Watch for Falling Comets

Think back to June of last year. The New York Liberty seemed unstoppable. They were undefeated, 7-0, and Rebecca Lobo hadn't lost a game in over 100, not since her college career. That is until the undefeated Liberty came to Phoenix.

Fast Forward to June 24, 1998. The visiting Houston Comets, last year's WNBA champions, were undefeated with a 5-0 record. Then they came to the purple palace and history was made once again.

I cannot say enough about how much this team of mine has improved. I wasn't sure how'd they react after losing that game to Charlotte just three days before, but they came out on the floor ready to play and play hard. Defensively, the Mercury attacked from the get go and the Comet's tallest player, 6'5" Monica Lamb, couldn't even hit a lay up a foot from the basket.

The crowd was ready as well. This was the first game this season were the sixth man, Cheryl Miller's X-Factor, the fans actually affected the game. From the get go, the crowd was cheering and screaming. They really turned up the heat in the last minutes of the game when the Mercury really needed it. I noticed the demographics of the crowd were more evenly distributed among all the sexes, ie, there appeared to be more men present, and more father's with their daughters. Could it be the Father's Day promoted game on WB61 got more Dads interested in the WNBA?

Sheryl Swoopes, who was scoreless in her last game, came out pumping and had 10 quick points in the beginning of the first half. Last year's MVP, Cynthia Cooper, was struggling and was taking it out on the officials, getting slapped with a Technical. She only had two points in the first half.

Cooper was later quoted as saying "It's hard to have a rhythm playing rugby. ...I don't think the referees handled themselves in a professional manner. But if we had played Comet basketball, it probably wouldn't have mattered." I don't know what she is talking about, since the Mercury were getting fouls called on them left and right. In the first half, the Comets were going to the line at the 5:30 mark while they only had seven teams fouls against them. Mercury never got a penalty advantage (you have to have eight teams fouls against your opponent in the WNBA before you are aloud to the line after each foul). And the second half was even worse. Phoenix had eight teams fouls assessed to them with 13:30 left in the second half. Team fouls on the Comets? Just two at that point.

I thought the game was over at this point. I thought the officials had just given the game to Houston. Just the other day I was telling someone that blaming the officiating is just a sore loser tactic and yet I was ready to jump on that easy band wagon. I'm glad I was proven wrong.

Cooper, Swoopes and Tina Thompson are three great players that, in my humble opinion, are too good to all be on one team. Cooper ended up with 27 points, Swoopes had 21 and Thompson ended up with only 9 points, but had 13 rebounds. And still, the Mercury prevailed. As the lead swapped from team to team in the closing minutes, I was worried about a repeat knife- in-the-heart ending in the last seconds. Not this time. Phoenix was able to keep their composure and Toni Foster blocked a Tina Thompson three that would have tied the game.

There wasn't any one player that deserved the MVP. Of course, My Gal!, Bridget Pettis had another 20 point game and Jennifer Gillom ended up with 16 points and 4 rebounds. Foster came up big with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 big blocks. Timms, who struggled offensively (AGAIN!) was able to dish out 9 assists. In fact, the team had a total of 20 assists to Houston's 4. The fact that the Mercury played as a team while the Comets relied on their big guns is what gave the Mercury the win.

Umeki Webb did her job as foul magnet working on Cynthia Cooper. She ended up fouling out with five or so minutes left in the game but put in a great defensive effort and added four points, five rebounds and a single assist. Michelle Griffith put in 21 minutes and helped out defensively in a big way with seven rebounds and also scored six points. Andrea Kuklova played the best game I've seen from her yet and added six points to the total score. Kristi Harrower gave Timms a good rest and Kim Perrot from Houston some trouble. She also hit a big three pointer. Brandy Reed made a quick and quiet appearance, grabbing two rebounds in just three minutes. Pauline Jordon had a very quiet night as well, with only two minutes played. Askamp was suited up but didn't play. Mikiko and Stepanova were still on the injured list.