Seattle Too Hot For Texas, Storm Beat Wings 92-84

Skylar Diggins-Smith led the way against her former team.

(Arlington, Texas) - The Seattle Storm (9-4) just keep winning. They’ve now won eight out of their last nine games with their only loss coming at Minnesota. If you remove the games Seattle has played against the Lynx, the Storm are 9-1 in their other 10 games. It’s just Minnesota that they haven’t been able to figure out. On Thursday, they faced the Dallas Wings for the very first time this season and came away with an impressive 92-84 road victory.

The “Core Four” all did their job. When they are all playing well, which has been the majority of this season, the Storm are nearly impossible to beat. The backcourt of Skylar Diggins-Smith and Jewell Loyd led the way. Diggins-Smith led the team in scoring with 21 points and Loyd was right behind her at 19. They each had a team-high six assists. Nneka Ogwumike finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Ezi Magbegor had another double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Both Magbegor and Loyd each had four steals and two blocks. Jordan Horston was the 5th Storm player to score in double figures, adding 10 points off the bench on 4-5 FG shooting.

Seattle outshot Dallas in one of their better offensive games of the season. They made over 52% (36-69 FG) compared to the 48% (31-65 FG) for the Wings. The Storm had a slight edge in paint points (46-44) and fast break points (13-10). They forced Dallas into 19 turnovers and scored 27 points off of those mistakes.

While both teams’ starters essentially matched each other, Dallas’s first five scored 71 points to Seattle’s 70. It was the Storm’s bench that truly made the difference in this game. Seattle’s bench outscored Dallas’s reserves 22-13. On top of Horston’s 10 points, Sami Whitcomb and Mercedes Russell each contributed with six points.

Coach Quinn talked about reserves and their important contributions.

“It’s about their comfort level too. And it's difficult to come into the game and have an immediate impact. And so, you know, just like our starters have a job to start the game a certain way, our bench players do as well, our role players do as well. And I thought Jordan's focus was great. The defense that she provided and even the offense today, I thought that she was a force in the paint, and her decision-making was really good. Once Sami sees a couple go in, she's so deadly. We talk about her offense kind of moving in and finding her. And then she's a sniper and more than capable of giving us some points and some energy. And then Cedes, I thought she was a force. She got some 50-50 balls and she established herself. And if they lock into that all the time, then we're even better because they’re excellent players and they have a lot to give.” Quinn stated.

I also asked Nneka Ogwumike to talk about her teammates and their impact off the bench.

“I think that they do a really amazing job of maintaining that energy that we try to establish. You know, they come in every day knowing that they're going to have to be muscle, stick to the scout, and then also be aggressive and today we experienced some major minutes from our bench and you know we can even go deeper. I think that that's on us to take care of the game so that we can play every single person but we have a bench that can go deep and tonight we saw another building block from our bench as well.” Ogwumike told me.

Dallas Wings

The Wings have had a really tough season. They have now lost six games in a row and have fallen to 3-8. Because the Indiana Fever and LA Sparks have been playing a little better as of late, Dallas is now actually the second-worst team in the WNBA standings. Only the 1-12 Washington Mystics have a worse record currently.

Some of this was to be expected. Heading into the season, we knew Dallas wouldn’t be as good because they were losing either their best or second-best player in Satou Sabally. Sabally injured her shoulder during the Olympic qualifiers for Team Germany. That injury cost Satou at least the first two months of the 2024 WNBA season.

As if losing Sabally wasn’t bad enough, Natasha Howard broke her foot during the first game of the season. They might have been able to withstand the loss of Sabally if they still had Howard but losing both has hurt their scoring, defense, and rebounding.

Arike is such a talented scorer but, like Loyd, can be a streaky shooter at times. Ogunbowale did play well in this game. She finished with a game-high 24 points on 8-19 FG shooting including an impressive 5-9 FG from beyond the arc. She also tied for a team-high with five assists and grabbed six rebounds.

Teaira McCowan had a great game with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. She also had three blocked shots. Maddy Siegrist has stepped up more than any other player for Dallas with the absences of Sabally and Howard. The former #3 overall pick, who didn’t do a whole lot her rookie season, has been significantly better this year. She had 16 points and is averaging more than 14 PPG. Siegrist probably should be a candidate for Most Improved Player of the Year.

Monique Billings has filled in admirably for Natasha Howard and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Because she was signed on as a Hardship contract, I believe the Wings are forced to cut her once Natasha is ready to return. It’ll be interesting to see if Billings is claimed off of waivers by another team or if Dallas finds a way to make it work and bring her back full-time. Mo has played too well to not be on a WNBA roster for the rest of this season.

