Another road victory! Storm defeat Fever 87-70
The Storm were led by their Big 3 who combine for 55 points in Seattle's victory.
(Indianapolis, Indiana) - The Seattle Storm knocked off the Indiana Fever 87-70 as they improved their record to a league-best 11-2 on the season. They also remain undefeated on the road this year at 6-0. Meanwhile, the Fever are headed in the complete opposite direction, their record drops to 1-12 on the season and they have now lost eight games in a row.
Despite the differences in records, Indiana actually played Seattle pretty tough through three quarters. They kept the game within single digits well into the third quarter before Seattle ran away with it in the fourth.
Seattle was led by their Big 3 of Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd, and the veteran Sue Bird. Stewart had another double-double leading the team with 20 points and 12 rebounds. She also had five assists which were second-best only to Jordin Canada’s six off the bench. Jewell Loyd came through with 18 points, six rebounds, and four assists. And Sue Bird added 17 points on 6-7 FG shooting including 75% (3-4) from beyond the arc. Bird also had four assists. In total, Seattle’s Big 3 combined for 55 points, 21 rebounds, and 13 assists.
“I mean, you have arguably one of the best at each position. That is very impactful on a basketball floor. Sue as a point guard, is one of the best in the world, in my opinion, amazing offensive firepower with Jewell Loyd on the wing, and just a very versatile player in Stewie a big that can shoot and get to the rim and do a lot of things on a floor. With that combination, you have pieces around that compliment those great attributes and I think what you see is that they have been through the trenches with one another. They went from a rebuilding situation to winning a championship, to now being contenders again. I think just what they've hooked up, what they've been with each other, the combination of that growth, now you're seeing the maturation of that. And, you know, you can name some amazing big threes and I think this is one that needs to go on the list as well. Just three amazing players at their positions.” Coach Noelle Quinn told the media after the game.
Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart also spoke about the chemistry between the three of them during the post-game press conference.
“I think you have two players in Stewie and Jewell, who are exceptional. You could argue [they are] not even in their prime yet, which is scary. They kind of have grown up since entering the WNBA. But [they are] also arguably the best at their positions currently. I was able to be with them in these formative years. I was able to work with them and get to know them on the court and develop chemistry with them, starting from their rookie seasons until now. And for me, I'm obviously a point guard that, you know, loves to get players involved and loves to help people be successful. I love to put them in successful positions. And when you have two players of their caliber, it makes my job super easy. I'm trying to stay as healthy as possible so I can still play the high level along with them.” Bird told the media after the game.
“I think it's just the fact that we play so well together. We have the utmost respect for one another. Obviously, Jewell and I for what Sue had done before we were even in the WNBA, and then now being her teammate. And then for Jewell and I just continuing to grow and progress together. We came into the league a year apart, but we have basically been going on this journey together and to have those two alongside me makes everything easier. It makes everything better and everything more fun.” Stewart added.
For the Indiana Fever, they were led by Kelsey Mitchell who had a game-high 26 points. But they had just two other players score in double figures. Tiffany Mitchell had 12 points and Jessica Breland had a near double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
The Storm did an excellent job defensively against Teaira McCowan who was limited to just six-point and six rebounds in 23 minutes. McCowan had 12 points and 14 rebounds in the first matchup between these two teams back on June 1st.
I asked Coach Quinn what she was most impressed with from this victory.
“Just staying the course. What we did was staying the course of the game and eventually got that lead by just continuing to play hard and together. Staying focused, staying locked in on our matchups. That's impressive to me that we've been in a number of games already this year where we've been in close games, overtime games, some big games, we’ve experienced a big margin in a loss and a close loss. So, all the different experiences that we've been through early on, I think it's really helping us get through these games of just finding ways to win and it may look different every night, but at the end of the day we put our best foot forward and we come out victorious. We just continue to learn with each other, grow with each other and get better every day.” coach said after the game.
Game Breakdown
Seattle hit three shots from beyond the arc (two by Jewell Loyd) to get up 9-4 early on in the game. The Fever did a good job executing in the halfcourt offense to actually take the lead over Seattle 11-9 as the Storm went cold from the field. However, Seattle went on a 10-0 run with some really beautiful basketball plays. Stewart had a nice drive to the basket where she finished with a finger roll. Bird had a nice pullup jumper and Stewart got another layup. Then Loyd found Stewart cutting to the basket for another nice layup to put Seattle up 19-11 with two minutes to play in the first quarter.
