Without Jonquel Jones the Seattle Storm dominate the Connecticut Sun 89-66
Brenna Stewart's 22 points, nine rebounds, and 34 points from the Storm's bench hand them another strong road victory.
(Uncasville, Connecticut) - The Seattle Storm (10-2) remain undefeated on the road (5-0) as they easily dispatched the Connecticut Sun (8-3) and picked up their ninth win in the past ten games. Seattle really took advantage of the fact that the Sun were without both Jonquel Jones (overseas commitments) and Alyssa Thomas (Achilles injury).
“I thought our folks were great from start to finish. Not a lot of lows today, which is good to see our team growing in that manner within our rotations and within our schemes and what we'd like to do. Everyone got a chance to get in there and contribute. Obviously, we talked about it, I talked about it from the beginning. This game was an important game and for us to continue to challenge ourselves and grow. Especially getting wins on the road with a tough competitor. I think we saw some good things and obviously, we'll continue to grow from some things, but overall a great team effort today.” Coach Noelle Quinn said.
Breanna Stewart especially took advantage of Jones’ absence scoring a game-high 22 points. She shot the ball well going 8-15 (53%) including 4-5 (80%) from beyond the arc. She also led all players from both teams in rebounds (nine), assists (five), and steals (three). Talk about being the complete package!
Everyone (literally) pitched in during this game. Sue Bird had a nice scoring game with 13 points including 3-4 (75%) from three-point range. Katie Lou Samuelson was the third leading scorer with eight points. It’s good to see Samuelson have more success as she adjusts to the team after missing a handful of games due to the Team USA 3x3 Olympic qualifying tournament that she participated in back in late May.
Coach Quinn talked about how the Storm’s offensive system and how it’s a natural fit for Samuelson.
I spoke to Katie Lou about that after Sunday’s game.
“When it comes down to it, it’s just really sound basketball. Where I’ve been comfortable whether that’s passing, reading, cutting. Half the time we're not even running plays, you know. It might be initially what we're doing, but you're just playing off of each other and I've been able to do pretty well, learning how to play with this group here and I feel like I'm comfortable trying to put myself in a position to be successful. I think that's just the main thing. It is just really sound, really just textbook basketball. You know, it’s not just everyone's spaced out and let’s play one-on-one. You have positions to put people in success, and we put every person in the spot that they're good at.” Lou told me.
Jewell Loyd struggled in this game scoring just seven points on 3-9 FG shooting. Loyd was challenged a lot from Connecticut as they sent more defensive traps her way in this game than I’ve seen from any other opponent this year. It was a very solid strategy by Curt Miller and the Connecticut Sun coaching staff as Loyd has been playing at a near-MVP level so far this season.
The defense of Briann January and the additional help defense by Connecticut was really well done in this game in limiting Loyd. But fortunately for Seattle, just as we’ve seen during games where Breanna Stewart has struggled and is being harassed, other players on the team are able to pick up the slack.
I spoke to Coach Noelle Quinn about that and how she can help Jewell if more teams start throwing additional defensive pressure at her as the season progresses.
”It’s a compliment to (Jewell) because obviously she’s been killing it. You see the progression in how she’s handling it because she’s not picking up her dribble, she’s hitting the short roll. She’s finding players and understanding where her outlets are. I explained to her today, when you’re getting trapped it’s about making your teammates better. The evolution of her game as we’re seeing it unfold is her learning every step of the was in all aspects. Right now she’s getting trapped because great players get trapped. For her, it’s just understanding how to attack the game and approach the game. Take it as a huge compliment that she’s getting so much attention and just let the ball find her.” Coach Quinn told me during the post-game press conference.
This really was a complete team effort on Sunday as all 12 players on the team scored. For a third consecutive game, Seattle’s bench scored 25 or more points. And it was the 2nd time in three games where the reserves scored 30 or more. On Sunday, they put up 34 points behind Jordin Canada and Epiphanny Prince who both scored seven points for Seattle. Candice Dupree added six more as she pushes her totals closer to Cappie Pondexter for 4th all-time in WNBA scoring history.
