SEATTLE -- Ahead of the must-win Game 4 of their semifinal series Tuesday against the Las Vegas Aces, members of the Seattle Storm were confident they could move past a heartbreaking 110-98 overtime loss in Sunday's Game 3.
"You just do," said Storm guard Sue Bird, who has announced she will retire at season's end after two decades in the WNBA. "You just do. I don't think any of us have forgotten, but at the same time, the beauty of sports, once the ball gets tipped, you can stay in that moment.
"Once the game goes, you're so in the game. I think the same kind of logic applies to recovering from a loss like we had the other night. You think about it, you think about it, and once the ball gets tipped, you just play the game."
Bird, who has played in 59 of the 63 playoff games in Seattle franchise history and been on the roster for all of them, didn't think any loss she'd experienced compared to Sunday's. The Storm led Game 3 by four points with 11.3 seconds remaining in regulation, only to allow three consecutive scores to Las Vegas, the last a Jackie Young layup at the buzzer that forced overtime.
"I think that is by far the worst," Bird said. "I'm sure if I really sat down and thought about it, I could pull something, but not in the semis or the playoffs. Probably in the regular season.
"The drama of what happened at the end of this one and a 7-3 run with 11 seconds ... that's like Reggie Miller s---."
Miller famously scored eight points in 8.9 seconds during Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals to help the Indiana Pacers rally from a six-point deficit to beat the host New York Knicks. Indiana went on to win the series in seven games.
Seattle coach Noelle Quinn, who like Aces counterpart Becky Hammon opted not to hold practice on the day off Monday, met with her coaching staff to revisit the late stages of Game 3, learn from what happened and now look forward.
"Let's forget about it when we walk out of this room," Quinn said of her message to her staff. "It's done."
After the teams played three games over the first eight days of the series, there was just one day off between Games 3 and 4. Bird said she feels the quick turnaround is a positive in this situation.
"Obviously it's the way we lost that makes that loss hard," she said. "Had we just lost in a 'regular' fashion it might have been different. But that's what makes series tough. When you win a game, you feel like you're on top of the world, and when you lose a game, you feel like the world is ending. That alone makes it hard, but when you have quick turnarounds, it's less time to be feeling those different emotions."