The Ultimate Fate of the Lingerie Football League

The Lingerie Football League faces a set of different problems that are sure to doom it. Unlike those who chime against the WNBA - namely, those who claim that the WNBA can't succeed because it's played by women and women have cooties - I don't claim that ads for the LFL are being "shoved down my throat" or that there is a international conspiracy to promote the league. I believe that in a universe full of 1000 channels, there is room for every sport.

Here's the problem with the Lingerie Football League - it will be forced to make the choice between being one thing or the other.

If translated properly, the league could rightfully be named the "Women's Underwear Football League". It's sort of a league for people who want to see beautiful women run around in their underwear. Maybe there's always been a fetish out there where these women toss a football around; I don't claim to know.

Most people pretty much laugh such a venture off, claiming that the league will be populated with out-of-work strippers and failed models. But in quite a few press pieces I've read, the players, or the owners, or somebody claim that "this is real football".

There is a danger in allowing these fetishized objects of desire to play real football. The problem is that if you begin playing football, you start wanting your team to win games. An owner of one of these teams might begin thinking that his team of damsels can actually win games. And when winning games becomes important - after all, there is the glamour of the sport's highest prize, the Lingerie Bowl, to think about - people become...well...competitive.

Once you put the thing on a competitive footing, you begin looking for creative interpretations of the rules. True, beauty seems to be The Unspoken Requirement for making a team, one which is never explicitly named but which everyone knows exists. However...the question then becomes beautiful to whom? You know, there are a lot of men out there who like big women. Suppose someone out there with the body of a Wendie Jo Sperber or a Marissa Jaret Winokur wants to play? Now granted, such big women can be blacklisted...but what if there's an influential owner in a big city who threatens to take his team and go home if she can't play? Once you start looking for a winning edge, your standards of beauty begin to expand.

(It would be funny if some losing owner decided to fire his entire team and replace it with a decidedly unbeautiful collection of mean women. Would the league sanction the owner for violation of a non-existent rule?)

Furthermore, if beauty is the key to making the team, is there a rule that you have to remain beautiful? If you want your Hooters girls to pick up some speed...well, there is the Marion Jones way of doing it. It comes in a bottle, and you inject it. Sure, back acne is involved, but who cares if you're two games out of first?

What if your star running back breaks her nose? Nose job time? Yeah, but what if a berth in the Lingerie Bowl is at stake? She might be the first person to say, "To hell with the break, I'll fix it later." As a result, all of the photos are of a Karl Malden lookalike.

Here's the dilemma - if you treat the competition seriously, then after a while, the beauty takes second place. The league will simply become less pretty over time. Great sports players aren't necessarily blessed with the looks of an Adonis or a Venus. Then the players will start demanding better equipment, and before you know it, the LFL establishment becomes what it probably fears becoming - real competitive football, played by non-glamorous women.

If, on the other hand, you put the beauty over the competition, what you get is a glorified version of World Wide Entertainment. A lot of people might watch it, but no one will ever take it seriously, and your fans get the reputation of yahoos. (Notice that the WWE, for all of its attention on TV and glamour, isn't exactly a hot topic of discussion at Around the Horn.)

Because, face it, beauty and competition do not naturally go hand in hand. They must conflict sooner or later, and the LFL must decide which one will prevail. You will either have beautiful women who become less and less skilled over time, or skilled women who become less or less beautiful. The list of women who are extraordinarly beautiful and can play talented seven-on-seven football in a garter belt is simply too small for the ambitions of the league.

Moral: Never let women play pretend football, because they might soon start asking to play real football.

White Sox Also Struggling: Decreased Attendance = No Trades

From the Huffington Post, and elsewhere:

" White Sox general manager Ken Williams said Tuesday he may not be able to make a big trade this season because of smaller crowds at U.S. Cellular Field."

...

"Well, if I'm being completely honest money is more of the issue now. We expected a little more support than we've gotten," he said. "I think it's a reflection upon the economy of what's kind of happen with regards to attendance and I don't know if we've played consistent enough, or been exciting enough for people to get behind us. We're still hopeful."

If the Sox are struggling, what about the other teams in baseball? Attendance is down 5.5 percent across the board.

As for the WNBA? According to the latest numbers, the WNBA's attendance is holding the same (actually up by 0.7 percent).

Of course, this is a count of tickets sold, not bodies in seats. Just about every sport does the same thing (see: Marlins, Florida) except for maybe football. But if the WNBA's attendance numbers are just lies, then why can't the major sports lie as creatively as we do?

The Atlanta Dream Team Dentist?

Original Retro Brand has an interview with Dr. Daryl Kimche, who is the team dentist for the Georgia Tech women's basketball team and also cares for the choppers of the Atlanta Dream.

I have been the team dentist for Georgia Tech since 1994. My staff and I handle dental emergencies, do preventative care and protect their smiles by fabricating athletic mouth guards. Because I have played college basketball, I am able to relate to the challenges these students face with athletics, scheduling and academics. I formed a relationship with Ms. Bernadette McGlade who was, at that time, the Associate Athletic Director at Georgia Tech.

I don't know if this is an endorsement from the blog, but I'd certainly keep her in mind if I was having dental work done.

Atlanta Dream to Honor All American Red Heads

The Red Heads, circa 1976.

It appears that six members of the All-American Red Heads will be attending the August 1st home game between the Dream and the New York Liberty. In addition, the highlight video of the All American Red Heads (via this post) will be shown at halftime on the Jumbotron at Philips Arena.

The Red Heads were one of America's first professional basketball teams, in an era where there wasn't even a professional league. They barnstormed from 1936 to around 1986, playing 200 games a year sometimes, all on the road, against teams of men, and definitely winning more than they lost.

If you can only be at one game this year, this is the game you want to be at. If it weren't for teams like the Red Heads, there might not be a WNBA. August 1st. 7:30 pm. Philips Arena. Mark it down.

Okay guys. Now it's time to give the players of the old Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL) some love and recognition, too....

Orender Being Talked Up as LPGA Commissioner - Interns' Feelings Hurt by Donna

With Carolyn Bivens, the commissioner of the LPGA, supposedly out the door all sort of names real and imagined have been suggested to fill the spot by Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun. Among those is our own WNBA President Donna Orender.

Orender spent 17 years with the PGA and was their Senior Vice President of Strategic Development. If she were to leave, despite the fact that some fans don't think Orender is honest, it would be a serious blow to the league. The talk would be that Orender was jumping a sinking ship.

Meanwhile, it looks like someone's been editing the Wikipedia entry on Donna Orender at Wikipedia:

In the summer of 2008, during marketing meetings for the new WNBA advertising campaign-- featuring the "Expect Great" motto-- Orender was purportedly seen yelling and degrading several interns who helped work on the project. Other attendees noted her "outright rudeness" during the presentation and bursts of irrationality.

Ouch. The IP address - 24.3.244.95 - comes out of Comcast Cable in New Jersey. What, did someone get their feelings hurt by Donna? Hey, toughen up interns.

Bad Message Board, No Biscuit

The Atlanta Dream Message Board appears to be down this morning. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon. A shout-out to all those message board readers out there.

Little Smooth Back on Saturday

From Tamera Young on Twitter:

@tyoung11 For all my wondering supporters YES I will be playing Saturday as long as coach puts me in *smile*




The Dream has its full compliment back. Woo hoo!

Sancho Featured at WNBA.com

Sancho Lyttle gets some love from Scott Stanchak writing at WNBA.com. If you don't know much about Sancho Lyttle, who she is or where she came from, this article is the perfect background article.

It didn’t take long for Lyttle to get noticed. On Nov. 21, 2004, Lyttle’s first game with U of H, she took the ball to the basket, past a group of Gonzaga defenders, for a dunk – a rare feat in the women’s game. The slam got her national attention.

“That was a bet thing and I was feeling good that day,” Lyttle, who had her bags carried for her the following weekend, said modestly.

Don’t count on seeing Lyttle dunk in a WNBA game anytime soon. She says her hands are too small to palm the ball; plus, “two points is two points,” so she doesn’t want to risk blundering the play.

Rookie Evaluation and Courtney Paris

Last year, I created something called the Senior Prospects Metric. The Metric was a stab-in-the-dark attempt to predict WNBA performance from one's senior college statistics and from other data. The SPM returned Courtney Paris as the big name in the draft, and I even advocated that she be drafted in the #1 spot by the Atlanta Dream.

However, Courtney is in trouble...again. In a recent news article by Jenni Carlson at The Oklahoman, Courtney made the following quote:

"I can’t honestly say I was familiar with a lot of the players and what they do,” she said. "In the summers, I was doing stuff, so it’s not like I paid attention as much to the WNBA.

"I’m learning more about the game I play every day.”

This has caused a lot of consternation on WNBA message boards, to say the least. However, Carlson also relates the following:

Paris is averaging only 8.1 minutes a game, the third-lowest average among rookies who were drafted in the first round.

Shavonte Zellous is averaging 25.2 minutes a game, most by any rookie. DeWanna Bonner (20.6), Renee Montgomery (17.9) and Angel McCoughtry (16.5) also average twice as much playing time as Paris.

Quentin McCall over at Rethinking Basketball wrote about the problem of evaluating rookie performance. I took away two pieces of information. First, there really isn't a satisfactory way to evaluate rookies, primarily because they never get enough minutes to play. Second - and more importantly in my opinion - you should evaluate rookies by what they do, not by what you think they might do.

There is a metric called the Diamond Rating. The Diamond Rating can be based on any metric you want - Wins Score, Adjusted Wins Score, PER, whatever. The idea is to look at what they've done, blow it up to starters minutes and compare that to average across the league.

So if you think about it, Shavonte Zellous comes up with an argument for winning Rookie of the Year. After all, the metric doesn't consider people who play more than 21 minutes a game - those players are considered to be starters, more or less. And since Zellous plays starter's minutes...well, how many rookies get to start in the WNBA? So there.

