03 July 2011
At Least They Won that One!
Today the Storm played the second-worst team in the league. The Washington Mystics were missing three of their star players. If the Storm couldn't beat them, well.... that would be embarrassing.
But they won! And their offense was looking better. Katie Smith still can't hit the broad side of a barn, but Tanisha Wright was driving to the basket and generally being more aggressive, so that helped a lot. (Washington got way too many offensive rebounds, though.)
From WNBAlien: "I still think the Storm are, at worst, a solid playoff team – even without Lauren Jackson. They might have their periods where they can’t score, or games where their offense looks out of sync, but they know how to respond. They can rise to the occasion when necessary and get things done. It happened again and again last year, and it wasn’t always Jackson that pulled it off. The likes of [Sue] Bird, [Swin] Cash, [Tanisha] Wright and [Camille] Little can all step up – at both ends of the floor – and make plays when it counts. That’s not going away. Of course, neither is their team defense, which is the main other reason that I don’t think this team is just going to fade into the background."
Also: The broad-side-of-a-barn problem isn't just our imagination. As a team, their 3-point percentage is much, MUCH lower than last year. So low that Swish Appeal devoted an entire article to the subject. The article concludes, "But ultimately, the Storm have to break out of this shooting slump. There's almost no way around it. WNBA teams simply don't go from above average to dead last without losing a significant shooter."
I'm still waiting....
But they won! And their offense was looking better. Katie Smith still can't hit the broad side of a barn, but Tanisha Wright was driving to the basket and generally being more aggressive, so that helped a lot. (Washington got way too many offensive rebounds, though.)
From WNBAlien: "I still think the Storm are, at worst, a solid playoff team – even without Lauren Jackson. They might have their periods where they can’t score, or games where their offense looks out of sync, but they know how to respond. They can rise to the occasion when necessary and get things done. It happened again and again last year, and it wasn’t always Jackson that pulled it off. The likes of [Sue] Bird, [Swin] Cash, [Tanisha] Wright and [Camille] Little can all step up – at both ends of the floor – and make plays when it counts. That’s not going away. Of course, neither is their team defense, which is the main other reason that I don’t think this team is just going to fade into the background."
Also: The broad-side-of-a-barn problem isn't just our imagination. As a team, their 3-point percentage is much, MUCH lower than last year. So low that Swish Appeal devoted an entire article to the subject. The article concludes, "But ultimately, the Storm have to break out of this shooting slump. There's almost no way around it. WNBA teams simply don't go from above average to dead last without losing a significant shooter."
I'm still waiting....
Labels: Seattle Storm
# posted by mamurd @ 10:23 PM 
