In today’s first game, the Mystics topped the Shock in overtime, 95-90, behind Ivory Latta’s 27 points. Four players were in double figures for Washington, and three were for Tulsa.
Then the Sky routed the Mercury, 102-80. Rookie Elena Delle Donne lead all scorers for a while, and ended with 22 while teammate Epiphanny Prince had 26. Phoenix rookie Brittney Griner dunked twice during the game.
Good game quotes here.
Thoughts, in no particular order:
– Possible theme for opening weekend: expect the unexpected. It’s a different league now, as evidenced by the Storm getting their asses kicked, the Mystics winning, and rookies going off. Veterans are also showing out. It’s like everyone got some energy drink.
– Now, if we could keep some of these players with a team for more than two seasons, the WNBA would have something to really market.
– Was there anybody else besides me who said Phoenix won’t be as good as everyone expects them to be, and to not automatically hand them the championship? They may just end up taking it all, as four months from now is a long time. But they’ve got work to do, as we saw today. Making one good college player appear isn’t necessarily an immediate solution.
– Two 100-plus scoring games on opening weekend is an indicator of a good season to come.
– Elena Delle Donne is ridiculously skilled. She filled up her stat column nicely, and matched Griner for rebounds and blocks, though she’s much shorter. I took an unofficial twitter poll during the game today, and it was 50/50 on whether Griner should have been first pick, or EDD. Whatever the case, Chicago has a very special player.
– The guys in the weight room at my gym liked Griner’s second dunk. Men will be paying attention to that, trust me. They don’t think you can have a basketball game without a dunk.
– I thought the Liberty and the Shock would be off to a stronger start. I guess that goes with “expect the unexpected.”
– Watch out for the Sparks. They are loaded.
– The Lynx need to hurry up and play. And are the Dream going to be better than people guessed they would?
– The claim to the trophy is wide open right now.