughing now?

I can't name a logo in the W that's worse than that one. Even the Washington Mystics logo looks better, because if you squint really hard you might detect a whiff of magical smoke in Washington's logo. (Atlanta, unable to represent "Dream" in concrete terms, simply went with a stylin' red-blue-white logo that any ABA team would have been proud to have.) Whereas OKC's logo represents...nothing.

I suspect that OKC called their team the "Thunder" because they hoped that fans would mistake them for the Seattle Storm.

Home Sweet Home

This link, provided by the official Atlanta Dream blog, gives us a tour of Ron Terwilliger's Atlanta penthouse. Terwilliger is the owner of the Atlanta Dream.

I notice that among the thirty pictures of Terwilliger's digs, picture #6 indicates that the penthouse is for sale. With the trouble the Comets are in, you can imagine how this has triggered the most paranoid of delusions in this Atlanta Dream fan.

"Hey, Dr. J....!"

From the Wikipedia entry on Julius Erving:

New Jersey Nets star Vince Carter, who was playing for the Toronto Raptors at the time, preferred Erving as the choice for the team's next General Manager, after Glen Grunwald was dismissed in 2004. However, the team owners hired Rob Babcock instead.

Could the good Dr. J have...ulterior motives for showing up at two Dream games? Could Marynell Meadors be facing the boot in either the GM, the coach position, or both? Will Dr. J be showing us his WNBA moves in 2009?

WNBA Trends

This is what you get when you play with the new Google Trends website.

This information is from Google Insights for Search. The maximum on the scale is 100. Only web searching for the year 2008 is considered.

States with the greatest interest in the WNBA

1. Tennessee (100)
2. Connecticut (80)
3. Georgia (80)
4. Louisiana (70)
5. Mississippi (64)
6. Indiana (61)
7. South Dakota (60)
8. District of Columbia (59)
9. North Carolina (55)
10. Maryland (55)

States with the least WNBA interest

Delaware (0)
Idaho (0)
Maine (0)
Montana (0)
North Dakota (0)
Vermont (0)
West Virginia (0)
Wyoming (0)

Countries with the greatest interest in the WNBA

1. United States (100)
2. Slovenia (68)
3. Croatia (50)
4. Phillipines (39)
5. Singapore (30)
6. Canada (27)
7. Israel (27)
8. Slovakia (26)
9. Poland (21)
10. Malaysia (20)

Cities with the greatest interest in the WNBA

1. Atlanta (100)
2. Washington, D. C. (70)
3. Seattle (70)
4. Houston (66)
5. Chicago (65)
6. New York (62)
7. Phoenix (62)
8. Los Angeles (62)
9. Dallas (52)
10. Richardson (52)

Top 10 search terms related to WNBA in the US

1. WNBA draft (100)
2. WNBA basketball (70)
3. WNBA fight (65)
4. WNBA draft 2008 (40)
5. WNBA salaries (35)
6. WNBA players (35)
7. Candace Parker WNBA (35)
8. WNBA salary (30)
9. WNBA brawl (30)
10. WNBA Atlanta (25)

2008/30 - Storm 83, Dream 69

The Junior Shooting Stars in Action! (See note below.)

I pegged this game as one of two upcoming games we had a chance to win. Betty and Izi know the Storm about as well as anyone can. And for about 25 minutes, we played the Storm very well. Then, the roof collapsed and the Dream was left digging itself out of the rubble one more time.

Get your coffee. Let's talk.

1) One warning should have been that "GO STORM" sign I saw one of the spectators wearing. I also saw a cute, thin, short-haired girl wearing a Storm jersey. Clearly, there are some displaced Seattle fans living in Atlanta.

2) Last night was "Mascot Night". There were mascots from the following organizations:

Atlanta Thrashers
Atlanta Hawks
Georgia State
Georgia Tech
Atlanta Falcons
Georgia Force.

There was also a man dressed in a gorilla costume and another dressed in a banana costume. Banana Man was intent on forcing a conversation with me. I asked him what organization he represented, and he said he represented "bananas around the world".

The people setting next to me were wondering who the hell this guy was. The other mascots seemed to treat him as radioactive. I think he must have represented some mental institution somewhere in Atlanta.

3) We got to see the return of Camille Little (#20), this time in a forest green uniform. No one from the Dream spoke to her. The entire Dream team marched into the locker room after warming up and I don't think a single one so much as threw her a glance. She got cut off, baby!

Whereas Betty Lennox and Sue Bird embraced at the start of the game just before tipoff. If the Storm hated Lennox, I never saw it on the court.

