Storm Ready For Monarchs Test
After taking Wednesday off from practice, the Seattle Storm took The Furtado Center court Thursday morning for the first time since finding out that they will face the Sacramento Monarchs in the Western Conference Finals starting tomorrow.
 Much of what the Monarchs do at both ends of the court is keyed by Griffith. Rocky Widner/NBAE/Getty |
Not only does the upset mean the Storm will have home-court advantage, but the team also trades facing the one opponent to beat it in this year's regular-season series (L.A. took three of four games) for the opposite role against Sacramento (the Storm took three of four against the Monarchs, the only team to beat Sacramento). Still, if there was any relief in the Storm's minds about facing the Monarchs, it wasn't evident Thursday.
"The better team won that series," said Storm Coach Anne Donovan. "Sacramento clearly was the better team in that series."
"Their defense was great, their rebounding was great, as usual, and their offense really started to click," added point guard Sue Bird. "They've really found their chemistry. I've always said they could be a tough team if they could put it together."
To some extent, the Storm did want to battle the Sparks, providing an opportunity to avenge L.A.'s sweep when the teams matched up in the 2002 playoffs and continue one of the WNBA's best rivalries. But there's a history there with the Monarchs as well. Sacramento won the first seven matchups between the two teams (and, when the Storm finally pulled off an 86-60 victory at KeyArena in June 2002, complained about Seattle running up the score two years after a 79-46 win at ARCO Arena). It was not until this season that the Storm finally shook its curse at ARCO, having lost the first seven games there as well.
"Players like to say, 'We've broken the curse,' but, you look at the overall record at ARCO, it's not very strong," said Donovan. "I am focused on this year (when the Storm won twice at ARCO), with a healthy reminder that it's not an easy place to play. We feel good going down there knowing we can win and have won, but it's certainly not a team or a location that we're going into expecting to walk away with an easy win."
While Donovan believes the Storm matches up "very well" with Sacramento, the Monarchs certainly pose challenges. That starts at the defensive end of the court, where Coach John Whisenant's uniquely aggressive system of playing the passing lanes and controlling dribble penetration made Sacramento the WNBA's best defensive team in 2003. The Monarchs were not quite as effective this season, but still forced turnovers on 24.6% of opponents' possessions, far and away the best mark in the WNBA. In three games against Sacramento, the Sparks committed 52 turnovers.
"Their defense is different than any other team's in the WNBA," Donovan said. "What you need against it is aggressiveness and patience. It's a funky combination of both. If you're passive, it's not going to get it done, but if you're overly aggressive, their help-side (defense) is real strong. So you've got to be smart and collected in how you attack, and I think we've done that. We shot 47% against them in the four-game series. That's being smart."
While the Storm owned a dramatic shooting advantage against the Monarchs (who shot 40.1% as a team), Sacramento did force an average of 17.5 turnovers in the four games - nearly three above the Storm's season average. That wasn't a problem, really; the Storm had just 12 turnovers in the one loss to the Monarchs (without MVP forward Lauren Jackson) but shot poorly. In the other games, the Storm shot well, using Sacramento's defense against them by getting the Monarchs out of position and getting open shots.
"We have an idea of what strategy works," said Bird. "We have an idea of our game plan, we're familiar with it. We've proven that it works, so we're going to stick with that."
Sacramento's defense might not get the job done were it not for center Yolanda Griffith, the 1999 WNBA MVP who is respected as one of the league's best defenders. Playing the passing lanes as a mobile post, Griffith actually tied Nykesha Sales atop the league in steals per game. She's also a shot-blocking factor when teams are able to get the ball inside, which is tough against a starting frontline that goes 6-4 all the way across.
On the offensive side of the court, the Monarchs can struggle. Whisenant is up-front that his team doesn't have a go-to player, and while Griffith is one of the league's top posts, scoring one-on-one is not really her forte. Only one playoff team, the New York Liberty, had a leading scorer who averaged fewer points than Griffith. (Apparently, that's not a bad thing in the playoffs; Jackson is the only one of the WNBA's eight leading scorers still playing, though three of them (Swin Cash, Chamique Holdsclaw and Katie Smith) missed the playoffs because of injuries.)
This reliance on secondary options means that the Monarchs can be streaky on offense. The Los Angeles series neatly illustrated that point, with Sacramento averaging 72.5 points in its two wins and putting up just 57 (on 26.9% shooting) in the one loss. In particular, the Monarchs offense lives and dies with the performance of forwards DeMya Walker and Tangela Smith and guard Kara Lawson. Walker, the WNBA's tallest small forward, worries Donovan to some extent.
"Obviously, the one area where they might think they have an advantage is with the 6-4 at the three," said Donovan, who experimented some with Jackson at small forward during practice, an alignment she used last year against the Monarchs. "But we've been able to handle that. Walker had one good game against us, but Sheri (Sam)'s done a very good job at that spot."
After averaging 12.3 points against the Storm last season, Walker averaged just 6.5 points in this year's four matchups.
The Monarchs also make up for their offensive deficiencies by relentlessly crashing the boards. Led by Griffith, who led the league with 3.6 offensive boards per game, the Monarchs reclaimed 36.5% of their misses this season, just a hair below league-leading Indiana.
"Their rebounding is what makes Sacramento so darn good," said Donovan. "They break your back with the offensive glass. Again, that's where their size comes in."
The Storm was outrebounded by 7.3 rebounds per game in the four regular-season meetings, so rebounding will need to be a focus in this series. Concerns about giving up offensive rebounds will also make Donovan think twice about using a zone despite Sacramento's inconsistent perimeter shooting.
After eight meetings in the last two seasons and 30+ games this year for both clubs, there are few secrets at this point. The Storm knows what it needs to do to win this series and advance to the Western Conference Finals; now it's a matter of doing it.
"We played Sacramento four times," said Bird. "We know them. They know us. It's not a matter of going over their plays or going over their personnel - we know it all. It's pretty much a matter of going in there and doing it, getting it done. We know they rebound - we've got to box out. It's as simple as that."