Of course, she's starting for one of the worst teams in the league.

Without pulling a bunch of numbers out of a spreadsheet, here's how Diamond Rating evaulates the first round draft picks of 2009 based on Diamond Rating, the Diamond Rating using Adjusted Wins Score:

Bonner
McCoughtry
Wisdom-Hylton
Coleman
Hollingsworth
Toliver
Montgomery
January
Paris
Black
Zellous (if her rating counted)
Walker
Vaughn

If I presented that as a list of "best to worst rookies", that list might not get a lot of argument in some quarters. I'm sure some people would move Coleman and Toliver up the list and Wisdom-Hylton and Hollingsworth down. What's surprising is that Paris ranks so low: 9th out of 13, when many expected her to place a lot higher (including me). What's even more surprising is that Shalee Lehning - a late second rounder - finishes ahead of Paris (!) and two places below Montgomery.

The question, then, is...what happened? Why wasn't Courtney's performance in college a good indicator of her WNBA performance?

The first is that statistics can't tell you everything, obviously. A rule in analysis is, "the more you condense a stat line down to a single number, the less accurate it is likely to be". If you look at Paris's rebounds and ignore everything else, you're likely to be led astray. And if your metric gives undue weight to one statistic, you'll still be led astray. Statistics should illuminate, but should be combined with observation.

One quote might give up some truth:

The Monarchs told Paris after they drafted her that they didn’t need her to be a star immediately, that she could learn their system and condition her body, that she could spend some time being a role player.

Even the Monarchs were worried about Courtney Paris's condition, enough to tell her that they were not satisfied where she was in conditioning when she was drafted. The big knock on Paris was that she was a heavy girl, and when she moved to the WNBA - when things went a lot faster - she'd be left in the dust. I felt that a lot of people were discounting her game in the same way that someone would look at Babe Ruth and say, "that fat tub of lard can probably barely get the bat around his waist".

Furthermore, the quote about not paying attention to the WNBA was also telling. Courtney was "doing stuff" and didn't pay attention "as much" to the WNBA. Courtney is essentially admitting that she should have been better prepared. I'm sure she could have recognized Lauren Jackson or Diana Taurasi, and I doubt those who imply that she was completely ignorant.

However, there are some things that you can either learn from observation or be told. For example, Lauren Jackson. When you're playing a low post offense, does Jackson guard you from the front (blocking your access to the ball with her height), from the side (sort of half-turned and arms out trying to intercept the ball) or from the back (ready to dig her elbows into you when you get the pass and take you off balance)? If you have to pivot to the basket against Jackson, which side should you turn? Right or left? Where is Jackson faster?

If you have to box out against Jackson, will Jackson lock your elbows like Plenette Pierson, and if so, how hard? What is Jackson's best finishing move to the basket? Does she like to bank the shot against the glass or hit a mini jumper? And how much does she know about your tendencies?

In short, if you don't know how good Jackson is either by observation or by being told, and you don't know what her tendencies are, your first WNBA game is a hard tutorial.

It looks like Courtney was neither physically prepared nor mentally prepared for the W. Remember her quote where she promised that she'd pay back her scholarship to the Sooners if Oklahoma didn't win it all in 2009? It conveys thoughtlessness, that one is only thinking at the surface level.

That might change as Courtney gets older...but what if it doesn't? People have long memories. People still wonder if Angel McCoughtry is a head case after her initial clashes with her Louisville coach. People still question Chamique Holdsclaw's commitment. The last reputation Courtney wants is "not prepared". (One step towards Courtney's preparation: giving vague answers and not doing any more articles, to avoid "foot in mouth" disease.)

Hey, every first round draft pick has their own story. Besides, give Courtney time. She's only played about 10 or so games. Her game is still better than the game of four of the first round draft picks. We really won't know Courtney until about two or three years pass. Hopefully, she'll still be in the league.

Happy Birthday Teresa!

Teresa Edwards, born in Cairo, Georgia, two-time All American with the Georgia Bulldogs, player-coach for the American Basketball League's Atlanta Glory and WNBA player and coach for the Minnesota Lynx, is 45 today. Edwards was a five-time Olympian, taking home four gold medals and one bronze for the American team.

(Incidentally, she shares a birthday with Wanisha Smith, whose nine seconds with the Detroit Shock last year is the shortest WNBA career.)

Brazil Players Don't Want Izi Back?

From David Abramvezt Diario de S. Paulo, in Brazil:

Most players of the Brazilian team not you want to be partner of Iziane. They do not swallow the behavior of the wing-owner (guard), called to dispute the Copa America in late September. The biggest reason the hole is the unfortunate attitude of Iziane, who refused to come into court during a game of the Pre-Olympic World Cup, in Spain, in May last year and was cut by Paul Bassul the technical group that was to the Games of Beijing.

Unfortunately, the Portugese-English translator isn't working very well - oh, if I could only speak Portugese! Bloggers like Bert over at the Painel do Basquete Feminino think that something is crazy. But is it:

a) the reporter, who stated something that might not be true, or
b) Brazilian basketball, which seems determined to get Izi back on the Brazilian team despite opposition from both the head coach and (it seems) the players?

13/2009 - Dream 72, Sun 67: Sweet, Sweet Relief

"Stand back, there's room enough on this court for everyone!"

The Dream dropped a 19-point lead down to a 2-point lead in the fourth quarter, but managed to pull off a win. The great thing about the win is that in 2008, the Dream would have lost games like this.

We're still not where we want to be. Someone once said, "Good teams sometimes lose to other good teams," and the Sun is a good team. However, when you're up by 19 points, you should absolutely punish that team. I know that the Dream is looking to "finish" games, and that means putting them out of reach in the late minutes when it's close. But why finish late when you can wrap up early?

Okay. Let's look at the Four Factors.

Field goal percentage: The Sun actually out-shot the Dream, 38.2 percent to 37.0 percent. Initially, the Sun were shooting under 30 percent and the Dream were shooting surprisingly well; sometime in the third quarter they switched places. The numbers are low for both teams, almost negating the influence of this factor.

Offensive rebounds: The Sun also won this stat, 10 to 9 and won in overall rebounding, 42 to 41. But the stats are so close you might as well call this a "tie".

Turnovers: The Dream were the clear winners here, 20 to 14. Coach Mike Thibault after the game blamed the loss on turnovers, stating that Connecticut was a low-turnover team and that they lost their way. The Dream's games this year have been marked with problems with turnovers and personal fouls; the Dream solved that first problem.

Free throw visits: Dream 19, Sun 15. Both teams shot 80 percent. It looks like the Dream solved their second problem, personal fouls - no Dream player had more than three fouls.

For the Sun players:

Asjha Jones: 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 personal fouls. Jones's raw plus/minus: -6.
Tan White: Her 14 points and 6 rebounds were coming off the bench, and she had a raw plus/minus of +6.
Kiesha Brown: 11 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Sandrine Gruda: 9 points and 6 rebounds. Gruda looked impressive in just her second game this year in the WNBA.

And now, for the Dream players:

Erika de Souza: Her 12 points were matched with 17 rebounds, one off her career high in rebounds. She also had four steals and was the dominant force. Erika is clearly the Dreamer of the Game.

Sancho Lyttle: Wherever Erika goes, Sancho follows, or vice-versa. Sancho threw in 14 points and 7 rebounds of her own, with 5 steals (but 4 turnovers).

Chamique Holdscalw: Chamique had 19 points and 7 rebounds, and played 34 minutes. She went 6-for-18, however, shooting 33.3 percent from the field.

Shalee Lehning: Only 4 points, but 7 assists. Furthermore, Lehning was 57 seconds short of playing for 30 minutes. In her last three minutes, she has played like a starter. If Lehning can keep this up for a couple of more games...can we start talking about having Lehning start?

Iziane Castro Marques: 14 points, but she had to work hard for those 14 points: she shot 6-for-17 and missed a couple of free throws.

Coco Miller: Only 5 points, but 3 assists and a raw plus/minus of +11. The team was certainly not worse when Coco was on the court.

Michelle Snow: The good news: 4 points in just 7 minutes played. However, she had 3 personal fouls. Snow was definitely playing with passion on Tuesday night.

Jennifer Lacy: Okay. This is the hard part. Generally, when you get down to this part of the list, you're assigning blame. But here's the trick...no one on the Dream really had a bad game. At least not in terms of "worse than average". These were just players who didn't get much of a chance to perform or do anything to hurt or help the team. Lacy played 5 minutes. No points.

Angel McCoughtry: 8 minutes. No points. A raw plus/minus of -8 might have had more to do with her company.

Ivory Latta: Latta is at the bottom of the list for one reason and one reason only: she played the fewest minutes. Three minutes, took a shot and missed it. Ivory Latta is Still Snoozin, and that's only because Marynell Meadors hasn't woken her up yet.

Angel McCoughtry: "No Rest for the Rookie"

Angel McCoughtry blogs at WNBA.com about jumping from college to the Draft to the W:

I realize I haven’t really had a break and sometimes I do get tired, but coach Walz used to say "if it was easy then everybody would do it.” I know it’s not easy and sometimes I wish I could just go on vacation but the main thing is when you do something you love, it doesn't get old.

New Picture Gallery: Dream-Sun

"Mea cansada!"

Craig Cappy at SPMSportspage.com has a new gallery of pictures from the Dream-Sun game played on July 7th. Click the link for all of that visual goodness!

13/2008 - Dream 72, Sun 67

Shalee Lehning, Tan White, and Erika de Souza- all top performers this game.

Okay, my thoughts on the game...as they occurred....

1) It's good to see that Carol Ross is still out there working with the players. Last night before the game, she was working with Erika de Souza. The last time I saw the two of them work together, de Souza had a great game and I was hoping that she could do the same.

