Thursday, May 22, 2008

Notes From A(nother) Comeback

There are some nights where there's just so many things going on it's tough to organize everything. So, while I mentioned some of them in our Game at a Glance feature and others made into the Postgame Notes, here's a look at what stuck out to me from the Storm's win tonight in Phoenix.

- The Storm is 3-0 for the first time in franchise history. Last season, three teams started as well or better, all from the East: Detroit (7-0), Indiana (4-0), New York (5-0)

- The Storm pulled off the second-largest comeback in franchise history tonight. The largest, you might recall, came a year ago on Opening Night, when the Storm trailed by 22 against Houston. The only other comeback of 15 or more in Storm history came July 17, 2004 vs. Washington, when the Storm trailed by 16 but won in OT.

- With this win, the Storm now has more victories by single-digits (two) than in all of 2007 (one). I was stunned again by that weird stat when I was looking at some 2007 notes this morning and noticed the Storm had more double-digit wins last year (16) than any other WNBA team. This year, the Storm is winning some close ones, though the opener was really more lopsided than the final score indicated.

- How do you come back from a 21-point deficit? Well, it helps to start by not committing a single turnover in the entire second half. The Storm has just 35 turnovers in three games, which is remarkable given the team is learning a new offense and integrating three new starters into the lineup.

- The Storm scored 87 points tonight despite going 6:47 without a bucket in the first half (a stretch that seemed even longer listening at home). That means over the other 33:13 of the game, they scored at a pace that was equivalent to 105 points over a full 40-minute game.

- Sue Bird's 10 three-point attempts tied a career high.

- I hope Tanisha Wright's defensive effort in the second half (not to mention a couple of big, big buckets early in the fourth quarter) doesn't get overlooked.

- When you're playing the Mercury, per-possession numbers take on added importance because Phoenix's fast pace skews everything. The Mercury scored 87 points on 83 possessions, a 103.8 Offensive Rating. That's pretty good work overall defensively for the Storm, consisting of one bad half and one terrific one.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope they don't do this too often, it's hard on the heart, not to mention the fingernails (o; I'm proud of this team! GO STORM, remember you got to give SASS some paybacks for sweeping you last year!

Unknown said...

I agree. T's tough defense, especially on CP is a big reason why Phoenix had so many turnovers in the second half.