Basketball is wickedly deceptive that way. You can be fooled into thinking you have something special because you have someone special. That thinking only goes so far. Eventually, you hit a wall and blame the star for not being starry enough. Then you sink into mediocrity until the team or star demands change.
It happens all the time in hoops. Which is why you should appreciate how the Storm climbed out of this rut.
“She (Tanisha) wasn’t totally healthy and she was trying to play,” said Storm coach Brian Agler, who needed a defensive stopper against reserve guard Kristi Toliver, who scored 16 points in Game 1.
“Tanisha just couldn’t do the things she felt comfortable doing. We used her maybe in a role reversal, but the minutes Tanisha gave us were huge for us.”
Agler won titles with the Columbus Quest in the ABL, and his emphasis on defense goes back all the way to his days as a college coach. Phoenix’s race car style takes a toll on teams, but the Storm have stood up to it five times already this season and prevailed.
Agler has never been a gimmicky coach or a gambler. And when you’ve got the talent he does on the Storm now, there’s little reason not to just play the percentages.
Although nobody on the team would share specific details about exactly what Russell told them or what stories he shared with them, it was quite clear that the meeting had an impact, not just in terms of how to win, but how to carry oneself as a winner. As someone who appreciates the women’s game for its similarities to how he played the game, it’s hard to find a better person than Russell to learn about building a championship legacy.
The Mercury defense (yes, they play defense despite Taurasi’s on-camera sarcasm) has improved this season in large part to the increased focus on rotations and using different schemes in different situations.
Penny Taylor explained how that’s developed.
“Corey’s really mixed it up for us this year and it took us a little while to be focused enough to get those things down because it really takes focus,” She said. “The game moves so fast that’s not always easy to know who’s setting the screen, who’s coming off of it and we’ve done that well in the last few weeks.”
“I think I’m going to have a big role in this series, because they’ve got a lot of big bodies down there to bang with, and that’s what they brought me here for,” Braxton said Tuesday. “I’m going to do whatever I can – if that’s rebound, box out, defend anybody, that’s what I came to do.”
Last but certainly not least, my favorite content of the day is Q13’s Aaron Levine exploring the popularity of the Stanky Legg. A must-watch:
Q: You’re back home Thursday. What does the KeyArena crowd mean?
LJ: I think it’s worth 10 points here. That crowd is just phenomenal. The energy is insane. I’m a little bit zen-ish that way. You can walk in there and not slept in 24 hours, and be picked up automatically by the fans. Our fans are the greatest, without a doubt. They’re passionate. KeyArena is just insane. It brings so much out of us as players.
But for all the excitement the regular season series might generate, as Cash said the Mercury are playing some of their best basketball right now and the Storm have really only played them once with mid-season acquisition Kara Braxton, who has added some additional muscle to their post rotation. In other words, the Storm aren’t exactly looking back at the regular season matchups, no matter what that might say to fans about how exciting this series could be.
“Nothing – you can’t actually take anything from them,” said Storm center Lauren Jackson when asked about how much the team could take from the regular season series with the Mercury. “We’ve just got to go out there and play our best basketball and we know they’re going to be on top of their game and we have to be as well. So we’re not complacent at all.”
Until last week, Candice Dupree was a three-time WNBA All-Star with zero playoff appearances.
By averaging 25.5 points and 9.5 rebounds – both team highs – in the Mercury’s Western Conference semifinal sweep of San Antonio, the 6-foot-2 forward proved she is postseason-ready and instrumental to the drive for a second consecutive championship.
The Storm looks ahead to the Western Conference Finals after finishing off the Los Angeles Sparks, while Lauren Jackson and Tanisha Wright are honored for their defense. Here’s what they’re saying.
It’s the second consecutive year Wright was named to the first team. Jackson’s appearance on the All-Defensive Second Team marks the fifth time she’s been either first or second team. She has been named to the first team twice. Jackson was the 2007 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year.