This time - for the first time ever - I saw Marynell Meadors out of the locker room during pre-game warmups. Granted, she was sitting on the bench but at least she was taking it all in.

2) This is the first time I've ever seen the "Claw's Crew" banner hanging up. Was it ever there before?

3) It appeared to be some sort of youth group night. I must have seen two or three youth groups in attendance. Usher's camp (yes, that Usher) was honored at halftime, but were all of these kids from Usher's camp?

4) Usually, the warm-up music is not much more than a collection of contemporary urban hits that leave an old man like me scratching his head - since I'm not familiar with any of the artists. However, oddly enough, they played the Steve Miller Band's "Rock'n Me". Was someone over 40 in charge of the music?

5) Before the game, the "After School All-Stars" were honored, and rightly so. They received the honor for reading the largest number of books. I don't care if they were reading US Weekly or if they were frankly lying about the numbers. The message is worth repeating: "reading a lot of books is good".

6) Interesting trivia fact: Coco Miller (Dream) and Kiesha Brown (Sun) are from the University of Georgia basketball team, class of 2001.

7) Singing the National Anthem before the game: the Ringgold High School Women's Ensemble. (I hope I got the name right.) Four young women, in choir dress, with the colors presented. Very nice job.

8) This is the very first time I've ever seen people at an Atlanta Dream game sitting in the luxury boxes. Were they the friends of the owner? Were they the friends of Usher? Did they just sneak in? It's great to see the luxury boxes getting some use - hey, if no one is using them, why don't you sell tickets to them? I might even pay!

9) Three words that will strike fear into the heart of any WNBA player or coach: "Referee Michael Price".

10) It looks like the intro film has finally been edited. It appears that nearly all the references to Nikki Teasley have been excised, and a clip of Ivory Latta has been inserted. It's a whole new ballgame.

11) Starters for Sun: Whalen, Phillips, Gardin, Jones, Gruda. Gruda is going to be a killer.
Starters for Dream: Lyttle, de Souza, Miller, Castro Marques, and Holdsclaw. Meadors has Miller in there because she needs to put points on the board.

12) I sighted a sign. "Welcome Back Latta #12". The crowd always cheers more loudly when any reference to Latta is made, even when its on the film or just an ordinary announcement. I suspect we should change our name to the Atlanta Ivorys.

13) We got off to a 7-0 lead. The Sun missed their first 8 shots. We had 8 rebounds in the first four minutes of play. Holdsclaw did a nasty behind-the-back dribble on the way to a layup. We looked sharp, and the Sun didn't.

Three of those seven points were from a 3-pointer by Coco Miller. Children's Health Care of Atlanta got $50 for the 3-pointer. I suspect that the tills at Children's Health Care of Atlanta are looking mighty empty this year. (We give Children's Health Care $50 for every 3-pointer we hit.)

14) We went up by 10 points in the first quarter. Of course, I've seen the Dream spot teams 10 points leads and lose, but it was a good sign. We led 23-13 after the first 10 minutes. Izi lost the ball as time expired when Kiesha Brown stole the ball from her, but as Kiesha heaved up her desperation shot - too late before the buzzer sounded - Izi delivered a punishing block. We were on fire.

15) Connecticut Sun only shot 25 percent in the first quarter. We were shooting 45 percent.

16) The Shooting Stars were wearing blue last night, and looked great - well, the Shooting Stars always look great. EXCEPT FOR THE MEN! Get them out of those short pants, someone, PLEASE! And get them a decent looking shirt!

17) Star, the hardest working mascot in the WNBA, was wearing a pear of flexi-stilts. Whoever is under that mascot costume must be a great athlete.

18) We got more of a chance to see Gruda in the second quarter, and it seemed that at times that only with Gruda's help could the Sun keep themselves above water. Lehning was in - she played for about 30 minutes - and she played smartly. We were keeping our 10 point lead and the Sun was only shooting 1-for-8 from the 3-point line.

19) And then, the Dream finished the quarter with 10-2 run! The last basket of the half was a breakaway layup from Shalee Lehning. Chante Black attempted another last second shot but Erika de Souza blocked it! (I will admit that Sancho Lyttle went over someone's back but she got away with it.)

20) The above brings me to another point. For once, Michael Price has swallowed his whistle. There was no one in foul trouble from either team, and it would stay that way for the entire game. (Maybe Michael and his two friends wanted to leave early.) The Dream and the Sun were going to be allowed to play tough basketball.

21) I'm sure Sun fans have made this observation multiple times, but it's new to me. At one point, the Sun had Kiesha Brown, Chante Black, and Tan White. If they had a player named Green, it would be a true Kodachrome, but all the Sun have for greenery is Kerri Gardin. Maybe "Gruda" is French for "blue", I don't know.

22) Even though the Sun were shooting under 30 percent for the half (10-for-35), I was worried. The sun had 26 total rebounds to our 24. I believe that every time we had played the Sun before, whenever we led in rebounds we won and whenever we lost the battle of the boards we lost the game. (Maybe that should have been a sign.)

23) Usher's "Camp New Look" finally got its honors. I had never heard of it. If you want to find out about it, you can go here. It appears to be a program that promotes motivating youth to get involved in their communities...in which case, I can't say enough good things about such a project.

24) The mystery has been revealed. Star is a HE!!

For halftime, Star did a trick where someone was sent out to do some double-dutch jumproping while blindfolded. The key was that Star would blow his little airhorn when the ropes got close to the volunteer's feet - the idea being that the jumper would then know exactly when to jump. Of course, one the airhorn sounded the victim was abandoned by the jumpropers, and whenever Star blasted the airhorn, the patsy would jump...surrounded by absolutely nothing.

A person turned to me and said, "I think I saw this halftime show in the NBA...in 1952."

25) Some Italian fans showed up and the Jumbotron gave them some love. Let me tell the WNBA, we could learn a lot from the energy and excitement that the singing, banner-waving European fans bring to sporting events. Unfortunately, no arena in the United States will ever allow that spontaneous excitement - God forbid a banner poke someone in the eye! - and we'll have to be satisfied with "Every-BODY clap-your-hands!" (CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP....)

26) In the third quarter, Asjha Jones began whittling down the Dream's lead to 13 points, but the Dream were still in control of the game. Jones would cross the double-digit mark in the third.

The Jumbotron pointed out the presence of John Abraham of the Atlanta Falcons in the stands. Abraham didn't so much as look up until the final seconds of his closeup. He appeared to be checking text messages on his cell phone.

27) Speaking of famous (or semi-famous) people in the audience, Van Chancellor was at the game. For you WNBA outsiders out there, you're probably scratching your heads and saying, "Who the hell is Van Chancellor?" The answer is that Chancellor's Houston Comets won the first four WNBA championships. If Chancellor wants to come back to the WNBA and coach the Dream - we'll take him!

Chancellor was not exactly styling. As the coach of the LSU Tigers, he was wearing a purple number - with brown shorts. His fashion disaster didn't stop young basketball players from lining up, getting their pictures with him, asking his autograph, etc. etc.

28) It was looking fine. The Dream had a 55-36 lead with 2:43 to go in the third quarter. This is about the time you think of texting your friends, going to the concession stands to see if they have any pizza, etc. etc.

And then the wheels came right off the wagon as the somnolent Sun woke up. The Sun threw the zone at the Dream and the Dream just stood around, a big mistake. The Dream forgot how to play offense and turned the ball over three times before the quarter was over. The Sun scored the next eight points, not missing a single shot as the Dream led by 11 points, 55-44, going into the fourth.

29) Like a stunned fish, the Dream refused to get up off the bottom of the boat in the fourth. The Sun managed to work our lead down into single digits. Up 61-51, Kiesha Brown hit a 3-pointer off an assist by Tan White. Sancho Lyttle missed a shot but Erika got one of her 17 rebounds that night. Then Izi tried a shot and she missed.

Five seconds later, Brown downed another jump shot. It was 61-56 Dream, and our lead had fallen by 14 points to just two possessions. Meadors wisely called a time out.

30) The Dream played the "Guess the Song" game on the Jumbotrown. The purpose of this game is to pick someone over 50 out of the audience as a member of the Dream sings a popular song - horribly - on the Jumbotron. If the oldster can guess the song, they win swag.

This time, it was going to be Ivory Latta singing, so the crowd was naturally happy. The song Ivory was given to sing was Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". Latta decided to do some dance moves to accompany the tune. Latta might have great basketball skillz, but when it comes to miming a video she has the coordination of a brain-damaged chipmunk with apoplexy. (The New York Liberty did it a lot better.)

Good thing for the oldster that there are newborn ants in the Peruvian jungles that have heard this song. Swag was appropriately awarded.

31) Also in the audience - Gerald Wallace of the Bobcats. Here's a question: I heard something about the ESPN show "Around the Horn" where one of the panelists said the NBA doesn't respect the WNBA. (This must have been in regard to Bill Laimbeer and the Pistons coaching vacancy.) Then tell me this: if this is true, how come I see so many NBA players at WNBA games? It can't be just promotional, because I don't think I've seen a game where there wasn't an NBA player in the house this year in Atlanta, even if it's an old NBA player like Dr. J.

32) Up 65-56, Izi attempted a 3-pointer and missed, then committed her third personal. However, we had people picking up the slack. Coco Miller was playing Tan White so closely that they're registered in Iowa.

Miller got the ball stolen by Whalen. Then Whalen got the ball stolen by Castro Marques. Both teams were fighting for this, the Dream to hang on and the Sun to steal the win.

33) Up 69-62, with just 1:31 to go, the Dream had their next episode of cardiac arrest. Tan White got open for a 3-pointer, to close the gap to 69-65 with 36 seconds left. Tan White then stole the ball from Coco Miller and made a running layup to close the gap to 69-67 with just 10 seconds left.

The last time the Dream led by just two points in this game? When Izi made the first shot 59 seconds into the game, giving the Dream a 2-0 first quarter lead.

