Final score: Storm 85 – Silver Stars 82 (W-1OT) (12-7)

Submitted by LaurenRules

Officials: Sue "Bad" Blauch, Kevin "Inconsistent" Sparrock, and Tony "Terrible" Dawkins

Attendance: 8,167

Anthem: Marcus Pettit. Very lovely voice, very American Idol delivery, which I didn’t care for very much. I wish he’d just sung it without all of the frills. He should also think about singing it a step or two higher, since he had difficulty hitting the low notes.

Introduction
I walked in to see Suzy and A-Rob NAILING long shots. Suzy in particular was NAILING long shots, left, right and center. Extremely festive, revved atmosphere. Lauren galloping back and forth with no visible pain. Yay. Not quite as crowded as one would think, but definitely up from the last few games. Donna Orendar in the house. She was wearing an elaborate black dress with three-quarter sleeves, and black high heels with a very narrow heel. She has very defined calves.

Clarence made a surprise return visit, DECKED OUT in a neon lime-green ensemble, including patterned pants, striped shirt, lime bucks and a fedora. Very festive.

Player intros: Moderate clapping for SASS, with loudest rounds for Edwige Lawson-Wade and Becky Hammon. Some serious Hammon love, which I don’t get. Our intros ran as normal, although I was surprised that the announcer didn’t add “WNBA ALL-STAR MVP!” to Swin’s introduction.

First Quarter
LJ won the tip, Swin grabbed the ball and Sue put up a three that she missed. Camille grabbed a rebound that SHE missed and Riley fouled Lauren, who MISSED both free throws. Uh-oh. Riley dropped a three, but Sue drew a foul on Hammon and sank both free throws.

Everyone sat down with relief. Hammon spent the first quarter whining to the refs at every opportunity. She is unbelievably tan this year, although I think she looks better with lighter hair. Lots of missed shots for about a minute, including an EASY layup for Lauren, then both teams seemed to find their offensive games in whatever closet they’d stashed them. Meanwhile, Doppler tried to steal Clarence’s jacket, but it was way too small for him.

T hit a running layup, Snell answered with a three, Camille came back with a three of her own, and Riley hit a layup. All tied at 7 at 6:27. Another scoring drought. Sue and Lauren came out. Janell and Shannon came in. So did Ann Wauters, who definitely is not the player she was last year. (Thank goodness. Let her find her game against some other team). LONG scoring drought, with some pretty tough defense, but also some odd and ugly plays. Nice round of applause for Kamila and Simone who came in and sat near Donna Orender.

Shannon stole the ball from Wauters, but had it stole right back by Hammon, who fed Young, who, fortunately, missed a three. Damn, she’s got quick hands. Swin was whistled for fouling Young, who sank both free throws. Shannon sank a three on the very next play and Lauren drove to the basket and scored. She really looked much more like her usual self tonight. Seattle up by six. Young obligingly threw the ball out of bounds and Becky committed a foul (and whined the refs some more as Seattle got set for the next play). Shut UP, Becky. Swin missed a jump, the team got the rebound and Darling fouled Lauren, who hit both free throws. Darling must have gotten away with about seventeen fouls tonight – every time I saw her she was holding – Sue’s jersey, Sue’s arm, Lauren’s wrist, whatever part of Tanisha she could get. I half-expected to see her clutching Janell’s ankle.

Lauren hit both free throws. Happy fans. Storm up by eight. Darling threw up an ugly, ugly shot. Janell grabbed the rebound. Frazee hit a jumper. Little thug, err, Darling fouled Tanisha. T sank both free throws. Sue whistled for a reaching-in foul. Quarter ended. 20-12 Storm.

Interval: Part Four of the Storm Tribute video, covering the 2004 championship. Crowd got very excited, very festive – very moving. GREAT to see the players cavorting around like happy puppies, a younger Lauren, a curly-haired Sue, and Betty (among so many others). Great timing to show that now.

Second Quarter
Edwige Lawson-Wade got things off to a great start by chucking the ball out of bounds. More of the same: slow offense, strong defense – on both sides. T got whistled for an IDIOTIC foul. Swin hit a layup and was fouled by Snell, but a lane violation from Lauren negated the +1 (I don’t think it was going in, anyway). San Antonio went on a mini-run, with baskets from Lawson-Wade and Riley. Agler called a timeout to talk things over. 22-16 Storm with 7:16 to go.

Interval: Sportscaster Paul Silvi in the house to help with the Trivia Challenge. They won it – courtside seats and an autographed Lauren Jackson picture. The questions were pretty easy. Nice to see the Storm getting some well-deserved love from the local media.

