Detroit Shock Franchise History
From Hoopedia
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1998
Although the Detroit Shock entered its inaugural WNBA season with the “expansion” tag clinging firmly to its back, and despite the fact they got off to a rocky 0-4 start, by season’s end they were one of the biggest stories in the league and only missed out on a postseason berth by just one game in the standings.
As is often the case with expansion teams, the Detroit Shock were a motley crew made up of players other teams didn’t want and most fans hadn’t heard of. But the face of the franchise was already on board with Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman inked as the team’s first general manager and head coach.
The first pieces to the Shock player puzzle were put in place on January 27, 1998 when the WNBA allocated Cindy Brown and Razija Mujanovic to the Motor City. In the early days of the W, up through the 1999 season, the league allocated two players to each team ahead of the draft, often times with the regional appeal of those players taken into consideration. This is how Rebecca Lobo (UConn) ended up in The Big Apple, Lisa Leslie (USC) wound up in Tinsletown, and Andrea Stinson (NC State) found herself in the Queen City of Charlotte.
So naturally, Brown – who attended Long Beach State (1,984 miles away) and Mujanovic – a native of Yugoslavia (4,759 miles away) – were assigned to Detroit. Hey, we said they often times took regional appeal into consideration, not every time.
Brown averaged 17.5 points and 8.3 rebounds for the ABL’s Seattle Reign during the 1997-98 season and played in the ABL All-Star Game that year, while Mujanovic brought a physical presence to Detroit’s post game honed by a number of seasons of overseas and international competition.
The Shock were a team of two for 22 days, at which time the WNBA held an Expansion Draft on February 18. The eight charter franchises were permitted to protect six players, leaving the rest for Detroit and the Washington Mystics to choose from. The Shock selected Rhonda Blades of the New York Liberty with the first pick, and added Tajama Abraham from Sacramento (third pick), Tara Williams from Phoenix (fifth) and Lynette Woodard from Cleveland (seventh).
Next came the 1998 WNBA Draft on April 29, where Detroit had the fourth pick in each of the four rounds. The Shock came away from the table with a decidedly international flavor selecting Korie Hlede (Croatia) with their first-round pick, Rachael Sporn (Australia) in the second round, Gergana Branzova (Bulgaria) in the third round, and Sandy Brondello (Australia) with their final pick, although both Hlede (Duquesne) and Branzova (Florida International) attended college in the United States.
Six additional players were added to the Shock roster by the WNBA on May 2 – Lisa Ostrom, Shenika Walker, Mfon Udoka, DeAngela Minter, Aneta Kausaite and Betsy Harris – and on May 29, Carla Porter joined the team.
The initial on-court unveiling of the Shock took place at the Charlotte Coliseum in the team’s first preseason game of the year. The Charlotte Sting, a playoff participant in 1997, defeated the Shock 68-54 in the exhibition opener for both teams. Unfortunately for the Shock, the game was not as close as the final score might have indicated as Detroit trailed 67-36 with seven minutes to play.
The lackluster performance caused Lieberman-Cline to say after the game that “some of these players have to realize that this is the professional level. There’s a different mentality.” She added, “I was disappointed in the effort. Some of the players looked petrified.”
Part of Detroit’s problem was that not everybody was in training camp. The Australian contingent had yet to make it to the States, as they were competing with the Australian National team in the 1998 FIBA World Championship for Women, and would not be available until the start of the regular season.
Detroit’s regular season began against a familiar opponent in the Sting, whom they faced on two occasions during the preseason. Nearly 16,000 fans packed The Palace of Auburn Hills on June 13, 1998 only to watch the Shock fall to Charlotte 78-69. Razija Mujanovic led the way for Detroit with the first double-double in team history scoring a game-high 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and grabbing 13 rebounds. The rest of the team, however, managed to make just 32.2 percent of their shots sending the Shock to its first loss in franchise history.
The Shock dropped its next three games for an 0-4 start to the season, although after nine and 11 point losses in their first two games, they followed with four- and two-point losses respectively to Charlotte and Cleveland, all of which set the stage for . . .
June 21, 1998 at the MCI Center in Washington D.C. when Lieberman-Cline and company finally broke into the win column with a 70-57 decision over their expansion sisters. Korie Hlede’s 20 points led four Detroiters in double-figures as the team led from wire to wire.
Sparked by their inaugural win, the Shock ran off six straight victories, including five wins against Eastern Conference competition. The roller-coaster ride continued throughout much of the season as Detroit followed up that winning streak with another four-game skid before winning four in a row in late July. After the season-opening four-game losing streak, Detroit never fell more than two games below .500 or climbed more than two games above .500 through early August.
In the meantime, Hlede was making waves as a possible Rookie of the Year candidate, Brondello was staking claim to the title of the best fourth-round draft pick in league history, and Brown was dominating the glass. Hlede and Brondello both wound up averaging more than 14 points per game on the year, while Brown became the first WNBA player to grab more than 300 rebounds in a season. Hlede finished second in rookie of the year balloting to Charlotte’s Tracy Reid.
In the second week of August the Shock was in fourth place in the East, but they still had an outside shot at a playoff berth. It wasn’t until August 14, with five days remaining in the regular season, that a Shock loss to the Phoenix Mercury mathematically eliminated Detroit from postseason contention. The season still had meaning, however, as Charlotte, New York and Phoenix were battling for the last two postseason tickets, and Detroit was hosting the Liberty on the season’s last day – August 19.
The Sting beat the Washington Mystics early in the night, which meant that a Shock win over New York in front of 16,246 fans at The Palace, coupled with a Phoenix win over Sacramento later in the night, would knock the Liberty out of the playoffs. In addition, a Shock victory would send Charlotte off to a first-round match-up with the Houston Comets and Phoenix into a best two out of three meeting with the Cleveland Rockers.
New York opened up a 14-point lead with 11:13 to go in the first period, but the Shock battled back with a 17-3 run of its own, and taking a two-point lead into the locker room. Tied at 62 with 4:29 to go in the second, Detroit ended the game by scoring 20 of the last 26 points, for an 82-68 victory, depriving the Liberty of a second trip to the postseason.
Despite the lack of a playoff berth, the Shock did manage to post a 17-13 mark on the year and surprise almost all league observers by staying in the playoff picture as long as they did. The team was also a success in the stands as they averaged 10,229 fans on the season, and boasted four crowds of 14,000 or more.
“I am excited for this franchise, and I’m excited for my players and the city of Detroit,” said Lieberman-Cline. “Can you imagine if we made it to the playoffs what it would be like? We are setting standards that all expansion teams will be measured by. We have incredible competitors, and I could not be prouder of this team than I am right now.”
1999
Following on the heals of a 17-13 inaugural campaign, Shock fans could be excused if they were a little excited during the offseason, especially after the ABL ceased operation over the winter holidays. With just one professional women’s basketball league left in the US, the talent level in the WNBA would increase exponentially that year as 38 ABL players in all were allowed to join the league in 1999. A tweak here or there, and the Shock could move into the Eastern Conference elite.
The first opportunity for roster tinkering came on May 4, 1999 when Detroit selected guard Jennifer Azzi in the first round (No. 5 overall), center Val Whiting in the second (No. 17), guard Dominique Canty in the third (No. 29) and forward Astou Ndiaye in the fourth (No. 41).
Shock Head Coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline was all smiles following the draft, however given the talent available she did add “how could you not do a good job in this draft? (Houston Comets Head Coach) Van Chancellor told me all he needed was my little 4-year-old son, T.J., to figure out this draft. Let's just say that if you screwed this one up, well, you've got issues.”
Two days after the draft, the WNBA allocated Natasha Anderson, Laura Baker, Leslie Brown, Laurie Byrd, Claudia Maria das Neves, Latasha Dorsey and Oksana Zakauluzhnaya to Detroit as members of their training camp roster.
Despite loftier goals, Detroit stumbled out of the gate at the start of the regular season losing 68-51 to the expansion Minnesota Lynx who, to add insult to injury, were without the services of Katie Smith who was recovering from a torn right ACL.