4) The pre-tip off entertainment was the Osborne Marching Band from Cobb County. I thought they were quite good, despite the fact that they had to squeeze a marching band onto a basketball court. This restricted what they were able to show us.

The sad part is because it was pre-tipoff, they were shoved into the 6:30 p-6:40 p slot, which is when the seats are deserted. This really can't be helped. There's so much mad running around just before a game starts among officials, players, mascots, and announcers, that the band can't be moved to a timeframe when the crowds are more full.

5) For once, we didn't have a celebrity (pseudo or real) singing the National Anthem. We just had a local high school girl. That girl should have been on American Idol. Or maybe, she will be.

6) When Yolanda Griffith was announced, I was informed that she played for UConn. I think Huskies alumni would be surprised by that; Yolanda most of all.

7) When Erika de Souza was introduced as a starter and ran out to mid-court, she did a little shuffle, sort of a half-tap-dance-half-dance. Of course, the other players weren't going to let Erika outshine them. Everyone else added some dance moves, except Betty who was all business.

8) Starters for the Dream: Castro Marques, Latta, DeSouza, Lacy, Lennox. Another day, another new lineup.

9) GAMETIME! Izi lit it up at the very beginning. Betty Lennox was cold, however. We started 3-11 overall.

Of particular concern is Ivory Latta. She has completely forgotten her mid-range jumper. Instead, she has now taken to try drive in for layups, a bad idea when you are COUGH five-six.

How small is Latta? I saw her inadvertanly crushed between two Seattle Storm players while everyone was running to the enemy basket. I don't think the two Storm players saw Latta; it was as if two semi trucks inadvertantly crushed a Volkswagen.

10) Lennox was hitting nothing to start the game. That's when I noticed it. The QUIET of the crowd. Granted, many of the seven thousand or so were disguised as empty seats, but this crowd did not have any energy. I'd say after 26 losses much of the energy is depleted. The crowd had resigned itself to another loss; the only question was how would the Dream lose this time?

11) After one quarter, we actually led, 18-17. Part of that lead was the result of six Seattle turnovers. We were only shooting 35 percent after one quarter.

12) I noticed in the last game that Katie Feenstra has started to look for the ball, rather than desperately search out Lennox somewhere in the backcourt to dish it off to. However, Kit only played 2:44 this game. The second Ann Strother got close to that basket, she was desperately looking to get rid of the ball.

She succeeded. Over three minutes of play, zero points for Ann Strother.

12a) Could this be our problem? We only score when we have no other choice? No wonder the reserves played so well when Betty Lennox was in that slump.

13) Kit was eager to get the ball. Myself, I would keep Kit for another year. I think I'm in the minority of Dream fans, however, as Kit has become the brand name for "slow and awkward".

14) If there was any player eager to put on a show for the Atlanta crowd it was...Camille Little. She had 16 points and six rebounds, so thanks for nothing, Little. Little was playing like Michael Jordan (relatively speaking) in the second, making some acrobatic moooooves to the basket.

Someone was wearing a Camille Little jersey in the front row. If that person wasn't related by blood to Camille Little, then that's Double Treason. I suggest the death penalty.

15) The lead seesawed back and forth. Seattle looked pretty lost out there without Lauren Jackson and Sheryl Swoopes. As a result, they kept the Dream in the game.

16) FAMOUS VISITOR #1: Marvin Williams of the Atlanta Hawks. He didn't even bother to acknowledge the crowd.

17) Halftime. Seattle was leading, but it wasn't a blowout. 39-34, Storm.

At halftime, we had the "Junior Shooting Stars". The Atlanta dance team, called the Shooting Stars, put on their own clinic sometime last week. It looks like their clinic attendees - young girls - got the chance to dance with their teachers. It was fun watching the girls trying to match the steps of their much-older sisters in spirit.

18) Betty and Izi were in double figures by this point. Lennox had 14, Izi had 12.

19) In the starting possession of the third quarter, Griffith loss the ball as it was stolen by DeSouza. The ball ended up in Ivory Latta's hands, who passed it to Betty for the bucket. With just 9:16 left in the third, Brian Agler called a full time out.

20) The timeout didn't stop the Dream from going on a mini-roll. They led 40-39 after scoring six straight to start the second half. It would be the last time the Dream saw the lead in the game.

21) Then, Sue Bird took off. She scored a three-pointer. And then another bucket. Essentially, she shook the Storm out of their doldrums.

Little took a shot. She hit it. The Storm rolled off 11 straight points and the Dream found itself (again) ten points behind. Meadors called a time out to stop the bleeding.

