Weathering the Storm

Sisters and brothers, I'm testifying to the sweetness of watching a star player execute in the clutch.

Can I get an amen?

Can we for one moment capture this moment and appreciate an athlete as she continues her brilliant emergence? It's easy for a player to be the leading scoring on a mediocre team with many inconsistent shooters, but you know you have something when that player can come down the court, put the game on her shoulders and hit the dagger. Along with Katie Smith, the Lynx now have had two star players who can finish a game. It's a trait not every superstar possesses--KG's inability to close being the prime example. I've said a lot about the Taylor organization's roster building acumen, but they usually get one player right. On the Wolves, it is/was(?) KG, on this team it's Augustus.

The loss to San Antonio was disappointing, but right now, the Silver Stars are a better team than Seattle. The Storm have issues, now being just ahead of the Lynx in the standings. As was pointed out in today's Star Tribune, the Lynx are learning how to win at home, an obvious prerequisite for success. While they continue to have their shooting and defensive struggles, they were able to produce 10 more shots than the Storm, and hit a higher percentage of free throws; those factors being crucial in last night's win.

With winning the last four out of five, where does this team go from here? They still have a long way to go. The recipe for success for this team will be how well it complements SA in a balanced team approach. Looking at some familiar themes in previous posts:

Sharing the ball:
Last night was a regression in sharing the ball with a low 12 assists. In the last five games the Lynx have averaged 17.20 assists per game, as opposed to their season average 14.79. Harding took a lot of quick shots in this game, especially in the first half. It seemed as if she wanted to make a statement to Sue Bird, the Seattle star, who was an efficient 10 of 15. I guess the statement was: "I'm still an inconsistent rookie". Here's where I fault Zierden. When Harding was jacking up those shots, he should have told her to grab some bench. She was 2 of 7 in the first quarter, and didn't sit down until mid-way in the second. That's the perfect spot to bring in an experienced, pass-first PG to settle things down. You want your promising rookie to be up for the challenge of playing a star opponent, but not at the cost of team play. This ain't street ball.

The way the Lynx will win THIS YEAR is by distributing the basketball, getting balanced scoring, and complementing what SA will do most nights. The fact that Harding was able to grab 7 rebounds demonstrates that you don't have to score to contribute, especially at PG.

Pecking order:
Last night Zierden referred to Nicole Ohlde as the second best player on the club. Really? At the risk of making Marie's blood boil, here are Nicole's current stats:

21st in the league in rebounding
22nd in scoring
48th in field goal percentage
30th in blocks
25th in points/rebounds/assists average
45th in efficiency
1st in Fouls

Are those the stats of a second best player on any club? Not for a upper echelon team.

Ohlde got herself in foul trouble last night, and again showed her inability to finish in the paint, as well as contributing six turnovers. I'll be fair; she's played better lately, which certainly has contributed to the team's success. She's improved in almost every statistical category her last five games. And, being the primary front court player on the team this year, it's welcome and needed progress. But you can't have that much gap between your first and second best players. It's putting too much pressure on Nicole to be in that role, especially when they can't compliment her with stronger front court players. I'm guessing what they really want is for Harding to be second in the order, but given her performance to date, it's probably a year away. Thus the continued contribution of Svet and others to provide some help or simply hope for the continued improvement in Nicole's play will be paramount.

Bench play:
Last night, Eshaya Murphy came off the bench to provide a spark, with 12 points. Bench scoring has been an issue; they need to find that 6th or 7th player to come in and be the microwave or defensive stoppers.

Intangibles:
Essentially, the Lynx have improved offensively, and while still struggling defensively, have begun to balance it out. The last five games they have improved their shooting percentage, free throw percentage and assists per game; they have averaged scoring two points more than the opposition per game, up from a deficit of 4.47 per game for the season. Overall, the team has dipped in it's team rebounding totals, so the front court issues continue. The strategy seems to be increase the number of shots, rebound as a team (three players had 7 last night), share the ball and find the balance, all the while putting the ball in SA's hands at crunch time.

The bottom line: As the Beatles once said: "It's getting better." Parity in the league has actually provided a ray of hope, playoff-wise; they are 3 games out of the last spot in the Western Conference. To even mention that a couple of weeks ago would have been heresy on my part. Unfortunately, the rotten start has them pushing a huge rock up the hill. But the progress will encourage me to plunk my dollars down to go to a game, or to watch the games when they're available, which I certainly would encourage everyone to do.

And, considering the continuing drama on the Wolves side of the court, this blip in productivity has been welcome indeed. You can only call Kevin McHale an idiot for so long.