The Shock shook off the loss, however, and ran off three straight conference wins to move into a tie for first place in the East with the New York Liberty at 3-1. For the next several weeks Detroit struggled to put any kind of distance between themselves and the rest of the conference, making it all the way to August having never been more than two games above or below .500.
Just because the team was having difficulty finding its stride doesn’t mean that individual players weren’t making names for themselves. On July 6, Sandy Brondello scored a franchise-record 33 points in a double-overtime, 104-94 loss to Utah – a game that established the league mark for highest combined scoring output in WNBA history. Brondello hit two buzzer-beating threes – one in regulation and one at the end of the first overtime – but it wasn’t enough to prevent Detroit from losing for the fifth time in six games dropping their record to 5-7.
The reserves for the inaugural WNBA All-Star Game were announced in early July, and Brondello earned her way on to the Eastern Conference squad on the strength of 48.2 percent shooting from the field and 17.9 points per game.
Jenifer Azzi proved to be one of the Shock’s most important offensive threats despite coming off the bench in her first 13 games in Detroit. She averaged 9.0 points per game through July 17, and 12.3 points in 15 games as a starter afterwards.
On the flipside, Korie Hlede struggled early in her sophomore campaign averaging 9.1 points and 33.3 percent shooting from three-point range through the first nine games of the regular season compared to 14.1 points and 39.2 percent from long-range in her rookie year.
Dominique Canty replaced her in the starting lineup on July 2, and on July 29, the Shock traded Hlede and forward Cindy Brown to the Utah Starzz in exchange for forwards Wendy Palmer and Olympia Scott-Richardson. At the time, Detroit’s record was 10-11.
Palmer stepped into the starting lineup for the Shock on August 4 following a five-game losing streak. Detroit saw immediate dividends as they picked up their first win in 11 days behind 21 points from Brondello. At 11-13, the Shock still had their playoff hopes in their own hands as five games against conference foes Orlando, New York and Charlotte awaited them at season’s end.
Unfortunately for Detroit, as the race for the playoffs was heating up, Brondello was cooling down. Following the All-Star Break, the Australian guard averaged just 9.6 points per game and connected on 38.3 percent of her shots.
Detroit limped into August with a four-game losing streak in tow. Still, heading into season’s final 10 games, and despite their 10-12 mark, the Shock had their playoff destiny in their own hands. The top three teams in the East would advance to the postseason, and Detroit’s final five games of the year were against New York (2), Orlando (2) and Charlotte (1).
First, though, the Shock had to take on the Washington Mystics and wade through a four-game West Coast swing. Detroit dropped that home tilt vs. Washington on August 2 to run its losing streak to five games. The Miracle lost a day earlier though, so the Shock didn’t give up any ground.
Detroit managed to split its four games out west, and with five games to play on August 12, they were a game and a half ahead of Orlando in the battle for third place.
The Shock and Liberty split their two games leaving the Shock at 13-16 with three games to play. New York locked up first place in the East with a win over Washington on August 17, and the Sting had clinched a playoff spot despite being in free-fall mode dropping four straight out west from August 9-16.
That left Orlando and Detroit to battle it out for the third and final postseason berth, and the Miracle were on a three-game winning streak heading into an August 18 home game vs. the Shock.
Orlando topped Detroit 93-81 behind 21 points from Taj McWilliams and 18 from Nykesha Sales to move a game ahead of the Shock. However, Detroit’s playoff hopes were still alive with back-to-back games against Charlotte and Orlando on August 20 and 21 left to close out the year.
The Miracle picked up a road win at Minnesota on the 20th, as the Shock and Sting engaged in a back-and-forth tussle at the Charlotte Coliseum. The Shock led by five at the break, 29-24 and an Azzi 21-footer to open the second period pushed the lead to eight before the Sting went on an 8-0 run of its own to tie the game at 32.
From that point forward neither team led by more than four points, and the Shock took a 58-57 nail-biter, setting up a winner-take-all meeting for Detroit against the Miracle at The Palace on August 21.
The Shock had difficulty containing Taj McWilliams in the first half, as she lit up Detroit for 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field before the break. Orlando led 36-30 as the teams headed into the locker room shooting 58.6 percent from the field compared to just 37.5 percent from the Shock.
A Shannon Johnson layup with 1:16 gone in the second half gave Orlando its biggest lead of the day at 38-30. Azzi countered with a three-pointer on the following possession which began an 18-4 Detroit run. Azzi had eight points in the surge including two threes and Palmer added six points. The two teams traded the lead four more times throughout the half, but Detroit extended its lead to eight points at 68-60 with 45 seconds to go.
The Miracle scored on its next three possessions including three pointers by Johnson and Sheri Sam to counter two Azzi free throws and cut the lead to 70-68 with 17.8 seconds remaining, but Azzi clinched Detroit’s first trip to the postseason by hitting four more free throws down the stretch for the 74-68 final score.
The Shock made their living at the charity stripe in the second half scoring their final 13 points from that distance. Azzi had 20 points in the half making five of six field goals, including all three of her three-pointers, as the team made 54.2 percent of its shots in the second stanza.
With the Shock’s first postseason berth in hand, Detroit had two days to prepare for their one-game series with the Charlotte Sting.
It was a defensive struggle for the entire evening at The Palace on August 24 as neither team was able to connect on more than 40 percent of its field goals. In the first half, Detroit’s defense limited Charlotte to 29.0 percent shooting, but they led by just four, 26-22, at the break.
The Shock led by six, 42-36, with just under 10 minutes to go in the second half, but beginning with a pair of Dawn Staley free throws, the Sting went on a 16-3 run to take a seven-point lead with 2:52 to play. Staley scored seven points during the run to put Detroit back on its collective heels, but a Palmer layup and a Brondello three-ball cut the lead to two with a minute and change left on the clock.
Rhonda Mapp countered with a running jumper with under a minute to go, and Charlotte scored its last six points from the free throw line to seal the win, sending the Shock home for the season, 60-54.
“Obviously, we are very disappointed,” said Brondello. “It’s really sad because we really stuck together this year. It’s been a lot of ups and down, but I think the one special thing is that we stuck together and grew together. It’s like a family.”
As the curtain fell on the 1999 season optimism still abounded in the Motor City. Despite a sub-.500 record the Shock had taken a step forward by advancing to the postseason for the first time in the team’s brief history. And they did so despite quite a bit of turnover on the roster as fan favorite Hlede was dealt mid-season, and several new faces including Palmer, Azzi and Brondello began to make their marks on the franchise. As the 1999-2000 off-season loomed, the future for the Shock still looked promising.
2000
The Shock entered the 1999-2000 offseason with its first ever playoff appearance in its back pocket, and a solid core of players to build around in Wendy Palmer, Sandy Brondello and Jennifer Azzi. Unfortunately two of those three players were out of the Motor City prior to the start of training camp. Even more alarming – only five players who were on the roster for Detroit’s 1999 playoff loss to the Charlotte Sting were in training camp in 2000.
The first casualty came in the form of Brondello who was left exposed in the 2000 Expansion Draft. Miami, Indiana, Portland and Seattle joined the league that season, and Brondello indicated that she would stay in her native Australia in the summer of 2000 to train with the Australian national team. The Sol selected the guard in the second round of the Expansion Draft, and the Shock also lost forward Leslie Brown in the fourth round to Miami.
In March of 2000, Detroit took another hit when Azzi announced that she was no longer interested in playing in the WNBA sighting financial considerations and a lack of motivation as her reasons. “It certainly comes down to a salary, that’s a business decision, and that I am ready to explore other things without basketball,” Azzi said in a conference call with San Francisco Bay Area media at the time. She added, “I’ve always thought that my advantage over other people is my drive, my motivation. And when I don't feel those things, then I know that something is wrong.”
Ultimately, Azzi did sign a contract with the WNBA, but moments later Head Coach and General Manager Nancy Leiberman-Cline traded Azzi closer to her West-Coast roots by sending her to the Utah Starzz along with the 12th overall pick in the draft in exchange for the third and eighth overall selections.
