As I was digging through some of our old college coverage in preparation for the upcoming NCAA season I wondered, Why not have a WNBA "All-Tournament team" for the playoffs?

The moment passed as the playoffs are sort of a weird beast given that people played anywhere between 2 and 8 games, but the thought was revived after a brief discussion in our Game Three game thread about who the 2011 WNBA Finals MVP should be: Minnesota Lynx guard Seimone Augustus or Atlanta Dream forward Angel McCoughtry?

And with so much attention paid to Augustus and McCoughtry during the finals, I came back to that passing "All-Tournament team" concept to look at who did more to get their team to the Finals using the same MVP framework I normally use that includes the player contribution metric that James Bowman described the other day.

Continue reading this post »

In winning a championship after establishing themselves as the class of the league within their first few games, the Minnesota Lynx' triumph as 2011 WNBA champions seems obvious as already written in a piece entitled "Eschewing Eschaton" at SB Nation's Canis Hoopus.

"If you love basketball, you know these stories; you know these players.  They don't need to be dressed up in any way, shape or form." 

Although I would certainly agree that the team's talent was glaring for some time - and might have written something to that effect once or twice - it's also obvious that it eluded a number of WNBA analysts or fans alike even as the team began to hit a dominant stride mid-season. And really, "eluded" is probably generous - people were literally making up reasons that this team would lose.

Continue reading this post »

For Atlanta’s fans, coming to terms with a 73-67 Game Three loss in the WNBA Finals on their home court to the Minnesota Lynx – the third of three losses to the new WNBA champions – will be a difficult process.

I’ve already gone through the classic Kubler-Ross stages myself.

Continue reading this post »

"I tell you, we gotta make shots and we're not making any shots. We were going in the entire third quarter trying to fouled. And you know, just go up and shoot your shot." - Atlanta Dream coach Marynell Meadors in her end of third quarter interview on ESPN2.

Kris Willis of SB Nation Atlanta is absolutely right that a rough third quarter was what cost the Atlanta Dream Game Three of the WNBA Finals, consistent with how coach Marynell Meadors summed it up during the Dream's 73-67 loss.

Continue reading this post »

For the third consecutive WNBA Finals game, the Atlanta Dream held a halftime lead. And for the third consecutive contest, the Minnesota Lynx stormed back for the win. Minnesota gets its first WNBA Championship in franchise history in their first trip ever to the WNBA Finals in sweeping fashion.

Continue reading this post »

Fans of both the Atlanta Dream and the Minnesota Lynx had reason to find the officiating in Game Two of the WNBA Finals unsatisfactory.

Regardless of whatever we think about the nature of the nature of the calls made - whether the game was called "too tight" or whistles blown in response to imagined infractions - the frequency of the calls really made an otherwise exciting duel of two of the league's most dominant perimeter scorers choppy and, unfortunately, difficult to watch (and re-watch) down the stretch.

Continue reading this post »

The Minnesota Lynx fought to a 2-0 WNBA Finals advantage after taking down the Atlanta Dream 101-95 in front of 15,124 fans at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Atlanta's Angel McCoughtry continued in her fantastic Finals performances with a 38-point night, breaking her own previous record for most points in a WNBA Finals game of 35 from last season's match with the Seattle Stom. However, just like Sunday, her one woman show could not compete with the Lynx as the game wound down.

Continue reading this post »

While sitting in a Berkeley cafe trying to write something about Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals recently, this middle-aged guy sitting next to me and peering over my shoulder at my computer screen full of spreadsheets leaned over to ask a question that you might normally only use for speed dating (and even then, probably not as the icebreaker).

"What do you do?" he asked leaning over and grinning expectantly. "What's your passion?"

As though that wasn't ridiculous enough, I was already triply annoyed at this dude before he even asked the question. One, don't look at my damn computer screen and comment. Two, while I was standing around and looking for an outlet to use, this clown was using up a seat near an outlet to surf the web on his fancy unplugged phone. Three, why are you even trying to have a discussion about major life questions when the only thing I know about you is that you lack fundamental coffee shop etiquette?

Dude was wrong as three left feet.

"Those are two entirely different questions," I responded, turning back to my screen and trying to muster the frostiest tone possible, yet stupidly inviting a follow-up question.

And naturally the discussion led to basketball.

Continue reading this post »