Storm Bounce Back, Beat Sun 71-64

Seattle's defense put the clamps on Connecticut.

(Uncasville, CT) - The Seattle Storm (20-13) responded to their disappointing loss on Sunday by getting some revenge against the Connecticut Sun (24-9) on Tuesday. They won the game 71-64. That was the best Seattle’s defense has looked in over a month. The 64 points is the second-lowest point total that Connecticut has scored all season. Their lowest also came against Seattle when the Storm beat them at Climate Pledge Arena 72-61 on June 23rd. The Storm won the season series two games to one and in the rare chance the two teams finish tied, Seattle will own the tiebreaker.

It was a stark contrast from Sunday’s game where the Sun scored 93 points. That’s an incredible job by Seattle’s players and coaches to make that significant of an adjustment when these two teams played each other just 48 hours prior.

Coach Noelle Quinn talked about that after the game.

“I think our team effort defensively was sharp. We were a lot more physical than the first game. We were mindful of their advantage in the paint and all the things that we talked about, transition defense, being physical to the rebounds. There was just a focus on that end of the floor, but also aggressiveness that you need to have for 40 minutes of the game against a really, really tough Connecticut team.” Quinn stated.

For a moment early in the first quarter, it looked like Seattle was on their way to another bad loss. The game started with Connecticut getting easy baskets at the rim and the Storm taking low-percentage three-pointers. Connecticut led 8-0 just a few minutes into the game. Seattle’s starters weren’t sharp or focused to begin this game. Coach Quinn made a strong decision and brought in Sami Whitcomb, Jordan Horston, and Mercedes Russell after the Storm fell behind by double-digits in the first quarter. The bench looked motivated to play as they made multiple effort and hustle plays. Getting steals, deflections, and converting some of their stops into points on the other end. They brought the spark needed to motivate the starters for the rest of the game.

Seattle used a 21-13 second quarter to take the lead and they controlled the majority of the game the rest of the way. They outscored the Sun again in the third period by four points (21-17) and never wavered in the fourth.

The Storm were led by Skylar Diggins-Smith who tallied 18 points on 50% (7-14 FG) shooting. Jewell Loyd added 17 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Nneka Ogwumike contributed with 14 points and six rebounds before fouling out late in the contest. Gabby Williams had by far her best game since coming back. She scored a season-high 11 points and also had a team-high five assists and six rebounds.

Skylar spoke to the media after the game about how her team was able to bounce back to pick up the key victory.

“No, the belief didn't waver. I think that was where the frustration comes from. We know what type of team we have. We know what we have in that locker room. We know what we're capable of. And so we were disappointed in that performance. Not to say that it's a shame to lose to anybody in this league, especially the Sun, who have been playing great all year. We talk about our how-to, how we do things, our want-to, need-to. And I thought we played with more of an edge today. We were more physical. We were more into bodies. We were more active and engaged defensively. And that's why they didn't score almost 100 points and we were able to hold them under 70. I thought defensively, we just came out with more of an edge and more physicality than we started that first game.” Diggins-Smith said.

Seattle out-shot the Sun 47% (29-62 FG) to 41% (24-58). They had small advantages in rebounds (31-30), assists (22-18), and steals (8-7). They had a larger edge in fast break points (12-6) and blocked shots (8-3).

The Storm hope to carry the lessons learned in this game throughout the rest of the season. Coach Quinn talked about that after the game.

“It can definitely give us a boost where needed, whether it's confidence, whether it's energy, whether it's, the awareness of the fact that we could be a very good team. We have to, give ourselves grace sometimes and know that we added a very good player into the mix. So we have to make sure we have some time to acclimate to what that means for us, but a tough win on the road against a playoff team gives us a lot. And I think the team kind of needs to see that, get these reps, and hopefully, again, bottle this up against our next opponent.” Quinn said.

Connecticut Sun

DeWanna Bonner had a much better game in this one scoring a game-high 26 points. However, she was the only player that performed better for Connecticut compared to Sunday’s game against Seattle. Bonner made 4-7 FG from beyond the arc and was tied with DiJonai Carrington for a team-high seven rebounds.