When draft day rolled around 24 hours later, the Shock used those two first-round picks to select Edwina Brown and Tamicha Jackson. With the rest of their draft picks Detroit selected Madina Slaise in the second round (No. 28 overall), Chavonne Hammond in the third (No. 44) and Cal Bouchard in the fourth (No. 60).
The WNBA allocated six additional players to the Shock training camp roster on May 1 – Anna DeForge, Barbara Farris, Isabu Milton, Vicky Picott, Darla Simpson, and Elena Tornikidou.
“In a sense, it’s as though we are starting over,” Lieberman-Cline said of her roster turnover. “But with the youth and talent we have now, this team is set up for eight years or more.”
The 2000 regular season got off to a good start as Detroit upended the Sacramento Monarchs 77-73, but the Shock never really got things untracked all year long. They were 2-2 after four games, 4-4 after eight, 5-5 after 10, 6-6 after 12. They were the very definition of average throughout the first 20 games of the season – a “perfect” 10-10 record.
There were some bright spots along the way including a WNBA-record 111 points scored in a 37-point win over the expansion Indiana Fever. Anna DeForge also showed flashes of the player she would later become with the Phoenix Mercury, leading the Shock in three-point field goal percentage. On the flip side, Detroit also permitted the Monarchs to drop 108 points against them in a 12-point loss.
Despite heading into August with a 12-15 mark, the Shock still held a half game edge over Washington (11-15) for the fourth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot. New York (18-10) had already sewn up a berth, Cleveland (15-12) had almost punched its ticket and Orlando (14-13) looked like a lock for the three seed.
In control of their own destiny, the Shock dropped its next three games against Los Angeles, Washington and Orlando. Still, with two games remaining, at Indiana and vs. New York, the Shock (12-18) had an outside shot at making the postseason. The Mystics (13-17) had a one-game advantage and games at Orlando and vs. Cleveland still on the schedule. Washington also owned the tie-breaker against Detroit having beaten the Shock in each of their three meetings during the regular season.
On August 7, the Mystics fell to Orlando, 65-57, while Detroit topped Indiana, 74-63, sending both teams into their season finales on August 9 with identical 13-18 records. The Shock took care of its end of the bargain by beating New York, 66-63, but Washington upended Cleveland, 60-48, to pick up the four seed in the East.
Despite the disappointing end to the season Lieberman-Cline had nothing but positive things to say about her squad following the game. “I’m very proud of them. With their backs against the wall, all they did was come out and play hard. I think this team connected with our fans on a pretty special level.”
2001
It didn’t take long for Detroit to start making over its franchise following 2000’s 14-18 record as Nancy Lieberman-Cline was relieved of her duties as general manager and head coach on September 20. That same day assistant coach Greg Williams was promoted to head coach and director of player personnel.
Outside of Wendy Palmer, the roster he inherited was lacking in star power. Long gone were the likes of Korie Hlede and Jennifer Azzi whom fans had drawn attached to. However there were some interesting pieces still left on the board especially on the offensive side of the ball: Elena Tornikidou was coming off a season in which she connected on 50.6 percent of her field goal attempts (eighth best in the league) and 91.4 percent of her free throw attempts (second in the league); Astou Ndiaye-Diatta made 47.4 percent of her shots; and Barbara Farris (50.0%), Oksana Zakauluzhnaya (52.1%) and Joy Holmes (47.1%) all posted above average field goal percentages off the bench.
Williams began adding to that mix in the 2001 WNBA Draft, where the Shock picked up one of the first major components of its championship puzzle of 2003 in the form of Georgia guard Deanna Nolan.
“Deanna Nolan may be the most athletic player in the entire draft,” Said Williams moments after the draft. “She has exceptional quickness, enabling her to excel on the defensive end.”
The team also added Jae Kingi in the second round (No. 22 overall), Svetlana Volnaya in the third (No. 38) and Kelly Santos in the fourth (No. 54). Two weeks later, the Shock announced that Carl Boyd (Porter) and Rachel Sporn would return to the team after taking the 2000 season off to train for the Olympic Games.
As to what changes Shock fans might be able to look forward to under a new coaching regime, Williams said that fans would notice “subtle differences” but “there aren’t going to be major changes. I had a lot of input on what we were doing here before. Hopefully, the big difference you’ll see is that we’re better defensively. And that’s something that was going to have to be a point of emphasis whether Nancy had been here or not.”
Things didn’t look too bad for the Shock following the season opener on June 2 despite a 74-73 loss. The opponent, after all, was the four-time WNBA Champion Houston Comets. Admittedly, Houston was without Cynthia Cooper (retirement) and Sheryl Swoopes (ACL Injury), but considering the Shock had never beaten the Comets in five prior meetings, a one-point defeat was not exactly cause for alarm.
A 92-71 loss to Orlando three days later, and a 21-point loss to those same Comets on June 7, however, set the bells to ringing. Despite following up those losses with three straight wins, things went from so-so to worse when Wendy Palmer injured her left hamstring keeping her out of the lineup for the next 10 games.
Detroit lost five games in a row following Palmer’s injury, however they still found themselves in a tie with Indiana for the fourth playoff spot as much of the East struggled during the first half of the season.
Cleveland, Miami and New York ran away with the top three spots in the East early with Detroit, Orlando, Indiana, Washington and Charlotte left to battle it out for the four seed. The team that got hot in over the last two-thirds of the season would get the nod.
Unfortunately, after a 2-8 record with Palmer out of the Detroit line-up, her return didn’t help change the team’s fortunes. They lost their first four games upon her return and seven of their next eight. In the meantime, the Charlotte Sting had embarked on a remarkable run that saw them take control of the fourth playoff spot. Detroit never put together a two-game winning streak after the sixth game of the season.
All that was left for the Shock at that point was the development of its young talent. Although Nolan (21) was the only player who would ultimately become an All-Star, Edwina Brown (23), Barbara Farris (24), Dominique Canty (24) and Jae Kingi (25) all appeared to have plenty to offer future Shock teams.
Detroit finished the year at 10-22 as did three other clubs – Seattle, Indiana and Washington – which meant that another potential star would be joining the team in 2002 in the form of the second overall pick in the draft.
Following the team’s season-ending win over the Cleveland Rockers, Williams reflected on the year: “I think our training camp deceived us. It was a competitive camp, but once we got in the exhibition season, we knew we had some gaps to fill.”
Palmer, for one, was already looking towards 2002: “We’d like to thank the fans for their support. We have the best fans and we are thankful for that. We look forward to coming out here next summer and turning things around.”
2002
With decreasing win totals in each of the team’s first four seasons, many observers thought that 2002 would be a make or break year for the Detroit Shock. Only three players remained from the Shock’s 1999 playoff team – Wendy Palmer, Astou Ndiaye-Diatta and Dominique Canty – and two of the team’s point guards from a year ago were gone as Australian Jae Kingi didn’t return to the WNBA following her rookie campaign, and Claudia Maria das Neves was traded to the Phoenix Mercury.
The Shock were able to add a significant piece of their future when they drafted Swin Cash in the first round (No. 2 overall) of the 2002 WNBA Draft. Cash was a two-time national champion out of Connecticut coming off an undefeated season with the Huskies.
“(Swin) has such great intensity at both ends of the floor,” said Shock Head Coach and Director of Player Personnel Greg Williams during training camp. “(She’s) all about competing and winning. That, we knew when we selected her. What we didn't realize was that her perimeter skills would be as far along as they are. She's really comfortable facing the basket. We even have her shooting threes. I really wasn’t sure at all that we'd see that from Swin this year – figured it’d be something we’d be working on during her first off-season. At UConn, she didn’t do much shooting beyond 15 feet.”
As good as Cash was turning out to be during the preseason, training camp did not go as smoothly as Shock fans would have liked. The injury bug hit the Motor City early in 2002 as starting point guard Dominique Canty suffered a broken left hand in a May 3 practice.