Dallas got most of their point production off the bench from Kalani Brown who scored eight points in the game. The Wings got nine offensive rebounds and scored 21 points off of those second-chance opportunities. They had a small advantage in rebounding 28-26.

Game Breakdown

Dallas got off to a hot start. Teaira McCowan scored a layup for the game’s first points. Then Monique Billings made a layup and McCowan got another one. Very quickly, the Wings led 6-0. Ezi scored for Seattle to give her team its first points. The Storm cut their deficit to two but then Arike Ogunbowale knocked down a three-pointer to make it 11-6. Seattle would tie the game up at 15-15 on a Skylar Diggins-Smith layup that followed one from Magbegor.

The Storm took their first lead of the game late in the first after Nneka Ogwumike scored inside the paint. Maddy Siegrist scored another basket to make it 21-19 Seattle at the end of the period.

Siegrist continued to do all of Dallas’s scoring. Between the end of the first and the beginning of the second quarters, Maddy scored 10 consecutive points for the Wings. Nneka and Jewell scored baskets and then Skylar hit a three-ball to put the Storm up five at 30-25. Another triple from Ogunbowale cut Seattle’s lead down to three.

Mercedes Russell gave Seattle some good minutes and scored four points in the second period. Most of Seattle’s points came from their backcourt. Jewell led the way as she scored nine points on 4-5 FG and Diggins-Smith added eight points on 3-4 FG.

Loyd hit a three-pointer late and Magbegor scored a layup after receiving a nice pass from Sami Whitcomb. At the end of the first half, Seattle had increased their lead to eight points at 48-40.

Nneka Ogwumike opened the second half with a three-pointer to put Seattle up 11. The Wings were able to get multiple free throws and Teaira McCowan got a layup to cut their deficit down to three.

Jordan Horston made a nice drive and finished with a short pull-up. And also forced Arike into a bad pass turnover.

Kalani Brown scored eight straight points for the Wings to keep Dallas within striking distance. Seattle led 71-62 at the end of three.

Dallas started the 4th quarter on a quick 5-0 run. A shot that bounced around the rim and in for Monique Billings and a laser three by Ogunbowale to cut Seattle’s lead to four. Horston responded by scoring on back-to-back possessions inside the paint. The second came in transition with a nice feed from Skylar. Seattle scored nine straight before Teaira McCowan scored in the paint.

A scary play took place when Horston leaped to try and steal a full-length pass and fell to the ground. Before she could get back up, she was accidentally stepped on near her neck/face area. Fortunately, after a timeout, Horston was able to remain in the game.

Ogunbowale hit another three to cut it to ten at 84-74. Seattle responded as Nneka Ogwumike scored easily on the low block. Arike hit another three, this time in the corner from an offensive rebound. Then Ogunbowale ripped the ball away from Jewell and moved the ball up to Jacy Sheldon for the transition layup. That cut things down to seven at 88-81.

Coach Quinn called timeout to settle the Storm down. Seattle responded as Nneka and Ezi were fouled on their next two possessions and made all four free throws. With less than three seconds to play, Coach Latricia Trammel called a timeout to advance the ball and set up a play to have Lou Lopez Sénéchal shoot a three that she made right at the buzzer. Seattle won the game 92-84.

Final Box Score

Additional Analysis

Jordan’s Improved Offense

I believe I wrote about this once already this season but it’s worth repeating. I like what I’m seeing from Jordan Horston’s offensive game this year and the improvement we have seen. The biggest improvement I’ve seen is in her ability to score inside the paint from around 5-10 feet out. She is getting high-percentage shots inside and finishing in the short-to-mid-range.

This is just an excellent play with some high basketball IQ by Jordan. She could have taken the three-point shot but that’s not the best shot available to her. With the defensive running to close out and stop her, Horston smartly drives past Arike. And before she gets too deep where Dallas’s post defense is waiting to reject her at the rim, Jordan pulls up from about seven feet out and knocks down the floater.

This one was similar but even more difficult as the defense played well on this possession but it didn’t matter as Jordan’s athleticism was enough to overcome the strong defense. The more often Horston can start knocking down these shots within the offense the more problematic Seattle will become to other teams.

Most teams are going to have enough problems containing Jewell, Skylar, Nneka, and Ezi. If Jordy can continue to improve and make these types of shots it makes things difficult for teams to double or sag off because now they have to worry about Horston scoring along with the other big pieces.

