Storm Defeat Mercury 89-77 Part 2

Additional thoughts and interview quotes from Seattle's win against Phoenix.

Gabby Williams and Skylar Diggins combined for 47 points and 14 assists on Saturday night as the Seattle Storm picked up an important Commissioner’s Cup victory against the Phoenix Mercury by a final score of 89-77. You can read the full game recap here at the link.

In Part 2, I wrote about how Gabby Williams is earning her Franchise tag money, the difference in Skylar’s game in the Storm’s wins versus losses, and a discussion on which team is the third-best behind New York and Minnesota. Plus, I’ve included the post-game audio and best interview quotes from Gabby Williams, Skylar Diggins, and Head Coach Noelle Quinn.

Gabby Earning the Franchise Money

Gabby Williams is the highest-paid player on the team this season. Williams signed a one-year max deal after having the Core franchise tag placed on her this offseason. It was a bold move by the Storm’s front office for a player who had never averaged more than 10 PPG in six WNBA seasons. But it is a move that is paying off big-time for the Seattle Storm right now.

Williams is experiencing the best season of her WNBA career. Gabby has grown every year in Seattle. She averaged 7.5 PPG during her first season with the Storm. She is now averaging double that at 15.2 PPG this year. Williams is shooting a career-best at nearly 52% from the floor. But it’s her improvement from beyond the three-point line that is really making the difference. Williams shot 17% from beyond the arc in 2019, her second season in the WNBA. As recently as 2023, Gabby shot 22% from the three-point line. Last year, she shot a career-best 32% on her 3-PT FG attempts. And this season, she is blowing that out of the water. Williams is currently hitting at an incredible 49% from three-point range. Gabby is currently in the Top 10 of the WNBA in three-point field goal percentage, and she is very close to being in the Top 5.

She is the team’s best perimeter defender. And to top it all off, she is also averaging a career-high in assists at 4.0 APG.

Coach Quinn has poured confidence into Gabby Williams, and Williams has never looked better. GW’s development is a credit to the work she’s put in and to the work the Storm’s Coaching staff has done. It’s why Gabby has talked so highly of Quinn and the Storm organization in recent years. Quinn wants her to know she’s one of the best players in the world, and right now she is playing like it.

One of the best things a General Manager can do is know when to move on from certain players. Another is investing in players who haven’t reached their full potential. Gabby Williams is a player that the Storm franchise has invested a lot into, but it wasn’t until this season that they paid her like a top franchise player. She has rewarded that by putting together the best season of her career. Williams should be a lock to make the All-Star team, and if she keeps this up, she could even earn All-WNBA honors.

Skylar in Wins Versus Losses

I’ve noticed an interesting trend from Skylar in the Storm’s wins versus their losses this season. In Seattle’s five wins, Diggins’ stats look like this.

Win 1 against Dallas: Skylar 21 points and 9 assists.
Win 2 against Phoenix: Skylar 24 points and 14 assists.
Win 3 against Las Vegas: Skylar 10 points and 8 assists
Win 4 against Dallas: Skylar 9 points and 5 assists
Win 5 against Phoenix: Skylar 26 points and 7 assists.

Let’s compare that to her performance in Seattle’s four losses.

Loss 1 against Phoenix: Skylar 21 points and 4 assists.
Loss 2 against Minnesota: Skylar 18 points and 3 assists.
Loss 3 against Atlanta: Skylar 20 points and 3 assists
Loss 4 against Las Vegas: Skylar 11 points and 5 assists.

In Seattle’s wins, Skylar Diggins is averaging 18 PPG and 8.6 APG. In the Storm’s losses, Diggins is averaging 17.5 PPG and 3.75 APG.

Diggins’ points are nearly identical averages between the Storm’s wins and losses. She averages 18 points when the team wins and 17.5 points when the team loses. It’s her assist numbers that change drastically. In their five wins, Diggins is averaging 8.6 assists per game but only 3.75 APG in their losses. She has more than doubled her distribution totals when the team is winning.

The Storm are winning when Skylar makes it a priority to get her teammates involved first. It obviously helps when she is scoring as well. The team needs her to score because Seattle doesn’t have an elite, unstoppable force. Right now, that’s only Napheesa Collier and A’ja Wilson. Stewie would be up there, but her three-point shooting is atrocious right now (16%). Nneka Ogwuike is very good, but her recent shooting struggles bring her down a level.

The key to Seattle’s success feels three-pronged right now: dominant scoring from Nneka and Skylar, balanced scoring when at least one of those two struggles, and strong defense. When Skylar gets her teammates involved early, that checks off box #2. Then it also helps free her up because the defense now has to keep their focus on other players, which allows her to go to work and score in isolation if needed.

Who is the Third (Best) Team?

Similar to 2023, when Las Vegas had a 7-game lead and the New York Liberty had a 5-game lead in the standings over the third-place team, the Connecticut Sun, who finished 27-13, 2025 looks like we could be headed for another season where it’s a two-team race to the top. Right now we have the 8-0 New York Liberty and the 8-0 Minnesota Lynx, and then we have everybody else.