“Really, we had one player who couldn’t get hurt, and that was Dominique,” said Williams. “And then she gets hurt. Three positional changes result from one injury. We have to put Edwina at point guard instead of shooting guard. We have to play Tweety (Deanna Nolan) at shooting guard instead of small forward. And we have to put in Swin at three.”
With the regular season looming, it became evident that the schedule makers hadn’t done the Shock any favors sending them out on the road for eight of their first 10 games. Home or road, it didn’t matter in the early going, as the Shock lost its season opener to the Orlando Miracle by 14 points and proceeded to lose its first 10 games overall. Five of those 10 losses were by double-digits.
It was obvious that a change needed to be made, and on June 19 following the last of those 10 losses, the Greg Williams era came to an end. His replacement was none other than original Pistons Bad Boy Bill Laimbeer, who had joined the team as a special consultant earlier in the year.
The decision to take over the 0-10 Shock was an easy one for Laimbeer: “If we were getting beat by 20-something points per game and I was looking at it going, ‘we’ve got no shot to win games’ that would a lot more difficult to jump in the middle of,” said Liambeer at his introductory news conference. “But they compete, and they haven’t quit. And with a few things here and there, hopefully they can win a few games.”
Under Williams, the Shock’s offense was perimeter oriented. They launched an average of 17.4 three-pointers per game, and visited the free throw line a mere 16.2 times per game; they were consistently beaten on both ends of the glass; and they were outscored by an average of 9.7 points per game.
The differences once Laimbeer took over were striking. Detroit dropped its three-point shooting mentality and immediately took on the persona of its coach crashing the boards, attacking the basket and becoming more aggressive on the defensive side of the ball.
The changes that Laimbeer implemented didn’t take hold immediately as the Miracle beat Detroit 80-59 in his coaching debut. It wasn’t until his fourth game on the sidelines that he picked up his first win – a 71-60 decision over the Sacramento Monarchs. From that point forward, Detroit won nine of 19 games beating a handful of eventual playoff teams along the way including Charlotte, New York and Washington.
Laimbeer wasn’t afraid to shake up the roster either as he traded Wendy Palmer and a 2003 second round draft pick to the Orlando Miracle in exchange for Elaine Powell and a 2003 first round pick on July 7.
“Elaine Powell gives us an experienced guard with 3-point range, that is both quick and athletic, and can play both guard positions,” Laimbeer said. “This trade strengthens our backcourt and allows us to concentrate on improving our frontcourt with our draft picks.”
Although the Shock lost their first game with Powell on the roster, the turnaround was right around the corner. On July 10, Detroit topped the New York Liberty 66-63 beginning a streak in which they won eight of 13 ballgames. Powell stepped into the starting lineup for good on July 20, averaging 9.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists while connecting on 44.6 percent of her field goal attempts with the Shock on the year.
Swin Cash also saw her numbers improve under Laimbeer as she increased her field goal percentage from 36.4 to 42.8, her scoring average from 13.0 to 15.6 and her rebound average from 5.5 to 7.6.
At 9-23, it may not have been the season that the Detroit faithful had been hoping for, but after four years of a never-ending downward spiral the team finally appeared headed in the right direction.
“Anyone who looked at our organization would say we’ve made great strides,” said Laimbeer at the conclusion of the season. Shock fans were hopeful that even greater strides were on the horizon.
2003
Sports fans tend to enter a season with a renewed sense of optimism no matter how poor the previous years turned out. It might be a new free agent acquisition, a draft pick or a coaching change, but hope springs eternal even for the most moribund of franchises. In 2003, the stars aligned in Detroit allowing Shock fans to carry around optimism in spades.
Despite a 2002 season that saw Detroit finish with a franchise-worst 9-23 record, kernels of hope began to pop 10 games into that forgettable season. Former Detroit Pistons Bad Boy Bill Laimbeer took over as head coach following an 0-10 start to the season, and after losing their first three games after the change, the Shock won nine of its last 19 games – a .474 winning percentage. A 9-10 record might not be anything to write home about, but considering the 0-13 beginning to the year it was a significant improvement.
Detroit’s 9-23 season guaranteed them the best shot at the number one pick in the WNBA Draft Lottery, but the ping-pong ball gods had other ideas, as Cleveland and Sacramento’s numbers were drawn ahead of the Shock’s forcing them to settle for the third pick in the draft. Although they were understandably disappointed at the time, Detroit benefited in the long run, selecting Cheryl Ford – best known at the time for being the daughter of NBA great Karl Malone – with the pick, and watching her turn in a Rookie of the Year performance.
The Shock also benefited from the WNBA Dispersal Draft a day earlier, held to disseminate players from the Miami Sol and Portland Fire whose teams had ceased operation during the offseason. Laimbeer tabbed former Sol center Ruth Riley with the first pick in that draft, solidifying his frontcourt for the foreseeable future.
Another key acquisition for the 2003 version of the Shock came in a draft-day trade with the Sacramento Monarchs as Detroit sent the fifth overall pick in the draft, Kara Lawson, to the West Coast in exchange for veteran guard Kedra Holland-Corn.
In hindsight, it seems hard to believe that there was a time during the preseason where the Shock weren’t expected to win the championship. Although Detroit stumbled out of the gate losing to the Charlotte Sting 70-67 in their season opener, they ran off eight straight wins to take a commanding lead in the Eastern Conference. Included in that streak was an overtime win over the 2002 WNBA Champion Los Angeles Sparks, and two wins each against Connecticut and New York.
The Shock stumbled a little bit as July rolled around losing four of six including two more games to those pesky Sting. Detroit followed that up with eight wins over the next nine games pushing their record to 19-6. The one loss during that stretch? To Charlotte.
Shortly thereafter, the Shock clinched a playoff berth, home court throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs and the best record in the WNBA, finishing the season at 25-9. It was the most wins ever for an Eastern Conference team, and one game better than the Sparks regular-season finish of 24-10.
The Shock managed to win in every imaginable fashion during the year – Overtime games? 4-0; Games decided by three-points or less? 6-2; Games decided by 10 points or more? 11-5. Their only Achilles Heal seemed to be the Charlotte Sting – the two seed in the East, whom Detroit could possibly face in the Eastern Conference Finals following an 0-4 effort against them during the season.
First up, though, was the Cleveland Rockers. Detroit was 4-0 against Cleveland during the 2003 season winning the last two meetings by 12 and 15 points respectively. Game 1 was a tight contest however, with Cleveland jumping out to an early lead. But the Shock rallied to take a two-point advantage into the locker room, 46-44.
In the second period, Detroit pulled out to an eight-point lead with 4:54 to go, but a Cleveland run capped by a pair of Chasity Melvin free throws gave the Rockers a one-point lead, 74-73, with 28.9 seconds to go. Following a 20-second time out by the Shock, Detroit had two cracks at the lead before Swin Cash secured an offensive rebound and scored with 4.7 seconds to put the Shock up 75-74. Helen Darling’s turnover with 3.1 seconds remaining gave the ball back to Detroit, and Elaine Powell made one of two free throws for the eventual margin of victory as Helen Darling’s half-court heave with no time remaining missed its mark.
Rather than fade away following the disappointing loss, the Rockers jumped all over Detroit in Game 2, leading by double-digits for most of the game as the Shock never led in the seven-point loss.
Facing elimination in Game 3, the Shock finally played like the No. 1 seed, leading by 13 points with less than eight minutes gone in the first half. The lead at the half was 18 points, and the Rockers got no closer than 11 the rest of the way, giving Detroit its first-ever playoff-series win.
In the other first-round Eastern Conference series, the Connecticut Sun dispatched with the Charlotte Sting two games to none.
The Shock made quick work of the Sun in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals taking the lead for good on a pair of Barbara Farris free throws with 12:08 to go in the first and leading by double-digits for most of the game. Connecticut cut Detroit’s lead to six with 1:07 to go, but the Shock scored the final four points of the game for a 73-63 win.
