Storm Outlast Dream 81-70

Ezi Magbegor and Jordan Horston led the way.

(Seattle, WA) - The Seattle Storm finished their nine-game homestand with another victory. On Sunday, it was an 81-70 win over the Atlanta Dream. It marked Seattle’s seventh win in their last nine games. It was the most wins of any homestand in WNBA history. That is partly because no team had ever played that many home games in a row before this season. The Storm still made history.

“I think we did a great job. I think 7-2 was a great run for us. I feel like it's coming up. We acknowledged it in the locker, but it's nice to acknowledge ourselves. I think it's great for the fans to just see us win and kind of keep us in games a lot of the time. So, yeah, I think it sets us up well going into the break. One more game still remaining, but I'm really proud of how we played.” Ezi Magbegor said after the game.

Overall, it’s a positive sign as the Storm improved their record to 16-8. They are in a virtual tie with the Minnesota Lynx for 4th place in the WNBA standings. However, because Minnesota won the season series, the Lynx have the tiebreaker advantage. As I wrote about in the last game. Minnesota is currently without their best player as Napheesa Collier is dealing with a foot injury. The Lynx lost again on Sunday, this time to the Indiana Fever by a final score of 81-74. Minnesota is 2-2 since Phee went down with her injury. They even struggled before she went out. The Lynx have lost four out of their six games in July. That’s allowed the Storm to catch them in the standings as both teams are now 16-8. They each have one game remaining before the Olympic break.

For Sunday’s game against the Dream, Seattle used a balanced attack as five players scored in double figures. Ezi Magbegor led the Storm, who finished with 18 points on 8-11 FG shooting. Ezi also had five rebounds and three blocked shots. Jordan Horston nearly matched her as she finished with 16 points on 8-11 FG shooting. Horston also had five rebounds, three steals, three assists, and two blocks. Jewell Loyd finished with 14 points. She was not efficient as she made just 3-14 FG and 0-4 FG from the three-point line. However, she did lead all players with a game-high seven assists. And she made 8-9 FT attempts. Nneka Ogwumike finished with a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds. Lastly, Sami Whitcomb scored 13 points off the bench and tallied four rebounds, four assists, and two steals. This was the second game in a row that Whitcomb scored in double figures.

Coach Noelle Quinn praised the performances of Magbegor and Horston.

“They both got the raincoat and belt (post-game awards). I thought that Ezi made really great reads in the pocket. I thought she was aggressive looking at the rim, being a playmaker in the pocket. I thought she was very aggressive and very efficient in what she was doing. I thought Jordan also was aggressive as well. A lot of those cuts, a lot of those points were in the paint, but she was reading what the defense was giving her. They're both playing with a lot of confidence and when they're able to give us some extra lift on the offensive end. That's amazing because we always talk about their defense and tenacity and their athleticism and their ability to come get steals and block shots. But they are playing efficiently on the offensive end. It is great for us.” Quinn stated.

Neither team shot the ball well as this was more of a defensive battle. The Storm made 40% (30-75 FG) compared to the Dream’s 38% (28-73 FG). Both were poor from the three-point line with each team shooting around 18%. Seattle was 5-28 FG from deep and Atlanta made just 3-17 FG on their 3-PT attempts. The home team had a +5 advantage in free throws converting 16-18 FT compared to Atlanta who made 11-15 FT. Seattle dominated the fast break points 12-2. After putting up a season-high 29 assists in Friday’s win over Minnesota, the Storm nearly matched that with 27 assists on Sunday; nine more than the Dream had.

Atlanta Dream

The Dream were led by Maya Caldwell. She finished with a game-high 19 points on 8-14 FG shooting. She also had five rebounds, a team-high four assists, and three steals. Aerial Powers added 14 points and eight rebounds off the bench but wasn’t very efficient converting just 6-17 FG. Tina Charles added 12 points but was held to just four points after the first period.

Allisha Gray was the fourth player to score in double figures. She finished with 12 points on 4-12 FG shooting including 0-4 FG from beyond the arc. Jordan Horston was responsible for keeping Gray in check and Horston did a very good job of that in this game.

Atlanta out-rebounded Seattle 39-35. Not surprisingly, they also had the advantage in offensive rebounds (13-10) and second-chance points (17-12). The Dream had the slightest edge with points in the paint (40-38). Their bench was just a little better outscoring Seattle’s reserves 25-20.

