Post your thoughts: SAC/SEA 7/31

[mdme]

Great game by Nicole with the aggressive end game and welcome back Yo of old. Honorable mention to Haynie for playing a very good game during the times she was in: 8 points on 3/4 shooting 2 rebounds, 2 assists, good defense and ZERO turnovers. Sac generally in the lead when she was in. Great team effort (Kara, Bek and Ticha - you're gonna give me a heart attack esp with that ball slipping out of your hands in the final minute with us only up by 1).

All in all great work ladies

 

[Purple Reign]

Biggest Win of the Year

IMHO. We needed this bad. Tonight semi-cured alot of ills both past and present ills:

1. 1st Quality Road Win of Season
2. Probably Yolanda's best game of the season
3. "only" 13 turnovers
4. Missed only 5 free throws, ONE IN THE SECOND HALF
5. And most importantly, closed out a game in the fourth .

Let's all give it up to Ms. Powell please!!! Clearly this team's MVP. She is the only player that can get her own shot, hit her own shot at will. She was sensational tonight.

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I will give it up to Powell for sure, if she would like to continue to go nuclear for the next couple of months? I would not object in the slightest. Memo to Nicole....continue to not think, just shoot....good things alwaaaaaaaays happen when you do that.

The 4th had ALLLLL the earmarks of the usual meltdown by the Monarchs. Turnovers..., if they only had 13 for the night, they saved 5 of them for the 4th quarter. They were splitting pairs of FTs earlier in the game, at one pt shooting 67% from the line. I was chatting with 6th and made the comment that those counted just like the ones late in the game, so they better cut that stuff out. They opened the 4th forcing Seattle into bad shots and one and dones and a whopping 0% from the floor but were only shooting 14% themselves. But a funny thing happened on the way to a giveaway (or overtime, which essentially had equalled a giveaway this season)...they dug in and held on. Most excellent!

It did not matter they were letting yet another player go off obscenely. If they make shots themselves (thank you SOO much again Nicole and other timely shots by others throughout the game) and stop doing stupid stuff late in the game and execute, by not giving the ball away with turnovers, hitting the boards on both ends of the floor and oh, I dunno, making their free throws? They can withstand that. Hell, Jackson could have gone on a full on assault of her career high again and it really shouldn't have mattered one bit except for a bit of pride on the part of the Monarchs' defense. Nobody else playing for Seattle was doing much of anything but trying to find Jackson and taking shots themselves if the defense took her away or if she was off the floor.

Finish this on Friday ladies! And then let's dig in for the crazy roadtrip you have on tap. Hold serve and defend your home floor damnit, and let's get a 3-1 roady please?

Man, it was also nice to break the 0 fer for the regular season viewing parties dating back to the Joey B's snide we had. There was euphoria at Malabar at final horn!

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

One more thing while I'm thinking about it, to relatedly touch on something PR mentioned...they have not updated her season/career stats since last Thursday it looks like...but last time I checked Yo was a bit over 100 away from her 4,000th WNBA career point. After her last couple of games, Yo should (unofficially) be about 77 pts away from that milestone. If she keeps this pace up, she should hit it by the end of the regular season. Go Yo!!


If you do the Katie Smith math , and add her ABL numbers, she's 34 pts away from 5,000 professionally. She's been a'ight I guess...

 

[Purple Reign]

Lauren Jackson for MVP

Just an observation on last night's TV broadcast. It was clearly "The Lauren Jackson Show". She was the star, the supporting cast and the audience. Don't get me wrong, right now Jackson is head and shoulders the most talented player in the world, in the mold of Kobe Bryant. But she is not the MVP. Her team loses way too much. Not Jackson's fault, but she sure is not elevating them or making her team better. That is what an MVP is all about. Not about numbers.

ESPN did everything they could to promote her last night, and is doing everything they can to promote other individuals to make this league marketable. That is why the whole "Have You Seen Her" campaign to me is very cheezy. It takes the focus off of the game of basketball, and places it upon the individual talents of Tina Thompson, Jackson, Lisa Leslie and others that are on losing teams. Just my observation.

 

[NothinButHoops]

That was awesome...a huge road win & maybe as far as standings, one of the years biggest games. I loved the energy & up-tempo play.
Coach Bou refused to let the team lose that intensity....she looked so proud.
I had to laugh when she kept trying to get Yo's attention...hey YO,YO,YO,YO!
Then she had the biggest grin when finally Yo looked her way!
Nice to get scoring from everyone & yes ''Ka-Powelle'' was off the charts.
Lauren Jackson had a great shooting night. Did Betty Lynox play?

The crowd at Malabar was loud & we were in company of Monarchs legend
Ruthie Bolton...that was sweet. She also reminded us that she always stays ready to play, you could see the hunger still remains.

Finally a viewing party victory!!!! GO MONARCHS!

 

[uncommonclay]

I caught only the 4th quarter on the TV ... I loved seeing Haynie knock down that three, too bad she came out of the game, I would have liked to see her take about 5 more, and make 3 of them. Nicole was awesome, I love her fearlessness in taking her shots, and the gall to just keep on shooting -- she is playing like a tiger! The 'Narch's did start to have the "futility" based offense in the 4th quarter, but I give them credit for not melting all the way down in to a loss ... The TV announcers kept saying how hard the Monarch's were fouling LJ ... well, good for the M's that they weren't giving up touch fouls, on made baskets ... I ususally think of other teams when I think of "rough" play ... The M's need to win on Friday at home to seal the deal, a loss would kind of give away this win ...

 

[Luv13fan]

Swell


Okay Late again to the Posting Party.

Not much Else to add.
The Defense was flying all over the place, and yes while Lauren got her 30, no-one else was really a factor. So Big Ups WHITE LINE.
We have had an OFFICIAL NICOLE POWELL Coming Out Party. She seems like she is ready. Thank you... Keep it going Nicole.

I have to Say the most exciting moment for me when Nicole hit that three to Ice the game. Not necessarily the Shot itself.
But The Fist Pump after the shot.

I am thinking to Myself... YES GIRL... That is what I am talkin ABOUT.

I'm Sorry

I just get so Emotional When I see Nicole Shooting with authority. I get all Choked up.

Nice Win Ladies.

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

Just an observation on last night's TV broadcast. It was clearly "The Lauren Jackson Show". She was the star, the supporting cast and the audience. Don't get me wrong, right now Jackson is head and shoulders the most talented player in the world, in the mold of Kobe Bryant. But she is not the MVP. Her team loses way too much. Not Jackson's fault, but she sure is not elevating them or making her team better. That is what an MVP is all about. Not about numbers.

ESPN did everything they could to promote her last night, and is doing everything they can to promote other individuals to make this league marketable. That is why the whole "Have You Seen Her" campaign to me is very cheezy. It takes the focus off of the game of basketball, and places it upon the individual talents of Tina Thompson, Jackson, Lisa Leslie and others that are on losing teams. Just my observation.

WORD!! I guess the new phrase since there is no Leslie this year and "reigning MVP" can't be used..."MVP Candidate" is the phrase of the day.

I think this league's marketing (and ESPN falls into that because they are the biggest media partner of the W/NBA) the NBA has reduced itself to X and X's team taking on Y and Y's team instead of the product. This league's marketing also seems to center around whomever it is they actually have available to them to market for their campaigns. There never seems to a thoughtful process for who they use in these campaigns, although I actually think they did a better job of picking players this time around.

 

[Shorty_Balla14]

so i just watched the game this morning (i tivo'd it haha) and i gotta say that i am loving the return of our focused and effective defense!!

now if we could just work on our offensive lapses, we'd be good

lookin foward to friday's rematch!