22/2009 - Sky 82, Dream 80

The last time the Dream defeated the Sky was on July 5th, 2008. The Dream had started the season with 17 losses - a WNBA record - but got their first win at home against the Sky 91-84. Since then, we have been 0-and-4 against Chicago, which apparently harbors some sort of grudge. Come on, Chicago, just let it go. Unless we meet the Sky in the playoffs, we will not play the Sky again until 2010 - this was our last chance this year; they swept us in the 2009 regular season.

A few notes from the game:

1) Carol Ross continues working with the players, but tonight she wasn't doing much other than feeding them the ball. Next year, there can only be one WNBA head coach and one assistant coach per team. (On the bench, that is...there can be all sorts of unofficial assistant coaches but they won't be allowed to sit on the bench.)

Let's assume that Marynell Meadors moves to general manager and Carol Ross takes over as head coach in 2010. The other two Dream assistants are Fred Williams and Sue Panek. So who stays, and who goes?

2) School starts Monday in Atlanta. I don't know how this is going to affect attendance, but there you go.

3) A message board poster once said that Erika de Souza is very emotional, but she's always struck me as very cool on the court. However, this was the first time that I've seen de Souza frustrated. She was practicing her mid-range jumper and she just couldn't get it to fall. Angrily, she lept in the air and stomped her feet like a frustrated five-year-old.

4) Iziane Castro Marques, meanwhile, was working on her 3-pointers. She was a lot better from the left side of the basket than the right side. I don't know how she is from the top or the arc, but I saw Castro Marques nail 10 3-pointers in a row. On nine of them, it was "nothing but net". It was fascinating to watch.

Meanwhile, the only member of Sky who worked out for very long before the game was Brooke Wyckoff.

5) Maybe someone who has played ball or coached it can answer this question: why does it seem so hard to get players to do calisthenics? I've seen this for both home and visiting teams. Each player seems to take the warm up with different degrees of seriousness. I can understand why Chamique Holdsclaw didn't want to flex - her knees aren't great and after the game she said she had felt pain during the shoot-around. (Thankfully, her doctor said it was a false alarm.) Other players, however, seem to give flexibility perfunctory attention.

6) It appears that Tamera Young has abandoned the two-pigtail look. I think the era of Pigtail Power might be dead. Since she hadn't been playing, clearly something new was in order to change her luck, and she appeared in the pre-game workouts wearing straight hair.

7) Michael Brown from the Suwanee Sports Academy sang the National Anthem. He did a nice job.

8) Tonight was "Family Fun Night". Someone told me that tickets had been given to a lot of summer camp participants. You could identify them easily - they would all sit together in clumps, wearing multicolored T-shirts.

9) Starters for the Sky: Canty, Dupree, Perkins, Wyckoff, Fowles.
Startes for the Dream: Lehning, Castro Marques, Lyttle, de Souza, Holdsclaw.

10) Before the game, Angel McCoughtry was awarded the WNBA Rookie of the Month award by Marynell Meadors. You can't say that McCoughtry hasn't been doing good things for the Dream, and the award proves it.

11) For the announcements, they didn't bother to lower the house lights, but they brought out the running lights. Every time Angel McCoughtry is announced, Chamique Holdsclaw pretends to push her and McCoughtry flops to the floor. I don't quite get it; it must be an in-joke. Either that, or The Claw is teaching McCoughtry how to fine-tune the methods of a flop.

12) With just 1:22 into the first quarter, Shalee Lehning picked up her second personal foul. The first one was off a Jia Perkins rebound, the second one was on a Dominique Canty shooting attempt. Marynell Meadors was forced to bring Coco Miller in off the bench.

13) Atlanta had a lot of foul trouble early on. By 6:27 in the first quarter, they had already picked up their fourth team foul. Both teams were struggling, but the score was virtually tied. Part of the problem was Chicago's slow start shooting - they started the game 3-for-10 in field goal shooting.

However, Atlanta managed to keep from fouling for the next three minutes or so. Jia Perkins hit a pair of free throws that tied the score 10-10 with 3:38 to go. It looked like Erika de Souza and Sylvia Fowles were having a real battle under the basket.

14) The Sky were caught napping in the first when Erin Thorn made a jump shot and missed it. I'm sure that the Sky were so sure that the shot would go in that all five players headed back to the defensive end, giving Erika de Souza an easy rebound. De Souza would have eight first-quarter rebounds.

15) One could see both Marynell Meadors and Carol Ross yelling out instructions to the Dream. Candice Dupree tied the score 16-16 with 13.4 seconds left, giving Ivory Latta a chance for a quarter-ending 3-pointer. But she missed, and the score was tied.

16) Interesting first-quarter stat: Chicago committed no personal fouls in the first quarter. Despite Atlanta hitting 40 percent of their field goal attempts, the Sky were at the free throw line 7 times in the first quarter. The Dream would not visit the free throw line until 10:27 into the game.

17) Iziane Castro Marques started the second quarter with two baskets in the second quarter to put the Dream on top 21-16. Chen Nan of the Sky lost the ball to Ivory Latta (it would be easy for Chen Nan to lose Ivory Latta), and Latta stole the ball and made the running lay in. The Dream were up 24-18.

18) Then, disaster struck, and the name of that disaster was Erin Thorn. Chicago started an 11-0 run, with nine of those 11 points being scored by Erin Thorn. It was an incredible display by one player.

How was Erin Thorn able to score 9 out of 11 points in three minutes? Part of it was that Thorn had simply entered "the Zone", where no shot you take can miss. Part of it was that Iziane Castro Marques was supposed to be guarding Thorn, and defense has never been Castro Marques's strong suit.

Our lead disappeared. Formerly up 24-18 we found ourselves down 29-26. Thorn now had 13 points.

19) McCoughtry only hits 22.2 percent of the 3-point shots she makes. So why does she keep shooting them?

20) I saw a couple of signs in the audience: "Go #9 Coco Miller" - okay, that tells me who the people were who wanted to give Miller the lion's share of point guard minutes. The other sign simply read "Let's Go Dream". I can't disagree.

21) This left the Dream and the Sky the right to fight it out for the halftime lead. The Sky slowly began to put distance between themselves and Atlanta. Down 31-30, the Sky's defense forced four Atlanta turnovers. Those led to at least 5 points, and the Sky were up 42-36 going into halftime.

22) Halftime: Chicago had recovered their shooting touch. They were now shooting better than the Dream. (16-33 vs. 15-33). They were winning the battle of the rebounds, and Erin Thorn had 15 points. Erika de Souza had 9 points and 9 rebounds.

23) I was busy chatting during halftime, so I didn't see the dancers. There appeared to be some male dancers in pink shirts; I wasn't paying attention. A friend said, "I'd like to call myself a progressive sister, but I wouldn't let my son do that for a living." Maybe it was just the color of the shirts. It wouldn't bother me if my son were a dancer; at least he'd be around beautiful women for a living.

The other halftime performance was by the Flight Velocity Crew, a trampoline-and-basketball act. I've seen them once, and they're certainly good, but they don't bear much repeat viewing. After you've seen a guy bounce off a trampoline and dunk a basket, there are only so many times you can watch it before you are no longer surprised.

My suggestion: let spectators volunteer to try it. Just make sure they sign the medical waiver first.

24) Chicago occasionally had problems getting their offense going - they were called for what was at least the second 24-second violation of the game in the third. (A 24-second violation is where a team does not make a shot in the 24 seconds allotted. Failure to do so is to turn over the ball.)

25) In the third quarter, the Dream's problems had not yet ended. Down 47-40, the Sky sparked another 9-0 run on us. The Sky had managed to force the Dream to play their game and had managed to stop both the Dream's interior game and the ability of Dream guards to slash to the basket. I believe Steven Key said somewhere that the goal for the game was to force the Dream's guards into the perimeter and keep them there.

It looked about as bad for the Dream as it could look. Miller's second personal foul with 5:23 remaining already put the Dream over the limit. The Dream were already down 53-40 and the Dream managed to fall behind by sixteen points, 56-40. McCoughtry was still trying the magic 3-pointer that wouldn't fall. Brooke Wyckoff stole the ball out of Ivory Latta's hands. The Dream just looked punch less.

At that time, the attendance was announced: 5,474 in attendance. I believe - but can't prove - that that was the lowest announced attendance ever for a Dream game.

Maybe the Sky isn't a draw. Maybe it's the roadwork on Southbound I-85 that is scaring people off. Maybe it was those misleading articles in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that implied that the Dream was two seconds away from being turned into an off-Broadway musical. Maybe it's the fact that school starts on Monday and parents went elsewhere with their kids. "At least," I muttered, "the people not watching the game in person can't see this." Then I remember the 6,000 or so that were watching it on WNBA Live Access.

26) The Dream struggled in the bottom of the third. Erika de Souza picked up her fourth personal foul to the sound of loud booing from the crowd - at least they were still in the game. The Dream woke up from its languor and started to play some ball. Ivory Latta shot a 3-pointer. Jennifer Lacy hit a basket and Ivory Latta capped a couple of free throws at the end to bring Chicago's lead down to a single digits again, 62-54 going into the final frame. (And Angel McCoughtry had picked up her 4th personal foul.)

27) With 1:05 to go in the third quarter, Tamera Young finally made a reappearance. Her last appearance in a Dream game was during garbage time in our blowout of the Phoenix Mercury. Meadors had run out of options and was forced to take Young out of the doghouse.
27b) Some Atlanta Dream fans have a new name for Philips Arena - "the Doghouse", because so many Dream players end up there at one time or another.

28) In the fourth quarter, the Sky managed to get the lead back into double-digits. For the third and the fourth quarters, it seemed like the Sky had simply nailed the basket shut on Sancho Lyttle. With 6:47 to go, the Sky led 73-62 and I'm sure that Sylvia Fowles and company were thinking about getting a nice hamburger after the game.

29) And then, the Dream simply decided "we ain't going out like that" - as Cypress Hill might put it. The Dream went on a 11-0 run of their own, which was sparked by two things:

a) The fact that the Sky had just hit the four foul limit and any infractions were going to send the Atlanta Dream to the free throw line, and
b) Tamera Young's appearance on the iPod Challenge. Little Smooth sang "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly. Her attempt to hit notes in a register so low it would have made Barry White envious must have struck fear into the Sky. "Anything! We'll give back the lead, just make her stop singing!"

