RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Bob Lamm]

I give Sabrina Ionescu the game ball. She played wonderfully when it really mattered. Although her WNBA career so far has been a struggle due to injuries, I remain VERY excited about her future on my team.

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Remember Roe v. Wade. Work for and support legal abortion all over the world and full reproductive rights for everyone.

[jmvcity]

That was scary. I wouldn’t have been surprised if NY choked but glad they pulled through. Where was this defense and sense of urgency in the last 10 games?

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

I give Hopkins a C+ for the season. I’ll elaborate on positives later but I have like 1,000 thoughts and needed the processing time.

First. The turnovers. Laney 2021 career high turnovers per minute. Howard 2021 overwhelming career high turnovers per minute. Clarendon 2020 obliterated her career high in turnovers per minute, though she nearly matched it this year albeit with way more assists.

Even in an offense that likes to push pace where possible, some of these turnovers are fixable. I don’t feel like taking care of the ball is emphasized consistently enough to be valued. That has to change in 2022.

Also, tonight’s defensive scheme was an aggressive switching and double teaming scheme designed to take Tina out of the game and it worked. It also meant the Liberty dictated something. Not surprisingly, they withstood some punches tonight. That’s what happens when you dictate.

What analytics don’t account for is those nights where you give up easy twos. Like when Stewie is owning Laney in the post with no help. If the Liberty schemed more aggressively to cover for their size issues they’d be a better defensive team. And yes I think it’s that simple.

Anyway I’m exhausted. More tomorrow.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[myrtle]

[Stormeo]

[Queenie]

I'm pleasantly surprised and relieved that the game didn't fall apart completely and that epic failure of a marriage proposal in the fourth quarter (where the young lady looked like someone had handed her a live tarantula and fled the scene with great haste) did not turn into an omen.

(Seriously, do not do a Jumbotron proposal unless you know they're going to say yes. And even then, hesitate. I made it perfectly clear to Happycappie that if he pulled a stunt like that, it was the best way for him to suddenly get a no.)

I thought we were going to blow it when Ariel Atkins reminded everyone that she is in fact an Olympic gold medalist and started sniping threes. But when we started applying even token defense, that was enough to cool her down.

Washington missed Mike Thibault tonight, IMO. Eric's good, but he's not tested, and he doesn't have the experience to have the knack for matchups that Mike does. Maybe a couple of different substitutions change the flow of the game. Or maybe Mike gets that technical instead of Walker-Kimbrough. (I still don't know what she did, but honestly, I don't blame her for being mad at the refs in the first half. There were a lot of bad calls in the Liberty's favor, and she was in the middle of at least two of them.)

Dear Australians for both teams: y'all are not playing rugby, please stop with the tackling.

Natasha Howard looked like the high-end free agent we cranked open the bank vault for, and I would like more of this next season, please and thank you.

I did not think we were going to keep up the intensity. I'm pleasantly surprised.

So was it "wear your random WNBA gear" day at this game and no one told me? Bear in mind, this was Mystics at Liberty. Gear spotted in the crowd: a Seattle Storm shirt, a "Sparks Nation" LA shirt, an A'ja Wilson Aces jersey, and a spectacular throwback flex of a Tamera Young Chicago Sky third jersey (the yellow one with the blue yoke).

Also spotted in the crowd: a Rebecca Allen Opals jersey and a homebrew Becky Hammon jersey (couldn't tell if it was old from before the real ones came out, or kludged together from the Pondexter giveaway). Someone may have had a T-Spoon jersey in the new style. I don't know how I feel about throwforwards.

A very satisfying way to not fuck up Fan Appreciation Night. We finished off the experience with a walk down Flatbush Avenue to Junior's. (Fam, if you need a link to that...) I did not expect the cheesesteak to be that good! I also did not expect my slice of cheesecake to still be slightly frozen in the middle! But it was still tasty.

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Ardent believer in the separation of church and stadium.

[gpark33]

That was a fun game to be a Lib fan. My group went to McMahon's after and I heard Sabrina was there a bit later in the night with what looked to be her family. I had to hop the train home so missed the sighting. Glad she isn't shying away from places where fans would obviously be after the game.

One of my favorite parts of being a Lib fan back in the day was running into Sue at Cubby or Tari and Tamika at ESPN Zone.

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The teacher and the student.

[Lib Fan]

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

So…more thoughts. On the overall defensive concept first off. We’ve seen NY be on the slow side of incorporating double teams, fronting, trapping or doing things that smaller teams normally do defensively. The switching defensive scheme has just been incorporated more recently. It could be that they’ve opted for a less aggressive defensive approach until Howard became more acclimated and maybe their plan was to incorporate some of this sooner. We’ll never know that answer. But a few things are apparent. First in spite of the Libs’ relative lack of size, they don’t force many turnovers. They also commit an alarming amount, which when coupled with their 11th-ranked rebound percentage, probably is the reason for their just about all of their negative differential in fast break points. A small defensive team in my estimation has to have a positive turnover differential so that they have a means of dictating some form of aggressiveness that makes up for their size. I’ll give something of a pass for this being they didn’t have Howard at near 100% till late in the season.

But next year I’m not giving a pass. Even if they let Bec go they’re going to have Laney, Onyenwere, Richards and Willoughby who all fit a similar size profile. They’re going to have enough pieces to make moves that will enable them to be more balanced even if someone like Howard gets hurt.

So while I like this in-theory offense oriented system. And while I think Hopkins is smart and can potentially implement something special, next year is it. By 2015 Laimbeer had turned the Liberty around. The Liberty can draft no lower than 5. This regime will have had two first overall picks (one traded) plus another high one this year. Losing Durr was a bad break but that’s what has likely helped to enable another high pick. Next year has to be your year. Barring major injuries you have to get the job done and that’s the end of the discussion. If Sabrina is healthy next year 17 team turnovers per game cannot and will not be excused. Defensively, they have to force a good deal more than 12 per game as well.

I think this can work and I don’t think a major overhaul in philosophy is needed to make it work. But I think you can and need to schematically better suit your personnel.

It’s a make or break year next year. If it turns out to be “break” I’m going to be vocal in my displeasure.

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The poster formerly known as LibWNBAFan.

[root_thing]

I don't think the Liberty care if they have fans much less what we think. How else to explain the Sales Department going incommunicado and forcing us to chase them around in an attempt to renew our tickets? We've tried three out of four options and we're still empty-handed. The fourth option was signing a blank contract. That's like signing a blank check -- not doing it.

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You can always do something else.

[Bob Lamm]

[lynxmania]

Y’all really hung up on that post game comment. Reeve makes those comments all the time.

[Bob Lamm]

[Queenie]

[root_thing]

[jmvcity]

The reps sitting at the subscription table at barclays are clueless. Each time I stopped by with questions about renewal, they’re always looking for Justin, who seems to be always on the move.

I had emailed Justin in the past and have yet to get a response.

[NYL_WNBA_FAN]

[Bob Lamm]