Ultimately, it’s not that Jackson or anybody in the Storm locker room will be upset about not getting a DPOY vote – my guess based on hearing her discuss any other recognition she’s gotten is that she really doesn’t care that much one way or the other. But given that two other centers got votes without having quite the defensive seasons as Jackson, the “slight” does illustrate how difficult it is to evaluate a player’s defensive impact even when that impact is a large part of what makes said player a frontrunner for the Most Valuable Player award.
So there is some cross-pollination in the Storm-Mercury matchup. Including, of course, with the longtime friendships that exist among various members of the teams, plus their collaboration on overseas squads. There is such a degree of familiarity between the Storm and the Mercury that scouting reports seem practically unnecessary.
What there hasn’t been, surprisingly, between the two franchises this summer is balance in the series, at least in terms of the outcome. Seattle won all five meetings. However, four of them were very close.
Each team has plenty to prove in what is bound to be an exciting best-of-three series. The numbers alone suggest that both teams are fully stocked and prepared to make a run, pitting last year’s MVP against this year’s top candidate and former UConn teammates Taurasi and Bird against one another for just the second time and first since 2007. The Storm’s commanding presence throughout the regular season is one they will look to maintain, particularly on home court where they remain undefeated (17-0 regular season, 1-0 postseason). All season long teams were gunning for the Mercury, a championship team dead set on returning to the postseason for a chance to repeat. Regular season meetings aside, it’s now a clean slate for both teams to work with.
Facing elimination, the Sparks came in with the mentality that they were going to throw the kitchen sink at the Storm. They scrambled all over the court, playing a style of defense that can best be described as “trapping and scrapping.” They battled tooth and nail and gave a full 40 minutes of effort, but for the seventh straight time this season, the Storm had no issues solving the puzzle placed before them.
When the Sparks tried to take away Seattle’s inside game, the Storm went outside and starting bombing away en route to a 12-for-22 performance from the perimeter. When the Sparks started hitting jumpers of their own, the Storm tightened and locked up on the wings. When the Sparks tried to speed up the game, the Storm slowed it right back down.
After the Seattle Storm’s 81-66 win over the Los Angeles Sparks, forward Swin Cash and center Ashley Robinson celebrated winning their first playoff series since 2004 in perfect fashion: they went to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles.
“It’s not time to panic,” Sparks reserve Kristi Toliver said of Thompson’s postgame message. “She said we don’t need to play like our backs are against the wall, but we know this is a must-win game. It’s time to regroup, get it together and go get a win at home. We know how to beat Seattle; we just need to execute it.”
And you can bet Thompson will provide the example.
“I don’t expect them to roll over and die,” Storm guard Sue Bird said.
Vesela was the surprise of Seattle’s 79-66 win Wednesday, making all four of her shots in the second quarter – including three 3-pointers – and scoring 11 points, helping the Storm to a 1-0 series lead.
The rookie from the Czech Republic caught many people off guard – including Los Angeles coach Jennifer Gillom – but not Vesela’s teammates. Storm coach Brian Agler said he would try to find a way to get Vesela more playing time when Seattle and the Sparks tip off Game 2 at noon today in Los Angeles.
However, the difference this season for the multiple veterans on both sides that have won championships in the past is that the league changed its format from a 1-2 format to a 1-1-1 format. Although that swings the travel advantage to the higher seed who doesn’t have to travel for the first game of a series at the risk of a letdown putting them on the brink of elimination, Sparks forward Tina Thompson comes into Game 2 confident in their chances to push this series to a third and deciding game back at KeyArena. If the fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream’s surprising rout of the first-seeded Washington Mystics means anything, anything could happen in a one game elimination scenario.
Most defensive schemes in the WNBA can work just fine with switching principles due to the general lack of size differential between the players. Unfortunately for the Sparks, that doesn’t fly against the Storm because they employ three frontline players who are an absolute handful to guard in the post. In Game 1 the Sparks switched on a lot of off-ball screens which created easy interior looks for the Seattle bigs with the diminutive L.A. guards hopelessly trying to fend them off. The Sparks can trap, go zone, play straight up, collapse, double team and use everything else in the book defensively, but they just can’t afford to switch on screens and let players like Swin Cash kill them, either with the ball or on the offensive boards. Finding an answer to slow down Cash may be one of the more difficult tasks Sparks head coach Jennifer Gillom is charged with. The forward has led Seattle in scoring the last four times these teams have met in the playoffs.
