Sorry Storm give meager effort against Dallas, lose 68-51
Sorry Storm give meager effort against Dallas, lose 68-51
Seattle's offensive woes lead to a blowout loss at home.
(Seattle, WA) - Ugly. Bad. Disappointing. Frustrating. The Seattle Storm’s offense on Friday night was the worst I’ve seen in several years. The 51 points scored was the lowest output for the Storm since June 9th, 2015 against the Tulsa Shock (who are now the Dallas Wings). Back then, Seattle was defeated 68-45 in what was the 2nd game of Jewell Loyd’s rookie season. Friday, really wasn’t much better which is very concerning.
Yes, Seattle is still without Sue Bird and Ezi Magbegor. Two starters that both would have made the Storm better on this night. But I don’t like what I’m seeing out of Seattle’s offense right now.
“It’s tough to win games when we shoot 30% from two and 17% from three. We didn’t get to the foul line very many times and we got out-rebounded. To hold a team like Dallas to 68 (points), that just shows our defense is sustaining us. We just have to find ways to compliment our players Stewie and Jewell. Find ways to execute offensively and hit shots. Our effort defensively has been good enough to win games we just have to weather the storm and figure it out on the other end of the ball.” Coach Quinn gave her opening statement to the media after the game.
If there are any positives to take from this game it’s that Breanna Stewart continues to play like the best player in the WNBA. She scored 27 points to lead all scorers. Stewie also had a team-high eight rebounds, three steals, and four blocked shots. She did a lot of great things in this game and received almost zero help from all of her teammates. It reminded me a lot of the 2016 and 2017 seasons where the main bright spots were Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd and not much beyond that.
Jewell was the only other player to do much of anything in this game scoring 13 points with four assists. She did not shoot the ball particularly well going 5-16 FG and 2-8 from beyond the arc.
Gabby Williams was the team’s third-leading scorer with four points. Yeah, that’s not going to get it done in a league as competitive as the WNBA.
To make matters worse, digging through the stats tells us that Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd were the only Storm players to score in the 2nd half against Dallas. They combined for 24 points total. No other Seattle player scored a single point after the second quarter. Stewie’s 27 points (out of 51) accounted for 53% of the team’s points. Combined with Loyd’s 13 points, together they scored over 78% of the Storm’s points against the Wings.
When asked by the Seattle media how important it is for the Storm to find that third (leading) scorer to go along with Stewie and Jewell, Coach Quinn had this to say.
“It’s important. At the beginning of the season, our reserves kept us in games and came through. With this team, I don’t think it’s just one person but needs to be multiple efforts from multiple people. It is important. We can’t continue to rely on one or two (players). That’s not how we’re built. We’re built to move the ball, flow, everybody gets some looks and gets to their sweet spots. But right now we’re not even moving the ball, flowing as much as we should. We need some contributions everywhere.” Quinn discussed the lack of offensive contributions.
Seattle’s bench has been incredibly good for most of this season but scored just two points against Dallas. Five reserve players saw action and took 12 shots total. They made just 1-12 FG (8%) and committed nine of the team’s 16 turnovers. They need to step up and play better.
I asked coach after the game what she needs from her reserves after their disappointing two-point performance in this game.
“They need to come in and have an aggressive mentality. There has to be confidence in knowing that their role is a huge role. You watch the flow of the game. Piph is a consummate professional but we need more from Piph. Steph is just coming back (from Covid) and has to get into a rhythm. Gray, her energy. We have players who have the ability to impact with their energy, activity, and all of those things. It’s a matter of staying within that, playing together. That group needs to work a little extra to get each other shots a little bit more.” Coach Quinn answered.
The Dallas Wings
Allisha Gray was incredibly impressive leading Dallas with 18 points on 7-11 FG. She also had seven rebounds. She was able to muscle her way to some easy baskets in the paint.
I believe prior to the 2021 WNBA season there were reports that the Storm were looking to sign Allisha Gray; possibly as a replacement after losing Alysha Clark in free agency to the Mystics. She ultimately decided to re-sign with Dallas which is too bad for Seattle because she has continued to grow and develop her game over the past two seasons. She won a Gold Medal in the Tokyo Olympics 3x3 tournament last year. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see her get an All-Star nomination this season.
Arike Ogunbowale got the better of her matchup against Jewell Loyd scoring 16 points. She also had six rebounds and four assists. Arike hit a three with about two minutes to play in the game to give Dallas their largest lead of the game at 20 points. It capped off a stellar performance by the upstart Wings team.
Satou Sabally was the third player to reach double figures and also had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. She also had six assists in the game.
Dallas out-rebounded Seattle 42-31 which was a key factor in securing the victory. A lot of other stats like assists and turnovers were nearly dead even. The only other stat that stands out was Seattle’s poor offensive shooting performance (again). The Wings made 26-66 FG (39%) and 9-27 FG (33%) from beyond the three-point line while the Storm made just 20-63 FG (32%) and 5-29 FG (17%) from long range.