Besides Bonner, Brionna Jones had another strong game against the Storm. But she wasn’t nearly as dominant as she was on Sunday. She still finished with 21 points.

No other players scored in double figures. Alyssa Thomas was held in check scoring just four points on 1-5 FG and grabbing six rebounds. Connecticut’s bench was limited to just two points.

Game Breakdown

The Connecticut Sun quickly went up 8-0 to start the game. There was a stark difference in both team’s offensive approach to start the game. Connecticut scored their first six points on layups and their next basket came inside the free throw line. The Storm, the worst three-point shooting in the WNBA, took three three-point attempts missing them all. Seattle was forced to call a timeout.

Out of the timeout, Coach Quinn drew up a play to get the ball inside to Nneka. Ogwumike rewarded her by making a short jumper to get Seattle on the board. Connecticut continued to dominate as Brionna Jones and DeWanna Bonner scored multiple baskets as the Sun took a 12-point lead up 18-6.

With Seattle’s starters struggling mightily, Quinn went to her bench bringing in Mercedes Russell, Sami Whitcomb, and Jordan Horston. They each were able to get deflections or steals and helped the Storm rally. Mercedes Russell made a shot. Ezi received a nice pass from Horston and finished at the rim. Jewell Loyd made Seattle’s first three-pointer of the game to cut the Sun’s lead down to five at 18-13 at the end of the first period.

DeWanna Bonner made a three to begin the 2nd quarter. Jordan Horston scored on a quick pull-up after cutting to the rim. Skylar Diggins-Smith then made a high-arching shot. Horston had another strong cut but was hacked by Marina Mabrey on the shot. Jordan split the pair of free throws to cut Connecticut’s lead down to three at 21-18.

Brionna Jones continued her dominance scoring on back-to-back layups. Nneka Ogwumike made a shot from the short corner. Mabrey was able to get into the lane and made an awkward shot. Brionna Jones was fouled by Diggins-Smith on a mismatch and made both free throws. That put the Storm down nine at 29-20.

Nneka Ogwumike and Gabby Williams each scored on layups. Nneka made a short jumper. Skylar Diggins-Smith finished at the rim. Then Loyd made back-to-back. three-pointers. The Storm ended the second quarter on a 14-2 run.

At the end of the first half, the Storm surprisingly led by three at 34-31.

DeWanna Bonner curled off a screen and made a deep jumper to begin the third period. Nneka matched her on the other end. Bonner got fouled on the Sun’s next possession and made both free throws. Gabby Williams snagged an offensive rebound and made a putback layup. Williams then grabbed a rebound off a missed free throw by Brionna Jones. Gabby went coast-to-coast and finished with a strong drive to the rim. That put the Storm ahead by five at 40-35.

DiJonai Carrington scored on a 2-on-1 break in transition. Bonner then made a corner three to tie the game. Seattle responded as Gabby made a pull-up jumper from about 10-ft out. Skylar got a deflection that led to a steal and a transition basket for Diggins-Smith. Connecticut responded with an interior basket from DiJonai Carrington and a three-ball from Bonner to tie the game. Gabby and Skylar scored for Seattle but Bri Jones and Bonner countered for Connecticut.

With the game tied at 46-46, the Storm went on a 6-0 run. Jordan Horston made two beautiful passes to Loyd as Jewell was cutting to the rim. Loyd finished on both shots. Then Skylar found Nneka down low to put the Storm up 62-56. Brionna Jones was fouled and made both free throws. Jewell returned the favor to Jordan as Horston made a good cut and finished at the rim. Loyd was fouled and split a pair of free throws. Seattle extended their halftime lead by four and led 55-48 at the end of the third period.

Skylar Diggins-Smith beat Marina Mabrey off the dribble and was fouled to begin the fourth. She made both free throws. Then SDS hit a jumper to put the Storm up 11 at 59-48. Connecticut battled back. Carrington made a crucial three-pointer to cut it back down to single digits. Diggins-Smith scored again. Bonner then made a corner three. Ogwumike got a friendly roll at the rim on her jumper.

