Sky Sign Chinese National Team Center Chen Nan Through 2010 Season

CHICAGO, April 28, 2009 – Chicago Sky Head Coach and General Manager Steven Key announced today that the team has signed 2009 Women’s Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) Most Valuable Player, Chen Nan, through the 2010 season. Per team policy, terms of the contracts have not been released. Chen, a 6’5” center, will add even more height to an already big Sky lineup that includes 6’6” center Sylvia Fowles and 6’2” forward Candice Dupree.

Twenty-six-year-old Chen, began playing for the Chinese National Team at age 16, and became a WCBA rookie at age 18. Chen currently plays for team BaYi Stationery of the WCBA, and was named 2009 WCBA MVP averaging 23.1 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game. Chen a four-time WCBA Champion was named 2003 All-WCBA Center of the Year.

Chen has represented the Chinese Women’s National Basketball team for 10 years, appearing in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, 2006 World Championship in Brazil, and most recently in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing where she averaged 14.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game. The dynamic and versatile play of Chen Nan helped lead the Women’s Chinese National team to its best Olympic finish-ever, placing fourth overall.

“It was my dream to play in the WNBA and now as a member of the Chicago Sky my dream has come true,” said center Chen Nan. “The WNBA is the top league for women’s basketball, and hosts the best players in the world. I know it will be a challenge, but I am glad to be playing for the Sky. I am committed to assisting the Sky in any way possible to become a championship team. I’m excited to be on the same team as Sylvia , during the 2008 Beijing Olympics I learned she is an extremely aggressive and dominant player in the paint, I am a lucky dog playing aside her. The Sky to me has been something that I’ve liked since I was young, to me it represents having no limits – the Sky has no limits! ”

“The addition of Nan is a bold and exciting move,” said Head Coach and General Manager Steven Key. “Nan has incredible experience in playing for both the Chinese National Team and in the WBCA, she is prepared, skilled, and ready to compete with the best in the world, which is why we are excited to have her as a member of the Sky. At 6’5” her addition will add to the overall height and size of our front court, which we need to challenge the best in the WNBA. Her ability to shoot from the outside as well as drive to the basket is exceptional for a player of her size. There’s no doubt that Nan dramatically adds to our athleticism and versatility which we must have to build a championship team.”

Nan is the second international player for the Sky, and will arrive in Chicago in early May in time to report to Sky training camp, which begins on May 17, with media day on May 18. The Sky season opens on June 6 at Minnesota. The Sky’s home opener is on June 12 against the Atlanta Dream at 7:30pm at the UIC Pavilion.

Source From : WNBA.com

FEVER SIGNS THREE-TIME WNBA ALL-STAR TAMECKA DIXON

Three-time WNBA All-Star and one of the league's all-time leading scorers, Tamecka Dixon has signed a free agent contract with the Indiana Fever. Dixon, who has played in the WNBA since its inception in 1997, is 21st on the league's career scoring list with 3,368 points. She has played the last three seasons with the Houston Comets. Per team policy, terms of the contract are not disclosed.

Dixon spent her first nine years in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks, winning championships with that team in 2001 and 2002. She was on the Western Conference All-Star team in 2001, 2002 and 2003. She was selected to start for the West in 2003, replacing the injured Cynthia Cooper. Dixon is among the WNBA's career top 10 in assists (eighth) with 924 and is 20th in league history in steals with 342.

The Indiana Fever celebrates its 10th anniversary season in 2009, opening the summer season at Atlanta on Saturday, June 6 (7:00 p.m.), and hosting the Minnesota Lynx on June 7 (7:00 p.m.) – exactly 10 years after the franchise was founded (June 7, 1999). Led by Griffith, two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time WNBA All-Star Tamika Catchings, Olympic silver medalist Tully Bevilaqua, 2008 WNBA Most Improved Player Ebony Hoffman and two-time WNBA All-Stars Katie Douglas and Tammy Sutton-Brown, the Fever bids for its fifth consecutive playoff appearance in 2009. Season tickets are available at FeverBasketball.com, or by calling (317) 917-2500.

Source From : WNBA.com

More Farmar on Sunday?

Farmar has outperformed Fisher in the series.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Derek Fisher was able to pull a full 82-game season out of his 34-year-old body this year, but the Playoffs have made the Lakers co-captain age like Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin in the seance scene in Beetlejuice.

After averaging 9.9 points on 42.4 percent from the field and 39.7 percent from three to go with 2.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in the regular season, Fisher's production dipped to 9.4 points on 43.8 and 31.3 with 2.0 boards and 3.0 dimes against Utah and then flopped to 5.2 points on 29.4 percent from the field, seven percent from three with 1.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists.

In the mean time, Houston's starting point guard, 24-year-old Aaron Brooks, is averaging 18.8 points on 48.1 percent shooting and 37.5 percent from deep to go with 2.3 boards and 2.5 assists.

Before Fisher served a suspension for Game 3 for leveling Luis Scola in Game 2, we wondered if the Lakers were better off without Fisher.

Now, two days before Sunday's win-or-go-home Game 7, it appears Phil Jackson might be wondering that too.

"We really liked some of our matchups that we’ve had out there," Jackson said, referring to Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown. "They’re working well with us.

"Fish has had a little bit of a problem with Brooks, but we like his direction out there to start a game. He didn’t have a feel for it in this last game, he didn’t shoot the ball the way we wanted it or he can shoot the ball. Jordan got us going, we liked the other matchups we had on their other guards."

Then came the kicker that Jackson snuck in before jumping to the next question and left reporters wondering if they really just heard him say it:

"We’re going to have to play guys on Sunday that earn the minutes rather than just our regular rotation, so there may be a change."

