Final score: Storm 69 – Sparks 67 (W) (6-2)

Submitted by LaurenRules

Pre-Game
Upon entering the arena, the very first sight I was treated to was Tina Thompson in a Sparks uniform. That looked, and still looks, completely wrong to me. She didn’t seem to share my feelings, as she calmly went on with her warm-up. She looked different, and I realized she’d darkened her lipstick to harmonize more with Spark gold and purple, rather than Comet red. I wish a different team had picked her up. As I made my way to my seat, I had to look carefully to find B-Money – not only is her hair back in braids, but she has gotten VERY thin. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Vanessa Hayden, who struggled with her sweats. That is one large and commanding young woman.

The Storm warm-ups looked as usual, except for the seriously retina-bleeding, super-neon-yellow of Camille’s shoes. Oh, LA also has FARMERS blazoned across the back of the evil purple warmup suits and across the front of their equally evil yellow away jerseys. Ugh.

Anthem: The Ancora Women’s Choir, stylishly dressed in black, doing the exact same version that the Seattle Girls Choir treated us to last week, except they didn’t rush and their final consonants were better. Less adorable, though. Nice job, ladies.

Clarence was indeed in attendance, sporting a yellow hat, yellow shoes, and a black and yellow striped blazer. He received a nice shoutout before game time.

Player Introductions: respectable rounds of applause for everyone, slightly louder for Tina Thompson, and a massive roar for Betty, who waved to the crowd briefly before disappearing into the Spark huddle. Scattered boos greeted Michael Cooper, who looked tall and urbane in his suit. I really won’t miss him next season.

Storm Intros: done to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” A very nice touch. The crowd was amped and wired both tonight. Sue was last of our players to be introduced, which I like a lot better. Agler was so focused, he didn’t even notice when his name was called.

First Quarter
DMJ won the tip (how?) and we were warned just how the game was going to go – before the Storm even scored, both Lauren and Sue were whistled for ticky-tack little fouls and Sue was charged with a turnover, snapping her incredible streak. Tina Thompson scored, Lauren scored off a beautiful jump shot, and we were off and trading points. At one point, Sue just dribble and wove her way around their frontcourt and scored: at another, Swin just muscled and worked her way in along the baseline to score.

Cute music – Maneater and “Single Ladies” by Beyonce in honor of Girls Night Out. The Dance Troupe really is great this season.

Tanisha was having difficulty getting her shot to fall and was getting frustrated. In two plays in a row, Lauren rebounded T’s missed shot and scored on the putback. Delisha Milton-Jones was throwing her elbows around like there was no tomorrow – from where I was sitting, it looked as though she committed at least three fouls in the first quarter. More stupid ticky-tack fouls were called – Betty made one free throw, Lauren sunk a monster three that had us all going CRAZY, Noelle followed with a two, and Sue made a running jump shot to end the quarter. 23-16 Storm

Interval: Amusing pedicure video, exhorting us to all vote for our favorite shade of Storm player nail polish.

Second Quarter
Tanisha came out breathing fire and sank a terrific jump shot off of a pass from PeeWee. She was totally fouled on her next drive to the basket, but the stupid refs didn’t call it. (Of course). Vanessa Hayden fouled someone – sorry, don’t remember who – and LJ scored, to the delight of the crowd. LA crept back into the game, mainly due to Camille’s missed shots (shudder to think of her shooting percentage tonight). 27-21 Storm. LJ made a jumper and Quinn was called on a foul, but Lauren couldn’t convert. About a minute later, our favorite Aussie blocked DMJ, thus becoming the third and youngest player to reach 500 blocks.

Scoring slowed down – way down –the remainder of the half, with LA scoring three times with the Storm not rebounding well at all and the crowd getting quiet and restless at the same time. We got happy again when the team forced a shot clock violation. Betty landed a hard elbow on Suzy BB, Swin got called on the world’s stupidest foul, but was fouled herself by Shannon Bobbitt, and sank one of her free throws to end the half. 36 – 28, Storm.
Halftime: LJ’s block milestone announced, as well as the fact that she’s the third WBNA player to score 20 points (or more) in the first eight games of the season, the others being Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes. Yay, LJ!

March of Dimes kids, following a nice intro from Karen Bryant.

