Dream-Storm Preview

By JEFF BARTL
Posted Jul 10 2012 2:45PM

With Sue Bird leading the way, the Seattle Storm are on the verge of reaching the .500 mark after a dismal start.

If the Atlanta Dream are going to slow them down, they'll have to do it without their top player.

Seattle seeks its eighth victory in 10 contests Wednesday when it hosts Atlanta, which will be without leading scorer Angel McCoughtry for a third straight game.

The Storm (8-9) have played the entire season without Lauren Jackson, who's training for the Olympics with the Australian team, but they've apparently more than adjusted to her absence after their 1-7 start. Sue Bird has been a big reason why.

She scored 31 points - two shy of her career high set in 2002 - and hit 10 of 11 shots to guide Seattle to an 83-68 win over Phoenix on Sunday.

The veteran sat out Saturday's defeat at Los Angeles due to nagging pain in her surgically repaired left hip, and coach Brian Agler is using Bird sparingly in practice in order to keep her fresh for games.

The problem has not slowed her down much, however, as she's scored at least 21 points in four of her last eight games after a slow start to the season. Seattle has won all but one of those.

``Mostly, I would describe it as a nuisance,'' Bird said of the injury. ``There was a point last week, even walking, I could feel it, which I've never really had before. Usually it would just happen when I was playing.''

Agler has set the break-even mark as a goal for his club going into the Olympic hiatus.

"I said, 'If we can get to eight wins we have a chance to get right back in the thick of things,'" he told the team's official website. "So we're there, but I told them not to be satisfied with that. Let's help ourselves even more. We can get to .500 on Wednesday."

That may prove difficult, though, if Bird isn't better against Atlanta than she was last year. She totaled 12 points as the Dream won both meetings by a combined 46 points.

Atlanta may not be able to match that dominance if McCoughtry, nursing a sprained left MCL, doesn't play.

She sat out a 100-93 double-overtime win over Phoenix on Saturday and a 79-63 defeat at Los Angeles on Sunday. Sancho Lyttle did her best to make up for McCoughtry's absence, scoring a career-high 31 points Saturday and adding a team-best 17 in the next game.

Atlanta (8-9) trailed by 15 entering the fourth quarter against the Sparks and was unable to get closer than seven.

``When you work so hard to bring a lead back, you kind of get tired,'' Lyttle said. ``I can't say for everybody - I just say for myself. I think being tired played a key in our game.''

The Dream have split the first four games of a six-game trip. They'll also play their first two contests after the break on the road.

Lyttle scores 21 to lead Dream past Storm, 70-59

Posted Jul 11 2012 6:28PM

SEATTLE (AP) As Sancho Lyttle saw things, what mattered most for the Atlanta Dream was finishing what they started.

Lyttle scored 21 points to lead the Dream to a 70-59 victory over the Seattle Storm 70-59 on Wednesday.

Lindsey Harding added 15 points for Atlanta (9-9), which is now 3-2 on a six-game road trip that ends on Friday night in San Antonio prior to the WNBA's monthlong break for the London Olympics. Tiffany Hayes and Aneika Henry chipped in 13 apiece.

The Dream never trailed and took the lead for good as Lyttle and Armintie Price hit consecutive jumpers to put Atlanta up 31-27 with 2:42 to go in the second quarter.

Henry made two free throws to put the Dream up four at the break, and an 8-0 run to open the third quarter pushed the advantage to 44-32.

``Normally, we do get off to a good start. But keeping it was more important, and that's what we did,'' Lyttle said. ``We just know that we had a bigger lead in the first half and they came back and cut it within one. We tried to go out the same (after halftime) that we started the first quarter.

``We go up a lot, and then lose the lead in the fourth quarter. We just needed to carry on what we were doing,'' Lyttle added.

The Storm pulled to 53-46 heading to the fourth, but got no closer the rest of the way. The Dream pushed the lead to 13 in the fourth.

Rookie Shekinna Stricklen scored a season-high 16 points and Tanisha Wright had 12 for the Storm (8-10). Sue Bird, set to play for the United States at the London Olympics, was limited to just five points after scoring 31 last Sunday against Phoenix.

``We clearly did not play well,'' Bird said. ``Not taking anything away from Atlanta, but we just did not play well. You ask yourself the reasons why, and I think we just lost some energy. If we did a better job defensively, who knows what could have happened?''

The Dream hit their first four shots of the game, while the Storm missed their first five. Atlanta wound up at 48 percent (29 of 61), and kept Seattle below 40 percent (21 of 53).

``We came in and played a great defensive game and took them a little bit out of their rhythm,'' Dream coach Marynell Meadors said. ``We shot the ball very well, especially when the clock was winding down to less than 2 or 3 seconds. Call it luck or whatever, but the shots went in.''

Storm coach Brian Agler said some of those last-second tries that went in played a role in keeping Seattle in comeback mode all afternoon.

``We just didn't finish off defensive possessions, and I thought they played really well down the stretch on their offensive possessions and on a late shot clock,'' Agler said. ``We just could not get a lot done at the rim.

That also showed in the rebounding numbers, which the Dream dominated 34-25. That included nine at the offensive end, leading to a 13-2 advantage in second-chance points.

``Any time we can outrebound folks and push it up, the running game is our game,'' Meadors said.

Atlanta was without leading scorer Angel McCoughtry (22.6 points per game) for the third straight game because of a knee injury.

Seattle was missing leading rebounder and second-leading scorer Ann Wauters (6.2 boards, 10.3 points) for the fourth straight game with a strained left Achilles.

• Dream: --
• Storm: --

• Dream: Leuchanka
• Storm: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 4

• Arena: Key Arena, Seattle, WA
• Officials: #7 Clarke Stevens, #4 Sue Blauch, #39 Michael Price
• Attendance: 9686
• Duration: 1:41