I'm tired of teams coming in and choosing to go the "wrong" way, by which I mean they start their offense at their bench, rather than ours. It just feels odd. I haven't compiled stats for this over the years, and I doubt anything official exists, but I do know that several years ago we didn't have a positive record in these kinds of configurations...but that may have been due to defensively-strong teams coming in and stifling us in the second half, since it's generally those who are emphasizing defense that want to be playing defense by their bench at the ends of games. They may have their reasons, but I still don't like it.
It was fun to bring my parents and drag my youngest brother to a game. There were some technical difficulties early, showing my dad how to blow up the Thunder Sticks. Also, it remains very awkward to face the flag during the anthem. It was useful to have my dad there, because as a person who at one time contemplated a music major, I was able to converse with him about my concerns regarding the tempo of the opening video.
If you've read my Downpours over the years, you'll know that I have a bit of a pet peeve about playing songs that don't allow for good crowd interaction. (I also keep meaning to write a letter to the Storm about the more prevalent use of in-game cheer prompts that seem to exist only to make noise, rather than encouraging the fans to make noise, but that's a separate issue). Using a tempo app on Dad's smartphone, we determined that the optimum tempo for clapping seemed to be in the range of 120-140 beats per minute (bpm). The "Can Can" seemed to clock in at around 140 (if you measure it and I'm off, know that I'm just using approximate numbers), which is really the high end of what is comfortable for a crowd to maintain, but works in the short, specific circumstances that it's used for in the game production ("Everybody Clap Your Hands" is faster as well, as another example). "I Want to Take You Higher", that fondly-remembered intro song from 2004 is around 125 bpm. Just about perfect. The crowd can sustain higher, as stated, but it's more difficult. Any lower than 120, though, and the energy/noise of the clap has entirely dissipated by the time the next clap comes along. For another example, that "Thunderstruck" song is about 130 bpm. Anyway, being able to refer to non-subjective measures of these songs may help the Storm staff in the future. The new song to the intro video is about 85 bpm, and that just is not going to cut it, no matter how cool the graphics are. Post video they do pick up the tempo with 142 bpm as the players are introduced, so at least the energy comes back. Seems like we could do better, though. :-/
Oh, you're reading this Downpour for a basketball recap, not a discussion of musical theory? Silly me. Be sure to read my Run-off section for a discussion of the Flap Jackson mini game, the 2nd of several promised mini games (the first was the similarly hilarious Sue Bird Racing) featured this season. Whichever staffer was the inspiration behind this one deserves a big raise, or at least a hearty pat on the back. ;)
As is customary, Swin and Ify were shooting around when I got to my seats. Brian, Nancy and Jenny were all out there variously observing, shagging balls, etc. Katie Smith, Camille and Krystal Thomas were undergoing their stretching routines. Bobbit, Pohlen, Erin Phillips and Katie Douglas were also shooting around. When the players came out for formal shootaround I hoped that their initial funny mix-up wasn't indicative of how the game would go, with Sue getting to the corner where she's supposed to receive the ball in a pass, then go lay it in...but no pass was there. I guess she ran too fast. ;D But this was quickly remedied as her teammates in the other line caught up.
Laura Loge from Bellevue, a opera soprano performed the anthem. Opera is such a distinct sound that I'm always taken aback. Love how she hit the high-high note on free, though. Effortless.
Catchings was the only captain for Indiana signing the balls for the Junior Captains at center court. The refs were Scott Twardoski, Maj Forsberg, and Darryl Humphries. I'm not a fan. Scott always calls the post weird, particularly. But whatever. Also at this time the clean bill of health given both teams in the Virginia Mason Team Medicine Report got polite applause. I sensed that mostly the crowd was eager to rinse the taste of the last game from our mouths. There was an odd kind of nervous energy.
The Fever were introduced to the song "Night Fever" I believe? Despite my tempo obsession, I'm not a music expert, so someone may have to help me out there. The Bee Gees? This Game Report is probably overcome by events, but it's possible I'll get some feedback about that. :) Lin Dunn got really big cheers, though. 8-)
It was at this point that I first noticed A-Robs blue hair! :D It's pretty hysterical. My understanding is that it's in honor of the Mavs winning the WNBA title. Hey, if anyone can pull it off, Ashley can.
LJ won the tip and drove in for an immediate score. Multiple positive things in that statement. Whew: fans and bench sit down. And we came out really strong on defense, though initially Tammy Sutton-Brown was beating us on the boards. She went down hard a couple minutes in, but finally got up to polite crowd applause. Halfway through the quarter, up 12-6, our offense looked better, as far as spacing and picking our spots, even though we still weren't scoring at the clip we're used to (i.e. hitting our shots), but our defense looked worlds better. At this point one Fever pass sailed quite a bit above our bench; the announcer congratulated "Marisa" on her catch, so I'll assume she works for the Storm in some capacity, and add my congratulations. :) I believe she's a ball girl.