Whatever Agler said during the timeout worked: Sue hit a jumper (Snell unfortunately scored) and Camille hit a highlight-reel shot with some serious razzle-dazzle. Just to make sure she wasn’t getting cocky, the refs whistled her for fouling Young, who sank the +1. 26-21 Storm. Lawson-Wade demonstrated that she’s studying at the Helen Darling Defensive School – she has such a good hold on Sue’s jersey, I thought she was going to rip it off. Sue hit a jumper, then things went a bit flat offensively for both teams, until Hammon hit her patented, pretty reverse layup twice in row. She is VERY good at getting her defenders out of position on the baseline, probably because she has such a fast fake. Annoying, but there you are.

Both Camille and Janelle were whistled for traveling – San Antonio does a good job at collapsing on players under the basket and it’s unfortunately easy to get stripped or whistled. They were kind enough to match our turnovers, though, either by chucking the ball out of bounds (Vickie Johnson) or letting Sue steal it. T beamed a tight pass to Janell who hit a bank shot and was fouled by Snell (her third). Janell sank the +1. Storm up by eight.

Swin “fouled” Wauters (huh? –maybe they thought she shouldn’t have missed the layup since she was in perfect position), who clanked one and sank one of her free throws. She looks different this year, certainly got some sun. Frazee hit a three. She is going to be a seriously dangerous player in a few years. T connected with Janell for another layup. They must be practicing this a lot, because it looked very smooth. Hammon made fools of our defense with ANOTHER reverse layup. Someone has to figure out how to stop that shot! SA within 4. Hammon fouled Swin with 1.4 seconds to go. I thought her head was going to explode. Swin hit both free throws. Clutch shooting, Swin! 39-33 Storm.

Halftime: All-Decade Celebration. Time to get out the Kleenex. VERY moving. Huge ovations for Karen Bryant and Storm ownership. Ginger Ackerly came out with her female relatives, including daughters-in-law and the cutest tiny baby. Karen Bryant announced the creation of a Ginger Ackerly Community Service Award in her honor, and gave her a commemorative Storm jersey with 99 on it.

All-Decade Team introduced with wonderful messages from Tully, Izi and Betty. They love us. Tully was funny, but Betty and Izi were more emotional. Betty in particular talked about how much she loved and appreciated the Storm fans and our support of her career. Great to see the Simone shimmy again. Funny to see our current players just walking out – I’m too used to them galloping out at the beginning of the game. The Storm staff unveiled a giant 6 jersey, in honor of US, the best WNBA fans. It was a wonderful moment, although, me being me, I worried that the emotional atmosphere would distract our starters from the current game. Lovely picture with owners, management and Storm players.

It was a little weird that we didn’t hear from any coaches, though. Guess Agler was too busy or something - still a taped message would've done the trick.

Third Quarter
Rough start to the third – Camille picked up two fouls and Sue missed two shots. SA hit four free throws in a row. Katie came in. Swin whistled for three seconds – she was totally mangled and HELD under the basket. One of those refs must be from Detroit. Our boos rang the rafters. Young called on traveling. Riley fouled Lauren, who hit her free throws. Offensive doldrums again. The ref whistled Swin for being on the same court as the ball, apparently. Maybe he just hates her new hairstyle (wavy ponytail – very pretty I thought). Hammon finally made a bucket with 6:22 to go. Lauren hit one right back.

Young’s magic touch deserted her tonight – sent up a three which clanked. Mad scramble for rebound. Katie got it. She played better defense tonight, but her offensive game wasn’t there. Young committed a frustration foul on Sue, who hit both free throws.

Timeout SA. Cute Doppler skit – his feelings were hurt that he wasn’t thanked during the halftime celebration, but was made very happy by the gift of a “00” necklace. Clarence tried to steal it from him and Jason (Doppler’s assistant) had to break them up.

Lauren hit a jumper. Lawson-Wade fed Wauters who hit a layup. As mentioned earlier, she’s not the player she was, but she is VERY good at finding her spot under the basket, leaving Swin or Camille or even Lauren (once) skittering around her in annoyance.

Sue missed a jumper, but Swin grabbed the rebound and put up her own shot. Young COMPLETELY fouled her on a “block,” but, instead, the MORONIC refs called a jump ball. SA missed two shots and Swin hit a jumper. Hammon scored again. Sue finally found her jumper (YAY!). Lawson-Wade hit a three. Well, it had to fall sooner or later, given how often she’s shot it.

Whistle fest from refs - against the Storm. Free throw fest from San Antonio (although Wauters clanked another one). SA within two. Fans incensed. Sue hit another jumper – GREAT time to find your shot, Birdy! Frazee missed a three, and Shannon went down HARD as Helen Darling tried to pick her pocket. PeeWee is unbelievably good at drawing fouls. She ought to teach it. Both free throws fell. Storm back up by six. Lawson-Wade missed another three. Swin got the rebound and was promptly – and inexplicably – whistled for the foul. She just stood there, laughing and shaking her head. Katie came in. Shanna Crossley came in. Not much of a factor, thank goodness. Frazee and Katie traded one-point free throws. Perperoglou hit a three, her first points of the game. 56-53 Storm.

