Storm Week 7: Close Calls, Ugly Losses, and a Record-Tying Skid

This week was a rough one. The Storm lost both their games, one of which was agonizingly close (they should have beaten Portland but lost the last 2.5 minutes 10 points to zero) and one of which was fairly ugly. As a result, the Storm find themselves 3-14, having tied the franchise record for longest losing streak. The team has looked good for stretches of games during this streak, and their young players have been showing signs of development, but at this point the team is pretty clearly getting frustrated with all the losing.

Wednesday at Portland – Storm collapse late, Fire take round 1 of renewed I-5 rivalry

Portland got hot from 3-point range, hit 5, and scored 19 in the first 5 minutes of the game. However, Seattle’s defense held them to 2 points in the back half of the quarter and the Storm offense had a solid quarter with 7 assists on their 8 baskets to lead 23-21 at the first break. 55% shooting helped the Storm score fully 48 points in the first half. Natisha Hiedeman led the way with 14 thanks to 4 of 5 shooting from 3-point range (she’s now in the top 5 in the W in 3-pointers made). Malonga also looked good, chipping in 13 very efficient points of her own. However, the Storm struggled to rebound and they also turned the ball over more than you’d like against Portland’s pressure defense so the lead at the half was only 1 point.

Dom stayed hot in the 3rd quarter and Portland had no answer for her. In addition to a bunch of points and rebounds, she also had a couple of nice passes to Fam for easy layups when Portland brought help defenders to Dom. Throw in a couple of 3-pointers from Awa and the “20 20” frontcourt staked the Storm to a 10-point lead halfway through the quarter. Unfortunately the Storm continued to struggle to end possessions with defensive rebounds, and Portland’s second chance points included several 3-pointers so the game was close going into the 4th.

Dom had a new career high of 24 points with 7 minutes left in the game (she would wind up with 28, on 12 for 19 shooting), but Flau’jae fouled out shortly thereafter and Portland cut things to 1. T and the birthday girl – Awa Fam is 20 now – both hit clutch 3-pointers to push it back to 5 with two and a half minutes to go. That was when Carla Leite sold the refs on a flagrant foul by Jade, which resulted in a 5-point possession for Portland; one possession later they had their first lead of the second half. Seattle has definitely struggled in late-game, clutch scenarios this year and this game was no different. Portland finished on a 20-12 run after Flau’jae fouled out to win 94-89. Zia and Jade just are not as good defensively as Flau’jae and Jordan Horston (who missed the game with a foot injury she picked up last week against Golden State). In addition, Dom looked fairly gassed down the stretch, as she played 35 minutes — 10 more than in any game since her concussion.

48% was the Storm’s best shooting percentage of the year, but they didn’t score after Dom’s bucket to push their lead to 5 with 2:39 remaining. Portland is now 6-1 in clutch games this season whereas Seattle is 1-5. There was a lot to like about large parts of this game – Awa Fam tied her own career high in addition to Dom adding 6 points to hers – but at some point the Storm will need to get better at executing their offense in crunch time. Losing the last 2.5 minutes 10-0 is brutal.

The team did at least seem properly angry at themselves for letting this happen. The danger is if they get so frustrated with losing that they start to check out. I don’t think we’re there yet, but the losing is really starting to add up at this point.

Saturday – Storm lose an ugly one at Phoenix

The Storm led 24-19 at the end of Q1, thanks mostly to forcing 5 turnovers (and turning them into 9 points). Phoenix got hot in the 2nd quarter, hitting 4 of 5 3-pointers en route to a 22-5 edge in about 6 minutes. The Storm did at least close the half well and were down just 7 at the break. Rebounding continues to be an issue for the Storm. They grabbed just 11 of the 28 available rebounds in the first half despite a massive height advantage. When I wrote about their rebounding problems a few weeks ago I was hoping that starting Awa and getting Dom back from her concussion would fix this issue, but it just hasn’t.

Phoenix went on a 14-0 run to start the 3rd quarter and all of a sudden the Storm were down 21. It was never close again. There was not a lot to like about this loss. They did limit themselves to 10 turnovers (while forcing Phoenix into 16), but they got out-rebounded 41-28 and out-shot 48% to 36%. Giving up 93 points will often lose you the game and scoring just 73 will pretty much always result in a loss. The combo is kind of ugly. T did put up 20 points (on 6 for 9 shooting too), but no one else had a good game, with Dom needing 16 shots to score 10 and Flau’jae needing 17 for her 13 points. 10 rebounds was nice from Awa, as was 2 steals, but the big picture here is a 10th loss in a row, tying the franchise record. The schedule doesn’t do them any favors next week, either.

Player of the Week

The Storm’s best player this week was the Dominique Malonga who played 30 minutes across the first 3.5 quarters of the Portland game. She looked every bit the all-WNBA talent that has everyone so optimistic about her future (and the team’s future). However, she was a non-factor in the last 5 minutes of that game (perhaps because she jumped from 24 & 25 minutes played in her previous two games up to 35 minutes in this one). Against Phoenix she played 23 minutes (she was on pace for more until the game turned into a blowout) and put up just 10-3-2 on just 25% shooting.

