Game Eleven: Storm @ Silver Stars 13 June, 2008

Sigh. The post game interviews peppered with "we let this one get away" say it all. The Storm controlled this game in the first half as Sue Bird broke free of her shooting slump. None of the usual scorers stepped up, though, with Swoopes, Cash and Wright all having off nights. In the end, it was a few specific runs that killed the Storm. In the third quarter the Storm gave up -5 and -4 runs to the Silver Stars, and San Antonio used a dominant +7 run to close out the fourth quarter.

The Storm did what I asked from them in terms of rebounding, but the Silver Stars found a way to win when they lose the battle on the glass.


Storm
Most Effective Shooters

Player	True Shooting Percentage	Effective FG%	Floor Percentage	Points
Ashley Robinson	100%	100%	0%	2
Sue Bird	63%	60%	45%	21
Shyra Ely	57%	57%	67%	8
Lauren Jackson	52%	47%	59%	18
Katie Gearlds	41%	50%	53%	2

Another solid performance by Shyra off the bench, and hey, Katie hit a shot. We still need to see either Cash or Swoopes with Wright on this list. Tanisha had a terrible game with a 17% floor percentage.

Top Ratings

Player	Offensive Rating	Individual Rating
Shyra Ely	136.92	119.14
Lauren Jackson	119.11	98.38
Katie Gearlds	108.29	99.84
Sue Bird	108.15	106.77
Swin Cash	80.44	65.44

Swin had another bad game, she has not been the same since the team left for New York. Given how much Tanisha was struggling should we have seen more minutes from Gearlds?

Raw Plus/Minus

Katie Gearlds: +3
Kimberly Beck: 0
Ashley Robinson: 0
Sue Bird: -1
Yolanda Griffith: -1
Swin Cash: -1
Shyra Ely: -4
Lauren Jackson: -5
Tanisha Wright: -7
Sheryl Swoopes:-9

I think Tanisha and Sheryl played more minutes in this game than they earned.

Most Effective Lineups

Bird-Swoopes-Cash-Jackson-Griffith: +7
Bird-Wright-Cash-Ely-Jackson: +5
Bird-Gearlds-Cash-Ely-Jackson: +3

Silver Stars
Most Effective Shooters

Player	True Shooting Percentage	Effective FG%	Floor Percentage	Points
Becky Hammon	66%	63%	57%	17
Morenike Atunrase	63%	63%	51%	5
Vickie Johnson	58%	54%	53%	16
Sophia Young	53%	45%	61%	15
Anne Wauters	46%	43%	45%	8
Ruth Riley	43%	43%	37%	6

WNBA original Vickie Johnson has struggled this season, but the Storm let her break out last night.

Top Ratings

Player	Offensive Rating	Individual Rating
Becky Hammon	140.45	130.85
Morenike Atunrase	124.16	119.79
Sophia Young	123.03	107.02
Vickie Johnson	122.77	111.56
Erin Buescher	118.66	89.88

Did Buescher get six fouls or was everyone just crazy but the refs?

Raw Plus/Minus

Sophia Young: +7
Vickie Johnson: +6
Becky Hammon: +4
Erin Buescher: +4
Helen Darling: +4
Ruth Riley: +2
Anne Wauters: +2
Edwige Lawson-Wade: 0
Morenike Atunrase: -2

Most Effective Lineups

Hammon-Johnson-Buescher-Young-Wauters: +3
Hammon-Darling-Johnson-Young-Wauters: +3
Hammon-Darling-Buescher-Young-Riley: +3
Hammon-Darling-Buescher-Wauters-Riley: +3
Hammon-Johnson-Buescher-Wauters-Riley: +3