Interval: Storm Movie Magic, starring A-Rob. Nice to see her getting some love, because she surely isn’t getting any playing time.. She and Suzy just sat there, a lovely pair of 6’4” bookends. Coach? You have TEN players and Lauren looks a little tired, Camille wasn’t playing as well as she usually does, and Swin was in foul trouble. I’m just saying.

Fourth Quarter
Yet another flat offensive start. LOTS of missed shots. A highly dramatic (but nowhere nearly as good as Shannon’s) flop from Darling brought Camille in and sent Swin to the bench. Young and T traded field goals. T played some seriously disruptive and outstanding defense tonight, especially on Hammon. San Antonio went on a six-point run. Up by three. Camille hit a beautiful jump shot. Once again, a clutch player in the fourth. Janell tanked on rebounding during that stretch. It was painful, almost as painful as looking at the bench and seeing two fresh-legged, good-rebounding, shot-blocking, 3-hitting (in Suzy’s case) post players. (eye roll).

However, the refs (FINALLY) started calling fouls both ways and that was all we needed. GREAT free throw shooting from LJ, hitting six in a row – and smart decision by Agler to move the plays through her, and draw the foul. That one of those fouls was Riley’s fifth was just icing. Wauters had a mental lapse during this point – two fouls and a traveling turnover – and Hughes yanked her. Hammon tried to hit a layup, but LJ blocked her - oh, so very pretty – and Sue grabbed the rebound. Hammon looked pretty ticked, though and went on her own little scoring run, seven points in a minute to put the Silver Stars ahead by three. Her last two points, though, were on a world-class STUPID foul called on T. Note to idiot refs: calling fouls in the last TEN SECONDS should be done VERY CONSERVATIVELY, you power-tripping idiots! Not that I’m bitter.

All of the air went of the room when Hammon hit those free throws. Fans looked very glum. SA up by three with 6.9 seconds to go. Timeout, Storm.

Ball inbounded, sent to Lauren, who checked her feet, realized she was standing on the line and sent it to Sue. SWISH. Clutch three was IN. Arena went berserk. Massive primal screams emitting from my section. Strangers were hugging each other. Timeout SA. Music engineer put on the “Hey!” music. Sophia Young sent it up with .4 seconds to go, but shot was pressured. Big miss.

77 all. On to overtime!

Interval: Genius music engineer puts on some lighthearted trance music and fans and Dance Troupe danced. The atmosphere in arena lightened perceptibly. Nothing like having a star player come up with a big play when you really need one.

Overtime
Lauren sank a quick jump shot. Darling threw herself at T’s hip, bounced off and flopped for the “foul.” Well, nice to know that she scares teams enough to get her fouled out – stupid refs – but now we were stuck playing for almost a whole overtime period without one of our strongest defenders and clutch players. Note to Darling: overacting is NOT the same as acting – but maybe if we EVER GET SOME DECENT OFFICIATING, they’ll see through that.

T headed for the bench. (Grrr). Shannon the Valiant came in. VJ scored a three, putting SA back on top. Her first points of the game. Sue found Camille under the basket with a sweet no-look pass and Camille sank a layup. Seattle by one. VJ missed a three. Swin snagged her ninth rebound. Persistent holding and mauling under the basket by them and taking too long to shoot (for us) resulted in a shot clock turnover. Crowd groaned. Storm’s offense became much slower, much more deliberative – much more their own game.
Sue stripped Darling and fed LJ, who drew the sixth foul against Young. She was ticked as she headed for the bench. The fans were happy – no buzzer-beaters from her this game! Lauren sank the +1. Storm up by 4.

Wauters hit a layup. Groans. Sue missed a jump shot. Lawson-Wade came in, but airballed another three, thanks to good, tight Storm defense. Shannon snagged the rebound, and drew a foul on Hammon and sank a free throw. Hammon tried to find her shot, but Storm defense proved too much, forcing her to take an off-balance shot that didn’t fall. Game over: 85-82 Storm.

Notes:
Sue was definitely bringing the self-snark during the post-game interviews, saying, “Apparently, we like overtime,” and quipping that she should take all of her shots off-balance from now on. She sounded pretty annoyed at herself.

Not the prettiest of wins, but I’ll take an ugly win over a gorgeous loss any day.

Both KG and JB seemed to regress a bit offensively and JB had a defensive meltdown in the fourth quarter. Good solid production from Camille and T.

Sue scored 15 points, had four rebounds, five assists and only one turnover –on an “off night”. Swin and Lauren also had double-doubles.

Someone who was sitting near Michelle Marciniak confirmed that she was reading Orender the riot act about the refs. Go,her!

Onto Phoenix.