Mercury-Storm Preview

By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO
Posted Sep 09 2011 2:38AM

The Seattle Storm and Phoenix Mercury will meet in the playoffs again next week. Where that best-of-three series will start is still up for grabs, and both teams have two games left to stake a claim.

This one will have the biggest impact.

The Storm and Mercury will try to use their final regular-season meeting in Seattle on Friday night to either clinch or move closer to the second seed in the playoffs.

Seattle (19-13) and Phoenix (19-13) met in the conference finals last year, with the Storm winning 2-0 en route to their second WNBA title.

Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the Western Conference rivals are already slated to meet again in the playoffs, but the owner of home-court advantage in that series is still unknown.

The Storm, 13-2 at home, can clinch the second seed with a win Friday since they lead the season series 2-1 and own the second tiebreaker with a superior conference record. That means Seattle can still wrap up second place if both teams end up tied after the conclusion of the regular season Sunday.

The Storm have won six of seven following Saturday's 70-60 victory at San Antonio.

"We're in a situation where there are a couple of games left, we're trying to get second place and we can really control our own destiny by getting wins," said guard Sue Bird, who had 15 points with six assists and four rebounds.

Bird leads Seattle with 14.8 points and 4.8 assists per game, and is averaging 18.0 and 8.3, respectively, in three season meetings with the Mercury.

The Storm are expected to have Lauren Jackson in the lineup after she insisted on facing the Silver Stars instead of resting her surgically repaired hip that sidelined her for much of the season. The three-time MVP is averaging 12.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in 12 games, but has totaled 33 points and nine boards over the last two.

"She wanted to play," coach Brian Agler said Saturday. "She knows her body better than anybody. We didn't play her big minutes or long stretches, but she wanted to play and be a part of it, so we let her do that."

The Storm have won three in a row against the Mercury at KeyArena, overcoming 31 points from Diana Taurasi in a 78-71 victory in the season opener June 4.

Taurasi is averaging 27.0 points in three meetings this season against Seattle, and another strong effort may give her an edge for the league's scoring title. She's tied with Atlanta's Angel McCoughtry with a WNBA-leading average of 21.2 points.

The Mercury are the highest-scoring team in the WNBA at 89.5 points per game, while Seattle is the best in scoring defense, allowing 69.8.

Smith leads Storm over Mercury 85-70

Posted Sep 10 2011 1:25AM

SEATTLE (AP) Thirteen-year veteran Katie Smith turned into the ``Katie of old'' to help the Seattle Storm clinch the Western Conference's No. 2 seed.

Smith scored 11 of her season-high 26 points in the third quarter to lead the Storm past Phoenix, 85-70 on Friday night and clinch home-court advantage against the Mercury in the playoffs next week.

``That was Katie of old right there,'' said Phoenix guard Diana Taurasi, who scored a season-high 36 points. ``That's a young Katie. She could probably do that more often, but she's willing to divert the last couple of years because she's been on some talented teams. Katie could probably do that every night.''

Tanisha Wright added 18 points and Sue Bird 15 for Seattle (20-13), which has the tiebreaker against Phoenix (19-14) for the No. 2 playoff seed in the Western Conference with one game remaining. The Storm won the season series 3-1.

Smith, in her first year with the Storm, used the shooting of Taurasi for motivation.

``Yeah, I let her know, come on now you're still the baby in all of this,'' Smith said. ``She's younger, but she's one of my favorite players to play against and to play with on Olympic teams. I have much respect for her and I know she does, too. We have a lot of fun competing against each other and it's been a friendly rivalry now for many years.''

Taurasi had 28 in the first half, three shy of the WNBA record, to help the Mercury to a 41-35 lead. But after tying a league record with six 3-pointers in the first half, she did not make one in the second.

Phoenix opens the best-of-three series Thursday at Seattle, which has won seven of eight.

Smith came into the game averaging 6.6 points with a season high of 16, against Phoenix Aug. 16. She moved within two of scoring 6,000 career points.

Smith mixed in a few drives with her long-range shots.

``The minute she checked in the game it was an aggressive Katie,'' Bird said. ``She came out driving to the basket, getting a couple of layups and opened up things for her from the 3-point line. You could tell she was just in a little bit of a comfort zone.

``I know in my head I was thinking we should milk it because she was feeling good out there and I tried to get her the ball as much as possible.''

Le'coe Willingham, Wright and Bird hit 3-pointers and Bird made two free throws to give Seattle a 69-58 lead with 5:45 left in the game. The Mercury never threatened again.

``We kind of let up in the second half,'' said Mercury forward Candice Dupree. ``I thought we did a decent job on defense, but our offense got a little stagnant late in the third and early fourth quarter. We can't let that happen.''

Smith scored 11 straight, including three 3-pointers, in the third quarter to help rally the Storm from a nine-point deficit. Seattle led 58-56 after three quarters.

Taurasi scored 20 in the second quarter, two shy of the league record she set in 2006. She had 12 during a 16-4 run to give the Mercury a six-point lead after trailing 31-25.

Smith scored 15 in the first half and had 12 to help give the Storm a 21-15 lead after one quarter. She was 4 of 4 from the field, including a 3-poiner and three-point play in the opening period.

Seattle is 7-1 since Lauren Jackson returned after missing 20 games with a hip injury, although Jackson had only four points and did not score until the fourth quarter.

The Storm improved to 14-2 at home. Phoenix dropped to 8-9 on the road.

Phoenix played without Penny Taylor, who has missed four of the last five games with muscle spasms. Taylor averages 16.7 points.

NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell watched the game from a front-row seat and received a standing ovation when introduced to the crowd. Russell lives on nearby Mercer Island.

• Mercury: --
• Storm: --

• Mercury: --
• Storm: Smith

• Lead Changes: 7
• Times Tied: 6

• Arena: Key Arena, Seattle, WA
• Officials: #39 Michael Price, #42 Roy Gulbeyan, #24 Tony Dawkins
• Attendance: 9686
• Duration: 1:51