Atlanta Dream vs. Los Angeles Sparks: 05.25.2008

[Dream Zanarkand's Star Blitzer]

Tough loss, but there was a great crowd today!

Getting a seat upgrade to courtside AND getting on the big screen didn't hurt either

Our shooting percentage is killing us, and the Sparks defended the paint like giants. I was really proud of Izzy though, and hopefully we develop our outside shooting threat so opponents don't resort to crowding the lane.

What do you think of our play so far?

[chels]

Good game.. not the most exciting but still pretty fun. My seats were pretty good.
Dream needs to come together a bit more, cause the Sparks are freaking on fire.

But the arena needs to work out something for autographs after the game... I waited for CP after with like 30 other people then they made us leave cause we weren't family. They need like an autograph section and if the players want to go over there and sign, then they can. I also tried to wait on the other side for Latta and they made me leave there too.

[jaye]

that doesn't sound very fan friendly..... you don't bite the hand that feeds you....

[SmoovArt]

KMann hasn't played in the last 2 games. Is she hurt or something

[tichayo]

DeSouza seems to be making a difference. I didn't see the game. Does anyone who was there have any observations about her?

Right now, it looks like the Brazilians are trying to carry the rest of the team.

[petrel]

I'm feeling good. This is the second time that the Dream have "won a half" -- they "won" the second half against the Sparks, 35-33. (Last game, of course, they won the first half against the Shock and might have won it all for the lack of knowledge in closing a game.)

Furthermore, Candace Parker didn't have another 30 point game. Yeah, the Sparks won, but it wasn't a Connecticut-level blowout. There's a lot of good to be had about Game 3 if you can find it.

--Pet

[dream17]

DeSOUZA! is a beast, she grabbed 18 rebound the first night and I think at least 8 or 10 Sunday. Hopefully she will start instead of #44. Who is not that athletic considering her size.

[smuddster]

Desouza IS a monster on the inside. I've never seen a woman that big that is so quick to the ball off almost every shot. She is in the mix for the rebound every time. I actually think she is good coming in from the bench, though I think she could start as well. I don't think Feenstra started on Sunday - Lacy and Lovelace did. They both had their moments as well. I see a lot of potential thus far. And, we have a number of bright stretches - so far almost everyone has had a moment or three of very solid play. We just need, I think, some veteran leadership. We aren't going to get that from Lennox because she is too self-centered and erratic. When she's on she is good when she is off - she just looks bullheaded. Though she did pass better on Sunday.

I'm not sure why everyone is so down on Feenstra - yes, she's big and slow. But, she had some really bright spots this weekend as well. She's never going to move like Desouza, but she isn't horrible. She isn't a 35-min player either. But she is working on getting better at little things and she takes up a whole lot of space. I think in spurts she can provide solid relief for some of the other bigs.

What we NEED in the worst way is an inside/out game and as serious three point threat. Thus far, there has been no consistency in the perimeter game. If the opposing team doesn't respect us out there we'll never get them out of the paint. During the Shock game Friday, we never got a solid entry pass into the bigs in the second half. Sunday vs the Sparks, we did get some. But we're struggling right now in finding the open shot. I'm hoping its just new-team-itis.

Our man defense is struggling with weakside help too. Though I've been intrigued with Young's assignments - so far she's been spending time on the offensive threats. I think she has a good size and is young enough to keep up with some of these folks. I need to do some research on her defensive prowess in college - she was billed as an offensive threat. So far her offensive output has been okay - not outstanding.

We also have had several series where we put some momentum together Latta and Lovelace had a good stretch yesterday. And Desouza had a number of good defensive plays - which on Leslie is saying something.

I haven't been highly impressed by Lacy thusfar - and she is starting...so I'm waiting to see her pick it up a little. Haynie has been solid...but quiet. I see hope for some "Ws" in our future. We certainly seem to have the talent to do something good. Just need to put 4 quarters together.

[lattafan]

DeSouza is our X-Factor IMO. She's very strong in the paint. I'm soooo glad that she's playing for the Dream!! ;D

She plays with confidence and experience. This franchise will give her the opportunity to showcase her talents. I'm looking forward to hearing more great things about Erika. GO DREAM!

