Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Karen Bailis

We knew it wouldn’t – couldn’t – last. The Liberty? Undefeated? Nah. Not this retooled team of neophytes. Not without Becky Hammon. Not without a go-to player. Still, they’d exceeded expectations in their first four games of the season, bringing down the previously undefeated Indiana Fever, a favorite to win the WNBA championship, in the process, and coming up with at least two go-to players: previously underused Erin Thorn and Cathrine Kraayeveld.

Reality came crashing down on Friday night at the Garden, against the Detroit Shock, who came in 4-0 and left with their undefeated season and “Bad Girls” moniker still intact. The Liberty led in the first quarter, but when their shots stopped falling, and the Shock started being more aggressive, the Liberty looked intimidated.

With Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn leading them, the Shock can’t help but be big, bad and ugly. I’m not talking appearances, I’m talking about the way they play: gritty and dirty.

And I love it. When they’re firing on all cylinders, they’re fun to watch, elbows, push-offs, hard fouls, trash-talking and all. The Liberty isn’t battle-tested, and it showed. They’re too nice. After a hard foul on basketball elder stateswoman Katie Smith that sent her tumbling into the cameras on the baseline, Thorn offered an apologetic hand to Smith, who wouldn’t have it. Even a technical on Liberty coach Patty Coyle – a Philly native who can trash-talk with the best of them – didn’t fire up her team. Surprisingly, Laimbeer, who jumped and stamped and yelled like usual, escaped the T.

Success, of course, takes more than playing with attitude, it takes skill. And Detroit has it in spades. And when they’ve lacked it, Laimbeer has gone out and gotten it, such as in the trade that brought Smith, the U.S. women’s pro basketball all-time scoring leader, to the Shock in 2005.

Detroit, which won its second WNBA championship last season, is bigger and deeper, faster and stronger than any other team in the league. In contrast to the Liberty, they have five go-to players in their starters, six if you count sixth-woman Plenette Pierson, who contributed 13 off the bench.

Deanna Nolan, one of the most athletically gifted players in the game, burns the Liberty all the time, and Friday was no different: She scored a team-high 17. No one can guard her, not even underplayed speedster Sherill Baker, who led the NCAA in steals a season ago and was brought in at one point Friday to try to stay with Nolan, to no avail. Nolan, 144 lbs. of fast-twitch muscles, stands 5-foot-11 but has hops that help her match up on the inside. She skied for an authoritative block against the 6-4 Kraayeveld, and made it look easy.

And then there’s Cheryl Ford. She leads the WNBA in career rebounds per game (9.9). In only her fourth season in the WNBA, she’s in the top 10 in career double-doubles in points and rebounds. She tallied another on Friday, with 11 points and 11 rebounds. She outplayed Kraayeveld (13 points and 7 rebounds) and rookie Jessica Davenport ( 8 points, 4 rebounds) down low. Her father is Karl Malone, and the elbow doesn’t fall far from the tree. She’s a bruiser who’s only going to get better.

Swin Cash appears to be back to form after a torn ACL in late 2004 and is averaging 14 ppg this season, which is what she scored against the Liberty.

The Liberty, now No. 3 in the Eastern Conference behind Detroit and Indiana, plays in Indiana on Sunday. I hope some of Detroit’s attitude and swagger rubbed off. They’ll need it if they’re to continue to overachieve this season.