The Seattle Storm have been in a season-long slump on the road, but they don't expect to struggle when playing at KeyArena.
Seattle will try to end a three-game slide and bounce back from its first home loss since July when it hosts the Indiana Fever on Friday night.
The Storm (7-6) won their first road game this year, but have dropped five straight away from home since. Winning in Seattle, though, hadn't been a problem until recently.
The Storm were 6-0 at KeyArena and had won 10 straight regular-season games since July 31 before losing 74-67 to Connecticut on Monday.
"You always want to defend your home court coming off a two-game losing streak,'' said guard Sue Bird, who had 13 points and five assists. "It was a chance to be back home in a comfort zone and to get back to playing well. I don't think we played bad. But it's tough losing this one.''
Bird leads the league with 6.2 assists per game, but she's struggling with her shot. She's averaging 11.6 points, up slightly from each of the last two years, but is shooting just 36.1 percent from the field and 25.5 percent from 3-point range, both career lows.
Seattle lost to the Sun despite getting 26 points from reigning league MVP Lauren Jackson, who's third in the league in scoring (20.1 points per game). But Jackson's average is down 3.7 points from last season.
And despite the addition of veterans Swin Cash and Sheryl Swoopes, the Storm are second to last in the WNBA with 71.2 points per game.
Cash is averaging 8.6 points and shooting just 26.8 percent over her last seven games.
"I have to really focus back in and hit some easy shots," she told the team's official Web site. "I'm a perfectionist, and when I miss easy shots, sometimes I carry that with me."
Indiana (6-4) has alternated wins and losses in its last seven games. The Fever led by as many as 25 on Wednesday, and beat New York 83-69.
It was just the second game back for forward Tamika Catchings, who tore her right Achilles' tendon in last season's Eastern Conference finals. She had 11 points, five rebounds and three steals in only 14 minutes after scoring two points in a loss to San Antonio on Saturday.
"Tamika started looking like her old self," coach Lin Dunn said. "With Catch coming back it puts more pressure on the defense as far as who to guard.''
Katie Douglas (18.4 ppg) has drawn most of the attention from defenses thus far. But after averaging 24.5 points in her first four games, Douglas is scoring just 14.3 in her last six.
The Storm and Fever split two meetings last season, with each winning by double digits at home.