Storm @ Silver Stars Previews

Capsule preview: Storm at San Antonio by Jayda Evans of The Seattle Times:

When: 5 tonight

Where: at SBC Center

Radio: KJR (950 AM)

Records: Seattle 7-7, San Antonio 3-12

Battle of the Olympic Point Guards
Sue Bird against Shannon Johnson
when San Antonio visited Seattle
May 29, 2005

Bottom line: The Storm, which is riding a three-game losing skid, will attempt to finish this four-game trip with a victory. ... Jackson was benched for 16 minutes during the Houston loss on Tuesday and Castro Marques missed the game due to a league suspension, but both are expected to return to the starting lineup tonight. ... Two of San Antonio's wins were at home. ... The Storm won both of its road games against the Silver Stars last season, but is 3-5 on the road this season. ... Storm forward Alicia Thompson celebrates her 29th birthday today.

Betty Lennox driving past Shannon
Johnson and Chantelle Anderson
May 29, 2005

Injuries: Silver Stars — F LaToya Thomas (shoulder) and F Kendra Wecker (torn right ACL) are on the injured list. Storm — C Burse (sprained right ankle) questionable, C Mandisa Stevenson (lower back pain) is on IR.

P STORM HT PPG R/A
F I.C. Marques 6-0 8.4 3.2 R
F Lauren Jackson 6-5 16.7 9.6 R
C Janell Burse 6-4 10.4 5.9 R
G Betty Lennox 5-8 13.7 4.9 R
G Sue Bird 5-9 11.8 5.9 A
P SILVER STARS HT PPG R/A
F Dalma Ivanyi 5-9 1.8 2.3 A
F W.Palmer 6-2 9.3 6.2 R
C C. Anderson 6-6 6.4 1.9 R
G M.Ferdinand 5-9 13.7 4.2 R
G S. Johnson 5-7 7.7 4.9 A

Yahoo! Sports WNBA Preview

Lauren Jackson against
Chantelle Anderson down
low, May 29, 2005.

The defending WNBA champions are struggling, and so is their superstar.

Having fallen to .500, Lauren Jackson and the Seattle Storm hope to avoid their longest losing streak in nearly two years as they close a four-game road trip against the last-place San Antonio Silver Stars.

Seattle began the trip on Friday with a loss to Los Angeles, then fell at Minnesota on Sunday and in Houston on Tuesday.

The 71-67 defeat to the Comets dropped the Storm to .500 for the first time since they were 1-1 on May 27.

A loss in this contest would drop Seattle below the break-even mark, and hand the team its longest losing streak since a five-game skid from Aug. 12-20, 2003.

Tuesday's defeat saw reserve Suzy Batkovic score 16 points in relief of star center Lauren Jackson, who did not play most of the second half and took just four shots for six points.

Following the game, a visibly upset Jackson did not understand why she was benched.

``I honestly have no idea, why,'' said Jackson, the 2003 league MVP.

Seattle Coach Anne Donovan declined to comment on the status of Jackson, who had just six points on 1-of-11 shooting in the loss to Minnesota.

The Storm, who despite their recent problems are just 2 1/2 games behind first-place Sacramento in the Western Conference, hope Jackson can break out of her slump in this matchup. Jackson had 21 points and seven rebounds in the Storm's 79-51 rout of San Antonio on May 29.

The Silver Stars are coming off a 1-3 road trip.

On Tuesday, San Antonio led by as many as 11 points in the first half before succumbing to a Minnesota rally in a 63-53 loss. Guard Marie Ferdinand had 10 points for the Silver Stars, who are 0-8 against Western Conference opponents this season.

``The thing that cost us the game was that we weren't able to weather the storm,'' Ferdinand said. ``We gave them too many layups, easy transition baskets, and that's because of turnovers.''

The Silver Stars had 17 turnovers in Tuesday's loss and a total of 60 in their road trip.

Image Source >> Scowl from StormFans.Org

LJ Benching...

Fans still discussing whatever happened to LJ and Coach AD during the road loss to Houston. I really hope she plays tomorrow in San Antonio.

In times like these...