By the end of the quarter our offense was looking a touch stagnant, but we were maintaining our defensive intensity. But LJ did face-palm herself when she got called for a reach in foul at the top of the key as the Fever shot clock reached zero at one point. Bail out. I imagine Lin Dunn's historic, "Thank! Thank!" (it's hard to type accents). ;) Snell got a little bit of court time, but was yanked after a couple of lackluster/confused offensive possessions (not just on her part; the whole team looked a little stymied).
The Fever played for the last shot, but then turned the ball over. And Tanisha may still be playing pretty good defense this season, but her court vision seems to have suffered. Often she'll just keep the ball on offense, if she's running the break, or whatever. It reminds me of the days when I had an epiphany about how easy Sue makes running a fast break look, and how hard it actually is. Or looks like it is with T orchestrating the break. I'm sorry, but it's true. I've been a Tanisha advocate for years, ever since she filled in when Betty got a concussion, but I have to call them like I see them. So instead of see Swin wide open under the basket, she just kind of puts the blinders on and never thinks anything but "I'm taking it" as far as I can tell...and ends up getting called for an offensive foul. Sigh. 1Q: 15-10, Storm
She'll get there, though. I've been pondering the differences between this team now, and at the end of last season. One thing about our team was that we all knew our roles, and on top of that we trusted one another to fill those roles. Then the players go to other teams in the off-season. Often they play differently than they do in either the WNBA, or as members of the Storm. Then we came back together with injuries and other factors contributing to a slow start, and it seems like in this game we finally started to trust one another a bit, working as a team and with better spacing. But it's taking a little longer for players like Tanisha, for instance, to regain their mental rhythm with this team. She was big for us last year, though, so I know she'll get there.
Brian is working towards that as well. Sue remained on the bench for the first couple minutes of the 2nd quarter, allowing the team on the court to try working it out for themselves. Meanwhile, LJ looked much more spry in this game. Her energy on defense was outstanding, and she was getting touches nearly every offensive possession, it seemed, though she wasn't shooting as much still, and when she was she still wasn't floating them in as we've become accustomed to. She seemed unwilling to back down into the post as in the past, and towards the end of the game she seemed even less willing to take a beating down low, but she was still fleet of foot, and laying the hits on the opposition.
One of my favorite plays that I've noticed this season is one here early in the 2nd where LJ flashes to the basket from deep in the wing, the defense collapses on her, and another player follows her in for the easy pass and bucket. In this instance T followed her in and got the trailing bucket. It was really nice, and worth mentioning, because we're still waiting for our offense to really click this season.
After waiting a few minutes, Brian sent the rest of the starters in, then subbed ARob in for LJ (who got big cheers as she went to the bench; her efforts and energy were clear out there, despite the fact that we're still waiting for them to go off offensively). Really it's like the fans were looking for any incident to really cheer over. Of course we love defensive effort. I remember several years ago how excited we would get at forcing shot clock violations. But when we get no successful offense to go with it, it seems to suck all the energy out of the building. And really, while we won this game, it was like that all game, with the ultimate effect being a rather flat game.
Not that Indiana isn't known for defense. I mean, I guess there are reasons that offenses look discombobulated against the Fever, so perhaps it's not all team chemistry. Tammy Sutton-Brown was having a block party in Key Arena. Anyway, L'Coe came in too, and pretty much took over the 1st half of the quarter offensively, which was great to see. Halfway through the quarter Sue was called for a foul using her Sue-jitsu defense (much maligned, where she tries to poke the ball away once her player passes her), and that got the crowd hot, generating a chorus of boos. The Storm were in the penalty. <rolling eyes> But this was quickly followed by several make-up calls (or poor officiating; I mean: potato, tomato, you know?) and capping it off with the Fever entering the penalty, Swin pulled her little crafty jump-into-the-defender move, used so often by the likes of Diana Taurasi and Angel McCoughtry. Anyway, she faked Catchings into the foul and extended the Storm run. Then T was called for a crap foul, though she had been playing great defense on Katie Douglas all game. Recognizing this, Sue went right back to T on offense and suddenly we were up 31-18 prompting a Fever timeout as Brian Agler worked the refs.
