On opening day against the Silver Stars, WNBA fans everywhere were captivated with the performances of rookie DeWanna Bonner (16 points, 11 rebounds), Diana Taurasi (25 points, 3 rebounds), Cappie Pondexter (23 points, 5 assists), Temeka Johnson (7 points, 9 assists), Becky Hammon (20 points, 8 assists), and Sophia Young (25 points, 10 rebounds).

And rightfully so.

Unfortunately, the fantastic play of Mercury center Tangela Smith was somewhat overshadowed due to the aforementioned performances.

Tangela’s stats might not jump out at you in the box score as much as her fellow teammates, but her steady force and assuring presence has already yielded positive results for the Mercury this season.

Smith had 9 points, 7 rebounds (4 offensive), 3 blocked shots, and 2 steals against the Silver Stars.  As I mentioned above, Tangela’s play was much more vital to the Mercury win than many realize.

“Tangela is steady,” Head Coach Corey Gaines said at practice today, “what happens is when teams start countering us and loading up everybody in the paint, she’ll tend to have those open jump shots and she’ll feed off it.”

Yet, no one is talking about Tangela’s stellar stat line in her 33 minutes of play. Why is that?

Well, mostly because it’s hard not to notice her superstar teammates in Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter and how amazing they are.  Some of the shots they hit on a regular basis boggle the mind; that’s why they are the faces of the league.  However, after their championship in 2007, the Mercury sorely missed Tangela’s consistency on a nightly basis.  Smith only played in 28 games due to injury.

Even in practice, Tangela has a stoic presence that everyone can rely on.  Remember that old saying that you don’t miss your water until the well runs dry?  It’s the same thing with Tangela - one of those things where you don’t fully appreciate until it’s gone.

You can almost assuredly pencil in Tangela for 10-14 points, 6-8 rebounds, and 1-3 blocks every night.  Sure, the numbers don’t immediately pop out at you, but Tangela is the type of player to come up big in the clutch, late in the game, and those abilities don’t show up in the box score.

In fact, Tangela’s 4 offensive rebounds against San Antonio gave the Mercury several 2nd chance opportunities to score which kept the momentum in their favor while making a run in the latter stages of the game.

We’ll need more of these type of games from Tangela than ever before.

June 8th, 2009 4:54 PM