With the return of Lauren Jackson the lineup and Katie Smith playing closer to 100 percent than she was at the start of the season, this may be the healthiest the Storm has been all year. That’s the crux of Jayda Evans’ story in today’s Seattle Times.

Guard Katie Smith still wears a protective boot for a left Achilles injury, but with her and Lauren Jackson (hip) in the lineup Saturday, the Storm was the healthiest it has been since June. Smith, the biggest offseason acquisition, is shooting 50.8 percent from the field in August while Jackson, a three-time MVP, scored 20 in Saturday’s one-point win over New York.

“The thing I felt as a coach is the depth we have,” Agler said. “It felt like finally we had our people back. (In the first quarter) we showed signs of what our team can be.”

On SwishAppeal.com, Nate Parham writes that Jackson’s dominant return is the latest evidence of her greatness.

However, what’s particularly remarkable about that performance is that she did all that in 21:43 minutes of play. If we look beyond just the fact that she scored 20 points in 22 minutes, the entirety of that level of performance is pretty remarkable in those limited minutes. Her valuable contributions ratio (VCR) – which is a per minute efficieny metric that approximates the quality of a player’s minutes – was a whopping 3.23; that number represents a player who is not only playing starter or All-Star level basketball, but someone who is dominant while on the court. Considering that she was obviously not yet in game shape – both in terms of visible signs of exhaustion and fouling out for the first time in years – it’s pretty remarkable.

In the Everett Herald, Aaron Lommers scouts tonight’s game with the San Antonio Silver Stars.

The next team to get a look at how much better the Storm can be is the San Antonio Silver Stars. A victory tonight over San Antonio would give the Storm a 11/2 game lead for third place in the Western Conference over the Silver Stars. It would also clinch the season series over San Antonio, giving the Storm the all-important tiebreaker.

Fun story in the Times on Sunday. Avid fisher Jackson went fishing with Times outdoor reporter Marc Yuasa and had better luck than usual catching salmon.

During the WNBA offseason, you can find Jackson on Australia’s eastern coast searching for fish or relaxing at her beachfront house.

“We go pretty much all the time when I’m home, and my mom and dad (who are retired) are out almost every day,” she said. “I go fishing with them for a couple of hours first thing in the morning, and if it’s not good, then we’ll go out after lunch.”

Big news from the WNBA, which announced yesterday the first league-wide marquee partnership deal with Boost Mobile.

As part of this partnership, the Boost Mobile brand will be prominently featured on the front of the game jerseys of ten WNBA teams, including Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Tulsa Shock, and Washington Mystics. The jerseys, which will debut in games [tonight], will mark the first time the WNBA has had a league partner with jersey branding with multiple WNBA teams throughout the season other than adidas, the league’s official outfitter. Boost Mobile will also have a strong presence in these ten teams’ arenas, where its brand will be displayed on courts and pole pads.

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