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KILCHER is LISTENING to: System of a Down - Chop Suey
KILCHER MODE: Sick :_(
QUOTE OF THE DAY:

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Nung Nagpasabog ng Kamalasan...

...sa araw na ito, aba parang nagkaroon ng giant funnel sa ibabaw ng ulo ko.

the storm lost. again. 'nuff said.

My body's still sore from that basketball game last Monday.

I thought I got over the trangkaso thing but now I even feel worse.

I can't breathe because of this friggin' ubo.

It took the FX I was in almost 40 mins to go from Pasong Tamo to the Buendia Station.

It took me almost 30 mins before I could wedge myself into the stupid MRT. I had to count 5 trains before I could enter and get my face permanently splattered to the glass door.

Momsie's doing something today so she couldn't pick me up from the North Avenue Station and I also couldn't get the car from where it's parked in Philam because she's cramming something til 3am. The Result: I had to trek from the station to the Pink Ugly Thing known as the FootBridge, cross Edsa and cross West Avenue as well.

I think I might wanna faint na.

Ay lintikan. Ang sakit ng dibdib ko. Bwiset na ubo to oo.

this is real low for the league

Castro Marques suspended for one game

HOUSTON (AP) -- Seattle Storm forward Iziane Castro Marques received a one-game suspension Tuesday from the WNBA for throwing a punch at Minnesota Lynx forward Svetlana Abrosimova.

Castro Marques did not dress for Tuesday night's 71-67 loss to the Houston Comets and was not available for comment. The infraction was committed Sunday in Seattle's 73-70 defeat.

Seattle head coach Anne Donovan defended Castro Marques and said she did not agree with the ruling.

``I don't know what they (the league) are doing,'' Donovan said. ``The intent was not a swing so I'm not sure about much more on that.''

Castro Marques should be available for the Storm's game Thursday night at San Antonio.

This is cheap. The league never even ejected Diana Taurasi or Delisha Milton-Jones in an obvious near-brawl during their last game. And Izzy's hit wasn't intentional.

Fans are outraged at this seemingly unfair treatment. Izzy just wanted to get away from Svet because the latter was holding on to the Brazilian's jersey.

This is total crap.

this sucks

third straight road loss. grrr.

sue bird: 13 points 7 assists. but not enough to win over sheryl swoopes and the aging comets. blech

AP Story Recap:

Seattle (7-7) has lost three straight and five of eight overall. Houston had lost four in a row before beginning its winning streak.

Reserve Suzy Batkovik scored 16 points for the Storm, and Sue Bird added 13 points and seven rebounds.

Forward Lauren Jackson did not play most of the second half, finished with six points and took just four shots.

Visibly upset during postgame interviews, Jackson repeatedly said she didn't know why she was taken out of the game.

``I honestly have no idea, why,'' she added.

Coach Anne Donovan declined to comment on Jackson's status.

Seattle Storm's Suzy Batkovic (9) drives to the basket as Houston Comets' Kristen Rasmussen (52) defends in the second half in Houston Tuesday, June 28, 2005. Batkovic scored 16 points , but the Storm lost to the Comets 71-67.
(AP Photo/Donna Carson)

Jayda Evans of The Seattle Times tells more:

Jackson, who had just blocked a shot by Comets center Michelle Snow, did something that got her benched, but Storm coach Anne Donovan refused to comment about it after the game. Fellow Australian Suzy Batkovic replaced Jackson and was 6 for 9 from the field in the second half, scoring all of her 16 points, including a layup that put the Storm ahead 50-45.

Not even then did Donovan turn to her All-Star, who was a paltry 2 for 4 from the field, to help Seattle drag out a much-needed win. Instead, Donovan remained with the post rotation of Batkovic, Simone Edwards and starter Janell Burse, who played with a cast around a sprained right ankle suffered during shootaround.

After the media spoke with Donovan, they were allowed into the Storm locker room, where Jackson sat in a corner locker trying to quickly wipe away tears. She finished with six points, her second in a row and third overall this season in which she didn't reach double figures.

"I guess I got in trouble," Jackson said. "I honestly have no idea. The other girls, they really stepped up. Suzy and Simi and J.B. and the rest of the girls played a really, really hard game. But I really didn't expect it [to be benched]. I don't know what I did. I felt like I was more aggressive."

