By Christan Braswell, edited by Charles Hamaker

Paradise, NV - When the Seattle Storm last faced off against the Las Vegas Aces on June 7th, they rode a six-game winning streak into the desert and extended it to seven with a 78-65 victory. They also snapped a seven-game losing streak to Las Vegas in the process. Since sweeping the Aces in the 2020 WNBA Finals, the Storm were 4-12 against them beforehand.

Since their last meeting, Seattle is 2-2 in their last four games after having the streak snapped in a 19-point blowout at the hands of the Minnesota Lynx. With a 9-5 record to date, they are 9-2 against other teams in the league despite a 0-3 record against the Lynx this season.

Seattle bounced back with two straight wins over the Los Angeles Sparks and Dallas Wings, two teams facing mounting uncertainty on the projection of their respective seasons.

No win is guaranteed in the WNBA. Still, Seattle is expected to collect such victories after pairing perennial All-Stars Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith with franchise cornerstones Jewell Loyd and Ezi Magbegor to compete for a championship.

In their last game, which resulted in an 87-78 loss to the upstart Phoenix Mercury, Seattle was without veteran center Mercedes Russell due to an undisclosed illness. After the game, Storm head coach Noelle Quinn confirmed that Magbegor was also under the weather. When speaking to Seattle media Tuesday afternoon, Quinn confirmed that both players are in better spirits.

Magbegor and Ogwumike took turns defending All-Star center Brittney Griner, but as Quinn and Ogwumike stated postgame, you can’t teach 6-foot-9.

Griner finished with 28 points on 10-for-15 shooting and nine rebounds. Since she made her season debut after missing 10 games with a foot injury, the Mercury are 4-1.

In their first contest, Mercury wing Kahleah Copper had 19 points. At the half on Sunday, she had 17 on a 77 percent EFG shooting, finishing with a game-high 30 points. Copper and Griner combined for 58 of Phoenix’s 87 points. Since the start of the season, the Storm have hung their proverbial hat on defense, boasting various looks on the perimeter and the interior in the starting lineup and their bench. The tenacity they play with normally was absent against Phoenix.

They attempted to match Phoenix’s pace instead of establishing their own at the onset. Seattle is currently 10th in the WNBA in three-point shooting percentage at 30.5, taking 20.1 shots per game. In the first quarter, Seattle had ten attempts alone and only connected on two.

Their recipe for success this season has been a dominant interior presence, utilizing Ogwumike and Magbegor as offensive hubs in high sets that funnels into their perimeter attack with slashers in Loyd and Diggins-Smith. The three-point shot hasn’t been there for either guard, holding 25 percent and 30.8 percent clips respectively. Despite the shortcomings beyond the arc, the team has thrived without it from their backcourt in most instances.

Diggins-Smith is fourth in the WNBA in paint points among guards, averaging 7.1 per contest. She’s shooting 54 percent at the rim and 45 percent from three to ten feet. Of the 194 overall shots she’s taken this season, 71 have come within this range.

“I don’t think we started the game with a defensive mindset and physicality and presence that’s needed to play against a team that has really good three-point shooting.”

The Storm can’t afford to start the game against the Aces in the manner they did against the Mercury. After missing her team’s first 12 games, All-Star floor general Chelsea Gray is set to make her season debut tonight in Las Vegas.

Despite not playing since the 2023 WNBA Finals, Gray’s return must not be overlooked because of it. Her cerebral basketball IQ is one of the many things the team has been without in this campaign to date. Having the ball in her hands and directing the offense alone will do wonders for them, which arguably has been their biggest issue in the halfcourt.

For Seattle, their method of attack on the defensive side of the ball was executed to perfection in the first meeting. They held the Aces to 31 percent shooting from the field and 26 percent shooting from the arc. Locking down the perimeter and playing the passing lanes gave Seattle 16 points off 14 turnovers.

Despite Loyd and Diggins-Smith combining for 46 of the team’s 78 points on June 7th, they both shot below league average doing so. The strength of their performance was their shared ability to put pressure on the rim and get to the free-throw line. They also combined for 16 of Seattle’s 20 made free throws. Knowing how head coach Becky Hammon operates, this would’ve been bulletin board material entering the second meeting.

Check out our previous Seattle Storm articles here.

Cover photo by Circling Seattle Sports photographer, Rio Giancarlo. Check out previous CSS articles with photos by Rio Giancarlo here, and his portfolio here.

Check out previous articles written by Circling Seattle Sports Storm beat writer Christan Braswell here, and follow Christan on Twitter.

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