WNBA Playoffs 2010: A Spark Is No Match for a Storm as Seattle Rolls to 79-86 Game One Win Over LA

A sign in the stands at Key Arena, emblazoned with the aphorism, A Spark Is No Match for a Storm, said everything that needed to be said after the Seattle Storms 79-66 game-one victory over the L.A. Sparks on Wednesday evening, as the Western Conference Semifinals commenced.

Many of the more than 10,500 Seattle fans who filed into Key Arena, overflowing into portions of the buildings upper bowl of the building (which had been closed throughout the regular season), donned playoff T-shirts which read, We Are Home Court Advantage, a way of acknowledging the 17-0 home record the Storm forged this year, a first in WNBA history. That home record propelled Seattle to well, what else? home-court advantage throughout the 2010 WNBA Playoffs, and the Storm needed to exploit that edge as the 2010 season's colossus sought to translate its 28-6 regular-season record into its first postseason series win in six years.

As everyone in the WNBA community knows all too well, playoff success hasnt been easy to come by in the Pacific Northwest. The Storm entered this series having failed to get past the first round since their championship run in 2004. Moreover, the very same Los Angeles Sparks the team opposing the Storm on Wednesday had drummed Seattle out of the postseason in each of the last two years and four of the last five.

The Sparks postseason dominance of the Storm has been all the more galling for fans in the Emerald City, because in each of the past two seasons, L.A. has eliminated the Storm by winning a decisive Game 3 in Seattle. True, the 1-1-1 playoff travel format adopted by the league this year had yet to be introduced, but it remains that each year, L.A. won -- and the Storm saw their playoff hopes dashed -- in a deciding third game in Seattle's own house. The fans who so desperately wanted to witness a Storm breakthrough against the franchises number one rival were optimistic on Wednesday, but optimism itself doesnt dissipate half a decade of playoff pain.

Know what does? The kind of emphatic performance coach Brian Aglers team delivered in a 13-point lashing of their L.A. nemesis.

The Seattle Storm entered game one with that gleaming 17-0 home winning streak, and they left Key Arena with a still-perfect 18-0 home record for the season.

A big catalyst throughout the night was the Storms ability to do what it does so well: Turning good defense into easy offense. The Sparks might have committed only 14 turnovers to 15 miscues by the Storm, but coach Jennifer Gilloms team wasnt able to get run-outs when it pilfered the rock. Seattle, on the other hand, converted turnovers into fast-break buckets.

Meanwhile, the top seed in the West literally "Cash"-ed in at the other end, with Swin Cash scoring many of her game-high 20 points in transition. Cash was able to shoot 9-of-14 from the field because so many of her shots were easy kisses off the window, often the culmination of a lightning-quick break orchestrated by Sue Bird, who dished out 12 assists in a signature performance.

Photo Caption: The Storm's Swin Cash took advantage of the Sparks' double-team coverage of Lauren Jackson to post a game-high 20 points on stellar 64.3 percent field-goal shooting. The Sparks' Noelle Quinn (shown unsuccessfully attempting to stop Cash on the drive) had no such luck. Quinn put up just four points on a dreadful 1-for-9 from the field. Quinn also missed key defensive assignments, allowing the Storm to extend their lead.

Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Jeff Faddis

Bird once again demonstrated in her nine-point effort that she doesnt need to score big in order to have a major impact on the court. Her passing and vision, the cornerstones of a terrific floor game, made Seattles fast break devastatingly effective on Wednesday.

	Photo Caption: Sue Bird posted nine points, but her biggest contribution did not come in the form of scoring, but in setting up her teammates with an even dozen assists.
Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Jeff Faddis

The ability to capitalize on Sparks turnovers also allowed Seattle to play a blended game. MVP candidate Lauren Jackson got off to a quick start in the first quarter but then tailed off in the second. Her 17-point, nine-rebound totals just short of her seventh double-double of the season were modest in comparison to much of her regular-season output, but the Australian superstar was still quite efficient on balance. This was a game in which the Storms fast-break potency and team-wide balance didnt demand one of the sprawling monster performances Jackson has been able to produce at times.

