Morning Links: Storm Keeping A Narrow Focus Despite Record-Tying Victory

As the wins pile up, the Storm bandwagon is starting to get a little full.

The Underappreciated Seattle Storm
While it is understandable that some people do not care much about women's basketball, the hometown Seattle Storm are currently dominating the WNBA. Self-admittedly, I am not a huge fan of the Storm, but I did go to the game today.

They looked good, real good.

After the 75-59 loss, Tulsa Shock coach Nolan Richardson described what makes the Storm such an impressive team this season.

Women's Hoops Blog | Seattle Times Newspaper
"Seattle is so balanced," Richardson said. "Balance is important in basketball. Even though Jackson is a great player, all the cast around her is great. It's amazing how many players come in and contribute. That's a trademark of a very good team. They can just keep coming at you with a balanced attack."

In last night's game, Svetlana Abrosimova was the best representation of that balance.

Storm | Storm equals WNBA record for fast start | Seattle Times Newspaper
Abrosimova nailed four consecutive three-pointers to turn a two-point deficit into a 30-26 lead with 5:18 remaining in the second quarter. The Storm opened the third quarter on a 14-0 run, burying the Shock before a sellout crowd of 9,686 that was giddy to celebrate the return of Seattle's only winning professional sports team.

"I felt like I was at home in Russia playing with my family around," said Abrosimova, who fouled out with 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from three-point range. "It felt so good because a lot of people traveled during the All-Star break. Then we came back for two days and went back on the road. It was just three weeks of traveling."

But despite media hype around their record start, the Storm are not even talking about the record according to Storm coach Brian Agler and it won't mean much without playoff success.

Storm blasts Tulsa, stays in pursuit of history
Abrosimova has been around the league for some time. She doesn't want to hear about the records. "You have to win the championship, otherwise you're just going to be the biggest joke of the season," Abrosimova said. " 'Oh, you won 20 games in a row but you lost a championship.' Maybe when I'm 70 years old, I'll be like, I remember that time, but right now it's not ... I just want to get the ring and the win."