Mercury-Storm Preview

By MATT BEARDMORE
Posted Sep 18 2011 3:31PM

A victory over the visiting Phoenix Mercury earlier this month gave the Seattle Storm home-court advantage in the first round. The defending WNBA champions will try to make the most of it with their series against Phoenix on the line.

The Storm go for their seventh straight win over the Mercury at KeyArena on Monday night in Game 3 of this Western Conference semifinal matchup.

Seattle tied for the best home record (15-2) in the WNBA during the regular season and has won seven in a row overall at KeyArena.

"We have a history of playing well at home. I don't know if there's anything in particular," coach Brian Agler said. "We have a great crowd, obviously. It's almost like they are alive in unison there and it's a unique situation. But we don't take anything for granted. Just because we are at home we don't take (Game 3) for granted."

By virtue of an 85-70 victory over Phoenix on Sept. 9, Seattle clinched the No. 2 seed and the right to host the Mercury twice in the opening round, if necessary. That second home game is needed after Phoenix rebounded from an 80-61 Game 1 loss in Seattle on Thursday with Saturday's 92-83 home win.

Led by Candice Dupree's season-high 29 points, the third-seeded Mercury shot 55.1 percent and outrebounded the Storm 37-24 to stave off elimination.

"Shot the ball better, up-tempo game is our game," said coach Corey Gaines, whose team averaged a league-best 89.0 points. "I guess if we walk the ball down the court and play their style, they are better at that than we are. Hopefully we are better at the up-tempo game than they are."

Phoenix will look to keep up the pace Monday after being unable to get much offense going in Game 1, shooting 29.7 percent.

That was the sixth straight loss in Seattle for the Mercury, who have lost 11 of 13 overall against the Storm, including playoffs.

"It's no secret we have had a lot of struggles against Seattle," Diana Taurasi said Saturday after scoring 26 points - 15 more than in Game 1. "But I think we've always taken the good things that we've done. I think we came back to Phoenix not defeated one bit. They took care of home court. We took care of home court."

If the Mercury are going to advance to the conference finals for the third consecutive season - they were swept by Seattle in that round in 2010 - they'll have to post their first victory at KeyArena since a 92-84 overtime win Sept. 10, 2009.

They likely have to do a better job on the defensive end if they're going to advance to face top-seeded Minnesota or San Antonio.

The Mercury's point total Saturday matched a season high against Seattle, which led the league in scoring defense (69.9 points per game).

"We kind of were reacting to them as opposed to dictating things," All-Star point guard Sue Bird said after the Storm's eight-game playoff winning streak ended. "With a team like Phoenix, you can't do that, you really can't."

Dupree leads Mercury past Storm into West finals

Posted Sep 20 2011 2:36AM

SEATTLE (AP) With time running out in regulation, Candice Dupree knew she had to be quick when the ball came to her.

Dupree's putback with 1.9 seconds remaining lifted Phoenix to a 77-75 victory over the Seattle Storm in Game 3 on Monday night, sending the Mercury to the Western Conference finals.

``Everybody was tipping the ball around and it just so happened to land in my hands,'' Dupree said. ``Put it back up as soon as I could.''

Dupree finished with 20 points, Penny Taylor had 19 points and 17 rebounds and Diana Taurasi also scored 19 to help Phoenix advance to the conference finals for the third straight year, and fourth in the last five.

The Mercury will face the winner of Tuesday night's Game 3 between San Antonio and top-seeded Minnesota.

After losing the opener 80-61 in Seattle, Phoenix tied the series at home with 92-83 win at home on Saturday night.

``Coming back to Seattle, we knew what it was going to be like,'' Taylor said. ``We started off a little sluggish, obviously getting down by quite a bit. No one really panicked. Diana got us going. (Candice) got us going with some easy ones and from there we just fought really.''

Sue Bird scored 22 points to lead defending champion Seattle, which led by 18 points early on. Lauren Jackson had 18 points, Tanisha Wright added 17 and Swin Cash had nine points and 10 rebounds.

Bird tied the score at 75 with 10.5 seconds remaining. Taylor then drove off the inbounds play and missed. A scramble for the rebound ensued and Dupree eventually put the ball in from the center of the lane.

The Storm, out of timeouts, did not get off a final shot.

Jackson tied it at 73-all with a 3-pointer with 1:38 remaining. Taylor countered with a driving score to give Phoenix a 75-73 lead, forcing Seattle to take a timeout with 29.4 seconds remaining.

``It just see-sawed,'' Bird said.

The Mercury took its first lead at 60-59 with 6:56 to go when Dupree hit a jumper.

Taurasi fouled out and was whistled for a technical with 6:38 remaining. Just 6 seconds later, Storm forward Camille Little fouled out.

Phoenix rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit and tied the score at 48-all when Dupree picked up a loose ball and put it with about 3 1/2 minutes to go in the third quarter.

Seattle's foul trouble also mounted in the quarter as Wright was called for her fifth and Little committed her fourth. Each had to go to the bench early.

A 3-pointer by Bird right before the end of the third quarter gave Seattle a 57-54 lead.

Seattle went on an 8-0 run to start the second quarter and expanded its lead to 24-9 after Bird scored a fastbreak layup. Phoenix called timeout, but it hardly slowed the Storm.

Jackson's three-point play with 7:09 to go in the first half pushed the lead to 29-11.

``We got off to a great start,'' Bird said. ``Really played to our strengths.''

Shortly after, Phoenix shifted its approach. Taurasi was moved to point guard enabling the Mercury to play a much bigger lineup. They also began to play more zone defense and began chipping away.

``We didn't want to get beat inside,'' Phoenix coach Corey Gaines said. ``They were trying to throw the ball to Lauren (Jackson) the whole game.''

After turning the ball over nine times in the first quarter, the Mercury turned it over once in the second and trailed 39-30 at halftime.

It was a ragged start for both teams. Little scored the first basket with 7:24 left in the opening quarter. Seattle missed four shots and turned the ball over twice before scoring. Phoenix took 2:59 to score.

Phoenix was unable to run in the opening quarter, scoring just two fastbreak points. The Storm outscored the Mercury 20-9, holding it to just 27.3 percent shooting and establishing the pace it wanted.

In the end, Seattle's season slipped away.

``All of a sudden the buzzer's going off and there's this wait-a-minute moment,'' Bird said. ``This is one of those things that doesn't set in until a day, two days, a week.

``Right now, it just feels like we have a game in two days, we must. Obviously we don't.''

• Mercury: --
• Storm: --

• Mercury: Dupree, Taurasi
• Storm: --

• Lead Changes: 3
• Times Tied: 9

• Arena: Key Arena, Seattle, WA
• Officials: #7 Clarke Stevens, #39 Michael Price, #31 Amy Bonner
• Attendance: 8589
• Duration: 2:05