Storm’s Sue Bird is the Benjamin Button of the WNBA

The legend of Sue Bird has another chapter thanks to another broken nose.

The guard led the Seattle Storm into the WNBA Finals on Tuesday by scoring 22 points, including 14 during a fourth-quarter rally to beat the Phoenix Mercury, 94-84, in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the league semifinals. She did it while wearing a protective face mask, the result of breaking her nose for the fifth time in her career just two days earlier, when she was accidentally smacked by teammate Breanna Stewart during Game 4.

"I don't know if I've had a fourth quarter like this in that big a game in my life,'' Bird said after Tuesday's victory.

Mercury star Diana Taurasi said that stretch in the fourth quarter might have been the best she's ever seen from Bird as well - and the two played together at the University of Connecticut and overseas in Russia. "But that's what she can do,'' Taurasi said. "She can probably do that more often. That's routine Sue to me, but incredible, really.''

The Washington Mystics will have to overcome Bird's many skills and competitive fire if they are to win the WNBA Finals, which will begin Friday night in Seattle.

Bird is one of the greatest players in WNBA history. She is its all-time leader in assists and games played. She made the All-Star team for a record 11th time this season, and earned the league's sportsmanship award for the third time as well. She won two NCAA championships at U-Conn., plus two WNBA titles with the Storm - in 2004 and 2010 - and four Olympic gold medals with the U.S. team. She also won multiple European titles while playing in Russia during the WNBA offseasons.

All that is despite having four knee surgeries and one on each hip in addition to the broken noses. And Bird, who will turn 38 next month, is the oldest player in the WNBA. No wonder Las Vegas Aces player Kelsey Plum tweeted last year: "I swear @S10Bird is the real Benjamin Button.''

Bird says she often gets asked how much longer she will play. "They'll even ask, 'Why are you still playing?' and I'm like, 'Would you ever ask that of any other profession?' '' She says her knees are holding up well and that she is taking her career one year at a time.

Former Storm teammate and three-time WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson said that Bird has also been a "massive mentor'' to Stewart, who last month was named league MVP. Sitting next to each other Tuesday during the Storm's postgame news conference, Bird made comparisons to Stewart making her first WNBA Finals in her third season, just as she had in 2004.

"It's her third year and it was my third year,'' Bird said. "And you feel like, 'Yeah, this is great! I'm 23, I'm probably going to be here all the time!' ''

"I'm 24,'' Stewart said.

"I was 23,'' Bird said, smiling, before returning to her description. " 'I'm probably going to be here every year. This is great!' And then I didn't get back for six years. And then six years later it was like, 'I have to capitalize on the competition.' And we did. And then, now here we are eight years later.

"I didn't think I would ever be back, to be honest. It's not that my hunger for it went away or my motivation. I wanted to be play the top of my game, I wanted to help this franchise get to rebuild. To make the finals? That was very far from my imagination. To be here now in some ways is sweeter than the other two.''

Washington went 1-2 against the Storm this season, losing both games played in Seattle but winning the one played at home by 23 points.

"I think this series (against Phoenix) was a great learning lesson for us,'' Bird said. "Now, we've just got to go on to the next one. What you've done now doesn't really matter. The finals will be a whole other bag of chips. It's going to be really difficult playing against a really good team. So we have to learn from this series, kind of forget it, and move on.''

Could the broken nose be an issue? Bird said that having dealt with previous nose breaks makes it easier for her to deal with it now.

"The mask is super annoying and nobody wants to wear it but I've worn it before, and I put it on, and to be totally honest, I didn't really notice it that much,'' she said. "You play and not think about it. And I can do that probably because of the experiences before.''

Seattle coach Dan Hughes agreed that Bird treated the broken nose and mask as if they were no big deal. Which it likely won't be in the finals.

"I have had the pleasure of coaching her this year and there were no finer moments than that fourth quarter and watching her,'' he said. "She came in and she was really just Sue Bird. Not only does she carry herself and compete in a certain way, she's ready for the big moments.''