Monarchs Lose - Offense Has Been Kidnapped!!!

[Purple Reign]

Just some observations from last night's game vs the Sun:

1. The Sun are very good. Not great. They can be beat, but for the first time Dydek's presence in a ball game against Sacramento made a difference. The inside post defense for the Sun was established from the jump and Sacramento struggled inside the paint all game long. And when they were able to get to the free throw line, they could not convert. 10-18 at the line.

2. The referrees were horrible on both ends of the floor!!! I thought that the Conneticut coach was going to have a stroke right on the floor. He was looking for an early plane ride out of town (his mother passed away, he funeral is today)

3. All of the Monarchs offensive flaws were exposed in one game. It was 2004 all over again. To me their outside peremeter game consist of two players Lawson and Powell. They were a combined 2-15, 1-8 from 3's. Powell was stiff and just could not get going. And most of these were wide open shots. In order for Sacramento to win, she has to be a threat or the defense collapses in the paint and swarms Yo and DeMya. That was their problem last year.

4. Four assists for Sacramento!!!! FOUR!!!! That is not going to get it done. Plus they committed 19 turnovers. It seemed to me that during the Sun's 31-9 run in the last 16 minutes of the game, every entry pass into the post was either deflected or intercepted. Ticha once again spent an inordinate amount of time on the bench, when I thought they could have used her to create in the middle of a horrific offensive drought.

5. I brought this up on last week and many of you disagreed. That the Monarchs bench is relatively offensively challenged. To me, Haynie is the only offensive threat off of the bench, and only when she is playing with the starters. If you exchange Walker (who did not start for whatever reason) with Brunson, the bench was a combined 5-15.For whatever reason, Maiga can not find a basket from the field or the free throw line. Her offense is beyond bad, it is...... .

There are so many other things I can say, but I will refrain. In order for the Monarachs to stay on top with the elite in the league they must go at least 3-2 on the toughest road trip in recent memory. It is brutal.

WASHINGTON - win
NEW YORK - win
CONNETICUT - ???
DETROIT - ???
SEATTLE - lost (there is no way they can be expected to win on the fifth of five stop against the defending champions after traveling from Detroit the day before)

 

[6th]

All good points, PR.

1. I commented to MBF during the game that the Sun can be beat. AFAIC-the Monarchs beat themselves by scoring only 9 pts (I thought it was only 5) in 16 minutes. And yes, it was all about perimeter shooting...or lack thereof.

2. The Sun coach acts (every game) like he is going to blow a gasket. I worry about his health if he keeps that up. I had not heard about his mother.

3. ditto...ditto...ditto

4. I was shocked by the lack of assists. Ticha and Chelsea both spent too much time on the bench. Of course, foul trouble didn't help Chelsea's cause. Passing has been a problem at times. Entry passes are the most obvious, but too many of the passes last night were either lackadaisical or across the lane where they were picked off.

5. Considering that C Whiz plays almost everyone, I have to agree that we are lacking offense, or more accurately, they just have not been providing much offense. It was my understanding that Maio was a prolific scorer in China. If that is the case, where has her offense gone. And Maiga scores well in the winter leagues. I see the biggest problem as a lack of confidence. It seems as if everyone is afraid to step up and take the shot. I like that the Monarchs are patient and wait to get a good open look, but sometimes they wait entirely too long. Something that occured to me last night is that we have no one with a quick release. There were times that players got the ball in, what I thought was, plenty of time to get off a shot, but no one has a quick enough release so they end up being forced to pass the ball as a defender rushes to get in their face.

My road trip prediction (if they get mad and get their act together): 4-1 (all wins except Seattle and only for the very reason that you stated). Yes, this team is good enough to come home 5-0, but I doubt their stamina.

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

1. Agreed. Sun are good, not great. They can be beat, but they aren't going to be beat by a team that can't make more than 50% of their FTs and commits turnovers in bunches and can't hit the broadside of the barn. Did Dydek even play in the 2nd half?!?!? I'm still not sold that she's the difference maker for them, DeMya exposed the weakness in having Dydek as your primary paint defender, if you have moves you can get around her because other than being 7'2" she is not very gifted in the footwork dept. And if you are able to duck under her do that long enough they're going have to give her weakside help and that should leave someone else open.

2. AGREED with two snaps up in a double circle. That trio of refs rivaled the June Courteau group that was in here last week or so in their ineptness both ways.

3. The outside game didn't used to be refined to just Powell, but when she's shooting nearly over 40% from there it's easy to just rely on her. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but Newton WAS at one time able to shoot the ball more than once a game. She has not to me looked to take a shot for about 4 games. She hit a 3 late, (much much too late for my liking) in that game but otherwise she has been non-existent offensively and that to me is what is going to cause the M's problems in the 2004 offensive look-a-like category in the future. You're back down to having only your front court as scorers if Newton isn't going to shoot next to Ticha. The only difference from this year to last is that Powell is a legitimate threat outside and up until her 1pt performance last night she's been pretty solid and that has kept the paint open for others to go to work. If she's not on, or should I say as completely ice-cold as she was last night, they ain't gonna win many games period.