30) During the run, the crowd was on its feet, screaming "DEFENSE! DEFENSE!" Defense wasn't just a word either. For four minutes, the Sky were held scoreless, despite some questionable calls by the referees, such as

a) Fowles absolutely clobbering Lyttle under the basket. And of course, with Lyttle lying on the floor in agony....Lyttle is the one charged with the personal foul.
b) With the breakup of a play, the ball rolled into Chicago's back court. Both Young and a Chicago player chased after the ball, but the ball rolled out of bounds past the end line before either could get to it. So guess who was charged with touching the ball? You got it.

31) With 2:52 left in the fourth, Young found McCoughtry with a killer pass to end the run and tie the score 73-73. The crowd was on its feet. Maybe the faithful fans of the Powder Blues would see an astonishing comeback...and this time, it would belong to the Dream.

32) However, the Dream could just not get the ball to fall into the basket. Sancho Lyttle and Erika de Souza found the basket nailed shut by the Sky. The Sky creaked out to a 78-75 lead with 35.4 second left. However, Tamera Young found Angel McCoughtry again to close the score to 78-77 with 26.1 seconds left.

33) The Sky were just horrible at free throws in the last could of minutes. The Dream needed to foul the Sky to get the ball back, and we sent Jia Perkins to the line. Perkins only hit one of her two free throws to make it a 79-77 Sky game and a basket would send the game into overtime.

However, Perkins got her revenge. She stole the ball from Ivory Latta with 14 seconds left and the only way for us to get it back was to foul Chicago again. Angel McCoughtry would have to steal the ball - which she attempted - or at least commit a foul while doing so. It was her sixth foul of the game. McCoughtry had fouled out and we no longer had her defense.

34) With 11.3 seconds left, Perkins hit both of her free throws. It was an 81-77 game and we needed something magic to happen. The goal was to give the ball to a 3-pointer shooter, and this time, Iziane Castro Marques found Ivory Latta, who made an attempt...

...and it went in! 81-80 with 3.7 seconds left! But the ball would go back to Chicago. We would be forced to send them to the free throw line, and pray for at least one miss.

35) Candice Dupree was send to the charity stripe. The first shot...a miss. The second shot...another miss! But it would be Jia Perkins who got the critical rebound, and a quick foul by Tamera Young sent Perkins to the line again.

36) Perkins's first free throw? A hit. The score was 82-80 Chicago. Perkins missed the second free throw. The ball was rebounded by Erika de Souza, but with less than 0.7 seconds left there was simply no time to get the shot off in time....

...we had lost again. Our last two losses to Chicago were decided by a grand total of three points. But as they say, "almost doesn't cut it in horseshoes and hand grenades". We could hold our heads up high during the comeback, but a loss is a loss is a loss.

The post-mortem for the game will probably be tomorrow.

McCoughtry Honored with WNBA Rookie of the Month Award

A new gallery of images from the Dream/Sky game is here at SPMSportsPage.com, thanks to photographer Craig Cappy.

Congratulations to Angel McCoughtry for winning Rookie of the Month. She looks happy.

Happy Birthday Chamique!

Chamique Holdsclaw celebrated her 32nd birthday last night in Atlanta. I don't know how the party went, but Holdsclaw twittered about it. I know it was held at Opera Atlanta.

Anyway, Happy Birthday and don't eat too much cake! Above, you can watch Holdsclaw's interview with ESPN.

Dream Loses At Home 82-80 Against Sky; Winning Streak Ends

We almost had it. Ivory Latta hit a 3-pointer with 3.7 seconds left to close the gap to 81-80, but we coudn't make it happen at home. The Sky have swept us this year...but our hope is that we'll meet them in the playoffs.

Charles Odum of the Associated Press has his writeup here. Our four-game winning streak has come to an end.

More later, but now it's time to sleep.

21/2009 - Dream 92, Silver Stars 84: Four in a Row

Uh...is this over the back? No, because there's no illegal contact.

The Dream have won four games in a row and are a perfect 3-0 after the All-Star break. They are undoubtedly the hottest team in the WNBA right now, and it takes a lot to go to San Antonio's home court and beat a lineup with Becky Hammon, Sophia Young, Ann Wauters and Vickie Johnson. Let's take a look at the Dream's amazing victory.

Field goal percentage: The Dream shot 48.8 percent from the floor, but their effectiveness was diminished by their 2-for-13 shooting from beyond the arc - they still can't hit the three. However, with the two threes the Dream's effective field goal percentage is 50 percent. The Silver Stars shot 40.6 percent with an effective field goal percentage of 43.4 percent. Five points of difference in field goal percentage can mean one or two extra baskets for teams that take the same amount of shots - and the Dream took 80 shots to San Antonio's 69.

Turnovers: The Dream turned the ball over just 12 times, compared to 14 for the Silver Stars. A virtual tie.

Offensive rebounds: In overall offensive boards, the Dream had 17 to the Silver Stars' 12. Their offensive rebounding percentage was 43.6 percent compared to San Antonio's 31.5 percent. The Dream simply dominated San Antonio on the boards despite the presence of San Antonio's big posts.

Free throw visits: San Antonio is the clear winner here, going to the line 33 times compared to 18 times by the Dream. San Antonio hit 72.7 percent of their shots - which isn't much, but it was a lot better than Atlanta's 66.7 percent. Those are European free-throw numbers. The Dream need some more practice at the line.

And now, let's look at the Silver Stars:

Becky Hammon: 26 points, 6 rebounds. However, her 9-for-22 shooting was lousy. She took almost 1/3 of San Antonio's shots. This provided a hidden key - guard Becky Hammon, because she's going to shoot anyway.
Sophia Young: 23 points and 9 rebounds. She was close to a double-double, but she also had 4 turnovers and 4 personal fouls.
Ann Wauters: 12 points, 5 rebounds. Also 4 personal fouls.
The Silver Stars Bench: 14 points. Compare that to 24 points from Atlanta's bench.

So how well did the Dream do? We'll go player by player....

Chamique Holdsclaw: The Claw scored 21 points to lead all Atlanta players, and scored 7 rebounds and 4 assists. She shot 53 percent from the field...but....

Sancho Lyttle: ...Lyttle scored 13 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double, and hit 2 out of every 3 field goals (6-for-9). Who was more important to the Dream? It's a tough call, so for the first time ever, Chamique Holdsclaw AND Sancho Lyttle are the co-Dreamers of the Game.

Iziane Castro Marques: Castro Marques has had some good games recently. Is the "Izi Effect" - the effect where Castro Marques's best games come when the Dream lose - dead? I don't know, but Iziane Castro Marques scored 17 points and 4 assists, with 7-for-15 shooting.

Shalee Lehning: She scored 9 points, tying her career high in points scored, and had 7 assists. Remember when I said after the Atlanta/New York game that that was Lehning's best game of the year? Well, forget that, because this was Lehning's best game of the year. Her +13 in plus/minus was tied with both Iziane Castro Marques and Michelle Snow in raw plus/minus. If Lehning keeps having games like this, the wins will keep coming.

Michelle Snow: There are so many players fighting for playing time who are playing well, and Snow is one of them. 11 points and 7 rebounds in just 17 minutes. If she played longer, she would have had a double-double like Lyttle.

Erika de Souza: The Beast from Brazil hasn't had many good games lately, and this one was at best okay. She picked up a questionable Michael Price technical foul, and had just 8 points and 6 rebounds. That's an off-night for Erika de Souza.

Angel McCoughtry: Nothing to write home about. 11 points, but it was on 4-for-14 shooting and had three turnovers and a shot blocked. Hey, if everyone is having great nights McCoughtry can just fade in the background.

Coco Miller: 2 points in 4 minutes. She took a shot and she hit it.

Jennifer Lacy: 0 points in 7 minutes. She blocked a shot and had a personal foul, which kept her from a "trillion".

Tamera Young: Did not play.

There has been some discussion elsewhere as to why Tamera Young is not playing. Supposedly, as long as Chamique Holdsclaw, Iziane Castro Marques and Angel McCoughtry are all healthy and ready to play, Young has been buried in fourth place on the Atlanta bench. As one commenter somewhere said, "Either play her or send her on her merry way so somebody else can capitalize on her abilities. She can produce in the W. She just needs the right team and I don't think Atlanta is it." (We are nine days away from the WNBA's trade deadline on August 17th.)

Ivory Latta: Missed each of the three shots she took, and one was a 3-pointer. Went to the free throw line twice. Missed both shots. Only played nine minutes. Latta is Still Snoozin' but Atlanta could afford to let her sleep. However, with the playoffs coming up soon we need everyone awake.

21/2009 - Dream 92, Silver Stars 84

Rookie vs. All-Star.

As you might have known if you actually tried to follow the Atlanta/San Antonio game, San Antonio is the only city that will not do WNBA Live Access for some reason. However, also for unknown reasons, they will provide an audio feed - I believe it is the Silver Stars radio feed. So my notes come from listening to the game instead of watching it. (My neck just isn't that long.)

However, an index of game pictures can be found here, thanks to SPMSportsPage.com.

1) Starters for Atlanta: Holdsclaw, Lyttle, De Souza, Castro Marques, Lehning. I believe we should now consider Lehning the permanent starter at point guard, because I don't think Meadors is going to start Ivory Latta, ever. It is Lehning's seventh start as a rookie.

Starters for San Antonio: Riley, S. Young, Wauters, Johnson, Hammon. Ann Wauters is back. An interesting blurb about coach Dan Hughes stuck at 149 wins and needing one more for the sesquicentennial. Only Van Chancellor and Michael Cooper have more wins in the WNBA as coaches.

2). With only eight seconds elapsed on the shot clock, Shalee Lehning decides to start the game with a 3-pointer. The attempt is an airball. It's a preminition of the start of the game, where San Antonio shoots 0-for-3 and Atlanta shoots 0-for-2.

