Playoffs....Round 2

Let the games begin!

Round 2 starts tonight and both match ups prove to be noteworthy!

Indiana Fever vs Detroit Shock

Game 1: Wed 9/23 - (Detroit) 8:00 pm (ESPN2)
Game 2: Fri 9/25 - (Indiana) 7:00 pm (NBA TV)
Game 3: Sat 9/26 - (Indiana) 7:00 pm (NBA TV, if necessary) <--and it will be This series is going to three games, I guarantee it. Even though Indiana won the series 3-1 during the regular season this Shock team is totally different then the June/July Shock team. Oh, and we can't forget that Detroit always plays better in the playoffs. They are a team that gets it, they get that it's "do or die" and they have the players that can "do". Deanna Nolan is key to the success of the Shock and I'm sure she won't disappoint. She is consistent and incredibly talented in the post season (and in general). Even with the hit to the head she took in Game 1 against Atlanta, she still dropped in 22 the next game. I think she is the most under the radar player in the league, not underrated but under the radar. There have always been distractions for the Shock or a great player named Katie Smith overshadowing Nolan. Now it's up to Nolan and I know she will not disappoint. I love watching her play because she gets such sheer joy out of playing the game, something that is lacking with so many players! Keys for Indiana
For Indiana to win it's very simple. Stop Deanna Nolan. If they can limit her to the 13, 16 and 4 points she had in the first three meetings the Fever won, then the Fever have a chance. Limit her looks, stop the transition game and get those rebounds. Tammy Sutton-Brown will have her work cut out with Kara Braxton (I can not wait to see that match up) so look for some heavy physical play in the post!

Keys for Detroit
Stop Tamika Catchings and feed the ball to Deanna Nolan. When Nolan is hitting, the rest of the Shock follow. When Deanna is on...look out. So, let her do her thing and drive to the hoop, hit pull up jumpers, set up the post players....get her rolling because when her confidence is high you can see the rest of the team getting confident.

Shock win the series 2-1 and go to their 4th straight WNBA Final.


Los Angeles Sparks vs Phoenix Mercury

Game 1: Wed 9/23 - (Los Angeles) 10:00 pm (ESPN2)
Game 2: Fri 9/25 - (Phoenix) 10:00 pm (NBA TV)
Game 3: Sat 9/26 - (Phoenix) 10:00 pm (NBA TV, if necessary)

This is another great series and one I'm really looking forward to. Phoenix is 3-1 against LA this season but again, like the Indiana/Detroit series, this is a different team then the 1 they beat in June/July. But so is Phoenix. If Phoenix plays the way they are capable of playing, there is no reason to evaluate the series (or the rest of the post season). But sometimes they just don't "show up". First game against San Antonio the Mercury looked almost star struck! It was odd to see confusion and frustration on the faces of the entire Mercury team. Nobody took charge and in the end, they dropped Game 1. Could that happen again? You bet. LA is going to be rocking, they get great attendance and this could be a Legend's last WNBA game in the city she grew up in. Emotion will be high and the Sparks will be determined to not let Lisa Leslie leave LA without a victory.

Keys for Los Angeles
Stop Diana Taurasi from getting pull up shots. Face guard her and always put a hand in her face. If you can frustrate her, perhaps you have a shot. Let Tina Thompson and Lisa Leslie pound the inside, that is where Phoenix might be "weaker". It's important for LA to win the rebound battle, if they can limit the second chance points and keep DeWanna Bonner in check then perhaps they have a chance to win the series. But doing both of these things will be tough to do for 3 games.

Keys for Phoenix
Slow down Candace Parker (I'm not sure she can be stopped so slowing her roll is important). It's important to always box her out so put your best box-er-outter on her at all times, no excuses for her to duck inside and grab easy rebounds untouched. But most importantly, get Diana Taurasi involved in every play in the first quarter, if she doesn't at least touch the ball then the confidence won't be there.

Phoenix wins 2-1

WNBA Playoffs Day 2

Great games last night, Detroit comes back to win and LA wins, perhaps, Lisa Leslie's final game in LA (which it won't be, sorry Seattle).

