Indiana @ Connecticut; more WNBA dreams

 Get out of my dreams, Agler.

My time for various women's basketball projects might be further reduced.  To say "why" requires a massive sort of post that I'm not quite ready to write. No bad news, rather, it would take some thought to give you the full background.  Nothing bad, just 'it is what it is'.

Last night after coming back home from cheap Mexican food, I treated myself to a dose of Indiana visiting the Connecticut Sun.  Tamika Catchings sat that game out for personal reasons (supposedly involving family issues) and I'm sure that most of the Fever and most of the crowd at Mohegan Sun arena wished they could have sat that one out too.

I came in late in the first quarter, and getting to the end of quarter #3 was a real slog.  At the end of three quarters, the Sun had only shot 32.7 percent (17-for-52) compared to 51.1 percent for the visiting 8-player Fever squad.  Indiana was up 52-41 despite a 4-for-11 performance at the free throw line.  The Sun played so poorly I wondered if they would even break 50 points.

(Reminder:  this is the team that Atlanta had its most recent win against.)

It's a good thing they played four quarters, because the fourth quarter made up for the other three.  Indiana wilted in the fourth, at the Sun went on a 15-0 run that the Fever had no answer for. The run brought Connecticut down by 1, 52-51, and the home magic - of the Sun's five wins, four are at home - was enough to save the day.  It was a case of a team snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.  Tan White and Allison Hightower scored most of their game points in that fourth quarter and really stepped up to provide a win for a team desperate for them.

I thought I had seen Indiana wilt in the fourth quarter before.  So I ran some quarter-by-quarter averages.  Here's what you get:

	1q	2q	3q	4q	1ot
ATL	21.5	19.3	19.3	17.1	0.0
CHI	21.5	21.5	18.2	19.9	0.0
CON	15.9	17.3	18.6	18.9	0.0
IND	17.4	18.1	17.7	15.6	0.4
NYL	18.3	15.3	16.9	18.9	1.7
WAS	18.8	17.6	20.6	19.3	0.8
LAS	21.2	21.7	20.6	19.0	0.6
MIN	21.5	21.1	21.6	18.7	0.0
PHO	18.4	21.9	21.6	20.2	0.8
SAS	18.6	16.8	17.9	18.2	0.6
SEA	15.4	18.4	18.1	17.3	1.0
TUL	17.5	19.9	18.9	19.5	1.1

The numbers don't really prove anything.  Yes, Indiana's production really drops quarter by quarter, but so does Atlanta's.  Connecticut gets better quarter by quarter, but that's probably because the other team is well ahead and can throw in its scrubs. 

However, I feel (but cannot prove) that Indiana just ran out of steam in the fourth.  You had five players on the Indiana team playing 30 minutes, with Shavonte Zellous and Briann January playing 35.  These players came from colleges that were probably 13-15 players deep, so I'm sure that Indiana's starters were pretty gassed.

There's an argument about roster expansion which says that there's no point in going to a 12-player or 13-player roster because the talent isn't there.  What the proponents of that point don't realize is that when you don't, you not only sap the talent out of players who have to play 30+ minutes a night because they have no help, but you endanger their careers. 

Yes, no one wants to see players 9 through 13 play the other squad's players 9 through 13.  But those players 1 through 5 have got to have a chance to catch their breaths.  Furthermore, when you have less than 10 healthy players, it adversely effects practices because you can't play squad on squad. 

My prayer during the CBA negotiations is that the WNBA sucks it up and adds at least one more player to the roster.  This 11-player cap is just ridiculous.  Somehow, the league has got to make it happen.  Else, you get Indiana vs. Connecticut.

(* * *)

Interesting quote by Charles, from Hoopfeed and David Siegel: 

“It’s a frustrating season,” said Charles. “When you know your teammates’ capabilities, and when they’re not doing it, you get frustrated. When you see them in practice perform to the best of their abilities, and when it’s time, when it’s on the line, for them to perform and do their job, it gets really frustrating.”

(* * *)


Had my second WNBA dream last night.  Why am I dreaming about the WNBA so much?

Anyway, I dreamed that I had been invited to pregame with the Atlanta Dream - I'd get to go into the locker rooms and everything.  But when I got there, no one was there.  I mean the place was empty.  So I decided to hang around to wait for the Dream vs. Sky.  But as it turned out, Atlanta was playing Chicago at Chicago, so I was waiting for nothing.

Then the Sky/Storm showed up and started having a team meeting. (It was the Sky, but with Brian Agler as head coach.  There's Brian Agler again.)  Everyone was sitting in a circle, and by some unnamed protocol that everyone knew but me, they started giving reports.  I was in the circle, and didn't know what to say.  So all I was left with to say was that I was an idiot who had been invited backstage with the Dream but the Dream were in Chicago.

I was also supposed to give Swin Cash some insulin.  How that fits into the dream, I have no idea.  If Swin Cash is reading this blog, I suggest that you have some blood work drawn up.  Type II Diabetes is no fun.