# 1998 Detroit Shock season

The 1998 WNBA season was the first for the Detroit Shock. The team had an 0–4 start, but by season's end they missed out on a postseason berth by just one game in the standings.

## Transactions
### WNBA allocation draft

| Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| Cindy Brown | United States | Seattle Reign |
| Razija Brcaninovich | Yugoslavia | Microcamp Campinas (Brazil) |

### WNBA expansion draft

| Player | Nationality | Former WNBA Team |
| Lynette Woodard | United States | Cleveland Rockers |
| Tara Williams | United States | Phoenix Mercury |
| Tajama Abraham | United States | Sacramento Monarchs |
| Rhonda Blades | United States | New York Liberty |

### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 4 | Korie Hlede | Yugoslavia | Duquesne |
| 2 | 14 | Rachael Sporn | Australia | Adelaide Lightning (Australia) |
| 3 | 24 | Gergana Branzova | Bulgaria | FIU |
| 4 | 34 | Sandy Brondello | Australia | BTV Wuppertal (Germany) |

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| January 12, 1998 | Hired Nancy Lieberman-Cline as Head Coach |
| January 27, 1998 | Drafted Cindy Brown and Razija Brcaninovic in the 1998 WNBA Allocation Draft |
| February 18, 1998 | Drafted Lynette Woodard, Tara Williams, Tajama Abraham and Rhonda Blades in the 1998 WNBA expansion draft |
| April 29, 1998 | Drafted Korie Hlede, Rachael Sporn, Gergana Branzova and Sandy Brondello in the 1998 WNBA Draft |
| May 2, 1998 | Signed Aneta Kausaite and Mfon Udoka |
| June 22, 1998 | Waived Mfon Udoka |

## Schedule
### Regular season

1998 game log Total: 17–13 (Home: 11–4; Road: 6–9) :
June: 5–4 (Home: 3–2; Road: 2–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
June 13
Charlotte
L 69–78
Razija Brcaninovic (22)
Razija Brcaninovic (13)
Blades Boyd (4)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
0–1
2
June 15
Cleveland
L 85–96
Korie Hlede (17)
Cindy Brown (10)
Sandy Brondello (5)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
0–2
3
June 18
@ Charlotte
L 67–71
Sandy Brondello (14)
Cindy Brown (7)
Rhonda Blades (4)
Charlotte Coliseum
0–3
4
June 20
@ Cleveland
L 57–65
Korie Hlede (19)
Rachael Sporn (8)
Sandy Brondello (5)
Gund Arena
0–4
5
June 21
@ Washington
W 70–57
Korie Hlede (20)
Brown Hlede (6)
Sandy Brondello (9)
MCI Center
1–4
6
June 23
Sacramento
W 61–57
Korie Hlede (25)
Cindy Brown (12)
Korie Hlede (4)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
2–4
7
June 25
Washington
W 79–71
Sandy Brondello (19)
Cindy Brown (7)
Sandy Brondello (5)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
3–4
8
June 27
@ Cleveland
W 84–73
Brondello Hlede (23)
Cindy Brown (10)
Brondello Hlede (4)
Gund Arena
4–4
9
June 29
Charlotte
W 60–49
Brondello Brown (19)
Cindy Brown (16)
Blades Hlede (2)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
5–4 :
July: 7–6 (Home: 6–1; Road: 1–5)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
10
July 1
New York
W 82–65
Cindy Brown (22)
Brcaninovic Brown (10)
Sandy Brondello (7)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
6–4
11
July 6
@ New York
L 56–59
Cindy Brown (12)
Cindy Brown (12)
Sandy Brondello (5)
Madison Square Garden
6–5
12
July 8
Phoenix
L 76–78
Carla Boyd (18)
Cindy Brown (9)
Sandy Brondello (8)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
6–6
13
July 9
@ Houston
L 66–96
Cindy Brown (14)
Cindy Brown (13)
Brondello Hlede (5)
Compaq Center
6–7
14
July 11
@ Washington
L 53–78
Sandy Brondello (10)
Cindy Brown (10)
Hlede Woodard (2)
MCI Center
6–8
15
July 13
@ Utah
W 74–67
Sandy Brondello (23)
Korie Hlede (11)
Sandy Brondello (3)
Delta Center
7–8
16
July 15
@ Phoenix
L 60–73
Korie Hlede (16)
Brown Sporn (9)
Sandy Brondello (4)
America West Arena
7–9
17
July 17
Utah
W 79–67
Sandy Brondello (18)
Cindy Brown (15)
Sandy Brondello (7)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
8–9
18
July 18
Cleveland
W 72–57
Brown Hlede (16)
Korie Hlede (13)
Sandy Brondello (3)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
9–9
19
July 22
Washington
W 76–61
Carla Boyd (19)
Cindy Brown (9)
Brondello Brown Hlede (3)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
10–9
20
July 25
Los Angeles
W 69–67
Korie Hlede (20)
Cindy Brown (14)
Korie Hlede (7)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
11–9
21
July 26
@ New York
L 62–78
Korie Hlede (14)
Korie Hlede (8)
Korie Hlede (6)
Madison Square Garden
11–10
22
July 31
Sacramento
W 78–77
Sandy Brondello (20)
Cindy Brown (10)
Carla Boyd (9)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
12–10 :
August: 5–3 (Home: 2–1; Road: 3–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
23
August 3
@ Charlotte
L 68–71
Sandy Brondello (21)
Cindy Brown (10)
Carla Boyd (4)
Charlotte Coliseum
12–11
24
August 5
Los Angeles
W 73–61
Korie Hlede (20)
Cindy Brown (10)
Brondello Brown (4)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
13–11
25
August 7
Houston
L 57–61
Cindy Brown (13)
Cindy Brown (13)
Cindy Brown (5)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
13–12
26
August 10
@ Utah
W 77–73
Korie Hlede (20)
Cindy Brown (21)
Cindy Brown (4)
Delta Center
14–12
27
August 11
@ Sacramento
W 50–41
Sandy Brondello (15)
Cindy Brown (12)
Carla Boyd (4)
ARCO Arena
15–12
28
August 14
@ Phoenix
L 59–74
Sandy Brondello (20)
Carla Boyd (8)
Rhonda Blades (3)
America West Arena
15–13
29
August 16
@ Los Angeles
W 73–68
Razija Brcaninovic (25)
Cindy Brown (11)
Sandy Brondello (5)
Great Western Forum
16–13
30
August 19
New York
W 82–68
Sandy Brondello (24)
Lynette Woodard (9)
Lynette Woodard (3)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
17–13 :
1998 season schedule :

