Storm offense burned away by the Sun in the second half as Seattle falls to Connecticut
By Charles Hamaker
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.
Seattle Storm bigs Ezi Magbegor and Mercedes Russell are announced during pregame introductions (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Coming out of the gate strong against Connecticut
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.”
First half photos as the Storm went into the locker room with a three-point lead over the Sun (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Seattle’s offense suffocated
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.
All in all, that halted momentum in the third quarter may have been the turning point in this game, as Connecticut pushed on to build an 18-point lead at its biggest, while Seattle searched for solid ground. While the Sun continued to chip away and take advantage of the stops that they were getting, the Storm only made three field goals in the third quarter as it seemed like the game was slipping through their fingers. In an obvious “growing pains” type of moment in this season for the young Seattle group, it continues to become apparent that while they are a “castoff” roster that nobody expects to succeed much, the Storm can hang with the best. It’s just about Seattle learning how to close that gap and finish off games, something that has plagued them in all but two of their eight losses on the season so far.
“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.”
“It felt like a lid was on the basket. I thought that we got decent shots, we got to the rim, missed some bunnies and we stopped kind of doing the things that got us the lead and efficiency in the first half. Just a difficult third quarter, but the other three quarters I thought we were pretty decent.”
The second half saw the Storm offense struggle heavily, particularly in the third quarter (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
The Jewell Loyd show
Storm shooting guard Jewell Loyd continues to have an MVP caliber season, maintaining the level of play she’s seen recently that got her named as the WNBA’s Western Conference Player of the week. Off a 39-pont game in the Seattle win over the Wings on Saturday, June 17th, it was going to be intriguing to see what sort of impact Loyd had on the offensive end against a big and physical Sun team. Loyd started the game and the first half scorching hot, helping the Storm take the lead into the half over the Sun as she had 22 points at the halfway mark. Loyd, the leader of this group this year, has had to bear the load of being the primary voice in the locker room and being this team's primary scorer, but she’s done so in her own way and she’s doing it well.
Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd and Jordan Horston continue to play well off each other, having a quality run in the second quarter that saw them form a strong duo in getting the lead over Connecticut (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Building blocks for future success are currently in play
The big key to watch with this Storm team as the season progresses is the different ways that the group as a whole and the individual players grow, as this new era of basketball in the Seattle franchise continues to find its identity. The growth of Horston, the continued development of Magbegor, and Melbourne getting settled in should all lead to key studs on this team for years to come. Seeing the growing pains, like failing to close out these tight games in nearly every loss they’ve suffered, is frustrating, but it shows where this team can get better. If we were sitting here with a laundry list of issues that the Storm need to fix, then I’d be more concerned about where this franchise is and what the future looks like.
“I mean, honestly, the shots that we were taking were in and out. They weren’t bad shots, the shots we were making in the first half and when you have shots that kind of do that, our offense kind of gets stagnant and you’re not getting stops as well. It makes it feel a lot worse. We’ve got to do a better job, as a whole, figuring out what we could do to break the momentum of the other team to kind of get us going as well. That’s on us, that’s a learning experience that we will figure out and get back to work on it.”
Quick notes
Jewell Loyd, who was named the Western Conference Player of Week earlier today, finished with 33 points, giving her back-to-back 30+ point games for the first time in her career. Loyd joins Lauren Jackson and Breanna Stewart as the only Storm players to record back-to-back 30+ point games.
In addition to her 33-point game-high, Loyd contributed four assists, three steals, and two rebounds.
She also connected on six three-pointers to give her 36 for the season, tying her for the league lead and marking the third-most made three-pointers through a player’s first 10 games in WNBA history.
Two Storm players tallied double-doubles: Ezi Magbegor and Jordan Horston. It was just the 15th time in franchise history two players recorded double-doubles and just the third which didn’t involve Lauren Jackson or Breanna Stewart.
Magbegor’s double-double was her fifth of the season as she notched 13 points and 11 rebounds along with a pair of steals, one block and an assist.
Horston came off the bench to score 11 points with 13 rebounds becoming the fourth Storm player to tally multiple double-doubles in their rookie season.
Turnovers hurt Seattle in the process as the team committed 17 total allowing 20 off its miscues, while scoring only 12 off Connecticut’s 14.
What’s next?
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.