I’ve compared Jordan’s potential to the earlier years of Jackie Young. When I talked to Coach Quinn previously about that, she didn’t quite see the comparison. But what I see is a player that is going to have a height and athletic advantage over most of the guards and wings that defend her. What is Arike Ogunbowale at 5’8” supposed to do when Jordan drives into the paint and pulls up for a short jumper when Horston at 6’2” is 6 inches taller than her and can jump higher than her? Arike can’t defend that and neither can most WNBA guards that are under 6 feet tall.

Just as I saw when Jackie Young at 6’0” would take Sue Bird (5’9”) into the paint and score over her. I have envisioned Horston having those same physical tools to be able to play just like that.

Horston’s Field Goal percentage has shot way up this season too. That comes from a combination of knocking down these shorter jumpers inside the paint with more consistency and getting real easy looks by having Skylar hit her on cuts to the basket. A year ago, Jordan shot under 37% from the floor. This season, she’s up to 48% including nearly 54% of her two-point shots which is up from just 39% (two-point attempts) during her rookie season.

I spoke with Coach Quinn about the improvement she’s seen out of Horston.

“She had an opportunity to work on her game in the offseason. Coming from college and into a training camp, and immediately into the pros you don't know what to expect and you know you work diligently in the offseason to be the player that she is right now. Obviously, she's not a finished product but today her focus was just top-notch when she's focused and sharp in her coverages and offensively she made very good decisions. I don't want her to not shoot the three when she's open, but I want her to be mindful of her athletic ability and gifts around the rim. And her efficiency is going way up this year because she's literally worked on her left and right hand in finishes and it’s showing in games.” Quinn told me.

Skylar, Jewell, and the Backcourt of Doom

No, it’s not Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom but for other WNBA teams, it might be just as frightening. It is enjoyable to watch these two dynamic guards play together in Seattle.

For 10 years we’ve watched Jewell Loyd break down defenses and score in just about every way possible on the basketball court. But now with Skylar on the team, the Storm have two players that bring a similar skillset.

Diggins-Smith is so good at getting dribble penetration into the lane. From there she can score, she can pull up, get to the rim, get fouled, or find an open teammate. Meanwhile, Loyd is so good at beating players off the dribble, finding her rhythm on pull-up midrange jump shots, getting past her defenders to score at the rim, drawing fouls, and more.

Together, they have turned into one of the best backcourts in the entire WNBA. Teams had a hard enough time stopping Loyd from scoring last year as she set a new record for points in a single season. They can’t double-team or trap her as much this season because Seattle also has Skylar. If opposing teams try to, Loyd can move the ball to Diggins-Smith and then she’ll just go to work creating her own mismatches.

This has also been critically important because if Jewell does have a bad game or goes into a shooting slump. Seattle now still has another extremely talented guard who can score in every possible way on the court. And the opposite is also true. If Skylar isn’t playing well, then the Storm still have Jewell to rely on her scoring ability.

I spoke with both Diggins-Smith and Coach Noelle Quinn about having that ability to work together and off one another. And how having both on the court with their ability to penetrate defenses; how that allows them to open up the offense even more than before.

“Yeah, obviously it helps when you have multiple people that can tag. Honestly, I feel that way about anybody on our team. Jordan got in there, Nneka can get in there, Ezi can dribble. We have a very versatile team. But yeah, obviously for me, just trying to get downhill, that's something I've always thrived in. And on this team, you have a lot of options to pass the ball to people. So just really trying to make the defense move. I think the most important thing is just us being aggressive. When we're aggressive, especially us (her and Jewell) we can draw a lot of attention. And so that's when we’re able to distribute. But I think it just starts with that mindset of everybody just being aggressive and on their front foot when they get the ball.” Skylar answered.

“Yeah, it helps us a lot to have versatility with what we do. Paint Points was something that was our Achilles heel, or I'll say a deficiency last year. And so when you have multiple people, not just those two, but, you know, you talk about what Nneka can do in the paint, what Ezi is doing in the paint, and you just talked about Jordan. When those players can get to the paint and make good decisions, whether it's themselves, whether it's finding teammates, it helps our offense have some variety. We're not going to just live by jump shots and threes. We have to be aggressive in the paint and to the rim. And it makes us difficult to defend when we have multiple players who can do that.” Quinn added.

Up Next

Seattle faces their long-time rival the Phoenix Mercury (6-7) down in the desert at 12:00 PM (Noon) PDT on Sunday, June 16th. This game should be interesting because the Storm beat the Mercury by nearly 20 points at the beginning of June. However, in that game, Phoenix was without both Brittney Griner and Rebecca Allen. And Seattle was also without Nneka Ogwumike. Those are legit difference makers on both sides and it’ll be interesting to see which team has the advantage when both are presumably at full health.

Notes:
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