By Rowan Schaberg, edited by Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA - After 44 days away from Climate Pledge Arena due to road trips and the lengthy Olympic break, expectations were high for the Seattle Storm (18-11) to return home once again to take on the Washington Mystics (8-22). On paper, the number four ranked team in Seattle should have breezed past the number ten ranked Washington, but as the Storm’s Skylar Diggins-Smith passionately stated in the post-game press conference (a few profanities have been redacted…), “In this league, if you aren’t ready to play, you’ll get beat every night.” 

Seattle Storm point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith during the teams Monday, August 26th, 2024 loss to the Washington Mystics at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Nate Koppelman)

The Mystics’ 74-72 win over the Storm last night echoed many of the struggles that we saw last season when Seattle snapped their seven-year playoff streak and tied their inaugural season for the lowest winning percentage in franchise history. Time and time again, rebounding and closing out close games were Seattle’s downfall. The off-season acquisition of Nneka Ogwumike (Eleventh on the WNBA All-Time rebounding list) has bolstered the Storm’s board-grabbing abilities this season, currently ranking them at fourth overall in rebounds per game in the league this season. However, the Mystics - ranked dead last in overall rebounds per game - out-rebounded the Storm 42-33 last night. When asked to comment on the rebounding issue that we haven’t seen as much of this season, Storm head coach Noelle Quinn said, “[Washington] takes a lot of threes, those long rebounds are going to happen and we’re slow to 50/50 balls, that’s where they were out rebounding us. That’s the heart. That’s the desired thing, not the technical thing. We weren’t very good at that, and we have been, honestly, since the break.”

With only 55.2 seconds left to go in the game, Ogwumike tied up the score at 72-72 with a second-chance fadeaway jumper. A key defensive rebound by Gabby Williams following a missed three-point attempt by Washington’s Stefanie Dolson left Seattle with possession of the basketball with 35 seconds to go. With the shot clock only allowing one final possession to secure the lead, Quinn’s late-game play-calling ability was put under a microscope once again. This final play felt like deja vu from last season: leaving the last chance to win up to Jewell Loyd. During the 22 seconds on the shot clock that Seattle had to make a game-winning play, Loyd was the only player that touched the ball, creating an 1-on-1 isolation play against Shatori Walker-Kimbrough that forced a long two-pointer fadeaway with three seconds on the shot clock as the last chance at a win. With many game-winning buzzer-beaters under her belt throughout her tenure with the Storm, Loyd seems like the obvious answer to a one possession two-point deficit. However, it feels necessary for the last-chance-at-a-win play to change with this new era of the Storm. In 2023, Loyd was basically single-handedly carrying Seattle on the scoring front. She led the league in average points per game with a whopping 24.7 and broke the WNBA single season scoring record with 939 total points. If a game winning shot was needed, Loyd felt like the only option. But this year is different. The additions of Ogwumike and Diggins-Smith allow for multiple options of veteran players that can consistently make quick reads and smart shots in high pressure situations. There is now a game-winning veteran playmaker at every position on the court for the Storm, it is not just on Loyd anymore. This isolation play in the final seconds of yesterday’s game mirrored the Storm of the past, not what we have seen from the team this season. 

These issues that plagued the Storm last season have not been problems with this new squad up until recently, so what was different about last night’s performance? It is understandable that there is some fatigue at this point in the season, especially with four members of Seattle’s squad, in addition to Quinn, coming off of a high-pressure Olympic run. For the non-Olympic players, picking back up after a month-long break from games certainly has an adjustment period. But during post-game remarks, both Diggins-Smith and Quinn shared that this loss wasn’t the typical post-Olympic break exhaustion slump, it was a mentality issue. Diggins-Smith echoed Quinn’s previous sentiments about rebounding, stressing that technically, there weren’t many things that the team necessarily did wrong that would be solvable in practice: “There were some things that I felt like were uncharacteristic, and so I would like to say, hopefully, more of a fluke than that’s who we are. We know who we are, and I don’t think we were that tonight.

The Monday, August 26th loss to the Washington Mystics was the first game this year with the Seattle Storm for forward Gabby Williams. (Photos by Nate Koppelman)

OTHER QUICK NOTES/TAKEAWAYS:

• Gabby Williams had a great 2024 debut game for the Storm. On her French teams, she is often in more of a scoring role, so her three points yesterday might be underwhelming for new fans, but she did exactly what she does best here in Seattle: stuffing the stat sheet. Dubbed the “French Army Knife” by coach Quinn, Williams contributed four rebounds, four assists, and three steals against the Mystics. Williams was the first player off the bench and totaled 26 minutes on the floor, a testament to the coaching staff’s trust in her ability to make an immediate impact. She was all over the court; playing point guard at times, disrupting passing lanes for big steals, and pestering opponents on defense. “The good thing about having Gabby back is it’s like a review and not teaching someone new things. She’s so smart and she’s picked up things and we haven’t deviated too far from our system last year, so she was able to just understand concepts and get back like she’s never left.” - Noelle Quinn

• Mercedes Russell really found her groove last night. In just 16 minutes on the floor, Russell tied her season high of 8 points. Beyond the stat sheet, Russell honestly looked more comfortable on the court than we have seen all season, if not since before her injury that forced her to sit out most of the 2023 season. “I think we need more of that Mercedes. She’s really capable of that. She sets great screens, she moves the ball really well, she’s got a great interior game, and we can get her going that way.” - Sami Whitcomb

With only eleven games left to go in the regular season and a playoff berth on the line, Quinn says she is “overreacting” when it comes to losses like this. “My urgency is very high because every game matters, every moment matters, and we’re not playing like that,” Quinn said, “We can’t practice. We have to focus on the next opponent, another game, a day in between games. We have to find it within ourselves… I’m trying to move forward, but my urgency is very high.” 

With three games scheduled this week and only one day in between each one, figuring out how to push through that mental fatigue and find that passion on the court is going to be key as Seattle approaches arguably the hardest part of their season schedule. The Storm will play both the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun, the top two teams in the league, twice in the span of only five days. With this challenge on the horizon, it is tempting to overlook tomorrow’s matchup against number nine Atlanta, but as we saw yesterday, no team in this league is to be underestimated. Both Seattle and Atlanta have won at home against the other team, bringing the season series to 1-1. It will be extremely important for the Storm to use their home court advantage tomorrow night to secure a win before they move on to their challenges against top teams in the league. 

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