Game Twenty-Eight: Storm @ Sun 31 August, 2008

A tough loss. It was the kind of loss that you want to point at specific plays of the game when really it was bigger than that. For me the third quarter was the time where the game was lost. The Storm let themselves get into a hole and used their last run to even things back up.


Storm
Most Effective Shooters

Player	True Shooting Percentage	Effective FG%	Floor Percentage	Points
Sheryl Swoopes	100%	100%	100%	2
Katie Gearlds	70%	70%	60%	7
Swin Cash	68%	65%	61%	16
Yolanda Griffith	62%	43%	62%	12
Kelly Santos	57%	0%	74%	2
Sue Bird	56%	53%	51%	24

The veterans really stepped up in LJ's absence, though it would have helped if Sheryl had been able to play for more than six minutes. After how well Sue played, I was surprised to see how far she was down this list.


Top Ratings

Player	Offensive Rating	Individual Rating
Shyra Ely	214.29	200.00
Sheryl Swoopes	200.00	186.43
Katie Gearlds	139.28	127.88
Yolanda Griffith	136.22	117.41
Swin Cash	130.72	123.10
Kelly Santos	123.00	113.64
Sue Bird	108.71	98.71

Sue was not nearly as efficient as she appeared. I believe that the Storm could have won this game if Sheryl had remained healthy or if the Coach had given Kelly Santos some of the PF minutes that A-Rob played. We needed Santos' offense more with Griffith on the floor than we did A-Rob's defense.

Raw Plus Minus

Swin Cash: +4
Yolanda Griffith: +1
Ashley Robinson: 0
Shyra Ely: -1
Kelly Santos: -2
Tanisha Wright: -2
Sheryl Swoopes: -3
Sue Bird: -5
Katie Gearlds: -6
Camille Little: -6


Most Effective Lineups

Bird-Gearlds-Cash-Robinson-Griffith: +6
Bird-Wright-Cash-Little-Griffith: +2
Bird-Wright-Cash-Little-Robinson: +2

Sun
Most Effective Shooters

Player	True Shooting Percentage	Effective FG%	Floor Percentage	Points
Tamika Raymond	100%	100%	100%	2
Erin Phillips	90%	75%	58%	6
Jamie Carey	87%	83%	57%	12
Amber Holt	84%	81%	70%	15
Kerri Gardin	77%	100%	40%	6
Svetlana Abrosimova	67%	67%	35%	4
Asjha Jones	50%	41%	54%	20
Barbara Turner	50%	50%	26%	5

No, I am not kidding. The only Sun players without a DNP-CD next to their name in the boxscore with less than a 50% true shooting percentage wereTamika Whitmore who had 46% and Sandrine Gruda with a 0%. From the Sun side you have to applaud their team play and balance, particularly with the spectacular play from the second and third option point guards running the offense. From the Storm side, you have to be ticked that you let them feel that confident shooting and scoring the basketball from the top to the bottom of the lineup. If one player had been shut down, the Storm would have won this game.

Top Ratings

Player	Offensive Rating	Individual Rating
Tamika Raymond	200.00	181.74
Amber Holt	154.77	144.99
Erin Phillips	151.53	144.76
Jamie Carey	139.38	132.80
Asjha Jones	112.59	93.42
Kerri Gardin	108.24	113.50

Raw Plus Minus
Amber Holt: +11
Kerri Gardin: +10
Tamika Whitmore: +5
Asjha Jones: +4
Jamie Carey: +4
Tamika Raymond: 0
Svetlana Abrosimova: -1
Sandrine Gruda: -1
Erin Phillips: -2
Barbara Turner: -10

Most Effective Lineups
Carey-Holt-Gardin-Jones-Whitmore: +7
Carey-Holt-Gardin-Jones-Whitmore: +4
Phillips-Holt-Abrosimova-Raymond-Gruda: +3