Notebook: Storm Playing Through Pain
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While
Lauren Jackson's shins and plantar fasciitis draw most of the attention, the list of Seattle Storm players dealing with injury in some form entering the Storm's First Round Playoff series with the Los Angeles Sparks is lengthy. Besides the season-ending injuries suffered by forwards 
Shaunzinski Gortman and 
Wendy Palmer, the attitude is largely like that expressed by guard 
Betty Lennox.
"Right now, nothing can be hurt," Lennox, who has been bothered by a sore right knee, said earlier this week. "Whether it's hurt or not, it's the playoffs."
Lennox missed most of the second half of the Storm's July 28 loss to Detroit because of her knee, but has played through the injury since then and finished the season strong. Lennox averaged 16.8 points over the Storm's final four games, shooting 27-for-56 (48.2%) from the field.
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Jackson practiced for the second straight day Wednesday as the Storm continued preparing for Friday's Game 1 of the series with Los Angeles (7:00 p.m., NBA TV, KJR 950 AM, 
, first 5,000 fans receive rally towels courtesy of Virginia Mason Medical Center), but Storm Coach 
Anne Donovan still has some trepidation about how Jackson's shins and foot will respond to the compacted playoff schedule.
"First round, we're fortunate that it's every other day," Donovan said. "If we were fortunate enough to advance to the Western Conference Finals, it's not that format. So I think as we get deeper in the playoffs it will be more of an issue."
Center 
Janell Burse missed two of the three matchups with the Sparks this season because of her left shoulder. The partial tear of her shoulder labrum suffered before the season has left Burse more vulnerable to the shoulder subluxing, or coming out of the socket. Burse, who hasn't missed any practice because of the shoulder, termed it "okay."
Guard 
Edwige Lawson-Wade missed part of Wednesday's practice with a pulled muscle in her left foot, while 
Barbara Turner left early after experiencing muscle spasms in both calves. Neither injury will likely threaten their availability for Friday's game.
Gortman Preparing for Surgery
Gortman's season may have been ended more than a month ago by a torn ACL, but she was on the court after practice, shooting with Equipment Manager Andrew Starmer.
Gortman said the injury affects her "mentally, sometimes, because I want to play and I want to help the team, but physically, no I don't have any problems as far as walking and doing everything I want to do."
In addition to tearing her ACL, Gortman also sprained her MCL (medial collateral ligament) and her LCL (lateral collateral ligament), but believes those injuries have already healed. She'll have surgery to repair her ACL at the end of this month.
"At the end of six months I'll start running and cutting and basketball stuff," she said, putting her timetable for starting to return to the court at early March.
"It's been great to have a couple of days to rest and now a couple of days to really get focused on Seattle," said Donovan. "We've spent two days really working on our defense, working to clean up our offense, and tomorrow we'll work a little bit more on L.A. It's been great to kind of get our legs back and then have a mini-training camp."
The Sparks left rookie guard Brandi Davis off their playoff roster. With Gortman and Palmer sidelined, the Storm has just 10 healthy players and did not face any decisions.