3) We hear words that everyone dreads to hear: "Officials for tonight are...Michael Price...."

4) Vickie Johnson scores the first seven points for San Antonio and San Antonio hangs on for a 7-6 lead. The Dream then score the next six points to take a 12-7 lead. Dan Hughes on the radio is talking about the importance of ball movement - which is odd, because this being the radio no one will ever see any of that ball movement.

5) Shalee Lehning is now playing face to face against Becky Hammon. Hammon manages to get a basket but it isn't a complete mismatch. As Atlanta's starters take the bench - Lacy, Latta and McCoughtry are now all in - the Silver Stars tie the game 14-14 on a pair of free throws by Megan Frazee. Up 17-16, Becky Hammon throws an off-balance 3-point attempt with approximately 0.1 seconds left on the clock.

It goes in. The crowd cheers, and the Silver Stars lead at home 20-16.

San Antonio, however, has been held to 28.6 percent shooting. Only the trips to to free throw line have given the Silver Stars the lead. The Dream didn't go to the free throw line at all in the first quarter.

6) With Michelle Snow and Coco Miller on the floor, the start of the second quarter is characterized by a pair of matching runs - an 8-1 run by the Dream followed immediately by an 8-0 run by the Silver Stars marked by Ivory Latta missing two free throws on a shot attempt and a 3-pointer by Angel McCoughtry from 25 feet that probably had no chance of going in.

7) We learn from Michael Price that the loose ball foul is not dead as Ann Wauters is called for it. However, Hammon steals the ball from Lehning which negates the possession.

8) The Dream, however, fall into some good fortune. Ann Wauters gets four free throw attempts late in the second and misses three of them. San Antonio at this point is 2-for-6 from the free throw line.

9) With exactly two minutes left, Shalee Lehning puts on a show. She scores a jumper to tie the score at 33-33 and then McCoughtry steals the ball from Ruth Riley. Lehning finds the reverse layup that she missed in the New York game and scores a basket to put the Dream back into the lead, 35-33. With the game tied at 37-37, Lehning makes a miracle 3-point attempt that leaves her hands literally as time expires.

Michael Price consults the entrails and determines that he wishes to screw with the Silver Stars for a little while. Lehning's shot is good, and the Dream take a 40-37 lead into halftime.

Lehning would have 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists at the half.

10) Halftime: The Dream are still shooting at 45 percent or so, but the Silver Stars have climbed to 36.8 percent. Angel McCoughtry and Vickie Johnson lead their respective teams with 9 points each. Sophia Young has 8 points and Becky Hammon has 7 points for the Silver Stars.

11) The third quarter is proof that this will be a close game - once again, both teams trade run. The Dream continue with four more points to put the Dream up 44-37, their biggest lead of the game. Nine San Antonio turnovers have led to 13 Atlanta points.

But the ground shifts again. The Silver Stars score the next six points and Lyttle picks up her third personal foul. The score is suddenly 44-43 in favor of the Dream and both teams will have to fight. The Dream's lead rises and falls, and Becky Hammon turns an Erin Perperoglou steal into a running layup to give the home team their first lead of the third quarter, 52-51 in favor of the Silver Stars.

12) McCoughtry tries another 3-pointer and misses it. Chamique Holdsclaw is keeping us in the game. By the beginning of the quarter, The Claw had only scored 4 points, but by the end of it she'd have 11. Atlanta takes the lead back on a Holdsclaw layup, and she picks up the foul from Sophia Young and the following free throw. Up 58-57, a 3-pointer from Iziane Castro Marques gives us a 61-57 lead....

...but Edwige Lawson-Wade hits a pair of free throws to close Atlanta's lead to two points, 61-59. The Dream get the last possession. After Ivory Latta misses a jumper, Belinda Snell tries to finish the third quarter the way the previous two quarters ended - with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. However, she misses the shot and the Dream keep a tenuous 61-59 lead going into the final quarter.

13) At the end of 30 minutes, the Dream have visited the free throw line 9 times. The Silver Stars have visited the line 20 times.

14) San Antonio scores the first three points of the fourth quarter...and ttie score is tied again. The score goes back and fourth, but by about four minutes in Atlanta is starting to establish a lead again.

Part of the reason is Chamique Holdsclaw. Becky Hammon hits a 3-pointer with 5:19 left to bring the Silver Stars within one point, 74-73. But Chamique Holdsclaw answers right back with her eighth fourth-quarter point. Erika de Souza follows with a layup, and Atlanta's lead is five points, 78-73, with 3:41 left in the game

15) Michelle Snow's job will be to fight off Ann Wauters as Atlanta tries to cling to its small lead for the rest of the game. With 1:54 to go, Erika de Souza scores her eighth point to bring Atlanta back up 82-77, and then Chamique Holdscalw comes throw, stealing the ball from Vickie Johnson off a bad pass. Castro Marques feeds it to Michelle Snow, who scores the jumper to put the Dream up 84-77 with just 1:19 left in the game.

16) Ruth Riley is hit with a loose ball foul. What happens next is never made clear, but Michael Price decides to play the joker card and call a technical foul on Erika de Souza. Becky Hammon gets one free throw, and makes it, but the ball goes back to the Dream.

However, Iziane Castro Marques misses the jumper, and Rebecca Lynn Hammon gets the ball back. She gets fouled by Erika de Souza - her fourth foul - and Hammon sinks both free throws to bring the score to 86-81 with 38.7 seconds left.

17) Shalee Lehning - who had not scored in either quarter - gets the ball on the in-bounds by the dream and lays up the shot! However, Sancho Lyttle is seen holding her left knee and the Dream fans fear the worst....

18) Hammon tries the 3-pointer, but misses the shot. Lyttle - who appears to be okay - gets the rebound and after an Ann Wauters personal foul, Chamique Holdsclaw sinks two shots that make the lead 88-81. Michelle Snow committed a shooting foul with 18 seconds left that sent Becky Hammon to the line.

However, Hammon missed the first of her two free throws. With 18 seconds left, and the Dream up 88-82, all that San Antonio could do was foul. They sent us two times, and we made all of our free throws. Ann Wauters made a lay-up as time expired, but it was not enough as the Dream won 92-84 for their fourth straight win and their first win ever on San Antonio's home court.

Okay. Enough of the game. Statistical post-mortem later.

Shalee Lehning: Relaxing in Atlanta

Shalee Lehning is blogging again.

Lehning is with her family, and seeing some of the sights Atlanta has to offer:

Friday was a super fun day with the family. After practice, we all loaded up in our minivans (I made fun of my brother because he said he would never drive a minivan but now with two kids he does) and we went to the Georgia Aquarium. That was my third trip to the Aquarium this summer! The kids absolutely loved it. I felt like a tour guide because I basically have the aquarium memorized at this point. It was just a perfect afternoon for the whole family. Everyone enjoyed it and the kids were happy so it was a successful trip. That evening we went to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack which is an experience in itself.

Just remember that the Joe's Crab Shack experience isn't complete until you buy the shirt.

But will Shalee Lehning be playing overseas in the off-season? Possibly, no.

As soon as the season is over I will be going back to Manhattan [Kansas] to finish my degree. I only have one semester left so I will graduate in December.

Family Meets the Fever

DesignHERMomma writes in her blog about her family's first experience with the WNBA attending an Indiana Fever game.

Last week we went to our first ever WNBA game (the arena is about 3 miles from our house). We watched really tall women shoot hoops into overtime, met the mascot and ate a snow cone as big as Birdie's head.

We had fun as a family, we made a memory on a random Thursday night that is typically devoted to early bedtimes and prime time TV.


As for the girls looking terrified in the picture on the blog, I swear that Freddy Fever likes kids...and not with catsup.

Atlanta vs. Chicago, Saturday August 8th

Who: The Atlanta Dream (11-10) take on the Chicago Sky (10-11) in a battle between two teams trying to make the Eastern Conference playoffs for the first time in their respective histories.

The Dream have Chamique Holdsclaw (15.3 ppg) as well as All-Star Team members Sancho Lyttle (13.3 ppg) and Erika de Souza (10.8 ppg). Chicago has All-Star game starters Candice Dupree (15.0 ppg) and Sylvia Fowles (11.5 ppg), and All-Star reservist Jia Perkins (15.3 ppg.)

What: The last game this year against Chicago. The Dream are 0-2 against the Sky this year, losing 81-73 in Chicago and 99-98 in overtime at Atlanta. Since Atlanta would lose the tiebreaker against Chicago if both teams finished with similar records, Atlanta must finish ahead of Chicago in total wins if it comes to a fourth and final playoff spot. The Dream are 1-5 against the Sky all time.

Where: Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA.

When: Tipoff is 7:00 pm Eastern on Saturday, August 8th. If you don't know why you need to show up in person, then you haven't been following this blog.

Why: Aside for the obvious reasons, the Dream are riding a four-game winning streak into Saturday's game. The Dream have not only never won four games in a row, but last year, they finished 4-30. It's a big turnaround for the Dream, which is playing the best basketball in the WNBA outside of the Indiana Fever. Furthermore, this game sparks a six-game home stand that lasts until the 25th of August. If the Dream win Saturday's game, there's no telling how long that hot streak will last.

However, Chicago has gotten Atlanta's goat this year. The Dream's first win in its history was against Chicago in Philips Arena last year, the first victory after starting the season with 17 straight losses. Chicago undoubtedly remembers the pain of that loss, but Chicago wants to keep beating the Dream for more than just revenging a significant Dream win. The Sky have never been to the playoffs, either - the Sky and the Dream are the WNBA's newest teams and the Sky would like to get there first. Sylvia Fowles missed a few games this year with a knee injury, but she's back and averaging 8 rebounds a game. Candice Dupree adds another 7 rebounds a game for the Sky.

Problem: the Sky only have two road wins this year, and only the Monarchs are worse on the road. The Sky's victories are narrow ones and their defeats are significant - despite a 10-11 record, the average game for the Sky is a 4.76 point loss. This is the worst differential in the WNBA. (The Dream's average game is a 1.9 point win.) The suggestion has been made by some WNBA observers that the Sky tend to fold when the going gets tough. Let's hope that the Dream keeps it that way.

Dream Wins Fourth Straight Game - Wins 92-84 Against Silver Stars

Four straight! Woo hoo! If you didn't read the post title, we got our first win ever against the Silver Stars on their home court, winning 92-84. The Dream are now 11-10 on the year, and are in a 3-way tie for second place in the Eastern Conference....

...and if we resorted to mathematical tiebreakers, we'd be the team standing on top! We're just playing great basketball.

The Dream come back home on Saturday to play the Chicago Sky in the first game of a six-game homestand. It might be a while before I get to write about tonight's game - but let's show some love for the Dream by being there on Saturday night!!

McCoughtry Blogs About Receiving Key to Baltimore

Angel McCoughtry blogs about receiving the key to the city of Baltimore from mayor Sheila Dixon at her blog at WNBA.com:

I’m glad I’m one of the females to get the award. I think I might be the only female athlete to get the award in Baltimore. So it means a lot to me because a lot of male athletes have received the award, people like Carmelo Anthony and Juan Dixon. It’s great for a female athlete to be able to inspire other females and get the key to the city.

Single Game Highs

From Swanny's Stats, here are the single game highs for the 2009 WNBA season so far:

Points: Becky Hammon of the Silver Stars scored 38 points during San Antonio's victory against Sacramento on July 30th. Iziane Castro Marques is 8th on the list, scoring 31 points in Atlanta's home win againt the Lynx on June 30th.

Rebounds: Not only does Erika de Souza lead the list - she has both the first and second spots as well! She has scored 17 rebounds in a game two times this year - in the opening game of the year against the Fever and one month later when the Dream hosted the Sun. Sancho Lyttle is tied for 3rd, scoring 15 rebounds against the Sun on July 14. De Souza makes multiple appearances on the single-game high rebounding list.

Assists: Cappie Pondexter had 15 assists in a game between Phoenix and visiting Sacramento on July 15 - but Nikki Teasley (formerly of the Dream) is 2nd with 11 assists in a home game against the Shock on June 26. None of the other Dream point guards make the list.

Steals: Jia Perkins had 8 steals for Chicago against the visiting Mystics on June 27. Angel McCoughtry is tied for 2nd with 7 steals against the Liberty - we played that game last Saturday. She's also tied with several players who have had a 6-steal game - hers was against the Shock on July 22nd.

Blocked Shots: Candace Parker had six blocked shots against the Storm on July 22nd, but it took her three overtimes to get there.

Field Goals Made: Iziane Castro Marques is in a 3-way tie for first place. Along with Becky Hammon of the Silver Stars and Asjha Jones of the Sun, she has made 13 field goals in a game - hers came against the Lynx on June 30th.

Three Point Field Goals Made: Two of the premier players in the WNBA - Sue Bird of the Storm and Diana Taurasi of the Mercury - have made 7 3-pointers in a game. Bird's came on that 3OT game against the Sparks on July 22nd - the one were Candace Parker had 6 blocked shots - and Taurasi's came when Phoenix hosted the Lynx on June 17th.

Free throws made: Shavonte Zellous of the Shock made 17 free throws in a game in 2009. Remember which one that was? I think you do. It was when the Shock visited Atlanta on June 26th, and it seemed like they all came in the second quarter.

Turnovers: Former Dream player Betty Lennox made 9 turnovers in that 3OT game against the Storm in Seattle on July 22nd.

Associated Press 1, AJC 0

The Associated Press gets the story right on Ron Terwilliger and the Dream:

Atlanta Dream owner Ron Terwilliger is looking to sell part of the second-year WNBA franchise.
A team statement says Terwilliger has been seeking investment partners before the Dream started their inaugural season in 2008. The statement also says Terwilliger still wants to remain an investor, even if other investors buy a large part.

Funny, you'd think a local news service would have clearer and more accurate reporting than a national one, particularly regarding a matter close to home. But as far as the AJC is concerned, the Dream is as mysterious as a Mongolian water dispute.

Terwilliger Out of Town? AJC Obfuscates

I just noticed this yesterday in the article about Ron Terwilliger looking for new investors. Maybe it had been there all along, or maybe it was edited in later:

Terwilliger has relocated to New York and has had unspecified changes that prevent him from being actively involved with the team and in the Atlanta community, according to Hope.

Didn't the Dream meet at Terwilliger's house this year for a dinner before the season started? Didn't I see Terwilliger at the Dream/Liberty game? (I might have been hallucinating that last one.) Suddenly, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution implies that Ron Terwilliger isn't living in Atlanta. (That's what a "relocation" sounds like to me - when I visit my mother in Kentucky I'm not "relocating".)

Furthermore there's that "...has had unspecified changes that prevent him from being actively involved with the team and in the Atlanta community". Talk about your investigative reporting; that sentence just asks a bunch of questions that it doesn't have the courage to answer. If he's no longer actively involved, then how much involvement does Terwilliger have?

"Unspecified changes?" Like what changes? Is there some WNBA clause that prevents Terwilliger from being involved with the Dream? Does this mean that Bill Bolen now has final say for what goes on with the franchise? Or is this just the Atlanta Journal-Constitution misunderstanding things again?

Josh Bagriansky, we need some of your skill. You're a paid journalist for Score Atlanta, you should be able to figure some of this stuff out for us.

Atlanta vs. San Antonio, Thursday August 6th

Who: The Atlanta Dream (10-10) take on the San Antonio Silver Stars (9-10) as both teams try to hang around .500 and fourth place in their respective divisions.

The Dream have Chamique Holdsclaw (15.0 ppg) as well as All-Star Team members Sancho Lyttle (13.3 ppg) and Erika de Souza (10.9 ppg). Becky Hammon (20.9 ppg) and Sophia Young (17.3 ppg) are among the league's scoring leaders, and Ann Wauters (14.7 ppg last year) is back with the team.

What: The first of two games this year against the Silver Stars - San Antonio comes to Atlanta exactly two weeks later. The Dream are 0-2 all time against the Silver Stars.

Where: The AT&T center in San Antonio, TX.

When: Tipoff is 8:00 pm Eastern on Thursday, August 6th. Here's what sucks - WNBA has Live Access, which is a way one can watch any WNBA game on the internet. The problem is that only San Antonio doesn't buy into Live Access, so...we probably aren't going to see anything but a box score.

Why: First, you have two teams that are "on their way up" for different reasons. For the Dream, it's because the Dream have just gotten better and better as the year has progressed. The Silver Stars have done the same thing, but in a different way - at times, San Antonio was missing some of their pieces. Becky Hammon was playing in Russia. Vickie Johnson had a family member die. Ann Wauters wasn't going to arrive until mid-season. The Silver Stars struggled until they could get their players back together.

There's no history of close games between San Antonio and Atlanta. We lost by 15 at home last year, and by eight on the road. To give you an idea of how long ago that first game was, the lead scorer for the Dream that night was Stacey Lovelace.

If there's an reason to see a Silver Stars game, it's Becky Hammon. She's the leading scorer in the WNBA right now, and she just has one of those sweet shots that's a wonder to see. However, there's the perpetually overlooked Sophia Young as well, and Megan Frazee out of Liberty University is one of the underrated rookies of the 2009 class - it would be interesting to see Angel McCoughtry and Megan Frazee finally butt heads.

With Ann Wauters coming back, the Silver Stars are indeed...stars. Remember, the Silver Stars played in the WNBA Finals in 2008. The Atlanta Dream would like to be in the same place at the end of 2009.

The "Repairmen" of Women's Sports

Ethan at Actionless Activity writes about the philosophy that women's basketball - or women's soccer, or any other game that women play - will only succeed if it becomes a scaled-down version of the men's game. He's writing about Women's Professional Soccer, but he's also writing about the WNBA:

Except, having read the whole article, I am aware that the author does in fact appreciate Women’s Professional Soccer. What seems to be at issue isn’t his own appreciation, but concern out of how to make the league more palatable to the sports enthusiasts at large.

Here is my professional, degreed, tenured, and expert opinion: You can’t.

Whaaaat?

Look, Cricket is Cricket is Cricket. They monkeyed around with the number of “overs” per game (the US-friendly, I dare say, version of this is called 20/20) to speed things along, but really, if Cricket isn’t your bag, shortening the length of the game, making the wickets closer together, increasing or reducing the number of players, blah blah blah won’t crack the wall of resistance that compels one to gag and say “I hate Cricket.”

It’s not a gender thing, notice.

Same goes for “I hate bass fishing,” “I hate lacrosse,” and “I hate drag racing.” It’s not the players, it’s the game.

There has been talk about the WNBA changing the rules/basket height/whatever else to make the league more fan-friendly. Nyet! Winning is fan-friendly. Actually being fan-friendly helps too.

I agree with Ethan in that for a lot of people, it's not the players, it's the game. And for women's basketball, it's not even the game - it's the fact that women are playing it. You could scale the basket height down to six feet and play the games on a court the size of a Best Western Hotel room and there would be a large number of sports followers that would still put down the women's game - they'd just shift their excuses. The haters see women's sport as a transgression against male sport; no amount of excellent play could ever change their minds.

I believe that the WNBA should be open to changing the rules, because they should be beholden really to the enjoyment of their fans and not some mythical standard of what someone else thinks basketball should be. I'm even open to the idea of lowering the rim to 9 1/2 feet - if the players want it and if the fans want it. Like I said on a message board, "if the players and fans want the rim lowered, you won't be able to stop it - but if they don't want it, you won't be able to spark it."

Granted, the NBA, WNBA, NCAA and FIBA all play by subtlely different rules - but it's still basketball. Take a player out of one setting and place him or her in another, and all they have to do is learn a few extra rules. Once you start making widescale changes, you don't have basketball anymore - you have a completely different sport. It might look like basketball, but it won't be.

So why make-over your sport for the benefit of people who not only don't respect you, but who are obstinately committed to never respecting you? Both the WPS and the WNBA should be wary of those that want to "repair" the sport. One should have an open mind to change, but there's such a thing as being too open.

AJC Article About Dream Sale Inaccurate?

According to Chamique Holdsclaw on Twitter:

@chold1 Jus talk to folks from the Dream AJC article isn't accurate. Our owner is just lookin for other investors and doesn't want to sell.


