Epic 4th quarter pushes the Storm past the Lynx (Free Edition)

Seattle outscores Minnesota 37-15 in the 4th period to beat the Lynx 90-78.

(Minneapolis, Minnesota) - Watching the game on Thursday night I’m reminded of a famous speech Pete Carroll gave to the Seahawks after they rallied late to beat an opponent on the road. A few simple questions really.

“Can you win the game in the 1st quarter? Can you win the game in the 2nd quarter? Can you win the game in the third quarter? Can you win the game in the 4th quarter!?”

The answer to that final question is a resounding YES! as the Seattle Storm outscored the Minnesota Lynx 37-15 in the 4th quarter to complete a 19-point epic come from behind victory to move to 2-1 on the season.

Seattle also picks up another important win the Commissioner’s Cup, where they are now 2-0.

The Storm were led by the backcourt of Jewell Loyd (23 points, five rebounds, four assists), Sue Bird (21 points, eight assists, five rebounds), and Jordin Canada (16 points, three assists) who combined for 60 of Seattle’s 90 points in the game.

It was important that they did because Breanna Stewart had an off night, to say the least. Stewart finished with 13 points on 5-14 FG (1-4 from 3-PT range) and seven rebounds. She was largely ineffective the entire game as Minnesota’s defense made a concerted effort to slow down the league’s best player.

Sylvia Fowles was back to full strength after dealing with a calf injury in the bubble season of 2020. Fowles looked dominant in the low post scoring 20 points and collecting nine rebounds.

Crystal Dangerfield gave the Lynx a huge spark off the bench scoring a team-high 22 points on 10-16 field goal shooting. Dangerfield likely reminded the Storm and several other teams that they made a mistake passing on her in the 2020 WNBA Draft where she fell to 16th overall in the 2nd round. Dangerfield would go on to win rookie of the year last season averaging 16 points per game and helping lead the Lynx to the 4th best record in the league and a trip to the semi-finals. She’s proving her scoring is legit and wasn’t a fluke last season as she’s already scored 17 points or more in two of the three games the Lynx have played this season.

With the loss, Minnesota falls to 0-3. This comes as a surprise as many believed they would be one of the league’s best teams this season (and they likely will be). But for now, they will have to regroup. It also helps that they’ll finally be getting Napheesa Collier back in their lineup for the next game, which also happens to be against Seattle next week.

Now let’s take a look at how this game played out, shall we?

Game Breakdown

Another sloppy opening quarter for the Seattle Storm who are still learning to play with each other. Especially, with another new starting lineup, the third straight game with a different lineup. This time, they started Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd, Stephanie Talbot, Breanna Stewart, and Ezi Mabegor. Talbot got the start at Small Forward with Katie Lou Samuelson not currently with the team so she can participate in Team USA 3x3 Olympic qualifiers.

Sylvia Fowles immediately went to work in the low post; she also got Ezi Magbegor in foul trouble immediately forcing Magbegor into two early fouls that sent her to the bench rather quickly.

Four minutes into the game the Lynx led 10-3. A basket by Candice Dupree and then back-to-back threes by Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd allowed the Storm to cut Minnesota’s lead to three at 14-11. However, the Lynx finished the quarter with a 12-5 run. Minnesota led Seattle 26-16 after one period.

Seattle was careless with the ball committing seven turnovers in the first quarter. Many of them were unforced errors.

The Lynx shot lights out in the opening quarter going 11-16 (73%) from the floor. Sylvia Fowles led the way with 11 points.

Jewell Loyd did her best to keep Seattle in the game scoring nine points in the first quarter.

Minnesota continued to push the pace on Seattle in the 2nd quarter. Instead of the Storm cutting into the lead, the Lynx were able to expand it. Too many turnovers and missed shots led to really poor play in the first half from Seattle.

The Lynx also did an excellent job defending Breanna Stewart. They limited her touches and when she did get the ball, they were able to apply enough defensive pressure to affect her shots. Stewart was held scoreless through nearly the first 15 minutes of the game.

Stewart finally got her first points of the game off a double-team steal where she was able to run the length of the court for two easy points. Stewart finished the first half with just four points on 2-7 FG shooting.

Kayla McBride knocked down a quick three to put the Minnesota Lynd up 19 points at 43-24 with 2:44 left to play in the first half. It was the largest lead of the game for either team.

Jewell Loyd had a beautiful scoop layup over 6’6” Sylvia Fowles late in the 2nd quarter, where she drove to the basket with her left hand and switched to her right to finish over the elite center.

For a second consecutive game, the Storm had major problems on both ends of the court. They gave up 48 points to Minnesota and were on pace to give up 96 for the game. On offense, they scored just 33 points. It’s the second consecutive game where they’ve failed to score even 35 points in the first half.

Seattle’s backcourt had a much better game than on Tuesday night against Las Vegas. On Tuesday, Bird and Loyd combined for just two points at the half. But on Thursday night, those two had 19 points through the first two quarters. Unfortunately for the Storm, the other three starters (Stewart, Talbot, Magbegor) combined for just four points total.

Minnesota shot 55% (18-34) while Seattle shot the ball very poorly at under 39% (13-32). Both teams did not do a good job of taking care of the basketball with the Storm committing 10 turnovers in the first half; while the Lynx were nearly as bad with eight turnovers. The Lynx also outrebounded Seattle 17-13.

Sylvia Fowles led the Lynx with 13 points at the break, while Jewell Loyd led Seattle with 11.