Los Angeles vs Seattle
Los Angeles, 1-0

Detroit vs Atlanta
Detroit, 1-0

The match ups tonight will be good too, well one of them will be.

Indiana Fever @ Washington Mystics (7:00 pm)
Phoenix Mercury @ San Antonio Silver Stars (9:00 pm)

Indiana Fever vs Washington Mystics

Game 1: Thu 9/17 (Washington) - 7:00 pm (ESPN2)
Game 2: Sat 9/19 (Indiana) - 7:00 pm (NBA TV)
Game 3: Mon 9/21 - (Indiana)-8:00 pm (ESPN2, if necessary)

Both teams are banged up which should prove to be interesting. All season long I've heard how Indiana can't win on the road (and I've thought that too). But they were almost .500 on the road, NOT bad. I'd take that. For Indiana both Tammy Sutton-Brown and Katie Douglas are still recovering. Tamika Catchings left the game early on on Sunday after her head collided with Connecticut Sun's Tan White's head (ouch).

For Washington, Alana Beard is recovering from a sprained ankle. Even with Beard though, the Mystics didn't win one of the four games they played against Indiana. Another issue for the Mystics; the game will not be played at the Verizon Center because some dinosaurs are marching around the Verizon Center floor. If you've read my blogs, you'll remember me talking about this before (or click here).

So some notes:

-Both teams average 77 points per game
-Washington allows 77 points per game vs Indiana's 71
-Both are very close on rebounding (for and against): Washington 35 for, 33 against; Indiana 33 for, 33 against.
-Indiana has 2 double figure scorers (Katie Douglas and Tamika Catchings) while Washington has 3 (Alana Beard, Lindsey Harding and Crystal Langhorne). But the rest of the Indiana starting 5 is nearly at double figures where Washington has a pretty big gap.

Keys for Indiana: STAY HEALTHY. Enough said....

Keys for Washington: Monique Currie has to step up for Washington to have any chance to win. If Beard is "good to go" she will not be 100% and not having her athleticism at full tilt could hurt them against a quick Indiana team. I know Monique can play, she's proven her abilities in playoff type games before. But she's also shown her ability to falter. Lindsey will have a nice series but she needs to get Langhorne the ball a lot more and pound Indiana's forwards. She has the athleticism to do it. Washington has the athletes to succeed, they just need to put it together and stay consistent for a full 40 minutes.

So the series will end up with Indiana winning 2-0. Washington allows opponents to shoot nearly 44% from the field, if you keep allowing that you are going home early. I think the games will be tight since Washington is very athletic and strong but I just see them falling short...barely but it's only a 3 game series and the track record is well, not there.

Phoenix Mercury vs San Antonio Silver Stars

Game 1: Thu 9/17 - (San Antonio) 9:00 pm (ESPN2)
Game 2: Sat 9/19 - (Phoenix) 10:00 pm (NBA, TV)
Game 3: Mon 9/21 - (Phoenix) 10:00 pm (ESPN2, if necessary)

Phoenix is healthy and ready to bring another Championship to Arizona. Phoenix heads to San Antonio tonight to begin the quest. They bring with them the best road record in the WNBA (11-6), WNBA scoring leader Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter is the 4th highest scorer this season and the league best average points per game at 93. So San Antonio has their work cut out for them.....hope they prepared well!

The Silver Stars are pretty healthy too but they just don't have the same kind of players Phoenix has. But, anything can happen. Becky Hammon is averaging more assists this season then any other season and she has always played well come playoff time. She also set a career high with 19.5 points per game this season. So she might be playing her best ball right now. There are just some players that can play their best in the playoffs and she's one of them. Plus she's an awesome leader that can get her team fired up.

