Silver Stars-Shock Preview

By MATT BEARDMORE
Posted May 18 2012 5:52PM

The San Antonio Silver Stars were the only team to defeat the WNBA champions in the postseason last year, but that doesn't mean they expect to open 2012 as one of the Western Conference favorites.

New Tulsa coach Gary Kloppenburg also has realistic expectations after the Shock finished with the league's worst record in each of the last two seasons.

San Antonio goes for its seventh consecutive victory in this series when it visits Tulsa on Saturday night.

After finishing fourth in the conference last season at 18-16, the Silver Stars pushed Minnesota to a deciding third game in the West semifinals before falling in that round for a third consecutive year.

San Antonio last won a playoff series in 2008 when it was swept in the WNBA finals by the Detroit Shock, who would move to Tulsa prior to the 2010 season.

"I'm not going to sit there and say we're going to go through and just beat everybody and walk into the WNBA finals," said point guard Becky Hammon, who led the Silver Stars with 15.9 points per game and a career-best 5.8 assists last season. "... What I can say is we're going to fight and we're going to get better every week."

While Hammon and forward Sophia Young are two of the best in the league at their positions, the Silver Stars have plenty of room for improvement. Five of their players on the opening night roster will have two years or fewer of WNBA experience, including fifth overall pick Shenise Johnson, a guard out of Miami.

"We're going to take our learning lumps I think early, but hopefully we can get on the same page as fast as possible," Hammon said. "We should be playing really solid basketball at the end of the year."

The Shock, who finished 3-31 last season and are 9-59 since relocating, can't make that claim.

"We just want to win a few games," said Kloppenburg, who takes over for interim coach Teresa Edwards after spending the last four seasons as an assistant with the Indiana Fever.

If that's going to happen, the Shock will have to do so without last year's leading scorer and rebounder Tiffany Jones (former Jackson), who will sit out this season as she expects her first child.

Tulsa will also be without second-year Australian center Liz Cambage until after the London Olympics.

Without those two, fourth overall pick Glory Johnson out of Tennessee could make an even bigger impact down low for the Shock.

Kloppenburg is also expecting big production from rookie guard Riquna Williams, Shenise Johnson's former teammate with the Hurricanes.

"She kind of reminds me a little bit of Cappie (Pondexter) the way she can just elevate from the 3-point and shoot it and can get to the rim," he said. "... (Riquna has) had an impact on our team so far. So we're excited about our rookies and what they can bring to the team this year."

The Shock also like the addition of veteran point guard Temeka Johnson, who was acquired from Phoenix for center Andrea Riley.

The Silver Stars' offseason acquisition of center Tangela Smith, seventh in WNBA history with 2,318 rebounds, should help them after they were outrebounded by a league-worst 5.7 boards per game in 2011.

San Antonio is undefeated in this series since a 75-70 home loss July 16, 2010.

Silver Stars beat Shock 88-79 in season opener

Posted May 19 2012 11:57PM

TULSA, Okla. (AP) Sophia Young scored 20 points and Shemeka Christon added 16, including a 3-pointer with 46.3 seconds remaining, to help the San Antonio Silver Stars open their season with an 88-79 victory against the Tulsa Shock on Saturday night.

Becky Hammon scored 17 for San Antonio and Danielle Robinson added 11.

``I thought (Christon) stepped up big in the fourth quarter and in the last stretch,'' said San Antonio coach Dan Hughes.

Tulsa led 77-73 with 2:48 to play but San Antonio went on a 14-2 run over the final 2:33.

``We have a young team and it's going to be a work in progress,'' Tulsa coach Gary Kloppenburg said. ``Our kids played extremely hard and gave themselves a chance to win. We just couldn't execute at both ends in the last 10 minutes.''

Temeka Johnson led Tulsa with 21 points. Ivory Latta was next with 14. Riquna Williams has 12 points and fellow rookie Glory Johnson had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

San Antonio made just seven baskets in the first period, but finished strong, shooting 55.4 percent from the field overall.

``We were having trouble with spacing,'' Hughes said. ``We finally started moving the ball and that's when we got effective in our spacing and cutting to the baskets. Once we got that, we were able to get our perimeter shooters more space.''

Temeka Johnson, acquired from Phoenix in an offseason trade, had nine assists to set a franchise record.

We didn't come up with the win, but we did a lot of great things tonight,'' Johnson said. ``We're a young team, we played three rookies. We know we need to do better. And we will get better.''

• Silver Stars: --
• Shock: --

• Silver Stars: --
• Shock: --

• Lead Changes: 9
• Times Tied: 12

• Arena: BOK Center, Tulsa, OK
• Officials: #18 Kurt Walker, #34 Maj Forsberg, #42 Roy Gulbeyan
• Attendance: 7509
• Duration: 2:05