Saturday Could Set Tone For Series
 Anne Donovan's 2001 Charlotte squad did the unthinkable against New York. Craig Jones/NBAE/Getty |
"It's brutal," Donovan said. "The playoff schedule is brutal. It's a step better than when I was in Charlotte and we played a back-to-back, came back and played back-to-back (during the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals against New York). Now we have a day in between all games. But to go on the road, you have to win that game. Otherwise, you come back and your back is truly against the wall, even as the higher seed and the team that has played better all year.
"We've got to go there, block out any bit of distractions - fans, officials, whatever it might be on the road that distracts us - and the goal is to get back here with a win in our pocket."
As exciting as the best-of-three series are for fans, with each game's outcome crucially important to deciding the series and every Game 2 a must-win for one team, they are equally nerve-wracking for WNBA coaches. While the numbers don't quite bear out Donovan's feeling that the road team has its back to the wall after a Game 1 loss - road teams losing Game 1 have actually still won seven of 13 series since the WNBA went best-of-three for all playoff series in 2000, coincidentally also the first year of the Seattle Storm and Donovan's WNBA coaching career - 20 of the 28 series in that same stretch have been won by the same team that took Game 1.
A road win in Game 1 has proven the kiss of death for the underdog in a series. Of the 15 teams that have lost Game 1 at home - road teams have actually done slightly better in Game 1, 15-13 - only one has managed to beat a higher seed on the road twice in a row to overcome the loss. That team was Donovan's improbable 2001 Charlotte Sting, who advanced to the WNBA Finals as the fourth-seeded team in the Eastern Conference with wins on consecutive days.
Seven of the 28 series since 2000 have resulted in upsets, but, in a trend she surely hopes to reverse, three of those have been played under Donovan. In 2001, the Sting upset two teams on the way to the Finals. A year later, Washington upset Charlotte in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Next season, the WNBA will be switching to a best-of-five series format for the WNBA Finals, a change Donovan whole-heartedly approves.
"There's more margin for error," Donovan explained. "If you happen to falter or if, God forbid, somebody gets hurt, or in the case of foul trouble, you are really behind the 8-ball in the three-game format."
Best-of-three, best-of-five, whatever, the Storm wants to come home from Minnesota Saturday evening with a win.
"In the playoffs, it's a best-of-three, so if you lose the first game and the second one, you're out," said Simone Edwards. "There's no, 'We're going to fix this.' Now, it's really do-or-die."
The Storm continues to use the six days off between their last regular-season game last Saturday against Los Angeles and this Saturday's postseason opener in much the same way it would a similar lengthy break during the regular season. The last two days of practice have been spent by Donovan getting her team where she feels it needs to be for the playoffs, and Friday's practice will focus more specifically on what the Storm wants to do against the Lynx.
The mood was light at the end of practice, as Donovan concluded with an always-entertaining shooting contest, allowing guards Tully Bevilaqua and Betty Lennox to pick their teams (Bevilaqua's squad dominated). After concluding practice, Donovan joked around with her players as they stretched before coming over to speak to the media.
"I think we've gotten so much accomplished in two days," Donovan said. "It's great. It's been more about us than Minnesota. We're just trying to clean up some of our defense and improve our offensive execution. We've had two great days. Now we can take tomorrow off, travel at an ungodly hour (4 a.m. bus to Sea-Tac Airport), and get back to Minnesota on Friday."
Donovan is glad that the Storm ended up playing the Saturday-Monday-Wednesday series in the first round, giving the team an extra day of rest and preparation as compared to Sacramento and Los Angeles, whose series goes Friday-Sunday-Tuesday.
"That was the nice thing of getting in the odd-game series, playing on the 25th, is that it gave us an extra day and the ability to take two days in a row off, which we really needed. Then to have two good days of practice and another day off - I think the schedule really works in our favor."