The crazy part is that I legitimately don’t know who’s the third-best team in the WNBA right now. Ahead of the season, I predicted that the Indiana Fever would be the third-best team, but an injury to Caitlin Clark has derailed that at least for now. Indiana (4-4) is currently 7th in the WNBA standings, but interestingly enough, they do own the third-best NET Rating (Offensive Rating minus Defensive Rating).

As of this writing, the Atlanta Dream (5-3) own the third-best record in the WNBA. Although that keeps changing. After Seattle had their impressive 20-point win over Las Vegas, the Storm had the third-best record in the league. Then they proceeded to lose three games in a row.

The Atlanta Dream have had impressive road victories against both Indiana and Seattle. After their big rally down 17 points in the 2nd half to beat the Storm, they looked like they could lay claim as one of the best teams in the WNBA. Then they inexplicably lost their next game against the 1-6 Connecticut Sun.

After their lopsided loss to Seattle in late May, the Las Vegas Aces dominated the LA Sparks and then got their lick back against the Storm, beating Seattle 75-70 on June 1st. With the top talent of A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, and Jewell Loyd, it’s not crazy to think the Aces could be this year’s third-best team. Then the unthinkable happened. On Saturday, they lost to the Golden State Valkyries expansion team by nearly 30 points (95-68)!

The Phoenix Mercury (6-4) have been one of the top teams so far this season. But they’re dealing with injuries to Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas, and their roster was already very top-heavy to begin with. They have been a much better team than they look on paper or the names on the backs of their jerseys would suggest. That’s a credit to the Mercury’s Coaching staff and those players who are stepping up when given the opportunity. I’m just waiting for the clock to strike midnight and for this Mercury team to turn back into a pumpkin. Can Copper and Thomas get back on the court before that happens?

Looking over the entire league, I think it’s pretty clear that the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx are ahead of the pack. If I have to guess on which team will finish third after watching the first 8-10 games of the season, I think it’ll come down to Seattle, Atlanta, or Indiana.

Player Interviews

On Skylar’s improvement from the first half to the second.

Diggins said, “I just kept doing the same thing I was doing. I didn't mind my shots; the type of shots that I was getting was in the offense. I thought the trend of it, the first half in general, was us sharing the basketball. However many shots we made, I think we had all but two that were unassisted, so I liked what we were doing and just more of the same things, and Gabby held us down in that first half. She's really been holding us down the last five games, and so just trying to step up and make plays, but doing more of the same things I liked. I think I had like four or five assists at halftime. I was liking the court what I was seeing. It was open for us, and so just trying to figure out... Just continue to get back to those spots and continue to be aggressive.”

On Gabby and Skylar having 20+ points and 7 assists each.

Gabby answered, “I think we only had a couple shots that were unassisted, and so once we got into that pocket, we just kind of stayed in it. We just stayed in it, and multiple people got hot at multiple times tonight, and we were just trying to find that person when it was... My teammates did a great job of finding me today in the first half, and then when Skylar got hot, we did a great job finding her, and Nneka had some good ones as he moved great without the ball. And I also think we were able to be really aggressive off of our ball screens, which forced the help, which allowed us to create those assists. What makes Sky so great, even if she goes 1-8 FG, you still have to respect the hell out of her. So that’s why she’s able to get those assists in the first half because she’s still being aggressive and creating those things. There’s so much that happens outside of scoring the basketball.”

On Skylar getting her teammates involved first before taking over with her own scoring.

Skylar told me, “No, I really don't want to operate like having to turn it on. I think the reason why I was getting some of those assists reads was because I was trying to be aggressive initially and trying to open things up. But we talked about some things that could be open for us today, talked about some sets that we felt like we would like to get us in the areas we wanted to play in. And I thought we did a good job of doing that throughout the entirety of the game. I think changing the second half from you know allowing them to shoot I think it was like 60 percent, I don't know if they shot in the second half but they finished the game shooting you know 43 percent after they shot 62 percent at halftime so it felt worse than what it was at halftime offensively but what we hung our hat on today was defensively and trying to use our defense and fast break points getting out 17 to 6 fast break points. They beat us in points in the paint, but we were able to get to the line a little bit. So we like the things we were doing offensively, but we fed off our defense tonight.”

The keys to slowing down the Mercury’s offense.

Gabby answered, “Well, the main weapon today was Satou. I thought Ezi did amazing on her. And Satou, she's a great player, so she's still about hers, but at least we made it difficult. We know that she has a lot of responsibility and on the scoring end, but as long as we just make it difficult, it may frustrate her, and that frustrates her teammates as well. That’s the best we can do. And then I thought we did a great job on their shooters. They are a team that likes to get a lot of threes up, but we just … our goal before the game was to make sure that almost all of them were at least contested. We know they’re gonna get them off. We know they’re going to hit some tough ones, but as long as we just make it difficult and we get them out of their rhythm.”

