WASHINGTON, D.C. – A six-time WNBA All-Star, seven-time All-WNBA recipient, three-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Indiana Fever superstar Tamika Catchings has been named among 10 top vote-getters in “WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun” Balloting presented by T-Mobile. In nationwide fan balloting online and in WNBA arenas, Catchings was the third-leading vote-getter overall and the leader from the Eastern Conference. Catchings trailed only Sue Bird (Seattle Storm) and Becky Hammon (San Antonio Silver Stars).
The top 10 vote-getters and votes received: Sue Bird (Sea) 127,490; Becky Hammon (SA) 116,391; Tamika Catchings (Ind) 100,248; Diana Taurasi (Phx) 93,649; Swin Cash (Sea) 85,236; Lauren Jackson (Sea) 80,392; Candace Parker (LA) 78,624; Jayne Appel (SA) 69,316; Michelle Snow (SA) 67,906; Sophia Young (SA) 65,974.
The Stars at the Sun will showcase the world’s best female basketball players under one roof when the WNBA’s top talent faces the USA Basketball Women’s National Team. The event will be hosted by the Connecticut Sun on Saturday, July 10 and will be televised nationally on ESPN at 3:30 p.m. ET.
The 10 players who received the most votes are guaranteed a position on team rosters. Catchings and other players voted in who are already in the USA National Team Pool will play on the USA Basketball team, led by head coach Geno Auriemma. Remaining players who have been voted in by the fans will play on the WNBA team, coached by the Seattle Storm’s Brian Agler. Auriemma will name the remaining players on the USA’s 11-player roster on July 1. WNBA coaches will vote on remaining members of the WNBA team, which will be announced July 6.
Following its first visit to the WNBA Finals and three consecutive sellout crowds during the 2009 WNBA Playoffs, the Indiana Fever is eager to pursue a sixth straight playoffs appearance and a return trip to the Finals in 2010. The Fever plays host to the Tulsa Shock on Thursday, July 8 (7:00 p.m.), and entertains the Connecticut Sun during its annual Kids Day presented by Knozone on Wednesday, July 14 (1:00 p.m.). Season and single-game tickets are available at FeverBasketball.com or by calling (317) 917-2500.
In particular, the 17-6 (74%) Eastern Conference winning percentage is larger than the 44-29 (60%) winning percentage currently enjoyed by home teams versus road teams.
The Indiana Fever will be on the road for four games until July 8th.
Candice Dupree is interesting because like Kevin Durant, she appears to be playing well and playing a lot, but has lousy plus/minus. Obviously, that could be related to the Mercury's weak performance, so Lynx Stats provides net plus/minus, adjusted for team performance. Out of 11 Merc players, Dupree comes in at -10.9 or 9th on the list.
There's actually only eight players in all the league with a worse net plus/minus.
When Tangela Smith (-16.7) comes in at the bottom and DeWanna Bonner (-6.1) and Diana Taurasi (-5.5) in the middle, perhaps there's something wonky with the numbers. However, it says something that Tameka Johnson is playing a lot of minutes (330+ in 12 games this year) but still manages +9.9.
Aside: You think the Merc don't miss Cappie Pondexter's playmaking when Tameka Johnson sits?
York goes on to muse about why Dupree isn't a hotter prospect in the minds of other teams.
Yet, she also continues to remain one of the most undervalued assets in the league. It’s difficult to figure out why...
While her boxscores may be consistent, how that performance equates to team success is far more problematic.
So, what explains Dupree's statistical bump of which York speaks?
Could it be simply that she benefits from the high octane Mercury game and from exceptional weak competition this year in the Western Conference?
I don't know that answer, but her team-adjusted plus/minus and the Merc's overall performance both sour the emotive force underlying Dupree's superlative scoring percentages.
The disparity in those figures pose a mystery for nascent basketball statgeekery.
Chasing the Title reports the following line-up plus-minuses for the Fever vs. Storm game:
Top Fever Lineups
January-Zellous-Douglas-Moore-Davenport: +10
Bevilaqua-Douglas-Catchings-Sutton-Hoffman: +6
January-Douglas-Catchings-Moore-Davenport: +4
The Fever used 12 unique lineups in this game with only four generating a positive value for the team. Two of them stood out as particularly ineffective.
Bevilaqua in with the starters was great, January in with the starters stunk.
Douglas in with the reserves worked best but Catchings in with the reserves was disaster.
I'm not sure I believe either of those small sample statistical artifacts, although I'm inclined to see some basketball evidence that might support a preference for Tully to stick with the starters and January with the bench.
Does the bench need Douglas' scoring more than Catchings' defense? Possibly! Read more...
After winning three consecutive home games this week against the Connecticut Sun, the Seattle Storm and the Atlanta Dream, the Indiana Fever remain stuck in third place in the Eastern Conference. That's how tough the Eastern Conference is.
Indiana proved that at this point in the season, they are as good as the top teams in the WNBA. But they have yet to prove they are better. They have a chance this week to prove it, if they can beat the Seattle Storm in their Key Arena "fortress" on Friday. But the Storm should be far better prepared for Indiana's defense after losing 72-65 last Thursday.
For the Fever, the game with the Dream was fairly representative of its three-game homestand. All three games featured substantial double-digit Fever leads by mid-game, huge comebacks weathered by late game and all the right plays made down the stretch to win.
On Saturday in Indianapolis, the Fever were saved by the bell, as the Dream ran out of time to come back from a 55-41 halftime deficit.
"I wish we had one more minute on that clock," Dream head coach Marynell Meadors said. "If we had one more minute and one more timeout, I think the outcome might have been a little different. This team has a huge heart. They dug and they dug and they dug, 'til they got the thing really close."
It's not clear, however, that the Fever would have succumbed with more time. Unlike games the prior week, the Dream was never able to tie the score in the fourth quarter.
"People fail to realize the game of basketball is a game of highs and low," explained Fever forward Tamika Catchings. "You'll go on a streak where you are hitting, hitting, hitting. And then you might go on a slump for a little bit, hopefully not too long, but a couple shots where you don't hit."
Fever guard Katie Douglas said, "They're going to make runs, we're going to make runs. Hopefully, like you saw, our runs were a little bit longer than their runs tonight, and that's why we were able to get the win tonight."
Four developing factors have contributed to the Fever's recent wins.
First, anchored by Fever point guard Briann January (recently returned from injury), the bench platoon of Jessica Moore, Jessica Davenport, Shay Murphy and Shavonte Zellous continues to produce offensively and defensively.
"Our bench showed why we have the best bench in the league," boasted Catchings after defeating the Dream. "The starters had a lead, they came in and not only did they sustain it, they extended it. They came out with a lot of energy, high energy, hitting a lot of shots, getting steals, transition; got the Donkey Kong block in there, Jessica Davenport."
Second, the offense has re-focused on inside play and inside-outside passing as opposed to outside shooting and around-the-perimeter passing. The 55-point outburst in the first half of the Fever-Dream game shows what the Indiana offense is capable of and is working toward. A majority of those points came in the paint, where Tammy Sutton-Brown scored a season-high 16 points largely on layups. The team is actively looking for players in the post, players cutting to the basket without the ball, and ways to get into the paint.
Third, the Fever team defense has been able to stop other teams' offensive stars, frustrating Tina Charles, Lauren Jackson, Sue Bird and Angel McCoughtry.
