Archive - Aug 2010

WNBA Playoffs 2010: Fever Even Series With 75-67 Game Two Win

Indianas simple recipe for success break even on the boards and defend better than anyone delivered a tasty treat to the home fans in Indianapolis Sunday night, as the Fever trailed for less than a minute at 2-0 and never again en route to an easier-than-it-sounds, 75-67 win.

Katie Douglas did a decent job on New York star Cappie Pondexter, who posted a game-high 24 points but on just nine-of-22 shooting, but the real key to the Fever victory was the removal of Nicole Powell, Leilani Mitchell and Taj McWilliams-Franklin from the Liberty offense. The trio combined to make just two of 16 shots, for a total of seven points in a cumulative 80:07 of playing time.

So, in order, that would give most of the credit for Indianas win to Tamika Catchings, Tully Bevilaqua and Tammy Sutton-Brown, and since that group also scored 41 points in 95:08, theres another simple explanation for the win that evened the series at 1-1.

Sadly for the WNBA though, this was the fourth boring game out of the last four, and three of those were aired on ESPN2, which doesnt help the league latch on to any fans for the stretch run especially since all but one of the conference final games will only be available only on NBA-TV.

WNBA Playoffs 2010: Mercury Turn the Lights Out on Silver Stars' Postseason with 92-73 Road Win

After suffering an old-fashioned butt-whooping in Phoenix Thursday, where they lost game one of the Western Conference Semifinals, 106-93, Saturday's game two was, as Charles Barkley so eloquently put it, win or go home for the San Antonio Silver Stars. Well, the Silver Stars were already home, at least their basketball home at San Antonio's AT&T Center, so they didn't have far to travel, but Phoenix was simply a bit too much for the home team, as they took a 92-73 game two victory, to sweep the Silver Stars, 2-0.

This is the second straight year that Phoenix has eliminated San Antonio from the playoffs; indeed, the Mercury has knocked the Silver Stars out of playoff contention three times in last four years. The two most recent times, 2009 and 2007, the Mercury went on to win the WNBA championship.

Diana Taurasi, coming off her first ever postseason double-double in Thursday's game one, scored a game-high 23 points in Saturday's eliminator, Candice Dupree added 19 (plus 11 boards to make it a double-double and Tangela Smith added 16 for Phoenix in a game that proved to be a total rout from start to finish. Penny Taylor also doubled for Phoenix, complementing 12 points with 12 assists (a WNBA playoff record) for the Mercury, who shot 53 percent from the field. Taurasi and Smith combined to make the Mercury's first nine shots as Phoenix sprinted out to a 21-2 lead in the first eight minutes and never looked back.

WNBA Playoffs 2010: The Storm Clouds Pass As Seattle Sweeps Sparks with 81-66 Game-Two Win

For five seasons, the Seattle Storm toiled without reward. For five seasons, they met an early end to their season. For four of those five seasons, they ran into a nemesis they simply couldnt overcome.

Once again this season, the Storm had to go through the Los Angeles Sparks to escape the first round of the WNBA postseason. They had to tear down the wall that had stopped them cold in playoffs past. San Antonio might have been the preferred match-up for coach Brian Aglers bunch, but a 28-win team should welcome challenges instead of flinching from them. The ballclub that has ruled the roost this year in the WNBA needed to face its demons and the Sparks in order to dispel the Storm clouds that have hovered over the Seattle franchise since its 2004 WNBA championship run.

After taking a decisive, 79-66 home win in round one, game one of this year's playoffs, the Storm headed south to Los Angeles, looking to close out the series. At roughly 2:15 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday afternoon, inside the bowels of the cavernous Staples Center, you could see the rays of sunshine filter through the visitors locker room. The deed was done. For Seattle, the "Curse of the Sparks" was no more. A ticket to the WNBA Western Conference Finals had finally arrived for the women in the green road jerseys. The 81-66 win in Southern California was vintage Storm, a 15-point thumping of an opponent who was simply overwhelmed by Seattle's multifaceted attack.

Team Bing will now get a chance to take on the defending WNBA champions from Phoenix in a blockbuster series loaded with star power. Mercury previews, though, are for another day. The Saturday storyline concerns Seattles ability to finally dispatch Los Angeles, the rival who had cut their season short for three out of the past four years, in a best-of-three battle, enabling the Storm franchise to move forward to the second round of the WNBA playoffs after five years stuck in neutral.

WNBA Playoffs 2010: Atlanta Cracks Century Mark, Winning Game Two, 101-77; Sweeps Washington, 2-0

So much for the value of late-season momentum in handicapping a playoff series! The Dream started off the season strong, but limped into the playoffs as the East's fourth seed, after going 4-6 during its run down the stretch. The Washington Mystics spent 34 games working to get the number one seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and seemed like the team to beat after winning 8 out of their last 10.

