Seattle Storm improve to 9-2 after defeating the Atlanta Dream 86-75
Seattle's pair of superstars (Loyd and Stewart) lead the Storm to another impressive road victory.
(College Park, Georgia) - The Seattle Storm (9-2) played the Atlanta Dream (4-6) again on Friday evening and once again the Storm came out on top. Seattle’s 9th victory of the season puts them at the very top of the WNBA standings. Give credit to Atlanta for keeping this game closer throughout the 2nd half than they did on Wednesday (where they were outscored 50-28). In the end, Seattle carried their double-digit lead to the end winning the game 86-75.
Coach Noelle Quinn spoke on the team’s performance in this game and their continued improvement throughout the season.
“It's good to be able to come out victorious today. The challenge was to focus on us and our adjustments that we needed to make in order to get the second of a back-to-back in. Very good team effort, once again, very good energy off of our bench.” She said.
“This a resilient group, a focused group, and a professional group. The past week and a half has been a lot, and we can actually go through the start of training camp not having this particular group together for a certain amount of time, It just shows the quality of people that we have here and the will for us to just move forward and play together and figure out ways to win. We've been in the trenches early this season with overtime and close games and I think we're growing and learning and understanding one another. When that chemistry is growing and manifesting you see it. That makes us a really tough team.” Coach Quinn added.
The two superstars led the way with Jewell Loyd leading all scorers in the game with 20 points. She did it on 57% (8-14) shooting from the floor. Breanna Stewart had a strong game with 18 points on 55% (6-11) field goal shooting. She also had a double-double with a game-high 13 rebounds!
Stewart spoke about the team’s 9-2 start after the game was over.
“We're 9-2, but I feel we can get so much better. We still have so much that we can improve on just our chemistry with one another. So, we're very happy with where we are, obviously, but know that going forward we can make things even tougher for opponents. 9-2 is pretty nice, but it's a long season. [We] got to finish out these games before the Olympic break and then obviously come back and finish strong.”
Seattle got strong production from Katie Lou Samuelson and Mercedes Russell who each scored eight points in the game. Russell also had six rebounds (second-best on the team). Sue Bird added six points on two made shots from beyond the arc. Bird also had a game-high seven assists in the game as she inches closer to 3,000 total for her illustrious career. Bird is now less than 50 assists away from the massive milestone. Something she should hit within the next 7-10 games.
I asked Stewart about Katie Lou’s performance after she’s had two strong games back-to-back after returning to the starting lineup.
“She is just continuing to be confident. I think that you know she's finding her shot, and she's being aggressive, and I think it's more than just the offensive end. She is trying to continue to be a presence defensively. Obviously, we're all trying to pick up our defensive capability. But what Lou is doing is that she's being active, and she's kind of just reading off of us and the rest of our teammates.” Stewie said during the post-game press conference.
I then got to speak with Mercedes Russell and talk about her improved offensive effort in the past two games.
“Offensive opportunities, you take them as they come. We're obviously a powerful offensive team and we run a really quick high paced offense. So, opportunities come and it's going to be different, depending on who the opponent is, but I think I've just been a little more aggressive the past couple of games and I'll continue to do that so that it helps my team.” Russell told me.
For a second consecutive game, the Seattle Storm bench contributed in a big way. On Wednesday, it was Stephanie Talbot scoring 13 points in the 4th quarter as she led the bench players as they totaled 30 points in Seattle’s 95-71 victory over Atlanta. On Friday, it was Epiphanny Prince who led the charge with 11 points on 4-7 FG shooting including 3-4 (75%) from three-point range. Candice Dupree had the next highest total with six points, as the guards found her underneath the basket for some easy points. The team had 26 points off the bench during Friday’s contest outscoring the Dream’s reserves 26-18. The eight-point difference was nearly the entire difference in the game as Atlanta’s starters competed strongly against Seattle’s (Storm starters holding a 60-57 advantage).
Coach Noelle Quinn spoke on that after the game.