Seattle finished leading Indiana 25-16. Jewell Loyd led the team with 10 points and Breanna Stewart was right behind her with nine.
After shooting 56% (10-18) from the field in the first quarter, Seattle did not effectively connect on their shots in the second period. Seattle shot just 35% (7-20) in the second quarter while Indiana shot 43% (6-14).
A Sue Bird three-ball put Seattle up 12 points at 41-29 with less than 90 seconds to play in the first half. It looked like the Storm were about to push their lead to 15 or more but the team finished with some sloppy play. They missed their final four shots and had two turnovers in the final minute of the quarter as the Fever finished the quarter on a 4-0 run.
The Storm led 41-33 at the midway point. Breanna Stewart led the way with 14 points, while Loyd scored 10 points and Bird added nine more. Seattle shot 45% (17-38) from the floor in the first half and 42% (5-12) from three-point range.
Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with eight points. Danielle Robinson and Jantel Lavender added six points each. Indiana shot just 36% (12-33) and just 11% (1-9) from beyond the arc.
Indiana started the 2nd half on a 9-7 run to cut Seattle’s lead to six at 48-42. Up to that point, I felt Seattle was settling for outside jumpers and simply weren’t taking care of the basketball.
A major changing point in the game took place with about four minutes left in the third quarter. Breanna Stewart had an open three at the top of the key but opted to drive down the lane for an elegant finger roll. On the very next possession, Jewell Loyd aggressively attacked the basket, made a layup, and got fouled where she completed the three-point play. Loyd then drove to the basket and was fouled again sinking both free throws. Lastly, Seattle got another defensive stop and Jordin Canada launched the ball all the way up the court for an easy layup by Stephanie Talbot. That capped off a 9-2 run by Seattle pushing their lead to 13 points at 57-44.
I spoke to Sue Bird about that run and asked her if she felt they were settling for too many threes before that moment.
“I don't think we settle for 3’s. I think that all the 3’s that we took and we didn't make were makable or wide open. You know when you move the ball and you get the looks for people that are shooting the ball around. I will live with that every, every time. Because you see what happens when they do go in. You know what, eventually they will. But to your point, I guess, you know, we're not just a three-point shooting team. I think we do have people that at times can take it to the basket and we saw that as well. When they went small before we of course saw that and tried to get the ball inside. So again, that's like the beauty of our options, there's so many different ways that we can hurt you and we just try to take what's given.” Bird told me after the game.
The Storm led by ten at 61-51 entering the final period. Seattle was up 13 points early in the 4th quarter, but a quick 4-0 run by the Fever cut the lead to nine at 64-55 and forced a timeout by Coach Noelle Quinn.
Noey drew up a beautiful play that led to a Mercedes Russell layup after receiving a pass from Breanna Stewart who was being double-teamed on the opposite low block.
An 11-0 run midway through the fourth quarter extended Seattle’s lead from nine points all the way up to 20 at 77-57 with just under five minutes to play, essentially putting the game out of reach.
Seattle outscored Indiana 26-19 in the final period. It was their highest-scoring quarter of the game.
The Storm finished the game shooting 49% (34-69) and 36% (8-22) from long range. They limited Indiana to shoot 42% (27-64) and a measly 18% (3-17) from beyond the arc. One of Seattle’s staples is their ability to knock down the long-ball and they were a +15 (points) in that regard in this game.
Seattle also outrebounded Indiana 38-32, something I’m sure Coach Quinn was very pleased about. They also held a 27-18 advantage in assists and nearly doubled the Fever with points in the paint (40 to 22). Indiana did have a 24-13 advantage in free throw attempts but only converted on 54% (13-24). Both teams did a good job taking care of the basketball with the Storm committing 10 turnovers and the Fever just nine.
Something that could have gone unnoticed was that the bench really stepped up in the 2nd half. Through two quarters, Seattle’s bench had scored just six points. But by the end of the game, they were able to tally 25 points total. It is now the 4th game in a row where they’ve scored at least 25 points. It should come as no surprise that Seattle has won all four games by double digits.
Additional Analysis
When a team is playing every other day and winning a lot it can be difficult to bring up new topics that I haven’t already talked about in recent games.
In my last article, I talked a lot about the team’s Defensive Rating improvement from the start of the season to now. Seattle went from the bottom third of the league to now the number one defensive team in the WNBA (in the month of June). You can read more about that in my last article here: Without Jonquel Jones, the Storm dominate the Connecticut Sun 89-66.
