Blown lead in Brooklyn, Storm fall to the Liberty 83-79
Seattle drops their second game in a row to fall to 16-7 on the season.
(Brooklyn, New York) - This one stings. Seattle led by 15 points late into the third quarter as Jewell Loyd was putting on the performance of a lifetime. And then it all fell apart over the final 12 minutes of the game as the New York Liberty outscored Seattle 26-7 from the 2:07 mark of the third period to the end of the game.
Seattle was stunned. Shell shocked. In disbelief. The Storm shot 2-16 (12.5%) from the floor in the final quarter. After setting a WNBA record this season by scoring 21 points in the third period, Jewell Loyd was held scoreless on 0-7 FG shooting in the 4th. Loyd was on pace for 40+ points and still finished with 35 points tying her career-high. And while she didn’t score in the final quarter, this loss doesn’t fall on Loyd.
Without Breanna Stewart or Sue Bird for a second-consecutive game, Jewell did everything she could to try and lead Seattle to a victory. In the past two games, Loyd has taken 56 shots and scored 61 points. Before the 4th quarter of this game, Loyd was shooting over 68% (13-19 FG) and that included an end-of-the-quarter heave from halfcourt.
Despite her best efforts, it simply wasn’t enough. And unlike the Chicago game where four players scored in double figures. Loyd really didn’t get enough help on Wednesday against New York. Katie Lou Samuelson was the only other player to reach double figures for the Storm with 15 points. Seattle needed to get more from everyone else and they didn’t. It’s a big reason why the team only scored seven points in the fourth quarter once Loyd finally cooled off and couldn’t make her shots.
Seattle’s bench was outscored 30-12. New York also outrebounded Seattle 31-26. Most notably the Liberty were the more efficient team shooting 52% (31-60) including 48% (12-25) from beyond the arc. While the Storm shot 44% (31-71) and 35% (9-26) from long distance. The road team did a good job of forcing turnovers as the Liberty committed 21 total turnovers while Seattle had just 14.
To no one’s surprise, Loyd was not in a talking mood after the game. Answering the media’s questions with one or two-word responses. The frustration was evident and understandable.
Coach Quinn and Katie Lou Samuelson were a little more talkative.
“Another hard-fought game on the road. Our players fought hard and our intensity level was where it needed to be. Just a couple of miscues and focus moments, I think, toward the end of that game. Overall, some good things happened for us in [that we forced them to] 21 turnovers and [scored] 33 points off that. Excellent third quarter by Jewell, some good contributions elsewhere, so now we have to stay the course, but overall, we fought hard. It just wasn't the outcome that we wanted.” Quinn said after the game.
“She was two points shy of an elite record that Diana Taurasi holds and that has a lot of weight and a lot of significance. I've seen a lot of good games from Jewell and she's gotten in a groove, but I think this one is probably top of that list. She was in a groove, and when she's hitting [shots] like that it's very fun to watch and very cool to see her in those moments.” Quinn added.
“She was out there making incredible shots, really tough contested shots. I think she really worked for every one of those buckets today, so it was pretty cool to be a part of them, and see how great she was flying.” Katie Lou Samuelson said.
She continued, “We just need to lock in a little bit more. When someone steps up big like that we all need to contribute. We can’t just rely on Jewell to do everything to help us win that game. So, it's a team effort. We were right there, clearly, these past few games. We could have closed it out if we just fixed a couple of things.”
The Liberty had four players in double figures with Betnijah Laney having a strong all-around game with 17 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. Laney also banked in the game-winner from about 18-feet out with under 20 seconds left to put New York up for good 81-79.
Rebecca Allen was a monster off the bench scoring 17 points including 5-6 from three-point range. She also had six rebounds.
Natasha Howard had a solid game in just her second game back from injury scoring 10 points on 50% FG shooting (4-8). However, Mercedes Russell did a good job holding her to just ten after she scored 30 points a couple of days ago against the Minnesota Lynx. The Flash, surprisingly, only had one rebound in this game.
