Uncasville, Conn. ? Alana Beard is brimming with confidence and doesn’t mind telling anyone.

The second-year player for the Washington Mystics will make her first WNBA All-Star game appearance today and fully intends to be on the first East squad to win the showcase game. The West has won all five previous meetings.

“We’re definitely going to make it 1-5. They don’t have anything on us,” said Beard, the former Duke All-American. “The West has great players, but we have better players. You just tell them that.”

Did you hear that Lisa Leslie? Yo, Yolanda Griffith, is this finally the East’s year?

“We don’t like to lose,” Griffith said Friday.

The Sacramento forward is in her fifth All-Star game, and while Griffith acknowledges the league continues to grow more competitive, she’s not about to concede the All-Star crown anytime soon. Especially not before a partisan East crowd at the Mohegan Sun arena, home of the 2004 Eastern Conference champion Connecticut Sun.

A few hundred fans showed up Friday afternoon to watch practice and an East vs. West skills conference.

“It’s about having fun, but we also take it very seriously and tomorrow. I’m going to say it’s a must-win,” Griffith said.

She and Leslie are two of the biggest reasons the West has dominated the mid-season game. Leslie, of Los Angeles, is the league’s leading career scorer (4,448 points) and rebounder with 2,398 boards. Griffith is No. 2 in career rebounds with 1,772. Add Seattle center Lauren Jackson, who is averaging 10 rebounds a game and can hit from the perimeter, the West is daunting inside.

Chamique Holdsclaw has been on the losing end of that All-Star trio the past five years. But a trade sent her from Washington to Los Angeles, and now Holdsclaw, since she couldn’t beat ’em, is ready to join ’em.

“The West had Lisa, Yo and Lauren. They were very versatile. They could play inside and out,” Holdsclaw said. “In the East we didn’t have that in the past.”