By Rowan Schaberg, edited by Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA - Going into Wednesday’s matinee matchup featuring the Seattle Storm and the Las Vegas Aces, we all knew it was going to be competitive. The once-dominant Aces are having a bit more of a difficult season than years past as other teams have caught up to their caliber with off-season acquisitions, which has made for an exciting WNBA season of down-to-the-wire matches. Today’s contest was just that. While Seattle held a comfortable lead for a majority of the first half, Las Vegas answered - or should I say Jackie Young answered - with a major third quarter that the Storm almost successfully made up for, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough. The Aces successfully beat the Storm 84-79, Seattle’s second loss in their historic nine-game homestand. So, what exactly happened in that third quarter and what are some other takeaways from the loss? Surprisingly, most of them are positive.

THIRD QUARTER NIGHTMARE

The first half was seemingly smooth sailing for the Storm, outscoring the Aces 17-13 in the first quarter and 19-17 in the second. As a team that constantly stresses hanging their hats on defense, head coach Noelle Quinn had to be thrilled with her squad’s defensive performance in the first half. MVP-frontrunner A’ja Wilson was held to an uncharacteristic eight points with help from veteran Nneka Ogwumike’s defensive performance and help-defense support of Ezi Magbegor. Neither team had a scorer in double-figures at the half, but Seattle’s defense clearly outweighed their lack of scoring production. In the third quarter, however, the Storm gave up a whopping 30 Aces points, while scoring just 17 of their own. When she addressed media post-game, Quinn continually brought up giving up 30 points as her largest negative takeaway of the game. Young scored 17 points in the third quarter alone while the rest of her team combined for the other 13. Jordan Horston’s exceptional defense has been a main topic of conversation this season, so her usage in this nightmare of a third quarter is definitely of note. Horston had the difficult defensive assignment of guarding Young, who is currently averaging 19.1 points (7th in the league), and clearly did an effective job with the help from her teammates in the first half. In the second half, however, Horston played less minutes than any other starters, while minutes for Victoria Vivians (the backup Young defender) doubled. Quinn explained postgame that Vegas played a smaller lineup in the second half, explaining the change in playing time, but it is still interesting to see the correlation between Young’s scoring spree and Horston’s drop in playing time. 

POINTS IN THE PAINT

Seattle’s number of points in the paint caught my eye while reviewing the box score post-game. While the Storm outscored the Aces 46-36 in the paint, neither of Seattle’s posts had a particularly great game. Magbegor finished with 10 points (she averages 13.2) and Ogwumike added 9 (a far cry from her average 17.1), meaning that only 19 of those 46 points came from the players who live in the paint. This speaks to Seattle’s outside players playing through contact to drive to the basket, something that we didn’t see much of last season. This will only help the Storm in the long run as they establish themselves as a team that can score at all levels. Seattle recorded three more turnovers than Vegas (13-10), but was more effective in scoring off of turnovers (16-14). 

MAKING COMEBACKS

One major issue last season was Seattle’s third quarter lulls that they were unable to make up for in the fourth, so this game showed major improvements in that area. After being greatly outscored in the third, Seattle and Vegas both scored 24 points apiece in the fourth quarter, almost evening the score. The Storm rallied back to get within three points of the Aces with 48.2 seconds to go, but couldn’t connect on two last-minute three-point attempts to tie the game. While it is never “good” to lose, Magbegor pointed out post-game the importance of the team knowing that they are, in fact, able to band together and make a comeback. Having two looks to potentially tie the game after giving up 30 points to the opposing team just a quarter before was foreign to the Storm last season, a testament to both the coaching staff’s growth in end-of-game playmaking and the chemistry that the team already has. 

JOYNER HOLMES MAKES A MARK

A valuable injection of life for the Storm in a rough second half was that of forward Joyner Holmes, as Holmes was able to add some offensive spark during a time in that latter half where Seattle desperately needed it. Holmes’ versatility on the court has always been something that the Storm have valued in her, hence adding her off waivers last season and bringing her back this season. Against a tough Las Vegas team that provided a challenge for Seattle in the paint at times, seeing Holmes drive without any fear was a big aspect of the Storm trying to come back and could provide a major factor off the bench for Seattle going forward if they’re able to tap further into the Joyner Holmes that we saw in this game. It was interesting to see Jordan Horston play the fewest minutes of any starter in this game, considering the defensive prowess that Horston has displayed throughout the course of this season, but it is good to see that the Storm have a few solid forward options with Horston, Vivians, and Holmes.

What’s next?

Following today’s home loss to the Las Vegas Aces, as they celebrated “Kids Day” at Climate Pledge Arena with a noon tipoff time, our Seattle Storm will begin to wind down their historic nine-game homestand when they play the eighth game of it on Friday. That July 12th matchup comes against the Minnesota Lynx, a team that the Storm have failed to beat so far this season across three competitions throughout the course of the 2024 WNBA campaign so far, with a tipoff time of 7PM PDT at Climate Pledge Arena that will be broadcast live on ION, KFAN FM / Lynx App. It’ll be an interesting matchup between the Lynx and our Storm, two of the top teams in the Western Conference of the WNBA, as Minnesota has gone an average 3-3 over their past three games coming off a seven-game win streak, while Seattle has hit a snag in the latter part of this homestand having lost two of their last three games after winning the first four games of the long home stretch.

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