Enter the 2nd mini game of the season: the Flap Jackson Flip. :D Love it. Lauren came on the screen and introduced the game holding up a pancake/flapjack and saying that they called them Flap Jacksons in her home country, then Snelly came on and chimed in saying that she loved her Flap Jacksons. <smile chime> Quite funny. So Swin and Sue joined Lauren on the video to help demonstrate, each wearing flippers on their feet. The object was to put a flapjack on the end of a flipper, then flip it up into the air and into a hoop/bucket. As soon as the whistle blew Sue went to work, getting like 4 into the bucket right away. She so competitive, it's just highly entertaining to watch her get all focused and intent no matter the game. Meanwhile, Swin was having trouble even getting a flapjack near her hoop. They were flying every which way, prompting a laughing Lauren to protest her ineffectiveness, "Swin!" But Swin finally caught on to the technique and started to improve her accuracy. They counted Swin's first: 4. Then they just started pulling Sue's out of her goal, 4...5..6. At one point Sue grabbed one and bit it, to the crowd's delight. I mean it was clear that she won. She ended up with 10. I venture to say this was the most entertaining part of this game. :D Later on some dad and daughter teams competed on the court. See the Run-off for descriptions of this.
Back into the game I realized that each team was 0-8 from 3. It was really a fairly miserable display of outside shooting. But our defense continued to stifle the Fever. LJ poked the ball away and Swin was ahead of the pack on the Fast Break...and Tammy Sutton-Brown caught up for what looked to me like a clean block. Amazingly. I did not think anyone would be able to catch Swin. Of course the Keystone Refs called a foul. Oh, well, maybe she caught some body.
LJ hadn't touched it for a while, and I wondered if this was the cause of our offensive troubles. But you have to love the effort. Sue attempted at this point to intercept the bad pass to Katie Douglas near mid court. Really, Sue just saw the ball and went for it, but it was so far behind Douglas that she had to stop and come back for it and Sue's momentum knocked Katie flying. Sue was like a free safety out there (Dick Fain's description). Anyway, the refs called the foul on Sue, since she missed the ball, and Sue helped Katie up. It looked like we'd go into the half with a whimper, but Sue took the pass and dribbled in traffic down the court, putting up a leaning, sideways, off-balance 3 among the defense at the buzzer...and this one goes in! The crowd goes wild! The Storm players and coaches were laughing and congratulating Sue, and Sue smiled and hung her tongue out, acknowledging the ridiculousness of the shot. We couldn't hit a normal 3 pointer all half. I guess we were just mistakenly taking the easy ones. <rolling eyes> Half: 37-19, Storm
38% shooting isn't going to get it done. It's better than the 20% of the Fever, but then again, it's not only our defense holding them down. Hopefully they don't get hot in the 2nd half. The refs have been making a lot of calls this game, though it's fairly evenly distributed. Is this a point of emphasis this season? Because we're here to watch basketball, not a foul-shooting contest. :-/ My little brother was playing a personal drinking game where he took a sip every time the whistle blew. :D He was still ambulatory, though.
T got us started in the 2nd half with an &1, doubling us up on Indiana, 40-19. She's been really Jekyll-Hyde this year, but she's still there competing, and making timely plays as much as she's making bone-headed plays. And she hasn't cost us a game yet, so go, Tanisha! ;) The Fever kind of turned it up, though, after that, beating us out for rebounds, and our offense looked stymied. On top of that, they were getting some easy buckets. Our 3s were still not there, though they were reasonable shots. LJ in particular looked frustrated, and she and Sue had a talk prior to the timeout. Then Katie Smith was giving Lauren a pep talk as well. I get the impression with the way the crowd is poised that they're all pulling for her as well. It's almost like with Ashley: anything positive for LJ and we go crazy. The difference is perhaps that we expect LJ to do positive things, but I think it's also clear that she's hurting. You can do it, LJ!
One player I've consistently enjoyed watching this year is Sue Bird. She seems not to have lost her step from last year. Perhaps because she competed in a tougher league overseas? Just because she knows her role, and is completely comfortable with her coach and his system? Empowerment? Whatever the reason, I thought that Sue in this game had a very good feel for when she should call her own number on offense and go for the score. She put her head down (or really, kept it up) and we went to work and about halfway through the 3rd we were suddenly up by over 20. 8-) Her sister in arms, Lauren Jackson, may not have had her shot, but she was really crashing the boards and maintaining great defensive intensity, anchoring our efforts there in the paint. And when she finally hit a 3 pointer the crowd got so happy and loud, followed by a timely steal to usher in the end of the quarter by Katie Smith, ahead to Swin for an &1 that got us back to our feet. :) 3Q: 58-33, Storm
A mix of starters and bench, including A-rob to start the 4th. Arob went to the line right away, and made both her free throws! She was shooting them more confidently than I've ever seen! <shocked face> The Fever were getting frustrated, and after Ashley laid a hard foul on Davenport and the play was over, Davenport got T'ed up for blatantly shoulder-checking A-rob. :D LJ made the technical free throw, but sits for some rest soon after this. She was clearly flagging late, particularly on offense where she rarely ventured into the deep post. Sue Bird, on the other hand...where does she get her energy? Again, whenever a timeout is called away from the bench, she basically sprints to the bench, sits down, and grabs two cups of whatever drink they're serving (the logo says Gatorade, but who knows?). Perhaps she's just being efficient, but it always does my heart good to see her moving so quickly when everyone else is walking towards the bench, particularly after watching her work so hard. Hey, Storm fans know how much she means to this team. Particularly with LJ on the fritz.