Game Breakdown

Nneka Ogwumike knocked in a three-ball to score the game’s first basket. Maya Caldwell answered with a sweet pull-up jumper. Skylar Diggins-Smith fought through some contact to bank in a shot at the rim. Caldwell grabbed an offensive rebound and worked her way straight to the rim. Tina Charles made a short hook to give Atlanta a one-point lead. Jordan Horston made a great defensive read to steal the pass and raced down the court for the easy two.

Charles bullied her way to more points. Horston scored on a midrange jumper. Ezi Magbegor had a nice fadeaway from one low block and then scored again on the opposite end with an assist from Horston. Magbegor scored again with a midrange jumper to put Seattle up 15-10.

Allisha Gray drew a foul with a strong drive to the rim. Maya Cadwell buried a three-ball and then Tina Charles scored inside the paint. A quick 7-0 run by Atlanta allowed them to regain the lead. Jordan and Ezi each scored again near the rim. Cheyenne Parker-Tyus tied the game back up at 19-19.

Allisha Gray made a nice fadeaway. Powers made her first jumper for Atlanta. Jewell Loyd made a shot and then was fouled shooting a three-pointer. She made all three free throws to give the Storm a 24-23 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Sami Whitcomb was able to recover a missed three-pointer by Vivians for a nice reverse layup. After an Aerial Powers layup, the Storm hit three consecutive three-pointers. The first was from Victoria Vivians and then two more from Whitcomb. This forced Coach Tanisha Wright to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, Whitcomb stole a pass away from Allisha Gray. The next possession resulted in a midrange jumper from Nneka Ogwumike. That put Seattle up 10 at 40-30.

Tina Charles stopped Seattle’s 8-0 run. After that, neither team scored over a handful of possessions. Maya Caldwell finally got to the rim for Atlanta for two. Whitcomb and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus each exchanged a pair of free throws to end the first half. The Storm led 42-36 at the midway point.

Skylar Diggins-Smith who left the game with about three minutes to play in the second period, did not start the second half. She returned to the bench in sweatpants and flip-flops. Sami Whitcomb started the 2nd half in her place. Whitcomb created dribble penetration and fed the ball to Jordan Horston for a short shot in the paint to begin the third quarter.

Allisha Gray scored on the other end for Atlanta. Then Ezi and Tina Charles swapped baskets. Nneka was fouled and split a pair of free throws. Jewell Loyd found Sami Whitcomb in the corner for a three to put the Storm back up 10 at 50-40.

Gray scored for Atlanta and then Maya Caldwell knocked in a three-pointer to cut the Dream’s deficit to five. Seattle’s lead hovered between five and nine points over the next few minutes.

Mercedes Russell made a basket. But Atlanta finished the third period on a 6-0 run to cut the Storm’s lead down to just three at 60-57.

Jordan Horston had a beautiful Statue of Liberty-type layup to begin the 4th quarter. Parker-Tyus got to the rim for two. Loyd got to the rim and Horston knocked in a deep jumper from the baseline. Haley Jones got between two defenders for a layup.

Magbegor was able to draw the blocking foul and made both free throws. Aerial Powers forced her way to the rim. Jewell made a few free throws to extend Seattle’s lead to six. The Storm’s defense forced a turnover that led to a fast break layup by Jordan. Horston then found Ezi with a nice pass as Magbegor was cutting to the rim from the opposite side and finished at the rim. Ezi made another jump shot a couple of plays later to push Seattle’s lead back to ten at 77-67. Coach Tanisha Wright was forced to call another timeout with just three minutes remaining in the game.

After the timeout, Destanni Henderson missed a three-pointer for Atlanta. Ezi missed a shot on the other end but Jordan grabbed an offensive rebound. Seattle was able to capitalize as Whitcomb found Loyd in the post for a layup over the smaller defender.

Aerial Powers turned the ball over as Loyd made a beautiful one-handed snag. Seriously, Jewell looked like Richard Sherman grabbing an interception for the Seahawks. Loyd pushed the ball up to Horston who finished at the rim. That put Seattle up by 14 points with less than two minutes to play, sealing the victory for the Storm.

