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WNBA: Storm fall to Mercury

Phoenix's Cappie Pondexter, left, fights for a loose ball. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
Phoenix's Cappie Pondexter, left, fights for a loose ball. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Diana Taurasi scored 22 points and played rugged defense on Lauren Jackson to lead the top-seeded Phoenix Mercury over the Seattle Storm 101-84 in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference series Friday night in Seattle.

Penny Taylor also upstaged Jackson, her fellow Australian and good friend, with 22 points as Phoenix earned its first playoff win since Aug. 27, 1998. The Mercury lost the final two games of that series to Houston, then two straight in the first round in 2000, and hadn’t been back to the postseason until Friday.

They now head home, where they were 12-5 this season, for Game 2 on Sunday. Game 3, if necessary, would be Tuesday in Phoenix.

Betty Lennox led Seattle with 23 points. Jackson had 16, eight less than her regular-season average, and nine rebounds.

The game may have been the Storm’s final in Seattle. Sonics and Storm owner Clay Bennett has said he will begin the process to move the Sonics, and may take the Storm with him, if an agreement on a new arena is not completed in the Seattle area by Oct. 31.

“Not even a minute after being told she had won the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award, Lauren Jackson was phoning home to Australia to her equally stunned mother, Maree.

“Yeah, a bit of a shock,” Jackson said later with a giggle, after the favorite to become the league’s MVP lifted a more unexpected crystal award by gaining 20 votes from members of the league’s media. Indiana’s Tamika Catchings was second with 16.

“A huge honor. I’ve never won a defensive award in my life,” Jackson said.

Liberty 73, Shock 51: At New York, Shameka Christon had 16 points and a franchise playoff-record 15 rebounds to lead the Liberty to a surprising victory over defending champion Detroit in Game 1 of their first-round Eastern Conference series.

Janel McCarville and Cathrine Kraayeveld had 13 points apiece for the Liberty, who closed the season with six wins in their last nine games.

“Liberty center Janel McCarville received the WNBA’s Most Improved Player award before New York opened its first-round playoff series against the defending champion Detroit Shock.

McCarville, selected by the Liberty in the Charlotte Sting dispersal draft in January, averaged 10.4 points and 4.8 rebounds in 32 games this season.