Insider Preview - Storm vs. Phoenix
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Friday, August 24, 7:00 p.m.
KeyArena
TV: FSN - joined in progress after Mariners game, NBA TV
Radio: 1150 AM KKNW
Buy Tickets:
Kevin Pelton, storm.wnba.com
The preparations are nearly complete, the scheming nearly done. Tonight, the Phoenix Mercury and the Seattle Storm put a week's worth of talk about this matchup behind them and get on with the business of their Western Conference First Round series.
Lost in the conversation about the Storm's 2-1 victory in the season series has been the fashion in which Phoenix ended the regular season. The Mercury won 11 of its final 12 games, the lone loss coming Aug. 4 in Phoenix. Over that span, Phoenix has averaged a cool 94.1 points per game with a +8.0 point differential. The schedule wasn't overwhelmingly difficult in that span, but the Mercury faced six playoff teams in the 12 games, including finishing the season with a home-and-home sweep of Sacramento.
How to slow down the Mercury? That starts, naturally, with slowing down the Mercury - literally. As potent as Phoenix is in half-court sets, the team becomes exponentially more dangerous in the open court. In two losses to the Storm, the Mercury averaged 16.5 fast-break points; that number jumped to 28 in Phoenix's home win on July 17.
"We'll send two people back to try to make sure that we take care of their transition," said Storm Head Coach 
Anne Donovan earlier in the week.
There are few teams in the league capable of simply outscoring the Mercury in a high-scoring battle, but the Storm has demonstrated that ability by averaging 96.7 points in three head-to-head meetings. Donovan is comfortable with that strategy - so long as it keeps Phoenix in half-court offense.
Despite using a box-and-one defense at times, the Mercury struggled to contain 
Lauren Jackson. The Storm All-Star averaged 29.0 points in the three meetings, shooting 56.8% from the field and 61.5% from three-point range. When Jackson wasn't scoring, 
Betty Lennox was. Lennox went over 20 points in all three matchups, averaging 23.0 points and hitting 7-of-10 from downtown.
All signs point toward a high-scoring game and series. As Phoenix Head Coach Paul Westhead joked after the last game, "First to 100 wins."
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Westhead's comments this week indicate he doesn't believe Jackson can be stopped, focusing instead on making Jackson work for her points. The Mercury did a good job of that in the July 17 win, but Jackson still scored 33 points in that game. A key for Phoenix was the play of Penny Taylor, who got multiple open looks at the basket and scored 32 points on red-hot 12-of-18 shooting. Taylor combined for only 26 points in the other two head-to-head meetings. Containing her could be a key for the Storm.
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Janell Burse (torn ligaments, left wrist) is out.
Phoenix - None.