“It will continue to help us in so many ways and not just resting our starters, but also having players get into a rhythm. And once players get into the rhythm, once you know that unit gets a flow together, then we are that much better. Obviously, Steph[Talbot] has done well, and then Jordin [Canada] in the mix today. I will continue to say how important it is for those guys to play well, step up and just find their comfort level. It takes us to another level.” Coach Quinn praised her bench’s effort.
Even Rookie Kiana Williams got on the board with her first WNBA points of her career as she knocked down a three and was fouled. She completed the 4-point play by knocking down the free throw. It was the first time in league history that a player had scored the first points of their career on a 4-point play (pretty neat!). Williams also officially graduated from Stanford University on Sunday, so this was quite the day for her!
Breanna Stewart also spoke about what the bench production means for the team.
“I mean, our bench is really what's going to get us to where we want to be. Now, in the regular season and then in the postseason, to see them continue to build confidence, build that chemistry together is huge. If you look at our bench, you know, all those people can be started in our league. So really happy with that and obviously super happy for Kiana to score her first WNBA points on the day she graduated from Stanford. That was awesome!”
Without Jonquel Jones, the Sun struggled to score especially in the first half. DeWanna Bonner led the team with 14 points but sat the entire 4th quarter with her team trailing by 17 points. Kaila Charles was impressive in “garbage time” scoring all 14 of her points in the 4th quarter with the Storm lead hanging around 20 points. Brionna Jones was the only other player to score in double figures scoring 12 points. However, Seattle’s defense stepped up holding her to just two points in the 2nd half.
I talked to Katie Lou after the game about her help defense against Jones and her improved defense overall.
“I'm trying to contribute in any way that I can. We have amazing scores on this team. So, you know, for me I'm not necessarily coming in and thinking ‘Let me take however many shots I need to take.’ I'm thinking ‘how can I help and contribute in every single way?’ And for me, I'm trying to focus on that defensively and focused on the task at hand. Every game is a different matchup, a different type of help [on the] defense or on your own, holding your own on your match. So, for me, I've been trying to just take our game plan every single day and really be someone that they can count on to get it right and not someone that has to be reminded over and over again what we need to do.” Samuelson told me.
“Brionna Jones is always key in our scout because simply put, she always kills us. Today, we grew in our defensive scheme because we took her off the ways she likes to go and gave her a lot of congestion. We were able to be on a string on the backside in helping and then finishing out plays by rebounding. Jones is a player that always scores high and always rebounds and impacts the game when we play her. (Mercedes) had her the majority of the time and our help side was there, which made (Jones) 2nd half not as successful.” Coach Quinn told me after the game.
Game Breakdown
The Storm knocked down two three-pointers to begin the game by Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart. Another jumper by Bird gave Seattle an 8-0 run and an 8-2 lead early on. Connecticut responded quickly with their own 5-0 run. A jumper by Brionna Jones and a three-ball by DeWanna Bonner cut Seattle’s lead to one at 8-7.
Curt Miller was forced to call timeout after Seattle went up nine points (20-11) on a beautiful transition play created by a Stewie block/steal, passing up to Bird, who found Stewie running in transition, who dumped it off to Katie Lou for a jump shot.
They maintained that nine-point lead through the quarter leading 25-16 after one.
Breanna Stewart led all scorers with 10 points. Sue Bird added eight including two three-pointers. And Katie Lou Samuelson chipped in with four in the first period. The UConn connection was rolling early on with the three of them scoring 22 of Seattle’s 25 first-quarter points.
Brionna Jones led the Sun with six points. DeWanna Bonner had five more for Connecticut.
Ezi Magbegor had a beautiful rejection to force a 24-second shot clock violation to begin the 2nd quarter.
The Storm’s bench played well keeping the Storm’s lead around 6-10 points while they were in there. Epiphanny Prince gave them good energy with a nice steal early on after Connecticut got a defensive rebound. Prince also hit a beautiful jumper with some fancy maneuvers.
Jewell Loyd hit her first shot of the game with only around four minutes left in the 2nd quarter. Briann January has always guarded Loyd tough and continued to do so in this game. The Sun also threw double-team traps at her during different times. Loyd hit a three-ball after some beautiful ball movement by Seattle. This had Curt Miller furious as he was very animated on the sidelines yelling at his team during a timeout after that three put Seattle up 16 at 38-22.