22) Having little choice, Meadors unleashed Kasha Terry, who amazingly did not foul two times in her first minute of play. Betty Lennox hit a three pointer and it was time to announce....

...FAMOUS VISITOR #2. Julius Erving is in the house AGAIN! Hey, Dr. J., you can stay in the Place Where Dreams are Made Of as long as you want! I only wish you could see us do a little bit better.

23) By this time, everyone around me was chatting about Sue Bird. I don't know how much Sue Bird had to do with it, but the Storm weren't letting us back in the game. The quarter ended 62-50, Storm.

24) Now you have to give Kasha Terry credit. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, she had three fouls on her.

25) The Storm went on a mini- 6-0 run. They started at 65-54 and by the time I looked again it was 71-54. The Dream were starting to turn their bellies up in submission again.

26) Mascots Gone Wild! The mascots began throwing shirts to those in attendance. Banana Man was not given a shirt to throw, in fear that he might steal it, eat it or set it aflame.

27) I learned that a recycled aluminum can saves the three hours worth of energy it takes to make a brand new aluminium can. But wouldn't it take as much energy to recycle it. I must admit, the Jumbotron was not forthcoming with details.

28) With the score at 73-56 with 5:46 to go, I got a strange sensation. The fans had started exiting. It looked like a Dodgers game, with fans wanting to hit the Interstate instead of hang around for the eventual loss.

The Atlanta fans were voting with their feet. The place started to look bare. It was ominously quiet. Atlanta fans are infinitely forgiving of their beloved Dream, but I can understand why some fans felt the need to flee with more than five minutes left. The fans, like the players, can only take so much psychic battering before collapsing.

Meadors had "crossed arms" body language. She had this pissed-off look at her players like, "Hell, what do you expect me to do? Wave a magic wand and make it all go away?" At least the coaching staff is disgusted.

29) The Storm lead reached 21 points at high tide. Ivory Latta FINALLY started shooting, but no rational person expected her to undo a 21 point deficit with 2:57 left. Gee Ivory, maybe you should have found your "on" switch about two hours ago.

30) Final score. Storm 83, Dream 69.

31) Art Eckman came out to do the post-mortem. Meadors had the usual things to day. "We didn't play defense." How do you explain the 27th loss in some different way than the other 26?

They interviewed Betty. Betty looked like she was going to cry. I could see little patches of water at the corners of her eyes. She mumbled through an interview with Eckman, emotionally choked out "I love you, Atlanta!" and rapidly exited the court.

(* * *)

Good god. Good god, good god, good god.

Let's look at the horrible paper.

Shooting percentage: The Storm hit 48.4 percent of their shots. The Dream hit 32.4 percent. The last peformance I can remember that was that bad was when the Sparks held us to under 30 percent at home.
Offensive rebounds: About the same. 10 on both sides. The Storm got more rebounds overall, however, and Meadors blamed the loss on lack of rebounding.
Turnovers. The Storm actually turned the ball over more, 22-16. However, if we can't make anything happen from the turnovers, then who gives a rat's ass?
Free throw visits: Seattle 25, Atlanta 21. The Storm even beat us there.

Flow of the game: We held them for one quarter, and then the Storm pulled away a little bit more each time. If they hadn't let us score a little bit in the bottom of the fourth, this would have been a 20-point loss.

Starters minutes: Pretty much about the same.

Scoring efficency: Us, then Them.

Us

Lennox: 25 points on 28 shots. An average game. Betty scored the most, but Betty took most of the shots.
Castro Marques: 12 points on 15 shots. Not that impressive.
DeSouza: 8 points, 8 shot attempts, eight rebounds. You get that kind of consistency from Erika.
Kasha Terry: 8 points, 6 shots. And only three fouls! This is a banner game for Kasha!

Them

Sue Bird: 21 points, 16 shots, 9 assists. Easily the player of the game.
Camille Little: 16 points, 17 shots.
Yolanda Griffith: 16 points, 17 shots.
Swin Cash: 11 points, 13 shots.
Tanisha Wright: 11 points, 13 shots:

Southern Belle Milk Carton of the Game: Ivory Latta, who seems to have mentally folded up. She went 2-13 for the floor. She went 2-4 from the line. That's 7 points on 17 shots. We would have shot 4 percent better without her "contribution".

What has happened to Ivory? Has her brain finally imploded from the pressure?

(* * *)

I might have more to say about this particular game later. However, writing the facts alone was an emotional chore, actually stating my opinion on it might require heavy drinking.

New Postscript: The pic of the Junior Shooting Stars up above comes from this blog. The Dream will be glad to have her, either as a Dream player, or in cheering us on to another victory!