Third Quarter
Sue scored on a running jump shot, Harrower fouled LJ (who promptly sunk both free throws - the woman is a MACHINE!), and we were off on a nice little run. DMJ finally sank a layup (right after the announcer said we were on a 6-0 run), but except for DMJ and Marie Ferdinand-Harris, the first part of the quarter was quiet for them. Swin and T both scored, but then they went on a little run of their own, with 10 unaswered points. 48-41 Storm with 3:19 to go in the period. Camille powered in a jump shot, but then fouled TT for+1 (which she MADE, of course). LA within six.

T and LJ both hit jump shots, Bobbitt fouled Sue, who sunk both her shots, but then calmly turned around and sunk a three on us and picked Sue’s pocket with an assist to Quinn. Ferdinand-Harris fouled Swin, who sunk both her shots. Ugly and stressful quarter – we stayed ahead, but weren’t really playing our game. Nice efforts from Swin and T, especially, to take some offensive pressure off LJ, who was mobbed. Sue was looking gassed. At one point, T didn’t seem to know what the play and Sue seemed to visibly lose her cool on the way back to play defense and was yelling at her. 57-49 Storm.

Fourth Quarter
DMJ and TT continued to be the LA players that plagued us. T scored on a nice driving layup. We forced another shot clock turnover, but both teams dried up for almost two minutes, reviving when Betty made both free throws on yet another Camille foul. Quinn and Hayden both scored, and suddenly, we were tied at 59 with 4:39 to go. Sue and MFH traded points, so we were tied at 61, but we lost the ball again on a bad layup by Janell. Sue , again, seemed really frustrated, but, in that instant, seemed to just raise her game the notch we needed, drawing a charge against Betty and sending it over to LJ who sunk a BEAUTIFUL three. I said, “I think Sue just won the game for us.” I’ve seen brilliant playing before, but, even for that, even for Sue, this was special.

The team completely clamped down defensively on the next play, forcing TThompson into a really bad shot. LJ sunk a layup and the arena – cautiously – started breathing again. TThompson hit the floor hard, and complained to the refs. DMJ who was back in, despite five fouls, sank a jump shot.

Camille fouled out with 1:58 to go, much to the consternation of the crowd. Sue sank one a jump shot of her own. Quinn and Thompson both scored. Swin missed a jump shot, and we were right back to a one-point lead. With 5 seconds to go,TThompson fouled LJ, who sank one of her free throws.

TThompson went to shoot, but Swin blocked and stole it and it’s game over at 69-67. Ugly win, scary win – but a win for us. And a loss for them.

Notes:
Our bench was a complete non-factor tonight. No one scored and neither Ashley even got to play. Batgirl was in for a VERY brief time.

Katie played some decent defense, but was a non-factor offensively and JB was a liability. Hope they figure out what went wrong next time. The bench’s playing time was negligible.

At one point, LJ was both scoring and rebounding over the Sporks’ heads, but, sadly, they seemed to figure out how to stop it.

DMJ is a thug. So is Vanessa Hayden.

Sue really does hate those short point guards, doesn’t she? Bobbitt was like a little mosquito out there and Sue really got frustrated for a little while.

The importance of T’s and Camille’s defense cannot be overstated. Not either of their best offensive effort, but they disrupted play, got under the skin of their players and were generally scrappy. Good work, ladies!

It was incongruous to have the Ride the Train and the UW Softball skit during such a tense time in the game - late in the 4th with a tie.

Amazing to see the entire team draw a defensive line in the sand, “Thus far and no farther.” It worked. LA never did retake the lead.

It was poignant to watch T guarding Betty, the former sub and starter going after each other.

Horrible officiating tonight – one-sided fouls, weird inbounding and general incompetence. Nothing new to see here.

This LA team is better than their record indicates. I hope teams (including us on Sunday) keep stomping, and stomping them HARD before LLL or CP are back.

Lovely Michael Jackson tribute music tonight. A really nice touch and very moving.

Harrower seemed a total non-factor for them. I remember her play being better than that from the Olympics.

Nice recognition of UW softball team, with a cute fourth quarter skit of Danielle Lawrie striking out Doppler. I was upset at Coach Tarr's husband (I think that's who it was), because he was standing right in front of me and I couldn't see a thing.

News anchors Jean Enersen and Kathi Goertzen in the house. Ms. Goertzen looks well - let's hope the cancer stays gone this time.

TT is carrying that team - she has the words "veteran leadership" tatooed on her heart. I wish she'd gone somewhere else. Seeing her as a Spork is profoundly disturbing.