"It's going to be a team defensive game," said Fever forward Ebony Hoffman. "It's not going to be one person playing a lock-up type of defense. It's going to be all of us helping each other and trying to get the job done."
The Fever held Connecticut Sun rookie star Tina Charles to just two points on 1-8 shooting with just four rebounds, both season lows by a large margin.
"Our whole team was focused on not letting Tina get good touches and I thought that was key for us," explained Dunn.
The Fever also limited the Seattle Storm offense to a season-low 65 points as their offense stagnated in misguided attempts to exploit mismatches on Lauren Jackson.
"What Indiana does is they switch a lot of screens." explained Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird. "That puts someone like Tully, January, even Catchings on Lauren is a mismatch for us to get the ball inside. But they’re not stupid. They know it’s a mismatch so they send a lot of people to [Jackson]."
Bird went on to say, "We shot ourselves in the foot. We forced it instead of taking what they gave us like we did at the beginning of the game."
Finally, the Fever got out to their 55-41 first-half lead against the Dream with Angel McCoughtry on the bench for 9 minutes and 58 seconds of the half, having scored only six points and saddled with three fouls.
Importantly, the Indiana Fever's league-leading defense depends critically on intensity, focus and precision rotations.
"Any time you're a second late in this game, people are going to make plays," explained Douglas. The margin for error in Indiana's defensive schemes is slim.
Finally, Tamika Catching's clutch plays late in the fourth quarter when the game is tied or close has made the most impact in securing the wins. Catchings will never be the Most Superlative Player, racking up ungodly points and rebounds like Lauren Jackson or Diana Taurasi. Catchings' game has never been about the boxscore or statistics, but about the game played on the court, hard work, a passion for defense and a will to win.
With the additional rest courtesy of the Fever bench, Catchings has been better able to pick her spots for transcendent play. For example, she broke the Connecticut Sun's back after a 60-all tie.
"Catchings was great down the stretch," said Connecticut Sun head coach Mike Thibault. "She made every play they need to make. Katie [Douglas] had a couple of shots, but Catchings' 12 points and five rebounds was huge."
"You have to point out Catchings," said Dunn. "She had that will to win. 'I'm gonna rebound. I'm going to defend. I'm not going to let you get anything easy.' When she raises her game defensively, it takes the rest of the team up."
"She's going to give you everything on both ends of the court. That's something we definitely need," said Sutton-Brown.
The paucity of defensive statistical modeling means that these statistics will uniformly fail to show Catchings' contributions to the Indiana Fever's success that can be witnessed in each game. She's not just the MVP for a winning team in the tough Eastern Conference, she's playing like the MVP of the league, whether she's recognized for it or not.
Against Atlanta, the Dream got within two points several times in the final six minutes. The Dream were down 91-89 with the ball and 10.9 seconds to go, but of course Catchings stole the ball.
"I saw the play develop, because we got burned five times during the game coming off the post player to help," said Catchings. "Whoever was driving didn't want to shoot it. They wanted to pass it to the post underneath. [So] stay low, sneak in and get it."
Catchings' steal, among other things, undermined Sancho Lyttle's superlative 20-point, 20-rebound game. The rebound total was Lyttle's career-high and a WNBA season-high. But all that didn't translate into a win.
(Who's fouling who? Lauren Jackson and Jessica Davenport battle under the basket.
Photo courtesy of Josh Flynn.)
The Eastern Conference's domination over the West continues as Indiana Fever downed the WNBA-leading Seattle Storm, 72-65 on Thursday. The Storm are 7-0 against the anemic West, but are now only 2-2 against the East.
Seattle's only other loss came May 27th at Chicago, 84-75, their lowest point total before facing Indiana.
In a pregame interview, when asked whether the two teams represented a clash of styles, Fever forward Ebony Hoffman replied, "I think we both play tough. Seattle has this year changed its style. They are a lot tougher now. They've added LeCoe Willingham and a few other pieces they have. I think it's still a matter of wills. However a team gets the job done is how they get it done. If we can't get shots at the end, we rev up our defense. Some teams in the West, they rev up their offense."
Seattle imposed it's will early. But after scoring 27 points in the first quarter, the Storm scored only 38 in the next three quarters, including a 7 point 2nd quarter. The low final score suggests that the Fever won the battle of wills this time.
In addition to homecourt, the Fever had several other advantages, beginning obviously with their defense.
"Our full court pressure had worn them down some. They looked a little fatigued." said Fever coach Lin Dunn.
Dunn also credited the change in the 2nd quarter to renewed defensive intensity "[In the first quarter] we missed some rotations. We weren’t talking on defense. They came out with enormous energy and we were a step slow. We made some adjustments. Initially we were trapping, then we changed that to switching."
The Storm also recognized the increased defensive intensity.
"We ran a pretty good offense, but they were not quite as engaged defensively as they can be." Storm coach Brian Agler said.
"We got off to a pretty good start and then they really turned up the energy and made it difficult for us and then the time kind of ran out on us." said Storm gaurd Sue Bird. "It was a combination of them turning up their intensity up, getting out and denying, pressuring the ball, getting their hands balls, causing turnovers. They put us on our heels rather than going into attack mode. We ended up reacting just a little too late."
That intensity caught the Seattle Storm offguard as their multidimensional offense stagnated with attempts to exploit mismatches on Laren Jackson which crippled the type of ball movement typically associated with Storm basketball.
"What Indiana does is they switch a lot of screens." said Bird. "That puts someone like Tully, January [on Jackson], even Catchings on Lauren is a mismatch for us, to get the ball inside. But they’re not stupid. They know it’s a mismatch so they send a lot of people to her."
Agler also noticed the offensive missteps. "There were some things they gave us that we didn’t see and we tried to force some things we thought were there." he said. "Every time they take something away, they give you something. I don’t think we did a good job recognizing what that was."
"We shot ourselves in the foot." echoed Bird. "We forced it instead of taking what they gave us like we did at the beginning of the game."
(Katie Douglas squares off with Svetlana Abrosimova. Photo courtesy of Josh Flynn.)
They say no one expects the Spanish inquisition. Even if one expects the Indiana Fever defense, how can a team really prepare for it?
"We prepared." said Bird. "We had a couple of days to prepare. You don’t know what it’s like until you play against them. We knew what they were going to do but it’s a matter of going out there against it."
Because few teams play with Indiana's high energy defense, adjusting to that intensity withn the context of a single game can be a challenge.
"It’s disappointing anytime you don’t play up to your expectations, whether you are playing a back-to-back or have a couple of days to prepare." said Storm coach Brian Agler. "They challenged us, physically and mentally. Our response was sort of a rollercoaster. Sometimes we responded, sometimes we didn’t. We responded inconsistently."
"We haven’t played against them, or a team like that, so it will be a learning process and I hope we get better from it." continued Agler.
Expect Seattle to handle Indiana's defense much better next time. The two teams meet again next week in Seattle on Friday, June 25th.
Read more...
This is the gamethread, your appetizer before the game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Indianapolis -
My girlfriend spent one evening this week in a closet with her best friend, stockpiled with water, chocolate and a cellphone. Some people are deathly afraid of storms.
However, if you are Tammy Sutton-Brown, you go out after the storm and snap pics of rainbows for your tweeps.
