Storm grinds way to victory

It was sloppy.

Yet all that matters for the Storm at this point in the season is winning and staying as healthy as possible.

Despite 24 turnovers and sporadic play that never allowed Seattle (17-14) to settle into the numerous double-digit leads it built, the Storm won its regular-season home finale 87-81 over Charlotte on Saturday night at KeyArena.

The win, Seattle's third consecutive, cleared a bit of the path to the playoffs.

While San Antonio was eliminated from contention, losing to Indiana 76-70 on Saturday, Phoenix continues to trail Seattle. The Mercury defeated Los Angeles 96-80 at home to remain in the picture.

Seattle's magic number to clinch its third consecutive playoff berth is one — a Storm win or Mercury loss in their combined remaining seven games would give Seattle the spot.

After the game, Storm coach Anne Donovan reminded her team of just that.

"It was very sloppy and they had 22 more shot attempts than we did. It's rare you're going to win games when that happens," Donovan said. "I felt like we could put them away at anytime, but did not do that even down to the last [90 seconds] with our subs on the floor we had to make it interesting.

"Winning and staying healthy is the big thing, that's what we're most focused on. But getting people back into the rotation [is important, too]."

Guard Betty Lennox provided the early offense, scoring 18 of her 22 points in the opening half, but the Sting stayed within reach — a fourth-quarter bucket by Sting forward Ayana Walker made the score 66-62.

The Storm then took control by outscoring the Sting 15-6 over seven minutes. The Storm led 81-68 with 4:19 remaining, getting strong play from posts Lauren Jackson and Janell Burse.

Burse, playing in her third game since leaving the lineup with a re-aggravated left shoulder, recorded a double-double with game highs in points (23) and rebounds (12). Jackson finished with 20 points and 11 boards.

Charlotte reserve center Janel McCarville led her team with a career-high 17 points while teammate Sheri Sam, the first Storm player to leave via free agency after helping the team win the 2004 championship, was 3 for 14 from the field for eight points.

"All game it felt like we were edging away," Jackson said. "Not once did it feel like we were going to lose it or anything. It was a weird game in terms that it [the small lead] didn't feel threatening at all."

Donovan, who became the third-winningest coach in WNBA history with the victory, her 120th, said she used the game to begin shortening her rotation in preparation for its likely playoff spot. Reserves Tiffani Johnson, Barbara Turner and Edwige Lawson-Wade saw more playing time than recently acquired center Ashley Robinson and second-year guard Tanisha Wright.

Seattle will play its final three games on the road for the first time in the team's seven-year history.

The Storm is a franchise-high 8-6 on the road this season, riding a four-game win streak. Three more wins would give the team the same record it posted the past two summers (20-14).

"We have to be mentally strong and block out the injuries," said Lennox, who thanked the fans for attending the home finale. "It feels good to win in KeyArena and show our fans how much we appreciate them because our record is not good at all. We wanted to go out with a bang."

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com.