Sunday, September 07, 2008

Game Thirty-one: Storm vs. Lynx 6 September, 2008

Crazy night. The crowd was large and revved up from the get go. Of course, my four year old was asleep right after tip off, not that it is surprising to me by this point in the season.

The Storm took an awful long time to get into rhythm, and once again it was MVP candidate Sue Bird who took charge and brought the team back with 21 second half points. Wow.

It was a truly scary moment when Sheryl went down, topped off by seeing Jordan being escorted down the tunnel by one of the older girls, her arm around his shoulders. I am glad to hear that she is doing fine.

Can we hear enough about the Storm setting franchise records for home wins, and wins in a season? Are we tired of hearing the words "first in the west" or "best record in the league?" I don't think so. I called six of the last eight games winnable, feeling doubtful only about the road games in Connecticut and LA. So far the Storm have fulfilled that prediction with wins in four of the five games so far, losing only to the Sun. It would be nice to say that everything else is gravy for the remainder of the season, but I can't say that. Without Lauren Jackson, first round, home court advantage is a must, and it will take one more win to seal that reality. Even more important will be home court advantage throughout the playoffs. The best that LA can do is win out over Atlanta and Seattle to end the season with 21 wins. San Antonio, on the other hand, has 20 wins with four remaining games. Unfortunately for the Storm two of them are against the Sun. While the Sun winning those games would mean the Silverstars can't do better than 22 wins, (if they can hold off surging New York and Sacramento) but San Antonio owns the tie breaker with the Storm. If Connecticut does win both, they could walk away with 24 wins and the tie breaker in a finals matchup. The Storm would have to hope that Detroit upsets the Sun in the Eastern Conference.

There will be a lot of games to watch in the next weeks.


Storm
Most Effective Shooters


Player

True Shooting Percentage

Effective FG%

Floor Percentage

Points

Yolanda Griffith

94%

100%

79%

11

Katie Gearlds

83%

83%

61%

5

Sheryl Swoopes

72%

75%

39%

7

Sue Bird

67%

50%

59%

23

Tanisha Wright

62%

55%

59%

17

Camille Little

60%

44%

63%

16

Swin Cash

54%

45%

59%

17



Top Ratings

PlayerOffensive RatingIndividual Rating
Yolanda Griffith156.56153.70
Katie Gearlds152.81153.32
Camille Little129.42112.27
Sue Bird125.69113.45
Tanisha Wright120.84108.37
Swin Cash114.47100.16
Ashley Robinson110.810.0

Raw Plus Minus

Swin Cash: +13
Ashley Robinson: +9
Camille Little: +9
Katie Gearlds: +8
Sue Bird:+4
Tanisha Wright: +4
Kelly Santos: 0
Yolanda Griffith: -1
Sheryl Swoopes: -3
Shyra Ely: -3


Most Effective Lineups
Bird-Wright-Cash-Little-Griffith: +9
Bird-Wright-Swoopes-Little-Robinson: +6
Bird-Gearlds-Cash-Little-Robinson: +4
Wright-Gearlds-Cash-Robinson-Griffith: +4

Lynx
Most Effective Shooters

Player

True Shooting Percentage

Effective FG%

Floor Percentage

Points

Novonda Moore

150%

150%

100%

3

Anna DeForge

85%

85%

57%

17

Vannessa Hayden

61%

50%

68%

6

Seimone Augustus

59%

59%

52%

26

Candice Wiggins

55%

50%

49%

16

Lindsey Harding

53%

56%

55%

11

Nicole Ohlde

52%

67%

38%

4



For the second straight game the Storm were lit up by opposing shooting guards. This is how important a healthy Swoopes is to the team's perimeter defense.


Top Ratings

PlayerOffensive RatingIndividual Rating
Novonda Moore300.00307.08
Vanessa Hayden147.25116.99
Anna DeForge137.09136.79
Seimone Augustus112.4697.39
Lindsey Harding110.73101.16


Raw Plus Minus
Novonda Moore: +3
Vanessa Hayden: 0
Nicole Ohlde: -1
Kristen Rasmussen: -1
Seimone Augustus: -3
Candice Wiggins: -4
Charde Houston: -6
Lindsey Harding: -8
Anna DeForge: -10
Nikki Anosike: -10

Most Effective Lineups
Harding-Wiggins-Augustus-Ohlde-Anosike: +5
Wiggins-DeForge-Augustus-Hayden-Anosike: +4
Moore-DeForge-Wiggins-Augustus-Anosike: +3

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