Storm can’t claw all the way back, fall to Mystics without Jewell Loyd
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The close games continue to slip away from the Seattle Storm in their 2023 season, as even without the league's leading scorer in Jewell Loyd they hung around with the Washington Mystics. Storm center Ezi Magbegor brought the offensive aggression early and often, tallying a career high 24 points, and no one star shone brightest for Washington to give Seattle a fighting chance. Rebounding and second chance points continue to be points of emphasis for the team, as those departments may ultimately have been the different in this contest. Considering how close of a battle this was, the Storm have a solid chance of winning on Sunday when the teams meet again.
“I thought our group fought and battled without having Jewell on the floor, manufactured some points with Ezi’s aggressiveness, and Jordan as well. We’re continuing to grow in a lot of ways and I’m super encouraged about what I’m continuing to see with this group. Quick turn around, we have them again on Sunday. We’ll clean up some things and be ready to rock on Sunday.”
“Not having Jewell was a big loss, I think we definitely felt her presence still. During the game, she’s very talkative, throughout the game, at halftime, before the game. Even though she wasn’t on the court with us, we definitely still felt her. felt so sorry. But it was definitely next one up. And I think we did a great job of playing together as a team tonight and you know, like I’ve said previously, I think we just get better and better every game timing. Just building that chemistry really helped.”
Seattle Storm guard Sami Whitcomb (#32) started in place of injured Jewell Loyd tonight (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
No Loyd, no lack in effort
With shooting guard and the leading scorer in the WNBA sidelined as Jewell Loyd was held out with a foot injury, Seattle was essentially written off before tipoff. The Storm didn’t care, as the game was close throughout, beginning in the first quarter. The Mystics appeared to begin to pull away as they got inside often, but the Seattle defense started to click and force Washington into mistakes and missed shots. With their defense getting back to basics, the Storm bench found a spark and ran with it as names like Arella Guirantes, Ivana Dojkic, and Jade Melbourne all chipped in to make this a three-point game after ten minutes. With their bench out-performing their starters point wise, Seattle continues to display that when the pieces of the puzzle fully get put in place, they’ll be dangerous in their new era.
“Not just to me, I think for everyone, that was an emphasis. Just next woman up, so we knew we had to take more shots, be more aggressive as a team. And yeah, not having Jewell was a big loss, so offensively I think we just knew we had to step up.”
“Honestly, just seeing Ezi on the course, she’s very poised. She has one facial expression. So, I look at her and I’m just like, okay, I’m good. I just look at her to calm me down, she doesn’t even have to say anything, just ‘good job J!’ That’s all I need. She’s my accountability partner.”
The defensive effort continued to keep Seattle in this one through the first five minutes of the second quarter, before things went south. The final five minutes before the halftime break saw the Mystics go on a 19-5 run where the Storm had numerous missed shots, fouls, and turnovers. It can certainly be viewed as a “growing” quarter for the young team that continues to get acclimated with their roles and playing with each other, but in the present, it was a stretch that pit Seattle in a 14-point hole at the halfway point of the game.
Seattle Storm center Ezi Magbegor continues to improve, now age 23, as she scored a career high 24-points tonight (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Seattle stays in the fight, but can’t climb all the way back
After giving up a 27-point quarter to Washington in that second quarter that got away from Seattle, the Storm were able to make the necessary adjustments to lock in. The Mystics only tallied ten points in the third quarter, all their shots from the field coming in the paint. On the other end of the floor, the Storm got into the Washington paint to begin their comeback effort. A player that really pushed that Seattle surge over those ten minutes was Jordan Horston, hitting three big shots in the minutes before the fourth quarter to help her team cut the deficit to eight. The continued confidence from Horston on both ends of the court is showing as of recently, and it helped Seattle begin to claw back tonight.
“I think it was a lot better, I think we definitely are a team that plays better in transition. And that comes from our defense, like J (Jordan Horston) said, we picked up our defense in the second half and I think that just led to transition points. If we can get out and run, get open layups, set early screens, I think that’s our game right there. Then, as cut that off, just moving the ball. We definitely want to play transition first, play fast and just have a quick offensive game.”
