WNBA Finals | Katie Smith leads Shock to title

YPSILANTI, Mich. — Winning a gold medal in Beijing, a WNBA championship and The Finals most valuable player award ...

How does it feel, Katie Smith?

"I mean, it's been OK," the forward said to laughter in the interview room Sunday after the Detroit Shock won its third WNBA title in the last six years.

A 76-60 victory completed a three-game sweep of the San Antonio Silver Stars and came less than two months after the 34-year-old competed for the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic team.

"It's been fun. It's just been a lot of fun," she said.

Smith, who scored a team-high 18 points, was lifted from Game 3 with time running out as coach Bill Laimbeer emptied his bench to the earsplitting delight of the crowd.

A few minutes later, Smith was sprinting on the court with teammates to celebrate another championship as confetti fell from the ceiling. She averaged 21.7 points in The Finals.

Detroit became the second team in league history to win at least three championships. The Houston Comets won the first four, from 1997 to 2000.

It was an especially sweet victory for the Shock, which lost deciding Game 5 at The Palace of Auburn Hills to the visiting Phoenix Mercury last season.

"Last year was brutal. Last year was discouraging and we lost the championship, and I thought about moving on," former NBA player Laimbeer said.

Detroit swept the league's best regular-season team, winning the clincher at Eastern Michigan University's Convocation Center, a venue forced upon it because of a scheduling conflict at The Palace.

"It was our floor and our rims and our baskets," Laimbeer said. "We understand the situation, and we'll make the most of it. I thought we had a lot of fans in there that had never been a part of this before."

One sign in the stands read: "Not in our rental unit."

The Shock won its 2003 championship at The Palace and the '06 title at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, also a substitute venue because of a logistic conflict.

"We're already trying to figure out where we're going to play next year," said Shock guard-forward Deanna Nolan, who scored 12 points.

Silver Stars guard Becky Hammon, who averaged 19.8 points in her previous eight playoff games this year, scored five points on 1-for-10 shooting from the field.

Center Ann Wauters led San Antonio with 19 points.

"Right now, it is very disappointing, but if we can look back on the whole season, we had a wonderful year," said Wauters, who had nine rebounds.