Some notes on the teams:

-Mercury score 92 points per game BUT allow 89 points per game.
-Silver Stars score 77 points per game and their defense allows 78 per game (that's the wrong way you want that stat to be!)
-Mercury average 35 boards and allow 35 boards per game.
-Silver Stars average 31 boards and allow 35 boards per game (wrong way stat again!)
-Mercury have 5 players in double figures for scoring
-Silver Stars have 3 players in point per game averages

Keys for Phoenix: dominate the boards and protect the middle. That little one (aka Becky Hammon) loves to drive the lane. As long as Pondexter and Taurasi are playing well, Phoenix should be fine.

Keys for San Antonio: stop the perimeter game of Phoenix. If they got hot from behind the arc, forget it. Rebound, rebound, rebound! Win the boards and limit second chance points for Phoenix, stop the transition game. Let Sophia Young do her thing and let her be free in her decisions, she's a great athlete that can match the athleticism of the Mercury.

Phoenix wins the series 2-0.

Almost-A-Decade teams and other news...

Since we are approaching #1 (haha, fooled you, we are not doing #1 today), let's look back at some quality teams that didn't quite make the cut in my top 10.

-Maryland: 2006 NCAA Champions, 2009 ACC Tournament Champions, 3 All-Americans (Kristi Toliver, Crystal Langhorne, Marissa Coleman)

-Ohio State: 4 Big 10 Regular Season Champs (or co-Champs), 1 three time All-American (Jessica Davenport, 2005-2007), NCAA Tornament 2003-2008 (#1 seed in 2006), Sweet 16 in 2005.

-Michigan State: NCAA Championship game berth (2005), 2 Honorable Mention All-Americans (Kristin Hayne, Lindsay Bowen, Liz Shimek), 2005 Big 10 Regular Season and Tournament Champs, 6 times in the NCAA tournament

Some nice teams but not quite good enough to hit the top 10, maybe they'll make the next decade countdown!

Central Michigan Chippewas
Small school (be it Division I) so this may have been passed over by some people. Last week a Michigan judge dismissed a case against Head Coach, Sue Guevara. The case: a player felt that she was discriminated against because she was not a lesbian. According to the article on CBS Sports.com, Brooke Heike lost her scholarship because of her poor attitude and unwillingness to work hard. The case was thrown out of court because the coach and other officials at Central Michigan are immune from such legal claims. So the player's lawyer will try another type of lawsuit. The best is, Heike is still attending the University. Interesting, no? I know that if I felt I was discriminated against by a company, person or school I would high tail it out of there. Wouldn't you? Makes me wonder if perhaps she thought she was a better player then she really was. You can read the entire article here.

WNBA
The Sparks clinched a playoff spot with their nice win over the San Antonio Silver Stars. With the Silver Stars loss, the Lynx pulled to within 1/2 game of the final coveted 4th spot. Silver Stars have 2 games remaining: @ Sacramento and home against Seattle Storm. Silver Stars are 1-2 against the Monarchs and 1-2 against the Seattle Storm. As for the Minnesota Lynx: Detroit tonight, @ Los Angeles and @ Sacramento. 0-1 against Detroit (losing when Detroit was mediocre), 1-2 against LA, 2-1 against Sacramento. Should be some interesting games in the West!

Indiana Fever (with the win last night over the New York Liberty) are tied with the Phoenix Mercury for the best record in the WNBA at 22-10. Indiana is having a hard time playing well on the road. Should prove to be interesting since their last 2 remaining games are on the road (@ Chicago and @ Connecticut)

Congrats to Deanna Nolan and Vickie "VJ" Johnson for being named WNBA players of the week. This is Nolan's fifth of her career and the second in as many weeks (winning last week with Sue Bird). Averages: 20.7 points, 51.1% from the floor, 4.3 boards, and 3.3 assists. She helped the Shock go 3-0 last week.
VJ wins her first "Player of the Week" award in her career. Nice way to end her career, no? She averaged 22 points, 76.0% from the floor (league leading), 3.5 assists, 3.5 boards, and 1.5 steals. She helped the Silver Stars to 2 wins over the past week. She is one of only 4 players still playing from the inaugural WNBA draft, one of two players to have 4,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career (with her teammate Becky Hammon) and is the WNBA all-time leader in games played.

