PHOENIX — The Detroit Shock tried to keep up with the Phoenix Mercury’sfast-paced style in Game 2 of the WNBA finals. After a 28-point loss, they knowthat’s not how to win the best-of-five series.

“The shooting wasn’t there and we were trying to play their pace of thegame, taking the first quick shot,” Deanna Nolan, Detroit’s leading scorer,said Monday. “We have to be patient and run our style.”

Phoenix’s 98-70 victory in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Saturday evened thebest-of-5 series at a game apiece. Game 3 is Tuesday.

The Mercury like to run — as coach Paul Westhead has preached for decades incollege and the NBA.

Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said it’s more about the intangibles.

“They’re going to play their game,” Laimbeer said. “They are not going tochange a whole lot. We need to play with more energy, effort, desire, heart,pick any of the above cliches. We know that. Our team was thoroughlydisappointed in watching our performance on videotape. So I think we will have abetter effort.”

Detroit shot less than 33 percent from the field and fell behind by morethan 30 in the third quarter. Phoenix didn’t trail after the opening minutes.

“We have to lock in and understand this is the finals,” Detroit’s SwinCash said. “We have to lock in and focus and collectively just understand thatwhat the assignment is, whatever we need to get done, we do it. You don’t hangyour head when teams make runs. I thought we hung our head a little bit.”

The Mercury finally found the right formula after losing their first threemeetings with the Shock.

“The second game (of the Finals) is much like the way we’ve been playing,”Westhead said.

The Mercury have won 16 of their last 18 and are averaging 99 points in thepostseason.

“Certainly when we hit a roadblock — and we get beat, we get outreboundedor we don’t shoot well — there doesn’t seem to be any spillover,” Westheadsaid. “That gets pushed aside real quick and we’re back to what we do andthat’s getting the ball out, going quickly and making shots.”

That’s exactly what Nolan saw.

“We know what they did to beat us and that’s just make shots,” Nolan said.”There was nothing else that they did, really. They really didn’t get out ontransition and run like they normally do. They just made 3s.”

AP – Sep 10, 6:32 pm EDT

Phoenix was 16-of-44 (36.3 percent) from beyond the arc while Detroit was3-of-20 (15 percent).

“It surprised me that we didn’t come out with the aggression, didn’t comeout with the mind-set to dominate them,” Cash said. “That’s surprising becausewe were at home. But now we are on the road, we are a tighter unit. Everybody isregrouping. We’ll be fine.”

Phoenix is riding high on confidence, said Diana Taurasi, who knows aboutbig games from her days at the University of Connecticut.

“All those past experiences help you in big situations,” Taurasi said.

Detroit has to regain momentum, Nolan said.

“Of course they are going to have it, just because they stole the homecourt advantage from us,” Nolan said. “Now it’s our turn to steal one back.”

In the 2006 finals, Detroit split the first two games at home, then split atSacramento before winning the title at home in Game 5.

“We’ve been in this position before. We know we can win on the road,”Nolan said. “We are a great road team. It’s just a matter of incorporating thaton the court.”