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NEW YORK CITY- The two games prior to the all-star ‘break' saw a split by the New York Liberty. Last Friday the LA Sparks claimed a 68-54 victory at the Garden. On Wednesday, New York brought the record to 10-13 with a 77-75 nail biter over Atlanta.
Liberty's offense sputtered against Sparks
The numbers of pace and note:
|
|
LA Sparks |
NY Liberty |
|
Possessions |
73 |
74 |
|
Offensive Efficiency |
94 |
73 |
|
eFG |
47 |
41 |
|
FT Rate |
18 |
17 |
|
OREB Pct |
16 |
20 |
|
TO Rate |
14 |
22 |
In the contest with LA, the offensive output, or lack of it, stand out on the Liberty's assessment. The recurrence of turnovers and poor shooting were keys to the extremely low 73 efficiency.
In 1979, a group by the name of the Boomtown Rats had a hit, ‘I don't Like Mondays'. Made one think could the Liberty's Cappie Pondexter start feeling the same about Fridays? For the second time this season - both on a Friday - Pondexter went scoreless from the field. Eighteen minutes of action yielded 0-for-5 shooting from the floor and not a point entered in the book.
Rebounding carries Liberty against Dream
|
|
Atlanta Dream |
NY Liberty |
|
Possessions |
83 |
86 |
|
Offensive Efficiency |
90 |
90 |
|
eFG |
44 |
43 |
|
FT Rate |
23 |
18 |
|
OREB Pct |
23 |
38 |
|
TO Rate |
17 |
21 |
Pondexter didn't have a vintage game against the Dream. Her line saw eight points on three of fifteen shooting. But her last second shot sealed the verdict for coach Bill Laimbeer's club.
Win the battle lose the war. The efficiency numbers are rounded. This was one of these rare occurrence the winning tea ‘lost' in efficiency.
The numbers in raw totals:
Atlanta .9036
NY .8954
The Liberty gladly took the one entered into the win side of the scorebook ledger. Turnovers, again high for New York while the board work continues to impress.
Atlanta's Angel McCoughtry led all scorers with 20 points and a 27 efficiency. Tina Charles paced the Liberty with 18 points (19 efficiency). Pondexter struggled with an efficiency of three.
The Liberty saw several players step up as their individual efficiencies note:
|
|
Efficiency |
|
P. Pierson |
15 |
|
S. Rodgers |
14 |
| A. Cruz |
11 |
| A. Warley-Talbert |
11 |
The LA game saw just three lead changes and six ties. The latter meeting with the Liberty and Atlanta saw a game of fifteen lead chanes and eight ties.
A final number in the Atlanta game, 17,252. That was the MSG attendance on an 11 a.m. camp day matinee. Which sent the faithful home happy.