Having lost 4 of its last 5, Detroit limped into Sacramento last night and got beat down with a 40-point loss. Nicole Powell scored 25 points in 28 minutes for the Monarchs; the Schlock had 24 turnovers and 11 assists.

It was the fourth-largest margin of victory in WNBA history.

"We don't care how tough those bad girls may be," Monarchs coach John Whisenant said. "When we play our defense, the hairs go up on the back of our necks and we're gritting our teeth. When we play defense like that, it creates our offense. And I couldn't be happier."

"We have some issues that we have to solve," coach Laimbeer said. "It comes from everybody on our team looking inside and coming to a conclusion on what we need to get done."