“It's a huge lift when we are able to utilize our bench, and they're able to show their strengths. Tonight it was Piph [Prince], the other night it was Steph [Talbot]. The ability to have multiple people get into their spots and knock down shots gives us a presence on defense. That makes it—I don't want to say easier—but a bit easier. Like, not having to, you know, solely rely on our big three. That's what we're all about. We're about the team and we're about contributing when we can. It just takes a load off and it takes pressure off when we have people step up and make plays and, you know, able to stay in the game. It just helps tremendously.” Quinn told the media.
The Storm continued to shoot the ball extremely well in this game shooting 51% (31-61) from the floor. They also shot a very high clip from beyond the arc, 48% (10-21). Seattle had a 22-14 advantage in assists and a six-point edge with points in the paint (30-24).
The Storm rebounded literally and figuratively from a poor rebounding performance in Wednesday’s game. After being outrebounded by 10 in the first game against Atlanta, the Storm were able to crash the boards in this game edging the Dream 41-33.
I spoke with Coach Noelle Quinn before the game and she had some words about their rebounding performance. She told me that I should have seen her whiteboard because it had “REBOUNDING” in all caps, in red ink, circled, and possibly underlined to boot! To say the coaches were putting a strong emphasis on rebounding would be an understatement. The team responded to that challenge.
From Atlanta’s perspective, they got excellent games from Courtney Williams and Cheyenne Parker. Williams had an impressive double-double with 19 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. This is even more impressive when you factor in Williams’ height at just 5’8”. Parker finished with 17 points on 50% (5-10) shooting and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. Seattle limited Tiffany Hayes to just 11 points in this game after she went off for 22 points in the teams’ first matchup on Wednesday. More credit to Jewell Loyd’s defensive performance. Crystal Bradford gave them a nice lift off the bench with seven points.
The Dream have now lost four games in a row after winning four in a row as they fall to two games under .500. For the time being, they have fallen out of playoff seeding dropping to 9th place in the league standings. They certainly miss Chennedy Carter who remains sidelined with an elbow injury.
Game Breakdown
Katie Lou Samuelson got the Storm on the board first with a nice move in the low post over the much smaller Courtney Williams. I’d like to see the Storm continue to find ways to get the ball to Samuelson down low when she is being guarded by players under six feet tall. It’s something that Alysha Clark would do often with much success. And while Clark played as a post in college which made it more natural for her, if Samuelson can develop that part of her game at 6’3” it’ll benefit Seattle tremendously.
Courtney Williams hit a three for Atlanta, but Sue Bird responded with a three of her own. Then found Mercedes Russell as she drove to the basket to give Seattle the early 7-3 lead. But the Dream responded with a 6-0 run to take a 9-7 lead. It would be Atlanta’s largest lead of the game.
A Jewell Loyd three-pointer put the Storm up five at 20-15, but the Dream finished the quarter on a 7-0 run capped off by a triple from former Storm draft pick Tianna Hawkins.
Loyd led Seattle with seven points after one quarter and Courtney Williams led all players with 11 points at the end of the first period.
Seattle’s biggest problem was turning the ball over. They had five turnovers in the first quarter and immediately committed two more turnovers to start the second period.
On top of that, the Storm made two really careless fouls on the Dream as the shot clock was about to expire. First Candice Dupree stuck her foot out and Tiffany Hayes landed on it slightly tweaking her ankle. They ended up calling that a flagrant foul which led to Hayes getting three free throws and possession of the ball. A couple of minutes later Breanna Stewart would pick up another foul leaving her feet unnecessarily to try and block 5’8” Courtney Williams who was tossing up a three before time expired. Atlanta converted five of the six foul shots on those two possessions.
Outside of the constant fouling, Seattle’s defense was really good in the 2nd quarter. They limited Atlanta to just 7% field goal shooting on a pathetic 1-14 from the floor. Seattle also outrebounded Atlanta 15-5 and did not give up a single offensive rebound in the quarter limiting the Dream to just one and done. Meanwhile, Seattle shot 59% (10-17) in the 2nd period and 80% (4-5) from the three-point range.
