Wednesday, September 17, 2008

'Twas the night before playoffs.............

Tomorrow it kicks off with Connecticut facing New York, and then San Antonio vs. Sacramento. Unless something really freaky happens, SA should romp on Sac. But with the Eastern Conference, I'm not so sure.

A few weeks ago I would have said Conn hands down, but the Liberty are looking really good lately - particularly Janel McCarville. We shall see, but I hope New York comes out on top. They've been down for a while and it's their turn to rise.

Friday it's Detroit vs. Indiana and once again, barring a miracle, the Shock should wipe the floor with them (though I really want Catchings to have a great series). The last game is, of course, Sparks vs. Storm.

I know I said I'd ponder it a bit, but I haven't come up with anything new. We've got the same unpredictable Sparks facing the same injured-with-a-really-deep-bench Storm. Either team could win, though I'm praying hard it'll be LA, because it's challenging to win games at Key Arena if you're the visiting team.

Nerves! I'm gonna have nerves by Friday. I can feel it.

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Candace Parker, Diana Taurasi and Lindsey Whalen received the WNBA's Peak Performers awards today for most rebounds, scoring and assists, respectively. Parker averaged 9.5 rebounds per game this season, while Taurasi averaged 24.1 point. Whalen had 166 assists this season. Here's the link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/wnba/news/story?id=3594331

On its website today, the WNBA linked probably the best and most intense player feature they've ever written. It's about Sparks guard Temeka Johnson, who was gone for a long time in July dealing with the death of her grandmother. Several reactions to the piece were from people who had also been close to their grandmothers, but you don't have to have had that to appreciate the humanity of this story:

http://www.wnba.com/playoffs2008/temekajohnson_080917.html

wnba.com needs to do more features like this.

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