The usual suspects that have plagued the Mercury this season in spite of their 5-1 start have been rebounding and points in the paint. Luckily, for the Mercury, it has only translated into 1 loss.  That is, before tonight…

Seattle outscored the Mercury 42-26 in points in the paint and out-rebounded the Mercury 37-22, including 10 offensive rebounds for a 93-84 win.

The two (points in the paint & rebounding) are a direct correlation with each other; the more rebounds they give up the more likely the points in the paint edge will be in favor of their opponent. So far, it’s been the sole factor in the Mercury’s 2 losses.

The Mercury typically give up more 2nd chance points but those are usually off-set by the amount of fastbreak points and free-throws they get.  The real difference for the Mercury in losses is the rebounding edge, and is a problem they will need to address sooner than later.  Luckily, it hasn’t led to more losses for Phoenix. “That really hurt us,” Gaines said about the rebounding differential. “Rebounding is the thing, if we don’t rebound we can’t run.”

The Bad…

Seattle stormed (pun intended) out of the gates in the first quarter scoring 34 points on 12 of 20 field goals.  Swin Cash paced the Storm with 10 points but it was the 3 three-pointers and 7 made foul shots that really hurt the Mercury early.  Cappie Pondexter scored 7 of the Mercury’s 20 points in the quarter keeping the Mercury somewhat in the game.  10 total fouls were called in the half which slowed down the Mercury’s pace of play considerably.

However, in the 2nd quarter, it was the Mercury who got to the line 13 times making all 13.  It wasn’t until the 2nd quarter when the Storm finally began to cool off offensively and the Mercury began to heat up, namely Diana Taurasi. Finishing with 16 points in the half, Diana went off in the quarter hitting 3 three-pointers and getting to the line 4 times, hitting all 4.

The 2nd half was a different story with the Storm starting out slow and the Mercury taking a 4 point lead.  At the end of the third, Seattle came back and went up by 3.  That’s when the game drastically turned around. Seattle (and by Seattle, I mean Sue Bird) went on a 7-0 run to stat the 4th putting the Storm up by 10.  The Mercury came back to within 3 points with 1:53 left in the game but Seattle then hit back-t0-back three’s to seal the win.  “Road wins are always great wins,” Sue Bird said after the game.  “The fact that we were playing a team like Phoenix tonight that was playing very well coming into this game and was on top of the Western Conference, to steal one on the road here feels pretty good.”

This was an extremely tense game from both sides, especially with the refereeing.  Corey Gaines was thrown out of the game by referee Cameron Inouye and then continued to get upset while Cappie Pondexter and Le’coe Willingham had to restrain him.  “I guess we saw things differently,” Gaines said about the ejection.  “I guess she made the correct call and I was wrong. I was wrong. That was it.”

No word yet on when/if Gaines will be fined.

The Good

• On the plus side for the Mercury, Nicole Ohlde saw her first minutes of action this season. Nicole scored 4 points and grabbed a rebound in her 8 minutes. “It feels great. I was really excited to come play here,” Nicole said about her first game. “So to finally be able to step on the court in front of these fans, it feels really good.”
• Diana had 25 points tonight including 6 three’s and has hit 22 of her last 41 attempts from beyond the arc.
• She also had 5 blocks.
• Cappie with another well-rounded performance - 22 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds.
• The Mercury continue to shoot well at the free-throw line making 23/28 tonight.
• Turnovers were again low (9).

The Mercury travel to San Antonio tomorrow for their ESPN2 game on Tuesday night.

June 21st, 2009 8:20 PM