I will be the first to admit that the decision to write this was born purely out of the mind of a frustrated fan. The Shock lost game one of their Eastern Conference Finals playoff series against the Indiana Fever tonight by a final of 75-65. In fact, the game was far closer than the final score my indicate; though, the WNBA seems to make things an uphill climb for everyone. Tonight the Shock died at the free throw line — Detroit shot 8-for-17 at the stripe, whereas Indiana went 26-for-33. While the Shock did create a large disparity in the number of fouls that was mainly self-inflicted, the officials were less than kind to the Shock — in several straight occurrences, no fouls were visible, yet the whistles blew without restraint.
Still, the troubles by the Shock should be less of a big deal. After all, they were largely outplayed by the Fever, yet remained close, only to get defeated at the free throw line. Yet one game and they already face elimination — that is the joke of the WNBA Playoffs. With the game still within two possessions, the announcer for ESPN proclaimed that while this series will not be as aesthetically pleasing as the Mercury-Stars series in the West, it will be a much more competitive intense series. That is when I wondered whether this even counts as a series. Can three games really become that intense? Just as you start to sink your teeth into the matchup, it is nearly over. Certainly the Fever and Shock are bitter rivals, with a physical style of play and close games that go to the wire almost every time. But the WNBA has chosen to make the series almost laughable. The Shock made several mistakes and lost a close game in game one and now face elimination. That in its own right is a traveshamockery.
Yet the short three game series is not enough. The league also decided that the team with home-court advantage should start the series on the road, which means that even if they do their fair share and win all home games, they face elimination by the second game of the series. Even your basic five-game series would eliminate this problem, providing the league decided to start the series where the home-court advantage was, the way playoffs were meant to be. A few unlucky breaks in the current format has the ability to knock you straight out of contention, which is not the goal of playoff series. If the league truly wanted the “every second counts” mentality, they would go the route of the NCAA with one-and-done matchups.
Of course, the final blow in the format is just plain poor scheduling. While starting at the lower seed’s arena may cut travel costs negligibly in the end, it simply takes away from the integrity of the series. Games two and three in the Shock’s series are a back-to-back. While this may be acceptable during the regular season, cutting out a day of rest makes no sense in the playoffs. After all, the playoff series are supposed to find the better team, which means they have to grind it out over several games, making adjustments in between. If the Shock should win game two and can avoid fatigue, the advantage going into game three is more than noticeable — the Fever would essentially have morning shootaround to make adjustments from the night before.
While the individual games may be intense and entertaining, the WNBA has plenty to learn in the area of marketing and good sporting sense. As the playoffs fly by with their short, unreasonably scheduled series, most are unaware of the postseason all together. The WNBA needs to make some adjustments if they want their postseason to be taken seriously. Otherwise, it will simply continue to be a novelty. A pleasant time of year when one team is named the champion while the rest of the world takes little notice from their picnics and end-of-summer activities. Until the format changes, how about this for a new slogan: “The WNBA Playoffs: Yes, We Have Air Conditioning!” or perhaps even “The Coolest Thing Besides Hockey.”
