The Sports Informant

The Sacramento Monarchs lost in overtime in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Monday night. While a first round exit is seemingly a disappointment, especially when it’s for the second straight year, it’s the effort, not the result, that we should be focusing on.

Sacramento put forth a dismal showing at home in Game 1 in an 85-78 loss, and if it weren’t for that, the Monarchs might have been playing Los Angeles tonight. It took that defeat to wake them up. And they did.

The Monarchs traveled to San Antonio to face the team with the best record in the WNBA. In the home of the Silver Stars, with elimination on the line, Sacramento not only won Game 2, but obliterated its opponent, 84-67. In an even more hostile environment, with both teams facing an offseason or a Western Conference Championship series, the Monarchs battled from down 12 in the fourth quarter to tie it up and force overtime against the best team in the league, and on its home floor. And while the Monarchs lost, that’s something to be proud of.

It’s not just pride these teams play for. It’s not just wins, either. A big motivator for these players is respect, and not just from other teams, but from themselves. A heroic showing the likes of Game 3 in San Antonio doesn’t just give the Monarchs the respect of the Silver Stars – who had to claw their way to advancing against a No. 4 seed – but provides them with the much needed respect going on in their own clubhouse. Knowing they almost knocked off the best, and in dramatic fashion, will play a huge part of an expected highly developmental offseason. It’s easy to go into training for next season knowing you were good enough to beat the best this season.

The beauty of it all is that Sacramento did it through adversity no other team can claim this year. The Monarchs lost one star to a trade (Yolanda Griffith), and another for most of the season to injury (DeMya Walker), and even when she came back for playoffs, she wasn’t 100 percent. Shoot, she probably wasn’t even 50 percent, scoring eight, eight and four points in the contests, respectively. Then, after seeing another player rise up all season long (Rebekkah Brunson), the Monarchs were forced to play without her the entire playoffs due to injury.

To survive a soap opera all season long with the depth chart and still almost pull off the upset of the playoffs is not only impressive, it’s admirable. It makes you wonder what a full and healthy squad could have done.

In the end, the Monarchs were sent packing early. The result was expected this year. The way the Monarchs went out, however, was not. Congratulations to the ladies of Sacramento. They played like they had something to prove, and they proved it. No one should doubt them again.