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Storm zero in on WNBA playoffs

On a night when she hit a milestone number, Anne Donovan was much more interested in a magic number. While the Seattle Storm coach locked up her 100th career WNBA victory Thursday night, her team moved within a victory of locking up a playoff spot.

The Storm gift-wrapped Donovan",s history-making win by wrapping up the Minnesota Lynx with the kind of wire-to-wire defense she has been preaching all season. The result was a 76-60 decision in front of 9,245 fans in KeyArena that brought the defending champions to the brink of earning a postseason trip. While the Storm (17-13) won their third victory in the last four games to stay a half-game ahead of Houston for second in the West, the Monarchs locked up the conference title by downing last-place San Antonio, 64-57, Thursday.

The Storm and the Monarchs meet twice during the final eight days of the regular season, the first of which is a nationally televised game Saturday in ARCO Arena. Seattle will head south today on the heels of quite possibly its best overall game of the season. The 60 points was the fewest the Storm have allowed since a 62-60 victory at Charlotte on June 12. Save for a span of a little more than a minute early in the game when the Lynx (14-17) took a pair of two-point leads, Seattle led virtually all the way.