Sami Whitcomb had a nice game as well with nine points and four rebounds but was on the bench for most of the second half in favor of rookie Didi Richards. Richards also had nine points including a pair of three-pointers. She had only knocked down one single three-pointer all season long until hitting both of her attempts on Wednesday against Seattle.
Lastly, former #1 overall pick and University of Oregon standout, Sabrina Ionescu scored 10 points, had seven rebounds, and dished out five assists. Ionescu is still adjusting to the pro game in her first full season in the WNBA after suffering a major injury just three games into her rookie campaign. Even still, she’s showing off her versatility with her ability to score, rebound, assist, and defend.
Game Breakdown
Jewell Loyd got the game underway with a corner three. Former Seattle Storm player, Natasha Howard, then scored four straight points in the paint. Betnijah Laney capped off a 6-0 run by New York by knocking down a shot at the top of the key.
The Liberty were in control most of the first quarter. Sami Whitcomb knocked down a three to give New York a 17-10 lead with around four minutes left in the first.
Loyd got a nice fastbreak layup and then buried a triple on a transition play that came from a beautiful steal by Jordin Canada that intercepted a Sabrina Ionescu pass. Seattle responded with a 9-0 run to retake the lead 19-17.
Katie Lou drained a three as Seattle finished on a 14-4 run to end the quarter leading 24-21.
Epiphanny Prince scored five quick points to give Seattle a 29-24 lead. After that, Seattle’s offense struggled to score scoring only one more point over the next several minutes.
New York regained the lead at 32-30 on a pair of free throws from Howard. Piph had a great play where her shot was highly contested but she was able to shoot it off the rim, catch the rebound in mid-air, and put it back in without being contested. That cut the Liberty’s lead to just one at 35-34.
Jewell finished with a couple of really impressive shots before the end of the first half. One was a jumper fading out of bounds near the right sideline and the other was a dribble step-back jumper. Loyd led Seattle with 14 points in the first half as Seattle trailed by just one 42-41. Katie Lou stepped up scoring 10 points in the first half for Seattle.
What took place in the third quarter was one of the more incredible performances the WNBA has ever witnessed as Jewell Loyd put on a shooting clinic. She knocked down a three to start things off. She then completed a driving AND1 to the rim where she was fouled and completed the three-point play. Next, she drove on Howard, spun back around, and buried a jumper with Howard’s hand right in her face.
One of the other stand-out plays from this quarter was when Katie Lou got bodied by the defender, the ref could have easily called a blocking foul but they didn’t. Lou lost the ball and New York recovered the turnover and started racing down the court for a fastbreak opportunity. Instead of hanging her head, Lou rushed down the court, deflected the ball away, and stole the ball back for Seattle. It was a great hustle play that you love to see!
Lou was able to draw a technical foul and Jewell knocked down a pair of free throws, then knocked down a three as Loyd completed a five-point possession.
At this point, Seattle’s offense became “find Jewell and get her the ball”. Loyd worked off of screens and was knocking down pretty much every shot she took. She buried another deep shot with her toe on the line.
Stephanie Talbot was able to brush off a defender down low and knock down the three-foot jumper to give Seattle a double-digit lead 60-49 with four and a half minutes left in the third.
Rebecca Allen responded with another three. Jewell then countered with a three on the left wing to give her 32 points for the game.
Seattle then used Loyd as a decoy as both Katie Lou and Loyd went down into the paint, Jewell then rushed out to the three-point line where multiple defenders followed freeing Samuelson up for a wide-open layup. If that was a designed play it was absolutely beautiful.
Ezi Magbegor picked off a pass near midcourt and finished at the rim to give the Storm their biggest lead of the game 69-54 with about two and a half minutes left in the third period.
Loyd scored her final point of the game on a free throw but she took a pretty nasty spill to the floor and into the base of the basketball hoop. Giving her 35 points in the game, tying her career-high.
New York finished on a 5-0 run including a three by Ionescu that really kept the Liberty within striking distance. Seattle outscored the home team 31-20 overall.