For the past week, storms have rolled through Indiana, uncharacteristic of normally sunny mid-June days, complete with tornado warnings and other harbingers of tonight's game between the Seattle Storm (9-1) and the Indiana Fever (6-4).
Maximize the inside game with post-ups of bigs, big wings and drives
Turnovers are a sign both of very physical games and of a cantankerous offense that has improved over the years but is still hard to execute, especially with a team that lacks exceptional outside shooting by many of the players.
Most of the bruhaha this week has been about Storm coach Brian Agler's inevitable 100th win coming tonight, or tomorrow, or sometime soon.
It would be quite humorous for me to tell you about the mindset of the Storm coming into tonight's game, considering the mass of ink and intellect spent on the Seattle Storm on these pages and those around the WNBA. The cascades of superlatives and the statistical fanblog wankery that follow the Storm (and the Mercury) is so voluminous that I've been hearing the Door's famously ominous tune in my head all week as
"Writers of the Storm, dun-do-duh-dun".
The main saving grace of course is that the Seattle Storm and it's merry band of fans and intrepid journalists and pixelated commentators is that the Fever probably doesn't strike much fear into anyone's ears at the moment. The commentary is so inwardly focused on the teams' nigh-invulnerability and all the ways each arbitrary strand of contribution guarantees success that this particular match has not generated nearly the conversation it deserves. Rather the discussion is compacted into the Storm-centric three-games-in-four-nights challenge, of which this is merely the first hurdle.
Amid all that analysis and the destabilizing force that a 9-1 record invokes on rational thought, it's hard to remind oneself that Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird are mortals and that the Storm is still just an WNBA team.
And one on the road.
Writers of the Storm, there's a killer on the road....
Related Link:
Get your buddies together for Guys Night Out this Thursday, June 17, when the Fever faces the Seattle Storm at 7:00 p.m. You'll receive a ticket to game and all you can eat and drink
for only $25. Plus, you'll meet members of the Indiana Pacemates dance team.
Five San Antonio Silver Stars players lead the All-star ballot. Perhaps voters are confused about what the "Star" part in "Stars at the Sun" means.
freelantz says,
...someone should check for hanging chads or something. wouldn't that be a funny sight - all sass players at the all-star game, other all-stars watching from home...
Please, please, please, get out and vote!
Press Release
EARLY RETURNS ANNOUNCED FOR 2010 WNBA vs. USA BASKETBALL: THE STARS AT THE SUN BALLOTING PRESENTED BY T-MOBILE
- Silver Stars Lead As Fan Favorites for the World’s Best Female Basketball Showcase at Mohegan Sun -
NEW YORK, June 15, 2010 – The San Antonio Silver Stars’ Michelle Snow leads all players and teammate Jayne Appel is a close second after receiving the most votes following early returns of 2010 “WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun” Balloting presented by T-Mobile USA.
WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun will showcase the world’s best female basketball players under one roof when the WNBA’s top talent faces the USA Basketball Women’s National Team. The Connecticut Sun will host the event at Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday, July 10 and ESPN will televise it nationally at 3:30 p.m. ET.
In addition to Snow and Appel, three other Silver Star teammates are the top vote-getters following the first balloting returns: Becky Hammon, Sophia Young, and Ruth Riley. Other fan favorites are Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, Candace Parker, and Diana Taurasi. Fans worldwide have the opportunity to select their favorite players by voting in person at WNBA arenas, the NBA Store, and NBA Nation presented by T-Mobile and Kia Motors. Fans can also vote online through June 21 at WNBA.com.
The Stars at the Sun balloting program gives fans the opportunity to vote for the top 10 players in the WNBA, regardless of conference or position. The 60 players included on the 2010 ballot represent all 12 WNBA teams. A write-in option is also available, allowing fans to choose players not listed on the ballot. The 10 players who receive the most votes will be guaranteed a position on the team rosters. Unlike previous years, the players selected by fans will not necessarily be starters. Any player voted in who is already in the USA National Team Pool will play on the USA Basketball team, led by head coach Geno Auriemma, while the remaining players who have been voted in by the fans will play on the WNBA team.
WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun Balloting presented by T-Mobile began May 23 and will run through June 21. Following the completion of fan voting, the top 10 players will be unveiled on June 29 during the nationally televised Indiana Fever at Washington Mystics game on ESPN2. USA Basketball will then select its roster and WNBA head coaches will choose the remaining players to fill out the WNBA roster.A limited number of tickets are still available by logging on to ticketmaster.com or by calling (877) WNBA-TIX.
About T-Mobile USA, Inc. Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG. By the end of the first quarter of 2010, approximately 150 million mobile customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the Deutsche Telekom group — 33.7 million by T-Mobile USA — all via a common technology platform based on GSM and UMTS, the world’s most widely used digital wireless standards. T-Mobile USA’s innovative wireless products and services help empower people to connect to those who matter most. Multiple independent research studies continue to rank T-Mobile among the highest in numerous regions throughout the U.S. in wireless customer care and call quality.
For more information, please visit T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG http://www.T-Mobile.com
About USA Basketball Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA Basketball is a nonprofit organization and the national governing body for men's and women's basketball in the United States. As the recognized governing body for basketball in the United States by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), USA Basketball is responsible for the selection, training and fielding of USA teams that compete in FIBA sponsored international basketball competitions, as well as for some national competitions. During the 2005-2008 quadrennium, 707 men and women players and 147 coaches participated in USA Basketball, including USA Basketball trials and USA Basketball teams. USA teams competed in 31 major international events from 2005-2008 and won medals an astounding 28 times, including gold or top finishes 22 times, silver four times and bronze medals twice. All told those teams compiled a sparkling 199-23 win-loss record for an 89.6 winning percentage. For further information about USA Basketball, go to the official Web site of USA Basketball at www.usabasketball.com .
About the WNBA The WNBA is a unique global sports property combining competition, sportsmanship, and entertainment value with its status as an icon for social change, achievement, and diversity. Now in its 14th season, the WNBA features 12 teams and is the most successful women’s professional team sports league in the world. Following a 2009 campaign that saw regular season attendance increase for the third consecutive year and increased viewership on ESPN2 for the second straight summer, the 2010 season tipped off with tremendous momentum on May 15.
Through WNBA Cares, the WNBA is deeply committed to creating programs that improve the quality of life for all people, with a special emphasis on programs that promote a healthy lifestyle and positive body image, increase breast and women’s health awareness, support youth and family development, and focus on education. For more information on the WNBA, log on to www.wnba.com .
Here are videos of postgame interviews with the Indiana Fever stars of Sunday's home win over the Connecticut Sun, starting with Fever coach Lin Dunn's postgame presser.
Overall, the attendance and crowd excitement for this game was pretty raucous.
The Sun were down 20 points before coming back in the 3rd and 4th quarter to tie the game at 60-all with seven minutes to go.
100613 Lin Dunn Postgame Presser.AVI (via samjames009)
Better defensive intensity this game than on Friday, shutting down Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery (Tully Bevilaqua deserves credit for blanketing Montgomery).
Catchings was incredible in the clutch. (No kidding, watch the last seven minutes of this game to see why)
The team needs to stop complaining about calls. (Yes, that means you, Katie!)
The team still is needs practice time to work out offensive kinks. (The whole team has only practiced once together with Briann January and Shavonte Zellous)
Big week this week at home: Seattle and Atlanta. (Fans, these are going to be great, GREAT games!)
