The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

First, a lament: This is the last screening week of the fallow season of The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey.  The University of Minnesota women's soccer team kicks off the college season this weekend.  From here on out there will be at least three teams in the WMNSS, which means a hell of a lot more work for me.  Won't settle down here until the Gopher baseball, Timberwolves and Wild seasons end.  I hope I have the time to do this each week.

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -2).  I went to the Jynx game on Friday against The Bastard Detroit Shock.  Was offered a free ticket from a friend I met while we were extras; in exchange I was to give him the Rebekkah Brunson bobblehead doll they were giving away that night.  However, the inspiration for the bobblehead was not on the court at all; Brunson was out with a sore right knee.

And they sure as hell could have used her.  I swear, seeing this team allow passes into the paint and drives to the basket, blow defensive assignments and switches that freed up Shock players around the hoop, and turn the ball over on offense pissed me off more and more as the game wore on.  They outscored Tulsa 23-20 in the first quarter, but the Shock flexed its muscle after that, much more than you would expect from a team that was going into the game with a 7-17 record.

When Janel McCarville fed Lindsay Whalen for a driving layup with 93 seconds gone in third quarter, the Lynx led 48-46.  But then The Bastard Detroit Shock scored the next 14 points over the next 5 1/2 minutes to take a lead they would never relinquish.  I just sat there, with all my friend's friends in the suite he got, and I'm thinking this isn't the Lynx of the past couple years, this is the Lynx comedy troupe I remember from before the past couple years.

And still they were somehow were within shouting distance at the end of the game before finally falling 83-77.  It was their third loss in a row -- what the fuck?!?!?!  Is this a good team or an overrated one???

After feeling as confident as I ever have about the home team winning a game I'm seeing in person, I assumed that this was the beginning of an historic, ugly collapse.  I really didn't think the Jynx were going to win another game this season.  But on Sunday they did bounce back, and in a big way.  They crushed the New York Liberty 88-57.  Now that's the team I expect.

The difference between the two games?  Injuries.  Brunson played in the Liberty game.  So did McCarville, who is back in the lineup after missing a couple games nursing a concussion.  BTW, Monica Wright sat out the Liberty victory for a bruised right quad.  Oh, and for New York star starting Point Guard Cappie Pondexter didn't play because of a left heel bruise.  So I guess this is what season boils down to: If the Lynx are completely healthy, they might -- might -- be able to win another WNBA title.  If one of the starting five go down, they're completely fucked.

This week's games are going to be tough, regardless of the club's health: At Atlanta tonight, at Connecticut Thursday, then home against defending WNBA Champion (and the team to vanquish them in the WNBA Finals) Indiana Saturday.

P.S. Hiss to the suite manager who shooed us out of the adjoining suite.  No one was using it, so why the fuck can't we watch the game from there?

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -1).  Went to the Twins game yesterday (Monday) afternoon, the make-up game against the New York Mets that was snowed out April 14, the day before Tax Day.  I went because my friend, the one whom I ushered with a long time ago and once yelled at me when he dropped by The Store, had a trio of small strokes in late January and has been convalescing at a care center ever since.  He walks with a cane, although he has been a slow walker as long as I've known him, plus he continues to walk slowly and his eyes are still lopsided.  But for a guy who's had strokes, he's doing well.

I was kind of sunstroked taking in the game from Target Field, but at least we got the shady side of the stadium.  Sunstroke might be the only thing that explains why the Twinks sucked yesterday; they dropped their fourth loss in a row, 6-1 to the Metropolitans.

Clutch hitting remains a problem.  Shit, hitting period remains a problem.  Young hurler Dillon Gee went 7 2/3 innings and struck out nine Twinks.  Nine.  Meanwhile, Twins starter -- and former Great White Hope -- Kyle Gibson lasted only 3 2/3 innings and allowed ten hits before being yanked.  While the game was loping along I though the Twinks were not playing with any energy.  I don't think that's the case.  They had energy; they are just pressing at the plate because no one (besides Joe Mauer) is hitting worth a shit.  And the infield tried to get to every single ground ball that bounded their way; they just got tired of chasing every single ground ball that Gibson yielded.  The organization has seen enough; Gibson, who has not reached the seventh inning even once in the ten games he's been up here, was finally sent down to AAA Rochester.  Guess he's not the answer, huh?

Well, there is no answer.  Seeing the team drop the last games of a three-game series to Cleveland, then lose three-of-four game vs. the Chicago White Sox, you can make the joke that the squad's woes boil down to two things: offense and pitching.  Only Thursday's 4-3 squeaker over the Pale Hos prevented this from being a completely winless week.  And by the way, this week the Twinks were playing at home; they finished their homestand a putrid 2-6.

Two entirely self-contained series on the road this week, Detroit and Cleveland.