08 October 2012
Quote of the Day: John Walters
Tonight was Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Connecticut won Game 1 at home, and tonight's game in Indiana came down the wire. The video is here, and it's worth the 30 seconds. First of all, Spokane-native Briann January both blows the final play and saves it, all in the space of a couple seconds. Second, go back and watch the beginning, when Tamika Catchings passes the ball downcourt. She puts everything she has into that pass (and it was a good one), and doesn't have energy/motion left to stop herself from belly-flopping onto the court. Finally, the player that makes the last shot .... If her names sounds familiar, it's because she did the exact same thing to the Storm in August.
Thinking about last-second, game-winning shots naturally made me thing of Sue Bird in general, and the 2001 Big East Championship in particular. From The Same River Twice:
During shootaround [before the game] the Huskies engage in one of their favorite drills. [...] Time is ticking down and the Huskies are stuck at 32 when Sue Bird gets the ball off a miss. Dribbling to halfcourt, she sees that the clock is ticking down, 3 ... 2 ...1 ...
Sue launches a halfcourt shot just before the buzzer sounds. The ball sails through the air, a guided missile, and swishes through the net. The Huskies clamor around Sue, whose back is obviously feeling better, as if it were a real game-winner.
The play reminds Svetlana Abrosimova of another basketball dream she once head. "After we lost to Tennessee last year," says Sveta, who in that game passed the ball to Tamika Williams instead of taking the last-second shot herself, "I had a dream about that play. I dreamt that we inbounded the ball to Sue instead of me. And you know what? Sue made the shot."
Thinking about last-second, game-winning shots naturally made me thing of Sue Bird in general, and the 2001 Big East Championship in particular. From The Same River Twice:
During shootaround [before the game] the Huskies engage in one of their favorite drills. [...] Time is ticking down and the Huskies are stuck at 32 when Sue Bird gets the ball off a miss. Dribbling to halfcourt, she sees that the clock is ticking down, 3 ... 2 ...1 ...
Sue launches a halfcourt shot just before the buzzer sounds. The ball sails through the air, a guided missile, and swishes through the net. The Huskies clamor around Sue, whose back is obviously feeling better, as if it were a real game-winner.
The play reminds Svetlana Abrosimova of another basketball dream she once head. "After we lost to Tennessee last year," says Sveta, who in that game passed the ball to Tamika Williams instead of taking the last-second shot herself, "I had a dream about that play. I dreamt that we inbounded the ball to Sue instead of me. And you know what? Sue made the shot."
Labels: Seattle Storm, UConn basketball, WNBA
# posted by mamurd @ 10:01 PM 