The Connecticut Sun's league-leading homecourt advantage is probably a statistical artifact derived from the simpler fact that the Sun have won all of their home games, but also have lost all of their road games.
The weekend home-and-home series between the Sun and the Indiana Fever further reinforced that wedge. The Sun won Friday's game at the Mohegan Sun 86-77, but lost Sunday's game at Conseco Fieldhouse, 77-67. In both games, the home team got an early lead, the away team tied the game in the 4th quarter and the home team got the stops and the scores to win the game.
Sun coach Mike Thibault talked about the home-and-home series. "The two teams are kind of eying each other. As we go down the road, you could end up playing each other in the playoffs. There's enough of a rivalry between them. Knowing that it was like a mini-playoff series, I was disappointed at the start."
"We understand we have to become a tougher team on the road." said Sun PG Kara Lawson. "We've got to play LA and then we've got to play Phoenix next week. We've not won a road game a month into the season. We have to focus on. We've got to be tougher. We got to be better defensively in the first halves. In all of our road games we fell behind. We played better second halves, but have not been able to get over the hump."
Thibault echoed those sentiments, saying, "My biggest concern is, aside from the series part of it, is that I thought we would have had a better start to the game tonight than we did. Obviously we jumped them a little bit early at our place and I knew they would be more aggressive defensively coming into tonight."
"I felt now that we're whatever number of games we are into the season, I thought we would handle it better. And we didn't. It's one thing to miss shots, but to not rebound the ball well enough and to have, I'll say, sloppy turnovers, not even them making a great play. That disappointed me." continued Thibault.
Rookie Tina Charles was shut down for the first time in WNBA play on Sunday, having her first major struggle since joining the WNBA. She shot 1-8, didn't make it to the free-throw line, scored only 2 points and worse still, grabbed only 4 rebounds in 23 minutes of play.
"She wasn't very good tonight. You'll have to ask her. I wish I knew. One, she needs to handle the double teams a little better. The other night she did a good job, tonight she struggled a bit more, but she didn't rebound the ball tonight. Whereas the other day, even when she was struggling offensively, se was rebounding the ball. She ended up with 11, 12 rebounds. I wish I had the answer." said Thibault.
It was a concerted by the Indiana Fever effort to limit Charles' touches and to frustrate her play.
"Our defensive effort was much higher tonight. We brought alot of energy, intensity. We set the tone that we were going to defend better than we did Friday night. I thought we did a really good job with our team and individual defense on Charles. You have to give Tammy Sutton-Brown a lot of credit. She fought her all night long. And the team, our whole team was focused on not letting Tina get good touches and I thought that was key for us." said Fever coach Lin Dunn.
Describing her play, Tammy Sutton-Brown said, "Just hard work. We know that's a big part of the game, especially us being a defensive team and wanting to run, we have to get rebounds. Connecticut has some of the better rebounders in the league. That's been a big focus for us all week... Unless we make stops and take care of business and stop players, we're not going to win."
In addition to Tammy Sutton-Brown's defense, Tamika Catchings and Jessica Davenport also took turns on Tina Charles. In one spectacular play, Catchings poked the ball out Charles' hands, Briann January dove to the floor, saving the ball from going out of bounds. In another series, Davenport's length bothered Charles' shot on one possession and her shot was then blocked by Davenport on the subsequent possession, coming down in Davenport's hands.
Because Tina Charles is a rookie, few teams have had the opportunity to play against her enough to build up a book on her strengths and weaknesses in the WNBA game.
Mike Thibault went on to say "This is part of the learning experience she's going to go through. These games are going to pile up a little bit now. People are going to be gunning for her. They are reading her press clippings. She just needs to learn how to adjust."
Looking ahead, the Connecticut Sun will have a lot of opportunities to win their first road game.
"This is a good test for us. This stretch of the season will tell us who we are. We've got this game and counting it we've got 7 of our next 9 on the road." concluded Thibault.
If the Sun can't get some road wins in this next stretch, they could quickly find themselves going from top of the Eastern Conference all the way to the bottom. Read more...
Recently, the Seattle Storm has been credited with having a fortress. This season, however, the Connecticut Sun, undefeated at home, have the greatest homecourt advantage. Massey Ratings estimates the Sun's HA to be worth 7.71 points per game. Seattle comes in third with 4.78 points per game.
Why the Sun have such huge homecourt advantage is an unanswered question, but they held serve despite being down five points going into the fourth quarter and the game slipping away from a 72-72 tie with 180 seconds left. The win over the Fever (5-4) on Friday put the Connecticut Sun (6-2) in first place in the Eastern Conference.
Today, the two teams rematch, this time on the Indiana Fever homecourt.
It's not clear to me whether the Indiana Fever lost Friday's game in the 1st quarter or the 4th. In the first, the Fever started off sluggishly, missing uncontested layups and firing up airballs. Ebony Hoffman started the game exceptionally lousy, but picked up her play in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Excluding another Kobe-game by Jessica Davenport (8-8, 18 points), the team shot a miserable 27% from the field. Zellous had a fairly typical game, going 0-6 on a few drives, outside jumpshots and one clock-expiring attempt. On one inbounds, she curled toward the baseline to receive the inbound and shot an open 12-footer. You want any other player taking that shot and having Z inbound the ball. Z did go to the line, but not much, making only 2 of 4.
The defense was not where it needed to be, as the Sun pushed the pace and scored 45 points in the first half. In that first quarter, the Fever fell behind largely as a result of some broken plays and 50-50 balls. Renee Montgomery's career scoring night started with 12 points in the first quarter initially a missed three pointer followed by a few successful inside the paint plays.
Despite the off-kilter Fever start to the game, the game was characterized by a lot of physicality and intensity. Kara Lawson was hit twice on one play and dislocated her shoulder. No call, the play went on with some players going to help out Lawson and others scoring on the other end against a broken defense.
Jessica Moore and Jene Morris didn't see much playin time last game. Jessica Moore had a scratch on her eye. Jene Morris lost playing time because Briann January is back in uniform, pitching in 11 minutes off the bench on her road to full recovery.
Still, by the 4th quarter, the Fever had worked its way back into the game. Montgomery's career night, dropping 29 points on the best defense in the league, didn't destroy the Fever in the fourth quarter. With 3 minutes to go and a 72-all tie, it was the tandem of Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery that did in the Fever. Montgomery tied the game 69-all with a layup assisted by Charles. Then Charles went to work inside going to the line twice. Montgomery made another 3 (25 points by then) and Charles made a layup plus a foul. With 86 seconds to go, the Sun were up 80-72 and went to the line for their final 6 points, 4 of which were made by Montgomery for her 26th-29th points.
During that short span of 95 seconds, Charles was unstoppable and the Fever missed a shot and turned the ball over twice.
The Fever just had trouble making their own shots and plugging all the holes posed by the inside-outside game of the Connecticut Sun, particularly in the clutch.
Tonight is Lucas Oil Family Night:
Join the Fever this season for Lucas Oil Family Nights presented by The Indianapolis Star!
For the same price as a game ticket alone, the Family Night package includes a ticket to the game, a t-shirt and a voucher for a hot dog, chips, and Pepsi product.
Tickets start at just $15! A minimum purchase of 4 tickets is required.
The WNBA schedulers have received some criticism lately about games conflicting with the NBA Finals. The questions echo from Watergate: "What did the WNBA schedulers know about the NBA Finals, and when did they know it?"