For as enjoyable as the third quarter was to watch for Storm fans the fourth quarter was equally as miserable. Seattle shot 2-16 FG and scored just seven points while being outscored 21-7.
Prince missed a tough contested shot near the rim and then Ezi turned the ball over to Rebecca Allen on the next possession. Allen raced up the court and immediately drained a three to cut Seattle’s lead to just seven at 72-65.
Jordin Canada missed a three and DiDi Richards knocked down a baseline jumper on the left side. Loyd then badly missed a stepback three, Seattle got a defensive stop, then Katie Lou missed a three off the rim. Rebecca Allen then drained a corner three to cut Seattle’s 15-point lead to just two points as the Liberty completed a 13-0 run.
Jewell missed another layup driving down the right lane. Loyd did get a steal that resulted in a short shot down the middle lane for Magbegor. On Seattle’s next possession Ezi threw the ball out of bounds trying to get the ball to a cutting Loyd.
Talbot missed another three-pointer. She went 0-4 from beyond the arc in this game. Jewell missed another contested layup. During Seattle’s next possession Jewell threw the ball out of bounds. She got into trouble driving near the out-of-bounds line on the baseline and was surrounded by multiple defenders.
Samuelson knocked down a three to give Seattle a little temporary breathing room extending their lead to five at 77-72 with under four minutes left in the game.
Ionescu tried to respond on the other end by taking a three which she missed. But then no one bothered to box out or attempt to get a rebound and Sabrina just ran down there, grabbed the ball, and laid it back up. It was a great hustle play by Ionescu and one that should be criticized in the Seattle film session after this game.
Canada forced a drive into traffic and missed everything. Jordin tried to draw the foul and it wasn’t called. New York turned the ball over immediately and then Katie Lou was called for a travel to turn it right back to the Liberty.
Loyd missed another shot coming off a screen where she was wide-open. After being white-hot in the third, Loyd and the rest of the Storm players simply couldn’t buy a basket in the fourth.
Laney had a terrible pass go out of bounds, turning the ball back over to Seattle. The Liberty definitely gave the Storm so many opportunities to win this game and Seattle wasn’t able to convert late.
Mercedes Russell knocked down a pair of free throws to give Seattle a 79-74 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the contest. It was the final points the Storm would score as New York would finish the game on a 9-0 run to win 83-79.
The loss to Chicago on Sunday was heartbreaking. The loss to New York on Wednesday was just disappointing.
Coach Quinn spoke on the struggles of the fourth quarter.
“We tried to continue to get her the ball. Laney is a tough defender so is Richards. I think putting her in those screens and putting her in space was key to getting her in that groove in the third quarter. [That’s] kind of what we tried to do in the fourth, but shots weren't falling.”
“I don't think we were stagnant more so than we just couldn't buy a bucket. Jordan had a couple of mid-range looks, Lou had some threes there, Jewell had a couple of shots that were in her normal groove. I think New York did a really good job of denying and pressuring at some points, understanding where we wanted to get the ball.” She added.
I asked Katie Lou about defensive adjustments or changes New York made late in the game.
“I think they were really aggressive all game. They had good ball pressure, good denial, making us go to different stuff, but I don't think we helped ourselves either in the fourth quarter. You saw how amazing Jewell [Loyd] was playing but we might have not helped her as much as we could. Getting her open and setting her some better screens probably would have been helpful and things like that.” Samuelson told me.
Additional Analysis
Growing Pains
No not the 1980’s sitcom starring Alan Thicke. This Seattle Storm team lost a lot of veteran leadership and experience in the offseason when they lost Crystal Langhorne (13 years of WNBA experience), Alysha Clark (9 years), Natasha Howard (8 years), and Sami Whitcomb (5 years).
On top of that, Seattle’s Coach Dan Hughes with nearly 20 years of WNBA head coaching experience retired a few games into the season and was replaced by rookie head coach Noelle Quinn.
With Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart absent from these last two games, their absence has been more noticeable than in years past. The Storm held leads in the 4th quarter of both of these road games and lost both games as they failed to execute down the stretch.