In the end, all that momentum did the Mystics no good at all. After dropping game one on its home court on Wednesday, 90-95, Washington was blown out in Friday night's game two, as the more aggressive, home-standing Atlanta Dream swept the series in a 101-77 rout. Though Washington started out well enough, heading off an a 9-0 run to begin the first period, they seemed unable to cope once the Dream rolled out a 2-3 match-up zone (heavy to zone) in the middle of the period. By the end of the opening period, the Dream had cut the distance to four points. But the second stanza essentially decided the game (and the series) as the Dream started the period with a 24-0 run from which the Mystics never recovered.

WNBA Playoffs 2010: It Gets Physical at the Garden as New York Takes 85-73 Game One Win

Katie Douglas played all 34 games for Indiana, averaging 29.8 minutes a game. She is the Fevers second-leading scorer (13.7 ppg), second-best passer (3.3 apg), second-best shooter in all three categories and fourth-best rebounder. She also has a reputation as a plus defender.

So in 27 minutes Thursday, Douglas took one shot, had one assist, one steal, two rebounds and one turnover. She finished with no free-throw attempts and no points.

Regardless of the reason for Douglas dismal performance (most folks credit a bad ankle), that was the story of the game. Sure, Indiana was up 10 early, but without Douglas, the Fever just dont have enough firepower to compete with the New York Liberty or, for that matter, the Connecticut Sun or Chicago Sky.

That said, the Liberty deserve lots of credit for the 85-73 win at the Garden, as they kept their cool and took control of the game late in the third quarter. Cappie Pondexter of course played a big role (28 points, four assists, one turnover, five of 10 from three-point distance), but she did miss 14 shots, so it wasnt all her. Taj McWilliams-Franklin had a brilliant game (15 points, 10 rebounds, two steals) and Nicole Powell, Essence Carson and Plenette Pierson added major contributions.

WNBA Playoffs 2010: Mercury Look Like Champions in 106-93 Game One Win Over Silver Stars

The 2009 WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury were expected to be the class of the Western Conference once again this season, even though they lost Cappie Pondexter to the New York Liberty. Instead, they limped into the playoffs as the West's second seed despite a losing record (15-19) in the regular season.

For the San Antonio Silver Stars, things proved even worse. Their playoff destiny wasn't clear until the final week of the season, when they finally managed to put together their first two-game winning "streak" of the season, finishing in third place in a weak Western Conference with a record of 14-20.

"We're the best 15-19 team you'll ever see," the Mercury's Diana Taurasi told reporters earlier this week. The reigning champs set about proving her right on Thursday night with a 106-93 romp over the Silver Stars, who were playing without newly acquired star Chamique Holdsclaw, who went down with a torn Achilles' tendon in their loss to Minnesota on August 15.

If San Antonio had taken any comfort from the Mercury's regular-season troubles, or from splitting their four-game regular-season series against Phoenix including taking a 83-82 victory over the Mercury in the season finale, the bubble was burst in game one of the Western Conference semifinals. The reigning champions were looking like ... well, champions ... as the Mercury began their run for a "three-peat" behind a career-high of 32 points from Candice Dupree. Dupree, a fifth-year forward acquired in the offseason by the Mercury from Chicago as part of the three-way deal that sent Pondexter to New York, put on a show in the first WNBA postseason game of her career.

WNBA 2010 Phoenix-San Antonio Playoff Preview: Do the Mercury Have What It Takes to Repeat?

The Western Conference Semifinal series between the West's second and third seeds is a rematch. It is a rematch, first, of last year's conference semis between the Phoenix Mercury, then the league's top seeds, and the San Antonio Silver Stars, a team that had used a late-season surge to slip into the playoffs with a 15-19 record as the fourth seed in the West.

We all know how that one turned out. The Mercury went on to win not just the series, but 2009's WNBA title, and enter this year's playoffs as the reigning champs. The Silver Stars put up a gutsy fight, managing to take these opener on the Merc's home floor and stretch the series to three games, but in the end, they went home early.

Though many of the names may be the same, neither of these teams looks much like the 2009 edition. The reigning champs, in particular, have not been playing much like champions of late.

In the crazy quilt that has been this year's Western Conference, only the Seattle Storm has been much more than mediocre. The Storm, of course, have been stellar, rolling into the playoffs with the league's best record, 26-6, and finishing a perfect 17-0 at home. Seattle sewed up the West's regular-season championship on July 27, interestingly enough, by defeating the Phoenix Mercury, 91-85.

After a reasonably strong start, Phoenix clawed its way back into this year's playoffs and the No. 2 seed in the West despite a losing (15-19) record that was only one game better than that of the very worst team in the East. Meanwhile, 14-20 San Antonio found itself in a three-way tie for the West's last two playoff berths that wasn't broken until the final days of the season.

