Storm Tracker (July 11-17)

WEEKLY LEADERS

POINTS
Jackson - 21.3
Bird - 16.3
Lennox - 11.0
Burse - 8.3
Castro - 7.7

REBOUNDS
Lennox - 11.0
Burse - 5.3
Lennox - 3.0
Batkovic - 2.0
Bird/
- 1.7

ASSISTS
Bird - 7.3
Lennox - 3.0
Jackson/
Wright - 2.3

storm.wnba.com PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Sue Bird
16.3 ppg, 7.3 apg, 1.7 rpg, 8-18 3s, 4.4 a/to ratio
After coming back from two broken bones in her face, Bird struggled for a while to adjust to her plastic protective facemask. Clearly, she's not struggling anymore. Bird was 0-for-6 at halftime against Washington, but scored 16 points in the second half. That was followed by 14 of 19 points in the second half against the Silver Stars before Bird finished off the week with 14 points at Los Angeles. Bird's passing was a constant, as she had at least seven assists in all three games and leads the league at 6.0 assists per game.

July 11-17
Record for the week: 2-1
Overall Record: 10-10
Standing: 5th, Western Conference

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Kevin Pelton, storm.wnba.com

July 13, 2005 - Recap | Box | Quotes/Notes | Press Row |

	Washington	41	37	78
	at Storm	38	33	71

The Storm kicked off the second half of the season by hosting the Washington Mystics on Kid's Day, meaning a noon start. Neither team looked sleepy in the early going, as they combined for 49 points by the midway point of the first half. Washington, which shot 64.0% in the first half, held the lead at the break, but the game was tight down the stretch, with ties at 61, 64, 66 and 69. After a

Chasity Melvin layup,

DeLisha Milton-Jones picked Bird's pocket and started a fast break

Temeka Johnson finished with a layup. After a Storm score, inside the final minute, Johnson went one-on-one with Bird and hit a jumper to seal the game as the Mystics got a 78-71 win, shooting 58.8% from the field. Milton-Jones and

Alana Beard had 15 points for Washington, while

Iziane Castro Marques tied her career high with 19 points to lead the Storm.

July 15, 2005 - Recap | Box | Quotes/Notes | Press Row |

	San Antonio	37	33	70
	at Storm	42	50	92

Friday, the Storm returned to KeyArena to host San Antonio. The Storm led comfortably throughout most of the first half, by as many as 10 points, but the Silver Stars got within one at 52-51 with 12:41 left.

Lauren Jackson followed with a layup, Bird took a charge and hit a 3, then another. The Storm run continued until Seattle led 81-61 on a Jackson 3 with 4:39 to play. The final margin was 22, 92-70. Jackson had 27 points and nine boards for the Storm, which made a season-high 11 3s, Bird 19 and seven assists.

Katie Feenstra scored a career-high 17 points for San Antonio.

July 16, 2005 - Recap | Box | Quotes/Notes | Photo Gallery

	Storm	36	42	78
	at Los Angeles	30	40	70

Playing the second back-to-back of the season, the Storm traveled to L.A. for a game Saturday and caught a break before the game when the WNBA's leading scorer,

Chamique Holdsclaw, was ruled out. The Storm opened up a tight game just before halftime, using a 7-0 run to take a six-point lead at half. It was 45-41 Seattle with 15:07 to play when the Storm used three 3-pointers for a 15-4 run to go up big. Los Angeles rallied to six with 4:37 left, but

Betty Lennox answered with a 3 and the Storm cruised to a 78-70 win, snapping a five-game losing streak against the Sparks. The Storm's big three combined for 50 points, including 20 from Jackson, while

Lisa Leslie led L.A. with 19.

Weekly Happenings

Lauren Jackson averaged a team-high 21.3 points per game last week. Visit the new Photo Galleries page for more Storm photos.
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty

Hitting 90
Friday's game saw the Storm top the 90-point mark for the sixth time in franchise history. A complete look back at those games:

Points	Opponent	Date
95	Connecticut	6/22/05
93	Los Angeles	5/22/04
93	San Antonio	6/22/03
92	San Antonio	7/15/05
92	Los Angeles	8/6/03
90	at Phoenix	6/14/02

Storm Finds the Range
The WNBA's best 3-point shooting team in 2004, the Storm spent most of this season last in the WNBA in that category after starting the season with a dismal 6-for-32 performance against Los Angeles. Last week, however, proved to be the Storm's time to break out of the slump. Both Wednesday and Friday, the Storm set season highs for 3-pointers, and Seattle had more triples than in any other game this season in all three games.

All told, the Storm shot 50% from downtown (27-for-54) to boost its overall season performance from 30.2% from 3-point range to 34.4%, now sixth-best in the league.

Around the Web

Two of the WNBA's top rookies

squared off Wednesday, reports the Seattle Times' Jayda Evans.

Mark Bergin of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer used Friday's matchup between Lennox and San Antonio's Marie Ferdinand to look at

how the WNBA has evolved in terms of athleticism.

Wendy Carpenter of The News Tribune

previewed the second half of the Storm's season.

The Week Ahead