After its first WNBA finals experience ended with a major disappointment, San Antonio has championship expectations in 2009.

The defending Western Conference champion Silver Stars open their season Saturday night at US Airways Center where they'll face a Phoenix Mercury team looking to regain its championship form.

San Antonio finished with a franchise-best 24-10 record last season, going 14-0 versus Eastern Conference teams. The Silver Stars, though, lost the first two games of the finals at home then were swept in three by the Detroit Shock.

However, with Becky Hammon, Sophia Young and Vickie Johnson back, San Antonio is targeting much more than just the league's best regular-season record and another conference championship banner.

"We're going to continue to grow and try to win a championship," Johnson said.

Hammon averaged 17.6 points and 4.9 assists per game last season while Young finished fourth in MVP voting, averaging 17.5 points and 5.6 rebounds.

The Silver Stars will be without center Ann Wauters until later in the season due to personal reasons. She scored 14.7 points per game in 2008 and was sixth in the league in rebounding (7.5).

Ruth Riley and 6-foot-8 Katie Mattera, signed in the offseason, will try to fill the void left by Wauters.

Guard Shanna Crossley is back after missing last season with a torn ACL, and Belinda Snell signed with San Antonio in the offseason after not playing in the WNBA in 2008. She averaged 3.4 points in three seasons (2005-07) with the Mercury.

Phoenix is looking to rebound from last season's 16-18 record that left it out of the playoffs a year after winning the championship.

Diana Taurasi led the WNBA with 24.1 points per game while teammate Cappie Pondexter was second, averaging 21.2. The Mercury topped the league in scoring for the third straight season with 88.5 points per game.

Temeka Johnson begins her first season with the Mercury after they acquired her from Los Angeles for a 2010 first-round draft pick. She averaged 4.2 points and 3.1 assists for the Sparks last season.

Phoenix selected DeWanna Bonner from Auburn with the No. 5 pick in the draft. She was ninth in the nation in scoring last season at 21.1 points per game.

The Mercury also made another change earlier this week by becoming the first team in league history to have a sponsor name on their jersey. Under the terms of the three-year deal, Tempe, Ariz., based LifeLock will have its name on the team's road and home uniforms with the team logo placed above it.

"For LifeLock to step up and recognize the WNBA is something they can invest in and be very positive and productive in women's sports is huge," Taurasi said.

These teams next play June 23 in San Antonio.