Shock Win Third WNBA Championship in Six Years
By Steve St. Pierre
for In Play! Magazine
Despite playing through a season that included major and constant injuries, suspensions, trades and counting on rookies to carry their reserve unit, the Detroit Shock have won their third WNBA Championship in six seasons.
The Playoffs began with the Shock facing the Indiana Fever in a three-game series in which the Shock won in three games. Detroit then went on to play the New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference Finals, also winning that series in three games. Finally, they met the San Antonio Silver Stars in the WNBA Finals, a best-of-five series in which the Shock swept the first three games.
“(Our players) deserve all the credit in the world,” says Bill Laimbeer, Shock Head Coach and General Manager. “The performance we put on is quality of a (championship) team.”
“This is something that we play for all season,” adds sixth man Plenette Pierson. “This is something that you want in your career. We showed that when we play together and just did everything right, there was nobody that could stand between us.”
The Shock truly had everything going against them this season. Beginning with the starters, shooting guard Deanna Nolan played hurt the entire summer; point guard Elaine Powell missed 20 games with a foot injury; small forward Katie Smith played in the Summer Olympics in the middle of the season, having to make several adjustments both personally and professionally; and center Kara Braxton went from starting at the beginning of the season to being benched to rejoining the starters after power forward Cheryl Ford went down for a season-ending knee injury.
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