Seattle, WA – Returning from a road trip that saw them take two of three games, the Seattle Storm fell in a tightly contested battle with the Connecticut Sun. Some may have written the Storm off coming into this contest considering that the Sun have the second most wins in the WNBA, but Seattle was able to hang with Connecticut all the way until the very end of this contest. Storm guard Jewell Loyd had another monster performance, pouring in 33 points and being only one of three players that reached double digits for Seattle. Every Connecticut starter found double digits, including Alyssa Thomas who tallied a double-double, proving too much for the Storm who failed to capitalize on chances to close the gap.
Despite a sequence that saw the Sun get an early layup off the opening tipoff and an ensuing six point run, the Storm were able to overcome the early stumble to get situated in their own offensive attack. Despite several turnovers early on into that first quarter, the Storm were able to handle the Sun size in the paint early on to force missed shots and turnovers. While a mismatch in terms of size on paper, Seattle wasn’t letting that gain any sort of space in their mindset, and used their switches and help inside to mitigate that size. Ezi Magbegor slashing into the paint and presence on the paint helped to stretch out the Sun front court, and allowed the rest of Seattle to find the necessary pockets to get their offensive attack going.
“I don’t think we started the game well either. You know, we missed a jump ball, gave up a layup, foul, missed two free throws. I just think our starts to those two quarters were indicative of how that quarter went. Obviously in the first, we picked it up, but the teaching point is we have to hold ourselves accountable especially after halftime and not settle. Continue our focus and do exactly what we did to get us here. Now obviously we do adjust as the game adjusts, but I thought we got away from our transition, ball screens, area before ball screens. I thought we defensively kind of were not communicating as much, miss on the defensive assignments, and so that’s just focus,” Noelle Quinn, Seattle Storm head coach, referencing the first half and what changed after halftime.
In the second half, the third quarter particularly, the Storm offense went into a lull. While Loyd was strong through the first half, the Sun did a better job of trapping her to limit the quality looks that she saw, and the issue of Seattle finding more consistent scoring came around. The usual contributors of Loyd and Ezi Magbegor were getting involved, with Jordan Horston finding a double-double off the bench, but the rest of Seattle’s roster failed to get much going. Veterans Kia Nurse and Sami Whitcomb continue to search for a spark, as they struggled from the field again. Starting point guard Ivana Dojkic, who earned the starting spot over Yvonne Turner, struggled tonight as well.
“We just had a lull. They elevated, and we stayed the same. Then we got going again in the fourth, but you can’t do that when you’re playing really good teams. We can’t do that in this league,” Jewell Loyd, Seattle Storm shooting guard, on what happened in the third quarter.
Following tonight’s loss to the Connecticut Sun, the Storm continue a three game homestand when they return to action on Thursday, June 22nd against the Indiana Fever. With a tipoff time of 7PM PST at Climate Pledge Arena, the Storm will be celebrating their Pride Night presented by AT&T. Seattle hosts a Fever team that has largely struggled, sitting with a 4-7 record, but has some young talent in last year’s top overall pick Aliyah Boston that has the future looking bright. Broadcast wise, you can find that game on Amazon Prime Video, and FOX 13+ locally.
