According to Call of the Game
the Storm has found a replacement for David Locke, who is moving on to cover play-by-play for the Sonics.

FSN Northwest will provide a tape delay broadcast of Friday's Game 1 matchup between Los Angeles and Seattle at noon Saturday. Cara Capuano will again provide the play-by-play and Oregon State women's basketball coach LaVonda Wagner will be the color analyst.

Storm forward Lauren Jackson didn't practice on Thursday, the plan after participating in sessions with teammates on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Coach Anne Donovan said Jackson's week off, including the final two games of the regular season, was beneficial for the All-Star's mindset and body, but her return to play was sketchy.

"She struggled in last two days, no doubt," Donovan said. "So hopefully when she gets out there tomorrow, she can play through it a little bit better than she did. It was more her foot than anything, it was just stiff. I think with a week off it's a good rest for her but her foot got stiff. She'll play through it tomorrow, I'm sure, but hopefully it loosens up better than it did."

As much as Storm starters Jackson, Sue Bird, and Betty Lennox told media they haven't spent much time thinking about last season's boot from the opening round as a No. 2 seed playing No. 3 seed Houston, teammate Edwige Lawson-Wade spilled it.

Lawson-Wade played for the Comets last summer, logging one minute in the postseason. She said she falls silent when the players start talking about the past.

"It's a good motivation for them because they always talk about it -- 'You remember last year how it was. This year we don't want that to happen,' " she said of what the players and Donovan tell each other. "I always hear that and I remember, but from a different perspective."

So, Storm guard Betty Lennox made me watch "America's Got Talent" to see this Rappin Granny character. She was funny and had moves, but what shocked me was one of the Sonics and Storm's regular halftime entertainment gigs was the earlier act.

David and Dania do this amazing magical trick where she changes clothes and hair dye in a blink of an eye. I'm always shocked at it because the previous outfit is nowhere to be found (although she is bulky looking), but the TV judges weren't impressed.

Anyway, their being on the show explains why the Storm couldn't get them for Game 1 of the playoffs. Instead that creepy acrobatic duo that balance spread eagle on top of each other is returning.

Some Storm fans had an informal roundtable a few weeks back and everyone voted to just see the dogs. You know, where a bunch of different dogs run on this course to get a ball and bring it back to their owner. For some reason everyone likes it and it's better than that spelling bee flop the Storm held.

Seriously, no one, outside of paid journalists, should be asked to spell Kamila Vodichkova.

Los Angeles All-Star Lisa Leslie had a lot to say to Seattle media following her team's practice at KeyArena on Thursday.

She was asked to refelect back on last summer's 17-17 season where the Sparks were bumped from the opening round of the playoffs by Sacramento. Coach Joe Bryant finished the season with Los Angeles, but you may remember the brief Henry Bibby era to start the summer.

People, including myself, were against the hire because Bibby had no background in coaching women and was ousted at Southern California. Well, according to some tales by Leslie, the concerns were justified.

"It kind of started in the beginning when I realized Bibby only knew one WNBA player and that was me," Leslie said. "I kind of knew we were in trouble from Day One. Then the game when we played against Charlotte and Dawn Staley was still there and he was like, 'no matter what, leave that girl, she can't score, she can't shoot.' She must have had 24 that game and we lost [it was actually 12, Sheri Sam had 24]. Then it was like, 'this is going to be a long season.' The last thing he said was, 'we're just going to play zone all year, pack it in, these women can't shoot. And Diana Taurasi had 26. It was just kind of hard to work under those conditions."

Bibby resigned after posting a 13-16 record. Bryant was 4-1 in his final five games.