24 June 2012
Friday's Game and Other Storm News
I had to wait an extra day for the WNBAlien review of Friday's game vs. San Antonio, but it was worth the wait:
"It’s very, very nice to see something resembling the real Tanisha Wright back on a basketball court again. No idea what was wrong with her to start the year, but she’s back to being aggressive and driving at times offensively, while still chasing around the primary opposing scoring guard. There’ll still be the odd mental or ballhandling error, and the shooting percentage will take a while to rise back up, but this is more like the Tanisha we remember. Not that horrible mess that opened the season."
"Let me tell you the story of Sue Bird’s first two made baskets in this game. In the first half, Thompson set a screen on Perkins to open Bird up, then rolled to the hoop and made very sure that her roll blocked off Perkins’s path. It left Bird wide open to knock down the jumper. In the second half, Smith set a nasty, borderline illegal off-ball screen on Becky Hammon, which left Bird in all kinds of space to hit a three. These veterans know all the tricks, and a lot of them come into play away from the ball to help teammates more than themselves."
[This next one's for you, Iris!]
"San Antonio got back in the game largely at the free throw line. The willingness of the Silver Stars to move the ball and use everyone available to create was part of it, but a lot of the production came down to some seriously inconsistent officiating. It was hard to tell what was a foul and what wasn’t for much of this game."
"As ever, San Antonio got killed in points in the paint (34-14 in this case). It’s an illustration that the second and third lines of Seattle’s defense are sliding into place far more smoothly now – San Antonio couldn’t find a way to penetrate with any consistency. Considering Seattle looked like they barely knew what penetration was earlier this season, they’ll be delighted by numbers like that."
Svetlana Abrosimova update... sort of. Before the game Jayda Evans tweeted a picture of Abrosimova in what looks like work-out clothes -- including a Storm t-shirt. Did she practice with the team before the game?
Plus! Abrosimova tweeted from the Pride parade today (mostly in Russian), including this one that Google Translate turns into, "Even the representatives of my team is involved in parade.Vot prof. markiting and work with the masses)" The important part being her referring to the Storm as "my team". Now, maybe she just means her former team, but it does sound promising!
Just for fun:
The twitter belonging "Sue Bird's Hair" (just go with it!) re-tweeted a picture a fan took of, well, Sue Bird's hair. What made me giggle, though, is that in the picture, Sue Bird, Katie Smith, and Ewelina Kobryn are ALL fixing their hair. Hee!
"It’s very, very nice to see something resembling the real Tanisha Wright back on a basketball court again. No idea what was wrong with her to start the year, but she’s back to being aggressive and driving at times offensively, while still chasing around the primary opposing scoring guard. There’ll still be the odd mental or ballhandling error, and the shooting percentage will take a while to rise back up, but this is more like the Tanisha we remember. Not that horrible mess that opened the season."
"Let me tell you the story of Sue Bird’s first two made baskets in this game. In the first half, Thompson set a screen on Perkins to open Bird up, then rolled to the hoop and made very sure that her roll blocked off Perkins’s path. It left Bird wide open to knock down the jumper. In the second half, Smith set a nasty, borderline illegal off-ball screen on Becky Hammon, which left Bird in all kinds of space to hit a three. These veterans know all the tricks, and a lot of them come into play away from the ball to help teammates more than themselves."
[This next one's for you, Iris!]
"San Antonio got back in the game largely at the free throw line. The willingness of the Silver Stars to move the ball and use everyone available to create was part of it, but a lot of the production came down to some seriously inconsistent officiating. It was hard to tell what was a foul and what wasn’t for much of this game."
"As ever, San Antonio got killed in points in the paint (34-14 in this case). It’s an illustration that the second and third lines of Seattle’s defense are sliding into place far more smoothly now – San Antonio couldn’t find a way to penetrate with any consistency. Considering Seattle looked like they barely knew what penetration was earlier this season, they’ll be delighted by numbers like that."
Svetlana Abrosimova update... sort of. Before the game Jayda Evans tweeted a picture of Abrosimova in what looks like work-out clothes -- including a Storm t-shirt. Did she practice with the team before the game?
Plus! Abrosimova tweeted from the Pride parade today (mostly in Russian), including this one that Google Translate turns into, "Even the representatives of my team is involved in parade.Vot prof. markiting and work with the masses)" The important part being her referring to the Storm as "my team". Now, maybe she just means her former team, but it does sound promising!
Just for fun:
The twitter belonging "Sue Bird's Hair" (just go with it!) re-tweeted a picture a fan took of, well, Sue Bird's hair. What made me giggle, though, is that in the picture, Sue Bird, Katie Smith, and Ewelina Kobryn are ALL fixing their hair. Hee!
Labels: Seattle Storm
# posted by mamurd @ 8:52 PM 