[SmoovArt]

Let me guest(because I've asked at least twice , already). You guys have no clue, why Kristen Mann ain't playing. She might be very useful in solving you're defense problems. I've watched her play here in the west , all her career. Not only is she a smart defender. But, she's a trooper. Doing and taking what ever role needs to be done. Unless she's hurt, DNP in unacceptable. You got a lot of players on that team, clueless as to what their role is.

[scarab]

Smoov...GAgirl and I were talking about Mann after the game; asking the same question. Where the heck is she?? We don't know and haven't heard what's up with her. I'd like to see her on the floor.

[jaymccaskey]

I'll try to find out about Mann. I know some folks who can get me the scoop.

Ok, maybe I expect to much too early but Friday we should've won the game. There is no excuse for losing an 18 pt lead period. We did not do the things in the 2nd half like the 1st half to win like going to the basket. Instead we settled for jump shot after jump shot. Betty is going to shoot us in or out the game take your pick. She was arguing w/ Haynie at 1 stretch during the game and she takes bad shots. I know she is a good player but the coach has got to do something about her shot selection.
Latta and Haynie are 2 different types of guards who are both struggling. Their shooting percentage stinks. Latta has got to learn how to read defenses (more on her in a min.) Haynie picks her dribble way to much and is just not aggressive.

On the positive side DeSouza is a monster on the glass and I love her physical presence and attitude. She deserves to be in the starting lineup. I think Lacy should come off the bench. Once she gets her confidence up she'll be ok.

Against LA the 1st qtr we fought hard and then I don't know what happened. Stacy Lovelace was on fire and then she was rarely used (what's up with that) She only played 8 minutes and was 3-5 from the field 2-3 from 3pt. Young is over-used. Not a good defender. She was getting abused Friday and Sunday I didn't know she was on the floor. She can't dribble w/ her left hand and her shot is not great (bad pick).

Now back to Latta. The girl who was guarding her kept going underneath screens and instead of her recognizing that she kept going right to the defense. I sat next to Lisa Leslie's husband and we talked about it all game. I know she can score but they don't set her up. We keep running the same play over and over and over .
Izzy looked good on Sunday. She tried her best to get us back in the game but she needed help and no one showed up. I think if we played a little more team ball we'll be ok. GO IZZY!!!

COACHING- I thought Meadors said we were going to be an uptempo team and I have yet to see uptempo. We get beat every game on fastbreak points and we don't push the ball up the floor. We won't win in a half court set we are not that kind of team. Also is it just me or does Meadors coach like she has a little league team ( you know the rule where everyone has to get in the game). There is no set rotation, she just looks like she asks who hasn't been in and sends them in the game. What is our philosphy? There is no rhyme or reason for what we do on the court.

I see some promise in the team and hopefully the next home game will be a winner. I enjoy my seats b/c they're right behind the visitor's bench. I really want to beat the Lynx !!!!!

Sorry for the long message but these are just my thoughts.

[thatgagirl]

Hmm...jaymc....so that's your name huh. I know who you are...I sit right behind you...

Anyway, love the analysis. Spot on. Shot selection has been abysmal, rotations inexplicable, and there has been no leadership shown that I can see. I know it's early in the season, though, so plenty of time to see some improvement in those areas at least.

I don't understand these starters. There's no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that I'd start Haynie or Feenstra. My starters would be Latta (by default, like the lesser of two evils), Lennox, Izi, Little, and DeSouza. That's by far the most effective combination IMO.

I have been really impressed with DeSouza. We'd have lost both these games by 40 if it weren't for her. ;D

[Bballfan0]

May 27, 2008 8:03:37 GMT -5 jaymccaskey said:

I'll try to find out about Mann. I know some folks who can get me the scoop.

Ok, maybe I expect to much too early but Friday we should've won the game. There is no excuse for losing an 18 pt lead period. We did not do the things in the 2nd half like the 1st half to win like going to the basket. Instead we settled for jump shot after jump shot. Betty is going to shoot us in or out the game take your pick. She was arguing w/ Haynie at 1 stretch during the game and she takes bad shots. I know she is a good player but the coach has got to do something about her shot selection.
Latta and Haynie are 2 different types of guards who are both struggling. Their shooting percentage stinks. Latta has got to learn how to read defenses (more on her in a min.) Haynie picks her dribble way to much and is just not aggressive.

