About Monarchs/Sky game of Jun 10

[6th]

I was really happy to see Chelsea. I was sorry that she was in street clothes and wondered if anyone heard about that. It was good that the ARCO crowd gave her a HUGE ovation when she was presented her Championship Ring.

Balanced attack tonight. Was glad to see Ticha taking shots....we really needed her. Erin is really showing an improvement over last year. She always brought heart and hustle, but there are many moments where she is just playing with better court sense.

I would like to have seen more of Dorrell. She has a great future (IMHO) but will need more court time to continue to develop. Smith had a great game on both ends of the floor. It was fun to see the playful ribbing she got from her teammates after the game.

Let's hear others' thoughts.

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

Balanced attack to me is still a relative term. I have no idea what they are trying to do out there offensively. I heard bits and pieces of what Coach T was saying after the game on radio and he was trying to explain what was successful tonight, and I do agree that there were certain pick and rolls that the Ms had that Chicago could not and did not stop. But it has looked to me like the wings are looking more to pass than they are to shoot. Everybody's looking to make 2 or 3 extra passes quite frankly more than they are looking to actually shoot the ball.

Loved Buescher, loved the signs of life from Kim Smith's offensive game. Fantasticly efficient night for her. I'm not sure what the idea was with Dorrell's minutes tonight - since nobody stopped Perkins defensively I'da given Dorrell some more minutes. What I kinda think might be playing out here is that coach T seemed to be of the mindset a couple of games ago that they need to get Kara Lawson's game jump started - and her extra minutes might be coming at the expense of the minutes Dorrell would normally get or specifically tonights minutes. Other than that, I don't recall seeing anything I thought Abetamarco might have been trying to get match up wise that should have prevented Dorrell from getting more minutes.

The group of referrees sucked major wind tonight. That's all I'll say about the ridiculousness that went on with them.

Ticha was back to the Ticha we saw a 2-3 games ago, maybe even a lot more aggressive than she was the night she blew our collective minds. There were signs of life in Brunson's game tonight too. The play she had to end the 3rd quarter...even though it was ultimately waved off...I saw her actually showing a lot of emotion again after she worked as hard as she did to get that ball to stay in the basket.

I knew Newton's been hurt the last few games, I did not know what was up with Dales and Powell. Powell they need, but Dales I don't think they miss. Newton's been stealing her minutes until she got hurt.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I was really happy to see Chelsea. I was sorry that she was in street clothes and wondered if anyone heard about that. It was good that the ARCO crowd gave her a HUGE ovation when she was presented her Championship Ring.

I knew that Newton was hurt, as I've actually gotten to see more Sky games than I have Monarchs games (lucky me )... But, since a) Newton was never my favorite player in particular (even though I felt, and still feel, that we should have protected her in the expansion draft instead of Haynie), and b) I couldn't think of any "hardcore" Newton fans from this forum offhand, I didn't think that the matter was newsworthy. Unlike GOS and SPM, I don't feel particularly inclined to report "all" the WNBA news; I just report the WNBA news that's relevant to *me*...

Ticha was back to the Ticha we saw a 2-3 games ago, maybe even a lot more aggressive than she was the night she blew our collective minds...

Meh, with a capital "M." I like my Penicheiro better when she's dropping dimes... I've been reading for the past couple of years in this forum that Penicherio's assists have been dropping because she's not aggressive enough on offense, and opposing teams are sagging off her to prevent her from passing... Well, now she's at least teasing a career high in scoring, and her assist numbers are the worst they've ever been... what's the deal?

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

Her assists are dropping because the ball is not flowing through her per se, her role is to push the offensive tempo and theoretically score more herself too. When they changed the offense 2 years ago, the player typically in the high post (read: DeMya) got what normally would have been Penicheiro assists - but everybody is expected to find cutters or open players on the wing. She also loses assists when she is not aggressive because defenders definitely are sagging off her and clogging her passing lanes into the post. Which I think also caused them to change the offense up away from set plays to a free form motion offense in the first place.

Because our offense sucks right now, I like my Penicheiro scoring and dropping dimes. Her assist totals also are dropping now because when she does give people the ball, they aren't finishing with the same regularity. (See: ridiculously bad game against San Antonio last week when damn near every player on this team blew an easy finish some of which from highlight worthy dishes from Ticha: one notable housebringingdowningly finish that Brunson missed off a goregous pass from Ticha. That play right there would have finished off San Antonio in the first quarter - I'm convinced of it).

My suspicion is that now her assists are only going to come (1)if she is aggressive and penetrating because it will keep defenders from doubling off her so she can dump passes off to her post players/cutters/wings OR (2)if people are finishing off her transition passing.

In some respects, I do believe Ticha is really consciously trying to reinvent herself at this stage of her career, which is pretty cool to see.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Maybe... I'd just like to see Penicheiro still be the all-time assist leader when she retires, no matter how many years she feels that she has left, and if her numbers keep dropping at this rate, she may well be passed by Bird before she hangs it up. I mean, Bird's played barely more than half as many games, and she already has more than half as many assists. And, while Bird's talent appears to have levelled off, she may still get better; even if she doesn't, she may have as many as ten or more good years left in her, and if she continues to play at her current level, she'll probably catch Penicheiro before her career's over.