Seattle led by as many as 19 points in the first half at 43-24, however, the Connecticut Sun finished the first half on a 5-0 run including a three by January. The Storm led by 14 points at 43-29 at the break.
The road team (Seattle) shot 46% (17-37) and 46% (6-13) from three-point range. Meanwhile, the home team (Connecticut) shot just 38% (11-29) and 43% (3-7) from beyond the arc. The Sun had a 16-12 rebounding advantage over the Storm. But Seattle had forced them into 10 turnovers, compared to just five for the Storm.
The Storm quickly jumped out to a 20 point lead in the third quarter at 51-31. Sue Bird intercepted a cross-court pass and raced to the other end for an easy two. They led by as many as 22 points (55-33), but the Sun kept battling back. Connecticut would go on a 10-2 run to cut the lead back down to 14.
A timely offensive rebound led to a Breanna Stewart triple that put Seattle back up 17 points.
Seattle outscored Connecticut 19-16 in the third period. The Storm led 62-45.
Connecticut’s Kaila Charles hit a three to start the 4th quarter as they made a very brief run (5-2) to cut it back down to 14 points. Then the Storm responded pushing the lead back up over 20 points, including a three-pointer by Jordin Canada (her 1st of the season), a fastbreak layup by Stephanie Talbot, and capped off by two free throws by Epiphanny Prince.
Piph had another strong layup through contact and knocked down the free throw for the AND1 three-point play. Prince had five of her seven points in the 4th quarter. That put Seattle up by 24 at 79-55 with about five minutes remaining in the game.
Kiana Williams knocked down a three and was fouled. She hit the free throw to score her first points in the WNBA on the four-point play. It gave Seattle an 82-57 lead with about three and half minutes to play.
Kaila Charles really kept the Sun’s offense scoring 14 of their 21 points in the 4th quarter.
By the time the final buzzer hit, all 12 Seattle players had scored and the Storm won 89-66. Seattle shot 49% (35-72) and 46% (10-22) from long distance. Connecticut actually shot pretty similar going 45% (27-60) and 40% (6-15) from three-point range. However, the Sun didn’t get enough shots up shooting 12 less than the Storm and knocking down eight fewer field goals.
The Storm had better ball movement with a 26-16 advantage in assists. They also forced Connecticut into 17 turnovers while only giving up eight. The Sun did outrebound the Storm 31-28.
Coach Quinn was happy about those assist numbers after the game.
“It says that our team is very selfless. Understanding our system, offensively, we move the ball. we screen, we cut, and we want to pass up good shots to get great shots. So, understanding ball movement is key, but also understanding you got to hit those shots, and sometimes hitting shots becomes contagious and that feeling is contagious when we're moving in and everybody kind of gets a touch. And so, you know, our team is growing, it's good to see.”
Additional Analysis
Coach Noelle Quinn and the Seattle Storm seem to be hitting their stride right now. They have won four of their past six games by double digits with two of their last three games by more than 20 points. It looks like Quinn is settling into some nice rotations with a starting five of Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd, Katie Lou Samuelson, Breanna Stewart, and Mercedes Russell. As well as focusing more on having one of Seattle’s Big 3 (Bird, Loyd, Stewart) in with the 2nd unit throughout different parts of the game.
When Sue is in with the 2nd unit she can improve their offense in a variety of ways. Not just with her beautiful court vision, but also with her ability to play the two-guard and looking for more scoring opportunities when Loyd and Stewart aren’t out on the floor.
The bench is also coming along as mentioned earlier. Scoring 34 points on Sunday against Connecticut, 26 points against Atlanta on Friday, and 30 points against Atlanta on Wednesday. Whether it’s coming from Jordin Canada, Epiphanny Prince, Stephanie Talbot, Candice Dupree, or others, Seattle is going to need them to continue to produce. And while Katie Lou and Mercedes have been playing well, they aren’t likely to score as much as Natasha Howard and Alysha Clark have given Seattle over the past three seasons (2018-2020). So it makes Seattle’s bench contributions even more important this year. They’re on the right track right now and if they can continue that type of play, Seattle is likely to finish with one of the top two seeds in the WNBA.
