So how was it?
It was pretty bad. It wasn't historically bad. We didn't beat the record for Worst Defeat in a WNBA Finals, although we certainly threatened it. Other teams have suffered big losses in Game One of the Finals and came back to win, but I'm not getting a Detroit Shock kind of vibe around the Atlanta Dream.
It was the seventh time we've lost a WNBA Finals game - in seven attempts. We're 0-for-7. Our seventh loss ties the New York Liberty, who are 1-7 all time in Finals games.
So why did we lose? Lots of reasons. It was rumored that Janel McCarville was injured, but not only was she *not* injured but she had a very good first quarter. Maya Moore hit a couple of big threes early on, and away we went.
The second quarter was a Lost Quarter, which is what I call any quarter where one team scored less than ten points. Teams generally don't win games with a Lost Quarter, unless the other team also has a Lost Quarter to match it. We scored nine points in the second quarter - the Lynx just played Great D - and we were down by 20 points at one point coming into the half.
Minnesota would eventually lead by 31 at one point. Late in the fourth quarter both sides were playing their scrubs. It was Atlanta's time to strike the tent, shake it off and as someone suggested on the air, watch more tape of that regular season game where we beat the Lynx. (And hope that the Lynx haven't ever watched that game since their loss.)
Part of the problem was McCoughtry. There is no nice way of saying it. On RebKell, they coined the phrase "Hero Ball", which I intend to steal. Hero Ball is where the game plan is to put the ball in the hands of your most talented player and hope she can carry the team to victory on her back.
I don't think that was Fred Williams's plan, but it was Angel McCoughtry's. You could almost predict when she was going to take a shot; at times it seemed like shot selection or ball distribution were foreign concepts. It reminded me of Geno Auriemma's friendly (?) knock that MCcoughtry wouldn't even pass someone the ketchup at lunchtime. (To which she might reply, as before, "I get paid to score, not to pass.")
McCoughtry was willing to go full Iziane Castro Marques on Minnesota, playing 1-on-3. The only reason the Lynx didn't have more players in the lane waiting on her was that they couldn't fit that many large women into such a small space. She has moments of pure transcendence where she's unstoppable, but I wonder if Hero Ball can really work against such a complete team like the Lynx.
It showed in the box score stat. MCCoughtry went 6-for-24. But in her defense, it wasn't exactly like she could trust that anyone on the Dream was going to step up. De Souza scored her 10 and 7 but seemingly with little impact. Aneika Henry came off the bench with a great game, 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Everyone else? Not so much:
Jasmine Thomas? 3-for-15, a veritable black hole of offense.
Alex Bentley? 2-for-9.
Dream outside shooting? 0-for-15.
McCoughtry could answer me, "Okay, JB, tell me who I was supposed to give the ball to?"
Minnesota switched off on her multiple times. They must have had everyone but the intern who brings the Gatorade guarding her at one point; Reeve always had a fresh body to put on McCoughtry. "You want to play Hero Ball? Fine. But we'll make you work for it."
Maya Moore was Maya Moore, 23 points and seven rebounds. Monica Wright had a great game, 20 points, and doing all the little things well. (Although I still believe that Wright is the Most Overrated Player in the WNBA. She can be good, but not when she's a starter.) Given Atlanta's abysmal output, Moore and Wright were really all that the Lynx needed; everyone else just needed to be decent and play good defense.
So now it's on to Game Two on Tuesday. Some people are predicting a "rout" on the order of Detroit/San Antonio in 2008. But that wasn't much of a rout. Detroit won by margins of +8, +8 and +16. For Atlanta, starting at -25 is like being two games down.
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