Although Detroit led by double-figures in the first half of Game 2, Connecticut proved to be a difficult team to put away as they erased an 11-point halftime deficit to take a two-point lead, 64-62, with 8:57 remaining in regulation. The Sun led by as many as four, with 4:23 to go, but a Holland-Corn three-pointer and an Elaine Powell running jumper gave the lead back to Detroit. A steady parade to the free throw line helped the Shock pull out the six-point win and send them to their first-ever WNBA Finals where they would face the Los Angeles Sparks.
The Sparks’ trip to the Finals didn’t come easily as they lost the first game in each of their two Western Conference series before eventually upending Minnesota and Sacramento on their way to a third straight Finals appearance.
Detroit and Los Angeles finished first and second in the league in points per game during the regular season, but both teams came out flat early in Game 1 of the Finals. DeLisha Milton’s three-pointer with almost three minutes gone in the first were the first points of the game, and the Shock didn’t dent the scoring column until the 15:57 mark in the first with a Ruth Riley free throw which made the score 6-1 LA.
Detroit closed to within one at 13-12 with 11:20 to go before the half, but Los Angeles went on a 27-5 run to lead by 23 with 1:08 before the break. Lisa Leslie’s 14 points in the first paced the Sparks, while Swin Cash led Detroit with just six points. Detroit was never able to reduce the lead below double-digits in the second half as the Sparks cruised to a 75-63 win before their home crowd.
Los Angeles’ easy win in Game 1 had the Sparks thinking sweep and three-peat as Game 2 rolled around at The Palace of Auburn Hills, but this time it was Detroit who jumped out to an early double-digit advantage leading 38-22 at the break.
Los Angeles cut the lead to nine on a Leslie jumper with 14:25 to go in the second, and a Tamecka Dixon lay-up with 8:48 remaining cut the Shock lead to two, 50-48. A Leslie lay-up tied the game at 57 five minutes later, and with 1:28 to go, another Leslie lay-up gave the Sparks a four-point lead.
Coach Laimbeer called a timeout with 1:25 to go and substituted Kedra Holland-Corn for Cheryl Ford – a move which promptly paid dividends as she drained a three-pointer with 1:11 remaining to cut the Los Angeles lead to one, 61-60. The teams traded misses over the next two possessions, and with 12.1 seconds to go, a Leslie foul sent Deanna Nolan to the free throw line. Nolan drained both shots, and Milton missed a 15-footer with time running out as the Shock evened the series at one game apiece.
As the teams filed on to The Palace floor for a deciding Game 3, they were met by a WNBA record 22,076 screaming fans – the first sell-out in Finals history, and the first in the history of the Shock franchise. Detroit once again jumped out to a double-digit lead up 14 with nine minutes gone in the first half. A late Sparks run gave them a short-lived lead, and the Shock took a five-point advantage into the locker room at the break, 42-37.
The Shock extended their lead to 11 on two occasions early in the second, but the teams found themselves tied at 66 with 6:27 to go. Over the next four-plus minutes, neither team led by more than three points, and with 24.8 seconds to go a Milton three cut Detroit’s lead to one. Deanna Nolan and Cheryl Ford each made a pair of free throws down the stretch as the Shock completed their remarkable worst-to-first turnaround with their first WNBA Championship.
Individual accolades abounded as well as Ford was named Rookie of the Year, Laimbeer took home Coach of the Year honors and Riley was named Finals MVP. Ford, Cash and Nolan were also each named to the All-WNBA Second Team.
With four out of five starters still shy of their 25th birthdays, the Shock looked primed for a long run of championship caliber basketball.
2004
It is difficult to say when the thrill of a championship season gives way to the pressures of a repeat. At the time, the 2004 Detroit Shock seemed well-equipped to face the challenge, however, as starters Swin Cash, Cheryl Ford, Deanna Nolan and Ruth Riley had all yet to reach their 25th birthdays. With starting point guard Elaine Powell tipping the age scales at 28-years old, WNBA pundits and fans alike thought that the Shock seemed primed for a long run of championship caliber basketball.
The proverbial “they” were wrong.
The first snag in the plan came on draft day, 2004. Reserve guard Kedra Holland-Corn had expressed a desire to be traded somewhere that she could start, and Laimbeer accommodated that request sending the 5-8 Holland-Corn to the Houston Comets in exchange for two draft picks.
Detroit never came close to finding a replacement for Holland-Corn’s production, especially from long distance – In 2003, Detroit connected on 38.7 percent of its three-pointers, and in 2004, they managed to make just 29.7 percent.
Despite a season-opening 73-60 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars, the Shock never were able to put together any kind of winning streak to distance themselves from their Eastern Conference sisters. On June 9, the Shock were 3-3; on June 29, they were 6-6; on July 12, they were 9-9; on July 30, they were 13-13.
Heading into the Olympic Break, Detroit had never been more than two games below or three games above the .500 mark all season long. At 13-14, the Shock found themselves tied for second in the East, but also just a game ahead of Indiana for sixth place. Only two games separated the first place Liberty from the last place Fever, setting up a 19-day race to the finish once September rolled around.
Detroit had seven games remaining on its schedule following the break, with four of those games against Western Conference competition and four games on the road. A 63-58 home loss to the Mercury to begin the month of September dropped the Shock into a three-way tie for third with Indiana and Connecticut
Four consecutive road games at Charlotte, at Seattle, at Los Angeles and at Phoenix were next up on the docket for Detroit. A win at the Charlotte Coliseum helped Detroit leap-frog the Sting while also giving the Shock the tie-breaker over Charlotte. The next two games on the trip weren’t nearly as kind to Detroit as they dropped an 86-67 decision to the Storm and an 81-63 decision to the Sparks.
As the Shock awoke on the morning of September 11, they found themselves in last place in the East with three games remaining, in danger of becoming the first WNBA Champion to fail to make the playoffs the year after winning the title
Detroit’s playoff aspirations were dealt another blow that same day when Swin Cash injured her knee at Phoenix’s America West Arena. The Shock were able to hold on for the win, 80-72, and even though they were still tied for last place, they were also just a half game out of the fourth and final playoff spot.
On September 14, the Shock played host to the New York Liberty who had fallen on hard times themselves losing three of five after the break. Detroit led by as many as 13 in the first period and took a nine point lead, 42-33, into the locker room, only to watch that lead disappear in the first eight minutes of the second half.
New York tied the game on three occasions in the second, and finally took the lead, 65-64, on a pair of Becky Hammon free throws with 44.3 seconds remaining. Crystal Robinson connected on two free throws of her own with 19.5 second to go giving the Liberty a three-point advantage.
Merlakia Jones missed a three with 8.9 seconds to go for the tie, but Cheryl Ford secured the rebound and passed it out to Deanna Nolan who drained a three-pointer of her own with 2.9 seconds left on the clock. A Vickie Johnson jumper on New York’s final possession missed its mark, and the teams headed to overtime.
The Shock made quick work of the Liberty in the bonus period scoring the first six points and outscoring New York 15-4 in the stanza for the 82-71 win.
Detroit’s season-finale was still five days away, and they needed some help if that game vs. Charlotte was going to have any meaning. The win over New York moved Detroit (16-17) into fourth place, a single percentage point ahead of the Liberty (15-16) and Washington (15-16), but every other team in the East had at least two or three games remaining on their schedules.
The postseason gods were smiling on the Shock as the final day of the season put them in a win-and-your-in scenario with the Sting. Both teams were at 16-17, tied for fourth place. Charlotte looked like the hungrier team early on as they jumped out to a 12-point lead, 16-4, with under six minutes gone in the first, but the Shock went on a late run of their own and took a 27-23 lead into the half.
Detroit scored the first six points of the second period, and never trailed the rest of the way. Charlotte cut the Shock lead to three, 46-43 with 9:55 to go, and to two with 6:25 remaining, 50-48, but a 14-1 Detroit run effectively ended the game sending the Shock to the postseason for the second straight season and the third time in franchise history.
The win over Charlotte and a Mystics loss gave Detroit the three seed in the Eastern Conference where they would face the second seeded New York Liberty opening the three-game series at Joe Louis Arena. New York broke open a tight game midway through the second half turning a three-point lead into a 17-point bulge over a 10-minute stretch cruising to the Game 1 win.
