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Storm Stays Perfect at Key
Final: Storm 70, Phoenix 63
Diana Taurasi was unreal tonight. She finishes with 37 points on 13-of-20 shooting and seven three-pointers, just shy of the third 40-point game of her illustrious career. Taurasi had a three-point play to bring Phoenix within four at 76-72, but Lauren Jackson got to the free-throw line and Swin Cash drew a loose-ball foul when LJ missed her second shot. That allowed the Storm to push the lead back to eight. With defenders draped all over Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter hit a three to make it a one-possession game, but Sheryl Swoopes answered with an extremely clutch triple and the Storm got a stop, holding on for the win.
Lots of heroes on the Storm side. Swoopes scored 17 points, a new Storm high for her. She continues to look better and better all the time and ice water still runs through her veins when the game is on the line. Lauren Jackson had 20 points and a season-high 14 rebounds despite facing heavy defensive attention all night long. Swin Cash came up with 17 big points and five rebounds. Yolanda Griffith fell a rebound shy of her first Storm double-double with 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists. And while Sue Bird did not shoot the ball well, she had a big layup off a backdoor cut in the fourth, handed out six assists and tied her career high by pulling down eight rebounds from the perimeter. The bench was big too, including seven points and five rebounds in nine minutes of action for Shyra Ely before she injured her chin.
The Storm now heads out on the road, looking to extend some of the magic the team has had at KeyArena to away games. On Friday, the Storm will decide the season series with the Western Conference rival San Antonio Silver Stars. On Saturday, it's a back-to-back against the Houston Comets. Then the team will have only a travel day before returning to the Key to host the league-leading Connecticut Sun in another early-season showdown. You won't want to miss that clash of contenders from opposing conferences. 
Get your tickets now and join us!
No Lead Safe from Taurasi
Fourth Quarter: Storm 70, Phoenix 63
Meanwhile, the Storm has been much more balanced with four players scoring double-figures. However, there's no doubt Lauren Jackson is the go-to player down the stretch. Jackson has 19 points and 14 rebounds tonight.
Phoenix Back Up; Ely Down
Fourth Quarter: Storm 64, Phoenix 58
The Storm had to take a timeout after Cappie Pondexter, on her way to the bucket, accidentally nailed Shyra Ely in the chin with an errant elbow. Ely was down for a while before going into the locker room. Hope she's doing OK. Sue Bird's confidence has been shaken by her 0-for-10 shooting night. She missed her first free-throw attempt of the evening and the crowd sensed Bird needed a lift and gave her a nice hand. She then knocked down the second free throw for her first point of the evening.
Storm Takes Momentum to the Fourth
End Third Quarter: Storm 56, Phoenix 49
Meanwhile, the Storm is getting production from the bench. Ashley Robinson was extremely active in the first half, Tanisha Wright has been dissecting the zone and ding up Pondexter and Shyra Ely has three times grabbed an offensive rebound and gotten to the line, hitting five free throws.
On Their Feet
Third Quarter: Storm 46, Phoenix 44
Fun thing during the timeout, as the fathers of the Storm Dance Troupe joined their daughters to throw out t-shirts in the Discover Card T-Shirt Toss.
Storm's Lead Precarious at Break
Halftime: Storm 36, Phoenix 35
The three UConn alumnae (and no, I'm not counting Phoenix reserve Willnett Crockett) have figured prominently so far. Diana Taurasi leads all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting and is the only Phoenix player with more than five points, Cappie Pondexter struggling and having to sit out because of foul trouble. Swin Cash has 14 points for the Storm. However, Sue Bird has been unable to find the touch. She's missed all eight of her shot attempts, including 0-for-5 from three-point range. Bird and Lauren Jackson have combined to miss all nine of their attempts from downtown. Knock down a couple of those (and remember, Jackson shot 40.2 percent on threes last year, Bird 33.8 percent) and this is a totally different game. Still, Phoenix has to be awfully pleased to be right in this game with Pondexter playing just 12 minutes in the first half. Should make for an interesting final 20 minutes.
Westhead 'Still Around'
Second Quarter: Storm 36, Phoenix 33
"He's still around; I talk to him all the time," said Gaines. "It's the same - instead of talking to him in person, I talk to him on the phone. Even if I wasn't coaching, I would still be talking to him because we've known each other for 20 years."
Gaines has tweaked the system, but has generally maintained the Westhead 'Paulball' philosophy of pushing the ball at every opportunity. How could he change things after playing under Westhead at Loyola Marymount and with the Denver Nuggets and coaching under him in Phoenix? Naturally, on this trip to Seattle, Gaines met up with Westhead yesterday for dinner at P.F. Chang's.
The Exception That Proves the Rule
Second Quarter: Storm 32, Phoenix 28
Some special fathers in attendance tonight. Ashley Robinson's father Kenneth is sitting courtside along with Sue Bird's dad Herschel, a regular at Storm games. Next to them is Seahawks wide receiver Bobby Engram with his young daughter, who is wearing a Swin Cash jersey. Cash's partner played wide receiver alongside Engram at Penn State.
Storm Moving the Ball
Second Quarter: Storm 30, Phoenix 24
A special Dads & Daughters feature during the timeout: Dads and daughters competing in a dance-off. Some of those fathers don't quite have the moves they used to have, if they ever had any at all. Still, everybody had a lot of fun.
Foul Trouble Hampers Mercury
End First Quarter: Storm 20, Phoenix 18
The one disappointment is that the Storm's lead isn't larger than two points. It really feels like the Storm has dominated this game so far, but Phoenix has four hits from three-point range and that has helped keep the Mercury in the game. We'll see how that changes in the second quarter.
Slow Start on Offense
First Quarter: Storm 10, Phoenix 10
Phoenix has mostly used a box-and-one defense with Diana Taurasi matched against Lauren Jackson. That stymied the Storm right off the bat, but now Seattle is beginning to play the angles and find the gaps for some better looks. Sheryl Swoopes is still hot - she's got six points and has hit another three in the early going.
Smith Sidelined
Pregame
Signing On
Pregame
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