The Phoenix Mercury made quick work of the Seattle Storm in the first round of last season's Western Conference playoffs, sweeping their best-of-three series en route to their first WNBA title.

Seattle has quickly forgotten that in 2008.

The Storm look for their third win in three tries this season against the Mercury on Thursday night, when they host the defending champs at KeyArena, where they're 10-1.

Seattle (12-7) has been nearly unbeatable at home, where it's also won four straight, but has been unable duplicate that success on the road.

Seattle had won its first road game this season, 87-83 at Phoenix on May 22, but dropped six straight away from home before traveling to face Sacramento on Tuesday. Coming off three straight home wins by an average of 21.0 points, the Storm rode that momentum to a 79-64 victory.

"It was so important, we've been dying for a road win,'' said guard Sue Bird, who had 16 points and nine assists.

They'll return home to face Phoenix (9-9), which has won four of its last five on the road. The Mercury weren't as successful in their first trip to Seattle this season, where they lost 83-77 on June 11 despite a season-high 37 points from Diana Taurasi.

"It's a rockin' arena every time we come here,'' said Taurasi, who leads the league with 24.3 points per game. "The fans get after you and get loud. They go on a five-point run and the building is going crazy.''

Phoenix is the highest-scoring team in the league, averaging 88.6 points, more than half coming from Taurasi and fellow guard Cappie Pondexter (22.9 ppg), who's behind only Taurasi in the scoring race.

Taurasi scored a game-high 30 while Pondexter added 22 in the Mercury's 99-94 win over Houston on Tuesday.

In the win, Taurasi became the fastest player in league history to reach 3,000 points.

"It's a great accomplishment," said Pondexter, who's topped 1,500 points in just her third WNBA season. "I've loved being her teammate and working with her. I'm sure she'll help me get to 3,000."

Taurasi needed 151 games to score 3,000 points, 11 games fewer than Seattle's Lauren Jackson, who reached the mark in 2006. Jackson led the league with 23.8 ppg last season on her way to winning her second MVP award.

She's third in the league in scoring (20.3 ppg) in 2008, but has averaged 28.0 points in her first three games this month.

Jackson averaged 25.0 points and 11.5 rebounds in the Storm's two wins over Phoenix.