Roller Coaster Year
Following a WNBA Title in 2012, the Indiana Fever Are Fighting Just to Make the ’13 Playoffs
On June 14, the Indiana Fever had the honor of visiting the White House in commemoration of their WNBA title last season. They were being honored as champions—and rightfully so after their 3-1 series victory over the back-to-back Western Conference champion Minnesota Lynx in October—but weren’t exactly playing like ones. As the Fever prepared to meet President Obama and his family, they came in with a 1-4 record and four straight losses, three of which came at home.
Two days later, Indiana was outplayed by the Washington Mystics in the final quarter and lost by four points. They hit rock bottom after losing two more games and falling to 1-7.
The Fever have been ravaged by injuries throughout the entire 2013 campaign. During their second game, Katie Douglas went down with a bulging disk in her back and has been sidelined ever since. To put Douglas’ absence in perspective, she had been one of Indiana’s top-two scorers in each of the team’s previous five seasons, dating back to ‘08. In each season, she never missed more than three games; to date, she’s missed 23 of her team’s 25 games. Read more >>
2013 LA Sparks Season Preview
The Sparks Hope to Fight for a WNBA Championship This Year
The Los Angeles Sparks open their 2013 season Sunday evening with lofty expectations, one year removed from a tremendously successful season that was halted by the Minnesota Lynx in the Western Conference finals.
In 2012, Carol Ross’ first year at the helm, the squad improved by nine wins, a considerable jump in winning percentage from .441 to .706. Surprisingly, for a franchise that has experienced so much success throughout the WNBA’s history, it was its first 20-win season since 2008, Candace Parker’s rookie year. In fact, ’08 and ’12 are the only seasons Parker has played at least 30 games.
Last year, the Sparks cleaned up, winning most of the league’s biggest awards. Ross earned Coach of the Year honors, first-overall pick Nneka Ogwumike won WNBA Rookie of the Year and guard Kristi Toliver was recognized as the league’s Most Improved Player after increasing her scoring average from 11.2 to 17.5 points per game. Meanwhile, she managed to raise her field-goal percentage to 49.1, including 42.4 percent from three-point range. In the most important individual category, Parker finished second in MVP-voting, earning 253 points, just behind Connecticut’s Tina Charles, who got 345.
Parker put the team on her back last postseason, averaging 28.8 points per game on 57.3 percent shooting. In Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, the MVP runner-up played all 40 minutes and scored 33 points to go along with 15 rebounds, five assists and four blocks. Even so, the Lynx won by a single point, effectively eliminating the Sparks from title contention. Parker didn’t touch the ball once on her team’s final possession. Read more >>
Fallen Soldier
Jacki Gemelos Keeps Fighting Despite Five ACL Surgeries
This motivational William Quigley painting hangs in Gautier’s office; Gemelos keeps getting up. (Aaron Fischman/Slam Online)
At halftime of a Sacramento Monarchs game, 11-year-old Jacki Gemelos was asked to make six free throws in less than a minute. She missed her first shot, but calmly proceeded to swish the next six.
By the time she was 15, Gemelos had already committed to the University of Connecticut, the powerhouse school for which her favorite player, Diana Taurasi, played at the time.
As she prepared to enter college in 2006, Gemelos was nationally ranked as the No. 1 women’s basketball player in her class.
But ever since the final game of her McDonald’s All-American senior year at St. Mary’s (CA)—a season in which she averaged 39.2 points and 8.9 assists per game—her once-expectedly smooth path to the WNBA has become riddled with obstacles.
Seven years and five ACL surgeries later, including three surgeries to her left knee, she still hasn’t played a single WNBA game. Read more >>
Cassie Harberts Emerges Stronger Than Ever Despite USC's Miserable Season
Two seasons ago, Southern California’s women’s basketball team came within one win from claiming a WNIT championship.
Only two players remain from that team: Cassie Harberts and Christina Marinacci.
Fast forward more than three years later, and the Women of Troy are struggling mightily. Harberts is far and away the team’s best player, but USC cannot buy a win.
Despite the massive frustrations of a 9-19 season, the long, difficult journey has enabled Harberts to take immense strides in her development as a player and person. The team has relied upon the 6-foot-2 junior much more heavily than anticipated, and the experience has made her stronger than ever.
When Michael Cooper was named USC’s head basketball coach on May 1, 2009, he quickly set his sights on securing Harberts’ presence on his new team. As a high school junior, Harberts had originally committed to USC earlier that spring, but decided to re-open her commitment after Mark Trakh, USC’s former coach, resigned. Read more >>
Clippers Dominate With Deep Bench, Turnover-Forcing Defense
The Los Angeles Clippers are clearly the best team in L.A., but the team’s floor general and star, Chris Paul, has repeatedly said he doesn’t care about that. It’s all about a championship and for the first time in history, a ring may not be out of the question for “L.A.’s other team.”
