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It felt strange to see a Seattle Storm practice. It felt strange to see the Storm in person. The last practice I attended was July 2. The next night, the Storm beat Los Angeles at KeyArena. A day later, the team flew to Houston to start a three-game road trip. By the time the Storm was back at home - for just one game and no practices - I was in Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League. Then came the All-Star break and another four-game Storm road trip.

Add it up and it has been over three weeks since I'd seen the Storm.

The talk of the day, naturally, was Lauren Jackson - looking backwards at her 47-point effort on Tuesday in Washington and forwards to her reaching 4,000 career points, which could come as soon as tomorrow night. As long-time Storm fans are aware, Jackson doesn't play the game for those kind of individual accolades. She noted that despite her big game, she was unhappy in Washington because the team fell short. We've known LJ long enough to know that isn't something she says for the benefit of the media.

Jackson practiced for about an hour during a lengthy Storm session, then got some rest on the sidelines. She isn't particularly concerned about her right knee, which began to trouble her with some swelling just before the All-Star break. Jackson explained that in Sunday's game at New York, when she left the game in obvious pain after a fall, it was because she had ruptured the bursa sac in her knee, different from the swelling she has experienced.

Janell Burse practiced regularly with her left wrist wrapped to protect it. Coach Anne Donovan said Burse looked good on the floor. She's got an MRI on the wrist scheduled for tonight and, barring some problem with the results of the MRI, is expected to play against Indiana.

In other news: If you haven't already, check out Maurice Brooks' most recent "Race to the MVP" column in which he all but hands the award to Jackson.

"The gap in the Race to the MVP between Seattle's Lauren Jackson and the rest of the field was already huge," wrote Brooks.

"After LJ's performance on Tuesday night, the only thing left to do is make sure they spell her name correctly on the trophy."

Then there's also this little comment:

"Jackson is the greatest female basketball player to ever live. There, I said it. I dare you to prove me wrong. "

WNBA.com also took the Storm's trip East as an opportunity to ask fan-generated questions of Donovan, Jackson, Sue Bird and Iziane Castro Marques. Of course, you always have the opportunity to "E-mail the Storm" via storm.wnba.com and the 1150 AM KKNW broadcasts.

If you've still got more time to spend on WNBA.com, Sue Bird updated her half of the Bird and Dee Blog with a special LJ guest appearance.