SEATTLE — The list of accomplishments for the 2010 Seattle Storm is quite lengthy — undefeated at home, undefeated in the playoffs, tied for the most regular-season wins in WNBA history with 28.
Oh, and one more thing — a WNBA championship.
It’s going to be difficult for the Storm t
o match those achievements, but starting today, reigning WNBA Most Valuable Player Lauren Jackson and company will give it a shot.
“It’s about getting better every day. We really are a team that lives in the moment. We did not go into last year saying ‘Let’s go undefeated at home, let’s do this, let’s do that,’ you know we didn’t,” point guard Sue Bird said. “Those things just happened and generally that’s how things like that happen. You’re just focused on doing your best and getting the job done, and that’s when records are set.”
The Storm players and coaches might be tired of hearing it, but their accolades from last year no doubt will draw comparisons to this season.
“I think last year’s team will sort of be a measuring stick, not just for us, but for a lot of teams,” Storm head coach Brian Agler said. “This is a new season, we have a new team, we have a new schedule, we have new opponents and it has its own dynamic, so it’s not the same. Does that mean that we are going to be better or worse or things are going to change? I can’t answer that.”
Seattle kicks off its regular season at noon today against the Phoenix Mercury at KeyArena. The Storm swept the Mercury in last year’s Western Conference Finals.
After winning their second WNBA title last season, the Storm did not stand pat during the offseason. Seattle acquired veteran guard Katie Smith from the Washington Mystics in a three-team trade involving the Indiana Fever.
Smith, the third-leading scorer in WNBA history, will be looked upon to help fill the void left by guard Svetlana Abrosimova and forward Jana Vesela. Abrosimova (Russia) and Vesela (Czech Republic) are not with the Storm this season because of obligations to their national teams.
Both players were keys to the Storm’s championship run a year ago.
“We lost Svetlana and Jana off of last year’s team so we were lacking depth on the perimeter and Katie can obviously step up and play that role and even more,” Agler said.
Despite the addition of Smith, Agler said he doesn’t expect things to look too much different once the Storm hit the court.
“I think we are going to play the same style,” he said. “Obviously we want to get better in some areas. So, I think we will have a similar look, we just happen to have a few different pieces.”
The Storm is expected to face stiff competition from the Mercury and the Los Angeles Sparks, who get forward Candace Parker back from an injury that caused her to miss most of last season. But perhaps Seattle’s biggest challenger in the Western Conference will be the Minnesota Lynx.
The Lynx nearly qualified for the playoffs a year ago, then added rookie forward Maya Moore with the first pick in the WNBA draft this offseason.
Moore’s career at the University of Connecticut speaks for itself. She led the Huskies to two national championships and 90 straight wins, an NCAA record for both men’s and women’s basketball.
According to WNBA.com, the league’s general managers voted the Lynx the WNBA’s most improved team. In that same survey, 58 percent of the GMs said the Storm will repeat as WNBA champions.
That certainly puts a bull’s-eye on the defending champs.
“We are just trying to stay in the moment and take it one day at a time,” Bird said.
Last year’s Storm team came perhaps as close to perfection as a WNBA team can get. Agler tried to put it in perspective.
“I compare it (to) a family vacation,” he said. “You have a family that goes on vacation and you have almost the perfect time and then the next year you plan a family vacation and you want to go have this perfect time, but it might not be that exact type of time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get there, to have a perfect time at some point. So, it’s sort of the same thing.”
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