We know the schedulers must navigate the inscrutable forces of international league play and the humiliation of higher priority arena uses (boy band Hanson is in town?), all the while cutting travel costs to the bare bones. Who knows what complex alchemy, a blood pact between dismal economics and wonky computer-aided rocket science, those schedulers embarked upon to come up with the WNBA 2010 season schedule, dear commentator of the W?
The butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo, and we have a biggest, nastiest oil disaster in the gulf. Can you really say that by moving those few conflicting WNBA games a day or two off their dates wouldn't have thrown the whole WNBA schedule off? Can you promise that moving those few games would not cause the looming world-ending disaster of 2012?
I thought not, mundane spectator.
Despite the flaws in the WNBA schedule, we do have some things to be thankful for. In particular, God bless the WNBA schedulers for these home-and-home series!
There's an unmatched level of intensity and completeness about them. Taking a page from baseball, it's a mini-playoff series with the layered complexity of game-to-game adjustment. At the end of the series, we will have a clear picture of which team is clearly better, or if the teams are relatively even. In a one-off game, we would not know if one team was better or if simply home court dominated.
Here are two teams playing great basketball featuring stellar league-leading defenses and modest offenses, stacked with massive depth ready to grind it out this weekend. This battle will not be a contrast in styles, but a purification and a refinement of East Coast basketball. Massey Ratings gives Connecticut the edge in the series, Hollinger's power rankings put Indiana slightly on top.
This is a big step up in competition for both teams. Both teams recently beat the New York Liberty and both blew out the Silver Stars without Becky Hammon. They now each face a formidable and resourceful team at the top of the WNBA.
The Connecticut Sun and the Indiana Fever achieve similar levels of success on the defensive and offensive ends, but do so in substantially different ways, dictated by their personnel.
Indiana has the edge on defense, led by the incomparable Tamika Catchings. In raw statistical terms, the Fever out-steal and out-block the Sun 11.4 to 8.3 and 6.3 to 3.0, respectively. Throw in that Sun games typically have five more possessions per game, and the steals+blocks of 19.7 to 9.3 is huge. Further, these stats are merely the tip of the defensive harrassment iceberg. For every steal, there are five more deflections and near steals that don't get recorded in the stats. For every block, there are five more shot-changing interferances that do not make it into the box score. All of those deflections and changes in shots affect not only the flow of the other's team's offense, but also their confidence.
While all that sounds like a huge defensive advantage for the Fever, Kevin Pelton provides a more holistic estimate of defense, which puts Indiana and Connecticut 1st and 2nd in the league, by a considerable margin. The Sun appear to achieve that defensive rating through superior rebounding and through positional team defense as opposed heavy pressure backed by steals and blocks.
The Sun, anchored by the uncommonly polished low post play of rookie Tina Charles, have the cleaner offense. The Sun have an enviable inside-outside game bolstered by the outstanding shooting of Tan White and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota. The Sun also tend to play at a quicker pace, getting about five more shots off per game.
Meanwhile, the Fever's offense has been carried the fearsome twosome of Katie Douglas and Tamika Catchings. The bench doesn't shoot particularly well, and the other starters may score opportunistically but do not carry much of an offensive load. Can the tandem of Catchings-Douglas handle the offensive load all the way to a title? Can a confident Zellous or an energized Murphy make it a big three?
In purely statistical terms, the production of the two offenses are as similar as you might find in the league. Indiana is 9th in FG% at 42.8 and the Sun are 10th at 42.6%. At the arc, the Fever are 34.7% (7th) and the Sun are 34.3% (9th) but shoot 3 more attempts per game. The Sun are 79.4% from the line, compared to the Fever's 76%, but they get tothe line fewer times than the Fever.
As depth goes, both teams will play 11 players over 10 minutes each, 10 players over 18 minutes each. The Sun have Asjha Jones back in the starting lineup and have had center Sandrine Gruda back with the team for the past week. The Fever may get lucky with Gruda not playing her best WNBA game, but otherwise these two teams will should show a lot of personalities and play styles on the court throughout the series.
This series reminds me of a line from Alien Resurrection. An alien is feasting on the remains of the captain and a shotgun barrel rises out of a hole in the floor, into the alien's mouth. Boooom! Ripley shoots the alien cephalus into bits and climbs out of the hole in the floor.
Call: It was like killing one of your own kind! Ripley 8: It was in my way.
That's how this home-and-home series will be for the Connecticut Sun and the Indiana Fever. It won't be personal, but these two teams are in each other's way to the top of the Eastern Conference. If they have to blow each other's heads off to get there, then that's just how it has to be. Read more...
Anyone looking at today's standings would marvel at the notion of "WNBA Parity".
Following Sunday's 89-51 humiliating destruction of the Minnesota Lynx after Thursday's 79-57 thrashing of the Silver Stars by the Indiana Fever, I started digging into the Myth and the Dogma of WNBA Parity.
The Myth of Parity
At the conference level, which I wrote about a week ago, the numbers can be best seen from Massey's Ratings: Eastern Conference teams have won 10-4 over Western Conference teams. That margin was severely exacerbated by Sunday's results (not included).
One team that has found balance is Indiana, which surged from last in the league in offense to seventh on the strength of an 89-51 win at Minnesota on Sunday. That was the Fever’s third consecutive victory, and Indiana is starting to look like the juggernaut that reached the WNBA Finals last season. The Fever’s defense remains far and away the league’s best.
KP doesn't find much evidence for parity at the conference level, team level, game level or even player level (Tamika Catchings with a single game per of 65?! Yikes!).
I think there's no question at the moment that there are some very bad teams in the WNBA cellar and that there's some outstanding teams at the top.
The Dogma of Parity - Why it matters
Parity is a fundamental guiding principle of the WNBA, a notion that cuts at the core of what the league is about, and how the league differs from the incumbent paradigm of professional sports.
Unlike other leagues, the WNBA does not have fluff - a predetermined stable of Washington Generals teams facing an elite selection of Harlem Globetrotter teams.
The importance of parity is that quality is maintained in the small 12-team league. Unlike the dominant sports paradigms, the WNBA cannot afford to have teams that are predetermined losers.
Parity is about fairness in the league on the surface but the subtext is about quality despite so few teams. Rather than a microcosm of the NBA distribution of teams, the WNBA hope to be a microcosm of the NBA's best teams, say only the playoff teams, without the meaninglessness the New Jersey Nets and the LA Clippers.
“It’s so hard to predict,” Orender said about what is ahead. “The parity comes off of strength because there’s just so much quality talent, and organizations have done such a tremendous job of melding that talent, picking talent that’s right for them, having them jell. It’s really exciting. It’s fun to watch.”
Michelle Voepel expounds on the notion, comparing the current WNBA to women's sport of 20 years ago and to the current men's pro leagues.
“You know, here’s a definite upside to the WNBA: There is a sense of real competitive balance.” -Michelle Voepel
Competitive balance, however, is not all good. Parity can be vexing--that somehow quality teams are handicapped from greatness and bad teams are subsidized with talent. If any team can, and does, win, what is the value of hard work, dedication and team engineering?
Is parity evidence of strength or uniform weakness? What can we know about that strength or weakness, or even appreciate, when every game seems to be decided by solely by injuries, slight vagaries of chance scheduling and home court advantage?
