Starters rest, as Storm cruise past the Fever 73-57
Seattle faced the worst team in the league and the results were what you'd expect.
(Seattle, WA) - On Friday night, the Seattle Storm did what good teams are supposed to do against lesser competition. They put the game out of reach early, led by 19 at halftime and more than 20 entering the 4th quarter. It allowed Coach Noelle Quinn to rest the starters significantly prior to the team heading out for a three-game road trip. When the final buzzer sounded the Storm had defeated the Indiana Fever 73-57.
“We’ll take it. I thought our defensive effort was great. I thought we did an excellent job on Kelsey Mitchell limiting her to three points. I thought the way in which we started the game was a good indicator of where we can be as a unit. We hit a lull during the game. I’m just excited to win at home, get on the road, and become road warriors.” Coach Noelle Quinn said in her opening statement.
Breanna Stewart scored 18 of her 20 points in the first half as she led the team in scoring. She displayed her versatility on both ends of the court as she also had six rebounds, four steals, and two blocked shots. Stewart also went to the foul line 12 times connecting on 10 of her free throws. Stewie scored 20 points on just nine shots because of how effective she was at getting to the foul line. I spoke with her after the game about utilizing that as a weapon.
“Yeah, I think anytime we can get to the free throw line it’ll help us. It means we are being the aggressors. It means we’re attacking. I was very upset that I missed my two free throws but happy to have more (attempts). Just putting the pressure on the defense instead of settling for jump shots.” Stewie answered.
Later, Coach Quinn added.
“It was one of our goals. We know Indiana fouls the most in the league at the moment. We wanted to take more free throws than Indiana had attempted. I thought that Stewie was very aggressive. Honestly, she gets beat up a lot getting to her spots on the block. I thought she had great physicality and poise about herself to get to the lane and get to the free throw line.” Quinn stated.
The rest of the team’s stats were pretty skewed because no one on the roster played more than 24 minutes. Coach Quinn gave all ten active players at least 13 minutes of action. Ezi Magbegor was the next leading scorer with 11 points, seven rebounds, and two blocked shots. Gabby Williams scored seven of her ten points in the third period after taking a hard flagrant foul from Indiana’s Lexie Hull.
Tina Charles's impact was apparent in just her second game with the team. Charles nearly had a double-double with nine points and eight rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Charles is having to adjust on the fly as she’s only been able to have one practice since joining the Storm after getting out of her contract with the Phoenix Mercury back on June 25th.
“She’s just being Tina. That’s all we need from her really. She’s just being herself. I think she’s going to integrate really well. It’s not easy to come in the middle of the season and learn all these offenses, our schemes, and principles. What’s great about her is she doesn’t have to know everything right away. She just has to be her. I think it’s already there, nearly a double-double in her second game and she’s had one real practice with us. That says a lot about who she is. She’s a vet, she’s the 4th best scorer in the history of this league.” Gabby said of her new teammate.
Overall, Seattle was just better in about every statistical category. Most notably, they had a 17-6 advantage in fast break points. Surprisingly, they out-rebounded the Fever 39-35. They also had a 22-13 edge in assists. Neither team shot the ball well, but the Storm were better making 42% (25-59) of their field goals while holding the Fever to 34% (21-61). Both teams had 23 free throw attempts but Seattle was significantly better making 17 of their foul shots compared to just 11 for Indiana.
Seattle forced Indiana into 20 turnovers. It was the second game in a row they’ve done that against their opponent. It led to 21 points for the Storm. After the game, I spoke with Coach if that was an emphasis on the scout because Indiana has so many inexperienced rookies playing on their team.
“Yes, that was a big thing. Obviously, to be aggressive on Kelsey Mitchell. We know when we are clean on our rotations because there is some youthfulness to what they do, we can exploit that area. Not only defensively for us, but even offensively, I think a lot of times with their switches and scramble situations they were not on point with it. I think both ends of the floor, just capitalizing on their youthfulness I’ll say.” Quinn said.
The Indiana Fever
Indiana is in a full rebuild and currently has six rookies on their roster. On Friday, they started three of them with #2 overall pick NaLyssa Smith, Spokane native - Lexie Hull, and Queen Egbo, Smith’s teammate from Baylor.
While Smith has definitely been their best rookie overall this season averaging 13.0 PPG and nearly 8.5 RPG; it’s actually Egbo who might be the biggest surprise of their draft. Many draft pundits were surprised Egbo was taken in the first round (10th overall). But she’s been very solid for Indiana this season averaging 7.3 PPG and 6.7 RPG.