34) However, the Dream would get the ball back, and this would force the Sun to foul. They fouled Lyttle, who was shooting around 66 percent in her career but is shooting around 80 this year. She hit both of her shots, putting the Dream up 71-67.

35) Eight seconds left. The Sun need a 3-pointer, so they give it to the player who hit the last 3-pointer for them...Tan White. She misses, and Holdsclaw gets the rebound - and the game with 1.6 seconds left.

She could have missed both of her free throws and the game would have been out of reach. She missed the first, hit the second, and the Dream escaped with a 72-67 win.

Okay. Enough of that. More about this game later.

Dream Hang on to Victory Against Sun on Tuesday

If you don't know - and judging by the size of last night's crowd, you might not - the Dream are now 6-7 on the season with a victory over the visiting Connecticut Sun, 72-67.

The AP writeup by Jonathan Landrum is here.

At one point, the Dream had a 19-point lead, but that all went to hell. If we had lost that game, what you would be reading here is an extended rant. However, we kept it alive, and now things are looking a lot better as we go on a three week road trip.

In the post-game on-court interview of coach Marynell Meadors by Art Eckman, Marynell called Erika de Souza, "the Beast from Brazil". Erika had 12 points and 17 rebounds for the Dream. She was certainly fantastico for the Dream.

Long writeup later.

Michelle Snow to Dynamo Kursk in Offseason

Michelle Snow will be headed to the Russian Superleague A in the off-season. (How good is the Superleague? If there's any women's professional basketball league that could challenge the WNBA, it would be this one.) Snow played for Perfumerias in the Spanish League last year, but it looks like Sancho Lyttle will take her place in Spain.

Last year Dynamo Kursk finished 7-11 in 7th place in a 10-team league. That was good enough for the quarterfinals, where they lost in the first round.

One of her non-Russian teammates will be Jillian Robins, who played for Polkowice in Poland last year. Robins, a forward, is a graduate of Tulsa.

New Blog Post from Shalee

Shalee blogs again for her hometown newspapers. If there's any complaint about the schedules of the WNBA, you'll never hear a peep from Shalee:

Anyways, this past week was filled with practices and games. We will finish our second spurt of three games in five days tomorrow when we play the Connecticut Sun. That is one of the biggest perks of being a professional athlete is that we play A LOT of games! We play more than we practice and as any competitor would say, that is a DREAM! However, it is difficult to transition from college where you have several days to recover after every game to the professional level where we play back-to-back games not even 24 hours apart! But I have no complaints– it is just part of our job and I absolutely love it!

Keep playing like you did in Indiana, and we won't complain, either!

1997 Cleveland Rockers

Lynette Woodard during her days as a Globetrotter.

W/L: 15-13, fourth (and last) in the Eastern Conference
Pythagorean W/L: 16-12
Points Scored Per Game: 70.2
Points Allowed Per Game: 68.4

Starters

PG: Tina Nicholson/Michelle Edwards (*)
SG: Lynette Woodard
SF: Eva Nemcova (**)
PF: Janice Braxton
C: Isabelle Fijalkowski

(*) Edwards was primarily a shooting guard.
(**) Nemcova was more a forward-center

Last of the 1997 Rockers to leave: Merlakia Jones played for Cleveland in all seven seasons that the Rockers existed in the WNBA.

Last survivor: Merlakia Jones's final WNBA season was with the Detroit Shock in 2004. However, if you want to count coaches, Jenny Boucek played for the Rockers in her only WNBA season as a player in 1997. Boucek now coaches the Sacramento Monarchs.



With their first round picks in the 1997 WNBA Elite Draft in February, the Rockers picked for both youth and talent. They chose Isabelle Fijalkowski who had been a star for the French national team, and then Lynette Woodard, a player who was actually the first female Harlem Globetrotter in 1985. Woodard, at 37, would be a virtual graybeard. Eva Nemcova and Merlakia Jones would come to the Rockers the regular draft.

The picks, however, were were most likely made by general manager Wayne Embry, who was the GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers as well. The Rockers didn't have a coach until May 1997 - Linda Hill-McDonald, the former coach at the University of Minnesota.

The move caused a lot of murmuring among women's basketball fans - during Hill-McDonald's final two years at Minnesota, the Gophers finished 8-47. It would be Hill-McDonald's job to make the most out of what she was given. Hill-McDonald was left to try to pick up some extra woman-power at an open tryout in late May that brought 175 WNBA wanna-bees out of the woodwork.

In their inaugural game on July 21, 1997, the Rockers ran into a buzzsaw as the visiting Houston Comets torched the Rockers 76-56, with Cynthia Cooper scoring 25 points in a game with the Rockers still in a defensive torpor. Announced attendance was 11,445 - a sell-out crowd for the Rockers.

The Rockers were at least winning where it counted - not on the floor, but in corporate sponsorship. The Rockers picked up $500,000 in corporate sponsorship even before the first tip-off, more than double that of their initial goal of $200,000 and ahead of all seven of the other WNBA teams.

Unfortunately, the crowds dwindled off in Cleveland. Cleveland found the early part of the season rough going, starting off 3-8 to end up dead last in the Eastern Conference, losing four straight in early July and ending up 6 1/2 games behind the Liberty. Michelle Edwards, obtained through the initial player allocations, was converted from shooting guard to point guard, and then hyperextended her knee and ended up on the injured list. Jenny Boucek injured her back. With all of the injuries, it took a while for Cleveland to right itself from its horrible 1-5 start and Cleveland managed to extend its record to 9-8 after a six-game winning streak.

by the end of July, the Rockers extended their win streak to seven games, with Eva Nemcova and Janice Braxton scoring 17 and 15 respectively as the Mercury fell to the Rockers 79-69. The Rockers were now 10-8 with just 10 games left in the season. The crowds began to inch from the 5,000 range to the 7,000 range. By August, Michelle Edwards was back and the Rockers won a record eighth straight game by crushing the Monarchs 72-51 at Gund Arena. With an 11-8 record, things were looking up.

Then, the bubble popped. The Houston Comets beat the Rockers in Cleveland 76-66. The Rockers would lose the WNBA's first double-overtime game to the Sparks. The Rockers knew that they could end up fighting the Charlotte Sting for the final playoff spot, since the winner of the Western Conference regular season was guaranteed one of the four playoff berths.

On August 23, 1997, Michelle Edwarda's running 3-pointer as time expired gave the Rockers an amazing 72-71 home victory over the visiting New York Liberty. It was the second last-second win in a row for Cleveland, the Rockers having beaten Houston the game before on a Janice Braxton free throw that gave them a 76-75 win on the road. The Rockers (14-12), Sting (14-13) and Sparks (13-13) were all vying for the final playoff spot. However, Cleveland would have to play the Liberty again in the final game of the season.

Going down to the final game, the Rockers were 15-12 and the Sting were 14-13. The Sparks had fallen on the final day of their season to the Phoenix Mercury, who had won their conference title and knocked the Sparks out of playoff contention. In order for the Sting to claim the final playoff spot, the Rockers would have to lose against New York and the Sting would have to beat the Starzz. The Sting's chances against the Starzz were extremely good - Utah was the worst team in the WNBA and they were playing in Charlotte, where the Sting's 11-2 home record led the league in home game victories.

The Rockers had to go to Madison Square Garden. The Liberty had already clinched the third spot in the playoffs. When the Rockers got to New York, they faced the Liberty and their 18,000 fans at Madison Square Garden who set a game attendance record. However, the Rockers knew at least that their fate was in their own hands.

After leading the Rockers by 18 points in the first half, the Liberty fought for their lives as the Rockers battled back. They managed to tie the game with one minute left. Rebecca Lobo let a pass go off her hands with 23 seconds to go...but the Rockers Janice Braxon missed a 3-point shot with 2.9 seconds to go and the game went into overtime, 69-69.

Unfortunately, the overtime was all Liberty. With New York leading 75-72, Lobo's turnaround jumper with 1:01 to go was a puncture wound in the heart of the Rockers. Cleveland lost 79-72 and no longer controlled its fate.

This put the Rockers fate in the Sting's hands. The Sting learned this minutes before tipoff, and that all they needed to do to go to the post-season was to win against Utah. A confident Charlotte team started the game with a 20-4 run. The Rockers seasons ended as Charlotte easily won 70-52 to go to the WNBA Playoffs. For the Rockers, there was nothing to do but wait till next year.

12/2009 - Fever 78, Dream 74

Angel gets some instructions from Carol Ross.

When we came into Indianapolis last night, we faced a problem - the Fever had won seven straight games and had that intangible called "momentum". I don't believe much in momentum, but I believe it can buoy a team's emotions (or, in the case of the 2008 Dream, depress them). On the other hand, we had beaten the Dream at home in our opener - if you beat a team once, you should be able to do it again.

As I wrote in the previous post, the weakness of my ISP kept me from seeing much of this game. I managed to catch a little bit of the Fever's Live Access, but not much - maybe 15 minutes of the game in total.

As for seeing anything outside the game, it was very difficult. I enjoy the glimpses of promotional activities and general goofiness that come with seeing a team on Live Access. For the Fever, all of that was missing. The Fever still have a radio station broadcasting their games (unlike the Dream) and whenever there was a time out the Live Access broadcast showed...commercials. Most for companies/concerns in the Indianapolis area, places that I'd likely never visit unless I go to a Fever game. Apparently, the Fever front office want to make their Live Access look as much like a TV broadcast as possible.

That forced me to focus on the game. We got off to a fairly nice start. Erika de Souza seems to have woken up after the previous game, scoring Atlanta's first four points. De Souza was definitely working hard. However, Indiana went on an 8-0 run and we fell behind 16-10.

