It was back to a game under .500 for the Detroit Shock last night as they collapsed on offense in the second half and lost at Phoenix. Thanks to Washington losing to New York, the Shock remain in a tie with Washington for fourth place and in the hypothetical "if the season ended today" scenario Detroit would make the playoffs.

That being said, this was another difficult game in what has been a difficult last two seasons for Motown's professional women hoopsters. The Shock shot an ice cold 28 percent from the field and missed eight free throws. The foul shots alone would have made the difference between victory and defeat.

There are now five games left for the Shock, and they could still finish as high as second in the Eastern conference. Whether they do depends in large part on whether they can at last address the problems that have been holding them back since the "worst to first" championship season of 2003.

Whatever happens the rest of 2005, it remains my firm opinion that coach Bill Laimbeer should be relieved of his duties. He did a fine job of motivating the team to a quick turnaround in 2002 and 2003, but since then the Shock have floundered and he seems to have no answers or capacity to get the ship righted. Some tweaking of the roster may also be necessary, particularly in the cases of (for the most part) underachieving center Ruth Riley, and point guard Elaine Powell, whose behavior is reminding me more and more of such troubled athletes as Ron Artest of the men's NBA and pro football's Randy Moss. Powell, Artest, and Moss are all very talented athletes, but at some point it is just not worth dealing with their baggage.