Maya Caldwell split a pair of free throws and Aerial Powers got a layup in the final minute. There were a couple of missed shots by both teams and then Seattle finished it off with a defensive stop. The Storm won 81-70.

Final Box Score

Additional Analysis

Playing Without Skylar

Despite another good win, not everything went Seattle’s way on Sunday. Skylar Diggins-Smith hurt her ankle late in the second quarter of the game and went to the locker room early before halftime. When she returned from the tunnel, she was wearing sweatpants and sandals. She would not return to the game.

Sami Whitcomb replaced her in the starting lineup to begin the third period. Sami and Jewell spent most of the time running the point without Skylar. Kiana Williams filled in for Sami’s role as the backup PG and played five minutes in the second half.

Things were a little rocky at times. Sami had the ball stolen away from her when facing full-court pressure from Atlanta’s defense. But overall, the Storm played pretty well without Skylar in the second half. Atlanta outscored Seattle 21-18 in the third as the Storm adjusted to playing without their normal floor general. They were able to turn things around in the fourth quarter. Seattle outscored Atlanta 21-13 over the final 10 minutes.

“I really liked our defense. We got our deflections up, our hands were out. A lot of basketballs, I thought the coverages were really hard for us to get into. Go get some rebounds. Offensively, it's hard to not have her on the floor, Sky on the floor, because she's a really big role player and one of the best point guards to ever play the game. But I thought that Jewell did an excellent job with reading the traps and getting into their pockets. Ezi had some really good plays because of those reads as well. I thought we showed a lot of resiliency for not having Sky on the floor.” Quinn told the media after the game.

Hopefully, the injury isn’t serious and Skylar will be good to go for Tuesday’s game against Los Angeles. Or at least as soon as the season starts back up in mid-August after the Olympics.

Defensive Prep

It’s been mentioned by myself, on the TV broadcast, and I’m sure by other reporters that Jordan Horston requested to guard the toughest assignment for every game the Storm play. That was a request she put to the coaches before the season. They obliged. Tasking her with defending the likes of Caitlin Clark, DeWanna Bonner, Arike Ogunbowale, Kahleah Copper, and more. On Sunday, Horston was assigned to cover Allisha Gray; a two-time WNBA All-Star.

There were multiple plays where Jordan stood right with her defensively, being in her space, but never fouling. Just good clean disciplined defense. Gray finished with 12 points, some of which were scored when Jordan wasn’t on the floor. Allisha finished 4-12 FG. This defensive performance comes after Horston held Minnesota’s Bridget Carleton to two points on 1-8 FG.

Jordan’s always been good at defense, even during her rookie season a year ago. But her confidence and improvement is very noticeable in 2024. After the game, I spoke with Horston about how she prepares for all of these defensive assignments. I wanted to know more about the work she’s putting in away from the games and away from all the on-court stuff that we get to see.

“I watch a lot of film. I watch their tendencies on their ISOs, if they're an ISO player, like, what type of moves they like to get to. And just try to make it as hard as possible for them to be comfortable at anything they do. I tend to watch – I watch a lot of them. Whoever I think my matchup is going to be, I'm watching. I'm going to watch today. So I'm going to watch LA when I go home, see, who I'm going to match up against, and see how they like to play and start taking it away from them. It's personal, though. It's really personal because I don't like being scored on. I take it to heart when you score on me.” Horston told me.

I also spoke with Coach Quinn about how the coaches help Jordan with the prep work.

“Initially, just starting the year, I had her on assignment with me with film, but it's hard as a head coach to... I have to deal with a lot of things. So she's watching film with Perry. Also, she gets some film clips before the game. And what it is, it's not only just defensive clips, it is offensive clips. If you notice the cutting that's happening with her, she's more mindful of the timing of those cuts and the spacing. If you notice the shots that she's getting, it is a lot. Offensively, that film study is important. But if you look at what she's doing defensively, it's her watching her on her own, but also, you know, the clips that Perry cooks up is making sure she's locked into her assignments, knowing player tendencies and all those things. But at the end of the day, if a player has an individual work ethic to do it on her own, then watching film with the coach is elevated because you've seen it, now you can talk through it and you can find some clarity on what needs to happen. And that also happens in the shoot-around. The questions that she asks or the game we're doing in the shoot-around, she's very intuitive and just wants to get clarity. When she's clear, she's more aggressive.” Quinn explained.