Connecticut went on a 6-0 run as Alyssa Thomas scored on a layup. Then DeWanna Bonner had a beautiful soft touch layup. Nneka got called for an offensive foul. Then Gabby Williams threw the ball away on a miscommunication. Brionna Jones scored on a short hook down low to cut the Storm’s 11-point lead down to just three at 63-60. Seattle called a timeout with just over three minutes left to play. That was the closest Connecticut would get.

Out of the timeout, Skylar was able to get into the post and score. Alyssa Thomas, Gabby Williams, and Jewell Loyd all split their pair of free throws in succession. Loyd was fouled again and made both free throws this time. Bonner hit a last-second three-pointer with under 10 seconds to play. With Connecticut still trailing by five they were forced to foul Diggins-Smith. Skylar sank both free throws to end the game with a 71-64 Seattle Storm victory.

Final Box Score

Additional Analysis

Fun With Numbers

Some of the different statistics between the two games that Connecticut and Seattle have played against one another over these past three days are staggering. This is something I might normally mention in the top sections but I felt they needed their own category so we can go over them here.

Seattle gave up 93 points on 54% field goal shooting in their loss to Connecticut on Sunday. On Tuesday, the Storm’s defense limited the Sun to just 64 points on 41% FG shooting. Nearly 15% lower on field goal attempts and 29 points less over 40 minutes between identical rosters.

On Sunday, the Sun had five different players score in double figures including two players off the bench. That included Brionna Jones (26 points), DiJonai Carrington (14 points), Ty Harris (13 pts), Marina Mabrey (15 pts), and Veronica Burton (11 pts). It was a season-high for both Jones and Burton. Connecticut’s guards/wings did massive damage to Seattle’s defense beyond just the dominant low-post play from Bri Jones.

In this game, Seattle held Carrington to 9 points, Harris to 2 points, Mabrey to just 2 points, and Burton to zero points! Between those four players, the Storm’s defense held them to 40 points less in the rematch on Tuesday (53 to 13). Same athletes. Same players. 40 points less.

I talked with Coach Quinn about those adjustments.

“We started off this morning with – making sure our players knew that we had to defend actions better. We have the play calls and we have the knowledge of what they like to run, but we have to be sharper in covering those actions. And so I thought that we were into bodies first and foremost. I thought we were more physical. I thought that we picked and chose opportunities to meet them in the paint instead of getting so disconnected. And I thought that we were smarter with defending them without fouling. So these are things that we talked about. Jones was going to be a load down there, but we gave up too many AND1s. The thought process of if she's going to get two, let her get the two, and let's see what our offense does. So just being more mindful of our defensive effort. But I thought first and foremost, we were, physical and we changed our demeanor. There was a lot more want-to and there was a lot more energy on that defensive end from everybody.” Quinn replied.

I also spoke with Skylar about the changes the team made.

“We wanted to be more physical. We wanted to start the game touching. (Last game) we got into a lot of unnecessary switches, and that put me, in particular, in a position sometimes guarding a post player. It's just some unwanted switching, and I thought we did a good job of staying with our matchup this time around. Pressure, ball pressure, I thought we just put more pressure on the basketball. And honestly, with Gabby playing like that, we have a chance versus any team. I thought she was really aggressive tonight. I thought the first unit did not start the first five minutes how we wanted to start the basketball game. But when Sami came in, Mercedes had great minutes off the bench tonight. Jordan gave us great minutes. Joyner came in for a stretch. And I thought that group in the second quarter was the one that really got us back into the game. Those are the adjustments we wanted to make.” Diggins-Smith told me.

Seattle’s defense was significantly better defending the paint. They gave up 56 points in the paint in their 93-86 loss to Connecticut. The Storm limited the Sun to just 34 points on Tuesday. A 22-point difference between games. On top of that, Seattle outscored Connecticut in the paint 40-34 in their win.

When they weren’t giving up points in the paint to Connecticut on Sunday, they were sending them to the free throw line time and time again. The Sun shot a ridiculous 38 free throw attempts in their win over Seattle. It would have been a significantly more lopsided defeat had they shot better than 68% from the foul line. On Tuesday, they held Connecticut to just 17 free throw attempts, less than half of their attempts from the game before. Thankfully, the Sun shot poorly again from the line and made just 65% of their free throws. The 26 made free throws on Sunday for the Sun compared to just 11 made on Tuesday resulted in 15 fewer points for Connecticut from that area of the game.