“Yeah,” said forward Swin Cash after practice yesterday with a tinge of hesitation in her voice when asked about the Battier comparison. “She has that Shane game, but if you ever see her run, it’s hilarious — we always call her ‘Dirk’ because I swear, her swagger, is just like you’re never going to see her screaming and yelling. You’re never gonna see her too low. She’s just like [even] and it’s just so smooth. But she’s so long, she’ll do things like get a block or get a deflection and you’re like, ‘Where did Jana come from?’ And she just has these long arms and the way that her body is — I mean, she’s taller than A-Rob. So that’s a versatile player that I’m happy that we have on our team that we can really go to and give teams fits with the mismatches.”
Los Angeles never got closer than eight in the fourth quarter and trailed by as many as 18, allowing the crowd of 10,589 to cut loose by doing the wave.
“I was actually on the bench, and I saw the wave,” Bird said. “That’s the first time I’ve seen it (at KeyArena). It was pretty cool. They cheered just as loud the rest of the game, so if they want to have a little fun in their seats, so be it.”
Nothing explains the Storm’s riveting ascent better than the dueling roles they juggle in these WNBA playoffs.
In one storyline, they are cast as misery’s unenthusiastic companion, as losers of five consecutive first-round series, as victims of injuries and incomplete rosters over the past half-decade.
Yet, amid a dream season, they’re also playing the part of the dominant pre-champion, the overwhelming favorite to win it all, the team that can’t lose unless a catastrophe strikes.
A banked in three-pointer by Camille Little was the four-leaf clover that began the final push. Tanisha Wright followed with a three of her own at the end of the shot clock. Lauren Jackson made consecutive hoops. Another layup form Little.
With a mere 1:50 remaining the lead moved out to a game-high 18 points. That was sufficient, though not easily gained.
Using a balanced offense and an active defense, the Storm seized the lead early on and never gave it up, racing to a 79-66 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks in the opener of the best-of-three Western Conference playoffs in front of 10,589 fans at KeyArena on Wednesday night.
For winning all of their 17 home games and tying the WNBA record for most wins in a single season with 28, all the Seattle Storm really got was home-court advantage in the playoffs.
But as the rest of the WNBA knows, Seattle having home-court advantage is a big problem for the Storm’s opponent.
In Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Sparks on Wednesday night, the Storm’s home-court advantage was on display for everyone in Key Arena to see, most notably the Sparks.
But although the Storm starters were considerably quieter in the second quarter, the Storm played even with the Sparks based on the performance of rookie forward Jana Vesela, who played all 10 minutes and shot 3-for-3 from the three point line and had all 11 of her points when the Sparks stopped turning the ball over.
While some observers may have been surprised by the performance, this is what many of her Storm teammates have been expecting of her.
“She’s very effective in Europe, so to have her come out tonight and hit a couple of threes, she got her hands on a couple of balls, that’s what we’re going to need in this playoff series because she’s so versatile . It’s really hard to match her with a guard, and if a post player is on her she can go to the basket. She just gives us a different look on the offensive end.”
When the Sparks temporarily solved the puzzle of stopping MVP candidate Jackson by swarming her on the catch while still managing to close out on shooters, their ability to create offense disappeared. Finding space to operate proved to be a difficult exercise all evening, as Seattle cut off all passing lanes and used its tremendous length to get its hands on passes and disrupt the Sparks’ offensive flow. The Sparks usually distribute the ball well as a team, but a lack of movement and some tough defense resulted in only eight assists to 13 turnovers for Los Angeles.
