‘The only stat that counts is the score’

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I have always liked stats sheets. When my younger brother played Little League baseball, I often kept the scoresheet for his team. I always study the box scores for games I have seen and am intrigued by all the different theories of statistical analysis for player and team effectiveness. When I talked to our GM Penny Toler about getting stats during the game, she laughed and said the only stat she cared about was the score.

I thought of that when I looked at the stat sheet for our game against the San Antonio Silver Stars tonight. Our numbers were surprisingly similar. We had the same rebounds and about the same number of fouls. We shot better from the free throw and three point lines, but they shot slightly better overall. They outscored us by six in the paint, but we outscored San Antonio by six in fastbreak and second-chance points. In other words, it was statistically a pretty close game. But if you watched the game, it wasn’t close at all.

A couple of the stats help tell that story. They scored 23 points off our 16 turnovers; we scored 10 off their 11 turnovers. We may have shot 94% from the free-throw line to their 81%, but they made 21 free throws to our 17. And even though there were five ties and five lead changes in the game, the Sparks only had the lead for about six minutes total in the entire 40 minute game (and three of those minutes were the first three of the game, as the Silver Stars settled down to play.) So, as a Sparks fan, it was not a fun game to watch.

It had its moments. Delisha Milton-Jones was on fire, scoring 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Kristi Toliver, our newest addition, got some quality time on the floor for the first time and shot 60% from the field, racking up 17 points for the team. We played some great team defense in the third quarter to fight back from a 11-point halftime deficit to make it a two-point game, off a quarter ending Tina Thompson steal and Toliver fastbreak and one. I stayed optimistic through the first half of the fourth quarter, when all those ties and lead changes took place. But the last three minutes of this game looked suspiciously like the last six minutes of the last game—missed defensive assignments, missed layups, missed opportunities. A buzzer-beating three-point shot by Noelle Quinn is what kept us from another double-digit loss.

I have faith in this team. When we play together, like we did through most of the third and fourth quarters, we look unstoppable. We are fast on the break and tough to guard inside and out. It is hard to open on the road and the Sparks have almost always had to open on the road. I know, come Friday, when their home crowd is with them and the hostility of the road is behind them, they will be feeling like there’s no place like home. And I’m looking forward to having something to cheer about for a full 40 minutes.

Katharine Goodman