It could be that The Claw is trying to put a brave face on things. On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if the AJC was inaccurate when it came to the Dream - they don't even have a beat reporter assigned, and their coverage of women's sports is execrable.

Heard on Twitter

Accoring to @jaydaevans on Twitter, the league will cut staffs down to one assistant coach this season.

I don't care if they play games in a barn, just as long as they have a league. You'll find me sitting near the chickens.

A Parable

So you go to the doctor. Up until this moment, he's been telling you that you're probably about as healthy as anyone else whenever you've visited him. This time, however, he puts on his "business face".

"I have to break some bad news to you," he says. "You have a potentially fatal condition. It's a very strange malady, one that is usually cured by a transfusion. Furthermore, I can guarantee that you'll survive until say, September or October. After that...I don't know. The condition might resolve itself. The transfusion will save your life, but you might even survive without it. However, if you die...it will be before May or June of next year."

"How will I know if I'm going to live?" I ask.

"If you get the transfusion, the chances are 99 percent that you and I will be talking here next year. If you die...it could come any way. You might have fair warning, or you just might keel over and drop dead in a heartbeat. You'll definitely live for a few more weeks, after that, you need that transfusion. I can guarantee you this, though...if you do die, you'll probably have little or no warning."

"Are these transfusions easy to get?"

"No," he says. "Now, I know of some successful cases. There was someone in Los Angeles and someone in Seattle that got the transfusion, and they're thriving. Someone in Houston got a transfusion, but a year later they needed another one. We had to put them on life support. They didn't get another transfusion, and they didn't survive."

"What are my chances? Can you give me any odds?"

"No. Absolutely none. Your chances of being here next year are anywhere between 0 percent and 100 percent. All I can tell you is...take precautions, and keep your hopes up."

(* * *)

By now, you've guessed the meaning of my parable. The "patient" is the Atlanta Dream and the "transfusion" needed is a major investor or even a new owner. My question: what does the patient do?

The first thing the patient should do is to live his or her life as they normally have. No need to fall into the pit of despair. That doesn't help anybody. You look at life as if you're guaranteed to be here next May or June. It might be foolish optimism, but the other alternative is to start digging your own grave.

The second thing to do is to get that transfusion. Season ticket holders need to show up to games. They need to invite friends to games. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution won't help us; they're more interested in writing our obituary than about our miraculous cure. There are six home games in August and we need to attend as many of them as possible.

There's one game in September: September 11th. Don't let this be the Dream's 9/11. You'd better go to that game, because it could be the last one we see. When you go to games, you show people that there's a fandom in Atlanta that cares about this team and it's success.

To quote Lou Brown of Major League:

"All right people, we got 10 minutes 'till game time, let's all gather 'round. I'm not much for giving inspirational addresses, but I'd just like to point out that every newspaper in the country has picked us to finish last. The local press seems to think that we'd save everyone the time and trouble if we just went out and shot ourselves. Me, I'm for wasting sportswriters' time. So I figured we ought to hang around for a while and see if we can give 'em all a nice big shitburger to eat!"

The third thing to do...is make your will. We must prepare for all of the scenarios. I wrote about scenario building earlier this year and there are basically four of them.

The most likely case: This case automatically assumes that all current trends will continue. Franchises in this position of suddenly looking for new owners end up doing one of two things: finding them, or not. Your guess is as good as mine. There's really not another example with which to compare.

The best case: We find a new principal investor, and find him or her very soon. Next year, Dream fans are laughing about this and saying, "boy, we dodged a bullet!"

High impact but low probability:

* It is announced immediately that the Dream will relocate or will fold. This makes the Dream a dead franchise for the rest of the season. Attendance suffocates. Low probability for this one.
* Things are worse than Terwilliger claims, and the WNBA takes over the team.
* Things are worse than Terwilliger and the WNBA claim, and the team folds in mid-season, the first such folding in WNBA history.

The worst case: The Dream stays on the death watch for months, and finally the WNBA announces the folding of the team, or possibly the team's relocation to Tulsa. Since there's more cash in starting a team than moving one, moving one is the unlikely option.

Or even sadder, another investor comes in with big pockets, but wants the team in Toronto/Nashville/Kansas City/Denver/wherever. Just not in Atlanta. In any event, the Atlanta Dream enter WNBA history, and I start blogging about some other WNBA team.

(* * *)

So what do you do? You eat! You drink, and you enjoy every Dream win that we get! If we go to the playoffs, we Ride the Wax Tadpole to a WNBA championship. You get your friends to come to these games...and you always, always keep your chin up.

One Team, One Dream.

Dream Owner No Longer Wants to Be Sole Owner

Chris Vivlamore reports that Ron Terwilliger no longer wants to be sole owner of the Atlanta Dream.

The ominous looking headline at the AJC: "Dream owner seeks to sell franchise".

So, as Hermes Conrad would say, "This raises even more questions!"

* Will a white knight come and save the franchise?
* Will the Dream fold/be relocated?
* What the hell? I mean what the helly hell?
* Is there another investor lined up?

As soon as I find out anything, I'll tell you.

Yolanda Griffith Retires

The Indiana Fever report that there will be no comeback for Yolanda Griffith after her season-ending injury this year. She played two minutes of a game on June 9, 2009 in Indiana against Seattle before a torn left Achilles tendon finished her career. She is now officially retired, and hoping to become a coach at either the college or pro level.

The argument could be made that Griffith was the greatest player ever to play the game. She's the WNBA leader in Adjusted Wins Score, and second to Lisa Leslie in (regular) Wins Score. She was a seven-time All Star, the WNBA MVP in 1999, the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1999, and the WNBA Finals MVP in 2005 when the Sacramento Monarchs won their only WNBA championship. Griffith would also win gold medals for the United States women's basketball team in 2000 and 2004.

Hopefully, she can put her wealth of experience to use as a coach for some deserving college. Good luck, Yo.

Erika de Souza and the Pop Culture Grid

Two WNBA players make it on Sports Illustrated's Pop Culture Grid. The first is Nicky Anosike, the next is our own Erika de Souza.

Here are the questions, and her answers are in bold:

"If I were Harry Potter I'd...." create a door to my room in Brazil.
Video game I've spent the most time on: Pitfall.
"Shaq should go head to head with...." Barack Obama.
Weirdest autograph request I ever had: To sign an Italian passport.
My advice to Tony Romo is...." listen to Beyonce's "Irreplaceable".
Musician I'd like to be for a day: Beyonce. Her energy is amazing.
"I really owe ___ an apology.": No one, I never go home with a problem.
Person I'm dying to interview: Michael Jordan.
Song playing on my iPod right now: "Best I Ever Had" by Drake.

Offensive Fouls

Swanny's Stats has the statistics regarding offensive fouls in the WNBA for the 2009 season up to August 2, 2009.

The leader in offensive fouls committed is Nakia Sanford of the Mystics, with 14 such fouls. Thank goodness no one on the Atlanta Dream is on the short list. As for most minutes played without drawing an offensive foul, Lindsay Whalen of the Sun is at the top with 553 minutes....

...but in third place is Shalee Lehning of the Dream, who has played 345 minutes without committing an offensive foul. Can you imagine Lehning beating up someone at the post? I think not.

Whalen has not only played the most minutes without committing an offensive foul, but she seems to draw offensive fouls. She leads the WNBA in offensive fouls drawn with 12 fouls drawn. Oddly enough, Jennifer Lacy has drawn nine offensive fouls this season - it must be a hard way to make a living.

If the other team wants to beat up Jennifer Lacy, there are other players on the Dream our opponents stay away from. Iziane Castro Marques leads the WNBA in most minutes played without drawing an offensive foul, with 505 minutes played. Angel McCoughtry is third with 341 minutes played and no offensive fouls drawn.

Now, we come to what are commonly called "game violations". The first of these is "travelling". This involves the illegal movement of the feet. Basically, you've taken too many steps without dribbling the ball. DeMya Walker of the Monarchs has travelled 12 times this season - but Sancho Lyttle is in a multi-way tie for fourth with seven travelling calls against her.

There are several WNBA players who have committed what are called "ballhandling violations". Once again, these violations are crimes against the rule that says you have to move the ball by dribbling it. "Palming", "double dribble", "discontinued dribble", whatever. There are five players on the Dream who have two of these violations each: Chamique Holdsclaw, Ivory Latta, Sancho Lyttle, Angel McCoughtry and Coco Miller.

The final stat is "most 3-second lane violations". There is an area of the baskeball court called the "lane" - which is usually a rectangular box that is painted differently than the rest of the court. Before this lane existed, offensive players could go anywhere they wanted to.

Usually, they'd just hang around under the basket - particularly if they were tall. You just fed the ball to the tall person. Players like George Mikan would just hang around and dominate the area under the basket to the point that it unbalanced the game. A rule was passed - which had been around since the 1930s - that offensive players could not remain in the "paint" for more than 3 seconds at a time. (The rule was extended to defensive players, freeing up the path to the basket for the offense. However, the defensive violation isn't as called as often.)

Erika de Souza leads the WNBA in most 3-second lane violations with 11 - more than double of either Rebekka Brunson (Monarchs), Sylvia Fowles (Sky) or Lauren Jackson (Storm), who have five each. Michelle Snow had three 3-second lane infractions.

Another Satisfied Customer

I don't know if it translates into increased attendance, but I am running into a lot of blogs writing about how much families have enjoyed the WNBA experience.

Next up is The Clan McLeod Blog, where the McLeods attended the Atlanta Dream/Phoenix Mercury game.

We watched both teams warm up and took in everything that was going on around us. A quick run to the concessions and we were ready for the game. And what an exciting game it was! The Atlanta Dream is phenomenal! Basket after basket. They made it look so easy! And they ran circles around the Phoenix Mercury. In the end, the Atlanta Dream had scored a franchise record and won the game 106 - 76!

So, what did I think of my first WNBA game? Awesome! Would I take the family again? You bet! The girls had a blast and we were all into the game, never losing sight of the ongoing action. WNBA games are great alternative to overcrowded, overpriced and exceedingly hot theme parksand are a great source of entertainment for the whole family.

