Bird's ache is Storm's pain in loss

AUBURN HILLS — Sue Bird tucked her face inside the collar of her green jersey, trying to hide the tears streaming down her face early in the second half against Detroit last night. Fluid swirled around in her left knee, already diagnosed as patellar chondromalacia earlier this season, halting her from playing.

The Storm point guard played only sporadically and it proved costly in a 74-61 loss last night to the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Shock.

"I can't even describe to you what it's like not to be able to move," said Bird, who spent most of the second half receiving a leg massage from trainer Sheri Hedlund.

Bird didn't have to chronicle the pain. It was etched on her dimpled face.

And the Storm has seen it before. Bird, who tore her left anterior cruciate ligament her freshman year in college, first suffered from the chronic soreness against Los Angeles on May 30.

It was Seattle's worst margin of defeat this season. The Storm (11-8) fell a half-game behind Houston for second place in the West. Tomorrow, the Storm plays the fourth-placed Minnesota Lynx (10-9), which defeated Seattle at KeyArena in June.

"It's frustrating not being out there," said Bird, who had one assist in 26 minutes despite leading the league with a 7.6 average. "I know my presence kind of helps this team a lot. I'm a threat that people have to respect, and that opens things up for everybody else. For me not to be out there I think definitely hurt us a little bit."

The game was a stark contrast to the one played in Connecticut less than 24 hours earlier. Against the Sun, the Storm struggled offensively (37.7 percent) but rode the emotion of Bird returning to the state where she led the University of Connecticut to two NCAA titles. The arena was sold out (9,341), it was nationally televised and most fans wore her No. 10 jersey.

Last night was like watching basketball with the mute button on. The crowd of 6,923 at The Palace of Auburn Hills was quiet until the Shock scored and there wasn't blaring music muffling the squeak of sneakers.

Both teams, known for their transition game, struggled to stay in sync. The Storm especially had trouble getting going, trailing 16-6 early. Seattle rallied to trail 34-31 at halftime.

"With the way we played we were very fortunate to only be down three at the half," Storm coach Anne Donovan said. "We had no gas in the tank for the second half. We got beat down the floor. We just didn't get it done. You give up the transition, you're never going to win.

"Detroit played well and we didn't. It's as simple as that."

The score was 40-38 when Bird first left the game. Teammate Rita Williams replaced her and played solid defense, but the Shock went on a 13-3 spurt to pull ahead 53-41. Bird re-entered the game for struggling starter Sandy Brondello, yet was ineffective.

Solving the Shock's zone defense, three-time All-Star Lauren Jackson was the offensive producer and scored 12 of the Storm's 14 points during a run that cut the Detroit lead to 60-56. A frantic stretch of Shock turnovers and Williams having her shot blocked stifled Seattle's chances of pulling out a victory.

Detroit shot 27 free throws, compared to Seattle's 10. The Storm was outrebounded 35-28.

"It's just one of those things where you want to win and leave everything on the court," said Jackson, who had a game-high 23 points and a career-high five blocks. "For a couple of minutes we really came back hard and then something happened. We stopped what we were doing and couldn't get shots."

Detroit guard Elaine Powell scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half, and Seattle native Sheila Lambert added six of her 11 in the waning minutes to hold off the Storm.

"We missed Sue a lot. She's one of our best players," Donovan said. "When she's not on the floor things change, although when she came out (Tully) Bevilaqua really picked it up defensively. We missed Sue, particularly on the offensive end. And Sandy (Brondello, scoreless) and Amanda Lassiter (five points) can't have off nights and put all the pressure on Sue to carry us. We had good minutes from Williams, which was a good thing."

Bird is listed as day to day as is Shock guard Kedra Holland-Corn (right hand contusion).

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