Game two and game one were night and day. This time, Phoenix did everything right-- scrambled for rebounds, prevented penetration, maintained their own fast pace-- and Detroit crumbled. The game was over before the fourth quarter began.

The Merc also made some three-pointers. Sixteen of them, in fact, on 44 tries. The magnificently instinctive Diana Taurasi alone connected on 7 of 14. Paul notes the superlatives reached or surpassed in the win.

It wasn't just the Diana this time: it was also Cappie, and Tan Smith (18 and 10), and especially Kelly Miller, who didn't score much but made everyone else's points possible. "She does all of those little intangibles over and over and over again," says coach Westhead, "at about 100 mph."

The Shock just couldn't get going. Ford started, but couldn't continue-- she needed an icepack on the bench: Braxton and Feenstra couldn't get much done. "We had players put their heads down and stop playing," said coach Laimbeer. Worse yet, they stopped playing in front of a 16K crowd.

It's Phoenix who have to avoid overconfidence now-- and they'll have good reason: the Shock lost games one and three almost as badly last year.