Lastly, the bench scoring, which was partially mentioned above with the likes of Mabrey and Burton, was significantly different. Whereas the Storm remained consistent. Not great but they got six bench points on Sunday and seven bench points on Tuesday. The Sun scored 28 points off their bench in their victory but just two points in their loss to Seattle. The Sun got 26 points fewer from their reserves between the two games.

Making Adjustments

It’s a credit to the Seattle Storm players, Coach Noelle Quinn, and her full coaching staff that her team was able to come away with a big win in Connecticut after playing so poorly just a couple of days ago. The adjustments they made were critical to pulling out the victory.

When two teams play each other back-to-back a lot of the adjustments and strategy come from coaching. It’s the same players on both teams. But it’s the attention to detail on the mistakes and errors of the previous game. Where did the team go wrong? How can a coach help correct those mistakes? How can a coach put her team in the best position to win or at least give them a legitimate shot? What players should be played and when? Those decisions come from coaching.

Even in my own life coaching at the youth level. From my experience, if a team gets blown out, it’s usually a talent issue with the players. But these tight close games that come down to one or two possessions, an adjustment here, a substitution there. That’s all coaching. And when you win a close game you feel like you actually made a difference. That you made a positive impact. I thought Coach Quinn and her staff coached one hell of a game.

From all the “Fun with Numbers” above. We saw how they limited Connecticut’s scoring in the paint. How they focused on shutting down several of the Sun’s players despite allowing DeWanna Bonner to get going. They were willing to let Bonner get more of her shots up and score more points while clamping down on Carrington, Harris, Mabrey, and Burton. Bonner took just five shots in the Sun’s win and 19 shots in the game they lost.

Despite the Sun winning the three-point shooting battle in both games if you check the numbers, you can see an adjustment Seattle made. For better or worse, and in this case, it’s worse, the Storm are the worst three-point shooting team in the WNBA. But in their victory on Tuesday, they shot fewer three-point attempts in their victory than they did in their loss on Sunday. They took 17 shots from beyond the arc in their win and 21 in their loss. But more notably, Connecticut took just nine attempts on Sunday in the Sun’s win and the Storm encouraged them to take more threes in this game where they shot 15 three-point attempts. Seattle dared them to take more threes while doing a better job of clogging up the middle and it paid off.

One last thing about the three-pointers. Remember how the game started? Seattle trailed 8-0 and their first three shot attempts were all from beyond the arc where they missed all three. That put them in a hole and the team would go down by double-digits quickly thereafter. Seattle took six three-pointers in the first quarter, most of those within the first couple of minutes of the game. I’m certain Coach Quinn talked to them about shot selection because after her timeout they got the ball straight into the hands of Nneka Ogwumike within 10 feet of the basket where she scored. Seattle took six three-pointers in the first quarter. Five in the second quarter. Then just four in the third period. And lastly, only two three-point attempts in the fourth quarter. It is not a surprise to me that the Storm’s worst shooting quarter was the first period where they took the most three-point attempts.

Despite it being a lower-scoring game, the Storm were more efficient on offense. They moved better without the ball. They were setting good screens, making strong cuts to the rim from the weak side, and finding their teammates. Jordan Horston specifically made a couple of great reads where she found Jewell cutting to the rim and Loyd was able to convert. Seattle shot nearly 5% points higher than they did in Sunday’s loss.

I spoke with Coach Quinn about that.

“Yeah, I thought Jordan also had excellent minutes on the defensive side of the ball. I think that helps with her offensive comfort. She's a playmaker. She sees the floor well and she reads and she's an excellent passer. Mabrey is a sharp player. She's really good on the offensive end. And we found ways to attack her defensively. And I think the cutting was actually another point of emphasis. I thought her spacing wasn't as great the first time we played Connecticut. So Jewell and Jordan making those plays and making those reads are them playing with instincts and being hoopers.” She told me.

