There was a moment midway in the third quarter of the Storm’s 80-61 win Thursday night against Phoenix that told the told the story of their playoff-opening win at KeyArena.
Storm guard Tanisha Wright chased down a pass from the Mercury’s Alexis Gray-Lawson and tip-toed along the sideline before giving the ball to Sue Bird.
The Storm’s All-Star guard led a fastbreak and made an assist to Wright, who buried a 3-pointer at the top of the key that sent many of the fans in the crowd of 7,279 into a frenzy.
It was that type of night for the Storm, which began defense of its WNBA championship with a suffocating defensive display that left the high-scoring Mercury players shaking their heads in disbelief and arguing with officials.
Seattle’s 21-point win gave it a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series, but this felt more like a knockout blow. Game 2 is 7 p.m. Saturday in Phoenix.
The Mercury finished the season averaging a league-best 89 points per game, but Phoenix couldn’t solve the league’s stingiest defense that allowed opponents an average of 69.9 points.
Seattle had won 10 of its past 11 games against Phoenix, and in many of those games, it was content to allow star guard Diana Taurasi to score while locking up everyone else.
“That’s not the intent, but it may look like that,” Bird said. “We try to limit her, but she’s so good that she usually gets her numbers.”
Not this time.
Taurasi, the league’s scoring champion, finished with just 11 points.
Without Taurasi and center Nakia Sanford, who sat out with a sore right knee, Phoenix had few options.
The Storm dominated nearly every aspect of the game. It held the Mercury to 29.7 percent (22 of 74) shooting from the floor. Seattle had more rebounds (49-35), blocks (6-3) and steals (9-6) and fewer turnovers (10-14).
“That’s one game,” Storm coach Brian Agler said. “It’s a series. We’re in it to try to win a series. We’re not thinking about anything else right now but Saturday.”
Tanisha Wright led Seattle with a game-high 21 points while Camille Little (17 points, 11 rebounds) and Swin Cash (10 and 11) finished with double doubles.
Lauren Jackson added 13 points and six rebounds.
Seattle took a 40-31 lead into halftime. In the third quarter, the Storm smothered the Mercury. Seattle scored 29 points and allowed just 11 on 4-for-22 shooting.
The blowout allowed Jackson to sit out the fourth quarter with her sore hip.
At Fever 74, Liberty 72: Erin Phillips made a turnaround jumper with 1.5 seconds to go to give Indiana the victory over New York in the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
New York’s Cappie Pondexter missed a 3-pointer that would have won the game as time expired.
Katie Douglas led the Fever with 25 points. Tamika Catchings scored 15, and Tammy Sutton-Brown added 14. The Fever lost a 15-point lead in the second half.
Pondexter led the Liberty with 18 points. She had scored at least 20 in six consecutive playoff games against the Fever.
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