How meaningless is the last reg-season away game, for a team with its playoff position already fixed, against a team that's already out of the playoffs?

For Bill Laimbeer and the Detroit Shock, pretty meaningless: Laimbeer started the end of his bench, gave 40 minutes to Barbara Farris, and gave Cash, Riley, Nolan and Ford DNPs.

Unsurprisingly, Washington won. Laurie Koehn played 25 minutes and made five of seven treys. Detroit stayed in it by getting free throw attempts, but made just 21 of 38.

Alana Beard on yet another up-and-down season in Washington: "It was a hard year, the whole year, I'm not going to lie. I don't feel that I have played like I'm capable of playing.... Temeka had a great rookie year, and she's only going to get better. We're all going to get better. I love this organization, and I think we have a bright future."

For John Whisenant and the Monarchs, a game with no consequences had meaning enough to go for the win. A chaotic, foul-filled first half saw both teams under 10 at the ten-minute mark, serious minutes for the end of Sac's bench (Scott-Richardson, Buescher) and no Lynx points at all for the last few minutes-- a lousy way for Minnesota to end a very frustrating season.

Then Nicole Ohlde found her rhythm, and Amanda Lassiter (not normally an offensive threat) lit up. The Lynx evened the score at 36, fell behind, but stayed within one possession, and kept the momentum. Whisenant chose to send Yo Griffith back in: she took over the paint, scored a couple more points, and Sac went home with the win.

Without Walker or Lawson, the 'Narchs looked again like last year's team, engineered not to score, but to keep you from scoring. Without Hayden, the Lynx got absolutely hammered in rebounding: Sac had 17 offensive boards; Minnesota had three.

Coach McConnell-Serio got it right: "We went down swinging. [Sacramento] was a team that dominated the Western Conference this year, and they had their starters in the game until the end."

Ohlde: "I need to improve on everything -- improve my range, keep working on back-to-the-basket moves. I really wanted to improve myself this season, and I think I was really inconsistent." (No more so than your teammates, Nicole-- but we love the work ethic.)

Minnesota's attendance of 6.7K-- the lowest of any reg-season finale this year-- equals the Lynx season average, down again (by about 9%) from last year. The Mystics drew just 9K, another letdown given their history. Fans may debate the in-arena experience, but this year's best (Indiana, Seattle, Connecticut) and worst (Charlotte, Washington, San Antonio) attendance changes suggest that teams draw more fans mostly by winning.