In Game 2 at Madison Square Garden, it was Detroit’s turn to blow open a close game in the second period utilizing a 25-7 run early in the half to even the series at one game apiece.
With 20 minutes of basketball in the books, the Shock appeared well on their way to a second straight appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals as they led the Liberty 37-24 at halftime. Ruth Riley scored the first points of the second half to give Detroit a 15-point advantage, but New York went on a 17-6 run immediately afterward to cut the lead to four with 14:34 to play.
An Elane Baranova three-point bankshot tied the game at 57 with 2:15 left in regulation, and a Vickie Johnson three-ball with 1:36 to go gave New York a two-point lead. The Liberty still led by two as the game clock nosed under 20 seconds, but Deanna Nolan drove the lane for a lay-up to tie the game with 12.1 remaining. A defensive stop by the Shock, and the teams would be headed for overtime.
Unfortunately for the Detroit faithful, New York’s Bethany Donaphin nailed a nine-foot jumper off of a broken in bounds play with 0.5 seconds to go ending the Shock season prematurely.
The promise of a young championship caliber team never full materialized in 2004 for Detroit, and the injury to team captain Swin Cash ultimately cost the Shock in the postseason. However, that “young nucleus” was still intact, and given that no team in the East seemed ready to pull away from the field, a few tweaks of the roster could have the Shock back in the driver’s seat in 2005.
2005
The 2004 Shock season left a bad taste in the mouths of Detroit fans, players and coaches alike. Despite the team’s .500 regular-season record, a run to the WNBA Finals was still a possibility until an injury to All-Star forward Swin Cash with two games left on the schedule. Without their team captain, Detroit was still able to push the New York Liberty to three games in their first-round playoff series, but that was where their title defense came to a halt.
Heading into the 2005 season, the jury was out on when Cash would return to the Detroit lineup. The team was hopeful that she would be ready for the first game of the regular season, but she wound up missing the first 12 games of the year, and was never at 100 percent the entire summer.
Still, the Shock jumped out to a 4-0 start to the year thanks to the play of several less heralded players. Through those first four games, starting point guard Elaine Powell averaged 9.3 points and connected on 60.0 percent of her field goal attempts; rookie Kara Braxton had two double-figure scoring games and made 55.6 percent of her shots; and Deanna Nolan recorded the fourth triple-double in WNBA history, and set the Shock single-game scoring record with 34 points.
Unfortunately, that four-game winning streak was the only winning streak of any kind the Shock would have until the end of July. From June 8 through July 24, Detroit went 4-12, dropping their overall mark to 8-12 and into fifth place in the Eastern Conference, two-and-a-half games back of the Washington Mystics and the four seed.
Cash returned to the Shock lineup on July 5, but she was still obviously feeling the after effects of her injury. Her explosive drives to the basket that typically resulted in an easy bucket, a trip to the free throw line or both, were a thing of the past. Her field goal percentage was under 40 percent for most of the season, and after averaging 6.8 trips to the free line per game from 2002-04, she walked to the charity stripe just 1.5 times per game in 2005.
Shock Head Coach Bill Laimbeer made two trades during the season to bolster the Shock rotation, the first of which came on June 29 when he acquired Plenette Pierson from the Phoenix Mercury in exchange for Andrea Stinson and Detroit’s second round draft pick in 2006. In her first game in a Shock uniform, Pierson scored 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Her field goal percentage hovered around .500 for much of the season, and she proved to be Detroit’s most adept player at getting to the free throw line averaging 4.2 trips to the charity stripe despite playing less than 20 minutes per game.
The second trade came on July 30, and was designed to address, among other things, Detroit’s limited three-point shooting. In 2003, the Shock led the WNBA nailing 38.7 percent of their three-point field goal attempts. In 2004, that percentage fell to 29.7. At the time of the Smith trade, Detroit was making a respectable 33.6 percent of its long-range attempts, but the Shock were taking just 6.4 three balls per game while the average WNBA team attempted 11.9.
The lack of a consistent three-point threat allowed opposing defenses to sag in on Detroit’s post players, which was having a profound impact on their shooting percentages – Ruth Riley was connecting on just 34.7 percent of her field goal attempts at the time of the trade, and Cheryl Ford was making 42.9 percent of her shots. As a team, Detroit was making just 41.8 percent of its two-point field goal attempts at the time of the trade, compared to the 46.2 percent they shot during their championship season.
Unfortunately, the trade did not seem to have any overall impact on the team’s offense. It did, however, take the Shock back on the winning path as back-to-back wins on July 30 and 31 gave them their first winning streak in nearly two months, and wins over New York, Charlotte, Minnesota and San Antonio in mid-August improved the team’s mark to 14-14 – a half game back of fourth in the East.
Despite the rocky middle stretch of the season, Detroit was rewarded with the selection of four players to the Eastern Conference All-Star Team – Cash, Ford, Nolan and Riley. Smith’s addition gave the Shock five All-Stars, and on August 9, Detroit became the first team in WNBA history to start a lineup featuring five current All-Stars.
At 14-14, and with six games remaining on the schedule, the Shock had its postseason future in its own hands as two games remained with the Washington Mystics whom Detroit was battling, along with New York, for the final two playoff berths.
The Shock lost road games to Phoenix and Los Angeles to fall to 14-16 heading into its August 21 meeting wit Washington, but the Mystics were on a four-game skid of their own and owned a 14-16 record as well. Detroit posted a 66-52 win over Washington as they held the Mystics to 31.4 percent shooting from the field, giving them a one-game lead over D.C. and a leg-up in the tie-breaker between the clubs. With three games remaining on both team’s schedules, the season-ending August 27 game at the MCI Center looked like it could be a winner-take-all affair.
The Mystics picked up an 82-69 win over the Liberty on August 23 while Detroit suffered a difficult defeat at the hands of the last-place Charlotte Sting that same evening to drop the Shock one game back of Washington. Detroit righted the ship on August 25 with a win over the Indiana Fever putting pressure on the Mystics to upend the Connecticut Sun one day later – a Mystics loss to Connecticut would clinch a playoff berth for the Shock because of Detroit’s better record against in-conference opposition, rendering the result of the teams’ season-ending meeting moot.
A 24-4 Sun run to close out the first half effectively ended Washington’s season as Connecticut cruised to an 81-47 win over the Mystics. The Shock rested a number of its starters in the season-finale, which Washington won 76-67.
Most four seeds with 16-18 records might be intimidated by facing a one seed that posted an Eastern Conference record 26-8 mark during the regular season, but not Detroit as the Shock had won three of four games against the Sun during the regular season.
Connecticut ignored the regular-season results, however, and jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first half of Game 1 of their first-round playoff series. The Shock rallied early in the second to take a three-point lead, 49-46, with 14:25 to play, but a Katie Douglas bucket capped an 11-2 Sun surge to give Connecticut a lead it would never relinquish as they eventually ran away with a 73-62 win.
Game 2 at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena played out much like the first with the Sun jumping out to an early double-digit lead, carrying an 11-point advantage into the locker room. A Lindsay Whalen jumper gave the Sun its largest lead of the night, 54-40, with 12:53 left on the clock.
Detroit clawed back into the game, however, closing to within three at 70-67 with 2:19 remaining. Unfortunately for the Shock faithful, it was the last points Detroit would score as Taj McWilliams-Franklin scored the final five points of the game for Connecticut sending the Shock home for the year.
2006
With 14 seconds remaining in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, Katie Smith hit the jumper that effectively gave the Detroit Shock their second WNBA title in four seasons. It was a remarkable end to a remarkable season that finally saw the Shock live up to the potential that media pundits, fans and even Head Coach Bill Laimbeer had been trumpeting for the past three years.
In a preseason conference call with the media, Laimbeer explained, “I like our team. But it doesn’t matter if I like them or not. It’s up to the players, and we talked to them a lot about that this year. This is the year the players have to stand up . . . and they know it, and they’re going to do all the talking this year.”
