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SEATTLE (AP)

Reigning WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson will skip the first half of the 2012 WNBA season to focus on training with the Australian national team in preparation for the London Olympics.

The Storm say the agreement announced Tuesday came after negotiations with Jackson’s representatives and Basketball Australia.

Jackson has three Olympic silver medals playing for Australia, losing all three times to the United States in the gold medal game. Jackson will join the Storm after the Olympics, which are scheduled to end on Aug. 11, 2012.

Jackson has played her entire WNBA career for Seattle and led the Storm to a second league title last season. She is also a three-time league MVP.

CONGRATS TO THE STORM!!!

To rally from the 2-0 deficit in the best-of-five series, the Atlanta players say they must do a better job against Seattle’s Lauren Jackson, who scored 26 points in each of the Storm’s opening wins. Game 3 of the series is Thursday night in Atlanta.

”It’s very important to slow her down, at least make her work harder for her shots,” said Atlanta’s Iziane Castro Marques. ‘We know she’s a great player and she’s going to bring it every time. We just have to make her work and if she makes it, she’s a great player. Nothing we can do about that.”

Jackson made 13 of 17 free throws Tuesday night after hurting the Dream with her four 3-pointers in the series opener.

”She’s a great player,” Atlanta’s Sancho Lyttle said. ”You try to eliminate (3s), and she got it from free throws. … The next game we’ve got to try to do something different, put the two together and hopefully her points will be less.”

Jackson, the league MVP, said she was worried about playing in Atlanta after the Storm won two games in Seattle by a combined margin of five points.

”At this point in time I don’t feel overly confident in going to Atlanta,” Jackson said after Tuesday night’s game. ”I think that home-court advantage obviously plays a huge part in the series, and especially going back to Atlanta with the way they are playing it’s going to be really difficult for us to get the win.”

GAME-TIME 5 PST.

League MVP Lauren Jackson scored 26 points, Swin Cash added 19 and Seattle moved one step closer to the title with an 87-84 win over the Atlanta Dream in Game 2 of the finals.

Seattle improved to 21-0 at home this season and is hoping it won’t need another game at Key Arena. The best-of-five series resumes Thursday night in Atlanta, where the Storm can wrap up their first title since 2004.

”We pulled it off, thank God. So I’m happy,” Jackson said.

The Storm had plenty of reasons to be pleased after winning two rough and ragged games in Seattle….Tanisha Wright added 17 points for Seattle and Bird, whose 16-footer with 2 seconds left won Game 1 for Seattle, had 10 points.

Bird helped turn back the Dream in the third quarter when Atlanta tried taking control, and Cash made an open 3-pointer with 2:30 left in the game to give Seattle an 81-73 lead.

Seattle outscored Atlanta 27-16 at the free-throw line.

Sue Bird made a tiebreaking jumper from the foul line with 2.6 seconds left and the Storm beat the Atlanta Dream 79-77 in Game 1 of the WNBA finals on Sunday.

Angel McCoughtry had a last-second try for the Dream, but her long 3-pointer from the left side clanked off the side of the rim at the buzzer.

The best-of-five series resumes Tuesday night in Seattle.

Bird also hit a key shot in the Western Conference finals, making a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left to give the Storm a 91-88 victory in the clinching game last Sunday at Phoenix.

”I was able to get a real good look, and it was a pull-up, which is what I like, and swish,” Bird said Sunday. ”It’s just something that, situations like this, I was put into at a very early age. At this point in my career, it’s something I enjoy. Those situations are fun – especially when they go in.”

WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson had 26 points and eight rebounds for Seattle. Bird finished with 14 points, and Camille Little had 18 points and 11 rebounds as the Storm remained unbeaten in 20 home games this season.

Lauren Jackson (league MVP) had 23 points and a team playoff-record 17 rebounds to lead Seattle to an 82-74 victory over the Mercury.

Jackson, who was named MVP prior to the game, fell one rebound shy of her season high and had her double-double in the books with 3:15 left in the first half….Diana Taurasi, who averaged 22.6 points during the regular season, scored nine on 2-of-15 shooting.

Seattle kept the Mercury 25 points below their postseason scoring average. Phoenix averaged 93.8 points during the regular season.

Game 2 of the series is Sunday at Phoenix.

Mercury-Storm Preview

After dropping six of seven to end the regular season and finishing with its worst record (15-19) since 2003, the second-seeded Phoenix Mercury completed a two-game sweep of San Antonio on Saturday to reach the conference finals for the third time in four years.

“Records don’t mean anything now,” coach Corey Gaines told the Mercury’s official website after Saturday’s 92-73 win. “It’s a three-game series now.”

Though the Seattle Storm won all five meetings with Phoenix this year, four were decided by six points or fewer and two went to overtime. The last matchup at KeyArena saw Seattle rally from an 18-point deficit to win 91-85 on July 27, and the most recent one in Phoenix was tied midway through the fourth quarter before the Mercury fell 78-73 on Aug. 20.…”We just have to change a couple of things,” reigning league and WNBA finals MVP Diana Taurasi said. “A few of the games just came down to a couple of possessions down the stretch, so we just have to be a little more consistent throughout the 40 minutes.”

Taurasi, who won her record fourth straight scoring title this season with 22.6 points per game, averaged 23.8 in four games versus Seattle this season, including a season-best 44 in a 111-107 triple-overtime home loss July 14.…Seattle which limited the Sparks to averages of 66.0 points and 39.0 percent shooting in the opening round, also looks to slow down Candice Dupree after the fifth-year forward averaged 25.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in her first playoff series.

Dupree and forward Penny Taylor, who averaged 16.0 points and 9.5 assists in the opening round, could face a stiffer challenge against the Storm frontcourt of Jackson, Swin Cash and Camille Little.

The trio averaged a combined 47.5 points and 18.0 rebounds in the first round.

1: PHX at SEA, 9/2, 7 p.m., NBA TV

2: SEA at PHX, 9/5, noon., ABC

3*: PHX at SEA, 9/8, 7 p.m., NBA TV

Swin Cash scored 20 points and Lauren Jackson added 17 to help the Seattle Storm beat the Los Angeles Sparks 79-66 in Game 1 of their WNBA Western Conference semifinal Wednesday night.

Camille Little scored 11 and Sue Bird added nine points and 12 assists for Seattle, which had the best record in the regular season at 28-6.

The Storm can wrap up the best-of-three series with a win Saturday at Los Angeles and avoid a sixth straight first-round exit…..The Storm set a league record for home victories, finishing 17-0, and tied the record for overall wins set by Los Angeles in 2000 and 2001.