“Honestly, we’re just missing shots. They’re good shots. I don’t think anything is forced or that they’re bad shots. It’s just about finding a rhythm. We’ll be more consistent with that. When I see Stewie, I think it’s going in. When she sees other shots, she thinks it’s going in. We have to get into a better rhythm. Whether that’s better play calls or getting into more of a flow. We can fix that. Right now our defense has been pretty solid. Hopefully, we can push that and get some more transition points.” Jewell Loyd added.
Game Breakdown
Jewell Loyd knocked down a three to get the Storm on the board first. The Wings responded with back-to-back baskets by Allisha Gray and Kayla Thorton.
Dallas was particularly strong on offense to start the game scoring on almost every possession to take a quick 10-5 lead. The Wings took advantage of Seattle switching screens on defense, finding the larger post player down low. They took full advantage of that over the first few minutes of the game which led to the Wings having a 13-7 lead through about the first five minutes.
Mercedes Russell checked into the game with 3:26 left in the first quarter to a huge standing ovation from the Storm faithful.
Offensively, Seattle was out of sorts in the first quarter. Shooting under 32% while the Wings were above 47%.
Breanna Stewart spoke to the media after the game about the struggles offensively.
“I wish there was a great answer for that. In the beginning of the game, we were a little bit uncomfortable. We weren’t flowing the way we wanted to. Then there was a stretch where we were getting good shots, good looks that hadn’t dropped. Then it was back to not being in the flow or rhythm that we want. All of this is self-inflicted. Our defense was pretty good. Giving up 68 points total is pretty good. But when we’re barely getting over 50-point hump, we have a lot to work on.” Stewie told the Seattle media.
The lineup of Kiana Williams, Reshanda Gray, Jantel Lavender, Stephanie Talbot, and Epiphanny Prince really struggled to open the second quarter. They had multiple miscues with turnovers and missed several shots. Coach Quinn had seen enough about two and a half minutes in and subbed in Stewart and Briann January.
Stewie knocked down a three to the cut the Wings’ 10-point lead down to seven at 23-16. It remained that way for another couple of minutes as the refs were blowing the whistle frequently. Much to the displeasure of the home crowd.
I asked Stewie after the game how they remain focused in those moments and not let any frustrating calls get into their head.
“If you look at the fouls, the fouls were pretty similar. Yes, there are always going to be calls where you’re wanting, whether they’re phantom or real, whatever the case is. I don’t think we lost our temper or got distracted by the refs. If they’re not calling things early, that just means we need to be more aggressive and finish stronger. We control what we can control. The refs didn’t make us lose this game. We lost this game.” Stewart told me.
Gabby Williams connected on a midrange jumper. Satou Sabally hit a triple for Dallas. January answered right back with a three of her own to cut the lead down to five at 26-21. That three also gave Briann 3,000 points total in her WNBA career!
Mercedes Russell scored her first points of the season off an offensive rebound with 2:29 left in the first half to cut the Storm’s deficit to just one point (26-25). Arike hit an impressive jumper driving past a screen shortly after that.
Dallas came out of the half strong scoring on three straight possessions. Allisha Gray and Satou Sabally scored easy baskets down low. Arike drove in and had a foul drawn against Gabby Williams. The Wings were able to get to the foul line by being more aggressive on their drives. Even if there was limited contact, the refs were rewarding them.
The Wings regained a 10-point at 43-33 on a pair of Kayla Thorton free throws. Ogunbowale drained a three from about 27 feet out with the shot-clock expiring to put Dallas up 13 points at 46-33.
Back-to-back baskets from Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd helped cut the lead to seven. Seattle also forced Dallas into consecutive turnovers on the other end.
Dallas countered back with a 5-0 run to finish the quarter. The Wings led 51-39 points as the teams entered the 4th quarter.
Marina Mabrey knocked down a three-pointer to begin the 4th quarter to essentially put the game out of reach as the Wings led by 15 points. Seattle didn’t have a single quarter in this game where they scored 15 points or more.
Breanna Stewart was the only player that came to play on Friday night. Stewie scored more than 50% of the team’s points.
Seattle was outscored by Dallas 17-12 in the final period. The night was capped off with another three-pointer from Ogunbowale to put the Wings up 68-48 with two minutes left to play.
This was the lowest point total for the Storm in the Breanna Stewart era (2016-Present).
Additional Analysis
Where is the Offense!?
Part of me wants to write some “Hot Takes”. The other part of me doesn’t want to overreact after watching the team’s worst performance of the season. If Seattle played as they did on Friday all season long they would be eyeing a Top 3 selection in the WNBA Draft Lottery. Fortunately, they haven’t and they’ve had some really strong performances this season despite hovering right around a .500 record.
