Bird scores 18 in Storm victory
Sue Bird scored 18 points and Lauren Jackson added 14 as the Seattle Storm extended their winning streak to six games, beating the Los Angeles Sparks 70-52 Saturday night in Seattle.
The Storm (14-7) had four players in doubles figures. Sheryl Swoopes had 13 points and Swin Cash chipped in 12. Yolanda Griffith was the only Storm starter not in double figures, but she pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.
Rookie star Candace Parker led the Sparks (12-8) with 14 points, but got off just 14 shots, hitting six. She came in averaging 18.7 points. Lisa Leslie had just nine points for L.A. on 2-of-10 shooting, but pulled down 11 rebounds.
Seattle, with the league’s leading defense, forced the Sparks into 20 turnovers, leading to 19 Storm points. Seattle also held L.A. to its season-low point total.
Up just 38-37 midway through the third quarter, the Storm closed the period on a 14-6 scoring run, including a buzzer-beating putback by Griffith, to take a 52-43 lead into the final 10 minutes.
It was 54-45 early in the fourth when Seattle put together a 9-1 run, pushing its lead to 63-46, and the Sparks never got within single digits the rest of the way.
The game featured five players who will be in next month’s Beijing Olympics. Parker, Leslie and Delisha Milton-Jones of Los Angeles will play for the United States, as will Seattle’s Bird.
Jackson will play for Australia. This was Jackson’s last game for the Storm until after the Olympics.
Familiar Wauters
Although Ann Wauters is in a new place in her return to the WNBA after a two-year absence, she has some familiar faces with her.
After averaging 13.7 points and 6.6 rebounds for New York in 2005, Wauters missed the last two seasons while trying to help Belgium qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
Atlanta selected her in the expansion draft this off-season and then traded her to San Antonio, where she was reunited with former Liberty teammates Becky Hammon and Vickie Johnson, as well as coach Dan Hughes, who drafted her in 2000 when he was with the Cleveland Rockers.
“It made the transition easier and faster because I know those players, I know Coach Hughes,” Wauters said. “It’s fun playing with them.”
Hammon and Wauters formed an All-Star tandem for the Liberty in 2005, and were also teammates in the Russian league this off-season.
“We have pretty good chemistry out there,” Hammon said. “She knows a lot of times what I’m thinking with just eye contact. It’s nice to have that.”
Close to home
For Mystics rookie Crystal Langhorne, the transition to the WNBA has been made a little easier because she didn’t have to move too far.
The former Maryland star is familiar with the Washington area, and the Verizon Center, the Mystics’ home arena, is less than 10 miles from Maryland’s campus.
Langhorne, averaging 4.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 13.9 minutes per game, says her biggest adjustment has been “the intensity on defense you have to play and what you have to play against, the type of defenses, they’re so much better.”