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WNBA Playoffs 2010: Dream Sweep Eastern Conference Championsihp in 105-93 Game-Two Win over Liberty
By Teri Priebe
Correspondent
The Atlanta Dream, led by Angel McCoughtry who broke the league’s post-season scoring record in a spectacular career-high performance scoring 42 points, swept the New York Liberty in two games to earn the first Eastern Conference Championship in their brief three-year history, with a 105-93, game-two win in Atlanta Tuesday. In front of 9,045 roaring fans in Atlanta’s Phillips Arena, the Dream wrapped up the series by doing what they have done relentlessly in the postseason, dominate the transition game.
The Dream earned a ticket to the WNBA Finals where they will match-up against the Western Conference Champion Seattle Storm in a best-of-five series, tipping off a two-game stand in Seattle’s Key Arena, Sunday, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific Daylight Time.
Last year’s WNBA Rookie of the Year, McCoughtry, passed the individual scoring record from 2006 of 41 points set by Tamika Whitmore, then playing for the Indiana Fever. McCoughtry’s all-around stellar performance in the game-two victory included five steals, four assists, three rebounds and a block, in addition to her 42 points on 12-of-20 shooting (one-of-three from behind the arc) and 17-of-21 from the charity stripe.
Photo Caption: The Dream’s Angel McCoughtry broke the WNBA’s record for points scored in a playoff game, notching 42 points, plus five steals, four assists, three rebounds and a block, to lead Atlanta to a 105-93 game-two victory over the New York Liberty, a 2-0 sweep of the Eastern Conference Finals, and the first-ever Eastern Conference Championship for the young Atlanta franchise. (File Photo)
Photo Credit: Courtesy NBAE/Getty Images
WNBA Playoffs 2010: Atlanta Takes Game 1 of Eastern Conference Finals, 81-75
By Bob Corwin
Correspondent
The Atlanta Dream continues to confound! While the New York Liberty seemed more than prepared to deal with the ‘new’ Atlanta Dream (i.e., the smaller, quicker line-up that first appeared in this year’s playoffs), it was the “old” Dream that got the job done in the end, taking game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, 81-75, to strip the higher-seeded Liberty of their home-court advantage.
Again playing without starting power forward Janel McCarville (still plagued by an injured ankle), the game swung on New York’s inability to match Atlanta’s size for much of the night. The normally superior Liberty execution was absent down the stretch as the Dream finished off the game with a 7-0 run (after a pair of Cappie Pondexter foul shots put her team up, 75-74, with 54 seconds left).
WNBA Playoffs 2010: Storm Sweep Western Conference Finals in 91-88 Come-From-Behind Thriller
By Ganelle Swehla
Correspondent
One thing is certain: The WNBA will crown a new champion this year, as the Seattle Storm swept the reigning champs, 2-0, Sunday in the Western Conference Finals, Despite a game-high 28 points from the Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi, who had struggled to a two-of-15 finish in Thursday’s game one of the series, the Storm overcame a 19-point second-half deficit to win game two, 91-88, in the final seconds.
Seattle claimed the Western Conference championship and a ticket to the WNBA Finals after five years of early playoff exits. For a team that has now won 32 games in 2010 against just six losses, that’s not a surprise at all. What is shocking, however, is the ability of the Storm to be a true nightmare for each of its opponents, and tonight, it’s the Mercury who will wonder how they let Seattle escape the desert with yet another close-shave win.
For the first 37 minutes of the game, you never would have believed that the Western Conference Finals would come to an end on this scorching Sunday afternoon in the Valley of the Sun. The two teams duked it out fairly evenly throughout the first quarter, which ended with Phoenix on top by two, 24-22. But the Mercury put together a 20-1 second-quarter run, holding Seattle scoreless for more than seven minutes, to take a 15-point lead, 48-33, with just a minute-and-a-half left to play in the half. Seattle rallied with a 7-0 run in the final minute of the half to close the gap to eight, 48-40, at the break, but Phoenix returned from the locker room with renewed resolve, extending the lead to 19 points over the course of the third quarter.
By that point, fans were already making plans for a decisive game three in Seattle. What they didn’t count on was a 15-0 rally by Seattle to tie the score late in the fourth quarter.
Neither did they count on the ice-veined marksmanship of Sue Bird, who despite struggling for the first 30 minutes of play, reminded the WNBA of her ability to close out tight games.
With the score tied at 88 apiece. Bird held for the final shot, waiting until the clock wound down to 2.8 seconds before knocking down down the game-winning three-point shot from the right wing, giving Seattle a thrilling 91-88 victory that left both teams numb for entirely different reasons.
OU’s Hand Out for Five Months
By Lee Michaelson
Publisher
The Oklahoma Sooners got a piece of bad news on Tuesday when they learned that redshirt sophomore Whitney Hand will be out for five additional months following microfracture surgery to repair cartilage damage in her right knee.
The 6-1 guard averaged 9.2 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in her first season for the Sooners, en route to being named Big 12 Freshman of the Year. Perhaps equally important was her enthusiasm and spark which proved contagious to her teammates.