I got to speak with Coach Noelle Quinn about it during the pre-game media call. I asked Coach Quinn about the job Assistant Coach Gary Kloppenburg has done in turning the defense around.
“You already know Coach Klop has always integrated a very good defensive system. The thing that is different this year is just the players within that system. The system is the system and sometimes you don’t know what players can do within it. What he’s done is amazing in getting us situated. We like to disrupt as you guys know. Understanding that we need to be solid. Understanding the new players and their strengths. You’ve seen us show some zone and use our length. Being creative with what we do. And I think the biggest thing with our defense is we’re starting to turn teams over, but also just finishing plays and continuing to rebound.
Without a lot of training camp time, we have to gain this experience in games. Credit to the players we have, they are cerebral players. They’re picking up on our systems and executing at a very high level.” Coach Quinn told me before Tuesday’s game.
“You talk about the top teams in our league you have to be good on both ends of the floor. You can be a very good offensive team in this league, but if your defense struggles you aren’t going to be a top performer in this league. I think gone are the days of just outscoring people. You have to get stops. It’s cliche but ‘Defense wins Championships’. I think it’s important to understand that it’s sustainable as long as you continue to grow, get better, and evolve in it. Understand that we talk about this level of excellence. We set the bar, we set the standard, now every day, every game, every practice our attentiveness to our scheme, to the details is so important! Because we know what we can do offensively, but in order to be an elite team in this league you have to be good on both ends of the floor.” She added.
Then after Tuesday’s game, I spoke to both Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd about the team’s defensive improvement in the month of June.
“Klopp is probably super happy about that. I think we just continue to kind of hone in to figure out exactly what's our baseline, what's our first scheme when we play teams, and then how we continue to develop and progress to play people defensively and cater to what they don't like. And at the same time, obviously, playing together. In May, we gave up a lot of points, but now we’re continuing to be better in all areas. And I think that's really what we want. We're not complacent with where we're at, with however many wins we have.” Stewart said.
“Just, attention to detail, making sure that we understand what's going on, making a clear plan that all of us can understand and adapt quickly. I think we put it in a couple of zones and use that to our ability too. But I think just pay attention to details.” Loyd added.
The Fever’s woes continue …
The Indiana Fever are in absolute rebuild mode right now. The problem is that the rebuild isn’t going well. Simply put, they aren’t even a competitive team right now. Their Net Rating which looks at their Offensive Rating (93.1) compared to their Defensive Rating (111.0) is currently a league-worst -17.9. How bad is that? Well if they finish the season with that rating it would be the worst we’ve seen in the WNBA in at least the past 10 years. Even the 2-20 New York Liberty from 2020 that played mostly rookies finished the season with a -17.2 net rating. It’s also considerably worse than the Fever’s Net rating from a year ago (-10.2). And considerably worse than the next team, the Los Angeles Sparks (-5.3).
I’m not sure if Marianne Stanley will be able to last the rest of this season if they continue to play this way. It’s not all of the coach’s fault in this situation. But you want to see improvement from your coach and your team in their second year and we’re simply not seeing that from Stanley and the Fever right now. They’re playing considerably worse than the previous season. If Indiana doesn’t make positive changes soon, I think they’ll be forced to go in a different direction.
For the Fever’s sake, hopefully, they will land the #1 overall draft pick for the 2022 WNBA Draft and if that is Rhyne Howard, then hopefully she can be a major difference-maker for them.
Jersey Count
Seattle was back in their Rebel jerseys and they looked great in their all-black jerseys. The team improved to 3-1 while wearing their black uniforms. Do you guys have a favorite uniform color scheme now that we’ve seen them all a handful of times this season? Let me know in the comments section below!
Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 3-1
Explorer: 3-1
Heroine: 5-0
Overall Record: 11-2
Up Next
One more road game against the Indiana Fever (1-12) before the Storm get to head back to Seattle. Their next game will be on Thursday at 4:00 PM in Indiana. The game will air nationally on Facebook and locally on JoeTV (Channel 110 for Comcast/Xfinity). With a win, the Storm can go 5-0 on this five-game road trip which would be quite an impressive accomplishment.
Editor’s Note: Thank you for your support! If you know any Storm fans that aren’t currently aware of my coverage through Substack and Twitter (@WNBAStormChaser), please let them know. Word of mouth can be super helpful and is greatly appreciated! Photo Credits to Neil Enns/Seattle Storm/WNBA.