Hope to see you back soon, Gina!

20/2009 - Dream 89, Liberty 83

And now...time to look at the post-mortem of Saturday night's win. We start with Dean Oliver's Four Factors:

Field goal shooting: The Dream shot 45.9 percent compared to 40.8 percent for the Liberty. However, we have to keep two things in mind. First, the Liberty had a bad shooting first quarter. Second....

...you have to consider effective field goal percentage. The Liberty went 5-for-15 from 3-point range; the Dream were only 1-for-9. The Liberty move up to 44.3 percent in effective field goal percentage and the Dream's effective FG percentage is 46.6 percent. The Dream's advantage doesn't look as strong.

Turnovers: The Dream had 14 turnovers. This Dream's average in turnovers - including this game - was 18.20. This was a very good game for the Dream.

For the Liberty, this was a different story: the Liberty average 16.61 turnovers, putting them at almost 10 turnovers over their average. The Dream's defense just killed them. However, 26 turnovers is no where close to the record - in 1997, there were three teams that year that turned the ball over 33 times in a game.

Offensive rebounds: One of the talking points is that this is one of the games where the Dream were out-rebounded by an opponent. New York had 17 offensive rebounds, compared to 13 from the Atlanta Dream. Offensive rebound percentage for New York Liberty was 42.5 percent compared to 30.2 percent for the Dream. The Dream were dominated....

...but remember that four of those offensive rebounds came in the last 30 seconds for the Liberty. If you didn't count those rebounds, New York's offensive rebound percentage would fall to 33.3 percent. Rebounding wasn't that decisive a factor for the Liberty.

Free throw visits: The Liberty visited the line 27 times and the Dream visited the line 33 times. However, each side only hit 20 of their free throws - a 74 percent accuracy rate for the Liberty...and a 61 percent accuracy rate for the Dream. This is the second poor free-throw shooting game in a row for the Dream. Yep, the Dream definitely need to spend some extra time on free throws.

Let's look at the Liberty:

Shameka Christon: 23 points and 8 rebounds. However, 12 of those points were scored at the free throw line (she was 12-for-13) and she was 5-for-16 in shooting, with a horrible 1-for-7 in 3-point accuracy.
Janel McCarville: 14 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. 6-for-16 shooting.
Loree Moore: 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Moore was shooting 6-for-8.
Essence Carson: 12 points on 5-for-14 shooting. 8 rebounds, but she got her pockets picked by Angel McCoughtry.
The New York Bench: Only 14 points.

And now...we look at the Dream.

Angel McCoughtry: Last game, I said that McCoughtry didn't do as well as Lyttle. This game...there was no contest. She had 16 points and 7 steals, and it was her performance in the late third and early fourth quarter that helped the Dream get it very first win against New York. McCoughtry was definitely the Dreamer of the Game.

Chamique Holdsclaw: The Claw was shooting 50 percent - 8 for 16 - and had 7 rebounds. Holdsclaw says that she's no longer trying to get a double-double every night like when she was a rookie, but she came close. Unfortunately, she also had five personal fouls.

Shalee Lehning: She took three shots, and this time - she made all of them. She sort of stumbled around in the first half, but she had 3 assists. You know, this might have been Lehning's best game of the year.

Iziane Castro Marques: 16 points and 4 rebounds with 7-for-17 shooting - but those me-against-the-entire-team drives from Castro Marques have got to stop.

Sancho Lyttle: 7 points and 7 rebounds. However, Lyttle fouled out. I think the last time anyone fouled out for the Dream was Angel McCoughtry, and that was in the beginning of the season.

Coco Miller: 7 points. She also had 3-for-3 shooting like Lehning. She also took a nasty elbow to the ear at the end of the first half. Coco is tough.

Jennifer Lacy: 6 points, but her shooting wasn't as great - only 2-for-6.

Erika de Souza: 10 points, and 6 rebounds. But de Souza has been a liability at the free throw line over the last two games - on Saturday, she was 4-for-8.

Michelle Snow: Snow went 0-for-4. Zero points. However, she picked up 5 rebounds, but suffered the embarrassment of having three shots blocks.

Tamera Young: Buried under Marynell Meadors's doghouse. Did not appear in the game.

Ivory Latta: 0-for-3. Missed three free throws. Had three assists, but turned the ball over three times. Yep, it was a bad game for Ivory, and I'm going to have to dust off the demerit and give her the Still Snoozin' award. I suspect, however, that Ivory is only taking a catnap. She'll be back for San Antonio.

Seeing the Shock for the First Time

Amy at the Coffee With the Mrs. blog reports about going to the Detroit Shock/Minnesota Lynx game. This was her very first time to a WNBA game.

"The Shock played well the entire game and pulled out a win. Woo Hoo! Of course, with any game comes a lot of stops and breaks for time outs, half time and such. Thankfully, there was never any “down time” as a viewer. There was always some sort of entertainment on the court whether it was a game between 2 fans, free pizzas being handed out, or the Shockwave dancers keeping us moving."

Glad you enjoyed yourself! (Hey, Bill Bolen? Free pizzas? Think about it!)

Longest Tenures With a Given Team

There are at least a couple of players who have played in every season of the WNBA - Lisa Leslie is retiring this year and I don't think Tina Thompson will ever retire - but it's also an accomplishment to spend several years with the same team, year after year, until you're almost identified with the franchise itself.

Here are the WNBA leaders in the category of most seasons with a particular team. Names in bold are still playing in the WNBA, just not necessarily for the listed team.

Twelve Seasons

Lisa Leslie, Sparks, 1997-2006, 2008-present
Tina Thompson, Comets, 1997-2008 (*)

Eleven Seasons

Mwadi Mabika, Sparks, 1997-2007
Ticha Penicheiro, Monarchs, 1999-present

Ten Seasons

Sheryl Swoopes, Comets, 1997-2000, 2002-07

Nine Seasons

Deanna Nolan, Shock, 2001-present
Lauren Jackson, Storm, 2001-present
Tamecka Dixon, Sparks, 1997-2005
Vickie Johnson, Liberty, 1997-2005
Yolanda Griffith, Monarchs, 1999-2007

Eight Seasons

Andrea Stinson, Sting, 1997-2004
Becky Hammon, Liberty, 1999-2006
Coco Miller, Mystics, 2001-08
Janeth Arcain, Comets, 1997-2003, 2005
Murriel Page, Mystics, 1998-2005
Ruthie Bolton, Monarchs, 1997-2004
Sue Bird, Storm, 2002-present
Tamika Catchings, Fever, 2002-present

(*) - Thompson's tenure was interrupted only by the Houston Comets folding.

20/2009 - Dream 89, Liberty 83

The All American Red Heads are honored at halftime.

"You like me! You really like me!" Sally Field said this in 1985 when she won a Best Actress Oscar. And I think I heard Dream fans saying this to the basketball deities when we beat the Liberty on Saturday night, our first win in seven attempts against the Libs.

My comments follow below. Long, laborious, etc., but they follow:

1) I think this is the first time I actually saw an away coach working with the players in warmup. Anne Donovan, now the new head coach of the Liberty, was working with the players before the game. Carol Ross continues to work with the Dream players before the game.

I think that Erika de Souza must have read that post about the fact that she can't hit midrange jumpers. That was the shot she was working on with Carol Ross. Erika always seems interested in improving all facets of her game.

Ross's drills were sort of specific drills, while Donovan didn't seem to be directing the players to do anything specific - but at least Donovan was out there.

2) One again, we had the "upside down" Dream logo, where the logo faces the benches. NBA TV was broadcasting last night's game and the logo will always look like that for TV games.

3) I saw two red-haired kids wearing T-shirts that read, "I Attended the Red Head Reunion" - July 2007. This should have given fans a hint of what they might see at halftime.

4) Donovan worked with her players, and then she sat down with Marynell Meadors for the longest time. The two must have talked for about fifteen minutes or so, leading one to wonder what coaches talk about when they have informal chats.

Donovan: Well, Coyle is gone, and Blaze is next, Marynell. Looks like I'll be GM and head coach too.
Meadors: It's a sweet deal when you can get it.

5) Tamera Young might not be playing regularly, but she seems to be in good spirits. She tried a cartwheel on the court. I don't think she has the flexibility for it; you have to be a gymnast to do crap like that.

6) It was great to see the upper boxes being used again. Hmm...I wonder if Ron Terwilliger and family were at the game last night?

7) Performing pre-game was the New Macedonia Baptist Church Step Team. It's a pity that they let these guys start at 6:30 or so, because Atlanta fans are notoriously late in arriving at games. As a result, they performed in front of a virtually empty (at the time) arena.

I'm sure they did a good job, but I'm not sure. Every step performance seems pretty much like the same thing to me - synchronized hand clapping. I'm just not watched it enough to know a good performance from a bad one.

8) One of the referees was Michael Price. Price, in addition to being a referee, is a professional comedian. Furthermore, he combines both the job of WNBA referee and comedian at the same time. He's not that funny, though - he's the Carrot Top of WNBA referees.

9) New Macedonia represented again with their Youth Praise choir, which got to perform the National Anthem. They did a good job, and what I really liked about their Anthem performance was when they got to "...and the rockets' red glare" part instead of trying to crack the upper octaves they simply brought in other singers to sing at a higher pitch.

It's the rockets' red glare that destroys a lot of solo Anthem performances. They start too high and then they have to jump up and can't reach those high notes.

10) New York starters: Moore, Carson, Jackson, Christon, and McCarville.
Atlanta starters: Lehning, Castro Marques, Holdsclaw, Lyttle, and de Souza

10a) I learned that Christon's last name is actually pronounced "Christian", as in "one who practices Christianity".
10b) It looks like that Ivory Latta is going to perpetually come off the bench.

11) They brought out the "runway lights" and lowered the house lights for the intros. Angel McCoughtry does this weird thing where she falls on the floor. I have no idea what that's about.

12) The game started with "clock FAIL". The whistle blew immediately after the jump ball and when everyone looked up at the Jumbotron the clock read 10:00. The clock was reset to 9:57. Play resumed.

