Seattle's performance in the second half last night was bizarre. 16% shooting. LJ missing layups. Blowing an 18-point lead against Phoenix.

"You could look at it that way, that we're slipping out of the playoffs since we lost to the two bottom teams in the conference," Sue Bird said. "But we're not out. We were in this position a week ago when we needed to beat Minnesota. We just have to take care of our next five games. It's the only way to approach it."

"We will win the next game," LJ said. "That's the last game we play like that."

The final game against Sacramento could end up deciding who's in and who's out.