Despite first-round exits in each of the two previous postseasons, Laimbeer wasn’t the only person with confidence in the Shock’s ability. Detroit was a unanimous pick by ESPN’s preseason prognosticators to win the title with their starting five garnering much of the early attention.
“The Shock are huge inside,” ESPN.com’s Michelle Voepel stated in April of 2006. “Detroit has slashing ability, strong finishers, monster rebounders, good experience. Swin Cash appears to be back fully healthy. Katie Smith still can be the most dangerous perimeter scoring threat in the league. Deanna Nolan at any time can look like the WNBA's most athletic player. Cheryl Ford is so hard to stop in the paint.”
All five starters that ended the 2005 campaign in Detroit were back, but the reserve corps looked much different. Elaine Powell, a starter for the Shock for most of the 2002-2005 seasons, was lost to Chicago in the expansion draft and Barbara Farris signed with the New York Liberty as a free agent. Sheila Lambert wasn’t resigned, and Andrea Stinson announced her retirement.
Kedra Holland-Corn, who was a member of the 2003 Shock team, was signed as a free agent, and two international players in Sabrina Palie (France) and Irina Osipova (Russia) were also added to the mix. Laimbeer also made two trades during the preseason acquiring Jacqueline Batteast from Minnesota in exchange for Ambrosia Anderson, whom Detroit chose with the 17th overall pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft, and Angelina Williams from the Phoenix Mercury in exchange for two 2007 third round draft picks.
Although the Shock finished the 2006 preseason with a 2-1 record, the quality of opposition during those exhibition games was less than stellar. A 77-58 win over Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun Arena came against a starting Sun five that consisted of Jamie Carey, Jessica Brungo, Le’Coe Willingham, Megan Mahoney and Asjha Jones. Those players would combine for all of three starts during the regular season.
Next came an 85-84 loss to Phoenix in Albany, New York. Rookie of the Year candidate Cappie Pondexter got the start for the Mercury, but the rest of the starters that night – Tamicha Jackson, Ann Strother, Sandora Irvin and Angelina Williams – played in a 18 combined games for Phoenix during the regular season. One of them, Williams, would get traded to the Shock several days later.
Detroit finished the preseason with an 85-70 win over Houston. Once again, the caliber of competition offered by the Comets was not quite what it would be during the regular season as Roneeka Hodges and Kayte Christensen both got the starting nod in the exhibition game. Christensen was cut prior to the start of the regular season, while Hodges played a key role as a reserve and sport starter for Houston.
Doubts about the Shock continued to creep into conversation early in the season as Detroit dropped its season opener to Indiana despite holding the Fever to 26.8 percent shooting from the field. Wins over Minnesota and New York sandwiched around a nationally-televised overtime win on the road at a full-strength Connecticut had seemingly righted the ship, but on June 10 the Shock awoke with a 4-4 mark on the season – the same record they posted through eight games in 2005.
The good news for Detroit at that point was that six of their first eight games, and all four losses, came on the road, and two of the losses were to Western Conference teams. If the team could win a significant portion of its home games and take care of business in the East, a high playoff seed should still be theirs for the taking.
The biggest concern for the coaching staff at that point was the team’s defense. Thankfully, following the 14-point road loss to the Phoenix Mercury that dropped the Shock to the .500 mark, the team had nearly a week off before its next game. The work the team did that week paid dividends immediately in a 71-63 win at The Palace vs. the Indiana Fever.
“We talked about it after the Phoenix game how we were going to practice really hard this week and get back to being a hard-nosed basketball team,” said Laimbeer, “and I think they showed it tonight.”
Cheryl Ford echoed those sentiments – “I think it started with practice this week, because we went so hard the first couple days. We've been waiting on a game where we play forty minutes hard and playing each possession hard.
The win over the Fever began a streak of six consecutive victories for Detroit including five wins by double-figures. At the All-Star break, the Shock were 13-6 and in second place in the East – a game back of the Sun and a half game ahead of Indiana.
The Shock placed three players on the Eastern Conference All-Star Team – Cheryl Ford, Deanna Nolan and Katie Smith. Ford was putting up MVP-like numbers at the midway point of the season averaging 13.6 points and a league-best 11.7 rebounds per game. Nolan was averaging 13.2 points and 3.6 assists per game, and Smith, in her first season as a point guard, was averaging 11.7 points and 3.5 assists per game while ranking in the top three in the league in free throw percentage.
Meanwhile Ruth Riley was connecting on 52.4 percent of her field goal attempts, and Swin Cash was regaining her pre-injury form averaging 11.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
During the All-Star festivities, Smith was honored as a member of the WNBA’s All-Decade Team as voted on by players, fans, executives and members of the media. She also became, along with Connecticut’s Margo Dydek, the first player to win an All-Star game as a member of both the Western and Eastern Conference teams as the East picked up its first win ever in the WNBA’s mid-season classic, 98-82.
After the All-Star break, Detroit won five of its first six games to run its record to 18-7 while Indiana split its next six. Both teams, however, were playing follow the leader as the Connecticut Sun followed up a post-All-Star loss to the Sacramento Monarchs with 11 wins in a row. That order of finish would hold up at season’s end with Connecticut, Detroit and Indiana earning the one, two and three seeds in the Eastern Conference playoffs respectively.
While the seeding of the teams may not have changed down the stretch, there were some individual honors still to be sorted out – most notably, Cheryl Ford’s pursuit of the league single-season rebound record. It took her until the last game of the season, but the fourth-year forward finished the year with 363 boards – a new WNBA benchmark.
There was also still some tinkering with the roster still to be done as Laimbeer signed former Shock guard Elaine Powell to a free agent contract on July 25 two days after the Chicago Sky waived her.
As the postseason began, history was not on the Shock’s side. The team in the WNBA that had posted the best scoring differential during the regular season had won the championship in each of the league’s first nine years. In 2006, it was the Sun who placed that marker on the table.
Before the Shock could face off against Connecticut, however, they had to do away with the Fever. Despite the fact that Detroit owned a better overall record than Indiana, the Shock were less than heavy favorites in their best two-out-of-three playoff series. The teams had split their four regular season meetings with the home team emerging victorious each time. As the higher seed, Detroit would play the series-opener at Indiana’s Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Shock led by two at the half and by three after the third period before finishing Game 1 on a 21-12 run. Nolan led all scorers with 18 points and Smith chipped in with 17. Ford posted another workmanlike double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Game 2 in the series moved back to The Palace of Auburn Hills where the Fever’s Tamika Whitmore turned into a one-woman wrecking crew. Through three quarters, Indiana led 64-63, with Whitmore accounting for 31 of the Fever’s points. Thankfully, the Shock were able to clamp down on the rest of the Fever roster as they outscored Indiana 35-19 in the fourth quarter to sweep the series.
Whitmore finished the night with a WNBA playoff-record 41 points on 15-of-25 shooting from the field. Cheryl Ford posted another double-double with a team-high 23 points and 10 boards while Plenette Pierson poured in 20 points off the bench. The win set up an Eastern Conference Finals match-up between Detroit and its biggest conference rival, the Connecticut Sun, who swept the Washington Mystics in the first round.
Connecticut may have posted a better record on the year than Detroit, but the Shock had all the confidence in the world entering the series having swept Connecticut in the three regular season meetings between the teams. The Sun were also without the services of Katie Douglas to start the series as she continued to battle back from a hairline fracture in her right foot.
As the lower seed in the series, the Shock hosted Game 1 at The Palace and once again used a fourth-quarter burst to put a playoff game out of reach. Trailing 49-48 heading into the fourth quarter, Detroit outscored Connecticut 22-10 in the fourth period coming from behind to take a 1-0 advantage. Ford grabbed a WNBA record 23 rebounds and Nolan scored a game-high 21 points.
Game 2 saw the teams return to the Mohegan Sun, and it also saw the return of Douglas to the Connecticut lineup. Detroit trailed once again heading into the fourth quarter, 60-55, but couldn’t muster a rally despite a Shock playoff-record 27 points from Nolan. Douglas scored just six points on the night, but the Sun made 22 free throws to 13 for the Shock accounting for the nine-point margin of victory.