At least on Friday night in Seattle, Egbo was the Fever’s best player. She had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. She also had two blocked shots. I spoke with Coach Quinn after the game about what she liked about Egbo’s performance.
“She looks comfortable. I don’t know if we saw that at Baylor, the comfort. Just her ability to put the ball on the floor. Her counter moves and all of those things. We saw her athleticism. I think her energy level and seeing the physicality up close - she’s a good player. She’s finding ways to be involved and impactful on the floor. Not just solely getting rebounds and blocking shots. She has good footwork and good hands.” Coach explained.
Smith was the team’s next leading scorer with nine points and six rebounds. Destanni Henderson, who I thought the Storm might select in the draft once she fell that far, scored seven points off the bench. Although she was not very efficient making just 3-10 FG including only 1-6 FG from beyond the arc.
After the game, I talked with Breanna Stewart about what the Fever are going through right now (from her own experience early in her career) and how all this playing time and exposure can help Indiana’s rookies over the long haul.
“I think what Indi is going through, they’re obviously they have a lot of rookies and younger players on their roster. They’re in their rebuild mode. At the same time, they’re trying to get better individually. That needs to be the point of emphasis for them. Come in every day and make sure they show up, they work hard. That this is their job and they treat it as one. Sometimes you're going to win and sometimes you’ll lose. It’s the fact that they show up and compete every day. Eventually, the tide will turn in their favor.” Stewart responded.
Game Breakdown
Ezi got a nice block but Queen Egbo recovered the ball and laid it in for the game’s first points. Breanna Stewart connected on her first three-point attempt to put Seattle on the board. Sue Bird hit her first shot attempt coming off a Stewart screen. NyLyssa Smith hit a three and Lexie Hull got a quick fast break layup. Egbo was able to stuff Ezi at the rim; giving her a taste of her own medicine.
Magbegor stayed strong on the other end getting two quick blocks of her own in the opening quarter.
Indiana was very active with offensive rebounds early and showing a lot of hustle.
Bird hit another three and then a couple of plays later had a beautiful pass outlet to Gabby Williams where Gabby finished and was fouled for the AND1 layup to put Seattle up 14-9.
After trailing 9-7, the Storm went on a 10-0 run. Seattle finished the first period up eight points at 19-11. Indiana committed seven turnovers in the opening frame. Stewie led the way with seven points.
Briann January turned the ball over to begin the quarter and Queen Egbo was able to draw a foul. Ezi drove to her left on the next possession and was fouled by Egbo to complete the three-point play.
Destanni Henderson hit a three and then Tiffany Mitchell had a nice layup to cut the Storm’s lead to just five at 22-17. Magbegor found an open Steph Talbot for three.
Kelsey Mitchell hit a nice three to cut Seattle’s lead back to six. But Sue Bird answered back with a triple of her own.
An odd-looking 3-on-1 nearly resulted in a turnover but they were able to tip it back to Stewart who laid it in. Seattle’s defense forced a trap that resulted in Jewell intercepting a pass and going all the way to the rim where she was fouled by Kelsey Mitchell. Loyd completed both free throws. Stewart was able to draw a foul for two more foul shots. Then Stewart and Tina Charles hit back-to-back threes to put Seattle up 19 points (44-25).
Stewart hit another pair of free throws, her ninth and tenth attempts of the first half. Egbo for Indiana made another layup and the Storm entered the locker rooms with a 19-point lead at 46-27. Stewie led all scorers with 18 points. Sue Bird added eight points including a pair of threes. Both Tina Charles and Ezi Magbegor scored five points and Jewell had four.
The Storm forced Indiana into 11 turnovers scoring 12 points off those turnovers. After being massively out-rebounded in the first quarter, the Storm tied it up 18-18 at the end of the first half.
Seattle was really careless to begin the 3rd quarter with multiple turnovers. The Fever started strong scoring the first five points before Jewell found Ezi open down low for an easy two.
There was a scary play where Gabby Williams picked Smith’s pocket and appeared to have an open layup but Lexie Hull rushed down the court to try and block her layup but made a ton of contact and Gabby crashed head first into the base of the hoop. Williams was pissed and after a review, they called a flagrant foul on Hull.
Epiphanny Prince threw the ball away which allowed Emily Engstler to knock down a three at the buzzer of the third period. Even still, Seattle led 63-42 at the end of the quarter.
The less said about the 4th quarter the better. Indiana used a 12-2 and 20-4 run in the 4th quarter to give Noelle just the slightest concern. Enough for her to substitute Stewie back into the game for a couple of minutes just to make sure they didn’t give the game away late. Indiana outscored Seattle 26-10 in the final period.
