Shock-Storm Preview

By NOEY KUPCHAN
Posted Aug 10 2011 2:35PM

Sloppy ballhandling is largely to blame for the Seattle Storm suffering back-to-back losses. A matchup with the league's worst team might be what they need to regroup.

Looking to avoid a season high-tying third consecutive defeat, the Storm try for a fourth straight victory over the Tulsa Shock on Thursday night.

Seattle (12-10) hasn't looked like a threat to repeat as WNBA champion of late, turning the ball over at an exorbitant rate. After committing 27 turnovers during a 70-53 loss at Atlanta on Sunday, the Storm gave it away 18 times and fell 58-56 at New York on Tuesday.

Sue Bird's game-tying attempt was blocked as time expired.

"It was one of those games where the ball did not bounce our way," coach Brian Agler said. "We had (18) turnovers. Until we get that corrected we are going to be on a roller coaster, so we have to eliminate turnovers."

Bird and Swin Cash, tied for 12th in the league with 15.3 points per game, weren't very efficient Tuesday. Cash went a season-worst 1 for 13 from the floor and finished with six points while Bird scored 17 on 6-of-18 shooting.

Fourth-place Seattle, though, sits just 4 1/2 games behind Western Conference-leading Minnesota.

"It's disappointing, but you have to keep moving, you have to look forward," said Bird, who scored a season-high 29 points in an 89-72 win at Tulsa on July 30. "We're still in the run for a position in the West playoffs and hopefully get home court at least in the first round and go from there."

The Storm have taken three straight in this series by an average of 22.6 points, seemingly putting them in very good position to get back on track against the Shock (1-20).

Tulsa dropped its 15th straight overall and 19th in a row on the road dating to last season Tuesday, 71-66 to Los Angeles. The Shock trailed by 10 entering the fourth quarter but managed to cut the deficit to three with 59 seconds remaining.

"It's very frustrating," said forward Tiffany Jackson, who scored a team-best 18 points. "We've been close. But we all can't put our finger on it."

The Storm have also had some difficulty on the road, but they've won seven in a row and eight of nine at home. Agler, however, is more concerned with his team taking better care of the ball than the site of the game.

"It doesn't really matter where you play. We probably play better at home, obviously," he said. "You have to have a mental focus. You have to be locked in. We're making turnovers early in the game because we think we're not quite as sharp, we don't need to be as sharp right now."

Little helps Storm hand Shock 16th straight loss

Posted Aug 12 2011 1:14AM

SEATTLE (AP) Struggling as they have been during a long stretch of road games, Camille Little and the Seattle Storm were happy to be back home Thursday night - and they played like it.

Little scored a season-high 19 points, and Seattle led from the start in a 77-63 win over Tulsa, handing the Shock their 16th straight loss.

Tanisha Wright added 11 points to help the Storm (13-10) snap a two-game skid and improve to 9-1 at home. Seattle has won 26 of its last 27 regular-season home games dating back to last season.

``Obviously, we play much better at home - it's just one of those things,'' said Little, whose team is just 4-9 on the road and played 11 of its last 15 games away from home. ``We lost two games (earlier this week at Atlanta and New York), and the last one went down to the wire. We just wanted to try to get a good win.''

Rookie center Liz Cambage had a career-high 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, reaching double figures in scoring for the 16th time in 21 games, to lead the Shock (1-21). Tiffany Jackson scored 14 points and Andrea Riley added 10.

Tulsa moved one away from the league record for consecutive losses. The Atlanta Dream lost their first 17 games in 2008 during their inaugural season. The Shock's only victory this season was June 18 at home against Washington.

``One thing you want to share is that if you can play the way you played in the third and fourth quarter, you can beat anybody in the league. We just need to do a better job of that,'' said Shock assistant coach Kathy McConnell-Miller, who was filling in for interim head coach Teresa Edwards on Thursday.

Edwards was in Springfield, Mass., where she will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night.

Seattle scored the first seven points and had a double-digit lead at 14-2 just three minutes into the game. Tulsa pulled to 28-22 early in the second quarter, but the Storm followed with a 15-0 run to go ahead by 21.

They got five of those of those 15 points on one possession: two free throws by Katie Smith on a flagrant foul, and a traditional three-point play from Swin Cash after retaining possession of the ball.

It didn't dip below double digits the rest of the way.

``I thought we got off to a great start. I was really happy with our first half,'' Storm coach Brian Agler said. ``But we're a team that's still trying to get better. Being efficient with the offense and with the basketball was one of those, and we made some strides there.''

The Storm made those strides by shooting 51.7 percent from the floor (30 of 58) and committing just nine turnovers - that after having 29 turnovers in last Sunday's loss at Atlanta and 18 in Tuesday's defeat at New York.

``Losing those games was frustrating,'' Little said. ``We know every team is better this year, but we have a certain standard we hold ourselves to.''

Cambage, who hit a career-high 10 field goals (10 of 15) and posted her third career double-double, said the Shock need to play a whole game the way they played during Thursday's second half.

``We just regrouped at halftime and got back together,'' she said ``We see all of the talent we have. It's just a matter of playing hard and working together.''

• Shock: --
• Storm: --

• Shock: --
• Storm: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: Key Arena, Seattle, WA
• Officials: #7 Clarke Stevens, #45 Tom Mauer, #35 Billy Smith
• Attendance: 6503
• Duration: 1:48