After Friday’s games, the Clippers hold the league’s second-best record, just percentage points behind the defending Western Conference champions. They didn’t lose all December, posting a perfect 16-0 mark as part of a 17-game winning streak. The winning streak was the longest since the Celtics rattled off 19 in a row four years earlier. During the Clippers’ impressive streak, they had the luxury of playing 10 home games and a slew of weak opponents. To their credit, however, they won in Utah twice, where road opponents other than the Clippers have gone a miserable 2-10. Over the 17-game winning streak, the Clippers held their opponents to 90 or fewer points 10 times.
Read more >>
No. 4 Duke Too Much for the Women of Troy, Wins 75-60
The No. 4 Duke Blue Devils handed the Southern California Women of Troy their fifth consecutive loss, as Duke improved to a perfect 10-0.
USC’s last lead of the game (7-5) came early in the first half, but the Women of Troy hung with the talented Blue Devils for much of the game.
“I thought we played extremely well against the No. 4 team in the country,” said USC coach Michael Cooper, who returned from a one-game suspension.
“One of our biggest nemeses has been our effort and our physicality down low, but these two young ladies (forwards Kate Oliver and Alexyz Vaioletama) came and took on the second best center in the country (Elizabeth Williams). Read more >>
UC Davis Drains 14 Threes, Extends USC’s Losing Streak to 4
The losing streak extended to four games for the Women of Troy Friday night, and it wasn’t pretty.
The UC Davis Aggies made 14-of-26 three-pointers and managed to hold on for a 78-69 road upset.
“We had some defensive breakdowns that left them open for easy shots,” said USC associate head coach Daron Park, who was filling in for Michael Cooper during his one-game suspension. “They shot the ball extremely well from the three today and really kind of fed off of that.”
USC forward Cassie Harberts attributed the surrendered three-pointers to poor communication: “If we’re in a press, it’s going to be really, really important that we talk out who gets which man.”
“You just have to match up with whoever’s around you, and we didn’t do that.
“We always ran back to our specific player, and that just leaves them wide open shots. Tonight, they knocked them down.”
The Aggies scored 42 of their 78 points (nearly 54 percent of their total output) from beyond the arc. The team’s leading scorers, Cortney French and Sydnee Fipps, combined to convert eight of 12 three-point attempts, and Blair Shinoda and Idit Oryon contributed five additional treys. Read more >>
No. 23 Texas A&M Runs Away From The Women Of Troy, 79-61
The Women of Troy committed 23 turnovers en route to a 79-61 defeat at the hands of the No. 23 Texas A&M Aggies.
The Aggies scored 31 points off of USC turnovers, including 21 of those points in a one-sided second half. At halftime, the Trojans only trailed by three points, 33-30.
“It was pretty much our turnovers,” USC forward Cassie Harberts, in explaining her team’s loss. “Our offense fueled their offense in a way.”
Women of Troy head coach Michael Cooper was encouraged by USC’s first-half performance against a top-25 team, but expressed disappointment that his team failed to put two quality halves together: “We came back the second half and weren’t able to sustain our defensive intensity, as well as our offensive flow.”
USC’s 15 second-half turnovers contributed to the Aggies’ success inside the key, as the Women of Troy often found themselves unable to get set defensively. Texas A&M scored 21 points in the paint during the half, as they shot 57.1 percent from the field. Read more >>
The Women Of Troy Can’t Finish Off No. 23 Nebraska
In the Southern California Women of Troy’s biggest challenge to date, they came up short.
The No. 23 Nebraska Cornhuskers defeated the Women of Troy 74-65 Friday afternoon behind a 20-4 run in the final 4:20 of the game.
“I thought they did an excellent job of showing what poise and patience and discipline is about down the stretch,” said USC head coach Michael Cooper. “We didn’t handle it very well going down the stretch, and that’s what cost us the loss.”
The Women of Troy utilized a 19-4 run over a nearly 12-minute stretch in the second half to take a 61-54 lead. In the waning minutes, however, USC both struggled to score and became unable to get defensive stops.
“We’re not finishers at all,” said Cooper, “and I’m not talking about scoring points. I’m talking about making the plays that have to be made on the court at that time.” Read more >>
Clipper Bench Leads the Way to Opening-Night Victory
It’s a funny story. After the Clippers’ top two scorers averaged a hair over 40 combined points last season, Paul and Griffin scored 23 points Wednesday night. Not apiece. Together.
The Clippers also committed 22 turnovers.
They still won. Seriously.
It’s been said that Jamal Crawford is instant offense, and against the Grizzlies, he certainly was. In his first game donning the red and blue, Crawford scored 11 points in a six-minute stretch of the second quarter. Over that span, the home team went on a 20-8 run, extending its lead over the Grizzlies to 12, 46-34.
Crawford is known around the league as a gunner, as he rarely meets a shot he doesn’t like. Tonight, virtually all the shots were going through the net. There were 3-pointers. There were off-balance runners. We saw everything. Even so, he only missed four of 14 attempts and turned in two stellar offensive quarters. Just as Crawford helped the Clippers jump out to a 12-point lead in the second period, he transformed a trailing team into a winner by scoring 12 fourth-period points. The tremendous debut resulted in 29 points over 30 minutes. Read more >>