“Definitely, to me, just encouraged that we are in a two-possession game that late and probably written off before this game, to even be in the game, without our best scorer on the floor. We haven’t been in these moments enough as a unit to know you’re not just kind of taking care of the ball, how we need to execute and just kind of be sharper, but this is the growth that is happening, will happen, and needs to happen for us to get over the hump, especially in those moments. That’s just, you know, because I want it so bad for them. They work so hard and it’s just the things that we have to go through with the younger group.”
In crunch time, the Storm remained competitive but couldn’t bring the game to a tie, let alone complete their comeback effort. The first three minutes of the fourth saw a tough defensive showing from both sides before the Mystics began to take advantage of Storm mistakes. Turnovers, fouls, and missed shots came back to bite Seattle down the home stretch despite some big made shots that kept them within striking distance. With less than three minutes left, the Storm were down by six-points with the ball. Seattle missed their next three shots before a Tiana Hawkins layup made it a three-possession game that the Storm couldn’t recover from. Washington pulled away, and took the first of two games that the teams will play this weekend.
“I feel like we tightened up on our defense in the second half. We played really hard, i felt like we gave the effort. We just gotta clean up on some things, we’re gonna watch film and we’ll clean that up, then we’ll see them Sunday. I feel like everybody on the team gave their all, I felt like everybody was pulling for each other. I feel like the effort was there, we’re gonna figure it out.”
“Just thought that we were too aggressive on area of the floor with Delle Donne, she was just facing up and we weren’t. We were just too anxious to go double her. In the second half, we settled down, we were on our horses and connected a little bit more as related to our rotations. We still have to clean up our turnovers and we didn’t have a lot of o-boards. If you think about the possessions that we lost, that hurts us there, but overall, I thought our defensive effort was very good in the second half.”
Seattle Storm forward Jordan Horston continues to display growth through her rookie season (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Just being Jordan
Seattle shooting guard and ninth overall selection in this past draft Jordan Horston seems to be finding her groove, and that can only mean good things. The athletic Horston has seemed to find some stride in the past two games, getting involved more on both ends of the court while seemingly allowing herself to just be Jordan. Not thinking so much during the game is a factor that Horston mentioned in the postgame presser as to her improved play, and will certainly be something that will help the rookie moving forward.
“Well, 4-13 is not the greatest, but I had a lot of open looks and I felt pretty comfortable, I just gotta finish them. There’s a lot of shots that I feel like I still rushed. But I feel like it’s definitely coming to me. My teammates are still instilling confidence in me, they believe in me. I just gotta get back in the gym and find my touch again. As far as feeling the play, I feel like it’s coming.”
Now, while plenty of praise should be given to Horston for her ability to remain level headed during the games that aren’t so great and for her recently improved play, there were some moments that she’d want back from tonight’s loss. In terms of shooting, while there were the three big shots to close out the third quarter, Horston went 4-13 shooting overall in this game with several missed opportunities around the rim. That includes two of the three missed shots when the team was down by six in the final two minutes, both being in the paint. I don’t mean to include this second paragraph as a sort of downer, it’s more of a note that despite the good night she had some moments to improve. And that’s a good thing, after all, it’s only her sixth regular season game in the WNBA.
“For sure, I feel like this is flowing naturally. A lot of our stuff is in transition, and that’s my game right there: transition. When we’re in transition, I don’t have to think about anything. Either go to the basket and get fouled or find the open person.”
“I mean, I had a lot of wide-open threes, so I had to shoot them. I’ll work on them, every single day, before practice, after practice. I’m putting up my shots and it’s like, once I see one fall, that’s all I needed to give me some confidence, but it’s not like I’m not putting the work in. Jewell and everybody else tell me, ‘When you’re open, you have to shoot it’ and they left me a lot today.”
