No Shoulder Surgery for Burse

Storm center Janell Burse was back at practice for the first time since having surgery on her left wrist on Monday. She'll be in a soft cast for five weeks before beginning rehabilitation.

Burse isn't planning, however, to have surgery on her partially torn left shoulder labrum. That had at one point been in the plans, but because Burse suffered no subluxations - incidents where the shoulder comes out of the socket - after training camp, she doesn't believe surgery is necessary.

"The thing was, after the season, if it was a big problem, get it fixed, but it hasn't been a problem at all," Burse said. "I don't know if it's healed itself or just went away. I'm not going to get operated on just because two months ago I had this injury. It's not bothering me at all."

That decision means Burse will have the ability to play overseas this off-season. Rehab from shoulder surgery would last approximately six months, essentially taking up Burse's entire off-season.

Some other notes:

- Storm Head Coach Anne Donovan is thrilled her team finishes the season tomorrow against L.A., while other teams are in action up to Sunday.

"This whole schedule's been good (lately)," said Donovan. "We've been able to take several days off here, rest and then practice hard in between games. It's been a good thing."

- Katie Gearlds has moved ahead of Shyra Ely in the rotation, something which probably should have been apparent from the last few games. Ely has slumped a little on offense, while Gearlds has been shooting the ball well and aggressively giving the Storm a dangerous element off the bench. Donovan also cited Gearlds' improvement on D.

- Donovan was "thrilled" with the way Ashley Robinson executed on Tuesday as the post opposite Lauren Jackson. The Lynx played way off of Robinson, using her defender to give help on Jackson's cuts, and Robinson did a good job of diving to the basket. Robinson scored a season-high seven points.