Final score: Storm 70 – Sparks 52 (W) (14-7)

Attendance | 10833

Anthem Watch | Acapella choir — very nice, and they were really into it.

Fan Psyche | Greatest. Storm Game. Evar. (not counting that whole championship thing)

Game Highlight | Can an entire game count as a highlight?

Halftime | Women of Inspiration.

SF.O Keyword of the Game | Defense.

Game Photos |

That had to be one of the best Storm games I've ever seen short of the 2004 Finals game 3. I'm glad we TiVo'd it, because this one is going to be one I rewatch again and again.

It wasn't so much that the Storm beat the Sparks — that's always a good time — but it was how the Storm beat the Sparks. Every Storm player who entered the court contributed big plays. Every Storm player fought and scrapped for the whole 40 minutes. The entire team played with grit, determination and poise. And leading all of that was Yolanda Griffith.

Good God — Yolanda was incredible. This was the game Coach Agler had in mind when he signed her to the team. We've seen her all season talking to the rest of the team, leading huddles, pulling the younger players aside to give them advice or instruction. Well, talk is fine — tonight Yo led by example and showed everyone what it takes to win.

The Sparks were shutting down LJ early? Yo found ways to score a couple early baskets to take the pressure off. Storm baskets not falling? Yo was there to get the offensive rebound and kick it back out to the perimeter. The Sparks get careless with the ball? Yo was there to jab the ball and get the steal. A loose ball on the court? Yo was throwing herself to the floor to chase down the ball, going totally horizontal for the last one.

The great thing tonight was that all the Storm players followed her example. Everyone was playing just as hard, whether it was Tanisha coming in off the bench in the second quarter and igniting the team with her defense, or Katie hitting a key bucket to help the team erase the Sparks' lead, or Swin driving and forcing the Sparks defense to lay off of Lauren, or Ashley grabbing four huge offensive rebounds, all the players had big plays.

The game was close through the middle of the third quarter until Sue and LJ both hit three pointers. From there on to the final buzzer, the Storm ran the Sparks out of the building on offense and shut them down on defense. The Sparks only scored 9 points in the fourth quarter and ended up scoring a new low for this season. The Storm held the Sparks to 25 points below their average. That, my friends, is great defense.

The big dark cloud hanging out there is Lauren's planned ab cense for the last 5 games heading into the Olympic break. Well, the Storm showed not only us but themselves what it will take to succeed offensively without LJ tonight.

She was in foul trouble through much of the third and most of the fourth quarters and was sitting on the bench. Through that time is when the Storm continued to build their lead and to stymie the Sparks' offense.

LJ went out with a couple minutes left in the third and the Storm leading by 9. She came back in for a couple minutes to begin the fourth and quickly got her 5th foul. Sue, Sheryl, Swin and Yo continued to score the ball and build the Storm's lead up to 19. All of them are going to need to play with the same intensity over the next few games to make up for LJ's absence.

And what about the KeyArena debut of Candace Parker? She may be the next best WNBA thing since a two-toned basketball, but she wasn't that hot tonight. I know, I know — she's tired. She has a bum shoulder. Whatever. Talk to LJ about playing with lingering injuries.

Parker did get probably the biggest cheer an opposing player has ever gotten at the Key. It was surprisingly loud. This whole Parker-bump thing was obvious with the approximately 2000 additional people in the stands. But really now, just because she can dunk? Really? She had an early opportunity to give the people what they want on a first quarter fast break. She was out ahead of everyone else and had plenty of space to do her thing. To everyone's surprise, she went for the layup instead of the dunk. Instead of crazed cheers, she got soundly booed. People actually booed because she didn't dunk.

The rest of the Sparks were unremarkable in their same old same old selves. Lisa was all about Lisa. Cheese Knees has enthusiastically gotten back into the D-Nasty mold and was really out there only to physically batter LJ. Nice to have a role to play, I guess. Thomas was flopping around. Marie Ferdinand-Harris is staring in the "used to be nice player who sold her soul to Cooper for a shot at a championship" (previously filled by the likes of Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Jennifer Gillom). And then a bunch of "who is that?" guards to shoot threes every once in awhile. Ladies and gentlemen, the Los Angeles Sparks.

Maybe we'll see them in the playoffs, maybe not. The Storm play them once more at Staples after the Olympics. I like our chances.