Didn't see the previous game but Candice Parker tonight, Wow! What a poor example of sportsmanship.
Very dislike-able player!
Disgusting that the refs give her such an unreasonable amount of star treatment in regard to the fouls and allow her to get away with a lot of travels.
Really entertaining game--LA was playing catch up the whole way and got some tough breaks down the stretch. Not at all accurate to say she got star treatment. There was one bad call on Moore that went in Parker's favor, but besides that I didn't notice any other calls. Beyond that, Parker got the short end of the stick on a few big plays, most specifically the jump ball where Augustus pulled Parker down so Augustus ended up winning the jump ball but didn't get called for a foul. Fowles got away with some elbows, travels and really physical play that easily could have been called the other way. There were a couple of times she essentially checked Ogwumike and no foul was called.
A couple of observations--LA made a big run in the 2nd half when Parker caught fire in the 3rd. There was a run and LA got it to 64-65 and had the ball. After that, it was downhill. Parker made a great pass to Ogwumike who fumbled it--if she gets that, it's an easy layup and a 1 point lead. Instead, she can't control the pass, turnover, Augustus jumper on the other end. 4 point swing. A couple of plays later, Parker leads a fast break, dishes to Toliver, reestablishes with great position in the post and Toliver jacks up a bad shot and misses. Nneka made a bonehead foul down the stretch to essentially hand Minnesota 2 points (free throws by Moore) and then fouled out. No reason to foul in that situation, was just a bad play. Also, Beard couldn't inbound the ball (credit to Minnesota) and the Dabovic foul was tough, I didn't think that was a blocking foul on LA when it was called.
Parker does complain to the refs and sometimes is visibly frustrated, but it's just part of how she's always been as a player. For comparison, the same can be said of Stefanie Dolson, but I don't think anyone would classify Dolson as a poor sport or unlikable. I don't view it as a negative like I view Angel's antics from time to time. It's just her intensity coming out, as others have iterated. Tonight you could really see the frustration, especially when she was playing at a high level and her teammates were not making the best decisions down the stretch. She isn't a perfect player, getting a t that late was really poor timing, but I think if they continued to funnel the offense through Parker, it would've been tighter down the stretch.
At the end of the day, Minnesota probably had the better team. Outside of Brunson, you can make a strong argument that all of the starters are among the top 2 players in the league at their respective positions, and Brunson is not chopped liver. Heck, Minnesota has 5 players that were on the last Olympic team!
LA has the talent to be a title team but they definitely need to make some changes to the team make up. I just don't see the team winning a title with Toliver as the SG. She is a great player, but takes too many shots when you have a frontcourt of Nneka, Parker and Lavender. I think they need to get rid of either Nneka/Lavender in favor of a top guard. If they could trade for a player like Briann January, DRob, Vandersloot, the #2 pick next year (nab Jefferson), or even try to grab a player like Sims or McBride, I like their chances to improve.
Minnesota/Phoenix should be interesting. Neither team seems as strong as a year ago, but Griner simply owned Fowles last year and I'd expect more of the same, perhaps even more aggressive mentality without Taurasi or Taylor. I think Maya/Seimone/Whalen will make it difficult so Minny wins in 3, but it should be a good matchup.
New York vs. Indiana will be a good one--NY clearly has the talent edge, but I'd put money on Indiana.