It did feel like the Storm lacked focus. We gutted that one out.

The crowd seemed to get in and out of it in fits and starts, but really came alive at the end. If we could have picked up the Storm and physically carried them through the end of the game, we would have.

I profoundly hope Sue goes into coaching when she is done playing. She had some miscues tonight, but even a slightly off Sue is a work of genius. I'm still in awe of how quickly she turned it around in the fourth.

Someone smart and sneaky is in charge of the music this season. Lots of music from 2004. I'm just saying.

LJ is incredible. Just no other words for it. At one point in the first half, she planted herself under the basket, arms up, as if she was daring LA to score against her – and they couldn’t. Really incredible game.

Okay, ladies, let’s learn from this and clamp a pressure valve on them on Sunday. Let’s not even let them get into the game!

Submitted by storminsf

I finally experienced my first game at Key Arena, and I was definitely not disappointed! Since there have been multiple game reports on the actual game and probably everyone has seen it on liveaccess, I won't go into it in detail and just give you my general thoughts on my first Storm game.

I decided to go to the game via Monorail instead of driving since it was convenient from downtown. As a sidenote, I never knew Key Arena was literally right next to the Space Needle. I arrived at the actual Arena around 45 minutes to tip off since I had to do a bit of wandering to find the right entrance for the VIP seats. By the time I got to the floor, it was probably 30-35 minutes until gametime and there were no Storm players warming - just a bunch of the Sporks in their really blinding golden yellow uniforms (I feel like it's brighter this year for some reason - maybe its the farmers thing). I went up to explore the Main Concourse area in hopes to find the Team Shop since I was in search of a Storm Shooting Shirt. Sadly, I couldn't find any on sale, but there were plenty of raffles going on. If there was one thing I was a bit disappointed with, it was the lack of variety in Merchandise available and the fact that there isn't really an actual shop, but I guess that's b/c the Sonics moved out? Found my way back to my seats to watch the team warmups and team intros. I liked the whole MJ tribute thing and liked how they put Sue back as the last player introduced and LJ as the first. It was also really weird seeing Tina in that really Gold-Yellow Uniform.

In terms of general game thoughts, I was really impressed on how PACKED and LOUD it was. I know it was a sellout and everywhere I turned it was definitely a packed house. I remember being at Opening Day a few weeks ago at Arco Arena, and even though it was reported that there were 14,000+ in attendance, it felt a lot more packed in the Key - probably since Arco is more spreadout and it was just flat out louder in the Key, especially since it was LA. I was also really impressed with how vocal and into the game all the fans were. Immediately, after team intros, there was a nice hearty chant of "BEAT LA" going. And, the thing that surprised me most is that there wasn't really any drop off in crowd participation (maybe we relaxed a little when they had a 16 pt. lead in the third quarter) with constants chance of defense, insults and refs and players (i think delisha might have gotten some of the insults usually directed towards lisa, that and she was just flat out grabbing and elbowing as usual), and just noise in general. My seatmates were particularly fond of the phrase "horseshit", which I could agree from some of the calls. Coming into the game, judging by the standpoint of how the storm have been playing - coming off the huge phoenix win - I thought the Storm could possibly have a tough game to start, but w/o Lisa and Parker, I was 99% confident that the Storm were going to take it convincingly. They proved me right to start the game well with Sue controlling tempo and shooting well, LJ being on fire esp that first half (with 20 pts already, I wanted to see her go for 40), and Swin being agressive, and the Wright and Little hustling to make plays and get rebounds. I believe we had a good lead the entire first half, it was awesome seeing LJ break two records by halftime, and we broke the game open in the third quarter to open a 16 pt lead. As many others have pointed out already, I think I started to feel the Storm slipping when Bird got her first turnover, thus breaking her streak. That just led to more sequences of sloppy plays of which Bobbitt hitting a three in her face and picking her pocket. She was visibly frustrated and let out a nice F-bomb right in front of our section much to the amusement of the crowd. She wasn't jawing at the refs that much, but she definitely let the refs know that she was getting slapped and held by Bobbit - guess if your 5'2, you get that advantage . After that, our offense just looked horrible and disjointed with more turnovers. The bench never got into any rhythm, thus contributing nothing pointwise. Meanwhile, the Sparks got into a groove and starting mounting their comeback. I remember being more and more upset and the lead was cut into single digits, a two possession game, a tie game, and I have blocked out of my memory if they eventually took the lead ( which i think they did). I remember just thinking at that point that I did NOT come all the way up to Seattle just to watch them blow a 16 point lead to lose to the Sparks. There was just no way that was happening. I think I only spent a few minutes sitting that 4th quarter and there was a lot of yelling and banging on the thundersticks on my part (altho I prolly seem pretty tame compared to the people around me ) Of course, as I expected LJ and Sue were clutch in the end with Sue hitting a few jumpers and taking that charge fom Betty and LJ hitting the three ( the other free throw that went in and out and the end would have been nice too). And, that last sequence with the great game-saving defensive play by Swin was huge! I actually couldn't even see it since everyone was standing - all I remember was screaming and breathing a sigh of relief that they pulled it out. Geez, first Storm game to experience the full array of emotions in seeing them put up that big lead, squandering it, and having the Stars come up big all of which induced a near heart attack . I think that game just really reinforced how important it is for Sue to stay focused and control the game. The more in tune she is in to the game, the more in tune the team is. Yes, the offense runs around LJ, but like everyone else says, Sue is the engine.

After the game I had autograph passes and brought my pink WNBA basketball to be signed by Peewee and Ashley. As I went through the line, I don't remember what I said, but it brought Pewee to jokingly remark, "Don't tell me this is your first Storm Game" of which I replied, I came all the way from SF for this!!! There was no way you guys were losing this game! Ashley W. seems like a sweet kid and I'm proud to see a fellow Cal Bear playing for the Storm. I hope she make the most of her all the time and experience she gets now since making the league is just so tough right now. After getting their autographs, I went out to the gate to wait for the players to pull out of their cars. I wasn't aware that there were two gates, and apparently the first player to pull out and speed away was LJ when someone else said, "there goes that blond." I met some other girls from Orange County (LA) while waiting, one of whom is a a big Storm and Sue Bird fan and the other who I was talking to was not so impressed that being her first womens game. She's a huge Lakers fan (yuck! I'm a Bay Area Laker hater ) and gave the typical remark of not seeing dunks and the other antics of a NBA game. I remember it was always a weird transition after watching NBA games for 7-8 months to watching WNBA games for 3-4 months since the game doesn't seem to be as fast or there aren't athletic freaks of nature running around. I think the thing that really separates the WNBA is that after playing for years myself is that you really appreciate how good these players are. When you watch a WNBA game, a lot of people remark that it doesn't look extraordinary and they bet high school boys or whatever could beat them or it's boring or whatever other excuse, but the true element that sticks out to me is the subtelty of how smart these players are as basketball players and how well they know the game and how genuinely skilled they are. I remember reading about how Chris Webber once remarked how much harder it was for him to play once he lost his athleticism from the knee injuries and age and started having to play"at the rim" instead of above and how much harder the womens game is in that respect. Anyways, that's my little spiel about people who don't get womens basketball.

My whole point of waiting was to get Sue's autograph on tmy ball, but since there were two gates, while we saw Brian, Nancy, Karen, and other Storm personnel along with KG, A-rob, Batgirl, and Walker come out the one gate, by the time Sue rolled up in her black range rover, we realized she was at the other gate. So we all went running over in hopes to catch her. She stopped to sign a few things, but by the time I was right about to hand her my ball, she said the one before me was the"last one" and she was sorry she couldn't sign mine. I was about the blurt out, "but I came all the way from SF!!!" but I didn't want to be the jerk holding her up since I think she needed to get somewhere and she was probably still a bit peeved from the game - that and I'm just really non-confrontational and didn't want to make her feel bad since if she signed mine, she would have to sign everyone else's behind me and so on. And, she was nice enough to stop while other players drove off. But on the other hand, I really wished that I said something! So that basically concluded my actual gameday.

Also, I just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions about the Seattle area. I was able to go on a cruise tour along the Seattle skyline, go kayaking on westlake, of course Pike's place multiple times, run along the Waterfront, visit Vancouver for a day,and sample over 15 types of chocolates at Theo chocolates. I have decided that should the Storm (or when the Storm) get out of that first round of the Playoffs, I'll make my way back up to the great Northwest to experience a whole different animal - The Playoff game!!! That and I have to continue my quest to get my ball signed by Sue - although it's not so much of the autograph itself, and more about remember meeting her to get it.