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Storm-Mercury Preview

Jun 30, 2009 - 6:19 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Seattle (6-3) at Phoenix (6-4), 10:00 p.m. EDT

Seattle Storm forward Lauren Jackson and Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi are two of the premier scorers in the WNBA, but both are coming off performances they would like to forget.

Jackson and Taurasi both look to bounce back from awful outings when the Storm and Mercury meet Wednesday night at U.S. Airways Center.

After beating Los Angeles 69-67 at home Friday, Seattle (6-3) suffered an 82-55 loss to the Sparks on Sunday at Staples Center to end a three-game winning streak. The Storm finished with season lows in points and field goal percentage (34.6), and committed a season-high 22 turnovers.

"We didn't play very well," Seattle coach Brian Agler said. "This was an effort that we hope is not repeated. We didn't play well together, broke down both offensively and defensively and we had a lack in execution. You name it, we did it, if it was negative."

Jackson had a season-high 32 points Friday, but was held to a season-low nine while shooting 3 of 10 from the floor in Sunday's rematch. Jackson, who leads the league in scoring (22.8) and had reached at least 20 in each of the first eight games of the season, failed to match Cynthia Cooper's WNBA record of nine consecutive 20-point games to open a season, set in 1999.

With the two-time league MVP pressured and unable to find good looks at the basket, the Storm didn't have a single player score in double figures.

"It was a bit of a beating, but we needed it," Jackson said.

Jackson didn't have much trouble scoring in Seattle's 93-84 win at Phoenix (6-4) on June 21, finishing with 25 points including a key 3-pointer with 1:03 left.

Taurasi also had 25 points in that game, but the three-time All-Star couldn't find her shot in the Mercury's 109-80 loss to Minnesota on Saturday.

Taurasi, the league's second-leading scorer (22.1), had a season-low eight points and missed 13 of 15 field-goal attempts. Neither of her baskets were from outside the arc, ending a streak of 55 games in which she'd made at least one 3-pointer.

With Taurasi unable to get in rhythm, Phoenix shot a season-low 34.3 percent from the floor en route to its most-lopsided defeat of the season.

"We have a lot of things we need to work on from this game. We can only get better," said rookie DeWanna Bonner, who had 19 points against the Lynx. "Everybody has their off nights, but we have to bounce back from this."

Cappie Pondexter also scored 19 for the Mercury, who have dropped three of four after opening the season 5-1. Their tailspin began against Seattle - a loss which snapped an eight-game home winning streak. Phoenix, which hasn't played at U.S. Airways Center since that defeat, plays five of its next seven games at home.