Despite this, the Dream trailed by just four points 37-33 with a little over two minutes to go in the first half. Katie Lou then knocked down a three to push Seattle’s lead up to seven. Atlanta was able to keep things close because they were able to get to the foul line for 12 free throw attempts (knocking down 11).
Atlanta missed the first ten shots they took in the 2nd quarter. And while Seattle was able to push their lead to ten points by the end of the period at 45-35, they could have been up by 15-20 points if they hadn’t committed so many fouls. Even still, the Storm outpaced the Dream 25-13. With the team’s playing evenly throughout most of the game, the second period was the real difference-maker.
Breanna Stewart led the team with 11 points in the first half, while Jewell Loyd added nine. Seattle shot 58% (18-31) and 60% (6-10) from beyond the arc. Atlanta was led by the 13 points of Courtney Williams. But shot just 27% (10-37) and 20% (2-10) from long range.
The Storm pushed their lead to 11 points at 52-41 after a brief run by Atlanta as Loyd and Katie Lou Samuelson knocked down back-to-back triples.
Breanna Stewart picked up her 4th foul early in the third quarter and had to sit with almost seven minutes to play in the period. Seattle’s bench held strong, especially Epiphanny Prince who had six points in the quarter. Prince also had a beautiful dish to Candice Dupree for the easy layup.
Cheyenne Parker hit a three to cut Seattle’s lead to just six points at 60-54 with about two minutes left to play in the third.
Another three-ball by Prince extended Seattle’s lead to 69-58 after three quarters of play. Seattle edged Atlanta 24-23 in the third period.
Early in the 4th quarter, Ezi Magbegor was called for a traveling violation for dribbling the basketball. Yes, you read that correctly.
Loyd found a cutting Candice Dupree for another easy basket to put the Storm up 71-58. Breanna Stewart had a couple of nice low post moves that resulted in AND1 opportunities. Stewie also had a beautiful defensive possession preventing Aari McDonald from getting a wide-open fastbreak layup. Aari stole the ball away from Sue and raced down the court but decided against taking the shot as Stewart closed out with her long arms high in the air. Seattle was able to recover defensively and get the stop.
Jewell had a beautiful spinning fade-away jumper in the paint past multiple Atlanta Dream defenders.
Jewell Loyd hit another beautiful jumper around the 1:45 minute mark of the 4th quarter to give Seattle their largest lead of the game at 18 points, 84-66. The Dream continued to battle down the stretch outscoring Seattle 9-2 in the final 90 seconds of the game. As the final buzzer sounded, the Storm had defeated the Dream 86-75.
Additional Analysis
On the Road Again …
The Storm continue to roll on as they improve to 4-0 in road games this season. They’ve started this five-game road trip with two wins and they honestly have a decent shot to go 4-1 or even 5-0 which would be outstanding for the team. Next up will be a tough contest against the Connecticut Sun (8-2). However, it shouldn’t be nearly as difficult as the last time they played the Sun considering leading MVP candidate Jonquel Jones will miss the game due to her commitment to a Eurobasket qualifying tournament. Jones had 28 points and 13 rebounds in that first game against Seattle. Of course, that doesn’t mean Seattle can take Connecticut lightly as they still have DeWanna Bonner, Brionna Jones, Jasmine Thomas, and Natisha Hiedeman among others. But the fact that they won’t have Jonquel Jones or Alyssa Thomas who is out rehabbing a torn Achilles injury, Seattle should take advantage of those absences.
And if they do, they will finish their road trip with two games against the lowly Indiana Fever who are currently the proud owners of the worst record in the WNBA at 1-10.
Seattle’s biggest challenge will likely be the schedule as they certainly weren’t given any favors on this road trip playing five games in eight days. When they face Connecticut on Sunday morning it’ll be their third game in five days, meanwhile, the Sun will have rested for seven days straight. Connecticut’s last game was on June 5th against the New York Liberty, a game in which they won 85-64.
Jewell Loyd - MEGASTAR
Anyone that has followed Jewell Loyd’s career knows she’s always been a talented player for a long time now. The #1 overall pick in the 2015 WNBA Draft, Loyd would go on to win Rookie of the Year (the first Storm player to hold that honor). She averaged just a hair under 11 points her rookie season. Since then, she has averaged above 15 PPG in every season except for 2019 where she was plagued with an injury.