Meadors brought Latta into the game in the first quarter. She didn't help. It was more the introduction of Angel McCoughtry that brought some spark back into the Dream. Angel scored 4 points, an assist and a steal in those final four minutes of the first which helped Atlanta close to within two at the end of the first, Indiana leading 20-18.

The Fever came out with another run, this time a 9-0 run after we tied it in the second. Shalee Lehning stepped out on the court, and for once, no one could dispute that this was what the Dream needed. Unforutnately, Chamique Holdsclaw had 3 personal fouls in the first half and zero points to show for it, but Lehning and Lyttle stepped up and helped the Dream fight back. This time, it was the Dream's turn to go on a 9-0 run and close to a 35-35 tie with just over a minute to play. We might have had the lead at halftime, but Tamika Catchings sank a couple of free throws to give Indiana the 39-38 halftime lead.

Both teams wrestled for control early in the third. Ebony Hoffman got the worst of it, picking up her fourth and fifth personals within 10 seconds of each other. Catchings was a real problem for the Dream, having six steals before the third quarter was over. McCoughtry was scoring in double digits and Lehning had gotten her fourth assist. We led 59-55 but a last-second 3-pointer by Briann January closed the Fever to within one, 59-58 after three quarters.

The Dream, however, had an Achilles heel: personal fouls. Iziane Castro Marques racked two personals in the first minute of the fourth quarter. Jennifer Lacy followed with two of her own, and the Fever got to visit the line some more, sparking an 8-0 run ot put the Fever up 66-59. We closed the gap to 66-63 with a jumper by Lyttle with 5:42 to go in the fourth. The problem for the Dream was that they couldn't stop the fouling (or couldn't get the calls, depending on how you wanted to lok at it). The Fever went to the free throw line six straight times and led by nine, 72-63, with just over three minutes left in the game.

With 2:02 to go, Shalee Lehning hit a 3-pointer to close us to within four, 74-70. We were still hanging in there and the thought that the Dream could steal the game wasn't far from my mind. With 19 seconds left, Angel McCoughtry turned the game into a one-possession game with a layup that put the game 76-74 Fever. Lehning committed the foul to get the ball back and Tully Bevilaqua missed the first of her two free throws. 77-74 fever, 14 seconds left, and we had the ball.

We put Latta and Lacy out there in the hopes that we could sink a three-pointer. We've been a horrible 3-point shooting team all year and our chances probably weren't good...but at least we had the opportunity. The ball ended up in Lacy's hands, and her 3-pointer turned out to be an air ball. We were forced to foul Catchings, who only had to hit one of two of her free throws.

She did. Game over. I can't help but feel that we had this in our hands, but lost it. (I feel bad for the bettors: according to Frisco del Rosario, the "line" on this game was 152 points, and the total of both teams' points was exactly that: 152. House wins.)

Looking at Dean Oliver's Four Factors:

Field goal shooting: The Dream shot 45 percent as compared to the Fever's 35 percent. Another game where we outshoot the opponent by 10 percent, and lose any way. The Dream does not have a problem with shooting the ball - except for 3-point shooting - and they can put points on the board.

Offensive rebounds: Indiana 11, Atlanta 9. We were essentially tied with the Fever in rebounding, 32-31 overall in our favor. Offensive rebounds are killers because it gives you a second chance to shoot and ameliorate your mistakes.

Turnovers: The Fever lead this one, 14-21. I would normally point to turnovers as the problem - Tamika Catchings had six steals - but I wouldn't call it our worst problem.

Free throw visits: This is what killed the Dream. The Dream sent the Fever to the charity stripe 35 times, and the Fever hit 30 of those shots. We only went to the line 22 times, and hit 18 shots. Almost two out of every five points scored by the Fever were scored from free throws. We can't fault the Dream for playing aggressive - we want them to play aggressive - but there's a difference between playing agressive and losing control, and the Dream were on the wrong side of the line.

Now, let's look at the individual players:

For the Fever:

Tamika Catchings: 19 points and 9 rebounds. 5 assists, 6 steals. Now you know why the Fever is so damned good. Catch shot 10-for-11 at the free throw line.
Tammy Sutton-Brown: 22 points, 9 rebounds.
Katie Douglas: 10 points, but 5-for-15 shooting.
Ebony Hoffman: 8 points. Fouled out.

And now the Dream.....

Erika de Souza: Erika finally wakes up with a fine showing. 15 points, 8 rebounds. 4-for-4 from the field and 7-for-8 from the free throw line. Erika gets the Dreamer of the Game award.

Angel McCoughtry: Maybe Angel is finally learning to not just save it for the fourth quarter. 15 points for Angel in a fine performance.

Sancho Lyttle: You can't say our posts weren't trying. Lyttle had 18 points and 6 rebounds. She also played 35 minutes this game, so she gets extra gold stars for endurance.

Shalee Lehning: This was Shalee's best game of the year, with 9 points and 4 assists. She's supposed to be able to bring some ambiguous energy to the team; this is one of those times you could clearly see it.

Michelle Snow: 2 points and 4 personal fouls for Snow. She only played seven minutes. You can almost feel the dip in production between Lehning and Snow.

Chamique Holdsclaw: She was essentially a zero for the Dream. She only played 12 minutes and early personal fouls limited her effectiveness.

Jennifer Lacy: She also played only 12 minutes. Four points on 2-for-7 shooting.

Ivory Latta: Now we're getting to the players that hurt the Dream more than helped them. Latta has the best excuse, since this is only her second game this year. In the seven minutes played she didn't score any points - we got her back because we wanted her to score - but the raw plus/minus of +5 is promising.

Coco Miller: Six turnovers for Coco Miller led the team. That's almost bad enough to be named the Bad Dream except for....

Iziane Castro Marques: I swear, I'm going to call this the Iziane Castro Marques Memorial Award. 1-for-9 shooting. Four personal fouls. Her 29 minutes on the court should have been given to other people. I am absolutely puzzled at what Marynell Meadors sees in her. Definitely the Bad Dream of the game. Her two personals in the fourth quarter got us off to the wrong start.

Fever Beat Dream on Sunday Night for Eighth Straight Win

Cardinal fans make Angel feel right at home.

Well, we almost had a win last night in Indiana, but the Dream fell short by four points, 78-74. We almost ended the Fever's winning streak, but instead the Fever win their eighth straight game and Atlanta comes back home with a loss. We play the Connecticut Sun tomorrow night, the last home game before a long road trip.

I tried to watch this game on WNBA's Live Access, but Live Access depends a lot on the weather around my house. Rainy weather = no Live Access. I saw virtually all of the first quarter, some of the second quarter, and virtually none of the final two quarters.

Some news reports:

* the report from the Indianapolis Star.

* the report from the Associated Press.

* Mechelle Voepel's report at ESPN.

SPMSportsPage has a gallery of photographs which can be found here. SPMSportsPage always has good galleries.

My thoughts on the game will be limited to what I saw and the box score. Those will be posted later today.

11/2009 - Dream 72, Mystics 65: Clawing Our Way to the Top

Crystal might have gotten more than she bargained for with Angel.

We'll take a look at a few of the stats from the Dream/Mystics game and designate our winners and losers.

Four Factors

Field goal shooting: The Dream win this category, 41.2 percent to 38.5 percent. This is a low shooting game for the Dream, which has exceeded 50 percent shooting in a few games. It's an even worse showing for the Mystics.

Worthy of note: The Mystics went after us on the perimeter, but only sank two of their shots, shooting 2-for-11. The only player who hit a 3-pointer for the Dream was Shalee Lehning. We were 1-for-4 in the long bomb.

Offensive rebounds: We lost the battle 16 to 8, and we lost the overall rebounding battle 40 to 29. The problem is that in order for us to dominate the boards, both Lyttle and de Souza have to have a good games. De Souza has been off her mark the last couple of games, we hope she comes back.

Turnovers: Washington had 28 turnovers, which led to the Dream's 17 steals being a franchise record. You can't turn over the ball 28 times and win...although I suspect that the Mystics could have come close. The Dream had 18 turnovers of its own, leading to a lot of sloppy-looking play out there.

Free throw visits: Both teams were about even - we visited the stripe 21 times; the Mystics had 20 visits. We picked up two extra points off free throws, but we only shot 71 percent. Washington's 65 percent shooting was horrible.

Let's look at the Mystics players:

Alana Beard: 16 points on 18 shooting attempts. Clearly, Beard was the Mystics best player but she went AWOL in the second quarter for some reason. Beard led the Mystics in turnovers with six.
Lindsey Harding: 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists.
Crystal Langhorne: 10 points and 8 assists. Four turnovers.
Monique Currie: 1-for-8 shooting. Five points.
Chasity Melvin: 7 points with a -18 in raw plus/minus.

And now for the Dream....

Sancho Lyttle: The Dream organization named Chamique Holdsclaw the Player of the Game, but in my opinion, that honor belonged strictly to Sancho. Lyttle scored 16 points to Holdsclaw's 18, and had five steals. Furthermore, she scored all of her points in only 15 minutes of play. This makes Lyttle the Dreamer of the Game.

Chamique Holdsclaw: ...on the other hand, I'd certainly give Holdsclaw credit for a night where she had 18 points and 8 assists. The eight assists tied her personal best. However, Lyttle shot 8-for-11 from the field and The Claw had five turnovers.

Angel McCoughtry: Maybe Angel is finally out of Meadors's doghouse. 14 points for Angel with a raw +/- of +13. Not a bad night for the rookie.

Michelle Snow: If Snow can keep having good games and meeting the standard she set last year with the Comets, the Dream can win games. 8 points, 8 rebounds with Snow stepping up where Lyttle and de Souza were absent on the boards.

Shalee Lehning: Lehning has played better in these last three games. She might be more comfortable with her role, but she needs to shoot more, or defenses will lay off her and begin defending players she'll want to dish to if they figure that she won't take the shot anyway. Lehning had 5 points including her first 3-pointer.