Besides the strong bench play of late, the other big reason Seattle continues to win is because of their impressive defensive turnaround from where they were at the beginning of the season.
Through their first five games this year Seattle had given up an average of 88.2 PPG. Over the past seven games, that number drops to 75.3 PPG. And if you remove the OT game against Dallas where the Wings scored 102 points, that average drops to just 70.8 PPG.
In the month of May through Seattle’s first six regular-season games the team had a Defensive Rating of 100.00, meaning they gave up 100 points for every 100 possessions of defense. That was the 8th worst in the league just ahead of the Washington Mystics, Phoenix Mercury, Dallas Wings, and Indiana Fever.
But then you look at the month of June and their Defensive Rating improves to 92.7 which is the best in the WNBA by a good margin. The Chicago Sky have the next best DEF RTG at 95.3.
The Storm’s Offensive Rating has been great all season. It was 105.1 in the month of May, good for third-best in the WNBA behind the Las Vegas Aces (109.8) and the Dallas Wings (105.9). It has improved even more in the month of June up to 107.7 which tops the league. The team’s Net Rating in the month of June is a league-best 15.1 which is nearly five points better than the 2nd best team the Minnesota Lynx at 10.5 (for the month of June).
Overall, Seattle sits at the top of the WNBA in OFF RTG at 106.4. And is currently 5th best in DEF RTG at 96.4. Their NET RTG has increased now to 10.0 on the season which is 2nd best to Las Vegas (11.1).
To put that in perspective, Seattle’s dominant 2020 campaign shows that they had 108.3 OFF RTG and 93.3 DEF RTG with a league-best 15.0 NET RTG.
If you want to know how important NET RTG is, dating back 10 years in the WNBA the eventual WNBA Champion had the best Net rating in 8 of the 10 seasons. The two seasons that didn’t result in the champion were 2012 (Indiana Fever) and 2016 (Los Angeles Sparks) and in each of those seasons those two teams had the 2nd highest Net rating in the WNBA.
If the Storm are able to continue their strong defensive effort the rest of the season there is a very high chance they will have the best Net rating going into the playoffs and it could lead them to their 5th WNBA Championship.
“We have a championship-caliber organization and there is a standard of excellence, not only on the basketball floor but within everything that we do here in Seattle. So, in order to continue to grow and get better, you have to sustain that standard of excellence and it cannot waver. The good, the bad, it’s indifferent. We have to stay the course, we have to stay even and understand that that level of excellence sets the bar. We've set the bar, we’ve set the standard and I think if you continue to think about it, even in portions of the game where maybe we have a rotation shift or whatever it is we have to hold the fort. And we have to maintain that standard at all times.” Coach Quinn said about her team.
Jersey Count
The Storm continue to roll with their Heroine jerseys as they now improve to 5-0 on the season while wearing their Green and White uniforms.
Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 2-1
Explorer: 3-1
Heroine: 5-0
Overall Record: 10-2
Up Next
The Seattle Storm (10-2) continue their five-game road trip with two more games against the Indiana Fever (1-11). The two teams face off on Tuesday at 4:00 PM PT the game will air locally on JoeTV (Comcast Xfinity Channel 110). Seattle can’t take anything for granted as the Fever beat them once last year despite finishing with the league’s second-worst record (6-16).
I spoke to Breanna Stewart about being complacent after already going 3-0 on this road trip and how they can remain focused.
“We're not complacent. We continue to know that this is a long season. We have however many games left until the Olympic break and we want to make sure that we take advantage of them. These are the last two games on the road against Indiana, so making sure that we get the series, and then go home on a high note is exactly what we want. And this team, you know, we take the win and then the next day we figure out how we can be better.” Stewart told me.
Editor’s Note: Thank you for your support! If you know any Storm fans that aren’t currently aware of my coverage through Substack and Twitter (@WNBAStormChaser), please let them know. Word of mouth can be super helpful and is greatly appreciated! Photo Credits to Neil Enns/Seattle Storm/WNBA.
Sue Bird should never retire!