13) Atlanta had problems immediately hanging on to the ball. Lehning didn't throw the ball high enough and threw it straight into Loree Moore's hands for the first Atlanta turnover.

14) However, the Libs started the game 1-for-5 and Atlanta took a 9-8 lead. Atlanta was really hustling in the first quarter, but their timing was way off. They just weren't in sync the way they were at the Phoenix game. This gave the Liberty a chance to hang in the game.

Example: Chamique Holdsclaw tries a 21 footer that ends up an airball, which ends up in New York's hands. Carson gets the rebound, and Moore uncorks a 3-pointer to put New York up for the first time in the game, 15-13.

15) One of the games that was up was "guess the player from their childhood pictures". A young girl with awful-looking bangs was the first quarter and I heard mutters of "Coco Miller". Nope. That was Shalee Lehning. The next two pics were of Tamera Young and Chamique Holdsclaw, and the audience was right on the money.

16) Atlanta, however, remained determined to beat the Liberty with "one shot" as Meadors put it after the game. Holdsclaw tried to find someone in the interior and the ball sailed over the heads of everyone gathered under the Atlanta basket and out of bounds.

By now, they put in Angel McCoughtry who started her game with a 3-pointer. Cathrine Kraayeveld answered with the 3-pointer on the other end.

17) I saw an amazing sight under the Dream basket. Michellee Snow tried a lay-up which was rejected by Ashley Battle. Then Snow got her own rebound, tried again and was rejected again, this time by Janel McCarville.

Latta and Kraayeveld swapped airballs at the end of the first quarter. The game was tied 20-20.

18) In the second, New York got off to the better start and took the lead. Leilani Mitchell was in for the Liberty and Lehning couldn't handle her defensively. Mitchell would score five second-quarter points with Lehning as her defender and New York led 30-26 at one time.

How bad was it for the Dream? We blew the in-bounds with a 5-second violation. We were definitely tense out there.

19) The Jumbotron showed a lot of fans holding signs. I like that; it individualizes the game.

One fan had a sign that read, "St. Louis Loves the Dream". We appreciate the patronage of St. Louis, definitely. Another fan had a sign that read, "Marry Me Ivory Latta". Good luck on that, buddy.

20) McCoughtry was having uncharacteristic trouble, with an overthrow and an airball. Sancho Lyttle tried a lay-up and McCarville blocked her. (McCarville was on her way to an amazing four-block night.) New York went on an 8-0 run for a 38-31 lead, their largest in the game. New York's passing game was working, McCarville was setting great screens and it seemed that the Liberty could do no wrong.

21) However, the night was not done with amazing sights - remember, Michael Price was there to treat the NBA TV viewing audience to hilarity. He unloaded a double technical foul on Shameka Christon and Coco Miller.

For new fans, a technical foul is a major violation. If you get two of those, you're out of the game. My understanding is that Shameka Christon and Jennifer Lacy were mixing it up a little, but nothing so bad as to call a technical. So Eagle Eyes decides to call the T on Miller, who is behind Christon. I don't think Coco Miller has gotten a technical foul since grade school, if ever.

New York fans have complained that the Dream had been beating up Christon all night. Hey, if there was a player on the other team who dropped 30 plus points on you the previous games, you might not want to treat that player with kid gloves. Just sayin'.

22) Maybe it was Price's humor, but the Dream snapped out of it and went on a mini 6-0 run to close back within one, 38-37. Atlanta's defense began to tighten up. McCoughtry was making good passes and we were looking a lot sharper. The half ended with the Liberty up by one, 40-39.

23) Interesting halftime stats: we were being outshot (48.5 percent to 39.5 percent) and were losing the overall battle in rebounds (20-19) but had 8 offensive rebounds to New York's 5. The Liberty had 11 turnovers, and the Dream just had five.

24) Halftime. We finally got a chance to see the All American Red Heads. The clip which I've posted on the Pleasant Dreams blog was shown in its entirety, there was much applause, and the Red Heads took center court for individual applauce. One of the Red Heads (Hart?) was wearing her Red Heads game jersey.

Afterwards, the Dream honored the winners of the tournament that had been held at Philips Arena. I would also honor those winners in this blog, but unfortunately, I had to go to the bathroom.

25) It seemed that the Dream's quest in finding their rhythm would be an unending one. Iziane Castro Marques would miss a shot despite having Erika de Souza throw a nice screen for her. The Star of Brazil's next shot would be an airball - even Iziane had caught airball fever. Janel McCarville found her way outside the Dream defense and hit a 17 footer to put the game up 48-45 for the Liberty.

26) That was okay. We had the comedy of Michael Price to keep us in stitches. Chamique Holdsclaw was charged for something called an "interrupted dribble" and the ball was turned over to New York.

Fans around me asked themselves "what is an interrupted dribble?" One hypothesized that it was a carry. Another said that it was probably in the back of the rulebook under the "etc." section. We all concluded that "interrupted dribble" was the call when you wanted to establish your importance as a referee - hey, who is going to prove that the dribble wasn't interrupted?

27) 5:45 in, things looked dim for the Dream. Atlanta had gone over the limit in fouls. The Liberty had a seven point lead, 54-47.

So, to distract the crowd, the Dream played the famous "iPod Karaoke" game. Two Dream players - Jennifer Lacy and Tamera Young - sang a song, or tried to, and some fan was asked to answer what the song was.

The song was Soulja Boy Tell 'Em's "Turn My Swag On". It was a give-away, as the song appears to be Tamera Young's favorite song.

27b) Speaking of Tamera Young - iPod Karaoke would be her only appearance in the game.

28) At 2:59, Erika de Souza was charged with an offensive foul - he third - and with the Liberty up 57-55, the crowd began letting their displeasure known with the state of refereeing in this matchup.

29) And then - it all came together.

Suddenly, the defensive switch was switched to full throttle, and the Dream began playing as complete a defensive game as you can imagine, sparked by Angel McCoughtry who had two steals. McCoughtry scored a lay-up with 44 seconds left in the third quarter to finally give the Dream back the lead, 61-59. With 22 seconds left, Erika de Souza would hit one of two free throws, and with 0.9 seconds left, McCoughtry would steal the ball from Ashley Battle to preserve a 62-61 lead for the Dream at the end of the third quarter.

30) The Liberty had turned the ball over 8 times in the third quarter for 10 points. Atlanta, however, wasn't going to let New York off the mat, not just yet.

Literally - in the space of one minute of play - Angel McCoughtry stole the ball four times from Liberty players. Three times, the victim was poor Essence Carson.

Those four steals accounted for six Dream points. By the end of Angel Mccoughtry's Magic Minute, the Dream had a 74-64 lead over the Liberty and the crowd was in ecstacy.

31) Up 74-68, Marynell Meadors made an inexplicable substitution - Chamique Holdsclaw, who was doing really well, was substituted for Coco Miller. That one left us scratching our heads.

Miller, however, would score the next Dream basket and Sancho Lyttle - who had four personal fouls - scored a couple of free throws to give the Dream a 79-68 lead with 4:54 left.

32) New York, however, was determined to fight their way out of that hole. They wanted that season sweep, and they wanted it bad. They went on a 6-0 run to close the game to 79-74 with 3:22 left. During the run, Lyttle picked up her fifth personal foul.

One of the most egregious sins - a 3-point attempt by Iziane Castro Marques with three New York defenders in front of her and no Dream player under the basket.

33) With 2:25 again, Michael Price came out for his final bow of the night. After some colliding under the New York basket, Sancho Lyttle stepped over a fallen New York player. It was what you call a "slow step over" - not trying to step on her, but just trying to get out of the fallen player's way to get to the other end of the floor.

Price hit Lyttle with her sixth personal foul. Lyttle was out of the game. (Price will be at the Hah Hah Hut when he's not refereeing WNBA games. Two-drink minimum.)

34) The Dream, however, were not to be denied. McCoughtry's lay up with 1:31 to go put the score 86-76. However, Shameka Christon rolled off five straight points - basket + free throw + basket. With slightly under a minute, the score was 86-81 Atlanta. Twenty seconds later, Christon would drive to the basket and the Liberty cut Atlanta's lead to two possessions, 87-83 with 38.5 seconds to go.

35) New York wanted the ball back, and fouled McCoughtry on the in-bounds play. The Dream - which has been having trouble with its free throws recently - hit both shots to take an 89-83 lead.

36) Thirty-one seconds left. The Libery have the ball, and need to score.

You'd need to hit freeze-frame on your DVD to determine what happened next.

Christon attempts jump shot from 20 plus feet.
Misses.
Janel McCarville gets the rebound. She tries to hit the bucket from point blank range.
Misses.
Then, McCarville gets her own rebound. Once again, point blank range against a swarm of Dream bodies.
Misses.
McCarville rebounds it, sees that the Dream are in full control of the point, and passes it out to Christon on the perimeter.
Christon misses.
Loree Moore gets the rebound. She kicks it out to Essence Carson who is also on the perimeter.
Carson misses.

This time, Chamique Holdsclaw gets the rebound.

The clock has gone from 29.9 seconds to 0.9 seconds. There's nothing left to the game. The Claw hangs on, and the Dream have their first victory - every - against the Liberty.

The Liberty turned the ball over 26 times. The Dream defense and Angel McCoughtry were a major part of that. And that Dream defense in the final thirty seconds was nothing short of astonishing.

Great game. I don't know if I'll do a statistical post-mortem today, though. Maybe tomorrow.

Most Three-Point Plays

Swanny's Stats is always good for a visit, even though he's undoubtedly a Lynx fan. Today's stat: three point plays.

A "three point play" is when you make are fouled while making a shot - and the ball goes into the basket. You get credit for the basket, plus a chance to make a free throw for the foul.

Becky Hammon of the Silver Stars is the league leader, getting 13 opportunities for a 3-point play - and making all of them. Sancho Lyttle is 7-for-8 on three point plays - in other words, only one time has she missed the follow-up free throw. Angel McCoughtry is 6-for-7.

There are only three WNBA players who have made a "four point play" in 2009 - you get that when you're fouled during a 3-point shot, you make the shot and you get a opportunity for a free throw. Those players are Diana Taurasi, Erin Phillips...and Ivory Latta, who had a four-point play against Phoenix in our 106-76 win.