“I feel like it’s still early. This is game six. I feel like it’s still early, but I do feel like I’m getting more comfortable each and every day, each and every practice. Just finding how I can play my game within this system. With time, I’m gonna get my feel. And then of course, I’ve got great teammates around me, constantly instilling me with confidence and believing in me. I’m putting the work in and it’s gonna pay off.”
“She is, I mean, every day she’s putting the work in, she’s watching film. She’s learning and growing in a lot of ways. It’s her rookie year and she’s, I don’t even call her a rookie, she’s a pro, you know, and she’s coming into a system that is different from what she’s done for four years and within a month of her being here we see where she can excel as a pro, but she’s not taking days off. She’s not short-cutting the process. And so, you have grace, you deal with the ups and downs that come with someone who is very new to this and I think she’s going to continue to grow and find moments for us. That will be super impactful for what we want to continue to do.”
Seattle needs more out of veterans like Kia Nurse and Yvonne Turner if they’re going to succeed (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Sharpshooters missing the mark
With the mention of the improved play from Seattle’s bench and the players on it, it should be noted that a few of the players that the Storm brought in this offseason as veterans that can score haven’t quite done that through six games. Kia Nurse and Yvonne Turner have largely underperformed to this point in the season, even with the team itself having lowered expectations as a whole. The trio of Nurse, Turner, and starter Sami Whitcomb (due to Loyd’s injury) went a combined 2-9, as Turner missed the two shots she took. She should soon be replaced as a starter, but that’s a topic for a different day. Whitcomb has been able to hit big shots at times, but otherwise hasn’t done more than hit one or two a game. Nurse, outside of her 20-point game against the Wings, has been largely ineffective. Seattle needs more from its veterans, and they may get an extra motivation boost considering the younger players are already pushing for more minutes.
Seattle Storm guards Jade Melbourne and Ivana Dojkic continue to push for more minutes and make their case to be the starting point guard (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Quick notes
Ezi Magbebor scored a career-high 24 points
Magbegor topped her previous career high of 21 points, hitting 10-of-16 from the field. The 10 makes was a career best, one more than the nine she hit against Washington last June 23.
She also had three blocked shots, the fourth-straight game she has had that many. The only other Seattle player to get three or more blocks in four consecutive games was Lauren Jackson, and she did that four times.
Rookie forward Jordan Horston finished with 10 points and a career-best nine rebounds.
Along with the career-high 14 points she scored in Tuesday’s 66-63 victory against the Los Angeles Sparks, she is the first Storm rookie to hit for double digits in consecutive games since Breanna Stewart in 2016.
Horston’s nine rebounds included the Storm’s only two offensive boards of the night
Seattle limited Washington to just 25.8 percent (8-of-31) in the third quarter, and the 10 points they allowed in the third tied for the fewest allowed in a period by Seattle this year.
The Storm came in averaging 6.0 blocks per game, and that’s exactly what they finished with on Friday.
Seattle had a season-high 17 assists, led by a career-high five for rookie Jade Melbourne off the bench.
Washington’s Elaine Della Donne finished with 11 points for the Mystics, but did not score in the second half, as Seattle limited her to just three shots.
The Mystics outrebounded the Storm 41-30 including a 13-2 edge on the offensive glass. Seattle had not allowed a second-chance point in its last game, but the Storm failed to score any second-chance points tonight while Washington tallied 13.
What’s next?
The Storm will remain at home, their sixth in the first seven games, and face these Washington Mystics once again on Sunday, June 11th with a tipoff time of 12PM PST. Following the gritty and tight contest, Seattle will look to get their party started with a victory as after the game, the Storm will raise Sue Bird’s iconic and now retired #10 jersey to the rafters of Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle’s winningest athlete with four WNBA Championships, it’s the weekend of Bird as prior to this game a copy of the banner was raised atop the Space Needle and a mural of the legend was unveiled within the city. With plenty of festivities and fanfare, the Storm must block out the noise if they aim to earn their second victory on the season that day.