Seattle, Without Bird, Beats Detroit

Janell Burse scored 18 points and Lauren Jackson had 15 as Seattle jumped to a big lead and handed Detroit its first loss, 76-61, Wednesday night at Auburn Hills, Mich.

The Shock was the only undefeated team left in the WNBA.

“We’ve been walking around thinking that we are hot stuff because we were 4-0,” forward Cheryl Ford said.

“We found out today that we aren’t a good team. We might be OK.”

Seattle (5-2) won for the fifth time in six games, despite missing Sue Bird, who was not with the team after breaking two bones in her face in a collision with Jackson during Tuesday night’s loss in Connecticut.

“We all wanted to play well for Sue,” Jackson said.

“Especially me, since I’m the one that did it.”

Team officials said Bird, who played with a broken nose throughout last year’s playoffs, was scheduled to return to Seattle today for further evaluation.