In my last game recap, I specifically wrote about the rotations needing to be better. I wrote that Coach Quinn needed to find better balance and not be afraid to make adjustments or changes if the normal star players weren’t getting it done. I thought she did exactly that in a few different ways in Tuesday’s victory. First, was how poorly the starters played in the first period and how she brought in multiple substitutions (Russell, Horston, and Whitcomb) that immediately gave Seattle a boost off the bench and helped them claw back into the game. The other two big adjustments came with her minute distributions between Gabby Williams and Jordan Horston and Ezi Magbegor and Mercedes Russell.

In Seattle’s loss, Gabby played 28 minutes while Jordan played just 13 minutes. Williams is a good player but I thought she played a bad game. It happens but it didn’t feel like her performance on the court warranted playing more than twice as many minutes as Horston when Jordan has been a starter and has played well when given the opportunity. With this game, the minutes were closer to even as Gabby played 22 minutes and Jordan played 18 minutes. Williams had her best game of the season. Just as Gabby can do, Horston contributed in a multitude of ways. Jordan finished with five points, three assists, three blocks, two steals, and a couple of rebounds.

After the game, Gabby spoke to the media about what she saw out of Jordan in this game.

“Jordan and I, we're always in each other's ears during the games because I think we have a lot of similarities in our game. When we say something to each other, we're also saying it to ourselves. It kind of helps us get motivated. Like keep being aggressive, keep attacking. Your defense is great. Energy is great. And because I'm older and have a bit more experience, I try to mentor her because I see like baby Gabby and I want her to not make the mistakes that baby Gabby made. We have great chemistry. I love playing with her. I love being on the same team with her. And I can't wait to see what kind of player she becomes. And when she becomes an All-Star, I hope she gives me a shout-out.” Gabby said.

In Sunday’s loss, Ezi played 32 minutes and Mercedes played just 10 minutes. Magbegor is one of the league’s best defensive players and she’s a more talented offensive player compared to Russell. But even great defenders have weaknesses. Magbegor’s weakness is that she’s extremely thin for her height and size. Brionna Jones is the exact opposite. Jones is like me. No matter what I do I’ll never be a skinny scrawny person. Bri Jones will never be DeWanna Bonner skinny. It’s two completely different body types. Jones used her muscle and her mass to shove Ezi out of the way and there was a portion of the third period on Sunday where the Sun literally just dropped the ball into Jones and she made layup, after layup, after layup. It was an automatic two points for Connecticut every time they went to her. Ezi was not big enough, not large enough, not strong enough to stop her. But Mercedes is.

Jones still played well but her points were not automatic. She had to work harder for them. She also took significantly fewer free throws because Mercedes was big enough to stay in front of her without fouling Jones. In Tuesday’s win for Seattle, Ezi played 23 minutes and Mercedes actually played more than her (25 minutes). While Russell’s stats in the box score certainly don’t jump off the page. She finished with just two points, three rebounds, and three assists in the game. Anyone who watched the game knows what type of impact she had. That was backed up by the fact that Cedes was a game-best plus-21 in the plus/minus category. That means the Storm outscored the Sun by 21 points when Mercedes was on the court.

I spoke with Coach Quinn about the impact Mercedes had despite not a lot of statistics showing up in the box score (points, rebounds, etc.).

“Yeah, actually the box score shows that she's a plus 21. And that's big for me, for us, for this team. And you're right, it's not gonna jump out as far as other statistics. But if you think about how smart she played, having some size and length and actually some physicality out there, especially on Jones. But also what she can do for us offensively, just understanding what we need, our flow, setting screens and just being a solid vet out there. Cedes is a champion at the end of the day. She knows how it feels and she's been in this organization for a good amount of time. So we're going to need her. We're going to need her at her best and it showed tonight what she could do and hopefully, we can continue to have that for the rest of the way.” Quinn added.

Up Next

The Storm (20-13) conclude their most difficult road trip of the season with a game against the New York Liberty (27-6) on Thursday, September 5th at 4:00 PM. It’s the final game between the two teams this season and New York won the previous meetings 98-85 and 74-63.

Notes:
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