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Sue Bird had not scored all day Sunday. In two games since returning from surgery on her left knee, she had hit just three of 20 shot attempts. Yet when the ball came to Bird with the clock ticking down and her Seattle Storm trailing the New York Liberty by one point, she hit the biggest shot of the day to give the Storm a 77-75 lead with 10.6 seconds left to play.
"We planned to get the ball to 
Izi (Castro Marques)," said Bird postgame. "She was able to make a great read and find me open. I know it’s a cliché, but even if you miss your first 10 shots it means you will make the next 10, so you have to keep on shooting. I am glad I had the opportunity to help the team get the win."
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Janel McCarville got a good look at the basket and Erin Thorn followed with a point-blank attempt with little defensive pressure, but it was long. When the ball nestled in 
Lauren Jackson's hands for her season-high 17th rebound of the game, the Storm had survived to snap a three-game losing streak and move a game over .500 on the season.
The Storm led throughout the first 19-plus minutes of the second half and appeared to have the game well in hand, leading 72-63 with 3:17 to play. From there, however, Seattle was unable to score. 
Tanisha Wright's layup with 1:16 left was the Storm's only field goal over a three-minute stretch. The Liberty countered with seven points from McCarville. Her layup in transition put New York ahead 75-74 with 30.7 seconds left.
It was Bird who first attempted to restore the Storm to the lead, missing a pull-up jumper with 20 seconds on the clock. The scramble for the ball ended in a jump ball with Jackson and Cathrine Kraayeveld vying for possession. A Liberty 20-second timeout gave Storm Head Coach Anne Donovan - who had burned her final timeout getting Bird back into the game in place of Wright just under the one-minute mark - a chance to draw something up.
"The plan was to get the ball to Izi and draw the defense to get an open shot," explained Donovan.
For the Storm to be in position to take advantage of Bird's shot required twin big efforts from forwards Castro Marques and Jackson.
Castro Marques continued her inexplicable mastery of the Liberty, scoring 23 points and hitting a career-high five three-pointers in seven attempts. It was her third consecutive effort of 20-plus points against New York and marked her fourth 20-point game against the Liberty out of the six in her career. Castro Marques' long-range pitches were especially valuable in the third quarter, when New York turned to a 2-3 zone defense that briefly stymied the Storm.
Jackson was confronted by physical defense and quick second-half double-teams but only her swollen right knee was able to slow her on this day. After slamming the knee on the hardwood in a third-quarter scramble for a loose ball, Jackson was in obvious pain as Storm Athletic trainer Kyla McDaniel worked to get the swelling down. She returned early in the fourth quarter and scored eight straight Storm points as the team pushed its lead to nine.
Jackson finished the game with her third straight double-double and her sixth in the last seven games.
"Lauren just flat out-works other players," said Donovan. "The rebounds that she got and the second-chance opportunities that she got, especially since she was playing with some pretty significant pain in her knee - it was really impressive."
The Storm overcame a balanced scoring effort from the Liberty, which had three players - guards Loree Moore and Erin Thorn as well as McCarville - score 16 points apiece and five players in double-figures. Still, New York dropped its fourth straight game.
"It would be frustrating if we didn’t play hard," said Liberty Coach Pat Coyle. "That would be frustrating. We put ourselves in a position to win. The lessons that we’re learning now are going to pay off. I just hope they pay off soon."
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