The Los Angeles Sparks beat the visiting Chicago Sky 91-78 on Sunday, winning all four quarters. Los Angeles made a +7 differential in points off turnovers. The Sparks are 2-0 when they score more points off turnovers, 0-3 when they do not. *** The feeling I got from Los Angeles during the first half was a disconnectedness that’s dogged the Sparks all season. I hazard a guess: Sparks ballhandlers are still cultivating instinct for teammates’ whereabouts, and prefer to troll for free throws instead of the open man. Coach Roberts said after the loss Friday to Golden State that the …
Category: wnba
New York 90 Indiana 88
The Liberty led by 15, the Fever led by 12, and it was tied with a minute left. That was a game I needed, a reminder that I don’t have to wait for September to watch championship contenders play like championship contenders. New York is stuck with a most-unenviable task of having to repeat (everything else is a failure), after it took so long to complete the first most-unenviable task of winning one. (Maybe we should think about Liberty team history only as far as Since James Dolan.) Indiana built a new computer. That’s my only personal experience that matches. …
Golden State 82 Los Angeles 73, postscript
I said one intelligent thing yesterday, and forgot to write it in game notes. I said in this space that Los Angeles coach Roberts and I crossed paths in a Staples Center tunnel, and when she asked me what I thought about the game coming, I said “duh”. That’s what I said at the postgame press conference. (I identified my publication as “Utah Women’s Basketball Independent”. Later, a broadcaster said: “When you said ‘Utah’, I was, like, ‘whoa’.” “Coach and I go back to Pacific”, I said.) I told Coach: “What I should have said was: ‘The Valkyries look like …
Valkyries 82 Sparks 73
Trailing by 2 to start the 2nd quarter in Los Angeles, Golden State scored 18 unanswered points, and held on to win 82-73. Four Valkyries scored in double figures, and the Golden State bench outscored the Los Angeles bench 30-6. *** Among the first six or seven Valkyries, the player who most stands out to me is Carla Leite. The 21-year-old guard had team highs with 19 points and 3 assists in 17 minutes Friday. Golden State’s 12th man Kyara Linskens played 13 effective (+15) minutes, while the home team was nearly buried. I have two questions for Coach Nakase …
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em
One of my biggest peeves regarding modern sports media is how they formulate questions for interview subjects. In ancient times, we asked questions for two reasons: 1) To get an explanation or ascertainment; or 2) To get color. In “Bull Durham”, Crash Davis taught Nuke LaLoosh to expect nothing but the second type of question. (They think they’re throwing hardball when they ask “what was the gameplan?” or “what was the mindset?”, but those are from the LaLooshSpeak playbook, total bullshit because the answers never change.) While the conversations got as soft as ice cream in the sun, media also …
The spirit of Howard Cosell lives on at ESPN and during WNBA broadcasts
I applied for a press credential for Golden State at Los Angeles three nights from now. The application form was autocompleted with my publication’s name as Flack the Pac, from the days when there was a Pac to flack. A new field asked for a description of the work the application would do. The example provided was: “I will write game preview”. I filled it with: “Post-game reevaluation of my life decisions”. Which is true, because the WNBA isn’t an environment for reflective writing. The Valkyries use fireworks during their player introductions. People are generally dumber than they were 20 …
I just ask other people’s questions now
A chessplayer asked me if I thought Los Angeles coach Roberts would retire Saturday as the only WNBA coach in history with a spotless WL record. Roberts and the Sparks are 1-0 following their 84-67 win at Golden State Friday. Chessplayers have a strange sense of humor about such things. When the “rapid” time control became a thing in international chess around the turn of the ’90s, my first rating at that time control was 2560, and some friends said I should quit. I said about Roberts: “She’ll think about it, because it’s funny, but she won’t.” What I left …
How’s that wine bottle? 18604?
CalTrain was packed with baseball (A’s visiting the Giants is a bigger occasion than it used to be, since Oakland ate shit again at keeping a sports team) and basketball goers, which makes it tough to disembark. A fellow said to his mate: “When those people go, follow them. That’s our strategy.” “Their strategy should be to follow a big guy like you”, I said. He didn’t get that, if his first idea didn’t clue you in to his savvy. “Why do you have a sign that says ‘Media’?” he said. “I was working the Valkyries game”. “That’s the women’s …
The hottest ticket and media credential in this town or any town
The organizer of the 2025 US senior open for chess fell ill. The usual path these days is to launch a pleasehelpme page, but this chess organizer said: Please play in my tournament. It’s in Illinois, weekend of July 25. So I’d miss Dallas at Golden State, but the Wings visit again in September. And there’s a Sky game I could do on the 27th. Only trouble is, it’s Indiana. Before I ask Sky media for a credential, maybe Golden State can find a job (and accreditation) for me.
The Caitlin Clark Effect reaches the magazine racks
I don’t care if it’s good or not — the fact that it exists means having to put my $16 in, so there’ll be more like it in the future (and if I’m writing it, then it’ll be better). Wait. $16?! Yeah, said the kid. Magazine prices are going way up. Maybe it’s the cost of the paper, some think it’s the inks, I dunno. But graphic novels, they still cost the same. Graphic novels cost too much 10 years ago, I said. The other things are just catching up.