3. To me, this was the first game where they looked completely lost offensively - and I attribute that to the Sun defense. Everybody was holding the ball a looooooooooong time looking for someone to pass to instead of taking whatever open shot they had. The Sun had the M's scouted very well because they spent an awful lot of time in the M's passing lanes. How many times did we see a Monarch throw the ball right into the hands of a Sun player? Their turnovers were actually assists for the Sun I'm sure. And for a squad that is as reboundingly challenged as the Sun were (according to the press release stats) why the hell did the Monarchs always seem to never have rebounders available offensively or defensively (in the 2nd half).

4. I still don't agree that the bench can't score, they just flat out aren't always looking to score. Miao's not looking for shots, Haynie had a great first half and like everybody else was bodysnatched in the 2nd half. Her shots to me still look to need more umphf behind them. I'm glad to know they at least took 15 shots because I swear I haven't seen any of them shooting recently and that seems to also coincide with the disappearance of Newton offensively. Brunson I believe started because coach was waiting to see how Walker felt during warmups. I believe he has to turn his starting lineup in before then so Brunson had to stay a starter.

I just chalk last night up to two teams that are mirror images offensively and defensively of each other on a lot of levels meeting up. When that happens it comes down to whichever team executes the best and when you can't make FTs and turn the ball over 19 times, that does not equal good execution. The week long layoff certainly didn't help the M's sharpness, but they still should have been able to show up in the 2nd half of that game. That performance was out of character for the M's as they've looked this year. I definitely had flashbacks to the old offense, I swear I saw something that even looked remotely close to the weave last night and my eyes nearly fried out. I expect a better showing in Connecticut on Tuesday. If the M's needed any more reminders that they can't just play one half of a game and win they got it last night.

 

[Purple Reign]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but Newton WAS at one time able to shoot the ball more than once a game. She has not to me looked to take a shot for about 4 games.

Is Kara not going to be reinserted into the starting lineup? I would think that after two weeks of being back, she would have her legs under her ready to play heavy minutes.

 

[kennadog]

Chelsea took 6 shots, not just one. She only made two. Nobody seemed able to score last night. Nicole was 0 for 10 and most of her shots looked terrible. Ticha seemed to be trying to create, but had 4 TOs. Poor Yo was buried under Suns and was only 2 for 9.

The Monarchs are a terrible FT shooting team (which could be their Achilles heel in the end), but the Suns only scored 2 more points than the Monarchs at the FT line. It was the Suns FT shooting that kept them in the game. To me two other stats stand out. The Suns had 5 more offensive rebounds than the Monarchs (defensive rebounds almost even). They got quite a few second chance points and that made a huge difference, and they had 13 assists. Neither team had a great shooting %.

I agree that the outside shooting killed the Monarchs and a lot of them were open looks. That's especially why the Suns were able to effectively take Yo out of the game. And a lot of looks were passed up on the perimeter. I agree that it seems we don't have any quick catch n' shoot players.

Maybe the Monarchs were rusty after a week off, but the Suns are definitley the real deal. I'm hoping this can be a positive for the Monarchs. They know what they need to work on to get to that championship.

The Monarchs are a tough bunch, I think they will resolve to work harder and improve. This is, after all, a group of players still learning to become one team.

 

[Still JD]

I thought last night was a test. Now I think the real test is how they respond to it. This team's issue has never been talent. To me it has always been the mental component. This five-tame road trip will show us a lot about this team.

 

[NWFan]

Keep in mind that the Storm are on a 4 game road trip of their own (which started with a lackluster loss Friday night). Granted, our last road game is on Thursday so we'll have a day or two of rest but, still, I wouldn't count on a loss so fast on the 3rd.

 

[6th]

My road trip prediction (if they get mad and get their act together): 4-1 (all wins except Seattle and only for the very reason that you stated). Yes, this team is good enough to come home 5-0, but I doubt their stamina.

I take it back. I thought the Seattle game was a back to back with Detroit. That is not so...my mistake. Therefore, my prediction is 5-0. Okay, I will stick with 4-1, but the loss will not be to Seattle. I still say we are perfectly capable of sweeping on this trip.

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I don't think Kara is going to play the really heavy minutes she's played in the past and probably was expected to play in the future, and may not return to the starting lineup because Chelsea is the better defender.

I did note from the box score and the first half stat sheet I got at the game that Newton had taken more than one shot, I just don't remember seeing the other five.

I'm also very very very very certain now that the FT shooting is not something that could be an achillies heel, it most definitely will be. Where their percentage is right now is an embarassment, it will move into the liability category as these games start to increase in their importance. They are letting teams hang around in games when they can put them away and if you do that when the marbles are on the line and you are playing high caliber teams, that will most often than not come back and bite you.

 

[Purple Reign]

I don't think Kara is going to play the really heavy minutes she's played in the past and probably was expected to play in the future, and may not return to the starting lineup because Chelsea is the better defender.

So does that mean that Whisnant is going to sacrifice precious peremeter scoring for more defense? I don't know about that!!

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I don't know about sacrificing it, but I don't see him exchanging defense for offense when he's put up a pretty decent record without her even in the lineup. If Newton shoots and scores, I see little reason for him to change what he's been doing. If he sacrifices defense for offense it will be Ticha's minutes to get Kara on the floor at critical times. But we saw a game where both of them were on the bench at the end of the game recently....

 

[NothinButHoops]

100% free throw shooting tonight...too bad they didn't get to the line more!
At one time they had the ball 3 or 4 times & no basket or free throws...turnovers not a stat to be proud of.