AUBURN HILLS, MICH. ? The Sacramento Monarchs made wide-open three-pointers, drove for easy baskets and challenged a lot of shots at the other end of the court.

The defending champions put together an all-around performance and hurt the Detroit Shock with a record-breaking start in the WNBA finals.

Kara Lawson scored 22 points, Nicole Powell had 21 and DeMya Walker added 17 – each reaching career playoff highs – to lead Sacramento past Detroit 95-71 Wednesday night in Game 1, breaking finals scoring records for a half and a game.

“Everybody is coming out there with a vengeance. I’m not really surprised with my team,” Powell said. “It’s really special when everybody steps up their game.”

Lawson made 6-of-8 from three-point range, surpassing the finals record for shots made beyond the arc, and Powell went 4-for-7 from long range.

“I just got good looks, and I was able to find some holes in the zone,” Lawson said. “I thought (Ticha) Penicheiro and (Kristin) Haynie did a tremendous job running the offense.”

Shock guard Katie Smith agreed.

“Obviously, we need to stay a little closer to Lawson and Powell,” she said. “We got a little frustrated and tried to force some things offensively. And, defensively, they picked us apart.”

Sacramento and Detroit combined for a finals-record 166 points.

“I’m tickled to death,” Sacramento coach John Whisenant said. “We got home court back, and that was our goal.

Game 2 will be Friday night at The Palace in suburban Detroit before the best-of-five series shifts to Sacramento.

“We have to win Game 2 or we’re in a world of trouble,” Shock coach Bill Laimbeer said.

The Monarchs’ high-scoring trio had at least 11 points each to help Sacramento score a record 53 points in the first half, and lead by 15. They helped Sacramento close strong and break Detroit’s record of 83 points in the Game 3 clinching victory over the Los Angeles Sparks in 2003.

The Monarchs led by as much as 21 in the third quarter and coasted to the victory.

“It was like a never-ending, uphill battle,” Smith said.

Cheryl Ford led the Shock with a career playoff-high 25 points, Smith had 21 and Deanna Nolan added 14. They didn’t get much help, scoring 60 of the Detroit’s 71 points. Swin Cash was scoreless in 11 minutes and Ruth Riley scored just two points in 15 minutes.

“Not very pretty,” Smith said. “It’s a little disappointing with the effort.”

When Detroit beat the Los Angeles Sparks three years ago for the title, it drew an WNBA-record 22,076 fans after 17,846 turned out for its other home game in 2003.

The crowd – announced as 9,581 – was much less impressive Wednesday night as most of the upper deck was covered by black curtains and each of the lower-level sections had pockets of empty seats.

“I didn’t pay any attention to that,” Laimbeer said. “But we didn’t give them anything to cheer about.”