Briann January, Epiphanny Prince, Stephanie Talbot, and Jantel Lavender all played either the entire quarter or in Lavender’s case eight and a half minutes of the fourth. Those four players combined for 2-12 FG shooting (17%). Tina Charles and Ezi Magbegor split time at the 5th spot but took just three shots total between the two of them making two out of the three.
Obviously, you’d prefer those two to be taking the majority of the shots when they’re with the rest of the bench unit. But it was also a game where Seattle led by 27 points in the 2nd half. And it’s July 1st. It’s smart of Quinn to rest her best players in games like this. Come playoff time, rotations will certainly be shortened but with more than 15 games left this season, now is not the time for that.
Additional Analysis
Stewie for MVP? How about DPOY?
Breanna Stewart is generally considered the best player in the world. But she certainly has some tough competition for that mantel. Jonquel Jones (2021), A’ja Wilson (2020), and Elena Delle Donne (2019) have all won the Most Valuable Player award since Stewie won hers in 2018.
If you go off of the WNBA’s official “Player of the Week” award winners then A’ja Wilson is clearly the front runner as she’s been given that honor three separate times so far. Stewie has earned the reward once in Week 5.
If you want to base it on Fantasy Points, Stewart leads that at 40.3. Wilson is second-best at 37.8. Stewart leads the WNBA in scoring at 21.4 PPG, she is 10th overall in rebounding at 7.5 RPG, and she leads the league in steals at 2.1 SPG. Stewart does it all on both ends of the court.
Wilson can certainly stake her own claim to the title as she’s 6th overall in scoring at 18.4 PPG, number one overall in rebounding at 10.3 RPG, and 2nd overall in blocks (behind Ezi) at 2.3 BPG.
It may come down to which player leads their team to a better record and right now that favors A’ja and the Aces.
Honestly, I think both players could win either the MVP or DPOY awards if not both at the end of this season.
While it’s a little too early to start lobbying for end-of-the-season awards, I did ask Coach Quinn if Stewie is the best defensive player in the league right now.
“I think it’s tied with her and Ezi. Stewie is always telling us she’s a defensive stopper. Did she come in here and tell you guys that? Her activity is amazing. I think she’s doing amazing things on the defensive end. And because she does so great offensively, it gets overlooked. I think it’s 1A and 1B (with Ezi).” Quinn told me.
Tina Charles Makes History!
I suppose when you have four All-WNBA players on your roster it isn’t shocking when records are broken regularly. Last game, Sue Bird set the All-Time record for most wins by an individual player in WNBA history with 324. On Friday night, Tina Charles passed Candice Dupree to move into 4th All-Time on the WNBA’s scoring list.
Diana Taurasi 9516
Tina Thompson 7488
Tamika Catchings 7380
Tina Charles 6902
Candice Dupree 6895
Charles will likely get above 7,000 career points by the end of this season. And it’s very possible she could move into the number two spot just behind Diana Taurasi at the conclusion of the 2023 season.
Hopefully, as another week or two goes by, Charles will get more comfortable in Seattle and her shot attempts will increase more and more. With the talent Seattle has on their roster, they don’t need her taking 20 shots a game. But she is so talented offensively, the Storm should try to get her 8-12 shots per game.
Jersey Count
Seattle wore their Green and White “Heroine” jerseys on Friday night against the Indiana Fever. With the victory, they improve to 6-2 on the season while wearing this uniform combination tying their record with the “Rebel” blacks. Seattle has not worn its Green and Gold “Explorer” uniforms since the beginning of June nearly a month ago. After defeating the Indiana Fever, the Storm improved their record to 13-7. Seattle remains the 4th overall seed in the WNBA’s standings but has been gaining ground after winning 8 of their last 10 games. They are currently behind the Las Vegas Aces (15-5), Chicago Sky (14-5), and Connecticut Sun (13-7) who own the tiebreaker against Seattle.
Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 6-2
Explorer: 1-3
Heroine: 6-2
Overall Record: 13-7
Up Next
Three consecutive road games. The Storm head out on the road where they will play three games in five days against Atlanta, Indiana, and Los Angeles. It’s a quick turnaround against Atlanta after playing in Seattle Friday night, they have to play the Dream in Atlanta at 12:00 PM on Sunday (Seattle, local time).
Notes:
Follow my Twitter (@WNBAStormChaser)
Photo Credits to Neil Enns/Seattle Storm/WNBA Photography Team
Thanks for all the great support! Please tell other Storm fans about my coverage!
Nice game. It was fun.