Taurasi scalds Storm

Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird made dinner plans while warming up for Wednesday's game between the Seattle Storm and Phoenix Mercury at KeyArena.

But Taurasi seemed to satisfy her hunger in the third quarter, when she ate the Storm alive with 16 points and ultimately helped the Mercury to its first road victory of the season, 87-80.

And Bird probably didn't have much of an appetite after the disappointing defeat before a crowd of 7,536, which dropped the Storm below .500 at 6-7. It was the team's third loss at home this season, matching last year's KeyArena total.

Storm coach Anne Donovan was left with a bad taste in her mouth after watching Taurasi and rookie Cappie Pondexter both exceed their season averages with 26 and 27 points, respectively.

"I expect that from Diana, but I'd like to see us contain a rookie better than we did," Donovan said. "It's difficult to survive the one-two punch. If you let them both get above their averages, you're asking for trouble."

Taurasi came into the game with a league-best 25.3 average, and Pondexter was fourth at 22.1 — thanks in part to previous games of 30 and 21 against the Storm. Pondexter scored 12 of her 27 in the fourth quarter to help stave off Seattle, which got as close as five in the final minute.

But Taurasi's third-quarter binge made the difference. After scoring just eight points in the first half on 3-of-11 shooting, she caught fire, hitting all four of her three-point tries.

"She kind of went off," Phoenix coach Paul Westhead said. "She can play in streaks like that."

Taurasi, a former teammate of Bird at the University of Connecticut, was nearly perfect in the quarter, making 5 of 7 shots, most of them with a hand in her face. She had a trio of treys during a 12-0 run that pretty much decided the game and took the steam out of the Storm.

When she hit a fadeaway two-pointer under heavy pressure, Taurasi turned to press row and slapped her hand on top of the table.

"You know, that's just excitement," she said. "Sometimes my excitement gets the best of me, but that's who I am. It's my Italian blood coming out."

Phoenix, once 0-4, is now 4-6 with impressive recent victories over Connecticut and Sacramento.

"I question if we took them a little bit lightly, based on their record coming in," Donovan said. "We did not come out and stay focused. There is not an easy game in this league."

Seattle had beaten Phoenix twice this season, most recently scoring a franchise-record 97 points on June 2.

This time, though, the offense seemed out of sync against the Mercury's zone defense. Seattle made only 3 of 18 three-point attempts and kept going away from the one thing that seemed to work, the inside game. Lauren Jackson had 28 points and 14 rebounds, both game highs, and center Janell Burse added 19 points, 12 in the opening half, but too often it was bombs away by the Storm.

"They had no answer for Lauren or JB, but we went away from that too often," Donovan said. "I think we get impatient."

Bird, normally a 36.4-percent shooter from three-point distance, was 0 for 5. Betty Lennox, who had connected on 8 of 14 three-point attempts in her previous four games, made only 2 of 7.