Storm rally against Lynx falls just short despite Jewell Loyd’s career high 41-point game
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In the rematch of their Tuesday, June 27th matchup in Minnesota that saw the Lynx largely control their matchup, the Seattle Storm battled late to force overtime before ultimately falling. Despite Jewell Loyd’s 41-point game and a solid statistical night from the field, the Storm tallied their eleventh loss of the year and still struggle with some of the late game moments that they’ve seen in all but two of those defeats. While Seattle did see big contributions from Loyd, Ezi Magbegor, and Sami Whitcomb off the bench, the Storm didn’t get consistent scoring from the rest of their rotation and missed rookie forward Jordan Horston for another game with a lingering shoulder injury. Seattle will need to tune things up if they want to pull a major upset when the New York Liberty come to town this Sunday for a rematch of their early season battle.
Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd tries to shake off Minnesota Lynx’s Rachel Banham (Photo by Sage Zipeto)
Battle of the gems
Early on in this game, the story in terms of scoring prowess was about Minnesota’s Diamond Miller who helped the Lynx build an eight-point lead after the first quarter. Miller ended that quarter with the game lead in points at nine while also tallying one of each of the key individual statistics, instantly making an impact as the Storm tried to find their footing. On the other end of things, Jewell Loyd was going to be outdone as she poured in seven points while adding four rebounds to help her team in an area that they’ve struggled in for the past few years. That got the game started off, and with the 17-25 deficit, it seemed like we were in for a similar fate compared to the Tuesday game considering how Minnesota was able to get what they wanted.
While diamonds last, or however that saying goes, Jewell Loyd’s inevitability cannot be denied and was not tonight. Loyd would continue her strong start to the night, finishing the game with a career high 41-points in front of her family, as the Loyd’s had numerous family members in attendance for the annual “cousins' night” when they come out to Seattle to support Jewell. In addition to Loyd’s on the court performance that included the game tying bucket late in the fourth quarter and a team high five points in overtime, Loyd’s mother Gwendolynn Loyd performed the halftime show.
“I think I got to my spots. I wouldn’t say I was too efficient, I missed a lot of easy ones, but just being aggressive.”
Seattle Storm guard Sami Whitcomb tallied 22 points off the bench, including five made three-pointers (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
Another late heartbreaker
After the rough first quarter saw Seattle sit at an eight-point deficit, the Storm battled back to have winning quarters in the second and third before the defenses really started to lock things up in the fourth quarter. After both teams were in the 20’s through the first three frames, the fourth saw both Minnesota and Seattle at 14 points, including Jewell Loyd’s late floater to tie the game at 87 and send us into overtime. The Storm had two points in that five-minute overtime period where they held a three-point lead, as Sami Whitcomb continued a hot night off the bench with a three to open things up and then a Loyd three pointer to continue her career night. Unfortunately, on the defensive end, things weren’t sustained as the Lynx were able to answer right back and leave us tied with just a few ticks under two minutes.
Keeping up with the continued impressive performances, rookie forward Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu got a big rebound after a missed Whitcomb layup, putting a shot up of her own to give her team a two-point lead. The Lynx got a stop and two rebounds, one defensively and one offensively, before a jump ball was forced that Minnesota won with 17 ticks left. Diamond Miller came back, after her hot first quarter, to tie things up with a driving layup before a Jewell Loyd turnover set Minnesota up for the game winner. Lynx forward Napheesa Collier hit a tough turnaround shot with defense draped on her like a snuggy to give Minnesota a lead with less than a second left. An Ivana Dojkic prayer at the buzzer wasn’t answered, and the Storm lost another winnable game with the same mistakes that they’ve displayed all year long.
“I mean, if we get a rebound. We had a lot of opportunities to get a rebound, we couldn’t. That’s something that we historically have struggled with, is rebounding. We have to get better, because that’s what it comes down to, getting stops and taking care of the ball. That’s on me.”
Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd attempts a pass around Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier (Photo by Sage Zipeto)
Loyd’s continuing to add to her legend in Seattle
While I already discussed it in the previous section, it needs to be noted what kind of impact and legacy Jewell Loyd will leave whenever her playing career in the city of Seattle ends. Obviously, I want Loyd to be a Storm player for life. The reality of the situation is that right now, this team isn’t a playoff team. That’s okay, I would think, considering that they’ve proven that they aren’t far off from being a consistent winner. A few additions here and there and the continued development of players like Ezi Magbegor and Jordan Horston will have the Storm back to winning in a year or two, I would argue. But the question is, does Jewell want to wait for that to happen considering that she’s arguably in the prime of her career?
We’ve seen the multiple career nights this year. Loyd is now taking over as this team's leader off the court, doing so on the court already. She’s given a ton to this city, having improved her game all around while playing arguable third fiddle to Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart when they wore the Storm jersey. When Loyd signed a two-year deal prior to last season, it was interesting given that Breanna Stewart signed the one-year deal to help Sue Bird attempt one more title run. With the future of this franchise being in “development” mode, does Loyd re-up at some point this year or this offseason to stay in a city that she hasn’t left during her WNBA career? Or does she decide she wants more hardware? Either way, she needs to be respected for what she gave to this organization and team, and I hope that is noted.
Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd had to battle through physical contact to score her career-high 41-points (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
Quick notes
Seattle had its best rebounding game of the season, pulling down 48 boards to the Lynx’ 36. But turnovers proved to be a problem for the Storm, which committed 19 leading to 27 points by Minnesota.
Seattle had 30 bench points, its third-consecutive game with at least 30 points from the reserves.
Jewell Loyd finished the game with a career-high of 41 points. It was the fifth time this season Loyd tallied at least 30 points, the most in the WNBA by two. Loyd’s previous career high was 39 set earlier this season at Dallas.
Loyd’s first three-pointer of the game moved into second on the Storm’s all-time list passing Lauren Jackson. Loyd finished the game with 440.
Loyd also moved into seventh on Seattle’s rebound list with 912 career boards.
Ezi Magbegor, who was playing her 100th career game, scored 16 points and added a career-high 16 rebounds, becoming the fourth Storm player to tally 16+ points and 16+ boards in a game. It was her sixth double-double of the season and the 13th time in the last 14 games she scored in double figures.
Sami Whitcomb tallied a season-high 22 points off the bench connecting on five three-pointers and shooting 7-of-11 from the field overall. Whitcomb has now made 15 three-pointers over her last three games, the most over a three-game stretch in her career and tied for the second-most over three games in Storm history.
Ivana Dojkić had a career-high 10 assists and joined Sue Bird as the only rookies in franchise history to record 9+ assists in back-to-back games. She added seven points and six rebounds.
Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu came off the bench and had eight points, nine rebounds and two blocks. The rookie played a total of 27 minutes after playing just 35 minutes through 11 games this season.
What’s next?
Following the second loss to Minnesota this week, the Storm will get a couple of days to try and regroup ahead of their next battle, a Sunday, July 1st battle against the New York Liberty. Despite what all the preseason predictions looked like, the Liberty haven’t necessarily cruised through the season to this point, having lost four games already and nearly falling to the Storm when these teams met back on May 30th when Breanna Stewart’s third quarter ultimately helped New York pull away. A different team now on multiple levels, the Storm’s chance of an upset is real, but they must play a complete game and get rookie forward Jordan Horston back. That game on Sunday tips off at 3PM PST on the CBS Sports Network.