Lauren Jackson leads late surge as Seattle rallies past Atlanta, 80-70, to clinch top seed
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Lauren Jackson scored six points of her 14 points in a decisive 8-0 run and Seattle clinched the top overall seed in the playoffs by rallying for an 80-70 win over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night.
Tanisha Wright also scored 14 points and Sue Bird added 13 for the Storm (25-4), who had already had locked up the top seed in the Western Conference.
Angel McCoughtry scored 16 points on 3-for-19 shooting for Atlanta, which dropped into third place in the East, percentage points behind New York. Both teams were one game behind first-place Indiana, which played at Los Angeles.
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Sancho Lyttle had 12 points and 17 rebounds, and Erika DeSouza added 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Dream.
Atlanta led 69-67 with 3:35 remaining before Seattle, which rested its starters most of the first half, took control.
The Storm were coming off a 111-65 win over Tulsa in which they setting a record for the most lopsided victory in WNBA history. Seattle's starters sat out the fourth quarter as the Storm beat Tulsa by 46 points.
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Seattle couldn't pull away from the Dream, with or without its starters.
The intensity picked up when the Dream outscored the Storm's starters 24-20 in the third quarter to take the lead.
There were three ties in the final period, the last at 67-all. Shalee Lehning gave Atlanta it's last lead at 69-67.
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Seattle coach Brian Agler pulled his starters with 5:08 remaining in the opening quarter. The Storm's backups played the rest of the half, turning a 12-4 deficit into a 32-31 halftime lead.
The Seattle starters returned for the second half.