By TIM BOOTH
AP Sports Writer

SEATTLE (AP) -- At one point this season, the Seattle Storm were on the verge of rewriting WNBA records for success.

Then head coach Brian Agler decided being completely healthy for once entering the playoffs would be better than any regular season records that would be forgotten if Seattle fails to advance out of the first round for a sixth straight season.

"I think as a competitive athlete, it's not the easiest thing to sit or to rest. We're mature enough and we've been in this league long enough that we know to look big picture. And big picture for our team was getting ready for playoffs," Seattle guard Sue Bird said. "No matter what that meant for our record, for the record in terms of most wins, anything. We approached it that way and we were able to handle it. It was a little difficult at first. It took us a game or two, but then we figured it out."

After posting one of the best regular seasons in league history, Seattle's quest to finally shake its playoff curse begins Wednesday night when the Storm host nemesis Los Angeles in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

Seattle (28-6) tied the league record for most wins with 28, joining the 2000 and 2001 Sparks, who finished 28-4 during a 32-game regular season. The Storm also became the first team in league history to go undefeated at home, finishing 17-0 at KeyArena.

But the roll Seattle was on for most of the summer hit some bumps coming down the stretch as Agler tried to pace his players and keep them fresh for this stage of the season. After winning 13 straight during June and an undefeated July, the Storm dropped four of their final 10.

Those four losses weren't huge collapses - sans the 20-point loss at Connecticut when Lauren Jackson never left the bench - but Seattle certainly didn't dominate games as it had earlier in the season. Of the Storm's final six victories, five were decided by 10 points or less.

"We have definitely relaxed a little bit - as much as you don't want to," said Jackson, who again posted MVP-like numbers, averaging 20.5 points and 8 rebounds during the regular season. "It frustrates you. We've performed all year. It wasn't a fluke that we won as many games as we did. We have to get back at it and play the game and play it the way we know how."

But not being nicked up entering the playoffs trumped any roll Seattle might have been on with a month to go in the regular season. Jackson will be healthy at the start of the playoffs for the first time since 2007, when Seattle was swept by Phoenix in the first round.

Two years ago, Jackson was sidelined by ankle surgery following the Olympics. Last year it was back problems that kept her a spectator. Both times, Seattle was dispatched by Los Angeles in three games.

And almost like clockwork, it's the Sparks and Storm again in the first round.

Seattle got a look at Los Angeles in the regular season finale for both teams and it was a critical opportunity for the Storm. When Seattle and Los Angeles met earlier in the season, the Sparks still had leading scorer Candace Parker.

She was lost for the season in June to shoulder surgery and last Saturday was just Seattle's second look at the Sparks sans Parker.

"I'm glad we played them right now. We got a feel for what they're about," Agler said. "You get a feel for them. They get a feel for us. It's back and forth. They're a much-improved team. They are doing good things at both ends."

Since winning the league title in 2004, the Storm have failed to even reach the conference finals despite making the playoffs every year since. It's a failure that lingers especially heavy with Jackson and Bird, the only two who remain from that championship team.

"No matter what happens, we're all going to give 100 percent and hopefully that will be good enough to get through the first round," Jackson said. "L.A. has great players who have a lot of titles among them. They're pretty hungry to win. We've just got to out there and do what we do and hopefully, get the monkey off our back so to speak."

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