Storm Rout Sparks 98-67
Seattle gets back on track down in LA.
(Los Angeles, California) - The Seattle Storm responded to their disappointing performance against the Golden State Valkyries with a dominating performance against the LA Sparks. Seattle led by 10 points at halftime, extended that lead to 27 points in the third quarter after outscoring the Sparks 28-14, and led by as many as 35 points in the fourth as they ran away with a 98-67 victory.
Five Storm players scored in double figures. Nneka Ogwumike returned to her old stomping ground and played like vintage Ogwumike. She scored a game-high 26 points on 12-16 FG shooting. She added five rebounds and three steals. Both Erica Wheeler and Skylar Diggins scored 15 points each. Diggins tied with Gabby Williams with a game-high seven assists. Speaking of Williams, Gabby nearly had a triple-double. She finished with 11 points, eight steals, and seven assists. The eight steals are a new franchise record, surpassing Jordin Canada and Sue Bird.
Alysha Clark had her second strong performance in a row off the bench. Clark scored a season-high 14 points on 5-7 FG shooting, including 4-5 FG from beyond the arc. Clark has knocked down seven three-pointers on 70% field goal shooting over the past two games. That’s incredibly important for the Storm, who struggled mightily from the three-point line one year ago. And because of their ability to dominate in the paint, more and more teams are playing zone defense against Seattle. Nneka Ogwumike said in the post-game that she has seen more zone defense this year than at any other time in her career in the WNBA.
The Storm outshot the Sparks 52% (39-75 FG) to 33% (21-64 FG), including 43% (13-30 FG) to 27% (6-22 FG) from beyond the three-point line. They more than doubled Los Angeles in assists (29-14). They outscored the Sparks 44-28 with points in the paint and 24-8 in fast break points. Seattle’s bench outscored LA’s reserves 29-8. Along with Clark’s 14 points, rookie Dominique Malonga added seven points, and Zia Cooke contributed five more.
As good as Seattle’s offense was in this game, it was their defense that really stood out. As mentioned above, Gabby Williams set a record with eight steals in the game. But it wasn’t just Gabby getting in on the action. The Storm had 15 steals total and forced the Sparks into 24 turnovers. Seattle had a 31-13 advantage in points off turnovers.
Ezi Magbegor had six of Seattle’s seven blocked shots. That included one possession where she rejected AzurĂ¡ Stevens. The ball went right back to Stevens, and as she tried to make another shot attempt, Magbegor emphatically sent the ball out of bounds.
Los Angeles Sparks
Los Angeles was without several players in this game. Not only the known injured players, such as Cameron Brink and Rae Burrell. But they were also without Kelsey Plum and Odyssey Sims, their starting backcourt. Julie Allemand’s contract was also suspended to participate in Eurobasket International play recently.
Without all of those players, they brought in Shey Peddy and Grace Berger on Hardship contracts.
AzurĂ¢ Stevens led the team with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Rickea Jackson scored a team-high 17 points, but was 4-15 FG from the field, including 1-6 FG from the three-point line. Rookie Sarah Ashlee Barker was the only other player for LA to score in double figures. She finished the game with 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Sparks did a great job of getting to the free throw line. They made 83% (19-23 FT) of their free throw attempts. They also out-rebounded the Storm 42-27. That included a 13-3 advantage with offensive rebounds. Their rebounding and ability to get to the foul line helped keep the game relatively close in the first half.
Game Breakdown
Nneka Ogwumike scored from the midrange to begin the game. Shey Peddy hit a three-pointer on LA’s second possession. Skylar Diggins got to the foul line for two. Sarah Ashlee Barker made a three-ball to put the Sparks on top by two. A layup by AzurĂ¡ Stevens and another triple from Barker put the Sparks up 11-6. Seattle tied the game up with a three-ball from Erica Wheeler and another midrange jumper by Ogwunike.
The Storm used an 11-0 run put the Storm ahead 26-17. They got a triple from Diggins, a couple of baskets from Gabby Williams, a midrange from Nneka, and a beautiful cut to the rim by Alysha Clark. Seattle led by seven at the end of the first period.