Rookie Watch
Rookie report time (Last three games)
DeWanna Bonner:
41 points, 12 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 4 steals
Team record: 2-1

Angel McCoughtry:
39 points, 10 boards, 12 assists, 3 blocks, 3 steals (double-double on 9/4: 26 points, 10 assists)
Team Record: 2-1

Shavonte Zellous:
44 points, 10 boards, 9 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals
Team Record: 3-0

Tough call this week! Shavonte played great this week and is my rookie of the week. She really helped her team climb back into the playoffs! It's not just how she does as an individual but also how she helps her team.

Tonight's Game:
Detroit Shock @ Minnesota Lynx (8:00 pm)

Feelin' it at #4 and WNBA News

The #4 team from 2001-2009 is...........

Jake: Stanford
Jenn: LSU

Seimone Augusts, Sylvia Fowles....enough said.

Okay, I guess I should give you some numbers and why I put them ahead of Stanford. LSU plays in the SEC against teams like Georgia, Vanderbilt and Tennessee. The SEC is one of the top 3 toughest conferences to play in every year. One could argue that they weren't tops of their game at the beginning of the nearly-a-decade but I beg to differ. Five straight Final Fours 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (only team to accomplish this feat in this almost-a-decade) isn't enough to put them in the Top 5? Are you serious? Regular season SEC Champions in 2005, 2006 and 2008 (again, remember who plays in this conference) and Tournament Champions in 2003. SEC Tournament Runner-Ups five times during the span.

They were ranked in the Final Top Ten 4 times, advanced to at least the second round of the NCAA Tournament each year and made it to 1 additional Quarterfinal berth (not including the other 5 where they won and made it to the big dance). They were their regions #1 seed 3 of the 9 years they were in the NCAA tournament. LSU also had 3 All-Americans: Marie Ferdinand (2001), Seimone Augustus and Sylvia "Big Syl" Fowles (2007, 2008). Augustus was an All American from 2004-2006 (and I would argue deserved a 4 time nod but I guess the committee didn't see it that way). Augustus was also a two-time National Player of the Year-Wade Trophy winner (2005 & 2006). The great Nancy Lieberman is the only other player to win this award twice (Old Dominion University-1979 & 1980). That is some nice company. Top 5? I think so.

Tulsa Next WNBA Team?

Well it should be decided by the end of the month if Tulsa, Oklahoma will be the next team in the WNBA. This is the first time I've seen any mention on whether this will be a new team or a relocated team..hmmmm. Will Courtney Paris ask to be traded to Tulsa to play in front of the fans that loved her for 4 years? Will they be called the Tulsa Tornadoes? The Tulsa Tarmacs (since I sat on the tarmac for 2 hours on a flight back from New Mexico)? Hmmm, all questions to be answered as the drive for the expansion team continues!

WNBA

The Phoenix Mercury were on FIRE last night against the Indiana Fever. They shot 59% from the floor (to Fever's respectable 42%), 56% from the land-beyond-the-arc (to 22% for Fever) and 86% from the line. Fever were without Katie Douglas (injured ankle) but even if they had her in the lineup, Cappie Pondexter (Go RU!) was lights out. Pondexter dropped in 25 points, 3 boards, 4 assists and only 2 turnovers. Mercury led from the beginning and the Fever were able to get it close a few times but the Mercury went up big (by 22 points) and the Fever just couldn't chip away at it. Cappie had a nice under the basket inbounds play last night-bouncing it off of the back side of her old RU teammate, Tammy Sutton-Brown, grabbed the ball, put it up, scored and was fouled. Risky move but we are talking about Cappie here people!

Games Tonight

One game tonight: Seattle Storm @ Washington Mystics (7:00 pm)

Storm need the win since the Mercury jumped .5 game up on them. Storm are on the road for 2 games (Mystics then Lynx on Saturday) then they come home and play the Mercury next Thursday. It will be interesting to see if and when Jackson will be back this regular season. If I were them, with a playoff spot clinched, I might rest her until the playoffs start. Besides, the Storm are playing well even without her. Big game for the Mystics too as they try to separate themselves from the hot Detroit Shock.