It was the 2020 WNBA Playoffs where she really started to take her game to a whole new level. Loyd averaged 17.8 PPG on 55% field goal shooting, just under 40% from three-point range, and 93% from the foul line. She also averaged over five rebounds, nearly four assists, and one and a half steals proving that she is more than just a scorer. She had a legit claim to the Finals MVP but Breanna Stewart would edge her for the award.
That next level has carried over into the 2021 season, where Jewell is averaging a career-high in points at 20.4 PPG, assists at 4.5 APG, and steals at 1.5 SPG. But that’s not all. Loyd is inching closer to rarified air right now. She is playing so well that she is very close to keeping herself in contention to join the 50/40/90 club. Loyd is currently averaging 48.5% FG shooting, 41% 3-PT %, and 86.7% FT %.
How rare is the 50/40/90 Club in WNBA history? Well, the list currently has one player on it. Elena Delle Donne reached that incredible achievement in 2019 on her way to winning the league’s MVP award. If we want to talk about Jewell Loyd entering the MVP discussion alongside Jonquel Jones, A’ja Wilson, and Breanna Stewart then reaching the 50/40/90 mark would be the first place to start!
I spoke with Jewell after the game and asked if she felt she was playing at a higher level than ever before.
“Honestly, I just feel like I’m doing my role, my job. This is how I should be playing. When you’re surrounded by great players and great coaches it gives you confidence. Then you put in the work behind it, you expect great results. I feel like I’m in a good spot right now. That’s the growth of my game. I’m just happy to contribute as much as I can to the team on both ends of the floor.” Loyd told me during the post-game press conference.
Jersey Count
These Heroine jerseys are on fire as the Storm improved to a perfect 4-0 record wearing their green and white uniforms. Seattle has now won 8 of their last 9 games, with their only defeat coming in an unfortunate 68-67 loss to the Dallas Wings where they allowed Dallas to score the final eight points of the game. Other than that, Seattle is absolutely rolling right now. Their offense remains one of the best in the league and their defense has seen a noticeable improvement in recent games.
Coach Quinn talked about the improvement on the defensive side of the ball as of late after the game.
“We understand that this team isn't going to look like the teams of the past as far as defensively. So, we're trying to figure out the strength of our players in those defensive schemes. I continue to say this, that with the limited training camp you can't gain that defensive chemistry, and what we're seeing is a development of that. Maybe we don't have one lock-up defender like Alysha Clark, but what we have is a team defense where we're rotating, we’re on the string and we're helping one another. And I think that's really what you're seeing, the culmination of just a team effort, and that's what our defense has to be this year. It is not going to be one or two players, it's going to be a legit one through 12 coming in and making sure that we're working together to stop a great player.” Noelle said.
Jewell Loyd also spoke about the team’s defense.
“I think just being more comfortable in our schemes, finding things that work for us and this team, and then just executing it. We're long and there are lots of ways we're able to switch. But just communicating and hopefully forcing teams to take contested shots.” Loyd added after the game.
Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 2-1
Explorer: 3-1
Heroine: 4-0
Overall Record: 9-2
Up Next
First place in the WNBA will be on the line as the Seattle Storm (9-2) face the Connecticut Sun (8-2) at 11:00 AM on Sunday, June 13th. The game will air nationally on Facebook or you can watch it locally on JoeTV (Channel 110 on Comcast Xfinity).
Something has to give as the Storm are a perfect 4-0 on the road this season while the Sun have an undefeated home record (5-0). This game is incredibly important for Seattle as the Sun will be without Jonquel Jones who is off to participate in the FIBA Women’s Eurobasket to lead Bosnia and Herzegovina in an attempt to qualify for the World Cup in 2022. With a win, Seattle would take the season series over the Sun and own any tie-breakers if the teams were to finish with identical records heading into the playoffs.
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. Members of the media on the call asking questions along with myself: Percy Allen (Seattle Times), Doug Feinberg (Associated Press), Mazvita Maraire (Cascadiasports).