Los Angeles countered with a 9-2 run. They got most of those points from the free throw line. AzurĂ¡ Stevens knocked down a pair and then got an AND1. Shey Peddy hit a couple, and Liatu King got into the action with two. That cut Seattle’s lead down to two at 28-26.
Gabby Williams and Rickea Jackson exchanged three-point baskets. Diggins knocked down the corner three. Then Nneka scored back-to-back layups to put the Storm ahead by nine. Ogwumike returned the favor and found Ezi for two as Seattle led 40-31.
The Storm had multiple opportunities to increase that lead but wasn’t able to. Rickea Jackson scored down low. Dearica Hamby scored on a nice pass from Ashlee Barker to cut LA’s deficit down to five, forcing Coach Quinn to call a timeout. Nneka scored for Seattle, but Jackson got one back for the Sparks. Alysha Clark knocked down a corner three to put the Storm ahead by eight. Ogwumike hit another midrange jumper to end the half. Seattle led 47-37 at the midway point.
The Storm went on a quick 5-0 run to begin the third period to take a 15-point lead. All five points came from Ogwumike. Dearica Hamby scored at the rim. Seattle and LA swapped a pair of free throws. Seattle’s defense was creating a lot of opportunities. Gabby was getting multiple steals, and Ezi was doing it with multiple blocks.
They pushed their lead to 26 as Clark hit a couple more three-pointers. Diggins found Malonga near the rim off the pick-and-roll. Then Skylar called her own number with a pretty finger roll as Seattle went up 72-46.
Rookie Sania Feagin was fouled and made both free throws. AC drilled another corner three, her fourth of the game. Sarah Ashlee Barker knocked down a triple for LA. At the end of the third, Seattle led by 24 with a score of 75-51.
To start the fourth quarter, the Storm went on an 8-0 run. They got another midrange shot from Nneka and back-to-back three-pointers from Lexie Brown and Skylar Diggins. Stevens collected an offensive rebound and scored. Dominique Malonga made a nice spin move in the paint for two. She then scored on the next possession with a nice pass from Wheeler as Malonga rolled to the rim for two.
Los Angeles made back-to-back layups from Liatu King and Dearica Hamby. Zia Cooke got a steal and scored down the lane. Rickea was fouled and made two more free throws. Dom Malonga split a pair of free throws, but grabbed her own rebound and kicked it out to Cooke, who drilled a three. Erica Wheeler knocked down a triple and then got to the rim for two more as the Storm went on a 9-0 run toward the end of the game. That pushed Seattle’s lead up to 35 points before Ashlee Barker connected on another three-ball and Shey Peddy split a pair of free throws to end the game. At the final buzzer, Seattle had won 98-67.
Final Box Score
Up Next
The Storm finish their three-game road trip as they head to Las Vegas. They face the Aces on Friday, June 20th at 7:00 PM. The two teams have split the first two games of the season series, with both games taking place in Seattle. The Storm won 102-82 in the first matchup. The Aces won 75-70 in the second game. A’ja Wilson has missed the past two games with a concussion, but it’s unclear if she will be ready to go by Friday.
Part 2
Part 2 will include additional thoughts, quotes, and discussion from Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks. It’ll be sent exclusively to paid subscribers tomorrow morning.
Notes:
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I was happy to see MacKenzie Holmes get some playing time. I was hoping for a bigger sample size than 5 or 6 minutes with this big of a blowout and Dom still needs to get at least 15 minutes per game especially in a game like this.
That's definitely more like it. We did well taking care of the ball with only 10 TOs for the game. Gabby was robbing them blind with her 8 steals, setting a new Storm single game record. I was hoping that she would get the chance to tie or break the WNBA record of 10, but that wasn't to be. Nneka played well and Ezi was blocking shots left and right. Skylar and Gabby both had 7 assists which was a key to our victory. We shot really well overall, especially Nneka and AC (with the 3-bombs). Our biggest weakness in this game was the usual - rebounding! We could not keep LA off the O-boards, similar to Golden State. We are not putting our bodies on people and blocking them off the boards. When are we going to learn this fundamental technique of rebounding? If we can fix that, we have Championship potential! The team really needs to work on that.