First things first: Plenette Pierson needs to be suspended for Game 4. Running down the floor in the final seconds, she got tangled with Penny, and she turned around and took a shot at Penny's head. Call it a punch, call it an elbow, call it a slap — it doesn't matter. Nor does it matter that there had been lots of chippy play on both sides leading up to that point.

You take a shot at someone's head, you get suspended. It's that simple. I don't know whether the league will do it or not, but failure would be a sign of cowardice, not fairness.

On to the game...

Writing in the East Valley Tribune this morning, Scott Bordow extols the WNBA's virtues. After watching Game 3 last night, he marvels at the great quality of play that prevails in the league today.

That's not quite the reaction I had. Voepel's is closer: "it was entertaining, sometimes well-played and sometimes not, passion-filled and leaving you wondering what the next chapter is going to bring."

It was, above all, a strange game. It started off at an incredible pace, but slowed down (bogged down) over the final three quarters. For much of the game, it seemed like Detroit was dominating, and yet it could never push the lead beyond mid-single-digits. Some of that had to do with Tina, Bob, and Daryl, who seemed to want the Merc to win as much of the rest of us did, and thus called every possible foul against the Shock, handing the home squad an absurd free throw advantage.

Phoenix shot terribly, and got worse as the game went on. In the fourth, with endless opportunities to tie, the Merc missed 11 straight field goal attempts. The team shot 5 for 31 from outside. Tangela Smith took 6 of the ugliest three-point attempts ever witnessed in a basketball game.

That recurring disaster, however, had an ironic silver lining. Really bad shots, clanking hard at weird angles, lead to rebounding opportunities in unusual places. As a result, the Merc had a ton of O-boards fall into their laps, and ended overall with a 47-42 rebounding advantage.

The rebounding and free throws kept the score close — and kept the game riveting.

Down to the very last moments, Phoenix could have won the game if only it could have hit a shot or two. It couldn't. Detroit, especially Katie Smith, simply shot better, and shot better at the big times.

And so the Shock are one game away from a repeat. Even if you aren't happy with that result, you gotta love the drama.