Ex Ante Parity, Not a league full of 0.500 teams
The disparity that we see in today's WNBA doesn't bother me as much as a field of 0.500 teams would.
The WNBA should not strive for ex post parity, but for ex ante parity. At the beginning of this season, it was clear in reading the previews, the GM surveys and all the various comments posted around the WNBA village that no one had strong feelings about the dominant forces in the league. Too many things had changed. Too many teams had the talent and the tools do come out on top. Each game mattered. In my view, there was ex ante parity or at least ex ante uncertainty.
Even now, the Sparks and the Lynx are loaded with talent. With some tinkering perhaps they may yet turn it around. The 0-4 Chicago Sky figured out what they needed to do to get the ball to Big Syl and went on a 4-0 streak. Alternatively, it only takes an unlucky circumstance or play upturn the fortunes of some favorites. Then with player movements, the draft and all of the external noise which influences WNBA economics and win-loss outcomes, any team in the cellar this year may put itself in a far better position to win next year.
Ex Ante Parity as Upward Mobility
There are teams in the WNBA cellar and teams with 0.800+ records, but there is a lot of upward mobility in this league. More so than parity, what I see is a great opportunity for each team to better itself and to have a shot at winning. That's what is exciting about the WNBA.
From the Lynx Stats Page, just another way to see Shavonte Zellous' total game impact. Adjusted plus/minus is one of the few stats that can capture both the offensive and defensive game, as well as team play.
Net Plus/Minus
Catchings
+15.1
Zellous (in Indiana)
+10.9
Murphy
+5.9
Davenport
+5.6
Douglas
+4.4
Hoffman
+0.3
January
-0.9
Sutton-Brown
-4.6
*Zellous while in Tulsa
-6.5
Bevilaqua
-6.6
Moore
-11.9
Morris
-12.9
*Quigley
-12.9
A couple of other things pop out.
First, what's not in these stats is that Shavonte Zellous has recieved some of her minutes not in relief, but also in critical junctures of the game, including the 4th quarter clutch of the New York Liberty game.
The dispersion in numbers for Jessica Davenport and Jessica Moore is huge. It's huge not only because Davenport is +5.6 and Moore -11.9, but also because the two often play together in relief.
Shay Murphy's defensive presence and uncanny rebounding, more so than a two godlike games against the Chicago Sky put her in 3rd place on the team's adjusted plus/minus.
Lastly, more than might be indicated by her shooting percentage and occasional flashes of genius play, Jene Morris is clearly a rookie lost in the WNBA game. We all want Jene Morris to play as good as she looks.
Read more...
One week ago, Indianapolis celebrated 99th year of the Indy 500. The early season of the WNBA has been a lot like the Indy 500 in that most teams have been trying to tune-up their cars while racing them at 250 miles per hour.
The Indiana Fever "car" had initially stalled at the green light (thank you, Istanbul), but has since torn through the field, even as the Coach Lin Dunn continues to tinker on the Fever's engine.
After starting 0-2 in a pair of opening weekend games against the Washington Mystics and the Atlanta Dream, the Fever have on won 5 of 6. The Fever have just finished three games in four days going 3-0, with two of them blowouts. On Thursday, the Fever led San Antonio by as much as 30, winning 79-57. Yesterday, the Fever shattered the well-advertised myth of WNBA parity with a 38 point (89-51) win over Minnesota Lynx on their homecourt.
With approximately a quarter of the season's games played (8 of 34), the Indiana Fever's preseason is officially over.
(Hollinger's ESPN WNBA Power Rankings has the Indiana Fever at 2, just behind the Seattle Storm)
Even so, the Fever's winning streak has come largely against losing teams in the cellars of both conferences: San Antonio (2-5), Minnesota (2-7), New York (2-4). The sole loss came against the Tulsa Shock, who are 3-4. The two wins against Chicago took place before the team climbed up to 4-4 this week.
Looking ahead, the upcoming five games over the next two weeks represent a substantial test for the Indiana Fever, as they compete against the best teams in the WNBA.
This week, they'll face the greatly improved Connecticut Sun (5-2) in a home-and-home series. Next week, the Fever will have a rematch against the Eastern Conference leader, the Atlanta Dream (7-2), sandwiched between a home-and-home against the WNBA and Western Conference leader, the Seattle Storm (8-1).
These five games will be of tremendous importance to gauge the Fever's personnel and schemes against teams the Fever expect to face in the playoffs. Further, the statistical potpourri of analysis against the weak field Indiana has defeated will not provide a good indication of how ready Indiana is for the WNBA's early season elite.
The Fever will not play the Seattle Storm again in the regular season and the Fever will not play preseason favorite Phoenix Mercury until August.
(Indiana Fever's Shay Murphy drives on the New York Liberty, courtesy Sue Wilden, SportsPageMagazine.com)
Developments
Defense
The Indiana Fever's success starts with their defense, and the Fever have held opponents to 68 points per contest.
The 79-74 loss to Tulsa disturbed the team because they failed to get key stops down the stretch. Massey Ratings reports this upset the "Least Likely Result" of the WNBA season thus far.
"What our success was and knowing how we obtained our success from last year was making our identity on the defensive end. In Tulsa, we couldn't get stops. Every time in a close game, we normally could get stops and find ways to win." said Douglas. "Any time you're a second late in this game...people are going to make plays."
“We just talked about the things that we wanted to do as a team and how we wanted to be known throughout the league,” Catchings said. “Last year, we were that defensive team that everybody knew. That’s the one thing that we have to get back to. Tonight was a huge night for us from that standpoint.”
Following the loss in Tulsa, the Fever have held San Antonio to 57, New York to 73 and Minnesota to 51. Regarding the Minnesota game, Coach Dunn said “I thought tonight we probably defended as well as we have defended since back to the playoffs.”
(Tamika Catchings' 27 points against the Lynx is not her season-high. Courtesy of David Sherman/NBAE/Getty Images)
Offense
The Fever's strangulating defense has been good all season, primarily because it had to be. The Fever's historically anemic offense was in critical condition to start the season. More so than jet-lag, the team has been out-of-sync.
In first five games of the seasons, primary scoring option Katie Douglas was in an awful shooting slump. Douglas was shooting 33% from the field and taking less than 10 shots per game. That slump was compounded by a rusty offense that forced Douglas to put up bad shots late in the shot clock. In the past three games, Douglas has shot 64% from the field, 53% from three and is taking more shots as well.
Douglas is filling in at the PG spot, which seems to have been the impetus in her improved shooting.
"She had the ball in her hands a lot more coming down the floor, so she was able to create for herself and kind of say, 'Okay, I've got a shot, we don't even need to run anything.'" explained Coach Dunn. "And we want to run early offense. And I think when she does have the ball in her hands like that, sometimes she gets early, quick shots that she doesn't get if we set up."
"It's an adjustment for me." said Douglas about managing the point.
Even with Douglas shooting well, the offense relies too heavily on Douglas and Catchings. For example, at half-time against the New York Liberty, Douglas and Catchings were 7-13 and had scored 22 points in the half. The "Rest of the Team" was 5-21 and had scored 13 points.
Indeed, it looked as if the rest of the team had lost confidence on offense and were playing "hot potato," passing the ball away from themselves as quickly as possible until, finally, Douglas would shoot it.
Occasionally, other players do step up. Veterans Tammy Sutton-Brown, Ebony Hoffman and Tully Bevilaqua can be counted on to put in a few shots each game. Shay Murphy scored 36 points on 12-24 shooting in two games against Chicago. Jessica Davenport put 11 points on the Silver Stars in 8 minutes on a surprising array of shots. Shavonte Zellous went to the line 12 times against the New York Liberty and scored 23 points. Jene Morris is still finding her way as a rookie.
Rotation
Indiana's front line is as solid and as well-defined as any in the league. Tammy Sutton-Brown anchors the center spot and Ebony Hoffman at the power forward with Jessica Davenport and Jessica Moore coming in relief. All are solid defenders that provide infrequent, largely situational offense. For example, Ebony Hoffman's scoring often improves against teams that give up open shots, like Phoenix.
On the perimeter, auditions continue. The starters are set with Briann January, Katie Douglas and Tamika Catchings, but with January injured, aspiring rotation players have more playing time to make their case.;
With great back-to-back games against the Chicago Sky, Shay Murphy earned more playing time. With that time, she's shown solid defense and outstanding perimeter rebounding (in 22 mpg, she leads the team with 6.4 rpg), but a poor outside threat. She's has been putting extra time in shooting and makes her shots in practice, but it has not yet translated into the games. Were her shooting to improve, her rebounding and defense would make a strong case for starter's minutes over Ebony Hoffman.
Recently acquired Shavonte Zellous is also getting a lot of playing time. She stays on the floor for 20 mpg with her intense defense and the ability to play the point in limited stretches. She also provides a hopeful scoring option for the Fever, displaying a classic slasher game. Zellous doesn't have much of an outside shot, where she's 12% from three, but she can drive and get to the line. She's 50% from the field at close range and an 86% free throw shooter. With a 23 point game against New York, she's rested fears about her play in Tulsa, where she didn't get to the line and shot just 16% from the field for 4 ppg.
Personnel
Briann January's sprained medial collateral ligament is healing. At best, she will be ready for the Connecticut series, but may be held out longer for precautionary reasons.
Larry Bird Statement on Death of John Wooden Pacers release 6/5/2010
Larry Bird statement on the passing of John Wooden:
"John Wooden, basketball, Indiana. One doesn't go without the others. His contributions to the game, both for the State of Indiana and on a national level, are unmatched. We at Pacers Sports & Entertainment have been, and are, quite proud to have a game or games every year in Conseco Fieldhouse that carry his name along with the word Tradition, a great tribute to a great man. This is a loss for all basketball fans, but in particular for those of us who grew up in Indiana with the legacy Mr. Wooden left us. Our sincere condolences go to the Wooden family."
I will forever cherish my time spent talking to Coach Wooden....the original Indiana LEGEND!
In the pregame, I had a chance to sit with Coach Dunn for a moment, she said
First of all, the fact that he's from Indiana and is a Purdue Boilermaker makes it even more special to me with my ties to Purdue and my ties to Indiana to have an opportunity on several occasions to be at events where he spoke or clinics he did and of course I had opportunity to interact with him. I think historically I don't know that we have a finer person as well as a teacher, a coach, a gentleman, a father, a grandfather. He was the whole package.
And you knew he couldn't live forever. So I think it's a sad day, but also kind of a day to celebrate. It's a day to celebrate all that he's given everyone, not just in the world of sports but also with some of his books on life lessons and those types of things. I think he's going to be treasured and remembered forever.
It's a sad day, but a day to celebrate a wonderful life.
The New York Liberty are amid a four-game road trip and have just played the Connecticut Sun less than 24 hours ago and lost, 75-68. The game got as close as a Cappie Pondexter 3 to tie it with 32.5 seconds left, but Caps was her lowercase self, going 3-14 in 32 minutes of play. With the exception of rookie reserve Kalana Greene, who shot 6-8, 13 points, +7 plus/minus, the New York Liberty shot horribly (35%) last night.
I don't expect the New York Liberty not to snap back from the Connecticut Sun game, but back-to-backs on the road will wear on this team that only gives significant minutes to six players, one of whom (Taj at 39) is ancient.
"It was an off night," Pondexter said. "I've faced a lot of defenders in my life. It was more me. You have off games. We have another game tomorrow night so it's nothing to get down about."
The game had an extra element of business rivalry because of the news earlier in the week that Foxwoods Resort Casino, located near the Mohegan Sun establishment, had ponied up $1 million to become the fourth to have its name worn on WNBA team jerseys.
Of course, the Mohegans actually own the Sun, having paid the $10 million in the last decade to acquire the former Orlando Miracle.
Although the sponsorship deal is just for 10 by 4 inch space on the jersey, I plan to acknowledge Foxwoods every time I mention the New York Liberty. Foxwoods Resort Casino deserves to get some bang for their advertising dollar, and I'm more than willing to oblige.
Later this week, I'll be revealing the five corporate sponsors that should step up and support the Indiana Fever with their advertising dollars.
The Indiana Fever
The Indiana Fever are coming off a break-out game for Katie Douglas in their 79-57 blowout of the Silver Stars. The Fever were up by as much as 30 in that game, one where everything seemed to go right for the team.
The day before the game, the team reaffirmed its identity as a defensive powerhouse.
"We just talked about the things that we wanted to do as a team and how we wanted to be known throughout the league," Catchings said. "Last year, we were that defensive team that everybody knew. That’s the one thing that we have to get back to. Tonight was a huge night for us from that standpoint."
That defensive team wasn't just about holding a Backy Hammon-deprived Silver Stars offense to 57 points, it was about grabbing 82% of their defensive rebounds and 38% of their offensive rebounds. 38%!
Getting hip with Early Offense
All that heady defensive talk is good coming from the Fever, but there's been more interest on the Fever's anemic offense as of late.
In Kevin Pelton's most recent pace-adjusted numbers (June 1st), the Fever are second in defensive efficiency but also dead last in offensive ratings. What hurt most is that the Atlanta Dream have kicked off the season at the top of the defensive ratings and second on the offensive side. The Fever need to step up on the offensive end, as Kevin Messenger's "first to 74 points wins" post alluded to a few days ago.
There are a few encouraging signs for the Fever's offense.
First, Katie Douglas got her groove back, to the tune of 22 points on 9-12 shooting.
Second, Shavonte Zellous may not make her shots (15% on the season!), but she gets to the line, where scoring happens off-the-clock.
Third, Coach Lin Dunn in last game's postgame presser, uttered some of the most encouraging words yet: "Early Offense".
From Kevin Pelton again: PACE
Team Pace
-------------------
Tulsa 85.1 < --- Shavonte Zellous describes this as the "BamBamBamBam" offense
Phoenix 83.6
Atlanta 82.2
Minnesota 81.7
Los Angeles 81.2
San Antonio 79.6
Connecticut 77.7
Seattle 77.0
Washington 76.1
New York 76.1
Indiana 75.2 < --- Where, like in Detroit, Plays Happen
Chicago 73.2
Looking at the pace, it's a lot more clear why some players, including Shavonte Zellous might have been caught off-guard in Nolan Richardson's system, having come from Detroit where there was a much more structured and cantankerous offense. Like Detroit's offense, so has been Indiana's.
Therefore, to hear Coach Lin Dunn get hip with "early offense" is a great sign for the Fever. Besides pushing up the pace, early offense should make it easier for the Fever to score.
