After taking Wednesday off, the Storm went through its final practice in preparation for taking on the Mercury starting tomorrow. During the portion of practice open to the media, the Storm was again working against Phoenix’s 3-2 zone with Adia Barnes playing the Diana Taurasi role of rover. Talking to Adia afterwards, she’s been very impressed with how the Storm has played this week in practice.

Storm Head Coach Anne Donovan cited the “good focus” in practice this week and praised the practice unit for playing as close to Phoenix’s style as possible.

Most of the discussion after practice centered on the relationships on both sides. Speaking of that, I need to work on my feature on that topic.

Update: As I transcribe, I want to make sure I find a place for this quote from Sue Bird on comparing the Storm with the Mercury:

“Their inside game is not as tall, not as Lauren Jackson as ours is.”

Day two of the Storm’s prep work in practice for the Phoenix Mercury focused more on working against the Mercury’s junk defenses – a triangle-and-two and, notably, the box-and-one against Lauren Jackson I wrote about yesterday.

“We put somebody on Lauren to frustrate her today,” explained Storm Head Coach Anne Donovan, “so hopefully she can get that frustration out in practice and not be so frustrated when she sees Diana (Taurasi) on Friday.”

Storm color analyst and former player Adia Barnes has been part of the practice squad the last few days, and today – at least during the portion of practice open to the media – she was assigned the task of filling Taurasi’s role in the Mercury’s zone.

There was a brief moment of shock when we walked into the practice court and saw Sue Bird on the sidelines having her foot worked on, but it turned out to be precautionary. Bird has a fourth metatarsal contusion, which means she’s got a bruised toe on her right foot. She sat out the end of practice, but the injury isn’t a serious concern.

I was interested to hear Wendy Carpenter of The News Tribune use the same word I did yesterday – “loose” – to describe the Storm’s attitude.

“I think we feel good about having enough time to rest, so nobody’s overworked – and it’s a mental and a physical rest – and yet when they’ve come here, they’ve come to work,” responded Donovan. “I would say loose, because we know our opponent and we know what we need to do. We’re in a good place. I guess that’s how I’d say it.”

Lastly, Izi Castro Marques delivered a perfect line one day late – I would have loved to use it in yesterday’s story on what a good matchup this is from the perspective of fans and the media.

“It’s a fun game,” she said. “I think everybody likes to watch that game, everybody likes to play that game because it’s a high-scoring game – the best offensive teams in the league. It’s going to be a fun game, but we know we can’t keep up running with them, so we’ve got to limit our turnovers and defend as much as we can because that’s what they do: Shoot and run, shoot and run.”

Also … if you haven’t checked out Taurasi’s latest entry in her blog with Sue Bird, be sure to do so. Apparently, she doesn’t talk much trash on the court. We’ll have to double-check with LJ on that one.

After taking the weekend off, the Storm returned to the practice court Monday and had a very successful effort. During the scrimmage against the practice squad open to the media, the Storm earned a 39-23 victory with some hot shooting.

“If we play the way we practiced today, I don’t think we’re going to have a problem against Phoenix at all,” said Lauren Jackson afterwards. “We had a great session.”

LJ was in a jovial mood after practice, reacting with a grin to news that she’d won another Player of the Week – her record-setting fifth. As a result, I asked her if there was a looseness around the team, and Jackson adamantly disagreed.

“Definitely not,” she said. “I think there’s definitely a sense of urgency, but it’s a really good feeling. I’m glad that we’re here. It’s a new season for us and everything that has happened has now been tossed out the window. It feels good.”

I agree that “Loose” was in fact the wrong word. However, I do sense a calming confidence in the team going into the playoffs with a three-game winning streak and a 2-1 record against the Mercury. That’s not disrespectful to Phoenix whatsoever, but there’s been a vocalized agreement most of the season that game outcomes are not about what the opponent does, they’re about what the Storm does. When this team plays its game, it can beat anyone in the league.