[情報] griffith 最後一季
http://www.courant.com/sports/basketball/hc-wnbasun0730.artjul30,0,4388938.story?coll=hc-headlines-basketball
Griffith Limps To Finish
Still A Leader In Final Season
July 30, 2006
By LORI RILEY, Courant Staff Writer
Yolanda Griffith is 36, and over the years
she has played a lot of basketball.
Last year, her knees and her groin bothered her.
Earlier this season, she twisted her right knee
in Houston in a way that her coach described to
The Sacramento Bee as "scary." Friday, her left
knee was sore before Sacramento's 75-68 loss to the Sun.
"I'm not me this year," Griffith said before the game.
"I'm just not healthy like I was two years ago. But I
still go out there and do the best I can, work hard.
I'm still the leader of this team. I know the game.
If I score, it's great. If I don't, I know how to play
defense and do different things."
Griffith said this will be her last season in a
professional career that began when she was drafted
No.1 by the Long Beach StingRays of the ABL in 1997.
She has been an ABL and WNBA All-Star.
She was the WNBA's MVP in 1999.
She was named to the All-Decade team as part of
the league's 10th anniversary celebration this year.
Last year, she was the championship series MVP
after the Monarchs defeated the Sun for the WNBA title.
Many say that if Sun point guard Lindsay Whalen
(hobbled by knee and ankle injuries) were at full
strength, Sacramento - which had lost to the Sun
twice during the regular season - would have lost.
But that argument rankles Griffith.
"I was hurt the whole season last year," Griffith
said. "It doesn't matter who you have. Everybody's
up for injuries. I had a swollen knee in the
championship. It's just things nobody knew about.
You just tie up your shoes and go play. That's it.
Injuries occur.
"I'm pretty sure Lindsay wasn't the only one hurt
on the Connecticut team. Everybody had injuries
last year. Even though Lindsay is their starting
point guard, they're still a good team. They're
without Nykesha Sales this year and they're still
winning. It doesn't matter."
Griffith, who has a 16-year-old daughter, would
like to coach when her playing days are over. She
said she likes the style of Seattle's Anne Donovan
and Houston's Van Chancellor, but will have her own
coaching style.
"Some players are missing the fundamentals of basketball
- learning how to pass, not thinking that you have to
be the one that scores all the time," she said. "You've
got to be able to pass the ball and be aware of your
surroundings on the court. It's not about you as an
individual. It's about what you bring to the team."
The Monarchs (16-11) had a seven-game winning streak
come to a crashing halt when they went on the road
last week. They lost Tuesday at Indiana and Wednesday
at Detroit, then lost Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The Monarchs will host Detroit today.
Griffith, the team's leading scorer (11.2), struggled
Friday, scoring six points. She had three rebounds,
3.6 below her average.
She doesn't like to talk about retiring. She is
trying to keep her focus on this season.
"Whatever happens this year, I'm still proud of my
teammates," she said. "We won the championship and
we're trying to get back."
Usurping The Monarchs
Coach John Whisenant on the Monarchs' 0-3 trip:
"It's like league headquarters had it in for us,
to put us back to back, Indiana and Detroit and
then [at Connecticut]. I'm surprised they didn't
have us playing [Thursday]. Then we go back and
play four games next week."
The Monarchs will see a familiar opponent today:
Detroit, which scored 91 points against defensive-minded
Sacramento last week.
... Detroit (18-7), trailing the Sun by 11/2 games
in the East, has a four-game winning streak. They
meet in the regular season finale Aug. 13 at 1:30 p.m.
in Detroit in an ABC-televised game.
... Diana Taurasi broke Phoenix's single-season
scoring record of 624, set by Jennifer Gillom in
1998, with 41 points Thursday at Houston and 25
Friday at San Antonio. Taurasi now has 625
points, but Phoenix (11-15) lost both games
(98-95 to Houston, 98-96 to the Silver Stars)
and is in danger of missing the playoffs again.
The Mercury, who have been hobbled by injuries
to Kamila Vodichkova and Penny Taylor, are in
sixth place, a game behind San Antonio (12-14)
and 21/2 games behind Seattle (14-13).
The top four in each conference make the playoffs.
Taylor (22 points) and Vodichkova (two points) played
Friday, but the Mercury trailed 27-19 after the first
quarter and couldn't quite come back.
The Mercury have eight games left.
Contact Lori Riley at lriley@courant.com.
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