Jackson’s Storm just finished up a 28-6 season, going a perfect 17-0 at home. Wednesday night, they beat the Los Angeles Sparks — the team that has defeated a Jackson-less Storm in the playoffs two years running — in a 79-66 contest that was far closer than it should have been. Seattle came out possessed only to fall flat in the second half. Lucky for them, the Sparks never put together a run, and Storm pulled out the win. Jackson finished with 17 points, nine boards, two steals and a block, on what was basically a two-quarter game for her.
Times: In going from fans to owners, how much did you have to shut down the cheerleading part?
DT: I don’t think we shut down the cheerleading part, I just know that I’m hypersensitive to anything that’s not right. If the scoreboard isn’t correct, if the timing isn’t right, if there’s a piece of lint on the floor. I’m much, much more critical of things that I see that aren’t perfect, the way we’d want them to be, whereas before? I don’t think I even noticed that stuff.
LB: A fan is a fan is a fan, and we bought this team because we were fans. The difference is I feel responsible for creating a great experience. What’s their experience when they get here, how they are treated by the ushers, where they sit? had a lot of amazing feedback from fans. I love having that dialogue. Being a fan and being an owner really has its benefits because you really get to constantly look for improvement.
GG: I’m the one who was not a season-ticket holder from the beginning. I came in 2005. I feel like we’re hosts of this community jewel. The four of us, really, are in a unique position to make that experience as positive as possible. This probably sounds so corny, but we’re really models for humanity. What can a good human being be like? And it’s those women. They get to do what they love. They know it’s a privilege and they bring it every day.
Thirteen years later, Abrosimova is sitting on a chair after a Storm practice before Wednesday night’s first game of the WNBA playoff series against the Los Angeles Sparks.
She is a UConn graduate, a former dean’s-list student with a degree in business administration and a former All-American. She is a nine-year league veteran.
She is playing 20 minutes a game with the Storm, averaging 7.6 points and 3.1 rebounds and is one of the difference-makers on the best bench in the Storm’s history.
[Comment From AditaAdita: ] What’s your best/favorite moment of the season thus far? On-Court and Off-court?
Tuesday August 24, 2010 2:48 Adita
2:50
Swin Cash: Well, our best moment hasn’t happened so far. I think one of the best things would be winning all 17 games at home. It’s amazing how other people I know in the league always say how tough it is to play in Seattle. That’s fun. Best moment off the court would have to be traveling from city to city with my teammates. We need a reality show. We do have the Shady Cam, aka Adia.
The other would be Lauren leaving half the team at the gym in Phoenix. Yeah, I’m calling her out.
This is not a team that had to scratch and claw their way into the playoffs — it was virtually a given they were going to get there after jumping out to a huge lead in the standings early in the season, it was clinched in July, and they’ve had a month to get themselves mentally ready to move forward. So without an in-depth analysis of how the Storm dominated teams during a regular season that essentially became a means to tune up for now a month ago, the best way to describe what they Storm bring to the post-season is focus, poise, and immense confidence.
But…come on…when a team from LA beats your team in the first round of the playoffs in three of the last four years, a hearty Beat LA chant is might no longer be “noble and pure”, but it’s definitely cathartic. Furthermore, with no other team in the city consistently in position to beat a LA team in a situation of any significance, Seattle fans don’t have a whole lot of opportunity to participate in this long history of openly hating on LA. And in contrast to other cities that have no basketball history with LA, at the very least Storm fans have history behind them while doing the chant even if the players are still just focused on winning a championship.
“You see (players) over and over,” Bird said. “You see a team over and over. At that point everybody knows everybody.”
That’s a microcosm of the opening round series between the Seattle Storm and Los Angeles Sparks which starts on Wednesday night at KeyArena (8 p.m., ESPN2; 1150 AM/KKNW).
The Storm has been to the playoffs eight times in the history of the organization and faced Los Angeles in five of those. This is the third consecutive year and fourth time in five years the teams will play in the opening round.
No, the Seattle Storm doesn’t play the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA playoffs every year. It only seems that way.