This simply put is to advance the ball quickly into the front court areas and attack before the defense is able to become organized into a disruptive force.
As defensive specialists over the many years of coaching, we have found the most difficult teams to defend were the ones with offenses that pushed the ball into the front court hash mark areas in the time span of 2 to 3 seconds. This early offense push creates quick medium jump shots, or penetration lay-ups, or kick out passes for scores to occur before the defense had a chance to set up and disrupt any organized set play.
We have also found that when teams walked the ball up the court, they were much easier to defend because the defense was able to get its players back into positions near the basket were they could execute pressure denials, traps to disrupt the offensive flow and to force rushed shots as time on the clock became a factor.
(Check out that link for a few nice schematics and diagrams.)
So, why the reference to early offense from the defensive juggernaut Indiana Fever?
It's more by accident, actually. With Briann January out, the ball is more in the hands of primary scoring option Katie Douglas. This means that when she brings the ball up the court, she can shoot as soon as she's open and shoot in rhythm. It's a good situation until January comes back, but I hope the team will be looking at incorporating early offense more into their play. Read more...
Like engineering disasters, there's never one clear reason for the Indiana Fever's 79-57 blowout of the San Antonio Silver Stars.
In fact, the conflagration of contributing factors make one's first impulse to condemn the game as an aberration, bury the tape and move on.
However, if we get our hands dirty a little and mess around in the wreckage of yesterday's game, we may find a few more clues. Clues not to the game that was, but to the games that will be.
Olaf's expression said it all this game. When the Silver Stars "the SS!" played well, they failed to gain ground, when they played poorly, the wheels came off.
It's Becky Hammon's fault
There's no question in my mind that this loss is on Becky Hammon. Although Edwige Lawson-Wade played well in relief, I have no idea how the Silver Stars scored even 57 points without her on the floor. Unfortunately, 57 isn't enough to win a college game, much less a WNBA game. Chamique Holdsclaw got the ball in her hands more and had an on par game. The rest of the team did not, and there was no one to pick up Hammon's slack.
The Silver Star is the third highest medal of valor granted in the US Military. They don't grant it to deserters. Phantom quad issues aside, if there's no MRI twitpic, it's desertion.
Seriously, we hope Becky Hammon gets better and I hope my electronic hate had nothing to do with her choice to sit out of the Fever game and deprive Indiana fans of her great potpourri of playmaking.
Weak Rebounding and a Lack of Physical Play
"We were outworked, outplayed" - Young
Understatement.
Despite blaming this loss on Becky Hammon, I find it very hard to blame her for her team's inability to rebound, try as I might. Super Star Cult Figure PG Becky Hammon's limping in Seattle's game and absence in this game may explain the SS' low scoring, (56 and 57 points, respectively), but it doesn't excuse the inability of the Silver Stars to rebound. The Silver Stars were outrebounded 38-27. As a team, they share the distinction with the Tulsa Shock of having the worst rebounding differential in the league, both at -5.
The total rebounding differential depends on the possible number of defensive or offensive rebounds available, so this differential may simply indicate fewer available defensive rebounds. As an indication of aggressive, physical play, consider the offensive rebounding. The Fever pulled down 14 of 37 (38%) possible offensive rebounds. The Silver Stars only managed 6 of 33 (18%) possible offensive rebounds.
No matter how I try, I can't pin that on PG Becky Hammon.
What's next for the Silver Stars
The shocking thing for the SS was that 57 isn't their lowest score this season. With Becky Hammon limping, they only put up 56 against the Seattle Storm the game before.
Now at 2-4, the prognosis is just awful. It's not just that the team is 2-4, but how the team got to 2-4 and what lies ahead in the near future. The team has already lost 3, three, THREE home games. Those are heartbreakers.
Now with Hammon out with a lingering injury that has bothered her since the preseason (read: could be a while before she comes back), in the next 5 games, the SS face the following:
6/6 @Connecticut (Two Connecticut Sun scouts were at the game tonight. I looked a one of the notebooks and it said "We should start Kerri Gardin and Asjha Jones...Silver Stars broken")
6/11 Tulsa (this home game represents the Silver Stars best hope of win)
6/13 @Altana, 6/18 @Phoenix 6/20 @Seattle - ouch!
The SS could easily come out of this 3-8.
it's a disaster that will only be weathered by the fact that the SS have an owner that loves them and an NBA franchise that supports them (Spurs Guard George Hill was at last night's game, Tony Parker's made it to a home game).
Bob Corwin sitting next to me said Jayne Appel's face up 3-pointer near the end of the game was the only positive thing he saw in the game for the Silver Stars. Appel also committed four turnovers and several rookie fouls on her way to 7 points on perfect shooting in 12 minutes of play. Her ability to shot the outside jumper may help her WNBA game....
The Fever's Falcon Punch
Three stories stand out for the Fever. First, the return of Katie Douglas' offensive form. Second, the ongoing auditions for bench roles, starring new Fever guard Shavonte Zellous. Finally a shout-out to Jessica Davenport for some big plays.
Here's Indiana Fever Coach Lin Dunn's postgame presser.
Coach talks about how nice it was to have Katie Douglas put up 22 points
Talks about Shavonte Zellous' play
Unfortunately, I didn't get in a question about Zellous' shot-selection (Z was 1-8 from the field)
"Katie Douglas finally has shaken off her jet lag." - Cliff Brunt
After much hand-wringing over Katie Douglas slow start this year, the Indiana Fever's primary scoring option Douglas put up 22 points on 9 of 12 shooting (3 of 5 from 3), easily eclipsing her prior season high of 13 points.
Says having ball in her hands more has helped (she's the backup PG while Briann January is out)
Has some swelling in her thumb
Katie Douglas is a great defender, so when she can also light it up offensively, she can will the game. In this one, those contributions on both sides of the ball came together for a godlike +28 plus/minus.
Shavonte Zellous gets to the line
Shavonte Zellous is getting the chance to prove she can help the Fever this year. She got 24 minutes in this game, including some time at the point, flanked by Shay Murphy and Jene Morris with Jessica Moore and Jessica Davenport up front. I like that lineup a lot.
Incomprehensibly, Zellous was unable to improve on her abominable season-long 16% shooting average. She shot 1-8! That's 12.5%! Yikes!
At the same time, she did manage getting to the line a Fever season-high 9 times (made 8 of 9) and did enough good things (10 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 crazy block) to earn praise from the coach.
I guess I knew Shavonte Zellous might be a big story this game, so I talked to her in the pregame shootaround about her first week with the Fever.
Zellous talks about her first week with the Fever
Coaches told her to be aggressive
Unlike the Detroit and Indiana offenses with set plays, the Tulsa offense is "BamBamBamBam".
Following the game, the press corps caught up with Shavonte Zellous:
Davs scored 11 points in 8 minutes. She played a total of 18 minutes and finished 4 of 9 shooting. Her scoring was fantastic in the first half, hitting almost everything on an array of shots.
One of the features of the small lineup (which starts Shay Murphy in place of Ebony Hoffman) is that it pushes Jessicas Davenport and Moore back in the rotation, behind Ebony Hoffman. Perhaps this game Jessica Davenport was making a statement that she wanted to play.
Briann January Injury Update
Sprained medial collateral ligament in her right knee is actually a small tear
Does not require surgery will heal on its own
Despite reports of expected return being a week to 10 days, it may actually be longer, two to four weeks.
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