Saturday, June 30, 2007

Wild, Wacky, W

Last Friday, it was noted that five of the six WNBA games were won by the team that entered with the weaker record. Well, tonight's WNBA schedule did that one better - all five games were, strictly in terms of record, upsets.

In Connecticut, the Sun got 22 points from Katie Douglas to beat the Indiana Fever for the second straight Friday. The Sun has handed Indiana two of its four losses. Think that's a team the Fever doesn't want to see in the playoffs?

Seimone Augustus put up 29 points and nine rebounds in San Antonio as the Silver Stars lost their second straight against a sub-.500 team, falling 77-66 to the Lynx. Minnesota has now won four of its last five after a 1-9 start.

Speaking of surging teams, the Washington Mystics earned their fourth win in their last five games in miraculous fashion. The Mystics outscored Detroit 27-12 in the fourth quarter and scored the final nine points of the game. It was Alana Beard's three-point play with 13 seconds left that gave Washington the lead. DeLisha Milton-Jones then blocked Deanna Nolan's shot just before the buzzer to seal the win. Nolan (with 26) was the only Shock player to score more than 10 points. Detroit misses Cheryl Ford, quite clearly.

How about Jia Perkins? Filling in for a second night for injured Sky starter Dominique Canty, Perkins scored a WNBA season-high 39 points (needless to say, that's a career high) on 17-of-24 shooting with five three-pointers. Perkins added a career-high 10 assists and Chicago outlasted Sacramento in double-overtime, 92-84. I told you this Sky team wasn't as bad as it looked on Tuesday at KeyArena. On the Sacramento side, Ticha Penicheiro, Rebekkah Brunson and Kara Lawson sunk my fantasy team's field-goal percentage by combining to shoot 10-of-40 from the field.

We wrap up our WNBA scoreboard check in L.A., where the Storm's next opponent (New York) got a nice win over the Sparks, who only seem to be able to beat Sacramento. How about his line for Loree Moore? 20 points, five three-pointers, six steals, five assist and just one turnover in 35 minutes of action. Now those are numbers that make me a proud fantasy owner.

A check of the WNBA standings reveals that only two teams at .500 or better are currently carrying winning streaks (the Liberty and idle Phoenix, both 8-7). Meanwhile, every sub-.500 team in the league is on a winning streak. As of June 10, Houston, Minnesota and Washington were a combined 1-22. Since then, they are 13-8.

Only in the wild, wacky WNBA.

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