Ezi and Jordan

This season has been a lot more successful than last year thanks to the Free Agency additions of Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith. The Storm appear to be one of the legit championship contenders this season in the WNBA alongside the other top teams - New York, Connecticut, Las Vegas, and Minnesota. Adding Skylar and Nneka was absolutely the right moves to make this offseason. It puts Seattle in a Championship window for probably the next 2-3 years if they keep this core group together. Because you never really know what’s going to happen come playoff time.

In 2021, the Seattle Storm were the top team in the league heading into the Olympic break. After the Olympics, they won the Commissioner’s Cup in a lopsided game (79-57) over Connecticut. They faltered a bit down the stretch as all of Seattle’s stars were heavily involved on Team USA in Japan. With just a few games to go before the playoffs began and the Storm looking to repeat as champions, Breanna Stewart had a dreadful non-contact foot injury that would later be confirmed as another torn Achilles. She missed the playoffs and the Storm were bounced out of the playoffs as a one-and-done when the league was still playing single-elimination games in the first two rounds.

The Chicago Sky, despite finishing the regular season with just a .500 record of 16-16, got hot at the right time and went on to win the Sky’s first WNBA Championship. The point of all this is to show that truly anything can happen. The Aces have four players playing for Team USA, they certainly could wear down in the 2nd half of this season. Another top team may have a star suffer a major injury. Sue Bird talked in the past about how her championship teams were fortunate to stay healthy at the right time. So many little factors play a huge role in deciding each team’s fate at the end of the year. Even last year, the Aces won the WNBA Finals 3-1 but if Chelsea Gray had suffered her injury in Game 1 instead of Game 3, then we’re probably talking about how the New York Liberty won their first-ever WNBA Championship in 2023.

If you read all of this, you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with Ezi Magbegor and Jordan Horston, the title of this section. Well, the point is to say that the Storm made the right moves this offseason to compete for a championship team now. But if they’re going to win another WNBA title 5-10 years from now (2029-2034), it’ll be with the future of the franchise, Ezi and Jordan.

On Sunday, they were both exceptional. They finished the game as Seattle’s two leading scorers with 18 points (Ezi) and 16 points (Jordan). More impressively was how efficient they were as both shot 73% (8-11 FG) from the floor. And they are Seattle’s two best defensive players as well. They combined for four steals and five blocks. And they are both so young still. Ten years from now, Ezi will be the same age as Nneka Ogwumike is now. In 10 years, Jordan will be the same age as Skylar Diggins-Smith. Not all careers are the same. But it’s just to emphasize how young Magbegor and Horston still are. And neither has hit their prime yet.

While Nneka, Jewell, and Skylar will carry the Storm in most games this season. It’s important that Jordan and Ezi have these types of games to continue to grow, develop, and build more confidence.

“What they did defensively first, being locked in. Then what they're doing offensively. These are young athletes doing great things early on in their careers. So if you think about the trajectory, the possibilities, if they continue to get these reps together, I mean, the sky's the limit for both of those players who can be able to lock minutes and games together and add, depth around them, whoever's on the court. They make those players better.” Coach Quinn said.

Seattle made the correct choice in adding Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith to the team this year. But in some alternate universe, I think the Storm franchise would have been just fine if that didn’t happen. Even if they hadn’t re-signed Jewell Loyd, the team could have still built around Magbegor, Horston, and the 4th overall pick in the draft. That likely would have been Rickea Jackson, Aaliyah Edwards, or maybe even Angel Reese. If they had missed the playoffs again this year, they would have been in a prime position to possibly land Paige Bueckers in 2025.

In that alternate universe, we could have been looking at Paige, Jordan, Jackson/Edwards/Reese, and Ezi as the core of a youth movement in Seattle. As it stands now, they can still build long-term around Magbegor and Horston. And that is a great start!

Up Next

The Seattle Storm (16-8) will travel to Los Angeles to face the LA Sparks on Tuesday, July 16th at 12:30 PM PDT. Seattle has faced LA just once earlier this season at home where the Storm won that game 95-79. After this game against the Sparks, Nneka Ogwumike and Jewell Loyd will head to Phoenix to participate in All-Star Weekend. Then the entire WNBA takes roughly a one-month break for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Notes:
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