Jennifer Lacy: 4 points, but 8 rebounds. Unfortunately, she shot 1-for-6 from the field.

Ivory Latta: You can guess that we're getting into the realm of "didn't hurt/didn't help". Latta only played 1:03, so there wasn't much more that Ivory could contribute beyond the steal. But at least the steal took the ball out of Washington's hands.

Coco Miller: 4 points. Her 1-for-8 shooting was even worse than Lacy's.

Erika de Souza: What happened, Erika? De Souza went 1-for-5 with just two rebounds and three personal fouls in only 13 minutes played. Erika has been off her game these past two games - let's hope for a wake-up call tonight in Indianapolis.

Iziane Castro Marques: 18 minutes played. 0-for-5 shooting. Three turnovers, including one to start off the game. Two points. Iziane is at least used to being at the bottom of these list. Call Iziane Still Snoozing and hope that she can wake up and put some points on the board.

Meanwhile, In Brazil....

The drama about Iziane Castro Marques returning to the Brazilian women's basketball team continues to play itself out. When last we wrote about the topic, the head of women's basketball in Brazil - Hortência Marcari - discussed coming to Atlanta at the end of the season to talk to Izi personally about returning to the team. However, coach Paulo Bassul has something to say about that.

"Unlike "The Queen" (the nickname for Marcari, who was one of Brazil's greatest women's basketball players), which plans to go to the United States convince Iziane to return to the national team, Paula believes that the player in the Atlanta Dream is not essential for the Brazilian team.

""The Hortência who played a thousand times more than the Iziane never had an attitude like that. The worst is that it (Iziane) did not recognize the error. Is to apologize and Iziane never had that attitude. Now, they will fill the ball of her? "asked Paula, Iziane see that as a negative example for other players.

"(Iziane convene again) and give some privileges that can bring complications. Perhaps the Iziane not a good example for the players. In 20 years defending the Brazilian team, we should never refuse to come into court."

In a game against Belarus in the pre-Olympic tournament, coach Paulo Bassul asked Izi to come off the bench late in the game. Iziane had been sitting there for several quarters, and she flat out refused. Bassul threw her off the team and it's been controversy ever since.

(From Esportiva.net via the Painel do Basquete Feminino blog.)

Teasley Talks about Latta Being Cut (?)

Mechelle Voepel has a new article up called "Revisiting Teasley's recent thoughts is rather eerie" She had spoken with Teasley a few weeks ago and they talked about...Ivory Latta being cut from the team. Now, it's Teasley that's been cut.

A quote:

So how does someone go from a starter to being cut from the team? It’s definitely odd, but consider that it happened to both Latta (starting almost all last season and being cut at the start of this year) and Teasley.

At what point this season did Atlanta coach/GM Marynell Meadors start worrying she had made a big mistake about her backcourt? Did it take a while before she could bring herself to admit it? Or is she now pulling the plug on Teasley too soon?

11/2009 - Dream 72, Mystics 65

So, who wants the ball more?

Happy Fourth of July! "Freedom, freedom, freedom, Oi!" Today we celebrate the country's victory over the British, yesterday we celebrated the Dream's victory over the oppressive Washington Mystics. I suspect that Washington was simply honoring the struggles at Valley Forge as they struggled on the court in Atlanta.

SPMSportsPage.com's writeup of the game is here, and the gallery of game pictures can be found here.

I'll pass on my thoughts regarding the game:

1) It was so odd watching Ivory Latta practicing her long-range shots before the game. As this year's Dream team is so different from the one before it, it was almost as if she were an anachronism.

2) It was good to see Carol Ross out there working with the Dream. Ross is definitely a hands-on coach. Before the game she was working with the players, dishing the ball out to players at the perimeter as they took their shots. I've only see a few pre-game practices, but this is the first time I've seen a coach really working with the players even at pre-game.

3) I suspect that Michael Jackson's music will be a staple at Dream games at least until the end of the 2009 season. It's good to see Jackson's music make a resurgence - my wife said, "it's almost as if he's been rediscovered." I suspect that Jackson's death has closed the chapter on the weirdness and scandal associated with the two final decades of his life; when one listens to his music one is reminded less of Wacko Jacko and more of that kid from the Jackson 5.

4) I got the chance to meet some Dream fans that I had only met on the internet before. It's so odd meeting people in person. The only one I had a chance to talk to at length was Scarab - you sort of draw a picture in your head of someone without meeting them, and Scarab matched this mental image to a "T". And now I know where she hangs out! Taco Mac!

5) Tamera Young is still not ready to play. I saw her hanging out down at the bench, incognito. I'm slowly learning how to recognize her without her pigtails.

6) I'm glad the Dream is still supporting Nothing But Nets. Nikki Teasley would donate so much cash for each of her assists; the program was most closely associated with Teasley when she was with the Dream. Even though she's no longer the front, I'm glad the the Dream are supporting this worthy cause.

However, the opening film of Dream players that precedes the introduction of the players still has Teasley in it. I know it's probably going to be a while before the film can be edited...but it sort of looks creepy now.

7) I like the white warm-up wear of the Shooting Stars. However, I'll keep repeating: the men's uniforms are awful. Nothing but a sort of beige looking shirt and some shorts. I don't know what needs to be done to give the Shooting Stars men something standout to wear...but please, DFO (Dream Front Office), make it happen!

8) Today's National Anthem singer: someone from the Ebenezer Baptist Church. I didn't catch the young man's name, but I give his rendition two thumbs up.

9) The Washington starters: Harding, Beard, Currie, Sanford, and Melvin.
The Atlanta starters: Castro Marques, Lyttle, de Souza, Holdsclaw....and Miller. I guess the question of "who would start: Latta or Lehning?" was answered with the third option.

10) The Dream started with Iziane Castro Marques making a bad pass right into the hands of Alana Beard. Total time elapsed: 0:08.

11) In the first quarter, two players were going to carry their respective teams on their backs - for the Dream it was Sancho Lyttle and for the Mystics it was Alana Beard.

12) Washington took the lead in the first quarter. Immediately, I got the impression that ball handling on either side was not going to be good. Erika de Souza starting 0-for-3 in the first quarter wasn't going to help. For anyone concerned about how the Dream does, this game was going to be a nail-biter.

13) Atlanta slowly began to contend with the Mystics. Izi was still turning over the ball with passes that make you suspect if she had large bets of money on the Mystics. Angel was a mess starting out, shooting 0-for-3. The score was 20-20 at the end of the first quarter.

14) In the second quarter, the Dream took off. They went on a 10-3 run which established a lead that the Dream would never relinquish for the rest of the game. We were getting a lot of bizarre calls from the referees, though. I think this is the first WNBA I've seen where we've had three separate calls for Palming the Ball - the first turnover of this kind was by Chamique Holdsclaw.

15) Guess who led the Dream in second quarter points? Shalee Lehning. However, I still have two complaints about Lehning. The first is that she tends to walk the ball instead of driving to the basket. The second is that when she gets close to the basket - she kicks it out. I saw Shalee within eight feet of the basket with the ball, and only one defender in front of her who couldn't have stopped the shot. What does she do? She kicks the ball out! Shalee, take the shot! Marynell will forgive you if you score points.

16) Shalee scored five points in total, which tied her career high. When was the last time Shalee scored five points in a game? Against Washington. Say it with me, Dream fans: The Mystics are Shalee Lehning's bitch.

17) The Dream build their lead up to 10 points, 37-27, with a shot by Erika de Souza. During a timeout with 2:35 remaining in the second quarter, Dream mascot Star came out and did the "Peanut Butter Jelly" dance while wearing a banana costume - a banana costume looking suspiciously like the one worn by that weird "mascot" during Mascot Day in 2008.

I suspect that Star killed him for the costume.

18) The back end of that second quarter looked awful. There was a lot of weirdness going on, in the personal foul department, the strange referee calls department, and the generally-standing-around-and-looking-puzzled department. Washington was on its way to its 15th turnover of the game....

19) With 1:03 left in the second quarter, Ivory Latta came back on the court to the cheers of the crowd. Her steal of the ball from Crystal Langhorne was that 15th Mystics turnover. Latta would only play 1:03 in the game, and finish with the lone steal on her statline.

20) The Mystics had clawed their way back to within five going into halftime, 38-33. However, the Mystics were shooting 36.7 percent in the first half and had 15 turnovers. Atlanta wasn't shooting much better, though, and under no circumstances did I think that this game was money in the bank.

Very pleasing to me: Angel McCoughtry's +9 in raw plus/minus at the end of the first half.

21) The halftime show was from Gamma Alpha Psi, a step team. If I have the Greek letters wrong, forgive me, but I didn't catch the name. Probably because I didn't think much of their routine, although I am about as far as you can get from an expert on step dancing.

22) Star gets second half kudos: he was not only wearing the banana suit, he was on a skateboard. That's it, DFO. PAY STAR MORE. He might be the hardest working mascot in show business, next to the Famous Chicken...and Maddie.

23) Did you know soda costs $4 at Philips Arena? If you want a souvenir cup, it's $5. I simply consider it my contribution to the vitality of the Dream, and am willing to pay it.

24) A Dream fan came up to me to chat at halftime. I'm guessing she's one of those who is not an Ivory Latta fan, and was unhappy with the acquisition. "I thought we were done with that silliness" was what she said.

25) Question: why were all of the referees bald for our game? Was it some sort of secret training ritual, or did the combined screaming of the fans blow the hairs off their scalps?

26) Dwight Howard came back to visit the Dream. Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks was with him. They've been at a lot of these games. Either: a) they are both secret WNBA fans, or b) they're dating someone on the staff or the team.

27) God, that third quarter. Lots of fouling. It was like watching two teams play in a mud pit. Fouls, fouls, fouls. The Mystics had visited the free throw line for the 19th time. They had 22 turnovers and were shooting at 34 percent. Both teams were shooting under 70 percent at the line at the time. The third quarter was completely indecisive, and the Dream got lucky and added two more points to their lead, leading 54-47 at the end of the third.

