When Margo Dydek was a child in Poland, a neighbor boy picked on her. She would go into the house crying and tell her mother, who would say, "OK, don't worry."
After several times, her mother finally said to young Margo, "You know what, why do I give you to eat? For what? To get stronger or what?""So next time," said Dydek, now the 7-foot-2 center for the Utah Starzz, "I just poofy-ed this guy.
"I am not bad. If somebody play fair with me, I will play the same. But if somebody play dirty, like bang on me, I will play the same way."
The Utah Starzz all rallied together Saturday night to give the brutish Minnesota Lynx some of what they gave the Starzz on June 14 in Minneapolis.
The Starzz still lost Saturday night in the Delta Center, 72-62 to the Lynx (4-2). Minnesota set a WNBA record making 14 3-point baskets as Utah's matchup, trapping zone gave them offensive fits.
The Starzz gave a much better account of themselves than they had in the June 14 game or in Thursday's debacle at Sacramento, a 38-point loss in which they played zombie basketball to spoil Fred Williams' coaching debut.
Williams is 0-2 as a head coach now, and the Starzz are 2-4 in the young season, but Saturday's game seemed a breakthrough for a team that has been horribly out of tune ever since that first game in Minnesota.
"I think so. I think this game show something," said Dydek, who had 19 points and eight rebounds. "I think it's coming," she said of Utah's long-awaited break-out.
The Starzz's next game is Monday at Los Angeles, 8:30 MDT, and then they host the two-time defending-champion Houston Comets on Wednesday as part of a twinight Delta Center doubleheader with the NBA Draft.
Elena Baranova, the Starzz's third-year Russian forward, said that for some reason the whole team felt nervous before other games. She herself was afraid to make turnovers, she said. "Now, I don't afraid," she said, "Everyone play like a team." She added that Minnesota just made "incredible shots."
The first half was a give-and-take affair, with the Starzz dishing out bumps and jolts before the Lynx could get around to doing it themselves at times.
The one problem was that Utah's top scorer, Natalie Williams, picked up her third foul with 8:48 left in the first half and had to sit. She got No. 4 at the height of the Starzz's running, trapping game with 12:42 left in the second half. Utah was ahead by seven, 52-45. Williams left the game for a little more than four minutes, and the Lynx got to 56-55. Seconds later, a Sonja Tate three put the Lynx ahead 58-56. Two more baskets by Brandy Reed and Tate, and they were up six and at full sail.
It was there that the Starzz became vulnerable again, trying too hard, as they have so often. They rush their game and lose the ball. They take poor shots. "We forced some things with that lead," Fred Williams said.
"Once we get the lead, we've got to slow down and get good shots," said Natalie Williams.
Because of her foul trouble, Natalie Williams got only six shots in the game, making five plus seven of 10 free throws. She had seven rebounds. Baranova had eight boards and four assists, plus three blocked shots.
For Minnesota, Tonya Edwards scored 23 on 6-for-8 3-point shooting. Utah outrebounded the Lynx 18-10 in the second half, establishing good position and holding it with the zone, only to see those threes zoom overhead.
Natalie Williams said maybe the zone was too good, and they should have let Minnesota penetrate the creases a little more to encourage the Lynx to shoot the shorter shots they couldn't hit as well.
It was still another loss, and on the surface, it looks like all the other Starzz's losses. But this was instead a step in the right direction for most of the night. Players had fire in their eyes. "We had to play this game hard. They have a lot of veteran players," said Fred Williams. "They (Starzz) really gave the effort. They felt very proud. They really worked hard. They saw the light of what we were doing."
NOTZZ: In Fred Williams' home-coaching debut, the other two former Starzz coaches were in attendance. Frank Layden, who resigned Monday, sat in the stands. At the opposite side of the court, Utah's first coach, Denise Williams, sat in the front row in a bright orange maternity outfit. Now living in Texas with former Jazz player Antoine Carr, whose baby she carries, she came back to Utah because some friends were giving her a baby shower.