Every team in the league but one (Houston) played last night. The Western Conference results brought few surprises:

1. Seattle annihilated San Antonio. The road win guarantees the Storm a playoff spot. Lauren Jackson calls it "a huge burden off our shoulders." Betty Lennox, now back from her hand injury, scored 12.

The Stars could neither score nor rebound, though Feenstra did get 14 points and 12 boards. Dan Hughes, as usual, chalked up the loss to poor rebounding: "We weren't shooting the ball well, so we should have been pounding the glass."

2. In L.A., the Sparks beat a depleted, exhausted Lynx, taking a big halftime lead and then holding on. Minnesota came within five points with five minutes to go, but scored no field goals the rest of the way. Nicole Ohlde gave LIsa Leslie a subpar night (3-13 shooting), but nobody could stop Holdsclaw, who finished with 20.

L.A. will make the postseason if they win their last two games, against San Antonio and Houston. Tamika Whitmore: "We know it's up to us."

That Houston game could get... interesting, given what happened when those teams met last week. After reviewing tape, the league has fined Tina Thompson for a flagrant-2 and fined L.A. coach Bryant for his remarks afterwards, but issued no suspension.

Sparks prez Johnny Buss: "The WNBA is creating a situation where violence is now in the minds of players as something they can get away with."

Some might see slight irony here. (Not us.)

3. On ESPN2, the Monarchs stayed ahead of the visiting Mercury. Almost 9,000 people showed up-- on TV, the place looked packed, and loud. Sacramento have now tied Connecticut for the league's best record.

Despite lacking both Stepanova (gone for the year) and Penny Taylor (leg bruise-- she'll be back soon), Phoenix outrebounded the usually board-hungry Monarchs. Australian guard Belinda Snell had the best game of her U.S. career, scoring 16. But the Merc committed 20 turnovers, nine of them from Taurasi, against the home team's ten.

Phoenix can still make the playoffs: three teams (Houston, Phoenix, L.A.) are now competing for the last two spots.

Bad news for Sac: Kara Lawson hurt her shoulder in the closing seconds. It's not dislocated, just separated (or subluxated): she could come back for the playoffs.

Good news for Sac: Kristin Haynie (who has a history of health problems) has recovered from her acute fatigue (she got 12 minutes last night). With Lawson out, the Monarchs may need her.