I guess that makes T the choice here once again. T has been blistering from 3-point range lately, hitting 8 of her 12 attempts this week (!!) and putting up a total of 39 points.

Around the W

We’re squarely in the second quarter of the season now and the standings are starting to become a bit more stable. In my preseason article I said there were 4 legit contenders. 3 of those teams have risen to the top of the standings (Aces, Liberty, Dream), whereas my 4th team – the Fever – have struggled a bit. Meanwhile the Lynx are the biggest surprise and have replaced the Fever on the short list of finals contenders. After that I said there were 6 teams that all expected to claim one of the other 4 playoff spots. I called Chicago and Phoenix as the two who would wind up disappointed and so far that has proven to be true.

Power Rankings

Minnesota – They had won 8 in a row until they ran into the Aces in a game that seemed likely to decide who the West would send to the Commissioner’s Cup final, and in fact did. They are a convincing finals contender already and Napheesa Collier – who finished 2nd in MVP voting in each of the last two seasons – has yet to play a single minute. Meanwhile, Olivia Miles has already moved on from “obvious rookie of the year” to “legitimate MVP candidate.” I would vote her 2nd if we were voting right now (and if I had a ballot). I was going to rank Vegas first based on that head-to-head game, but Minnesota is currently 1st in both offense and defense, with an astonishing +12.9 point differential per game whereas Vegas randomly dropped a game to Dallas last week by 30 and sits at just +3.4. Vegas – Chelsea Gray has been red-hot and hitting 3-pointers like it’s a playoff series against the Storm (yes, I still have PTSD), A’ja Wilson is the best player in the world, Jackie Young has shaken off whatever was affecting her in the early games of the season, and Vegas won the right to represent the West in the Commissioner’s Cup final. The only question seems to be whether they can stay focused. That shouldn’t be a problem in the playoffs, but it might cost them home-court advantage before we get there.

This space intentionally left blank. The game last week between the Aces and Lynx was incredibly high level basketball, and I don’t think anyone else is playing nearly as well as these two teams right now. There’s still a lot of season left, but this is currently my finals pick.

New York Liberty – I had them 6th at the 3-week mark (when they were 5-4), but expressed confidence that they would get things together, especially now that their good defenders (especially Leonie Fiebich) were finally available to play. Well they swept the rest of the east to make their 3rd Commissioner’s Cup final in 4 years and now sit at 11-5. Atlanta Dream – They’ve already staked a claim to a Top 4 spot and they haven’t even gotten Brionna Jones back from injury yet. It’ll be fun to see if she can help them climb into the top 2.

I do also see a gap between 4th and 5th. The next four teams each have the potential to put things together and host a first round playoff game, but none of them have been playing consistently enough on both sides of the ball to be there yet.

Golden State Valkyries – They surprised everyone by making the playoffs last year in their first year of existence, but now they have their sights set higher than that. The defense is great, but I’m not sure the offense is good enough yet. Dallas Wings – They’re already so much better than last year that it’s not hard to imagine that improvement continuing, but on the other hand they just lost one to Portland (Paige was injured for that game so it likely doesn’t mean much), and another to Golden State. Indiana Fever – The mirror image of the Valks in that their offense might be the best in the entire league, but they haven’t figured out how to play enough defense to crack this season’s upper echelon.

The bubble. I would be surprised if any of the 7 teams above here miss out on the playoffs, but I could easily see any one of these next 4 teams claiming the last spot (and then losing in the first round).

Los Angeles Sparks – I have them as the most likely final playoff team, but they wouldn’t be there if the season ended right now. Toronto Tempo – Sykes is going to miss a few weeks, but after she left the game with a non-contact injury I was happy to hear it’s only going to be a few weeks. Mabrey didn’t need to be asked twice to try to make up the difference, putting up 9 3-pointers and 37 points in their first game without “Slim.” Washington Mystics – I was delighted to watch them beat the Liberty on Friday, and that win got them up to .500 on the year so a playoff run does seem realistic. Portland Fire – I think their current 8-9 record is inflated by running well in all their close games, but fully 5 of their wins are over teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today so they certainly belong in this category.

We’re not dead yet. These two feature too much talent and too little incentive to lose games to write them off just yet, but they have a lot of work to do after digging themselves deep holes in the standings already.

Chicago Sky Phoenix Mercury

Playing for the future: Seattle Storm Connecticut Sun

Next Week

The good news is it’s a 3-game homestand. The bad news is that all 3 opponents are solidly in playoff position right now. Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings visit Climate Pledge on Monday, Breanna Stewart and the Liberty visit on Thursday, and then it’ll be Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream to finish off the week on Saturday. It’d be nice to win one of these so the team doesn’t have to keep answering questions about their long losing streak, but they certainly won’t be favored in any of the games.