Coach’s Quotes

Pre-Game Quotes

I spoke to Coach Quinn during the pre-game press conference and was able to ask her about the challenges of finding minutes for and developing younger players versus trying to stack wins to try to earn a top playoff seed.

Coach Quinn told me, “Yeah, they're saying it right now. That is exactly it. You know, they're not often do you get a lottery pick on a team that has a lot of veterans. And so, especially with a player like Dom, there is a process to development, and it occurs in games a lot. If there are stretches to be able to put Dom on the floor with specific matchups, that helps us for now and the future. And then, with our vets, I want them to be able to play in a comfortable pocket. So it's about, you know, finding their rhythm and finding their comfort. And they're going to win those games. I have to coach the game, whatever the game lends. I look at matchups. We look at our rotations, who's playing well, and what pieces complement one another. So there is a balance to what we're doing, without a lot of practice on the development does happen in-game. And if the game lends to our younger players getting those minutes and being productive in those minutes, that's always going to be a bonus for us.”

I also asked her about what she remembers when seeing Kitija Laksa in training camp for the Storm in 2021, and what she sees out of her now.

“Yeah. Kit is a laser, a sniper, a knockdown shooter. You know, she's a gamer as well. So, the way that she plays basketball, she knows that she can shoot the ball, but she also knows that she has a knack for just the hooping, honestly, getting to the rim, and playing to her strengths. She showed that in camp, obviously, coming in and learning a defensive system is a little bit different. Our team, I think, was pretty much set at that time. But she provided some good reps in practice. And I remember she had a really good preseason game that year as well. So it's good to see, you know, she does the same thing overseas. Shoots it at a high clip and is really impactful for all of her team. So I'm happy to see her doing well. I wish it was in the Storm Jersey.”

Post-Game Quotes

On Skylar’s first-half struggles and how she turned things around in the 2nd half.

Quinn said, “I saw an elite player staying in the moment and not doing anything other than what we know she can do. Score the basketball, be a playmaker, be aggressive. She didn't let the pink one for seven or one for eight, whatever it was, you know, get her down. She was still doing very good things on the basketball floor, and the resiliency that she showed to get back to her comfort and do the things that we know she can do for us. She's been locked in the last couple of days in practice and trying to get her back comfortable. And I think she found her rhythm in the second half.”

On the confidence Gabby is showing and her strong game.

“Yeah, she's in a great pocket right now, from shooting a three at a high clip too, her efficiency around the rim, getting downhill, and what she does defensively, I mean, in the playmaking, there are a lot of things that, she's our French army knife. So there are a lot of things that she does so well on the court. And it allows all of our players to be exactly who they are. To me, it's just been a year and a half or however long of playing really good basketball from the Olympics coming in at the end of our season last year, and just a continuation of what she's doing overseas. And the confidence that she's playing with, the trust that I have in her, and you know the trust of her teammates having her, it's really great to see Gabby displaying this level of play this early in the season in the W because she hasn't had an opportunity to do so.”

On the Mercury playing so well despite their injuries, and the keys to the Storm pulling away in the 4th quarter.

Coach Quinn told me, “I mean, if you take a look at what Phoenix has been doing, there's not been many easy games for anybody who's coming to this building because they take a lot of threes. They can make a lot of threes. They play very hard, and they are a top-ranked defense. And so, no matter who is on the floor, everybody is a pro in this league. And on paper or not, you know, they're going to show up and play hard and do their jobs. And I respect and commend that. No matter who's on the court for Phoenix, they've been giving everybody fits. In the fourth quarter… A lot of Sky finding some rhythm, a lot of good defensive stops. Today, we did better on the rebounding, shoring up some possessions. And then the turnovers to me, just continuing to keep them down. We had to do a better job with our live-ball turnovers. We've been giving up a lot of points with that. But I felt like the timely ones didn't bite us in the tail. And they were very sharp with our execution and found some rhythm. Just confidence, some flow to what we wanted, and, again, a lot of big shots from Sky.

On Ezi moving into 2nd place in the Storm franchise All-Time Block list.

“Ezi is so important to this team. And I know that these few games are trying to find her rhythm and get her going. But let's not forget what she's done on the defensive side of the basketball and what she's done in this jersey. She's a champion. She's been able to really thrive within the system, the city of Seattle, and this organization. She is the most selfless person I know. She's very humble, but also a very great teammate and knows that she has goals and she wants to be great in this league and for our teammates more than herself sometimes. I've been around her since she was 20, and it's been amazing to see the growth and the amount of success she has come her way because she just works extremely hard. She's dedicated, but also she's an amazing person. And so, no matter what happens on the basketball court with her, I value who she is and what she brings to us every single day because it's not common to have such a great superstar player who puts everybody else before herself. The blocks are just one part of what she's going to be able to continue to do for us. She's obviously a great defensive player, but knowing that in this young career, her young career, that she's just kind of scratched her surface, I'm just humbled to be a part of her journey, and I'm super happy that I'm able to coach her.” Quinn answered.

Notes:
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