For the third consecutive season and fifth time in eight years, the Storm and Sparks will meet in a first-round playoff matchup, with Game 1 tipping off at 8 p.m. today at KeyArena. Game 2 will be Saturday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and – if necessary – Game 3 will be Tuesday at KeyArena.
But not being nicked up entering the playoffs trumped any roll Seattle might have been on with a month to go in the regular season. Jackson will be healthy at the start of the playoffs for the first time since 2007, when Seattle was swept by Phoenix in the first round.
Two years ago, Jackson was sidelined by ankle surgery following the Olympics. Last year it was back problems that kept her a spectator. Both times, Seattle was dispatched by Los Angeles in three games.
“I don’t know if dominant is the word I would use,” Bird said Tuesday as Seattle prepared for its opening-round series in the WNBA playoffs against the Los Angeles Sparks. “I think in like half our games we were down in the fourth quarter.”
The individual matchups for this series are intriguing, with one obvious pairing leaping off the page. LJ and Leslie may have been the storied rivalry from international competition, but Jackson and Milton-Jones have been tangling in the paint for years, with no quarter asked and none given. Elbows fly, shoulder-barges aren’t uncommon and the mute button for the floor mics gets a pretty heavy workout as well. Jackson still gets her numbers against LA, but she has to work hard for them.
Q. You have such an experienced group that’s played together for a long time. How does that help you right now?
SUE BIRD: I think it helps. When I was on the call earlier when Sandy Brondello was talking about teams jelling and for some it may take longer. For us we jelled pretty quickly, mainly because we had a core group that was coming back and other players that were familiar to the WNBA, and I think that’s why we had the success we did early on. But now at this point I bet every team has jelled. Every team has had their ups and downs. Every team probably has good chemistry right now. So I don’t view us as the head of the pack by any regard. So we’ll see what happens.
Strategies aside, the Storm haven’t played a meaningful game in a while, so perhaps the bigger issue is whether the team has lost that mojo that made it so dominant earlier in the season. Agler doesn’t see that.
“Our team’s been pretty focused,” said Agler. “We’ve had a couple lapses obviously, our game in Tulsa was a lapse, and we’ve had some games where we didn’t play some of our key people big minutes and I think we took a loss or two in that kind of way, but our team’s got good leadership with Sue and Lauren and Swin. They’ve played together for a period of time and I feel like we have an opportunity to play real well.”
I had to. After three straight Player of the Month honors and five Player of the Week selections, there’s no way I could deny Lauren Jackson the No. 1 spot. Jackson’s made a career out of displaying a strong two-way game and continued to do so again this season. She finishes the 2010 season ranked fourth overall in ppg (20.5), fourth in free-throw percentage (91 percent), sixth in rpg (8.3), seventh in blocks (38) and seventh in double-doubles. Few players transcend over that many categories, and even fewer consistently rank in the top 10.
MULTIMEDIA
Cash promotes the importance of parks for children to be active.
Bird’s point is that Seattle battled and scraped just like everybody else — winning five of their last six games by 10 points or less. And having such an accomplished regular-season guarantees you nothing when it comes to the postseason.
“Every day I get asked that question. Every single day, whether it’s from just a fan or media or teammates or anybody — It’s, ‘How are you feeling?’ ” Jackson said before releasing a sigh.
She’s the organization’s all-time leading scorer, averaging 20.5 points this summer.
“I understand the concern, but I feel good,” she continued. “I feel really good and I’m pretty focused, ready to go.”
I did agonize over the Bonner pick, but went with Storm G Svetlana Abrosimova because of her versatility, not overall stats. She really did whatever needed, including helping Seattle seal the overall top seed in a win against Atlanta. And, unlike Bonner to me, the value ranged from scoring to running the offense to quickly getting rookie Jana Vesela acquainted during her first stint in America.
There are signs everywhere that sports in Seattle are emergent.
The Storm has had a historically good season and enters the playoffs as the overwhelming favorite to win its second WNBA title. This franchise is an example of what a team can do when it surrounds three superstars with hungry veterans who know how to play.