Jackson scored six points in the first four minutes of play, connected on almost 50 percent from the field (6 of 14) and was a defensive anchor in the second half, as Seattle shut down the driving lanes that had been available for Los Angeles in the first half. Jackson wasnt dominant, but then again, she didnt need to be, as the attention she demanded from the Sparks' defense opened the door for her teammates to score, seemingly at will.

As a team, the Storm shot a sizzling 56 percent from the field and a respectable 43.8 percent from long range, numbers which Agler and assistant coach Nancy Darsch will take in every remaining playoff contest.

It was our game plan to double team, said Gillom, the coach in this series whose chops are still in doubt. We wanted to give Lauren Jackson as few touches as possible; unfortunately that left too many people open.

"Too many people open" pretty much sums up the key to Seattle's success on this night. In addition to Jackson's 17 points (and nine boards), three other Storm players finished in double-figures. First and foremost, was Swin Cash with her game-high 20 points, five boards, and 9-for-14 shooting. Cash who threw herself around the court in a signature high-energy performance was the one who led the Storm on both sides of the ball from the opening tip to the final horn.

In a lot of ways the heart and soul of this team (lies) with her productivity and with her competitiveness, said head coach Brian Agler of his Cash-money performer.

It wasn't just the number of Cash's points that made the difference, it was their timing as well. To cite just one example, Cash opened the fourth quarter with four straight points to extend Seattles lead back to 15 at a time when the Sparks appeared ready to rally.

Swin was really energetic tonight, she was active she was getting out in transition and she hit a couple of big baskets, Agler said.

Camille Little added 11 points to the mix, but some of the Storm's scoring came from a less likely source of point production. Going into the game, it was widely observed that the Storm's multiplicity of scoring options was likely to prove a problem of L.A. But most were thinking about the Seattle headliners -- Swin Cash, Sue Bird and, to a lesser extent, Camille Little and Tanisha Wright. But with the L.A. double-teams hard-pressed simply to contain Jackson, this was a night on which other Storm-troopers also stepped into the spotlight.

Photo Caption: Rookie forward Jana Vesela proved to be the unlikely hero of the game for Seattle, coming off the bench for 11 points. Perfect from both the field and the three-point arc, Vesela might not have been the game's high scorer, but her emergence as an additional scoring threat for the Storm, as well as the timing of her three treys, had to have been deflating for the Sparks.

Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Jeff Faddis

None of Seattles heroes was more surprising than reserve forward Jana Vesela. Coming off the bench to play a little more than 12 minutes, the Czech rookie was 4-of-4 from the field, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Vesela finished with a career-high 11 points and was unquestionably the most valuable player on the floor in the first half as her three timely three-balls quickly derailed L.A.'s attempts to get itself back in the game.

The story of Veselas development is in many ways the story of how this season has followed a different trajectory from past campaigns in the Northwest. Whereas the Storm have typically entered the playoffs minus their superstar, with a thin bench and a lack of go-to options outside of their starting core, Seattle now has eight solid players in its rotation. For much of the year, Agler had seven reliable performers, but with the team already assured of home-court advantage in the playoffs with three weeks left in the regular season, Agler was able to give extended minutes to Vesela and the other players at the end of the bench. The 26-year-old Czech consistently provided quality defense with her long 6-3 frame, but her offensive game looked very shaky at times, particularly from the perimeter.

How delicious it had to be, then, for the WNBA rookie not only to shine in the playoffs, but to do so with the best three-point-shooting display of her Storm career. Without getting extended playing time over the past month made possible by the teams dominance through the month of July Vesela simply could not have delivered this kind of high-impact performance. Many observers rightly noted that the Storm had an extra edge in this series because their main stars Jackson in particular were finally healthy and rested entering the playoffs, a rarity for the snake-bitten Seattle franchise. The delightful irony for the Storm organization is that Veselas development a by-product of Jacksons rest made a huge difference in game one of this best-of-three set.

