Storm tries to make point vs. Liberty

The New York Liberty and Seattle Storm were missing the point.

More specifically, their point guards.

However, while nine-time WNBA All-Star Sue Bird returned to the Storm last weekend, the Liberty will be without Brittany Boyd for the rest of the season after she underwent surgery earlier this week for a torn Achilles.

The Liberty and Storm meet Friday night at KeyArena in Seattle.

Without Boyd, the Liberty (2-1) won 69-67 Tuesday at Phoenix despite committing 17 turnovers and struggling in half-court sets.

"We lost Brittany Boyd for the season, it was unfortunate, she was really coming in her own," Liberty coach Bill Laimbeer said after the game. "She was the person that we were counting on to really be our lead guard position. Now we got a lead guard (Epiphanny Prince) who did a very good job tonight, but it's something we're going to have to keep working on all season long."

Prince scored 24 points to lead the Liberty to the victory, but only Sugar Rodgers had more than two assists for New York. Bria Hartley was scoreless in 12 minutes at point guard, recording only one assist.

Boyd, in her third season out of California, had doubled her career scoring average this season, averaging 13.0 points before being injured.

While the Liberty will be without Boyd, the Storm (2-1) has Bird back.

Bird, who missed the first two games of the season after arthroscopic surgery on her left knee, had nine points and 10 points in her debut Sunday in an 81-71 victory against the Washington Mystics.

"At times, you can take playing the game for granted," Bird told the Seattle Times. "Since my surgery, it's been hard -- mentally more than anything. There were a lot of question marks, so to finally be out there, it felt good."

The Storm, who averaged 22.5 turnovers in their two games without Bird, felt the same way.

"All of sudden, we go down to 12 (turnovers)," Storm coach Jenny Boucek told the Times. "Two reasons. Sue. Bird. "There's nobody ever who has been better -- I don't think in men's or women's basketball -- at calming a team. All of sudden everything we've been talking about makes sense and everybody just exhales."

And that has taken pressure off Jewell Loyd, the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft out of Notre Dame, to do everything in the Seattle backcourt. Loyd is averaging a league-best 26 points per game.