Ever since starting in Fisher's absence in Game 3, Farmar is averaging 11 points, 3.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the field.

Source From : NBA.com

Sam Smith: Rooting for Kobe vs. LeBron in the FInals

Who doesn't want to see LeBron and Kobe square off in the NBA FInals?
(Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images)

I confess I've been rooting for a Lakers/Kobe-Cavs/LeBron Finals for one of these rare times in NBA history when you truly get the two best in the game going at one another in the Finals.

It was the one thing missing from Michael Jordan's resume, though no fault of his. There was no true star for him to conquer then. Magic Johnson in 1991 was past his prime. We didn't know how far with his HIV diagnosis four months away. Clyde Drexler? Hardly, yet Jordan tried to make it something with the threes in the opener. Barkley? Nah. Karl Malone?

Magic had Bird, which was probably the greatest rivalry in the mid-80s. And Russell had Wilt in the 60s. Wilt was headed out when Kareem came and Walton wasn't there long enough.

There's no dispute now. Kobe and LeBron are one/two in some order, best in the East and best in the West. LeBron's going to get there. But I don't know about Kobe and the Lakers.

And not just because it's 2-2 now between the Lakers and Rockets.

It's the way the Lakers have played, and been beaten by the Rockets. I can see the Nuggets taking out the Lakers as long as George Karl doesn't freeze up, which he's done in big playoff series before. The Nuggets have physical play up front in Kenyon Martin and Nene, that Birdman guy off the bench, Carmelo Anthony to offset Bryant's scoring on some level, and Chauncey Billups, who dominates any Lakers' point guard combo.

It's also where the Rockets without Yao Ming Sunday embarrassed the Lakers. Phil Jackson has done a terrific job realizing he doesn't have a defensive team, particularly with penetration from the perimeter, and taking the offensive way out and succeeding. But the Rockets exploited that with small guards Aaron Brooks and reserve Kyle Lowery, often playing both. Derek Fisher has been a liability defensively (the Lakers best game was with him suspended) and the Lakers bench isn't much help. Pau Gasol has come up marshmallow again against smaller tough guys like Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry and Andrew Bynum, the so called missing piece for the dynasty, has been benched and so out of it even he admits he's having mental issues. And it seems the Lakers have become somewhat distracted trying to erase the reputation they are a soft, Western Conference finesse team.

"I think last year they got punked by the Celtics and they don't want that to happen again," said the Rockets' Ron Artest. "That was the word on the street, that they got punked by the Celtics, so this year they came out tough. I kind of respect them elbows."

Bryant was brilliant in winning Game 3 with big shot after big shot, and if the Lakers are to win the series he'll have to do it twice more. The Lakers seem even more a one man team now than do the Cavs.

Source From : NBA.com

Lakers 80, Rockets 95: Postgame 6

At halftime of Game 4’s 99-87 loss in Houston, the Lakers trailed by 18 points after a horribly flat 24-minute performance.

At halftime of Game 6, the Lakers trailed by 16 points after a half that really wasn’t that bad despite a 21-3 start for Houston. In fact, it wasn’t a lack of energy that was killing the Lakers, but instead, an inability to stick a jumper. Particularly in the first, the Lakers just couldn’t buy a bucket, going 6-for-20 (30 percent) while Houston made twice that many shots (12-of-21).

Generally, those kind of numbers begin to even out in a basketball game, and sure enough, the Lakers stormed out of the halftime gates on a 16-2 run to cut the lead down to just two and seemingly change the tenor of the game, spurred by Andrew Bynum’s interior defense and Trevor Ariza’s activity on the perimeter.

But if L.A.’d learned anything about the Rockets, it’s that they won’t give up, and true to form, Houston pushed its lead back up to nine heading into the final quarter.

With a raucous Toyota Center living and dying with each possession, Houston got seven points in the first eight minutes of the period from Carl Landry to keep the Lakers at bay until 4:20 remained on the clock, holding onto a 84-75 lead that they’d protect all the way to a Game-7 forcing victory.

Luis Scola was fantastic for Houston in the first three quarters, scoring 24 points with 11 boards to pace the home team, while Aaron Brooks again served as a barometer for Houston in scoring 26 points, including two big jumpers in the lane late in the fourth.

For the Lakers, Kobe Bryant went for 32 points on 27 shots, while Pau Gasol managed just 14 points on 15 shots as both players grew increasingly frustrated by the physical play in the lane that was allowed throughout the contest.

Lamar Odom contributed 14 rebounds in 28 painful minutes, while Bynum failed to score (0-for-3) but did grab seven boards in 19 minutes, none of which came in the fourth quarter despite his effective third period.

Derek Fisher struggled once again for the purple and gold, connecting on only 1-of-7 attempts from the field (0-of-5 from three) in 21 minutes, while Jordan Farmar was a bright spot with 13 points in the same number of minutes.

The good news for the Lakers was that Game 7 would take place in STAPLES Center, where they’d beaten Houston by 40 just two nights earlier.

Until then, some numbers:

0
Times the Lakers led.

1
Point for the Lakers with 6:35 left in the first quarter. Houston had 17.

15
Offensive rebounds for the Lakers, which inexplicably led to only 12 second chance points. This stat exhibits L.A.’s poor shooting night as well as how physical the refs allowed the game to get in the paint, as many second shots came with a body.

18
Missed threes by the Lakers, who hit 5-of-23 (21.7 percent).

35.7
L.A.’s shooting percentage for the game, as the Lakers struggled to hit both open and contested looks throughout the contest.

Source From : NBA.com