Now, with all that out of the way, how exactly would you prepare your team for a 6′5″ player that not only does normal center things like rebounding and blocking shots but also shoots nearly 35% from the three point line and 91% from the free throw line?
Consider that a rhetorical question: I don’t have an answer, no coach I spoke with this year had a clear answer, and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wondered why anybody would even consider there to be a MVP “race” at all.
As much as Saturday’s win was a celebration of the Storm completing their regular season 17-0 at home and tying the record for most wins in WNBA history, it was just as much an indication that the rest of the league is closing the gap on the team with home court advantage throughout the playoffs. As the Storm prepare for the playoffs, the fact that they had a rough fourth quarter against an improving first round opponent is not exactly a reason for panic, but definitely a sign that the road ahead is a bit more perilous that some people might give it credit for.
In head-to-head play, the Seattle Storm swept the regular season series 5-0, a true indication that there is still some discontent for the Sparks after getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs in 2008 and 2009. While the Sparks may have a good amount of experience invested in three starters, the Storm has more experienced depth than the Sparks. With the exception of rookies Abby Bishop, Alison Lacey and Jana Vesela, no other players on the Storm possess less than three years experience in the league. Apply that same three-year window to the Sparks and you’ll find six players have three or less years worth of experience. Not to mention, while the Sparks were battling for a playoff spot behind their regular starters, the Storm rookies were able to get a few minutes on the hardwood to shake off some of those rookie jitters in games that didn’t carry much weight on postseason chances. It might not be much, but it still gives the Storm a slight edge.
If you are going to the Storm just to see what it’s like, or because it’s suddenly trendy, don’t bother.
Doesn’t worry me: The fewer people who go, the better seats I’ll get.
On the other hand, if you want to join a few thousand rowdy, passionate fans in screaming your head off in support of skillful Sue Bird, talented Lauren Jackson, energetic Swin Cash–and against The Hated Los Angeles Sparks–come on along.
While players had the day off on Sunday, Storm coach Brian Agler started pulling out all of the tape of his team against Los Angeles, learning that afternoon Seattle would be facing LA in the opening round of the postseason. San Antonio defeated Phoenix to secure the No. 3 seed on Sunday.
It was appropriate that it happened against the Los Angeles Sparks.
With home-court advantage through the WNBA playoffs long secured, all that was left for the Seattle Storm to chase in the regular season was history, and it was the 2001 Sparks who stood as the team that all others are measured against.
What better way for the Seattle Storm to thank the fans than by going undefeated at home?
The Storm did just that on Saturday, defeating the Los Angeles Sparks 76-75. On fan-appreciation night, the Storm set a WNBA record for the best home record in a season at 17-0 and also tied the WNBA record for wins in a season with 28.
“It’s great. It’s a record that can only be tied, right?” Storm guard Sue Bird joked after the game. “To go undefeated at home is really special.”
We might normally imagine a point guard “controlling” a game in the sense of controlling the flow of the offense by facilitating scoring opportunities for others, Penicheiro takes it to another level. Whereas she might have been flashier in her younger days, she has become the master of subtlety using every single movement to her advantage.
With their 76-75 win against the Los Angeles Sparks tonight, the Storm not only finished the regular season with a 17-0 record at home but also tied the WNBA record for most wins in a season with the 2000 and 2001 Sparks, of which forward DeLisha Milton-Jones was a member. On a broader scale, it’s the best home record of any team in Seattle history.
That’s why we wanted home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Our fans are amazing. They always energize us, whether we’re playing the best game our team can play or we’re struggling. They’re always there, always cheering. I think the best compliment you can give Key Arena and our fans is opposing players openly discuss how much they hate playing there. It’s loud, it’s very difficult to focus in there, and that’s obviously to our benefit.
Bird also did a great extended interview with Aaron Levine for last night’s Q it Up Sports.