Hand had upped her production to 13.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and nearly two assists per game last year before suffering a season-ending ACL tear in the knee during Oklahoma’s November 27 win over San Diego State at the Paradise Jam Thanksgiving weekend tournament in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Hand had been progressing with her rehabilitation from last season’s ACL surgery, when she was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery to relieve swelling in the knee. During the procedure, surgeons discovered a cartilage defect that required additional surgical repair.
“This is really just a continuation of repair from the original injury,” said Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale. “While we’re certainly disappointed that her ‘finish line,’ so to speak, has been moved back a bit, the important thing is that she will experience a full and complete recovery.”
“Whit has a remarkable mindset,” Coale added. “Her faith and her complete dedication to our team will drive her through the next few months.”
Oklahoma will tip off the 2010-11 season with an exhibition match against Oklahoma Christian on November 4. Their regular season begins on the road at Milwaukee on November 13.
UConn’s Doty Out for Season
By Lee Michaelson
Publisher
A three-peat is getting harder all the time for the UConn Huskies, the reigning champions in collegiate women’s basketball.
Caroline Doty will miss the entire 2010-11 season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee, the University of Connecticut Athletic Department announced today. Doty sustained the injury in late July, and will undergo surgery in the coming weeks to repair the ligament.
It is the third ACL tear to the same knee for Doty, who sat out half of her freshman season (2008-09) after tearing her ACL 17 games into the season. Doty was also sidelined for her senior year in high school after tearing her ACL while playing soccer.
The 5-10 guard from Doylestown, Pennsylvania started all 17 games in which she appeared her freshman season, averaging 8.6 points per game. Last year, as a sophomore, Doty started 38 of the Huskies’ 39 games, averaging 6.8 points and 3.5 assists per game (with an assist-to-turnover ratio of nearly two-to-one) en route to an undefeated season and a back-to-back national championship.
“We are all obviously disappointed for Caroline, but we know that she will work very hard to be ready for next season,” said UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.
Doty will have two years of collegiate eligibility remaining when she returns to the court.
WNBA 2010: Eastern Conference Final Preview—Can New York Beat the ‘New’ Atlanta?
By Bob Corwin
Correspondent
Could two teams have advanced to a conference final following more different scripts? The fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream used an unanticipated postseason roster make-over to surprise most pundits (including this one) and sweep the top-seeded Washington Mystics in two straight. The second-seeded New York Liberty followed the more expected path, winning both its home games but dropping one to the Indiana Fever on the road to barely edge the defending Eastern Conference Champions in a hard-fought game three.
So where do we go from here? Deciphering this series calls to mind an expression used by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a very different context:
“As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know,” he stated. “We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
In other words, one can, as we will endeavor to do here, analyze the facts that are available about each club (the “known knowns”) and predict on the basis of those knowns how the two combatants are likely to match up. We can ponder whether an injured player will be available, how much that individual might be able to contribute if less than 100 percent, and how their presence or absence is apt to effect the outcome (the “known unknowns”). But without inside information or a crystal ball, it is pretty much impossible to predict that a team might, for example, abandon the resources and strategies that were essential to its performance all season (i.e., the Atlanta make-over—an “unknown unknown,” at least until the Dream unveiled it), much less to evaluate the impact that such an eventuality is likely to have on the contest.
With these limitations in mind, let’s take a look at the knowns, and identify some of the known unknowns, presented by this match-up.
Sparks Retire Leslie’s Jersey
By Lee Michaelson
Publisher
For the second time in as many nights the Los Angeles Sparks marked an historic moment with a loss. On Sunday, Tina Thompson broke the WNBA’s all-time scoring record (previously held by Lisa Leslie), but her team fell, 83-92, to the visiting San Antonio Silver Stars.
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| Photo Caption: On Tuesday, August 10, Lisa Leslie became the second player in franchise history to have her Los Angeles Sparks jersey retired. It joins that of the Sparks’ Penny Toler, as well as those of Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and other Lakers’ stars. |
| Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Lee Michaelson© |
On Tuesday, it was Lisa Leslie’s turn in the spotlight as the Sparks retired her jersey in a moving half-time ceremony. The four-time Olympic gold-medalist and three-time WNBA MVP, who led her team to two league championships, addressed the crowd of 10,586 fans, then watched as her No. 9 jersey was revealed in the rafters of Staple Center. Leslie became the second player in franchise history to see her jersey retired, along with Penny Toler, who scored the league’s first bucket in 1997 and now serves as the team’s general manager.
Despite a slow start, the Sparks did their best to send Leslie off with a win, but though the Sparks closed the gap to two points, 72-74, with a little less than two minutes to play, the Indiana Fever held on for an 82-76 victory.
DePaul’s Naughton Granted Sixth Year of Eligibility
By Lee Michaelson
Publisher
DePaul star Deirdre Naughton has been granted a sixth year of collegiate eligibility by the NCAA after missing most of the 2009-10 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, head coach Doug Bruno announced today.
Naughton, a preseason Wade, Wooden and Naismith watch candidate in 2009-10, tore her ACL in the first half of DePaul’s game against Northwestern on November 24, 2009, the. fifth game (and first loss) of DePaul’s regular season. Though the Blue Demons struggled without their star, they battled their way to a 21-12 finish, falling to Vanderbilt in an 83-76 overtime game in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year.