There will be plenty of storylines when the Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm
meet in the WNBA semifinals.
So many that the best-of-five series, which starts Sunday in Seattle, is fit for
the finals.
There’s Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi, the league’s career scoring leader, against
Seattle’s Sue Bird, the league’s career assists leader. The two were teammates
at UConn, overseas and with Team USA and are good friends.
There’s Storm forward Breanna Stewart, the Associated Press Player of the Year,
against two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Brittney Griner.
And Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner, who is averaging a league-high 29.0 points
in the playoffs, against Seattle guard Jewell Loyd, who scored 29 in each of the
Storm’s two victories in Phoenix this season.
Finally, don’t forget that Phoenix coach Sandy Brondello was an assistant under
Storm coach Dan Hughes a decade ago in San Antonio, with Hughes giving Brondello
her first head-coaching opportunity.
“The playoffs, especially where we’re at now is all about matchups, and it’s a
grind because you’re talking about a series as opposed to a one-and-done
situation,” Bird told The Seattle Times. “But there’s no secrets in this league.
The teams and players know each other pretty well.”
How well?
The teams met each other in their only two preseason games, then opened the
regular season with a home-and-home series, each winning on the other’s home
court.
Seattle took the rubber game of the regular-season series 102-91 on July 31 in
Phoenix.
“Seattle is the No. 1 team in the league. Breanna Stewart has had a fantastic
season,” Brondello told reporters. “They have a really strong five and good
bench that can come in. We haven’t played Seattle with the lineup we have. We
know it’s a five-game series. We’ll focus on that first game.”
While the top-seeded Storm (26-8) got a bye into the semifinals, the
fifth-seeded Mercury (22-14) beat Dallas 101-83 at home in the opening round and
then traveled to Connecticut, defeating the Sun 96-86 as the trio of Taurasi,
Griner and Bonner combined for 77 points, a league playoff record.
“We’ve faced a lot of big challenges, played in what I think were playoff-type
games to get us ready for this moment,” Storm coach Dan Hughes told The Times.
“What I’m anxious to see is us taking the things we’ve learned about ourselves
and just moving forward.
“It’s not as if anything necessarily changes. We continue doing the same things.
We have a veteran group here and they know how to focus on what’s important.”