In the end, it turned out ESPN had chosen exactly the right game to televise at the end of the regular season. The Sparks were surging, having won seven of our last 11 games and clinching a playoff spot in Friday night’s game against Minnesota. Seattle had taken a few games off leading into Saturday’s match-up with the Sparks, since, with their postseason position locked, all they needed was to preserve their athletes for the playoffs, but they also had been undefeated at home, and Saturday night was their last night to defend it. As a result, the game on Saturday between Seattle and Los Angeles was a barnburner, coming down to a battle of buzzer-beaters, and Seattle protected their home court for the 17th time this season with a final score of 76-75.
“She’s kind of like that glue player,” Storm star Swin Cash said of Willingham. “We need a big three? She’s right there waiting to knock it in for you. She’s setting screens and she’s always doing exactly what she’s supposed to do. I’d say she’s ‘Miss Consistent.’ She just seems to be doing all of these little things.”
Small contributions without the need of grand recognition is why Storm coach Brian Agler, who is also director of player personnel, aimed to acquire Willingham first when WNBA free agency opened. Willingham started for Phoenix’s 2009 championship team, but the Mercury was unable to retain her because of salary-cap issues.
During last week’s road trip, the Storm shuffled its normal rotations. The starters had their minutes reduced. Lauren Jackson even sat out an entire game. Seattle went 1-2 during the stretch of planned rest and altered rotations.
“More than anything, the last three games, we rested some players, we weren’t really in our normal rhythm,” Sue Bird said. “Right now we’re trying to get back into that. We want to be peaking come playoff time and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Mercury coach Corey Gaines said he’s already begun resting players during practice. But he wouldn’t commit to whether he’ll sit key players Friday or at San Antonio on Sunday.
“We’ll just do it day by day, game by game,” Gaines said. “I think you just go in and play the game. I think that’s when coaches try to outthink themselves. You don’t want to outthink yourself. Just play the game.”
I couldn’t come to terms with giving the Liberty a promotion to the No. 1 spot, if only because there’s no telling what Seattle’s record would be right now if the starters were still taking to the court to play at the same level they were playing at back in June and July.
Then Little snagged the biggest rebound of the game, a Whalen missed layup with 38.8 seconds left. Minnesota (12-20) was forced to foul, and Storm guard Tanisha Wright made two ensuing free throws and the Lynx missed two three-point attempts.
“Millie really got us going,” said Wright, whose team improved to 13-6 when trailing after three quarters. “In the huddle she was the one demanding things. Demanding to get things done. Demanding to get rebounds. Demanding to get stops. She was serious and aggressive with it.”
The Storm moved to 16-0 in KeyArena, tying the WNBA record for the most wins at home. One home game remains.
It took a massive switch to keep the home record undamaged. The Storm was outrebounded 23-16 in the first half. There was a discussion at halftime. The Storm outrebounded Minnesota 27-14 in the second half.
Through one half of Tuesday night’s game between the Seattle Storm and the Minnesota Lynx, the Storm did not look like a team that was undefeated at home.
But it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
The Storm finished like the team that is 26-6 and has the best record in the WNBA, defeating the Minnesota Lynx 68-64. The Storm outscored the Lynx 40-25 in the second half to earn the victory.
After the Lynx held the Storm without an offensive rebound in the second quarter and ahead 23-16 in the rebound column, fortunes reversed in the second half with the Storm winning 27-14 on the boards. Ultimately, the shift in rebounding begins to tell the story of why the Storm managed to remain undefeated at home and improve to 26-6 on the season in front of 7,394 fans at KeyArena.
“We missed a lot of shots, so they had a lot of opportunities to rebound,” said Whalen. “Defensive rebounding percentage means more than total rebounds. They have some great inside players and great rebounders. We worked as hard as we could.”
Either way, perhaps the beauty of competition in the relatively harmless confines of sports is that participants are expected to come back and willingly throw themselves into the same situation again, as Reeve alluded to after I wished her good luck as we parted after our post-game interview.
“Thanks,” she said as she turned to walk away. “I hope to see you back here again next week.”
I have this common experience every time I go to a Seattle Storm game. At some point, I think, “Well, they are going to lose. There’s just no reason for them to win this game.”
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