[SAC/ATL] Discussion thread

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

What, nobody followed the game today?

Well, I'm not exactly the type to "take notes" while I watch a game (not when I watch in person, at any rate), so I'm going to sort of shoot from the hip:

• Atlanta got their second biggest crowd of the season; I made fun of my pops because he couldn't imagine anybody coming to an 1100 game, and thought that it was a real bad idea.
• Because of the crowd, our little group was mildly scattered. I got my pops Dream season tickets, but I only got him two seats, and we had six with us today: me, pops, my son CJ (11), my nephew DeShun (9; he's a regular at the games with pops), my cousin Zach (13) and my cousin Rossi (11). We couldn't sit together, but everybody was within a few rows of each other. CJ and DeShun sat in the where the season tickets are, the others sat behind them, and we sat across the aisle.
• Latta got the biggest pop of any player by far and, judging by the jerseys and how they had the arena done up, I'd have to say that, to whatever extent that it matters, she's the star of that team... So if anybody is still wondering "When is Haynie going to start over Latta," the answer is "She's not." In fact, what's far more likely to happen is that they both start next season, with Latta as an undersized SG.
• Penicheiro seemed to be passive today, I don't know whether it was the early start, or what, but she didn't seem to have it offensively.
• Fortunately, Robinson picked up the slack... I've never seen Robinson play like that before; she had everything working this afternoon.
• Harper does what Harper does best which, at this stage in her career, is exactly what I want to see her do: get rebounds and putbacks... Let her work on her offensive game when she has the benefit of a full offseason.
• I was struck by the fact that Boucek appeared to have no regard whatsoever for Atlanta's interior defense, even when they had both Bales and Feenstra on the court at one time. At one point, with the kids in the game, she literally called seven straight plays attacking the basket, at least four of which were post-ups. The fact that the first time they did it, was a post-up for Harper, which got blocked, and then on the very next possession, they ran a post-up for Kelly, which also got blocked, and then they still kept going to the basket spoke volumes to me about what the coaching staff thought about their defense.
• Lennox, through the first thirty-eight minutes of the game, had zero points. I told my pops that she was DNP-PD.
• Was very frustrated by a Dream timeout with thirty seconds to play and down fifteen; I wondered aloud whether Coach Meadors had been cribbing Musselman's notes and had the double-secret sixteen-point play up her sleeve.

All in all, an enjoyable experience. I would have liked for the game to be more competitve, but at least the right team won.

 

[Purple Reign]

I listened to the game, but man it was not easy. 7:30am ain't no joke. In between getting ready for work and actually getting to my office and trying to do some work and listen was a task. But it was different, and it was fun.

I give the Monarchs major props in the energy department. And Mr. Slim maybe you can attest, but it did not seem like the early morning tip affected the West Coast team at all. I bet you that of Atlanta's 12 blocked shots, most of them came against Harper, Kelly and Williams (am I right). Somebody has to teach those girls some post moves and get them in the weight room!!!!!

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

Naw, we were just waiting for you to tell us how it looked... Nice work pushing the winning streak to 5 Slim, we'll try to carry it to the barn from here (Monarchs willing

The Monarchs may have their own 11K on Thursday. The teams that do this right get big crowds because they sell tickets to camps with kids.

Your observations about the M game plan seems to fit a couple of things. Scho talked after the game this morning on radio about how they knew teams had developed a scouting report on them that the Ms were soft and you can beat the crap out of them and they'll back down - which is why she said they think teams have rolled them in the second halves of games.

So there's that angle. The other angle appears how they want to play against taller/longer teams or teams taller/longer than they are in the post in the west. They've had trouble with those types of teams which may or may not go back to the whole "other teams are saying we're soft" idea.

 

[StevenHW]

I listened to the game, but man it was not easy. 7:30am ain't no joke...

Which makes me glad I live in the West Coast!

...I bet you that of Atlanta's 12 blocked shots, most of them came against Harper, Kelly and Williams (am I right). Somebody has to teach those girls some post moves and get them in the weight room!!!!!

To be fair with the Dream, though, Alison Bales (the second-year player who was obtained recently in a trade with the Indy Fever) has stepped up her game since being traded, and they got another big in Feenstra.