Instant Takeaways: Storm Bench’s Late Comeback Falls Short in Loss to Mystics
Despite erasing a 19-point deficit and getting within arm’s length of a victory, the Seattle Storm allowed the Washington Mystics to score the game’s final eight points in a 69-58 loss on Saturday, July 26, at CareFirst Arena.
It was, in the most cliché of basketball ways, a game of long, slow-burning runs. Each team had extensive stretches with little to no offense, but the Mystics put together the one that counted — aided by a deflating late-game substitution by the Storm that saw their offense screech to a halt.
Seattle (15-11) fell to 3-3 over its last six games, while Washington (12-12) got back to .500. The Mystics joined the Golden State Valkyries as the only teams to beat the Storm twice this season.
Here’s what we learned from a strange Saturday loss for the Storm on the road.
A rollercoaster, bookended by a poorly timed substitution
The Storm’s win over the Chicago Sky on Thursday was an anomaly. They’re not going to win every game by almost 40 points. However, a significant reason why they were able to build such a large lead was that the entire roster contributed. Six players scored in double figures, and the bench added 32 points. All starters were able to play 25 minutes or less.
On Saturday, both Seattle and Washington went on extensive runs where the opposition looked stunned, tired and unable to generate any offense. The Storm’s drought was from the 6:14 mark in the second quarter to the end of the third, shooting 7 for 27 from the field (25.9 percent) during that stretch. The Mystics took advantage, building up a 19-point lead with the momentum on their side. It was some of the worst basketball the Storm have played all season.
A rainbow 3-pointer by Erica Wheeler at the end of the third quarter trimmed Washington’s lead to 15 points. The Storm bench took over in the final period, with a lineup of Lexie Brown, Dominique Malonga, Alysha Clark, Tiffany Mitchell and Wheeler leading an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter. That group sparked the offense, trimming Washington’s lead to just four points. Wheeler, in particular, was refusing to let her team go down without a fight, and she finished with 12 points and six assists.
Malonga also played a critical role, posting a complete line of eight points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks. She’s now led the Storm in rebounding in each of the last two games despite playing just 31 combined minutes.
Storm head coach Noelle Quinn then subbed the starters back in, trailing by five, with just over three minutes left. Seattle didn’t score a single point the remainder of the game. Washington tallied eight straight points to close it out.
Quinn obviously hoped the starters would be able to take what the bench did and add to it with fresh legs. Instead, it completely halted the offense and may have cost Seattle the game.
The All-Stars look tired
Nneka Ogwumike came out of the gates hot, scoring 14 of Seattle’s 21 first-quarter points. She added four more in the second quarter, and that was the extent of her contributions in the game. Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins and Gabby Williams — Seattle’s trio of All-Stars — didn’t score a single point in the second half, while Wheeler led the starters with 32 minutes on the court.
All three of those players are playing more than 30 minutes per game this season, and it looks like it’s starting to catch up with them. Quinn has now limited them to under 30 minutes in each of the last three games, but that seems more a result of game flow (big lead or big deficit) rather than a concerted effort to give the Storm’s stars extra rest.
Only two other teams in the league currently have three players averaging 30 minutes per game: The Indiana Fever and the Los Angeles Sparks. Those franchises currently have a combined record of 24-26. You could very easily argue the Storm are fortunate to be 15-11 at this point in the season with such a heavy reliance on their top trio to win games.
The bench production is improving. Quinn needs to take advantage of that and empower her reserves, not take them out of the game as soon as they are starting to heat up.
Inconsistency with stretches of excellence
It’s difficult to tell how good this team truly is. They’ve beaten some of the league’s top teams and also lost to its basement dwellers. They rarely play nailbiters — it’s either a decisive victory or loss.
Victory or defeat, the Storm have had just four games this season decided by five or fewer points. They are 1-3 in those contests. Conversely, 13 of their 26 games have been decided by 10 or more points, and they are 8-5 in those games. That volatile play makes it hard to gauge how effective the Storm will be in the postseason, especially if their stars are stuck playing the majority of the game all season long. On any given night, Seattle either looks like a league superpower or it looks like they barely showed up to play.
Up next
The Storm travel to face the Connecticut Sun (3-20) in their fourth and final matchup of the season. Seattle leads the season series, 2-1, but they also dropped the second contest by 10 points. That’s the Sun’s only win in their last 15 games.
Seattle tips off with Connecticut at 4 p.m. on Monday, July 28, at Mohegan Sun Arena.