Jackson said she hadn't spoken with Donovan to discuss the benching. Fellow co-captain Sue Bird said she sensed something was going to happen.

"I had a clue, but you never know, stuff happens," Bird said. "Anne was upset and she [Lauren] was at the end of the bench. It's not like I had a clue she wasn't going to play the whole rest of the game, but once she didn't come in after a couple minutes, it was like, all right, let's try to win this."

In a Rage : Everyone’s a Cheater

Ina, este, Caravaggio did it again. This is one nice read:

My friend Keane is such the Chinese boy his parents brought him up to be, that when looking for the perfect girlfriend, he invariably brings out a sheet of paper and a pencil to compute for her ROI. He’s been hanging out the past few weeks with one of his officemates, this demure, pretty thing called Francesca, whose idea of rebellion is crossing the street without her yaya. Francesca is 25, but has never been in any other vehicle other than her dad’s ’83 Mercedes Benz, but when Keane invited her out for coffee, asking if he could pick her up in his sweet little silver Mazda 3, she quickly twittered, “Sure!”.

Full Article

PEx Peeps

Tuesday Morning. I'm lazily strolling along the sidewalk towards Export Bank Plaza, holding Athan's Beerkada book. And then when I reached the elevators, guess who I found?

It's bolero from PEx >> Mark Acelajado from Eng'g '98. He says hi to Lowla TJ, Joey, and Nikkola. Hehe. Talk about small world. 31st floor pala siya dito sa Export Plaza. Hehe.

basketball pa rin

this day started as sucky, with that crappy road loss to the Lynx and as well as groggily going through the day, desperately wanting the night to come.

but never underestimate the power of exercising as one form of release. some time ago i used my bi-weekly fencing trainings as some outlet when my es11 and eee33 and eee23 (dami a) exams and homeworks became too unbearable.

had a basketball game with the digipeeps. i could hardly run so i just stayed near our basket for the fastbreak plays hehe. but of course, both my legs had to call their old friend Mr. Cramps. grrr.

it rained so hard though. and i really wanted to be home before 11. basta. and we still have to go to work pa tomorrow. lintek. sana magising ako ah.
aaaargh! cramps! cramps! ay tinginingining na yan, tulog na pala si carabellebelle!

what a sucky way to start the week

Seattle Storm guard Sue Bird takes off her mask and holds her nose after she was bumped in the face during the final minutes of the Storm's 73-70 loss to the Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis, Sunday, June 26, 2005. Bird stayed in the game.
(AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

"I'm happiest when I'm with you."

..when these words appear
all the worries in the world
don't anymore matter.
All the pain, all the trepidation
all of them instantly disappear.

"I'm happiest when I'm with you."

Though these words bore no sound,
nothing else would be more pleasing to hear.
And though these words flew from afar,
they make me feel as if you're near.

"I'm happiest when I'm with you."

I forget the sleepless nights
spent crying as if in vain.
I forget the struggles.
I forget the pain.

"I'm happiest when I'm with you."

...all the worries in the world don't really matter.

Storm @ Minnesota Lynx

Jayda Evans did a capsule review of the Storm's next game:

Records: Minnesota 6-6; Seattle 7-5.

Schedule: Sunday, May 26, 6pm (EST); Monday, May 27, 6am (Manila).

Bottom line: The Lynx are 1-3 since defeating Seattle 86-81 behind Smith's seven points in overtime June 15 at KeyArena. The Storm played without Bird (nose).

Injuries: Lynx — G Nuria Martinez (plantar-fasciitis tear in left foot) is on the injured list. Storm — C Mandisa Stevenson (lower-back pain) is on the IL.

