Storm rally past Lynx, 68-64

Lauren Jackson scored 24 points, Swin Cash hit the go-ahead lay-in with 59.3 seconds left and the Seattle Storm rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to beat the Minnesota Lynx 68-64 on Tuesday night.

Cash finished with 13 points for Seattle (26-6), and Camille Little had a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.

"We've had a lot of games like this. But everyone really stepped up tonight, and that was great," said Jackson after the Storm snapped a two-game losing streak and, for the 13th time this season, came from behind at the start of the fourth quarter to pull out a victory. "We've proved all year it wasn't a fluke that we've won as many games as we have."

Lindsay Whalen led Minnesota (12-20) with 20 points, and Monica Wright had 14.

The Lynx are still part of a three-way battle for the final two Western Conference playoff spots. Minnesota started the night in a three-way tie with San Antonio and Los Angeles. The Silver Stars lost at home to Washington, 76-66, and the Sparks fell to Phoenix. The Lynx visit L.A. on Friday, then wind up the regular season on Sunday at Indiana.

The Storm already have clinched the league's best record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. Tuesday's victory kept alive their chance to tie the 2001 Sparks for most regular-season wins (28). It also was their 16th win at home this season, tying that same L.A. team in that department. Seattle plays at Phoenix on Thursday, then winds up the regular season at home against Los Angeles on Saturday.

The game was tied at 64-64 when Jackson found Cash for a wide-open lay-in just inside of the final minute. Tanisha Wright sealed it with two free throws at 23.1 seconds. The Lynx missed all five of their shots in the last minute.

"We just had a series of multiple stops in the fourth quarter and they just scored eight points on us. We gave ourselves a chance," Storm coach Brian Agler said. "I just saw us starting to dig down and do some really good things in the second half. We had to make some plays at the offensive end and at the defensive end."

Minnesota led by as many as 14 points early in the second half, the last time at 44-30 with 7:29 left in the third quarter.

The Storm closed to 56-52 by the end of the third, then took a 61-60 lead on a Jackson 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the game - Seattle's first lead since 2-0.

"Once we got started, then we all got going again," said Little, who grabbed five of her 14 rebounds during the final quarter. "We just have to do better at that - it has to be for 40 minutes. It's something we're going to have to continue to work on, because you're not going to win in the playoffs like that."

Minnesota led for all but the opening minutes of the first half after allowing that first basket of the game. The Lynx then ran off the next 10 points, and Seattle never got closer than seven through the rest of the half.

"Last time we were here, they made some big plays down the stretch, much like today. We have some pretty good players who couldn't make shots tonight," Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. "We played hard, we defended hard, we rebounded fairly well. It's not much fun coming up short after you put that much into a game."

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)