Turns out that this playoff series is also going to be a rematch of the final game of the regular season, the one that ultimate gave Phoenix the West's third seed and dropped Los Angeles into fourth place.

Phoenix, which to that point had led the regular-season with San Antonio, two games to one, had taken a two-point lead in the season finale on two free throws by DeWanna Bonner with 2.6 seconds remaining. But San Antonio's Sophia Young drove to the basket, made a layup to tie the score, and was fouled in the process by Bonner. Young then iced the go-ahead free throw to give the Silver Stars an 83-82 win, clinching the third playoff spot in the West, tying the regular-season series with the Mercury, and setting up this postseason rendezvous with Phoenix.

WNBA 2010 Indiana-New York Playoff Series Preview: A Battle of MVP Candidates

It may be "just" a meeting between the East's second and third seeds, but the New York-Indiana series should be the best of the four first-round match-ups. Both teams had superior seasons in the difficult Eastern Conference. Each is led by an MVP candidate, the Liberty by Cappie Pondexter who has almost singlehandedly resurrected a franchise that has found itself cast as one of the WNBA's bottom dwellers in recent years, and the Fever by Tamika Catchings, one of the best all-around players to don a WNBA uniform.

Both teams have ample playoff experience, though that of the Fever, who made it to the WNBA Finals last year before losing to the Phoenix Mercury in five games in one of the most exciting playoff series in recent memory, is more recent and germane to the players currently on the floor. Neither has ever won a WNBA title.

The Liberty come into the playoffs having won 11 out of their last 12 games. Though Indiana was just 5-5 down the stretch and most significantly lost at both New York and San Antonio in the final week of the regular season to plummet from the No. 1 to the No. 3 seed in the East, prior to that, the Fever were an impressive 7-2. Did the club peak too early or was Katie Douglass banged up shooting hand the major reason for this late-season stumble? Can the Fever recover their mid-season stride in time to repeat as a WNBA Finals contender? Or will New York continue at its recent sizzling pace and recover some of the glory that once attended this team in the early days of the league?

WNBA Playoffs 2010: A Spark Is No Match for a Storm as Seattle Rolls to 79-86 Game One Win Over LA

A sign in the stands at Key Arena, emblazoned with the aphorism, A Spark Is No Match for a Storm, said everything that needed to be said after the Seattle Storms 79-66 game-one victory over the L.A. Sparks on Wednesday evening, as the Western Conference Semifinals commenced.

Many of the more than 10,500 Seattle fans who filed into Key Arena, overflowing into portions of the buildings upper bowl of the building (which had been closed throughout the regular season), donned playoff T-shirts which read, We Are Home Court Advantage, a way of acknowledging the 17-0 home record the Storm forged this year, a first in WNBA history. That home record propelled Seattle to well, what else? home-court advantage throughout the 2010 WNBA Playoffs, and the Storm needed to exploit that edge as the 2010 season's colossus sought to translate its 28-6 regular-season record into its first postseason series win in six years.

As everyone in the WNBA community knows all too well, playoff success hasnt been easy to come by in the Pacific Northwest. The Storm entered this series having failed to get past the first round since their championship run in 2004. Moreover, the very same Los Angeles Sparks the team opposing the Storm on Wednesday had drummed Seattle out of the postseason in each of the last two years and four of the last five.

The Sparks postseason dominance of the Storm has been all the more galling for fans in the Emerald City, because in each of the past two seasons, L.A. has eliminated the Storm by winning a decisive Game 3 in Seattle. True, the 1-1-1 playoff travel format adopted by the league this year had yet to be introduced, but it remains that each year, L.A. won -- and the Storm saw their playoff hopes dashed -- in a deciding third game in Seattle's own house. The fans who so desperately wanted to witness a Storm breakthrough against the franchises number one rival were optimistic on Wednesday, but optimism itself doesnt dissipate half a decade of playoff pain.

Know what does? The kind of emphatic performance coach Brian Aglers team delivered in a 13-point lashing of their L.A. nemesis.

WNBA Playoffs 2010: Dream Go Small to Steal Mystics' Home-Court Advantage with 95-90 Game-One Win

Who says You've got to dance with who brung you?

Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. Such was the case in game one of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The fourth-seeded Dream, just 2-6 in August and badly beaten this past Sunday in Atlanta by the Washington Mystics, recognized they needed to make some radical changes if they hoped to avoid seeing their postseason once again end in Round One.

The Dream responded by abandoning their normal rotation of players, going smaller and quicker. The move paid off in spades, as Atlanta's back-up players rose to the occasion and the Dream romped to a 95-90 victory over the top seeds in the East, the Washington Mystics. In winning game one on the road, the Dream have effectively robbed the Mystics of their hard-earned home-court advantage and now have the opportunity to closing out the series back home on Friday night.