P Storm - HT - PPG - R/A
F Castro Marques - 6-0 - 8.4 - 3.0 R
F Lauren Jackson - 6-5 - 18.5 - 9.6 R
C Janell Burse - 6-5 - 10.7 - 6.3 R
G Betty Lennox - 5-8 - 14.2 - 4.9 R
G Sue Bird - 5-9 - 12.1 - 6.1 A

P Lynx HT PPG R/A
F S. Abrosimova - 6-2 - 8.9 - 3.8 R
F Nicole Ohlde - 6-5 - 11.3 - 6.8 R
C Vanessa Hayden - 6-4 - 6.7 - 4.3 R
G Katie Smith - 5-11 - 16.7 - 2.7 A
G Kristi Harrower - 5-4 - 3.6 - 2.9 A

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this is just very depressing. i always felt so depressed last year when the storm lost during the weekend and to the friggin sparks pa. gwakanangpakshet.

Storm forward Lauren Jackson's skin was red from frustration at trying to get her teammates to play with even half the fire they used to defeat Connecticut at home on Wednesday night. If they had, they would have easily defeated Los Angeles.

"Even with four minutes to go, I was saying we're 15 points down, anyone can make that back," said Jackson... I was saying, 'We can still win this. We can still win this.' But you can't control people."

argh! come on! sobrang see-saw na lang ah. wala man lang streak. pagkatapos nung road loss to Connecticut where LJ broke Sue's nose, they won against Detroit but lost to the Mystics after and then they won over Charlotte. Coming off the road trip, they lost in OT to the Lynx and then they beat Connecticut. After that, the loss to LA na. naku, bwiset yang trend na yan. sana magkakatotoo bukas.

basketball

as far as i can remember (and that's really near), i've always considered basketball as my form of exercise. but that blasted board exams got in the way, and also my penniless self turned into a reality during the recent summer so i wasn't able to pick up a basketball. physically.

sure i'm still addicted to it. you would find me waking up at 4 in the morning if my beloved seattle storm went east for their road games. you would find me listening to kjr_am during game times that i would be in the office. you would see my ym status as "seattle shocks the Detroit Shock" or "go SPURS! go MANU!" or "seattle dims the CT Sun".

but it's not the same. i miss playing with the tres girls. i miss running around (at the sidelines) like a headless chicken everytime someone from my team scored. i miss playing. and sige na nga, i also miss my injured ankle na rin hehe.

i wanna play basketball.

hay. ang taba ko na (yun yun eh).

spurs win it all!

game 7: Spurs 81 - Pistons 74

San Antonio's Manu Ginobili
wins a Championship after
winning Gold in the 2004
Olympics

Clutch shooting helped the Spurs finally dethrone the Pistons. The Spurs won 81-74 Thursday to claim their third title. Story

DUNCAN IS MVP - ``He always feels so responsible,'' Ginobili said. ``He's so hard on himself every time he doesn't play that good that I knew, sooner or later, he was going to show up, especially down the stretch. It shows the character and the type of player he is.

Ginobili follows Olympic gold with NBA trophy

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- In his hands, Manu Ginobili held the NBA championship trophy. On his legs, he wore the shorts of Argentina's national team, representing the gold medal he won last summer.

All that was missing was the MVP award many of his fans thought he deserved.

While a good case could be made for Ginobili being named the best player of the NBA Finals, he'll gladly settle for being part of the best team. It's a feeling he knows quite well, having claimed at least one major prize every year since he was playing in Italy in 2001. Story

Seattle Storm Season Watch

NEXT GAME:
@ LA spOrks StaBle Center
06.24.2005 Friday 730pm (PST)
06.25.2005 Saturday 1030am (here)

Last Game:
Storm 95, Connecticut 86
06.22.2005 10pm (EST)
06.23.2005 10am (here)

	1st Half	2nd Half	Total
	44	51	95
	49	37	86

STORM SCORERS
LJ :: 23pts.17rebs.1blk.2assists.1stl
JB :: 9pts.11rebs.2blks
B-Money :: 29pts.3rebs
Zara :: 2pts.2assists
Batgirl :: 13pts.1reb
T-Wright :: 1blk
Izzy :: 15pts.
Chelle ::
Vodo ::
Simmy :: DNP
Birdy :: 4pts.7assists
Status: 7 - 4
Standings: 2nd in West
Standings: 2nd in WNBA (Tied w/ Indiana)

what a blasted day!