On the other side of the court, the Sparks took themselves out of the game with a choppy first quarter that saw L.A. fall behind by as many as 15 points. Their shaky ballhandling and an inability to convert on many of the Storms 15 turnovers sealed their fate. The Sparks made several attempts to rally, but each time, the Storms defense proved too much, particularly in the face of a double-digit deficit.

Once again, Gillom summed it up quite neatly: We had way too many turnovers, we just didnt care of the ball, we let them get too big of a lead in the first quarter.

Add to L.A.'s laundry list of problems poor shot selection, an overly quick trigger, and at times, a seeming inability to find the basket with a map and a homing signal. In terms of marksmanship, the only bright spot of the night for L.A. came at the charity stripe, where the Sparks went a perfect 9-of-9 in the first half and finished 13-of-15 (86.7 percent) to Seattle's 8-of-12 (66.7 percent).

Elsewhere, however, Sparks' shooting ranged from mediocre to abysmal, as veteran players repeatedly missed chippies and failed to finish lay-ups. As a team, L.A. shot just 40.7 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from beyond the arc. Marie Ferdinand-Harris led the way with 18 points, including 2-of-4 triples.

Photo Caption: Marie Ferdinand-Harris led Los Angeles in scoring with 18 points, but as a team, the Sparks had no answer for the multiple scoring threats of the Storm.
Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Jeff Faddis

Tina Thompson was hot on her heels with 16 points, but six of them came at the line as Thompson, carrying the primary load of the match-up against Jackson, struggled to find her shot, going just 5-of-15 (33.3 percent) from the field and 0-for-three from three-point range. Kristi Toliver also chipped in 16 points off the bench.

But Toliver was the only member of the Sparks' roster to shoot better than 50 percent from the field (6-of-9, or 66.7 percent from the field, and 3-for-4, or 75 percent, from long range).

Photo Caption: Kristi Toliver was the only Sparks' player to shoot the ball well, notching 16 points off the bench on 66.7 percent from the field. Her contributions included three well-timed treys that helped fuel Sparks' rallies in the second and fourth quarters. Still, the double-digit hole L.A. had dug for itself in the opening period proved to much to overcome.
Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Jeff Faddis

At the opposite end of the spectrum was starting guard Noelle Quinn, who had turned in an 18-point performance on 7-of-9 (77.8 percent) field-goal shooting in L.A.'s one-point loss to the Storm last Saturday. There was no such contribution from Quinn on Wednesday, as she turned in a meager four points on an embarrassing 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) from the field, including 0-for-2 from beyond the arc.

As has oft been the case this season, L.A. also lost the battle of the boards, hauling down just 25 rebounds to Seattle's 31. True, with Candace Parker out, Seattle holds a distinct height advantage over the Sparks, but because L.A. settled too often for jump shots, frequently there were no purple jerseys in a position to rebound. At other times, it looked like a lack of effort, as no one on the box seemed to be working very hard to box out. Either way, L.A.'s poor rebounding made it difficult for the Sparks to get their running game started and compounded the problems created by the Sparks' poor ball-handling, particularly in the early minutes of the game. Thus, it was no surprised that the Storm finished with 11 fast-break points to just four for L.A.

Photo Caption: It was no surprise when Sparks' point guard Ticha Penicheiro (shown here unsuccessfully attempting to defend a drive to the hoop by Swin Cash) posted only four points. Penicheiro has not been much of a scoring threat of late; her contribution comes in other ways -- dogged defense, steady ballhandling, assists delivered often and on target (she leads the league in that category), and surprisingly for a point guard, rebounding. But Penicheiro dished out just one assist and grabbed but two boards in this game, after heading to the sidelines clutching her quadriceps in pain. It will be a big loss for L.A. if Penicheiro is not ready to go come Saturday's game two.

Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Jeff Faddis

The Storm will head down to L.A. on Saturday, where the series will resume at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, 12 noon Pacific Daylight Time. That gives Jen Gillom very little time to plug up the holes in the proverbial dike. Should she fail to do so, Seattle will have a chance to clinch the series in Saturday's game two and advance into the second round of the playoffs for the first time since their title run in 2004.