Does It Matter That The Storm Were 'Sleep-Walking' Against The Dream?

So I suppose there are (at least) two ways to look at the Storm’s victory over the Atlanta Dream last night.

One way to see it is that the Storm’s reserves stepped up.

The other is that the Storm’s starters were sleep-walking for most of the game.

Sleep-walking Storm silences Dream
Because they had clinched home-court advantage in the Western Conference and just needed a loss from the top seed in the Eastern Conference to secure the top seed in the WNBA playoffs, the Seattle Storm rested their starters for most of the first half. And when the starters did play they lacked emotion and tried to pick their spots to give maximum effort.

But even the sleep-walking, semi-interested Storm were too much for the Dream on Tuesday.

Seattle outscored the Dream 17-3 in the final 4:50 for an 80-70 victory to clinch the top seed in the WNBA playoffs.

It’s something that’s difficult to tell from watching a game on a computer screen, but that’s probably not what Storm coach Brian Agler had in mind when he said he wanted his team to stay sharp through this final stretch of the season.

Crisis? Certainly not and the fact that the reserves played so well is far more important. Let’s be honest — the Storm have nothing to play for at this point so worrying about sleep walking in one performance is probably pointless.

Of course, the fact that they ended up stepping up and winning as a team with a crushing run to finish the game is impressive and shows just how potent this team is.

Even when they’ve just awaken from a slumber.

Storm Begin East Coast Swing In Atlanta: Expect Rest

With nothing much more to play for at 24-4 and only 6 regular season games left, we might see Seattle Storm coach Brian Agler begin resting his starters at some point during this three game Eastern Conference road trip which begins tonight at 4 pm PST against the Atlanta Dream.

"What else can we do?" said Agler after Saturday's rout of the Tulsa Shock. "We can't do anything else. We can win every single game and it won't make a difference. We can lose every single game and it wouldn't make a difference. So the two goals are to stay sharp and to be fresh going into the playoffs."

To be precise, the Storm have not technically wrapped up home court advantage throughout the playoffs -- there's still the matter of a tie breaker with the Indiana Fever.

STORM: Insider Preview - Storm at Atlanta
It's also not clear how Storm Head Coach Brian Agler will approach the game. He has discussed the possibility of sitting his starters during the second half of road games to rest them for the playoffs, but the Storm is still one win (or an Indiana loss) away from securing home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, so Agler may hold off until everything is buttoned up.

However, even that tie breaker doesn't necessarily exclude the possibility of resting players on the road and then taking care of home court advantage when they return home.

In any event, the point is that there's a game to be played tonight against the Atlanta Dream and they do have something to play for. At 18-11 the Dream are still a half game back of the Indiana Fever in the Eastern Conference standings. After losing in Seattle earlier in the season, the Dream see this as one of the bigger games of their season.

Seattle is a model franchise for Dream  | ajc.com
Guess who's coming to dinner? The Dream (18-11), who trail Indiana by a half-game for first place in the Eastern Conference, play host to Seattle Tuesday night at Philips Arena in a game that could well serve as a WNBA finals preview.

But if nothing else, playing Seattle will serve as a measuring device for the Dream, an indicator for far they have come as a team and an organization under first-year owner Kathy Betty.

"This is by far our biggest home game of the season," Betty said.

The star for the Dream is second year small forward Angel McCoughtry, by far one of the most athletic players in the WNBA and an early season candidate for MVP. As the league's second-leading scorer, McCoughtry can score with the best of them, even against the league's best defender in Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings.

Fever take over East lead in dramatic fashion "
Catchings had a team-high 30 points and eight rebounds, including 11 points in the final period. All game Catchings had to keep up with the explosive duo of McCoughtry and Iziane Castro Marques. McCoughtry, the WNBA’s second leading scorer, had a game-high 31 points. Castro Marques, the WNBA’s sixth leading scorer, poured in 28 points on 10-for-18 shooting.

The game will be available online on WNBA LiveAccess.

Storm Reserves Step Up To Defeat Dream 80-70

Sometimes a great win isn’t defined by a great performance, but the ability to win a game that very easily could (should?) have gone the other way.

Not that you shouldn’t expect the Seattle Storm to win at this point in the season, but to beat one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference after shooting 25% and being beaten on the offensive boards 9-2 is impressive even for a team that is putting together one of the most impressive seasons in league history.

Most impressive for a Storm team that has had a notoriously weak bench in recent years: they won a game with a fourth quarter comeback while resting the starters, as Agler suggested he might do after Saturday’s 46 point win over the Tulsa Shock. After a slow start, Agler took a page from Shock coach Nolan Richardson’s book and made a very uncharacteristic five player line change with five minutes left in the first quarter adn the team down 14-4. The reserves cut that deficit in half by the end of the first quarter.

While it remains to be seen if this performance leads to more faith in the bench in the future, if nothing else it’s encouraging for fans who were concerned about the team’s bench play heading into the playoffs.

Speaking of the playoffs, from Storm PR:

With tonight’s 80-70 victory over the Atlanta Dream the Seattle Storm (25-4) secured home-court advantage throughout the 2010 WNBA Playoffs. MVP candidate Lauren Jackson and guard Tanisha Wright led the Storm with 14 points a piece. The Storm’s impressive 25-4 record is a franchise best and the best record in the WNBA this season.

For a running account of the game from a writer at SBN’s Swish Appeal, click here.

For the AP recap, see WNBA.com.

Game Thread/Live Blog For Storm Vs. Dream On SBN's Swish Appeal

For the game thread live from Philip's Arena in Atlanta, visit SBN's Swish Appeal:

Dream vs. Storm: The Informal Game Night Thread - Swish Appeal
There's no nice formatting here. No pre-game notes. No tough analysis. Just basketball. If Atlanta wins (and Connecticut loses), the Dream go to their second straight playoffs. If the Storm win, they clinch home-field advantage throughout the entire WNBA playoffs, for as long as it last.

I'm in Philips Arena right now. I'll just jot down some random crap as the game moves along. Get your popcorn. Take your shoes off. It will be fun.

You can watch the game on WNBA LiveAccess and see a full insider preview at StormBasketball.com.