The Minnesota Lynx beat the Seattle Storm 73-67 Tuesday night, showing that with Sue Bird and Ramu Tokashiki back in the lineup, Seattle can at least not get blown out.

It was a relief to see Sue out on the floor, and she looked a LOT better for her rest.  In the first quarter, she was dealing passes and hitting jumpers as well as I've seen in years, and even though her shooting cooled off later on, she still had 8 assists by the end of the game.  As soon as she checked out of the game for the first time, the Lynx went on an 11-2 run.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.

Both teams shot the ball well in the first quarter, the Storm going 9/17 from the field, the Lynx hitting 9/13.  Anna Cruz was a big reason for this accuracy, getting all four of her shots and hitting a couple of free throws for 10 first-quarter points.  Play was sloppy on both ends (each team had 7 turnovers in the quarter alone) but the high percentage of shots made resulted in the Lynx leading 23-21 by the end of the first.

The second quarter was the killer for Seattle (have you noticed that it always comes down to one terrible quarter?).  After the sloppy start, the Lynx cleaned it up and only had 5 turnovers in the rest of the game.The beginning of the second was fine for Seattle, as the Lynx and Storm both continued to shoot the ball at 68.4% and 52.0% respectively, but the Lynx went on a 10-0 run halfway through the period and with 2:20 left in the half, the score was Lynx 39, Storm 31.  By halftime, the Storm's shooting percentage was down to 44.1%, they had only shot 2 free throws, and the Lynx led 46-35.

The third quarter started out the same as the second, with the Storm repeatedly failing to score on little to no team offense.  With 4 minutes left in the third, the Lynx had a 57-39 lead, but Seattle went on a 7-0 run so that at the start of the fourth, the score was 57-46.  A big part of that was Crysal Langhorne, as she scored 5 points and brought a lot of energy during that run.

Seattle continued that run going into the fourth quarter.  Tok finally hit a few of her jumpshots after having miserable luck in the first half, and then Jenna O'Hea hit a three to pull Seattle within 7 with 7 minutes left in the game.  The Storm were as close as 66-65 with 2:42 left to go, but a couple of sloppy plays let the final few possessions slip away and the final score was 73-67.  In the end, even though the score was only 6 apart, the Lynx outrebounded the Storm 33-24 and out assisted them 25-17.

The usual suspects had the best stat lines for Seattle.  Crystal Langhorne scored 18 and pulled down 5 boards, but turned the ball over 4 times.  Jewel Loyd had an astounding 6 turnovers but also scored 13 points with 3 assists.  Alysha Clark had 12 points on 5/6 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals, but also 4 turnovers.  All in all, Seattle's 3 leading scorers accounted for 14 of the team's 18 turnovers, something Jenny Boucek will obviously want to address going into next season, as turnovers have been a huge issue in Seattle's last several games, averaging 18 per game in their last 5 contests.  Sue was perfect in that regard against the Lynx, scoring only 7 points but committing 0 turnovers for her 8 assists.  Ramu had a rocky first half, but ended up with 9 points and 5 rebounds.

On the Lynx end, Maya Moore had her 20th game this season in which she scored 20 points or more, not to mention 5 assists and 7 rebounds.  Anna Cruz had a phenomenal game in which she scored 15 points, 12 of them coming in the first half, on 6/9 shooting.  She also had 8 assists and only 2 turnovers.  Rebekkah Brunson only got 5 points but pulled down 8 boards and 3 assists.  Sylvia Fowles had 14 points and 4 rebounds, but frankly I was expecting a bigger game from her.  Maybe she's still getting used to playing for the Lynx.

Abby Bishop was still absent for the Storm with her hamstring injury, but the Lynx had a more crippling injury report- Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus both sat out with foot and ankle injuries (respectively).  Hopefully they'll both be back for Minnesota's playoff run.

In unrelated news, Ramu helped the Japanese national women's basketball team to qualify for the Olympics next year!  Maybe we'll get to see her dunk against some of the shorter opponents.