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Message: [QUOTE="Basingstoke, post: 5303785, member: 13809"] In the first quarter of tonight's Fever-Wings game, I thought that, yes, the Wings came out very flat and, on the other hand, the Fever played unbelievably well. If I remember correctly, they shot 13 of 15. They were aggressive and efficient and the difference between both the quality of their players (even missing Clark) and their connectivity vs the Wings players was like night and day. Mitchell was lightning quick (as was Boston compared to Li), and they are so fortunate that they were able to reacquire McDonald (who is a gifted point guard and a real asset as a starter or coming off the bench). Add the impact that Howard had tonight and it really was an unfair fight. I won't, on the other hand, disparage Dallas. Though outmanned and outclassed because of their lack of connectivity on both offense and defense, they hustled and fought back from a huge deficit. It's sad to me that Paige doesn't have anyone close to Mitchell's quality to pass to and really pile up the assists, or someone like Boston to pass to in the post and play a two-man game. Aside from Paige (who actually missed a number of shots we're used to see her make with regularity): Arike just doesn't seem involved or really present on the court (except for short bursts), Li has talent but a lot to figure out, Smith is a great athlete whose performance (IMO) has never lived up to her talent level, James has talent but plays (as other Wings players do) with blinders on when she has the ball, Hines-Allen works hard but is under-sized and often tries to do too much, and virtually no one has grasped that attacking 3 against one without looking for an open shooter is not a good idea (& no one can make a layup)- I have no idea whether Koclanes is at fault in his and his staff's coaching, but I'm pretty sure that any top-of-the-line coach would be incredibly challenged trying to mold this group. I have a feeling that Dallas will incrementally improve over the course of the season (adding Geiselsoder and, eventually, Siegrist will help), but their ceiling, unfortunately, seems pretty low for the foreseeable future. Just my 2 cents (but I'll still watch them and hope...). [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach