FanhouseMagazine com August 24, 2010 wnba eastern Conference Semifinals: Beasts Back in the East

But that was your mother's East. Today, the rugged portion of the WNBA is all east of the Mississippi. To wit, while Seattle finished the season with the league's best record at 28-6, the next five best records all belonged to Eastern teams, and Chicago's 14-20 mark would have placed them a game out of second in the West.

Just ask Indiana Fever coach Lin Dunn. At 21-13, Dunn's team lost just one more game this season than last, when they went to the WNBA Finals. That loss was enough to bounce the Fever down to third in the conference, behind Washington and New York, which both finished at 22-12.

"It wasn't so much being defending champions as it is being in the Eastern Conference and the Eastern Conference being so much better and so much more competitive top to bottom," said Dunn. "I think knowing that everybody in the East got better, that was the biggest challenge."

No team represents the East's resurgence more than the Washington Mystics, who won a franchise record 22 games and captured the top seed in the conference, despite playing the full year without their best player, guard Alana Beard, who missed the season with an ankle injury.

The Mystics signed veteran free agent guard Katie Smith in the offseason, and while Smith, who has two WNBA titles when she played in Detroit, hasn't lit up the scoreboard, her presence has steadied Washington.

"It's a comfort level," said Smith Tuesday. "They have trust in myself and I trust in them. It's confidence that you give them because you've been there and you've had success. You don't get too high or too low. You're going to go about business because it's another game."

Washington will open the postseason in one best-of-three conference semifinal Wednesday night against Atlanta, which, like the Mystics, reached the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time in franchise history.

In the other semifinal, which begins Thursday, Dunn's Fever travels to New York and while the Liberty will have home court advantage, the two teams split their four game series this year, each winning one at home and one on the road.

"There's no clear cut advantage to playing at home when you're playing at team in the East," said New York coach Anne Donovan. "The reality of our conference has been a fight every night no matter where you play. But the comfort of being in your home comfort zone, your own bed at night and with your own rims for one or two games is an advantage."

No. 1 Washington (22-12) vs. No. 4 Atlanta (19-15)

Atlanta (C Erika de Souza 12.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg; F Sancho Lyttle 12.8 ppg, 9.9 rpg; F Angel McCoughtry 21.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg; G Iziane Castro-Marques 16.9 ppg, 2.6 apg; G Shalee Lehning 3.7 ppg, 4.8 apg.)

No. 2 New York (22-12) vs. No. 3 Indiana (21-13)

Indiana (C Tammy Sutton-Brown 8.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg; F Ebony Hoffman 8.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg; F Tamika Catchings 18.2 ppg, 7.1 rpg; G Katie Douglas 13.7 ppg, 3.3 apg; G Tully Bevilacqua 3.9 ppg, 1.6 apg.)