On the positive side DeSouza is a monster on the glass and I love her physical presence and attitude. She deserves to be in the starting lineup. I think Lacy should come off the bench. Once she gets her confidence up she'll be ok.

Against LA the 1st qtr we fought hard and then I don't know what happened. Stacy Lovelace was on fire and then she was rarely used (what's up with that) She only played 8 minutes and was 3-5 from the field 2-3 from 3pt. Young is over-used. Not a good defender. She was getting abused Friday and Sunday I didn't know she was on the floor. She can't dribble w/ her left hand and her shot is not great (bad pick).

Now back to Latta. The girl who was guarding her kept going underneath screens and instead of her recognizing that she kept going right to the defense. I sat next to Lisa Leslie's husband and we talked about it all game. I know she can score but they don't set her up. We keep running the same play over and over and over .
Izzy looked good on Sunday. She tried her best to get us back in the game but she needed help and no one showed up. I think if we played a little more team ball we'll be ok. GO IZZY!!!

COACHING- I thought Meadors said we were going to be an uptempo team and I have yet to see uptempo. We get beat every game on fastbreak points and we don't push the ball up the floor. We won't win in a half court set we are not that kind of team. Also is it just me or does Meadors coach like she has a little league team ( you know the rule where everyone has to get in the game). There is no set rotation, she just looks like she asks who hasn't been in and sends them in the game. What is our philosphy? There is no rhyme or reason for what we do on the court.

I see some promise in the team and hopefully the next home game will be a winner. I enjoy my seats b/c they're right behind the visitor's bench. I really want to beat the Lynx !!!!!

Sorry for the long message but these are just my thoughts.

jaymccaskey I have to agree with some of your analysis of the team and their performance, but some I don't quite agree with. Betty, we all know that's an issue. When she's on she's on but when she is off she is a huge liability to the teams sucess! My husband was also getting frustrated with Haynie running the point. He said she picked the ball up way to early and was not aggressive at all coming of the ball screens. There were plenty of time's throughout the game where we ran the same play 25,000 times in a row where the big comes up and set the ball screen at the elbow and rolled to the rim and the guard would just pick up their dribble vs keeping the dribble alive and taking what the defense gave them.
As far as Latta and Young. These are two young promising players! You are really premature on your analysis of them and you may end up eating your words. Personally I believe these two will be a huge impact very soon for this team. Young is already making things happen in her limited time on the court. I dont know what game you were watching but she played excellent defense on Candace Parker and she is always leading or #2 in rebounding. Offensively she is struggling but she is going to come along in that area once the rotation is corrected, and once she gets comfortable playing in a totally diffent arena and atmosphere. Its not just walking on the court and making every shot and being perfect on every defensive rotation. IT'S TOUGH!
Fans are the worst at finding everything the girls do wrong but you have to understand this is not an easy game to play. Its take a ton of mental prep and physical toughnest to perform every night.
As you stated in your views the rotations is not realistic. Latta plays about 3 minutes in the first half and almost the entire second half; Young plays the entire 2nd quarter and the entire 4th quarter. Kinda hard to get a feel for the game that way. These girls both are used to playing all but 5 or so minutes in a game and now they are both coming off the bench in spurts of quarters at a time. This is Latta's 2nd year but she didn't play much last year and Young this is what her 4th game? My husband, who has years of basketball experience (on and off the court) says coming off the bench when your used to starting every game is a tough transition mentally for any player on any level. Basically in all of this im saying just be a lil patient with a team and coaching staff that has only be together since middle of April. Be a fan not a CRITIC.

[uptochallenge]

Be a fan not a CRITIC.

Right on. Liked your comments. They will come together. Played hard tonight...got to finish it. Agree 100% on Young. Unreal raw athletic talent. When she settles in look out!

What goes with Manny. Looks like she did not make the trip to DCA???