I just hope that she doesn't catch Ticha before *Ticha's* career is over.

 

[NothinButHoops]

Great seeing Newton receive her Championship ring & the love from the players & fans. Also pleased to see our Maloof in the house again. Bobby Jackson also attended...cool that he supports the WNBA on a regular basis. Does'nt hurt to sit courtside as well!
The game flowed much better in the 3rd quarter when our defense picked up. The players are still unsure at times who supposed to rotate, this happened several times when wide open jumpers & lay ups were made. One positive they do talk about it, Yo never fails to point it out. I agree Ticha is at her best running the show, but to keep the other teams honest, her drives to the basket are hard to defend. Getting at least 10 points from her could help to open things up. I get impression everyone must contribute this season. Our defense used to win us games hands down. We now need to define our offense & take the open shots! Erin B. needs to give her non-stop energy & passion to the team, in my eyes she's been the early season team MVP.
Overall a well balanced win, one we had to have.

 

[Sirius]

It's not like Bird is a scrub though. If she wasn't such a terrible defender I'd take her over Penicheiro at this point, but I don't think she'll ever get much better.

 

[VF21]

Also pleased to see our Maloof in the house again.

Does he ever wear a Monarchs jersey?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

It's not like Bird is a scrub though...

Whether or not Bird is a scrub was never the issue.

 

[MamaBristow]

Maybe... I'd just like to see Penicheiro still be the all-time assist leader when she retires, no matter how many years she feels that she has left, and if her numbers keep dropping at this rate, she may well be passed by Bird before she hangs it up. I mean, Bird's played barely more than half as many games, and she already has more than half as many assists. And, while Bird's talent appears to have levelled off, she may still get better; even if she doesn't, she may have as many as ten or more good years left in her, and if she continues to play at her current level, she'll probably catch Penicheiro before her career's over.

I just hope that she doesn't catch Ticha before *Ticha's* career is over.

Ticha's assist numbers started to take a dive when Whiz took over, and I don't see that trend ever reversing back. He's not like Sonny Allen or Maura McHugh where he plays his starters for 36 of the 40 minutes. Sue Bird is going to play at least 30 minutes every game so her assist numbers are going to be higher. But Bird's highest season average was 6.5, Ticha has only had 3 seasons (this one included) where she didn't average more than that, all three of those seasons coming after the Whiz remodel. Bird will catch up, but it's not because she's a better assist player. It's because she plays more minutes and there are more games in a season now to pad her numbers even more.

Besides, it's hard for anyone on the Monarchs to get assists when they are shooting in the 30s. Once this team starts to look better offensively, those assist numbers might start looking a little better.

I had a good time at the game. My family was in town from Chicago and took in their first ever WNBA game. I would never have lived it down if Chicago had won the game... so I'm really glad that Sac was able to get the win. I was a little upset that I missed the beginning of the game though. I missed Chelsea getting her ring .

 

[NothinButHoops]

Maloof in a Monarchs Jersey...well I can't say I ever have, seen them in one.
I have however seen them showing off that Championship ring plenty of times!

Oh well, maybe they wear Monarch pajama's....

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I was cleaning out some stuff last night and found one of my old season tickets from 2004 and it had Gavin on the front wearing a Breast Health Awareness T-shirt, which I believe had the Monarchs logo on it. So I think that counts.

As long as they continue to write the checks to keep this team in existence and continue to puff out their chest when they talk about the championship their team won, they get a pass from me about wearing a jersey or showing up for games.

 

[NothinButHoops]

Well said MBF...I always enjoy seeing them anytime they attend the games.

 

[kennadog]

MamaBristow: How nice to have family in town. I'm glad the Monarchs won, too. I decided at the last minute to go. So what did family think of the game in general?

 

[MamaBristow]

MamaBristow: How nice to have family in town. I'm glad the Monarchs won, too. I decided at the last minute to go. So what did family think of the game in general?

They all had a great time, I was glad they got to go. Perfect timing for the Sky to be in town at the same time as my brother's graduation. Both of the boys with us ended up leaving with their own WNBA basketballs. Overall, they were really impressed with the entertainment and the atmosphere. Of course they loved the Hip Hop Crew kids. They were actually a couple rows behind me, so if they were cheering for Chicago I couldn't hear them. But they did pay good attention to the game because my aunt thought Dupree was pretty good, and she liked that Sacramento played everyone on the team instead of playing 40 minutes of starters. I was really impressed with my young cousin Danny though. I took him to a game about three years ago when he was in town. After the game we had gone down to get autographs on team posters. When he saw my ticket for the game this weekend he recognized #6, he remembered meeting Ruthie. It's nice to know that the experience had left an impression on a 9 year old boy who had never known anything about women's basketball.