The Dream/Mercury Game - a Family Speaks Out

Peapod Squad Stuff writes about a family taking their son to his very first WNBA basketball game. There are a bunch of pictures at the blog, so you should be taking a peak at them.

If there's a WNBA game near you, you should definitely check it out. It was a great family event. And I love the message of the WNBA. I appreciated the wonderful opportunity to show my daughter that she can dream big.

And speaking of dreams, now Snap Pea doesn't want to be a basketball when he grows up. No, now he wants to be a cheerleader. A new conundrum indeed.

Haters are now shrieking in horror. Quiet down, fellers. There are male cheerleaders, this isn't 1947.

Interrupted Dribble

Busy recovering after a long visit from my godson in North Carolina. Posting might be slow.

The State of Atlanta Sports Coverage

afoundingfan reports from the Atlanta Dream Message Board about the abysmal coverage of not just the Dream, but of women's sports in general in Atlanta.

"... the coverage in Atlanta by the major news outlets is poor. The AJC is guilty of not having coverage or burying any coverage, as witnessed by the difficulty of finding the Dream tab on its website. As of a few weeks ago, if you could find the Dream page, it still had Betty's picture on it.(*) Basically HS football and the Peachtree Road Race get better coverage by the AJC. I know last year they had an intern cover the team. (**)

I did see where one of the old school ATL TV sports anchors, Chuck Dowdle, is retiring, don't know if it will change things for the better at that station. The best local coverage was by Josh Bagarinsky of Score Atlanta, a free publication....game articles, a blog with insight and questions (particularly about playing time) that went deeper than the AJC's AP-culled blurbs. Maybe he could ask MM about Young if he hasn't already.

Honestly there is a mindset in the ATL area that is very sexist (and I don't throw that term around freely), it is deeply entrenched and it ain't gonna change anytime soon. If you don't have the name Dawg, Braves, Falcons Hawks or Yellow Jackets (ok, even Thrashers), they don't care."

I concur 100 percent with this assessment.

(*) - Betty Lennox, a player from the 2008 Atlanta Dream, now with the Sparks.
(**) - This is true. Jenna Marina reported the games for the AJC; this year they got nobody. And it's not like Philips Arena is a massive distance away from the AJC parking lot.

Dream Beat Liberty on Defense 89-83 on Saturday

In Julius Caesar, Marc Anthony said "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once."

Clearly, William Shakespeare was never an Atlanta Dream fan. In Atlanta, the valiant taste of death a thousand times...per game. But we saw it through and finally beat the Liberty for the very first time, 89-83.

More on this turn of events tomorrow. Celebrate the win.

Good Time Had at Detroit Shock Game

It looks like one family took the plunge, watched an WNBA game - and liked what they saw.

The Giftfully Simple Blog reports:

The game was amazing! I seriously thought (going into this) that I might be bored because I'm use to sitting through baseball games where I'm found having amazing conversations and missing half of the game.

That wasn't the case for the WNBA game at all. I was on the edge of my seat and the game seemed to fly by. Also, it was loud because the fans were so into the game...it was great!

Parents...great event to take your kids!They can scream, yell and jump around and no one is bothered. Loved it!

I looked at how much it would cost a family of four to attend a game including parking, the cheapest seats and a large soda and popcorn to enjoy during the game and it came out to be about $50...not bad for a fun filled evening with the family!

If that isn't a great advertisement, I don't know what is. And it's a great post after all the doom-and-gloom you hear sometimes from WNBA fans who have been poisoned by some acid-tongue in the media.

Shalee Lehning and Trees Atlanta; Star and MJ

If you go to the Atlanta Dream website, you can see a public service announcement from Shalee Lehning on behalf of Trees Atlanta. It's a good thing. Go see it.

Meanwhile, Dream mascot Star tears it up in a tribute to Michael Jackson.

All American Red Heads Honored at Tonight's Game

Another reason to go to tonight's game: the All American Red Heads, a barnstorming team from the days before organized professional women's basketball, will be honored at halftime.

Here is a clip of the Red Heads from their heyday. I think the Red Heads are too old to do stuff like this anymore, but here's a taste of the amazing skills they brought to the court from the late 30s to around 1980.

I've shown this clip before, but it's worth seeing again.



P. S.: The sad part is that the players might not get a chance to see this clip. While we watch this at halftime, the players will be with the coaches.

19/2009 - Dream 106, Mercury 76: "Free Tamera Young"

Let's look at the statistical postmortem of Thursday's game. It's been a bit busy around here, but maybe remember the great game of two days ago will whet our whistles for the game against the Liberty tonight:

First, let's look at Dean Oliver's Four Factors:

Field goal shooting. The standard box score yields a big gap - 50.9 percent for the Dream against 39.0 percent for the Mercury. But maybe a better way to look at field goal shooting is by "effective field goal percentage". The Dream are known to suffer at 3-point shooting, and effective field goal percentage folds in 3-point accuracy.

Effective field goal percetage = (FG + (1/2)*3P)/FGA

The Dream end up with 53.7 percent; the Mercury end up with 42.8 percent. For once, both teams hit the same number of three pointers. The Dream had shooting dominance early on, and kept it.

Turnovers: The Dream actually had a very low turnover game. They had 13 turnovers compared to 17 from the Mercury.

Turnovers really only mean anything on a "turnovers per possession" basis. However, we have the possession numbers for this game on Swanny's Stats. The Mercury had 91 possessions, and the Dream had 90 possessions.

Offensive Rebounding: On a pure count of offensive rebounding, the Dream had 15 offensive rebounds to just 7 from the Mercury. But what was the Dream's offensive rebounding percentage?

The formula would be OR/(OR + Opp DR), where OR = "offensive rebounds" and DR = "opponent's defensive rebounds".

Dream Offensive Rebound Percentage = 15/(15 + 25) = 37.5 percent
Mercury Offensive Rebound Percentage = 7/(7 + 34) =17.0 percent

In essense, whenever the Dream and the Mercury contested for a rebound on the Dream's side of the court, 37.5 percent of the time - two out of five attempts - the ball ended up in the Dream's hands.

Free throw visits: The Dream were sent to the line 35 times by the Mercury, yet another game where the Dream has a lot of opportunity to make a lot of free throw shots. The Mercury only went 12 times. Granted the Dream had horrible free throw shooting - they only made 20 shots - but it was 10 more points from free throws over their opponents.

(* * *)

Now let's look at how the Mercury did:

Tangela Smith: 15 points and 5 rebounds. 3-of-7 from 3-point range.
Le'coe Willingham: 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 turnovers.
Temeka Johnson: 12 points.
Kelly Mazzante: 9 points, all from 3-pointers.
Diana Taurasi: 11 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists. 0-for-3 from 3-point range.
Cappie Pondexter: 2 points. 1-for-8 in shooting.

And now, we follow that up with a peek at the Dream.....

Sancho Lyttle: Angel McCoughtry was given the Player of the Game award from the Dream organization...but I thought Sancho Lyttle had an amazing game as well. Granted, McCoughtry scored 17 points in 17 minutes, but Lyttle scored 15 points in 22 minutes, and had 12 rebounds to go with it. It was the only double-double of the game. I give Lyttle the Dreamer of the Game award.

Angel McCoughtry: When McCoughtry comes off the bench - and she always does - she astonishes you with how much she can do in so short a time. 17 points for McCoughtry, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 7-for-10 shooting.

Ivory Latta: If Latta is going to have games like this coming off the bench, then I say, "keep her on the bench". 16 points, 4 assists, and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line.

Michelle Snow: I wrote about Snow being possible trade bait, but Marynell Meadors might be having second thoughts about trading Snow if she had first thoughts. After a sluggish start, Snow is suddenly on fire. 13 points and 9 rebounds for Snow.

Iziane Castro Marques: 16 points, 4-for-5 shooting from 3-point range and a +31 in raw plus/minus. Castro Marques once called herself a "star" in the Brazilian press. She certainly lit up the firmament with her shooting on Thursday night.

Erika de Souza: De Souza had 9 points and 14 rebounds, so why didn't we talk about de Souza first? Because de Souza had an abysmal 1-for-6 shooting from the free throw line. Oh well, if there's any night to miss free throws, it's this one.

Chamique Holdsclaw: A decent performance from the Claw, with 10 points on 5-for-10 shooting and 4 assists. However, the Claw also had four turnovers.

Jennifer Lacy: Even if she's supposedly still struggling with back problems, Lacy scored 5 points on 2-for-4 shooting. She picked up a couple of rebounds.

Shalee Lehning: 1 point. 0-for-2 from the field and 1-for-4 from the free throw line. But she did have 5 assists, which is one more than Latta.

Tamera Young: With the game pretty much secured in the third quarter, Marynell Meadors finally released Tamera Young from the bench in the fourth quarter. She had 4 points. More on Tamera Young later.

Coco Miller: 0-for-3 for zero points. But she had one assist and one steal.

Two comments:

1. For the second game in a row, there is no one who is either a Bad Dream or Still Snoozin'. To get those awards, you have to have negative impact on your team's performance, and you really can't point to one player on that squad and say, "okay, you forced us to compensate for your presence". That game was about as well as I've seen this group of players work.

2. Tamera Young. With all due respect to the Dream front office and Marynell Meadors, we have a simple request. If you don't have enough faith in Tamera Young to let her play until the final quarter of game where you were leading at one time by 45 points, you need to let her leave the team. You need to either play her, waive her or trade her, because the Dream basically insulted Young in front of 7,000 people. Chioma Nnamaka got more respect from the Dream.

If Young has talent, you need to let her go and pursue that talent elsewhere. There are a lot of players out there who would love a shot at even carrying water for the Dream as the 11th woman - who would indeed run through hell in a gasoline suit to get the chance. If Young is in some sort of doghouse, it's time to grant a general amnesty, because if it's about proving that the coach is the boss, the point was proven. But keeping Young here isn't helping us (because you won't play her) and it isn't helping Tamera Young (because you won't play her). Give Young her freedom, and we'll fondly remember the days of Pigtail Power.