9:43 AM 6/23/2005

However weird and twisted this may be but I like it when I get sick. Just imagine all the attention and the long-awaited and much-craved sleep that you'll get when you're sick. Yeah, yeah, there are unnecessary side-effects like your body burning up like you're in hell, your head aching so much that it's better to just slam it into the bedpost, or being cold despite the sweltering heat of your sauna of a room. But think of all the pampering that you're gonna get. I've been waiting for one flu or just one sinat for weeks since I started working. And now I'm feeling all groggy because of a very nasty headache yesterday. I should love this, as crazy as this seems.

But no, not today. I'm sick and I still had to fight my way into the MRT. I'm sick and I still have to sit here in front of this blasted PC trying to figure out why one of the remaining tests do not work. I'm sick and I want to sleep and I am tired of listening to these Japanese people talking in Nihonggo here. I'm sick and I don't even get to listen to the Storm - Sun game today at 10 am because Big Boss Teraoka is here inside our room. I'm sick and I can't seem to find someone to rant to.

This sucks. Majorly sucks.

growing up - and hating it

i've been thinking about this for days already.

you know that time when you realize that most people your age have transitioned into the next phase of their lives and you should probably do too? it's happening to me right now. and i hate it. i really hate it.

earlier this night, in that sardinas ride from buendia to sm north (drat, and i thought i wouldn't be in one since i get out of the office much later than usual nowadays), toots and i came across toti (a certified batang rf cage). he is currently employed in meridian, i think, together with erol (one of my thesismates in college - go cotsgroup!). i told toots that it's unusual now that we see the people we know in the mrt, not in the up-philcoa jeep or in the waiting shed like before. we now see our friends garbed in "serious" clothes (fortunately for us, digi isn't really strict about that so we can be less serious than others) and they are now really mature-looking. i think i even saw a batchmate of mine from high school (i think her name's merryl but i'm not really sure; she's one of those spe-sci peeps) dressed in those typical office-girl attire - skirt, blouse, blazer, extra-pointy pumps. argh! i don't wanna be like that!

i just wanna be a kid.

but it's really hard and not to mention weird to act like a kid when you're 23, right?

after i ate, i remembered the date today. someone's got his or her birthday today, and i'm not sure who it was. i think golds had her birthday this june 3...so it must be guzy. so i called up guzy, just like old times, and i asked her if today's her birthday. i know i'm weird and i just keep forgetting people's birthdays - even those birthdays of people i've known since years ago (and yes, i sometimes do that intentionally too, but not most of the time), but that's me, selective memory loss crap and all that.

guzy and i chatted about whatever's going around us, whatever happened to our friends and batchmates. most of the peeps i've been asking about are already working (aba dapat lang no) or are in their grad studies (joey and guzy included). we also talked about those fun times in fencing and whatever's going on with the team nowadays, etc., etc., etc. majority of the topics we've touched in that short span of chika time we had was mostly about whatever became of us after college - about work, about board exams, about long-lost friends.

hay.

if only we could talk about next week's chemisty exam and how miss mina is making us crazy with that mouse-rabbit icon she keeps drawing on her visual aids, or about how miss hilario would scream paraaaa kangggg tangaaaaa if you don't answer her friggin' question correctly, or at least how we both fumbled in last week's math 17 exams, or maybe how hellish our reg this sem is.

but no, no can do. because we aren't students anymore (well, technically, guzy is still student but generally speaking, you know...). because toots, toti, athan, erol and i, together with the rest of the recently-graduated celmates, aren't gonna be in cel to be tortured by that freak rodrigo anymore, we're not there to listen to doc m's sensible lectures anymore, and we're not going to fry our brains trying to solder our DIE in ece 113 anymore. because we are now out here in the real world, that freakin' stupid scary big bad real world, that sigh inevitable phase in our lives that we have to move on to.

so even if momsie still gives me baon, drives me to the mrt station, pick me up from there and buys my mrt ticket, i cannot deny the fact that i'm slowly, if unwillingly, transitioning into that yuppie phase. i cannot deny the fact that this is where i should be. i cannot stop time, i know that.

in short, i have to grow up and i have to move on. i have to adapt to the environment and be at ease with working - and accepting that fact that i will never be a kid anymore. i never will be and it just makes it harder for me to grow up when i wish that i never would.

shet, peter pan syndrome.