Las Vegas ends Seattle's season, Bird's career in 97-92 win
The legendary career of Sue Bird comes to a close.
(Seattle, WA) - The Seattle Storm’s season is now over. And with it, the legendary career of Sue Bird. The Las Vegas Aces used a big third-quarter run where they outscored Seattle by ten points to take command of the game and their star players closed out the series in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. As the final buzzer sounded, the Las Vegas Aces had won the game 97-92 and will now move on to the WNBA Finals where they will face the winner of the Chicago Sky/Connecticut Sun series (Game 5 on Thursday).
Seattle was the inferior team. They were a worthy challenger to the Aces but there is a reason why Las Vegas finished with the best record in the WNBA this year. The Storm got record-setting performances by both Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd but not much else. The lack of a legit third scorer reared its ugly head again in this game. Las Vegas has way too much talent where just one or two players aren’t going to beat them.
With the season on the line, Seattle got just two points from Tina Charles (1-7 FG) and zero points from Ezi Magbegor who played just 10 minutes in this game as Coach Quinn opted to match the Aces’ small-ball lineup with more guards.
In Sue Bird’s final game of her career, she put up modest numbers of eight points and eight assists. But she did struggle with her shot, making just two of her six three-point attempts. Bird had played 43 minutes in their Game 3 OT loss just 48 hours earlier and that may have affected her legs and her ability to knock down shots.
Gabby Williams also had a decent game with eight points and six rebounds. She struggled for most of the game but finished strong scoring five of her eight points in the 4th quarter.
Ultimately, it was Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd that did all the heavy lifting for Seattle. Stewart finished with a new career-high of 42 points on 14-22 FG shooting including 6-8 FG from three-point range. Stewart’s 42 points tied Angel McCoughtry for the most points ever in a WNBA Playoff game.
Loyd was also incredibly impressive scoring a playoff career-high 29 points and was extra aggressive getting to the foul line nine times and making eight of her nine free throws.
The 71-points by the two of them set a new WNBA Playoff record for most points by a pair of teammates. Per the Storm PR, it apparently broke the record they had previously set during the 2020 WNBA Finals (also against Las Vegas) where they combined to score 65 points.
After the game, the duo talked about putting forth everything they had to try and will Seattle to victory and give themselves a chance to play with Sue Bird for at least one more game. Stewart tried to hold back tears during the post-game press conference before eventually letting the emotions overcome her. It was heartbreaking to watch because you can tell how much Sue meant to them.
“I felt tonight we definitely left it all out on the court. Because this is a series you can’t help but look back at certain games. Game 2 and Game 3 where we had miscues where we had opportunities. Jewell and I texted before the game and we wanted to make sure that we left it all out there on the court. That we did all that we possibly could. As sad as it is that we’re not having the ability to compete for a championship. What’s more devastating is just the fact that we’ll no longer be on the court with Sue. We’re not going to see her in practice. We’re not going to play with her in games. That’s what hurts the most. Having that come to a reality really, really quickly. That’s the way sports go. Like Jewell said, it’s been an honor to share the court with her and knowing not that many people get to. We know her as a mentor, as a teammate, and as a friend. We know she’ll always be in our corner no matter what.” Stewart stated.
When asked about the emotions in the locker room after the game.