Storm get their revenge

SEATTLE — Two weeks ago, the Minnesota Lynx sent the Seattle Storm a message with a dominating 81-74 victory, ending Seattle’s 23-game winning streak at KeyArena that dated back to the 2009 playoffs.

Friday night the Storm marked that message return to sender.

Without the WNBA’s reign

ing MVP Lauren Jackson, who will miss at least the next three weeks with a hip injury, the Storm marched to a 65-55 win over Minnesota in front of the KeyArena crowd of 7,914.

“Yes of course there was a little revenge factor, especially just with how that game went the last time we played the

m. I know we were really focused on getting a win,” point guard Sue Bird said. “Really for us it’s about basics, playing the way we want to play, executing our offensive plan, executing our defensive plan and that’s what is so great about this win.”

Storm head coach Brian Agler, who picked up his 200th professional basketball victory, said he was happy with the way his team played.

“I thought we played well and I am really proud of our team,” Agler said.

The first quarter Friday played out much like the first quarter of the June 9 game when the Lynx started with a 22-0 run — only this time the role of dominant team was reversed.

Friday, the Storm jumped out to an early 16-4 advantage and ended the first quarter ahead 21-8. Without Jackson, it was Bird who played like the best women’s basketball player in the world. Bird scored seven points on 2-for-3 shooting and dished out three assists in the period.

The Storm offense also got a boost from Camille Little, who scored six points in the second quarter and finished the first half with 10. The Lynx had started the second quarter on a 15-4 run to cut the Storm lead to 25-23. Behind Little’s fierce play inside, the Storm went on a 10-2 binge for a 35-25 lead at halftime.

The Storm (4-2) outscored the Lynx 20-8 in the paint in the first half.

Little finished the game with a team-leading 16 points, but she singled out the Storm’s defense for praise.

“I was just glad to see our defense clicking finally, and consistent,” Little said. “I think overall we played a really good game defensively.”

The defense held Seimone Augustus, Minnesota’s leading scorer, to 17 points, and the Lynx shot just 21-for-68 as a team for the game.

Minnesota came into the contest with the WNBA’s best record at 5-1, and used a third-quarter run to get back into it. Minnesota outscored the Storm 20-12 in the third, shaving the deficit to two points, 47-45.

But that was as close as the Lynx would get. In the fourth quarter, the Storm answered every run Minnesota made.

“We didn’t get rattled, we continued to play,” Little said. “We knew what was working for us and we continued to go back to it.”

To go along with Little’s 16 points, Le’coe Willingham, who started in place of Jackson, scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

“There is no making up for Lauren’s absence,” Bird said. “No one can be Lauren, they can just play the way they know how, and I think they (Little and Willingham) did that.

“Of course you are going to miss a player of Lauren’s caliber, but what Camille and Le’coe bring, it’s different. And I think they were able to kind of play to their strengths and show what they can do.”

Off the bench, center Ashley Robinson scored four points, had six rebounds and one huge block of a Lindsay Whalen layup late in the game.

The Storm started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run, which included a layup and a three-pointer by guard Tanisha Wright, to take a 54-45 lead.

The Storm’s legs appeared to take the third quarter off as the Lynx became the aggressor early in the second half. But as the Storm have done so many times at KeyArena, they flipped the switch in the fourth quarter and buried the Lynx.

Seattle proved that it can play without Jackson against a good team on Friday night. But it was only the first of at least eight games on the schedule that Jackson will miss.

And the nightmare scenario for the Storm is that Jackson doesn’t respond to treatment and increased activity after three weeks and surgery is required.

That is still weeks off for the Storm, but for one night at least, the reserves filled in quite nicely.

Despite Jackson’s absence, Bird said she believes things are coming together for the Storm, who have struggled at moments early in the season.

“We had a little bit of an identity crisis and now I think we are just kind of getting back to what we need to do to win games,” Bird said. “We need to play hard defensively and let that kind of dictate what our offense is going to bring and go from there. I think tonight was a great example of that.”

Aaron Lommers covers the Seattle Storm for The Herald. Read his blog at www.heraldnet.com/storm and follow him on twitter @aaronlommers.