http://www.courant.com/sports/basketball/hc-wnbasun0730.artjul30,0,4388938.story?coll=hc-headlines-basketball Griffith Limps To Finish Still A Leader In Final Season July 30, 2006 By LORI RILEY, Courant Staff Writer Yolanda Griffith is 36, and over the years she has played a lot of basketball. Last year, her knees and her groin bothered her. Earlier this season, she twisted her right knee in Houston in a way that her coach described to The Sacramento Bee as "scary." Friday, her left knee was sore before Sacramento's 75-68 loss to the Sun. "I'm not me this year," Griffith said before the game. "I'm just not healthy like I was two years ago. But I still go out there and do the best I can, work hard. I'm still the leader of this team. I know the game. If I score, it's great. If I don't, I know how to play defense and do different things." Griffith said this will be her last season in a professional career that began when she was drafted No.1 by the Long Beach StingRays of the ABL in 1997. She has been an ABL and WNBA All-Star. She was the WNBA's MVP in 1999. She was named to the All-Decade team as part of the league's 10th anniversary celebration this year. Last year, she was the championship series MVP after the Monarchs defeated the Sun for the WNBA title. Many say that if Sun point guard Lindsay Whalen (hobbled by knee and ankle injuries) were at full strength, Sacramento - which had lost to the Sun twice during the regular season - would have lost. But that argument rankles Griffith. "I was hurt the whole season last year," Griffith said. "It doesn't matter who you have. Everybody's up for injuries. I had a swollen knee in the championship. It's just things nobody knew about. You just tie up your shoes and go play. That's it. Injuries occur. "I'm pretty sure Lindsay wasn't the only one hurt on the Connecticut team. Everybody had injuries last year. Even though Lindsay is their starting point guard, they're still a good team. They're without Nykesha Sales this year and they're still winning. It doesn't matter." Griffith, who has a 16-year-old daughter, would like to coach when her playing days are over. She said she likes the style of Seattle's Anne Donovan and Houston's Van Chancellor, but will have her own coaching style. "Some players are missing the fundamentals of basketball - learning how to pass, not thinking that you have to be the one that scores all the time," she said. "You've got to be able to pass the ball and be aware of your surroundings on the court. It's not about you as an individual. It's about what you bring to the team." The Monarchs (16-11) had a seven-game winning streak come to a crashing halt when they went on the road last week. They lost Tuesday at Indiana and Wednesday at Detroit, then lost Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena. The Monarchs will host Detroit today. Griffith, the team's leading scorer (11.2), struggled Friday, scoring six points. She had three rebounds, 3.6 below her average. She doesn't like to talk about retiring. She is trying to keep her focus on this season. "Whatever happens this year, I'm still proud of my teammates," she said. "We won the championship and we're trying to get back." Usurping The Monarchs Coach John Whisenant on the Monarchs' 0-3 trip: "It's like league headquarters had it in for us, to put us back to back, Indiana and Detroit and then [at Connecticut]. I'm surprised they didn't have us playing [Thursday]. Then we go back and play four games next week." The Monarchs will see a familiar opponent today: Detroit, which scored 91 points against defensive-minded Sacramento last week. ... Detroit (18-7), trailing the Sun by 11/2 games in the East, has a four-game winning streak. They meet in the regular season finale Aug. 13 at 1:30 p.m. in Detroit in an ABC-televised game. ... Diana Taurasi broke Phoenix's single-season scoring record of 624, set by Jennifer Gillom in 1998, with 41 points Thursday at Houston and 25 Friday at San Antonio. Taurasi now has 625 points, but Phoenix (11-15) lost both games (98-95 to Houston, 98-96 to the Silver Stars) and is in danger of missing the playoffs again. The Mercury, who have been hobbled by injuries to Kamila Vodichkova and Penny Taylor, are in sixth place, a game behind San Antonio (12-14) and 21/2 games behind Seattle (14-13). The top four in each conference make the playoffs. Taylor (22 points) and Vodichkova (two points) played Friday, but the Mercury trailed 27-19 after the first quarter and couldn't quite come back. The Mercury have eight games left. Contact Lori Riley at [email protected]. --

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