The 2021 roster is filled with players with considerably less experience than in recent seasons. Besides the 18 years from Bird and the 12 years from Epiphanny Prince, Jewell Loyd has the third-most WNBA experience of any player on the team’s roster with seven years.
The inconsistency has been noticeable. Ezi Magbegor, Katie Lou Samuelson, Jordin Canada, Mercedes Russell, Stephanie Talbot all have WNBA level talent. Most, if not all, have the talent to be players in the WNBA and legit starters for a competitive team. As younger WNBA players do, they have struggled with consistency.
Magbegor fresh off her career-high in Chicago with 21 points and nine rebounds only scored four points and had just one rebound against New York on Wednesday. Mercedes Russell nearly had a triple-double against Chicago (10 points, 11 rebounds 7 assists) but managed just six points and three rebounds against New York.
Katie Lou is another example, but the opposite. Against the Sky, she did not have a great game. Samuelson scored just three points on 1-5 FG shooting in nearly 20 minutes of action. But she responded very well against the Liberty as the only other player to score in double figures, Lou had 15 points (a new career-high) on 60% FG shooting (6-10).
If you don’t include the Commissioner’s Cup game which didn’t count towards the league standings, Katie Lou has scored 14 points or more in three of her last four games. Even if you do include the CC game, it’s still three of her last five which shows signs that she is continuing to grow and develop.
After the game, I spoke to both Coach Quinn and Samuelson about the continued development of her game and the work to become more consistent.
“I alluded to it earlier on the season and I'll keep saying it: think Lou is a player that you have to continue to instill confidence and empower. You can't lose any hope or faith in what she can do when she's on the floor and able to knock down threes, get rebounds and bring some defense. I think she's very good for us. For Lou, especially within her young career, as a coach and as an organization we have to continue to help her grow in a way that she feels good about her contributions and what she can do because we know that she can help us in a lot of ways.” Quinn replied.
“I would like to shoot well every game. Sometimes it doesn't happen. Last game I don't think I put myself in a position to be involved as much as I did this game so, you know, going forward, knowing that I have to help in ways whether it is scoring points, defensively... doing something. We have a lot of different weapons on this team so every day someone else can have a big night.” Samuelson told me.
Many Seattle fans will recall having frustrations watching Jewell Loyd in her first few years in the league. She would score 20 points in a game and then the next couple of games she’d only score 5 or 6 points. Then another game or two later she’d have another 20-point performance. You could see the flashes of brilliance and All-Star level play. But it wasn’t there consistently. It’s something she had to work on and continue to work hard to improve each season. And now Loyd is not only a multi-time WNBA All-Star, two-time WNBA Champion, but she is also one of the elite players in the league that was named to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics squad where she won a gold medal alongside teammates Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird.
It’s possible the next player to develop into an All-Star quality player on the Storm roster will be Ezi Magbegor or Katie Lou Samuelson, they are only in their 2nd and 3rd seasons in the league currently and have a long way to go to develop that consistent output night in and night out. We know from watching Jewell’s development over the years that these things take time.
Jersey Count
The Storm lost for only the second time this season while wearing their green and white uniforms. I consider their “Heroine” jerseys to be their lucky jerseys. For a good portion of the season, they were undefeated while wearing them and even won the Commissioner’s Cup with them. But without Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird, they weren’t able to topple the New York Liberty despite a near-historic performance by Jewell Loyd.
Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 4-3
Explorer: 5-2
Heroine: 7-2
Overall Record: 16-7
Up Next
The Seattle Storm (16-7) will have an immediate rematch with the New York Liberty (11-12) in Brooklyn on Friday. It is expected that both Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird will return to the lineup after taking a week off to rest and recover from the Olympics and to spend time with Stewie’s new baby.
The next game is 4:00 PM (Seattle) and will air nationally on Amazon Prime Video and locally on JOE TV.
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! Also, feel free to drop comments in the section below. If there’s any part of the coverage you really enjoyed let me know. If you have questions on something, I’ll do my best to track down the answer and ask during media availability. Photo Credits to Neil Enns/Seattle Storm/WNBA Photography.