Good news: The Seattle Storm won their first game under interim head coach Gary Kloppenburg.
Good news: The team returns home after a five-game road trip.
Not-so-good news: The Storm's opponent on Wednesday evening at KeyArena in Seattle is the first-place Minnesota Lynx (21-4).
The Storm (11-16) beat Phoenix 98-89 on Saturday, two days after Kloppenburg was promoted after the firing of head coach Jenny Boucek.
The win ended a four-game losing streak for Seattle and puts the team even with the Chicago Sky for the WNBA's eighth and final playoff spot.
"We had a lot of stuff happen, and only one good practice, and then there we are. Like an eight-game season," Kloppenburg told the website The Summit.
The Storm features the past two WNBA Rookies of the year, but they help.
Breanna Stewart (20.4 points per game) and Jewell Loyd (17.3) account for almost 46 percent of Seattle's scoring this year.
Kloppenburg is focused on his offensive setup.
"We are a good shooting team," he said. "So, if we can move the ball and not turn it over, we can get good shots. We can make shots, so we were happy to see that."
The Storm lead the league in field goal percentage at 47.5. In Saturday's win, the team had 28 assists, well above its 19.2 per-game average.
"I thought we did a really good job, and I think we had four players with five assists; we were just very happy," Kloppenburg said after the game.
The Lynx lost just two of their first 22 games this season. Since point guard Lindsay Whalen broke a bone in her hand, they've lost two of three.
Minnesota had its worst offensive performance this season on Friday night in a 70-64 home loss to second-place Los Angeles.
"Clearly, our problem was our offense -- the third quarter in particular," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told the (St. Paul) Pioneer Press. "It just kind of snowballed, our frustration. Give L.A. credit, they were very, very physical and we didn't respond very well. ... We just couldn't find our flow."
The Sparks blew open a game that was tied at halftime, outscoring Minnesota 21-8 in the third quarter.
Despite the recent losses, the Lynx still sit atop the WNBA standings, three games ahead of Los Angeles.
"We're not in a place where we are unhappy because we are a good team and we do some good things, but there are some places where we can improve," Reeve said after practice Monday, according to the team's website. "That's really what we looked at in those two games. In order for us to be the best that we can be and the healthiest we can be from a basketball standpoint in the playoffs is to use those two games and improve."
Minnesota will be back home on Friday to host Indiana.
Seattle hosts San Antonio on Friday in their second-to-last home game of the season. Four of the Storm's final five games will be on the road.
