The Lynx beat the Mercury last night at Target Center 75-59. The Lynx got balanced scoring and fine games from Nicole Ohlde and Vanessa Hayden. Kristi Harrower blocked a 3 point shot by Phoenix’s Angelina Williams (change the official scorebook! It was clearly a blocked shot!). Katie Smith scored 12 points, played great defense, and led the team in assists. 10 Lynx players put points on the board. The lynx also turned the ball over 18 times (with the t.o.s almost as well distributed as their scoring) keeping the game much closer than it ought to have been. It’s always good to win, especially after playing three games in four days against tough West Coast teams, but the Lynx weren't happy with their execution last night, "There were a lot of things that weren't good with this game...but it was a good win for us, coming off that road trip." said Ohlde.
Phoenix caught a 6:45 am flight from DC yesterday. Their jump shooting looked like it as the game wore on – tired legs, tired shots. "We got reasonable shots most times," Mercury coach Carrie Graf said. "It was evident that it was a back-to-back and we didn't have a shootaround. There wasn't a lot of legs in our shots." PHX ended up shooting a season low 26.4% from the field.
The Mercury’s biggest issue might have been keeping Diana Taurasi on the floor – she only played 28 minutes because of foul trouble. Last night at least two (and probably three) of her fouls were silly. She spent too much time on the bench - the Merc fell apart offensively when she was out of the game. On a positive note, Phoenix looked like a team where, if they get a few nights sleep in their home beds, a couple of days to practice to get in sync, they could make a run at the playoffs. That made the Lynx victory doubly important as they will be fighting for a playoff spot as well.
Note: The down side of Taurasi’s foul trouble vs. the Lynx was that PHX had a hard time getting any rhythm on offense and Lynx fans were deprived of seeing a wonderful player. On the bright side, with Diana out of the game, the Lynx didn’t have to worry about Taurasi going after Vanessa Hayden (yeah…I’m taking D-Nasty’s word on THE INCIDENT IN DC verbatim…)(and yes that is a joke).
Phoenix caught a 6:45 am flight from DC yesterday. Their jump shooting looked like it as the game wore on – tired legs, tired shots. "We got reasonable shots most times," Mercury coach Carrie Graf said. "It was evident that it was a back-to-back and we didn't have a shootaround. There wasn't a lot of legs in our shots." PHX ended up shooting a season low 26.4% from the field.
The Mercury’s biggest issue might have been keeping Diana Taurasi on the floor – she only played 28 minutes because of foul trouble. Last night at least two (and probably three) of her fouls were silly. She spent too much time on the bench - the Merc fell apart offensively when she was out of the game. On a positive note, Phoenix looked like a team where, if they get a few nights sleep in their home beds, a couple of days to practice to get in sync, they could make a run at the playoffs. That made the Lynx victory doubly important as they will be fighting for a playoff spot as well.
Note: The down side of Taurasi’s foul trouble vs. the Lynx was that PHX had a hard time getting any rhythm on offense and Lynx fans were deprived of seeing a wonderful player. On the bright side, with Diana out of the game, the Lynx didn’t have to worry about Taurasi going after Vanessa Hayden (yeah…I’m taking D-Nasty’s word on THE INCIDENT IN DC verbatim…)(and yes that is a joke).
posted by Demetri at 8:30 AM