### Season standings

| Eastern Conference | W | L | PCT | Conf. | GB |
| Cleveland Rockers $^x$ | 20 | 10 | .667 | 12–4 | – |
| Charlotte Sting $^x$ | 18 | 12 | .600 | 11–5 | 2.0 |
| New York Liberty $^o$ | 18 | 12 | .600 | 8–8 | 2.0 |
| Detroit Shock $^o$ | 17 | 13 | .567 | 8–8 | 3.0 |
| Washington Mystics $^o$ | 3 | 27 | .100 | 1–15 | 17.0 |

## Statistics
### Regular Season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Korie Hlede | 27 | 27 | 33.8 | .391 | .392 | .806 | 5.2 | 2.7 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 14.1 |
| Sandy Brondello | 30 | 28 | 33.1 | .428 | .364 | .923 | 2.9 | 3.3 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 14.2 |
| Cindy Brown | 30 | 30 | 32.2 | .470 | .328 | .707 | 10.0 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 11.8 |
| Carla Boyd | 30 | 24 | 27.2 | .342 | .302 | .632 | 3.9 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 8.2 |
| Razija Brcaninovic | 30 | 30 | 23.2 | .520 | N/A | .667 | 5.1 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 9.1 |
| Rachael Sporn | 30 | 1 | 17.8 | .408 | N/A | .500 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 4.5 |
| Lynette Woodard | 27 | 8 | 14.2 | .387 | N/A | .575 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 3.5 |
| Rhonda Blades | 29 | 2 | 11.7 | .256 | .240 | .483 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 2.3 |
| Mfon Udoka | 3 | 0 | 8.3 | .167 | N/A | .500 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 |
| Gergana Branzova | 26 | 0 | 7.8 | .446 | .000 | .550 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 2.7 |
| Aneta Kausaite | 10 | 0 | 5.8 | .250 | .000 | .571 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.4 |
| Angela Hamblin | 6 | 0 | 4.8 | .250 | .500 | .500 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Tajama Abraham | 12 | 0 | 3.7 | .357 | N/A | .533 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
$^‡$Waived/Released during the season $^†$Traded during the season $^≠$Acquired during the season