New article up on Swish Appeal, so give it some love: Dream PR reached out to me and asked if I'd interview Alton Byrd, so I sent him a list of questions. He got back around on those questions real fast, and I was generally pleased with what I got back.
Here it is. Read it and enjoy.
I never expect an interview subject to tell me everything anyway. "So, are you guys making any money? Is Angel locker room poison? What happened with Marynell?" If you don't think you're going to get an honest answer, what would be the point in asking it? I don't really believe in "gotcha" questions.
But if someone wants to talk off the record....
(* * *)
Weird situation over the weekend regarding the final weekend of the regular season.
* Chicago and Minnesota play tonight to determine which team has home field advantage throughout the entire playoffs. Both teams would be tied for best record if Chicago wins and Chicago would have a 2-0 record against Minnesota head to head. If Minnesota wins, they have the best overall record period. Chicago comes into the game on the road and back-to-back, having just played Atlanta, so if the Sky beat the Lynx you can't say that Chicago doesn't deserve home court advantage.
* Atlanta is at 17-16 and Indiana and Washington are tied 16-17. None of those teams play each other again. So -
-- if all three teams finish 17-17, then we look at the combined head-to-head involving all three teams. Atlanta's record vs. the other two teams is 6-3 (3-1 vs Indiana, 3-2 against Washington). Indiana's record is 3-5 (1-3 vs. Atlanta, 2-2 against Washington). Washington's is 4-5 (2-3 vs. Atlanta, 2-2 vs. Indiana). This would put Washington in third place and Indiana in fourth. So a Dream loss and a Washington victory clinches third for the Mystics.
-- if Atlanta wins and only Indiana and Washington are tied...well, Indiana and Washington are tied 2-2 against each other, so we look at conference record. Indiana has an 11-10 conference record compared to 9-12 for Washington. There's no way Washington can make that up in one game.
So:
Atlanta loses, Washington wins - Washington is third, Indiana is fourth
Atlanta loses, Washington loses - Indiana is third, Washington is fourth
Atlanta wins, both Indiana and Washington win or lose - Indiana is third, Washington is fourth
Atlanta wins, Washington wins, Indiana loses - Washington is third, Indiana is fourth
Atlanta wins, Indiana wins, Washington loses - Indiana is third, Washington is fourth
* The only other scenario left is whether or not Tulsa or San Antonio finishes last. Both come into the weekend with an 11-22 record. They split the season series 2-2. Tulsa has a 7-14 record in conference (they play Seattle in their final game) with San Antonio at 7-15 (they play Atlanta).
* Tulsa wins, San Antonio wins ? Tulsa has the 8-14 conference record and takes fifth place.
* Tulsa wins, San Antonio loses ? Tulsa has the better W-L record and takes fifth.
* Tulsa loses, San Antonio wins ? San Antonio has the better W-L record and takes fifth.
* Tulsa loses, San Antonio loses ? Both teams have the same W-L record, the same record against each other and the same conference record at 7-15. We then go to best winning percentage against all teams with at least a .500 record. But we don't know if Indiana or Washington will have a .500 record or not, so it becomes very, very messy at that point.
Assuming both teams lose, then Tulsa's record against the teams that finish with a .500 or better record is 7-15. San Antonio's is 6-16. Since neither team has beaten either Indiana or Washington - the two "wild cards" in figuring out who finishes .500 or not since a Tulsa loss against Seattle boots the Storm into .500 territory and makes their games count - then it doesn't matter what happens in the East. Tulsa takes fifth and San Antonio is in the cellar.
(Whew. I really didn't want to go any further. The next two levels are "head to head point differential", where the Silver Stars are way behind after a 98-65 thumping at home by the Shock where Riquna Williams exploded for 51 points, and then "coin flip").
(* * *)
Here is Atlanta's record broken down into home, away, and close (<= 5 point differential)
Home: 13-4
Away: 4-12
Close: 1-5
When you're 1-5 in close games, something's wrong. Don't be fooled by Atlanta's second place finish and home round advantage, that advantage comes from Sancho Lyttle and Indiana suffering the injury bug early in the season. Now we don't have Sancho Lyttle and Katie Douglas is back. Bottom rail on top, as they say.
It's not just that the Dream's close-game record is 11th in the league - only Tulsa at 1-8 is worse, and Klop's job might be in jeopardy - but the hopeless Liberty are 5-11 on the road, better than Atlanta. My friend is back to calling for Senor Fred's head after last night.
Sometimes you can break a game down by stats, and sometimes you can't. Chicago is deeper than we are, that's why they're #1 and we know it. We only lost by five to a tough Sky team on their home court. But we led for most of that game, and as late as 4:21 we were leading in that game. Then we found a way to lose it. McCoughtry went 0-for-6 and when your volume shooter ain't shooting, there you go.
There really wasn't a need for volume shooting. You're up by two with 4:21 to go. If you've got ten more shots to take, why is McCoughtry taking six of them? (De Souza and Hayes split the other four.) The McCoughtry of the first half of the season would have moved the ball around, but in this game the Dream had 12 assists and McCoughtry only had one of them. I can't prove it statistically but McCoughtry has reverted to her free-shooting ways.
If we were down by five, I could understand it. In that case, why not put the ball in the hands of your gunner and fire away? Losing by two or twenty doesn't make much of a difference.
Does this team have heart? Because right now, I just see a team that cracks when things get tough.
So Senor Fred can open the first envelope in his desk. He can claim that we're still making the transition from the Meadors Era, but he can't claim that in 2014. And he only has two more envelopes left in the desk. The first one says, "Make personnel changes" and the second one says "Prepare three envelopes."
No comments:
Post a Comment