The Storm started the 3rd quarter on a 10-3 run. Jewell Loyd started it off with an excellent defensive possession forcing Kayla McBride into a difficult shot in which McBride missed. Stewart and Loyd both hit three-pointers. Seattle’s defense was able to trap and get a steal, where Stephanie Talbot was able to drop a pass into the paint to Ezi where Magbegor was able to get an easy layup to cut the Lynx lead to just eight points with 51-43.

Unfortunately, Seattle not able to cut the lead further than that. Both teams battled back and forth the rest of the quarter evenly.

It was pretty apparent Breanna Stewart was having an off-shooting night when she missed two free throws at the end of the third quarter that would have cut Minnesota’s lead down to eight heading into the fourth. Instead, Seattle trailed by 10 at 63-53.

One minute into the fourth quarter and it looked like we were going to have a repeat of Tuesday night’s game. Where the Storm had used up all of their energy trying to cut into a big lead only to run out of gas in the final quarter. Minnesota scored the first four points of the fourth to go up 14 points at 67-53.

Kennedy Burke got Seattle on the board when she knocked down a three-pointer. Then Seattle got a transition basket that ended with a beautiful Sue Bird pass to a wide-open Candice Dupree to cut the Lynx lead back down to single digits in the 4th quarter at 67-58.

After the Lynx built their lead back up to 13 points and looked to put the game away for good, the Storm made another run capped off by Jordin Canada’s two free throws to cut Minnesota’s lead to four points at 71-67 with 5:30 left in the game.

But when Minnesota was in trouble, they went back to their former MVP in Sylvia Fowles who scored four quick points to push Minnesota’s lead back up to eight points.

With under five minutes to play, Coach Hughes made substitutions to have Mercedes Russell in the game along with Jordin Canada, Jewell Loyd, Sue Bird, and Breanna Stewart. Five players that are all very familiar with each other having won two championships over the past three seasons together. The chemistry was apparent as the team went on a monster run to close out the game.

Jordin Canada had a beautiful steal where she intercepted a cross-court pass and went the length of the court for the easy layup. It cut Minnesota’s lead down to just two points at 75-73 with just under four minutes left in the game. Breanna Stewart was then able to tie the game at the foul line. Then Jewell Loyd hit a three to take the lead for good!

13-0 run by Seattle in the 4th quarter and a 23-3 run total over the final five minutes of the game. It was hard to believe, so this image will help.

It’s a huge credit to Seattle for not just outscoring the Lynx 37-15 in the 4th quarter, but also 57-30 throughout the entire second half!

Seattle ended up with a 35-31 rebounding advantage. And similar to their win against Las Vegas last weekend, the Storm’s three-point shooting was a big difference in the game. Seattle shot 48% (12-25) from beyond the arc compared to Minnesota who shot 29% (5-17). The seven more made threes are a +21 point differential.

Additional Analysis

I’d be lying if I said the team’s slow starts aren’t concerning. The Storm have now trailed by double digits in all three of the games they’ve played so far this season. Fortunately, they’ve been able to rally in two of the three games to secure the win. The team will hopefully minimize these mistakes moving forward as the new pieces get more time and rhythm together on the court with the core Storm players.

The positive news is that Seattle has a lot of firepower and tremendous depth. The fact they put up 37 points in the 4th quarter is a testament to that. There is so much talent on this team between Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd, Sue Bird, Candice Dupree, Jordin Canada, Ezi Magbegor, Mercedes Russell, etc. (I could name the entire roster) that they should be competitive in just about every game they play in.

It’s also a really good sign that Seattle can go to a place like Minnesota, where it’s extremely difficult to win ballgames as the road team, have their superstar player (Breanna Stewart) have a below-average game (13 points, 7 rebounds), trail by 19 points at one point and still come away with a 12 point victory.

The other night it was Katie Lou Samuelson and Ezi Magbegor giving you big production (outside of Seattle’s Big 3). On Thursday night it was Jordin Canada (16 points) and Candice Dupree (10 points on 5-7 FG). And that doesn’t even include contributions that don’t really show up in the box score like Stephanie Talbot giving good hustle plays and getting three steals or Mercedes Russell’s presence making things more difficult for Sylvia Fowles. Russell had a +19 in plus/minus which was only bested by Sue Bird’s +20. Russell was certainly missed in the two-game series against Las Vegas and her return was a welcome presence in this game.

There’s a lot of work for this team ahead. And I expect this season will be filled with more ups and downs than Storm fans have been accustomed to in recent seasons. There will be growing pains as we’ve seen over the past three games with so many unforced turnovers being committed and the team looking out of sync at times.

I think there’s no doubt this team will miss Natasha Howard and Alysha Clark at different times this season. Losing Howard really is unfortunate because Natasha worked so well in Seattle’s system. And despite being just 6’2” her athleticism and excellent defensive ability allowed her to guard opposing teams’ elite post players over the past three years with Seattle. I don’t know if Howard always got the credit she deserved on this team. I’ve always felt she was the key to changing this franchise around. Obviously, it was Stewie and Jewell. But they weren’t able to get out of the first round until Howard was added to the team and then they’d go on to win two championships over the next three seasons. Even after just three games, the team has definitely missed her at times.

Lastly, it is truly incredible to watch Sue Bird play the game of basketball at the age of 40 and do the things she’s doing out there against players that are in their early to mid-’20s. To put up 21 points, including 5-9 from beyond the arc, and dish out eight assists is just special. I will never get tired of seeing her play the game of basketball.

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