28) One thing I enjoyed about this game: the Dream were playing some defense. No more standing around defensively. They were in Washington's face at the start of the first quarter, the third quarter, and the fourth quarter. The Dream went on a 10-0 run to start the fourth, and had a 17 point lead. However, there was 5:48 left in the fourth and you have to remember...I'm a veteran of the 2008 season. I've seen the Dream blow sure leads, and I was still sitting at the edge of my seat.

29) One of the many games through which the Dream organization gives away its precious swag is a game where a Dream player sings - or, more properly, butchers a popular song. This time, it was Shalee Lehning's turn. She sang "Oops, I Did it Again", an interesting counterpoint with the most squeaky clean player of the Dream singing a song from the same musician who is now singing "If You Seek Amy". Even the older woman who was quizzed could get this one right.

30) We got to see Star Spangled Star. Star, as we all know, is a master quick change artist. This time, he was sporting a number which might have last been spotted on Apollo Creed.

31) Unfortunately, it looks like the Dream was Seeking Amy on the court, if you know what I mean. Matee Ajavon hit a three to knock the lead down to 70-60, and then Nikki Blue stole the ball from Coco Miller on the throw-in, and Kristen Mann (remember her?) scored two quick points to cut the lead down to eight, 70-62 with two minutes left. With 47.3 seconds left, Ajavon hit us for another three-pointer and the Dream led by seven, 72-65.

The Mystics are a team that can definitely score seven points in a minute. However, the Dream managed to hang onto the ball for 22 seconds and missed their shot. With 18 seconds left, the ball went back into the hands of Tasha Humphrey...but Sancho Lyttle stole the ball.

That was it. "Dream wins! DREAM wins!"

That was the fireworks. Now for the cleaning up after. I'll post the post-mortem soon. Chamique Holdsclaw was named the Player of the Game by the Dream organization. She definitely had a good game.

Dream Get Win Over Mystics on Friday Night

In case you don't know, the Dream won 72-65 over the Mystics last night. We started the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run that boosted Atlanta's lead to 17 points, a good enough cushion for a win.

Chris Vivlamore's writeup from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is here.

The AP story is here.

The good: we showed a lot of defensive intensity and had 18 steals, a franchise record.
The bad: the Mystics had 28 turnovers and shot less than 40 percent.
The ugly: a whole lot of fouling going on. Parts of the game are still being played.

Since it's a holiday, I might not write anything right way. I might just have some fun.

Ivory Latta Returns to the Dream

Look who is coming back....

It's official. Ivory Latta is back, and Nikki Teasley has been waived.

The Atlanta Dream announced today the team has signed guard Ivory Latta and waived guard Nikki Teasley. Latta will be active for tonight’s game against the Washington Mystics. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm ET at Philips Arena.

And now, at last, the Latta-Lehning feud can come to a close. Welcome back, Ivory.

Teasley GONE??

This was just posted by Chamique Holdsclaw on Twitter:

@chold1 Words cannot express da way I feel. I'm gonna miss Nikki T and da women she has become bc of her struggles. I'm hurting but we gotta push on


I guess we'll find out soon. No official word from either the WNBA or the Atlanta Dream, not yet anyway.

UPDATE:

@chold1 Nikki T was waived today! I understand its a business but it doesn't make it hurt any less. I know she will ok but she will b missed

Lyttle and de Souza Re-Up in Spanish League

Sancho Lyttle has been impressive in the W so far this year, and don't think the Euroleagues haven't noticed it. Lyttle just signed with Spanish League team Perfumerias after the WNBA season is over. Perfumerias finished second in the Spanish League last year....

...behind Ros Casares, who just re-signed Erika de Souza. I don't have confirmation on that yet, but there's no reason what I'm hearing shouldn't be true.

It's going to be a bloody battle in the Liga Feminina.

Dee's Drunk Driving

Diana Taurasi was arrested at 2:30 am this morning in Phoenix for driving "under the influence".

Here's what I expect. I expect the league to suspend Taurasi for two games. If the league can suspend Kara Braxton of Detroit two games for her first offense, Ms. Taurasi can serve a two-game suspension as well. Maybe more, as Taurasi is better known than Braxton.

UPDATE: With new linkification on ESPN.

Club 76

Only seven WNBA players belong to the exclusive Club 76. This is the list of players who have made 76 or more three-point field goals in a season.

Club 76
WNBA Players with 76+ 3-Point Goals, Season

1. Diana Taurasi, 2006 Mercury, 121
2. Diana Taurasi, 2007 Mercury, 95
3. Diana Taurasi, 2008 Mercury, 89
4. Katie Smith, 2000 Lynx, 88
4T. Katie Smith, 2001 Lynx, 88
6. Allison Feaster, 2002 Sting, 79
7. Katie Smith, 2003 Lynx, 78
7T. Nicole Powell, 2008 Monarchs, 78
9. Becky Hammon, 2008 Silver Stars, 77
10. Crystal Robinson, 1999 Liberty, 76
10T. Tamika Catchings, 2002 Fever, 76
10T. Katie Smith, 2008 Shock, 76

This post was inspired by a similar post on the basketball-reference.com blog. Only two WNBA players have multiple seasons in Club 76 - Diana Taurasi and Katie Smith. They have also been able to do it back-to-back, with Taurasi making the club three years in a row. (Maybe four times, if she has a good 2009 season.)

The NBA equivalent is the 220-Three Club - hitting 220 3-pointers in a season. Adjusting for season length and game length, you get 76 3-pointers.

A couple of facts also inspired by the blog post:

1. There is regression to the mean: No player who made the club in successive years ever hit more 3-pointers in the following year - so far when you reach Club 76, there is always a decline in 3-pointers the next year:

2. 3-point field goal percentage in Club 76 seasons: 38.4 percent
3-point field goal percentage in the next season *: 36.4 percent

The (*) indicates that we are not including the 2009 values for the players who made the club in 2008 - Diana Taurasi, Nicole Powell and Becky Hammon. But once again, it seems that we are seeing regression to the mean, which is a fancy of way of saying that players who perform extraordinarly well in one area of their game one year will have seasons that follow that are closer to average.

So we'll make a prediction: Taurasi won't hit 89 3-pointers in 2009, Powell will fall short of 78 and Becky Hammon will have to fight to renew her membership in Club 76. (Her time overseas has most likely doomed her.) On the other hand, if there's one player you can never count out, it's Diana Taurasi.

UPDATE: The ABL members of this club are...Dawn Staley, Crystal Robinson, Teresa Edwards, Niesa Johnson and...Katie Smith. With 44 games in a season, the ABL's club is less exclusive...but Robinson hit 90 3-pointers in the 1996-97 season for the Colorado Xplosion and topped it in the 1997-98 season with 102. She hit 46.6 percent of her 3-point attempts that season.

First All-Star Ballot Returns In

The link is right here.

My thoughts:

1. Western Conference Forwards: Looks like Pondexter and Jackson, but if DeWanna Bonner picks up about 200 votes she'll get the start. If Bonner starts, she becomes the favorite for Rookie of the Year.

2. Western Conference Centers: They're going to give it to Leslie, as part of the 2009 Lisa Leslie farewell tour. Wonder if they'll hand Leslie the MVP while they're at it?

3. Western Conference Guards: Taurasi has a 11,000 point lead in front of her former UConn teammate, Sue Bird.

4. Eastern Conference Forwards: The "Vote for Sancho" movement hasn't picked up. Tamika Catchings has a 13,000 point lead over Candice Dupree of the Sky. Chamique Holdsclaw is sixth with about 11,000 votes, putting her 8,000 behind Dupree. Angel McCoughtry has only about 6,000 votes, 200 behind out-for-the-season Plenette Pierson. Erika de Souza is dead last with 3,400.

5. Eastern Conference Centers: Sylvia Fowles leads here. Michelle Snow is last with 5,400 votes.

6. Eastern Conference Guards: They're going to give it Katie Douglas of the Fever and Lindsay Whalen of the Sun. If Alana Beard of the Mystics can pick up 2,000 or so votes between now and July 7th, she might bump off Whalen. Nikki Teasley is fourth from the bottom at 6,000 votes.

Possible Roster Moves Upcoming for Dream?

A Latvian team player gets to know Yelena Leuchanka of Belarus.

When desperate, you turn to the authorities - in this case, people who are actually insiders with the Atlanta Dream.

I'm getting strong rumors from sources who have been right before that indicate there could be some personnel moves coming in the next couple of weeks. I'm unable to find out exactly what's going to happen, but I would put cash money on the roster not remaining what it is right now by the end of July.

One source - whom I'll call "Deep Purple" - is actually putting some credence to the thought that Yelena Leuchanka might want to come and play for the Dream. My source writes that Leuchanka has said all along that she wants to come and play in the WNBA this summer and she should decide this week for sure - she is resting after Eurobasket just ended about nine days ago.

Of course, if Leuchanka does come to the Dream, this presents what you call a "good problem", the one caused by an embarrassment of riches. The problem becomes finding space for Yelena among all of our great posts. Which might mean, of course, more trades.

I might have some suggestions for some of those roster moves. I'm sure a lot of readers have some suggestions, too.

Iziane Castro Marques Still Undecided About Brazilian Team

This is translated from the Painel do Basquete Feminino blog:

Director of women's basketball CBB (the Brazilian Basketball Confederation), the ex-player Hortência admitted this Tuesday, even called the wing Iziane not yet confirmed whether to accept back to defend the Brazilian team. The athlete, who is the WNBA in Atlanta, is the list of technical Paulo Bassul for Copa America.

"The Iziane need not answer now. We do not know if it will play. She is in the WNBA and the time it is classified (for the playoffs), it can not play. Now is the time it is disqualified, I take an airplane and immediately I go there, talk to her about the possibility," says the athlete.

