Storm's Lauren Jackson out indefinitely with back injury

Sitting in the Storm's locker room, Lauren Jackson didn't feel any pain.

A partial elixir was watching her team defeat Atlanta 91-84 in double overtime on Saturday at KeyArena. But spending the evening dressed stylishly in street clothes, she'll have to be satisfied with watching.

Jackson is out indefinitely with two stress fractures in her lower back on the right side.

The team's leading scorer (19.2), she will not travel today on the team's three-game trip to New York, Washington and Minnesota, missing at least four games because of the injury. In the meantime, doctors are trying to find a definitive diagnosis to properly treat the back.

"It was fun to watch," Jackson said. "The worst nightmare for any athletes is to have an injury. For me, I've had so many that I've had to deal with in my career, it's just another one I have to deal with."

Jackson, 28, underwent a bone scan Friday, which showed there was previous problem in the area. But Storm coach Brian Agler said there are "a couple hotspots" to be concerned about.

"It wasn't pretty trying yesterday, but she's the ultimate competitor," Agler said. "Sorting all that out, now it's to the point where let's find out exactly what we're dealing with and we'll go from there."

Jackson said she suffered the injury against Atlanta on Aug. 15, landing oddly after a rebound and feeling her back crunch in the locker room postgame.

"Everyone was listening to Brian talk and I leaned back," Jackson recalled. "I was like, 'Holy crap!' Everyone looked at me and I said I might have hurt my back."

But she continued to play, decreasing her minutes from 34 in a win against Detroit to a season-low 18 against Washington on Tuesday. Jackson played 30 on Thursday, falling hard on her back in a collision with Connecticut guard Lindsay Whalen in the fourth quarter.

The Storm clinched a playoff spot by defeating the Sun, however, and would have to lose the remainder of its games to drop to the fourth and final seed.

"Maybe," said Jackson of the probability that she could have worsened the injury by continuing to play. "There's more test that will be done to find out if it's a long-standing injury. But I've never really had a back problem really in my life.

"If they hadn't found that, I don't why the ended up giving me a bone scan, they weren't going to. It's funny because I would still be playing with a couple of stress fractures not knowing what was going on."

The Storm is 11-5 all-time without Jackson, notifying center Janell Burse on Saturday morning she'd be starting. The Dream was a tough task because of its lanky lineup full of potent shooters.

Seattle trailed 71-66 with 1:34 remaining before point guard Sue Bird went on a personal 7-2 run to tie the score at 73. Her three-pointer with 19.3 seconds left in regulation was enough to send the game into overtime.

But due to Seattle's lack of focus on the defensive end, Bird had to create heroics again in setting up teammate Camille Little for a short jumper to tie the score and send the matchup into a second overtime tied at 80.

In the second overtime, the Storm outscored the Dream 11-4 to seal the win. Bird had 24 points and eight assists and Tanisha Wright had 25 points and six assists.

"That was a huge win for us, sort of gut-check," Agler said.

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

Saturday night's box

Atlanta		fg	ft
min		m-a	m-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
McCoughtry	35:56	5-14	6-7	0-1	4	2	16
Lyttle	37:58	6-11	3-4	1-11	3	3	15
DeSouza	36:28	6-14	0-2	6-8	0	4	12
Lehning	27:24	2-4	1-2	1-4	4	1	5
Cstr Mrques	30:30	6-23	0-0	0-4	2	1	12
Lacy	12:02	2-3	0-0	2-3	0	1	4
Latta	22:56	2-8	1-2	1-1	1	3	5
Miller	6:03	0-0	1-2	0-1	1	0	1
Snow	13:32	3-6	0-0	3-5	0	2	6
Price	27:11	3-4	2-2	2-3	0	2	8
Totals		35-87	14-21	16-41	15	19	84

Percentages: FG .402, FT .667. Three-point goals: 0-9, .000 (McCoughtry 0-1, Lehning 0-1, Castro Marques 0-4, Latta 0-3). Team rebounds: 9. Team Turnovers: 20 (14 PTS). Blocked shots: 7 (McCoughtry 1, DeSouza 6). Turnovers: 19 (McCoughtry 4, Lyttle 3, DeSouza 2, Lehning 3, Castro Marques 3, Lacy 1, Latta 2, Price 1). Steals: 21 (McCoughtry 4, Lyttle 6, Lehning 3, Castro Marques 3, Latta 2, Snow 1, Price 2).

SEATTLE		fg	ft
min		m-a	m-a	or-t	a	pf	pts
Cash	43:09	7-15	1-1	4-10	3	5	15
Burse	41:43	7-11	3-3	3-6	1	4	17
Little	45:53	3-9	2-3	4-15	2	2	8
Bird	46:32	9-23	2-3	0-2	8	4	24
Wright	42:15	10-21	5-5	0-4	6	5	25
Btkvic-Brwn	6:16	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Johnson	18:35	0-0	0-0	0-4	1	1	0
Robinson	5:37	1-3	0-0	0-0	0	2	2
Totals		37-83	13-15	11-41	21	24	91

Percentages: FG .446, FT .867. Three-point goals: 4-13, .308 (Little 0-1, Bird 4-9, Wright 0-3). Turnovers: 25 (Cash 8, Burse 1, Little 3, Bird 3, Wright 4, Batkovic-Brown 3, Johnson 2, Robinson 1). Steals: 10 (Cash 3, Burse 1, Little 1, Bird 1, Wright 2, Johnson 2). Technical fouls: Brian Agler, 6:33, 4th quarter.

Atlanta	14 19 23 17 7 4 — 84
Seattle	20 13 20 20 7 11 — 91

Attendance: 9,089 (17,098). Time: 2:40. Officials: Penny Davis, Cameron Inouye, Tony Dawkins.