So, our defense looked good. Our offense did not. As a Storm fan I was really happy with our efforts, but still worried about our complete lack of shooting touch. It's a good thing we had all those bricks to build a defensive wall. I hope we figure it out soon. Down by nearly 20 with 3 minutes to go, Indiana called a timeout and basically conceded by subbing starters out. Brian kept our starters in for quite a few more reps. Practice? Trying to find that shooting rhythm?
Meanwhile, the refs clearly decided they wanted to make a final statement, blowing whistles on pretty much every possession. Katie Smith banked in a ridiculous shot as the shot clock wound down. The refs started to close the 5-1 foul discrepancy that put the Storm in the penalty, and LJ went to the line. Snell and Ify came in to cheers and Snelly hit a 3! Another game highlight. Cool.
Brian finally subbed LJ out during our final timeout, and I don't know what happened there at the end of the game, but she was really hot about something. During the timeout she was talking intently and constantly to L'Coe. Then she grabbed Swin and pulled her to the end of the bench to talk some more, and when Sue and L'Coe came to the bench L'Coe started talking to Sue. It's amusing to try to divine these team dynamics, but if they were trying to discuss their performance and get better, or if they were planning the after party, it's nice to see them continually talking. ;)
They've been playing "Celebrate Good Times" at the end of games/wins lately at Key Arena, and I want to say that I miss "Another One Bites the Dust".
L'Coe was named the player of the game, and gave a really good interview, I thought, though I wasn't able to record everything. She acknowledged that it was really tough and physical in the post, and thanked the Storm fans for coming out again and supporting them. She said that it felt so good to be on the court again after 8 days of Defense with Brian Agler, but also said that during that 8 days the Team got better, and they they strive to do so every day.
Another note: why is T stopping and popping so much lately? I thought her game was crazy drives to the basket. Sue's got the stop-pops covered. ;) (just kidding: love ya, T; don't over-think it)
Run-off:
- The Community Spotlight was for Wellspring Family Services (http://family-services.org/) "kids helping kids". They say they're taking on the root causes of homelessness and instability for children, adults, and families in King County. Seems like a worthy cause. Caspar Babypants (aka Chris Ballew formerly of The Presidents of the United States of America) was featured in their ad on the Arenavision. Something to do with donating, and him writing a song. I have a friend who loves him, so I had to include that detail.
- Between the 1st and 2nd quarters the Storm Dance Troupe performed, but they had their dads with them. It was pretty cute and amusing. The dads danced with varying levels of proficiency, but were all good sports. One guy even executed a somersault!
- During a bit about the Carter Subaru drive to plant trees in the "Mountains to Sound Greenway" they actually described what the MTSG was, which I appreciated. I always knew that it was over the Snoqualmie Pass, but not really what it encompassed.
- Nick Collison (with his daughter Eva) was at the game and introduced to applause.
- Pre-game and at Half Time we were entertained by the Eastside Dream Elite dancers and cheer squad. They were pretty energetic and fun. I often wonder what it would be like as a young kid to perform in such a big venue, but I'm sure it's not an isolated incident.
- During halftime LJ gave us a Group Health health tip up on the Arenavision: don't super size, substitute fresh fruit for fries if you can--little choices make a big difference. :) She was rather adorably earnest in her delivery. I'm sorry, it's true. ;) Cute is the proper word for it.
- Army t-shirts dropped by parachute during game break. I think this is kind of an amusing bit, though I'm not anti-military, really. I can see how it could be a sensitive subject, though. And I still miss "Flight of the Valkyries", even though there is some political touchiness there also. What can you do?
- Between the 3rd and 4th Quarters the Dad-Daughter teams took the floor for their attempts at the Flap Jackson Flip, for a Family 4-Pack of Regal Cinemas movie tickets. A note here about our sponsors: I've noticed a ton more "product placement" type contests this year, and also in our little Arenavision bits. I can't complain about this at all. Clearly our marketing department has been working really hard, and it can only help the team remain/become solvent. But back to the contest: the daughters were wearing the "hoops" on their heads and the dads were flipping the flap-jacksons. The team closest to me won, but they would have had at least a handful more if the daughter hadn't kept bending her knees and lowering the hoop. Of course, they weren't wearing face guards or anything, so I'm sure it's instinct. Who would want a cold pancake in the face? ;) Anyway, team Charlotte won.
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