The deciding Game 3 had all the makings of a classic with two rivals battling for a trip to the WNBA Finals, but the Shock turned the game into a laugher in the third quarter extending a nine-point halftime lead to 20 points at the end of three quarters, cruising to a 22-point win. Detroit held Connecticut to 18 points in the second half while Cash and Smith each scored 16 points to lead four Shock players in double figures. Taj McWilliams-Franklin led the Sun with 12 points on six of eight shooting, but Detroit clamped on the rest of the Connecticut roster forcing them to miss 45 of 60 shots.
The excitement of the team’s second trip to the WNBA Finals in four seasons was balanced out by the reality of the opponent on the marquee – the Sacramento Monarchs. The Monarchs were the defending WNBA Champions and had beaten the Shock 10 out of the last 14 meeting each by double figures for an average margin of defeat at 13.3 points per loss.
Thankfully, the Shock owned home-court advantage because of their better regular season record. That meant that Detroit would host Games 1, 2 and 5, although Game 5, if it were necessary, would be played at Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit because The Palace of Auburn Hills was booked on that date for a Maria Carey concert.
The cliché reads “A series doesn’t really start until the road team wins.” That being the case, the 2006 WNBA Final started immediately as the Monarchs wrested home court away from the Shock with a resounding 24-point victory. Ford’s game-high 25 points and Smith’s 21 provided plenty of offensive firepower for the Shock, but it was the D that let Detroit down as the Monarchs connected on 53.0 percent of their shots including 10-of-19 (52.6%) from three-point range in the 95-71 win.
After the game, Smith summed the Shock’s effort up with three simple words – “not very pretty.”
Still, one game does not make a series, and Detroit had the opportunity to even up the series two days later. Unfortunately, in the early going it looked like more of the same as Detroit trailed 42-33 at the half. The Shock cut the lead to six at the end of the third quarter, and then used an 8-0 run to open the fourth before outscoring Sacramento 25-9 in the final frame to even the series at one game apiece. The Shock’s defense put in an appearance holding the Monarchs to 32.8 percent shooting from the field and just 3-of-15 (20.0%) from long distance while Nolan’s 21 points paced the Shock offense.
The series moved to ARCO Arena for Games 3 and 4, where the Shock had struggled over the years. Those struggles continued as the Monarchs blew open a close game in the second and third quarters outscoring Detroit 52-32 over that span. Sacramento forced Detroit into 23 turnovers while committing just 11 of their own in winning Game 3, 89-69, and moving to within one game of their second consecutive league championship.
It is rare when the most talked about aspect of a playoff series comes between games, but just like John Elway has “The Drive” and Teresa Weatherspoon has “The Shot,” Shock Head Coach Bill Laimbeer has now become synonymous with “The Mic.”
The WNBA requires its coaches to wear a microphone during nationally televised games, and the Finals is no exception. Laimbeer has never had an issue wearing a microphone, nor did he have a problem wearing one during the Finals. But the microphone that he was given during the championship series lacked an on/off switch – a standard feature on the mics he usually wears. This meant that any and all conversations that he had with coaches and players, even those he wished to keep private, were available for ESPN2’s talent to hear, broadcast and comment on.
Reports from those watching the games from the comfort of their own homes soon reached the Shock braintrust – the EPSN2 broadcasters were indeed airing conversations that an on/off switch would have prevented, and they were not painting the Shock in a positive light.
“I just hear from our family and friends back home that, ‘Boy, ESPN is killing you guys,’ “ Laimbeer said the day after Game 2. “ And (ESPN2’s talent) are just trashing you left and right.’ Not only me, but also some of our players on our ball club. They're using their own tool to create their own story. That shouldn't happen.”
Laimbeer also questioned the equality of the whistles being doled out following his team’s Game 3 loss. “Our frustration is starting to build. We're tired of (there) being a double standard on the whistle. Players are becoming frustrated, and we expect – no, we demand, that we get the same calls as the other team.”
He added, “Did the referees lose the game for us? Absolutely not. We lost it for ourselves by our frustration creeping in, and we lost our brain at times. That’s part of who we are. But we demand that we get the same handchecks, that we get the same cheap calls that go against us. Am I whining? No. I'm stating a fact.”
Although there was certainly some truth to Laimbeer’s words, they were also a classic case of establishing an “Us Against The World” mentality. With Detroit’s poor record against the Monarchs over the years, and the bad taste of a 20-point drubbing in their mouths, it was time for the coaching staff to employ every trick in the book.
Regardless of what it was that eventually spurred the Shock into action, it finally began to work in the second quarter of Game 4. Trailing by four heading into the second period, Detroit’s defense limited the Monarchs to 11 points in the final 10 minutes of the first half and went into the locker room with a six-point lead.
The second half brought with it more of the same stifling defense with Sacramento managing just 13 points in the third quarter and a microscopic two points in the fourth. After scoring 26 points in the first quarter, the Monarchs barely matched that same 26 over the final three. Katie Smith led all scorers with 22 points, and the Shock held Sacramento to 31.7 percent shooting on the night.
All of which set up Game 5 at Joe Louis Arena. Perhaps not the home court advantage that the Shock had hoped for, but after the team’s Game 4 win, Laimbeer boasted “We’re going down to play in downtown Detroit, in Joe Louis and we’re going to pack that place. We’re going to have a ton of people in the upper rafters screaming, hollering, yelling for the Detroit Shock to win the basketball game.”
And he was right. The line for tickets extended around the arena hours before tip-off, and eventually 19,671 Shock fans packed the Joe – the second largest crowd in WNBA Finals history. Now if the play on the court could match the enthusiasm in the stands, the Shock would be hoisting their second championship banner in four years.
A tightly contested first quarter saw the Monarchs take an 18-17 lead into the second 10 minutes of play. However, they scored the first six points of the second stanza and went into the break with an eight-point lead, 44-36. The Shock struggled offensively in the first half making just 36.4 percent of their shots. Nolan in particular was misfiring making just 4 of 13 shots before the half.
Wherever Nolan misplaced her shot in the first 20 minutes, she found it in the locker room at halftime. The Shock opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run with Nolan accounting for four of those points. She would go on to score 10 points in the first 5:07 of the period as the Shock opened up a five point lead and the quarter came to a close.
Detroit opened the fourth quarter in much the same way it began the third – by scoring 10 of the first 12 points of the frame giving them a 13-point lead with 6:12 to go. The Monarchs weren’t about to go quietly, however, as they turned up the defensive pressure sandwiching three Detroit turnovers and two missed shots around a pair of Plenette Pierson free throws over the next three-plus minutes.
Thankfully, the Shock were bending, but not breaking on the other end of the floor and a Katie Smith free throw with 2:14 to go pushed Detroit’s lead to nine, 75-66. Monarchs’ guard Kristin Haynie and Smith traded baskets and as the clock dipped under a minute to go, the Shock were still up by nine.
Haynie’s driving lay-up and subsequent free throw cut the lead to six, and Nicole Powell converted a Detroit turnover into a three-pointer with 33 seconds to go. The Shock lead was now three with less than 30 seconds to go.
Fittingly, Detroit put the ball in the hands of the all-time leading scorer in US women’s professional basketball history – Katie Smith. With the shot clock at 14, Smith stepped away from her defender nailing the jumper that would provide the finishing touches for the 2006 WNBA Season – a season that finally saw the Shock live up to their tremendous potential.
Nolan was named the MVP of the Finals after leading the Shock in scoring for the series and pouring in a game-high 24 in the decisive Game 5. It was the second championship for Nolan, Cash, Ford, Riley, Powell and Holland-Corn, and the first WNBA title for Smith who had previously won two championships in the ABL.
Of course in professional sports, the first question about a team that wins a championship is ‘can they do it again? Can they repeat?’ We’ll have to wait ‘til next year to find out.
If you are interested in reading more about the history of the Shock, get a copy of the book "Worst to First, or, a 'Shock'ing tale of women's basketball in Motown" by Vince Prygoski. The book can be ordered at http://www.outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?ISBN=1598002767.
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