Storm Regroups Without Jackson
A day after suffering a disappointing 73-65 loss to the Sacramento Monarchs at KeyArena Wednesday, the Seattle Storm was back at work at The Furtado Center, preparing to travel to Los Angeles to take on the Sparks Friday night.
 Edwards will continue to replace the injured Jackson at power forward. Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty |
While not being consumed by the game against Sacramento, the Storm certainly learned from it. Donovan, who said she didn't have a feel for where her team was before the game, said Thursday she now knows, "We've got a lot of work to do." That starts at the defensive end of the court, as Donovan was very disappointed that her team allowed the Monarchs 45 points in the first half.
"We were a pretty shabby team in the first half," she said. "As we are down post players, we have got to play zone a whole lot better than we did in the first half. We've got to get better defensively, whether it's zone or man-to-man."
In Jackson's absence, the Storm played as much zone defense as it has all season against Sacramento, and that won't change against Los Angeles, as the Storm tries to battle Olympian Lisa Leslie with a short-handed front line, or Phoenix.
Beyond defense, the Storm's biggest problem against Sacramento was a lack of contributions up front. Guards Sue Bird, Betty Lennox and Tully Bevilaqua combined for 47 points, but the rest of the team managed just 18. The starting frontcourt of Simone Edwards and Kamila Vodichkova shot a combined 1-for-11 from the field.
"Hopefully, we can add (small forwards) Sheri (Sam) or Adia (Barnes) to that mix and we can get more production out of one or two of our post players," Donovan said.
"They can score," Donovan added, referring to the team's remaining posts. "It's just a matter of executing and finishing plays."
Donovan said she would not make a change to her lineup Friday, with Edwards - who had six rebounds, but was held scoreless against the Monarchs - again replacing Jackson at forward. Donovan is, however, hoping for the return of both center Janell Burse, who aggravated what she revealed Thursday was a slight tear of her right quadriceps muscle during the first half and did not return, and forward Alicia Thompson, who sat out against Sacramento because of back spasms.
Burse was able to participate in some of Thursday's practice, while Thompson attempted to practice but could not because of the pain. Both players are officially considered day-to-day.
The Storm isn't the only team with injury concerns. The West-leading Sparks, already playing without DeLisha Milton-Jones, who suffered a torn ACL in July, saw All-Star forward Mwadi Mabika hurt her right knee in their post-break opener Wednesday against San Antonio. Though an MRI conducted Thursday was negative, Mabika is considered a game-time decision. Losing Mabika on top of Milton-Jones and Laura Macchi, who started 15 games before returning to Italy during the Olympics break, would leave the Sparks perilously thin. However, that was the case Wednesday, and Los Angeles still prevailed behind 27 points and 13 rebounds from Leslie.
The back end of the Storm's third back-to-back set of the season will be the Phoenix Mercury, fighting for one of the last two playoff spots in the Western Conference. The Mercury started September with an impressive 63-58 win at Detroit, and rumor has it that Saturday may be the 2004 debut of center Maria Stepanova. The 6-8 Russian has not played in the WNBA since 2001, but will reportedly return to the Mercury down the stretch.
Donovan's goal for the trip is simple, but an important one.
"We've got to get back on track," she said. "We've just got to get back on track in terms of our defense more than anything. We were on track to give up 90 points last night to Sacramento. Hopefully, we'll come out of here with a win or two wins, but the bottom line is we've got to be playing better basketball when we come home and play Detroit next week. We've got to be making some strides here."
