Storm @ Silver Stars Previews

Capsule preview: Storm at San Antonio by Jayda Evans of The Seattle Times:

When: 5 tonight

Where: at SBC Center

Radio: KJR (950 AM)

Records: Seattle 7-7, San Antonio 3-12

Battle of the Olympic Point Guards
Sue Bird against Shannon Johnson
when San Antonio visited Seattle
May 29, 2005

Bottom line: The Storm, which is riding a three-game losing skid, will attempt to finish this four-game trip with a victory. ... Jackson was benched for 16 minutes during the Houston loss on Tuesday and Castro Marques missed the game due to a league suspension, but both are expected to return to the starting lineup tonight. ... Two of San Antonio's wins were at home. ... The Storm won both of its road games against the Silver Stars last season, but is 3-5 on the road this season. ... Storm forward Alicia Thompson celebrates her 29th birthday today.

Betty Lennox driving past Shannon
Johnson and Chantelle Anderson
May 29, 2005

Injuries: Silver Stars — F LaToya Thomas (shoulder) and F Kendra Wecker (torn right ACL) are on the injured list. Storm — C Burse (sprained right ankle) questionable, C Mandisa Stevenson (lower back pain) is on IR.

P STORM HT PPG R/A
F I.C. Marques 6-0 8.4 3.2 R
F Lauren Jackson 6-5 16.7 9.6 R
C Janell Burse 6-4 10.4 5.9 R
G Betty Lennox 5-8 13.7 4.9 R
G Sue Bird 5-9 11.8 5.9 A
P SILVER STARS HT PPG R/A
F Dalma Ivanyi 5-9 1.8 2.3 A
F W.Palmer 6-2 9.3 6.2 R
C C. Anderson 6-6 6.4 1.9 R
G M.Ferdinand 5-9 13.7 4.2 R
G S. Johnson 5-7 7.7 4.9 A

Yahoo! Sports WNBA Preview

Lauren Jackson against
Chantelle Anderson down
low, May 29, 2005.

The defending WNBA champions are struggling, and so is their superstar.

Having fallen to .500, Lauren Jackson and the Seattle Storm hope to avoid their longest losing streak in nearly two years as they close a four-game road trip against the last-place San Antonio Silver Stars.

Seattle began the trip on Friday with a loss to Los Angeles, then fell at Minnesota on Sunday and in Houston on Tuesday.

The 71-67 defeat to the Comets dropped the Storm to .500 for the first time since they were 1-1 on May 27.

A loss in this contest would drop Seattle below the break-even mark, and hand the team its longest losing streak since a five-game skid from Aug. 12-20, 2003.

Tuesday's defeat saw reserve Suzy Batkovic score 16 points in relief of star center Lauren Jackson, who did not play most of the second half and took just four shots for six points.

Following the game, a visibly upset Jackson did not understand why she was benched.

``I honestly have no idea, why,'' said Jackson, the 2003 league MVP.

Seattle Coach Anne Donovan declined to comment on the status of Jackson, who had just six points on 1-of-11 shooting in the loss to Minnesota.

The Storm, who despite their recent problems are just 2 1/2 games behind first-place Sacramento in the Western Conference, hope Jackson can break out of her slump in this matchup. Jackson had 21 points and seven rebounds in the Storm's 79-51 rout of San Antonio on May 29.

The Silver Stars are coming off a 1-3 road trip.

On Tuesday, San Antonio led by as many as 11 points in the first half before succumbing to a Minnesota rally in a 63-53 loss. Guard Marie Ferdinand had 10 points for the Silver Stars, who are 0-8 against Western Conference opponents this season.

``The thing that cost us the game was that we weren't able to weather the storm,'' Ferdinand said. ``We gave them too many layups, easy transition baskets, and that's because of turnovers.''

The Silver Stars had 17 turnovers in Tuesday's loss and a total of 60 in their road trip.

Image Source >> Scowl from StormFans.Org