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Lynx-Silver Stars Preview

Jul 11, 2009 - 5:06 PM By DAN PIERINGER STATS Writer

Minnesota (8-5) at San Antonio (5-5), 7:00 p.m. EDT

The San Antonio Silver Stars haven't yet set themselves apart in their bid to repeat as Western Conference champions. Sweeping a home-and-home series against one of the teams ahead of them in the standings would be a step in the right direction.

After getting their first road win of the season, the Silver Stars return to Texas on Sunday night in search of a second straight win over the Minnesota Lynx.

San Antonio (5-5) finished with the best regular-season record in the league and in franchise history at 24-10 in 2008, before advancing to its first finals, where it lost in three games to Detroit.

The Silver Stars, though, haven't looked like one of the WNBA's elite teams early in 2009. They're near the bottom of the league in scoring at 71.1 points per game, and they're in fourth place out of six teams in the West.

Beating Minnesota on the road Friday, though, gave San Antonio new reason for optimism. Sophia Young scored 21 points and Becky Hammon added 19 as the Silver Stars shot 50.8 percent from the field in the 77-61 victory.

San Antonio had made more than half its shots just once previously in 2009, and was coming off an ugly 66-53 loss at Seattle on Tuesday night in which it shot 29.8 percent.

"It was a very important game for us," said Hammon, who shot 7 for 13 on Friday in her most efficient performance of the year. "We hadn't won on the road yet and I thought the last game at Seattle, we probably played well enough to win, but we shot the ball terribly. It was nice to put a nice defensive game and a nice offensive game together."

Coach Dan Hughes was encouraged by his team's effort, especially after it fell behind 13-4 early.

"We're still finding our rhythm and gaining our momentum," Hughes said. "It was good to see us take their hit early because they came out and just delivered a blow to us. That's the thing I'm most pleased about."

Lynx coach Jennifer Gillom didn't have as much to be happy about. Minnesota (8-5) turned the ball over 20 times and missed its first eight shots of the fourth quarter, resulting in an unpleasant postgame talk.

"I had to rip them a new one," Gillom said. "We played together in the first few minutes of the game. Then we got a little lead and people started playing individually. We have to correct that."

The Lynx won three of their first four games after losing leading scorer Seimone Augustus to a season-ending knee injury, but Friday's defeat capped a disappointing 1-2 homestand.

Minnesota split two games in San Antonio last season. Lynx guard Candice Wiggins, a rookie in 2008, averaged 19.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 steals in those games, while Young led the Silver Stars with 17.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals per contest.