This was pretty devastating for the Storm. I had figured that the Storm could keep this loss to within 20 or 25 points and IF they were able to keep it under 15 points I was going to call it a moral victory. Jewell shot poorly and got very little help from anyone. The only person who had a pretty good game was our 1st round draft choice Jordan Horston w 8 pts 5 rebs 3 asts and 3 steals although her shooting wasn't great at 31%. I don't know what happened to Kia Nurse who didn't score in 10 minutes when we need her to provide some real punch. I was also impressed w our Croatian PG Ivana Dojkic who had 7 points and looked really good running the team. I expected more from Ezi Magbegor than 7 pts and 5 rebounds. We do need a lot of work.
I don’t understand why the Storm didn’t play the rookies a lot more when they were down by 20 plus. Jewell was playing well into the 4th but the game was over. Why was Plum playing when Aces are up by 35 plus? Stupid. An injury at that time would hurt the “Super Team”
I agree with you. I thought the Aces were piling on unnecessarily. I didn't get that. Their starters should have been out before the 4th Qtr - maybe well before.
My speculation as to why the Aces were unnecessarily piling it on late into the 4th quarter is most likely because it was a Commissioner Cup game and one of the tiebreakers for all teams vying for a spot in the Cup Final is point differential. Not only is winning important but winning by lots of points can help secure you a spot. That's really the only explanation I can come up with.
Other than that, I guess I would just say that while it was a beat down on the Storm. This isn't kids playing. Whereas, if a 7th grade girls team beat another by 40 or 50 points, it might end up looking like poor sportsmanship. Here, all of these players are professionals and getting paid. If the Storm didn't want to get beat by so many points, they could have played better defense as Jewell alluded to.
FWIW, A'ja Wilson didn't play a single minute of the 4th quarter and Jackie Young played less than two minutes. Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray did play around five minutes each and Kelsey Plum did play nearly nine minutes.
I would have liked to see more P.T. for our Rookies esp. Dulcy Fankam who only got 3 minutes (surprisingly) and Jade Melbourne who didn't get much more.
It's not uncommon for teams to generally play with just an 8 or 9 player rotation. The Aces played the majority of the game with just a 7-person rotation until the very end of the 4th quarter when three additional players came in for the final three minutes or so.
Regarding Seattle's rotations, Coach Quinn did play all 12 players and 10 of the 12 did play at least 10+ minutes. Kia Nurse was the biggest surprise to me barely playing over 10 minutes and only three minutes in the 2nd half. One of the other media members I was talking with mentioned she was struggling on the defensive end. I'd have to go back and watch that to see if that was the case. But that may have been the reason for her limited minutes. That and just Coach Quinn trying to find a player that would bring a spark to the team once they started trailing by 15-20+ points.
This was pretty devastating for the Storm. I had figured that the Storm could keep this loss to within 20 or 25 points and IF they were able to keep it under 15 points I was going to call it a moral victory. Jewell shot poorly and got very little help from anyone. The only person who had a pretty good game was our 1st round draft choice Jordan Horston w 8 pts 5 rebs 3 asts and 3 steals although her shooting wasn't great at 31%. I don't know what happened to Kia Nurse who didn't score in 10 minutes when we need her to provide some real punch. I was also impressed w our Croatian PG Ivana Dojkic who had 7 points and looked really good running the team. I expected more from Ezi Magbegor than 7 pts and 5 rebounds. We do need a lot of work.
I don’t understand why the Storm didn’t play the rookies a lot more when they were down by 20 plus. Jewell was playing well into the 4th but the game was over. Why was Plum playing when Aces are up by 35 plus? Stupid. An injury at that time would hurt the “Super Team”
I agree with you. I thought the Aces were piling on unnecessarily. I didn't get that. Their starters should have been out before the 4th Qtr - maybe well before.
My speculation as to why the Aces were unnecessarily piling it on late into the 4th quarter is most likely because it was a Commissioner Cup game and one of the tiebreakers for all teams vying for a spot in the Cup Final is point differential. Not only is winning important but winning by lots of points can help secure you a spot. That's really the only explanation I can come up with.
Other than that, I guess I would just say that while it was a beat down on the Storm. This isn't kids playing. Whereas, if a 7th grade girls team beat another by 40 or 50 points, it might end up looking like poor sportsmanship. Here, all of these players are professionals and getting paid. If the Storm didn't want to get beat by so many points, they could have played better defense as Jewell alluded to.
FWIW, A'ja Wilson didn't play a single minute of the 4th quarter and Jackie Young played less than two minutes. Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray did play around five minutes each and Kelsey Plum did play nearly nine minutes.
Plus with riquina injured they didn't really have many options. They just had too many good players.
I would have liked to see more P.T. for our Rookies esp. Dulcy Fankam who only got 3 minutes (surprisingly) and Jade Melbourne who didn't get much more.
It's not uncommon for teams to generally play with just an 8 or 9 player rotation. The Aces played the majority of the game with just a 7-person rotation until the very end of the 4th quarter when three additional players came in for the final three minutes or so.
Regarding Seattle's rotations, Coach Quinn did play all 12 players and 10 of the 12 did play at least 10+ minutes. Kia Nurse was the biggest surprise to me barely playing over 10 minutes and only three minutes in the 2nd half. One of the other media members I was talking with mentioned she was struggling on the defensive end. I'd have to go back and watch that to see if that was the case. But that may have been the reason for her limited minutes. That and just Coach Quinn trying to find a player that would bring a spark to the team once they started trailing by 15-20+ points.