After playing nine games of their 36-game season the Storm are officially 25% of the way through their WNBA season. Seattle has yet to play with 100% of their roster in any of those nine games. Something Coach Quinn reiterates after nearly every game during the post-game press conferences. However, the nine games are a good enough sample size to tell us some things.
What we do know is the 2022 Seattle Storm are a very good defensive team. A large offseason priority was to get better defensively and bring in players that excelled on the defensive end of the court. The team currently has the 2nd best Defensive Rating of any team in the league at 93.8. That means they give up roughly 94 points per 100 possessions that the opposing team has.
For comparison, in 2021, the Storm had the 5th best Defensive Rating giving up 98.4 PPG per 100 possessions. And in 2020, they were number one in the WNBA giving up just 93.3 PPG per 100 possessions.
The problems don’t lie on the defensive side of the court this year. It’s the offense that has really struggled.
After Friday’s game, the Storm are now 10th in the WNBA in Offensive Rating scoring 95.7 PPG (per 100 possessions). That’s ahead of only the Atlanta Dream (92.8) and the New York Liberty (89.3).
Once again, if we compare things to the last two seasons, we see that Seattle was 4th in 2021 in Offensive Rating at 103.6. In 2020, they were first overall at 108.3. If you were curious how good the 2020 Championship Storm team was, just know that they led the league in both Offensive and Defensive Rating. If you can do that, good things happen. And they did, with Seattle going 18-4 in the regular season and a perfect 6-0 in the playoffs on their way to their 4th WNBA title.
Back to the current problems. Let’s look at some additional stats. The Storm are currently 10th in Points Per Game (PPG) at 76.8. They are 11th (2nd to last) in Field Goal % at 39.6%. Just barely ahead of the New York Libert (39.4%). Seattle is 10th in Effective Field Goal % (EFG) at 46.1 and dead last in True Shooting % (TS) at 49.8.
In summation, the Seattle Storm are a bad offensive team. This is also concerning because that’s what Coach Noelle Quinn is supposed to excel at. Coach Dan Hughes and Coach Gary Kloppenburg talked about Quinn’s brilliant offensive mind and how she was a rockstar in that regard.
That leads to questions. Is it the coaching? Is it the General Manager and her player personnel decisions (how she built the team)? Or is it simply that the players are not performing up to expectations?
“This is not the time to hit the panic button. This is the time to figure shit out. That’s what we need to do. We have a team full of vets. We hope to get our other two (players) back at some point but while they are out we need to be better. I don’t know the last time we had only two fastbreak points. We want to push the ball. There are a lot of things we can nitpick about tonight. We’ll take it and digest it. We’ll go home. But we have a game on Sunday, so we have to turn around and focus on Connecticut.” Stewart told reporters after the game when discussing the struggles offensively.
Mercedes Russell Returns
Mercedes Russell made her long-awaited debut for the 2022 season on Friday against Dallas. As she checked into the game the fans gave her a standing ovation that she greatly appreciated.
It was not an extremely effective debut but it was important for her to get out there and work her way back into game shape. Russell finished with just two points and two rebounds in 12 minutes of action. She also picked up three personal fouls within the first three-to-five minutes of action which may have limited some of her time spent on the court in this game. Two of those calls were very questionable.
With that said, I spoke to Coach Quinn to see if Cedes was on a minutes restriction and coach confirmed that she is currently limited to 12-15 minutes per game. Russell did reach the 12 minutes.
The hope is that she can continue to build herself back up and ultimately take on a larger role with the team. Right now they desperately need her. They need her rebounding, her scoring, and her defense.
Jersey Count
Seattle wore their Green and Yellow “Explorer” jerseys on Friday night but unfortunately had the worst performance of the entire season. With the loss, they drop to 1-2 while wearing these uniforms. It’s the first set to drop below .500 this year. With the loss, the Storm drop down to the 7th seed in the league standings.
Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 2-1
Explorer: 1-2
Heroine: 2-1
Overall Record: 5-4
Up Next
Seattle must flush this performance down the drain and regroup quickly because the Connecticut Sun (8-3) come to town on Sunday. Coach Quinn could not confirm whether or not Sue Bird or Ezi Magbegor will be able to re-join the team for Sunday’s contest. They’ll likely know by Saturday evening. If the Storm have any chance of beating Connecticut they’re going to need several players to step up their game. The Sun are one of, if not the deepest team in the WNBA. Sunday’s game is at 3:00 PM at Climate Pledge Arena and should air on Fox13+ (formally Joe TV).
Notes: Thanks for everyone’s support, it’s greatly appreciated! Please refer all your friends who love the WNBA and enjoy in-depth coverage of the Storm and the league overall. The more I can grow this substack the more I’ll be able to do in regards to covering the Storm and the WNBA.
Follow my Twitter (@WNBAStormChaser)
Photo Credits to Neil Enns/Seattle Storm/WNBA Photography Team and sometimes my own.