It wasn’t going to be easy for the Seattle Storm to focus after the unveiling of the 2010 championship banner and ring ceremony that preceded Saturday’s game against the Phoenix Mercury.
But the Storm did just that.
Phoenix played the role of the team that looked distracted and Seattle played the same role it did in 2010 — unbeatable at home.
Powered by a dominant second half, the Storm won the 2011 season opener 78-71.
“It’s hard to go through that emotion and then try to get back on track into another type of mindset,” Agler said of the pregame festivities. “We started talking about this the first day we got back (to training camp), that we were going to go through it and we knew who we were playing and it’s a difficult opponent. We warned and cautioned what we were going to go through that day. I am probably more happy about just how we played going through that than even more so the win.”
The last time the Storm won the championship in 2004, they lost the following season opener by 68-50 to the Los Angeles Sparks.
But that was 2005.
Much of the team that was there in 2004 did not return in 2005 and the two key pieces that did — forward/center Lauren Jackson and point guard Sue Bird were six years younger than they are now.
This group plays more like the veteran’s that they are.
One of the veteran’s that is a newcomer to the 2011 Storm roster is Katie Smith, who the Storm acquired in the offseason from the Washington Mystics.
Smith, who celebrated her 37th birthday on Saturday, was greeted by a raucous ovation from Storm fans when she entered the game with 5:09 to play in the first quarter and even serenaded with “Happy Birthday” by the fans at the game’s conclusion.
It was a nice present for Smith, who came into the game as the third leading scorer in WNBA history with 5,760 career points. Smith, who scored eight points, was passed for third all-time during the game by her new teammate Jackson, who scored 15.
“I will take a win as a birthday present,” Smith said.
Jackson is now third all-time with 5,772, while Smith has 5,678.
Jackson is just 30-years-old and will no doubt finish her career with more points that Smith, but don’t be surprised is these two alternate spots a few more times this year with the way Smith showed she could shoot the ball on Saturday.
It wasn’t just the three field goals that Smith hit, which all came at key moments during the game — it was also the intensity. Each time Smith stepped on the floor, the intensity level seemed to pick up.
But the player of the game would have to go to forward Camille Little.
Little led Storm scorers with 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
“Since she has been here, she’s truly been the unsung hero,” Bird said. “Camille is the backbone. She fits in wherever she is needed and not a lot of players have the versatility to do that. Tonight, when we really couldn’t hit much, Camille got down in the post and just worked.”
It wasn’t all roses for the Storm. Mercury guard and 2009 league MVP Diana Taurasi made 11 of her 20 shots and finished with 31 points.
Taurasi scored 11 of her 31 in the game’s final two minutes to cut a 19-point lead down to five. But time ran out on the Mercury.
“We didn’t address it afterward because I wanted them to enjoy today, but we didn’t finish this game off very well,” head coach Brian Agler said. “We are better than that.”
The difference in the game appeared to be that the Storm had more depth. Seattle had four players in double-figures scoring and eight of the nine players who played scored.
Phoenix on the other hand got Taurasi’s 31, 13 from forward Penny Taylor and 12 from forward Candice Dupree and seven from center Kara Braxton, the rest of the team managed just eight points.
If anyone was worried about a championship hangover — the Storm answered with a resounding “No” on Saturday.
“Nobody is really talking about last season. After we got the rings, you know, ‘good job, thank you’ and now it’s 2011,” Little said. “Nothing that happened last year is going to help us this year. We can’t bring those games back, the ring isn’t going to make anybody die, they aren’t going to lose for us.”
The Mercury didn’t lose for Seattle on Saturday. The Storm just beat them.
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