Yesterday's game was of course, Atlanta at Tulsa, where the Dream attempted to turn around a three game losing streak. Instead, the Dream lost 90-63, going 0-for-the Road Trip.
Sad trombone factoids:
* It was the first time the Dream has lost four straight games since August 3-13, 2010. (Happy flute stat: they went to the WNBA Finals that year. Sad trombone: they were swept by the Storm.)
* It was the worst loss to the Shock ever. The previous worst loss to the Shock was a 97-76 loss on June 22, 2008 when the Shock were still in Detroit.
* Atlanta is 6-2 vs. the Shock in its Tulsa incarnation. The previous loss to Tulsa was an 84-80 loss on August 28, 2012...which was Fred Williams's very first day as the head coach of Atlanta, having taken over from Marynell Meadors.
So...s@#t.
The key to this loss, besides Atlanta's 33.3 percent shooting, was Liz Cambage remembering that she was the #2 draft pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft and actually playing like it for once. She had 22 points and 15 rebounds on 8-for-10 shooting. Glory Johnson was 9-for-14 with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
Not many post-game quotes, which implies that Atlanta might have gotten up and gotten the hell out of there. No Sancho Lyttle. No Tiffany Hayes. Fred Williams picked up two technical fouls from Michael Price and got out in the third quarter.
I'm surprised that the W posted this quote in their recap:
"Angel tried to get to the lane to get things to happen offensively, but Tulsa collapsed on her and then she didn't get some of the calls she should have got," said Atlanta coach Fred Williams, who was sent to the locker room with 1:05 to play in the third quarter after receiving back-to-back technical fouls.
Well, it didn't help that McCoughtry shot 8-for-24. The team was 0-for-17 from 3-point range. I don't know if that's the worst 3-point performance from a WNBA team this season, but it has to be close to it.
Turn your heads and look away. The only hope is that we can break the streak against Connecticut, a team which is really good at playing really bad right now. They also have to come to Philips. I'll take a win against Connecticut, you know.
(* * *)
During the game, the Tulsa Shock announcer stated that Fred Williams's lifetime record (before this game) was 17-7. This is not true. He forgot Williams's tenure in Utah.
1999 - Utah - 13-15
2000 - Utah - 18-14
2001 - Utah - 5-8
2012 - Atlanta - 7-3
2013 - Atlanta - 10-5
Career: 53-45 (1-2 in playoffs)
Señor Fred replaced a fired coach in 1999 but was fired himself in 2001. In 2012, Williams replaced a fired coach. He has to be looking uneasily at Joe Ciampi and Julie Plank sitting on the bench with him.
(* * *)
An interesting article about Fred Williams's firing at Southern California.
http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-16/sports/sp-49249_1_fred-williams
Williams, 40, recently completed his second season with a 20-9 team that reached the second round of the NCAA tournament. But some players and parents were unhappy with Williams' laid-back coaching style.
This might explain why he's been relatively successful in Atlanta. He's laid back. I don't think that Marynell Meadors carried a whip and a chair, but clearly Williams's coaching philosophy is different from that of his former boss.
(* * *)
While learning more about Señor Fred and his time in Utah, I found out about Bill Stokes, a former WNBA referee who had a heart attack during a Utah vs. Houston game on August 20, 2002. (Candi Harvey was Utah's coach at the time.)
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/08/21/spt_official_striken.html
At the top of the post is a photo from what might be that game. Oddly enough, the photo source is a Bob Corwin article about the Houston Comets franchise folding. (The photo was behind the paywall, but had been archived by Google Images, a case of a photo being available from an article but not the article itself.) I would have posted it right here, but Blogger won't let me.
I'd like to know what happened to Bill Stokes. He wanted to return to the life of a referee, but there is no other information about him on line. Bill Stokes, wherever you are, maybe you be healthy and happy.
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