In case you haven't been keeping up, the story is this: Izi was a member of the Brazilian women's team, and a dispute with coach Paulo Bassul led to Iziane refusing to go back on court when Bassul wanted her play. Izi got kicked off the team before the Olympics started.

So Hortência - who is in charge of women's basketball in Brazil - won't talk to Izi again until the Dream are eliminated from the playoffs. Let's hope that Hortência doesn't show up until October.

Little Smooth Working on that Ankle

If you ever wanted to know what Tamera Young's ankle looks like, this is it.

By the way, Exodus 20:12? One of the Ten Commandments. From the King James Version: "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."

Incidentally, Tamera was at the Dream game last night. If you didn't recognize her, this is what she looked like.

Sancho Lyttle Gets Feature Article at WNBA.com

It looks like the establishment is waking up to the Power of Sancho. A new article at WNBA.com is devoted to Sancho Lyttle.

A quote:

“Coming into the WNBA was a rude awakening,” she said. “These people have been here and they’ve worked hard for what they wanted and they’re the best.”

The Comets had their core players intact already – Tina Thompson, Michelle Snow, Sheryl Swoopes, Janeth Arcain -- meaning Lyttle was spending more time on the bench than on the floor.

“Whenever I got a minute, I played it. Whenever I got a second, I played it. In Houston, because of who they had, I just had to take what I got.”

Oh by the way, did you Vote for Sancho Lyttle as an All-Star write in candidate? It's not too late to vote...yet. And if you've voted...vote again!

10/2009 - Lynx 91, Dream 85

Izi imitates the Statue of Liberty.

Last night was the first game that I ever attended with my wife. My wife had some out-of-town visitors and we decided to treat them to a WNBA game. Therefore, I don't have the kind of detailed quirkly little observations that I usually have.

I noticed that due to the fact that this game was televised, the WNBA's "Expect Great" logo was added to the court. It didn't quite look right, as the matte didn't quite seem to match the finish of the rest of the court, making it appear as if the logo was a sticker.

Despite the low turnout, I was quite happy that there appeared to be a lot of red shirts in the audience. (I was definitely wearing red.) It looks like a lot of fans took the request of the Dream to wear red in honor of the heart association to their own hears. Although, the Jumbotron asked a lot of dumb questions based on heart health when the Dream was giving away its swag. Eating fried chicken every day is not good for your health? Who knew?

We managed to get there about 7 pm, missing the anthem. The game had just tipped off when we got there and I was surprised at the pace of it all. Atlanta and Minnesota were in that proverbial track meet, and Atlanta seemed to be getting the best of the visitors.

Iziane Castro Marques was on fire. She had at least 10 points in the first quarter alone. That should have been a warning sign of what was to come right there. She scored 31 points total, setting a career record, but the pattern this year has been that Izi is awful during games that we win, and fantastic during games that we lose.

In particular, poor old Nikki Teasley suffered. I can imagine her trying to race up and down the court with those creaky knees of her. Nikki's game at point guard is a methodical one - I'll move the ball up, and if there's no where to move it, I'm not going to waste a lot of motion. In a run-and-gun game where both sides try to heave up as fast as possible, that kind of game suffers.

It became clear almost from the start that a) Candice Wiggins was going to be on fire, and b) our three point defense was going to be -- lacking. Both teams were shooting over 50 percent in that first half, but the Lynx had the three-pointer and we didn't. We got rid of Betty Lennox and Ivory Latta, and Latta was particulary skilled at hitting the three. In the great Latta vs. Lehning war, this game would probably be the keystone of the pro-Latta forces.

We began to slide backwards in the second quarter. That quarter was marked by an altercation between Nicky Anosike and Erika de Souza, two players who I believe deserve All-Star spots. It looked like Erika was just getting beat up - bam-bam-BAM - at finally, after the time out, the refs called a Flagrant #1 Foul on Anosike, which gave the Dream two free throws and the bucket.

In the third quarter, we slid backwards. I think the Lynx took something like a 16-2 run to start the third. They were still hitting 3s like crazy. Coco Miller had a lot of energy for the Dream during the game; it looked like Coco and Kelly were playing each other one-on-one sometimes. We couldn't stop their zone, so the Dream went into the 2-3 and this time, it was the Lynx's turn to watch the Dream ring up points.

However, it was the fact that the Dream can neither shoot, nor apparently defend 3-pointers that just killed us. Minnesota opened up the long range artillery and it was almost lights out for Atlanta. The final score doesn't indicate a close game, just that Minnesota preferred to coast on their big lead. Even when we were down to two possessions late, no 3-points attempts, no fouls and a lot of head scratchin'.

We did have Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks and Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic at the game. As a rule, NBA stars support the W. They know how difficult it is to play professionally.

After the game, I asked my wife what she thought of the WNBA. She said she had a good time, but was not ebullient. She said that she can feel glad that she went to at least one of the games. Clearly, I'll have to work harder to turn her into a fan of the W.

As for our visitor, I asked for her assessment of the game:

a) She had seen a lot of men's games and that the women's game seemed slower. She thought that even women's basketball was a little bit faster.
b) She was surprised by the size of the players. "Those are some big girls out there."
c) She complemented Coco Miller. "That player with the bangs was doing a great job."
d) She asked, "why didn't they shoot a three point basket?" It looks like our deficiencies are pretty obvious.

All right, now that we have a box score, let's look at each team.

For the Lynx:

Candice Wiggins: 23 points. 4-for-8 from the 3-point line. Five steals.
Nicky Anosike: 20 points, 10 rebounds, with 4 assists and 8 steals. I think she won the battle of the boards.
Charde Houston: 18 points, 10 rebounds for the second double-double.
Roneeka Hodges: 15 points, all from 3-point range.

And now for the Dream:

Iziane Castro Marques: Marques shot 13-for-19 from the field, for 31 points. That was a career high, and it was just a damned good game, period. I just wish that whenever Izi stands up that someone would stand up with her. Iziane was named the Dream's Player of the Game on the Jumbotron, and I concur by naming her Dreamer of the Game.

Sancho Lyttle: 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals. 4-for-6 shooting. Couldn't get the double-double, but the Lynx are tough.

Coco Miller: 10 points for Coco as she really stepped up her game. I wonder if this has anything to do with some hidden competition between her and her twin sister Kelly. Her +4 was the only positive plus/minus score for the Dream.

Michelle Snow: Snow only played 19 minutes, but picked up 4 points and 6 rebounds. Snow might be warming up to this whole Atlanta thing.

Erika de Souza: 9 points and 9 rebounds, close to a double-double herself. Her 3-for-10 shooting isn't anything to be proud of, and she missed at least one shot at point-blank range.

Chamique Holdsclaw: 14 points might look good, but she shot 6-for-17 from the field. I think she changed places with Izi during this game, as this is Izi-type shooting most of the time.

Shalee Lehning: Once again, a big goose egg next to Shalee's name in points scored. However, without Teasley doing much for the Dream, she picked up 4 assists.

Jennifer Lacy: Egad. 1-for-7 shoting. She got three rebounds at least, and she didn't turnover the ball.

Nikki Teasley: 13 minutes. No points. Just a couple of assists. -16 in plus/minus. Teasley and her knees just weren't a part of this game, not at all.

Angel McCoughtry: Played only 9 minutes, shot 1-for-3 and scored 3 total points. She played the fewest minutes in this game, exceed by Shalee by only nine seconds. I suspect that Angel has ended up in Marynell Meadors's doghouse...and let me tell you, it's a place you don't want to be. Angel, where are you? I hope things get better soon, but I'm going to have to name you the Bad Dream of the Game. I'd send Marynell a cake if I were you.

Kroger to Become Official Sponsor of Indiana Fever

According to the Associated Press.

Kroger and Pacers Sports and Entertainment made a joint announcement on Wednesday. The deal includes advertising on television, radio, print, billboards and the Internet. Kroger also has a deal with the Indiana Pacers.

And nothing was said about the Fever wearing Kroger's brand name on their jersey. It looks like three WNBA franchises - Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Indiana - should be sitting pretty.

Dream Lose 91-85 to Visiting Lynx

The obligatory Bangs of Steel picture.

The Dream lost last night's game to the Minnesota Lynx 91-85. The sad part is that the Lynx went 13-for-26 from 3-point range during the game. The Dream have now lost four out of their last five games.

There is a gallery of images from the game right here by Craig Cappy of SPMSportsPage.com.

Chris Vivamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has his writeup here.

To recast something I said on another message board, it's the nature of a fan to treat a cough as if it were the first sign of galloping pneumonia. The Dream are still 4-6 on the year, and last year, I would have loved to be 4-6 after 10 games. I'm not going to panic just yet. When the season is half-over...then, I'll panic.

Mechelle Voepel, one of the best women's basketball reporters out there, has noticed our woes. She writes about the fourth quarter....

Now, admittedly, Atlanta had made just two 3-pointers all game, so the odds weren’t good. But, still, shouldn’t the Dream have at least tried?

Instead, the clock ran out with no fouls, as if the Dream players maybe were hoping to get to a 9:30 movie. ESPN2 announcer Terry Gannon sounded as baffled as we viewers felt. Like, “Did they really just do that?” Now, maybe a few of the Dream players gave a half-hearted effort at fouling … but it wasn’t good enough.

Atlanta fell to 4-6 and might want to look at … well, where to start? Defense? Perimeter shooting? Ball movement? Clock management? Really giving a damn until the final buzzer?

The Dream has talent, but it’s not fully taking advantage of it. And Atlanta seems to have a pretty severe shortage of behind-the-arc firepower

The box score is broken on the WNBA's webpage, for which most of my readers are undoubtedly thankful - no long box score analysis at least for a little while. I'll post my thoughts on the game later.