Last night Jeanette’s Indianapolis Fever team played Kayla Pedersen’s winless team, the Tulsa Shock. Tulsa actually took a one-point lead into the locker room and the announcers said that was the first time all season they had a lead at the half. To be fair, Tulsa’s 6’8” center Liz Cambage was out with a concussion, and Tulsa only had 8 players suited up for the game.
Highlights. Kayla started, played the whole game and scored 13 points. She usually played center on defense and also handled the ball sometimes as the Shock are thin at guard, and the ones they do have are small. She was only one from three from the free throw line, though; so don’t make us get Tara VanDeveer to get after you!
Kayla usually inbounded the ball because she is the smartest player on the floor, except when Jeanette came in, then they are tied. Speaking of which...Jeanette played about 17 minutes and didn’t score any points, attempting two three-pointers. It seems her coach has her standing on the wing right outside the three-point line waiting for a pass. She doesn’t move around the court at all. Seems a waste if you ask us, but what do we know? Liked Jeanette’s nifty fast break where she and another guard, we think Erin Phillips did a drill-perfect, touch-passing-no dribbling ball movement to the basket. The announcers remarked what unselfish play Jeanette had to give the last pass so Erin could make the basket uncontested. Huh? Isn’t that just good basketball and shouldn’t everyone do that in that situation?
The lowlights. Okay, we have been reading how bad, and how, well, UN-productive Tulsa’s offense is, and we saw it last night. They looked stagnate and confused. Their half court offense seems to consist of the point guard bringing up the ball and the other four players in a straight line around the top of the circle. Yuck. Then some guard, usually Amber Riley would selfishly bomb a three, with no rebounders. One time she was practically out of bounds and shot. C and R don’t think this Tulsa coach is a good fit for the WNBA. Thought he was supposed to play a run and gun type offense.
We got to hear the Tulsa coach, Nolan Richardson, in a time out with about three minutes left and he said something like play hard, play with your gut. What about some strategy, coach? What about, with three minutes left, play this offense and do this defense, and if it gets to be two minutes left and we are down, push the ball? So with two minutes left and Tulsa down, there is guard Amber Riley WALKING the ball up the court. Took up the whole shot clock. Tara VanDerveer would not have wasted a time out like that. We’re just saying…
Fever won 82-74, on sharp shooting by Katie Douglas, a leftie three-point specialist. Here's Kayla's take on the game, from WNBA.com: “We left our hearts on the floor," Pedersen said. "We played well until the end. Lots of shot clocks. Everything went well until the end. We need to finish.” She is talking about the offense not being in a rhythm, with some guard dribbling around near the half court line and then looking up to see they have 5 seconds left and then having to rush a shot, usually a long-range one that missed.
Sorry to be so harsh, but since this is the WNBA, and everyone is a pro and does this for a living, C and R feel they can be tougher and more critical on them.
Well, we are disappointed we didn’t get to hear Jeanette’s thoughts on playing against her old teammate of four years (and at one point Jeanette was trying to box out Kayla during the game), but we have a picture of three former Stanford Women's Basketball teammates getting together after the game, picture compliments of Jeanette Pohlens’ twitter account. That’s Jeanette Pohlen, Kayla Pedersen and Sarah Boothe in Indy.
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