Practice Pays Off for Storm
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Get Storm Headlines!The Seattle Storm practiced for three hours Tuesday at The Furtado Center, but you won't catch players griping about the length. While they may not always love Allen Iverson's nemesis, the Storm realizes just how important practice is to the team's success. That conclusion was only reinforced last weekend, when the Storm followed three practices in a span of four days off with its best basketball of the young season, beating the Minnesota Lynx by 28 points at home Friday and going on the road to defeat the West-leading Phoenix Mercury on Sunday.
"Real good weekend for us," summarized Head Coach 
Brian Agler. "We played well. We got better last week, and I think it showed on the floor. I like the way we were focused, we prepared and we brought things to the floor."
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"Preseason is one thing because you're up and down on the court and stuff, but getting into games and knowing what we need to work on, it translates," said 
Lauren Jackson. "Brian demands the very best of us when we're training. Practice makes perfect, I guess that's what they say. It doesn't always happen, but I guess sometimes it does."
The Storm's offense wasn't quite perfect in the two wins, but it approached that mark at times. During the first half against Minnesota, the Storm shot 72.7 percent from the field. The team then scored 34 points in the first quarter in Phoenix, running up an early 14-point lead on the Mercury. While both of the weekend's opponents are offensive-minded squad, the Storm's execution was impressive, and the team ranks second in the WNBA behind Phoenix in scoring per possession. Still, Agler and his players want even more.
"I think we still could do a much better job, but we're improving," said 
Sue Bird. "As the season has gone, we've definitely gotten better offensively, which is always a good sign. I think the fact that we've actually gotten to practice really helps."
"I like our field-goal percentage," added Agler. "I think we're going to become more of an efficient basketball team as we go along. I don't think we're great there. What I'm thinking about is our assist-to-turnover ratio. Even though we're positive, I'd like to see a wider gap. I thought Sue Bird had an unbelievable weekend in terms of 19 assists and no turnovers. I think we're improving and I hope we keep going that direction."
Last year, it took the Storm until nearly the midway point of the season to reach this level on offense. When that happened, the team won six straight games before Jackson's departure to join the Australian National Team prior to the Olympics. Then, everyone on the roster was learning Agler's offense in his first season as the Storm's head coach. Now, there is more experience in the offense.
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Get your tickets now!Jackson has seen a difference in terms of when everything isn't clicking for the Storm and the team needs to improvise.
"Even when we are stagnant in our offense and don't know what to do, we're getting scores off of that, which is a huge bonus for us," she said. "Last year, we just stood still. I think random cuts and random screens are happening a lot more regularly now than what they were last year, and that's what this extra practice time is doing for us. It's letting us get used to each other and know when to cut and that sort of stuff."
Last weekend, that improvement showed up on the court.
