> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Instant Takeaways: Storm Disappoint in Season-Opening Loss to Short-Handed Mercury - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/instant-takeaways-storm-disappoint-in-season-opening-loss-to-short-handed-mercury/ - Published: 2025-05-18T04:57:26.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:59:25.000Z - Author: Connor Benintendi - Tags: Storm, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Nneka Ogwumike \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2557"\] ![ The Seattle Storm were anemic offensively in an 81-59 season-opening loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday, May 17. Credit: John McClellan ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/240517_lynx_storm_opener_johnmc132_-2853730824279-29-format-original-1.jpg) The Seattle Storm were anemic offensively in an 81-59 season-opening loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday, May 17\. Credit: John McClellan \[/caption\] The Seattle Storm stumbled out of the gates against a Kahleah Copper-less Phoenix Mercury squad with five rookies on the roster, falling 81-59 in their road season opener on Saturday, May 17. There were few positives to take away from the rout offensively, as the Storm started slow and progressed to an even slower finish. Seattle’s stars were shut down, while Phoenix’s shone. Despite optimism coming into the game that the Storm were primed to exceed expectations, the team is now back to the drawing board as they try to come up with answers. Here’s what we learned from a disappointing start to the season for the Storm in Phoenix. ### **Slow, disjointed offense** The Storm had an atrocious start offensively, unable to penetrate Phoenix’s blitzing defense. Seattle began 1-for-7 shooting and eventually fell into a 14-point hole during the first quarter. They finished the period 7-for-20 from the field, but managed to trim that deficit to just eight after 10 minutes of play. That resurgence didn’t last. Seattle didn’t get any better in the third quarter. The Storm began the second half 1-for-7 from the field, again, and allowed the Mercury to keep heating up. With an anemic, mistake-prone offense, Phoenix built up an 18-point lead midway through the third quarter. While the Storm occasionally brought that lead down, the Mercury kept ballooning their advantage. Phoenix took a 27-point lead — its largest of the game — late in the fourth quarter. Seattle shot just 21-for-63 from the field as a team (33.3 percent), while allowing the Mercury to sink more than half of their shots. Alysha Clark, a Storm fan-favorite who returned this year after four seasons away, had zero points in 20 minutes on the court. She was brought back to try and revive the Storm’s 3-point shooting as the franchise’s all-time leader in 3-point percentage (39.8 percent). Seattle’s other two starters, Gabby Williams and Ezi Magbegor, combined for six total points on 2-of-18 shooting. While both were great with flashy plays on defense, that’s not a recipe for success. Seattle’s 59 points were below its season low in 2024 (64 points) and was the first time the franchise has scored less than 60 points in a game since June 3, 2022, a 68-51 loss to the Dallas Wings. ### **Skylar Diggins is still elite** Veteran point guard Skylar Diggins played the distributor, top defender and primary scorer role for the Storm. She finished with 21 points, three rebounds, four assists, four steals and one block. In 40 minutes of basketball, Diggins was the only Seattle player reliably creating her own shot. Forward Nneka Ogwumike began doing so late in the game when the Storm were already desperate, but it was too late. Ogwumike finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, and two steals. As the Storm’s offensive leader, it was encouraging to at least have Diggins as a positive. The rest of the unit has to learn how to play off Diggins when she’s on the floor. Defensively, Diggins was picking pockets all night and creating opportunities in the fast break. Still, Seattle only got 18 points off of 17 takeaways. ### **Mercury’s stars shine** Phoenix’s newly acquired stars, Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally, combined for 30 points in the first half on 11-for-18 shooting. Even without Kahleah Copper, the Storm defense had no answers for the Mercury’s top two scoring options. Thomas and Sabally kept dominating. The pair finished with 47 combined points on 17-for-30 shooting. The rest of the Mercury roster shot 13-of-28 from the field. No matter what the Storm did, it wasn’t enough to slow down the opposition’s stars. Even if there was a directive to deny Thomas and Sabally the ball — to force others to shoot — it didn’t work. The Storm’s stars were outclassed in the season’s first game. ### **3-point nightmare** After being the worst 3-point shooting team in the WNBA in 2024, the Storm didn’t inspire any confidence that they would be markedly improved this season. Seattle shot 1-for-10 from long range in the first half, having to force up shots when they couldn’t penetrate the Mercury’s defense. On a few looks, when the shot was there, Seattle just outright missed. The disjointed feel of the offense left almost all of the Storm’s looks at the basket coming out of rhythm. There were seldom clean possessions that went according to plan. That hurt their 3-point shooting and made offense hard to come by with the Mercury’s interior defense swarming to the ball. Phoenix denied inside, let the Storm think they had a good shot, then closed out routinely. Seattle converted 3-of-17 shots from long range, with former 2023 No. 10 overall pick Zia Cooke sinking both of her attempts. Clark, who was supposed to be the 3-point specialist, only attempted one shot from that area. Expect to see more of Cooke moving forward while head coach Noelle Quinn looks for a spark. ### **What’s next?** It’s easy to overreact to one game. The Storm don’t have a lack of talent, they just clearly haven’t jelled — at all. There’s also a chance Quinn pulled the plug on her game plan too late, despite it not working from the start. The lack of in-game adjustments, however, was alarming. Seattle made no concerted effort to deny Thomas and Sabally the ball — an adjustment that needed to be made immediately to force other Mercury players into shooting situations. Seattle got walloped, and it’s only a concern if the offensive issues continue for multiple games. Rookie No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga was also sparingly involved, playing 10 minutes and logging two points. The Storm have a prime chance to show that it was a one-off in their road contest against the Dallas Wings at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 19.