‘Just Hoop’: Storm Finally Catching Stride With Playoffs Closing in
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1480"]
With only three games remaining in the regular season, the Seattle Storm are avoiding “paralysis by analysis” as they ride another two-game win streak. They’re just playing basketball, and it’s working. Credit: John Mac [/caption]
Following a six-game losing streak to begin August, the Seattle Storm have responded with a stretch of victories that may have saved their season. But the work isn’t done.
Seattle (22-19) has won six of its last eight games, climbing back up to seventh place in the WNBA standings (fourth in the Western Conference) after looking like they could drop out of the postseason entirely. There’s still a chance of that, but it’s far less likely than it was previously.
“We’ve been viewing our season as an 800-meter sprint … so this is the end of the last 200,” Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike said following the team’s 10-point win over the Chicago Sky on Saturday.
It’s been literally the longest season of any Storm player’s career with a new 44-game schedule. That’s left a lot of room for excellent stretches, putrid ones, and everything in between.
However, as the Storm approach their final three games of the season, they are beginning to play their best basketball. That was evident in their win over the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday, erasing a 21-point first-half deficit and creating a 35-point swing by the end of the game.
But it wasn’t just about earning the win; it was about how they won the game.
Seattle has struggled all season to match the physicality and, in some cases, the hustle of its opponents. That’s why they remain the worst rebounding team in the league (31.1 per game) while allowing the third-most points in the paint on a nightly basis (39.3 per game).
Against the Lynx, the Storm showed they can dictate a basketball game even against the league’s top team. If they want it enough, Seattle can be a force to be reckoned with. They just have to do it every night, especially with the playoffs right around the corner.
Guard Skylar Diggins said after the Thursday win that it reminded the team that they’re “equipped” to take on just about anyone. When asked about their current momentum after the win over Chicago, center Ezi Magbegor echoed what fans saw.
“I think it’s pretty important,” Magbegor said. “You obviously want to be playing your best basketball going into the playoffs, and I think for us, it gives us just a lot of confidence as well. Five games on the road was tough, and so to be able to come away with four wins, I think, instilled a lot of confidence in us already.”
The Storm own a quarter of the Lynx’s losses this season, splitting the season series 2-2 against the WNBA’s top team. They’ve struggled against teams like the Golden State Valkyries and Indiana Fever — two of the scrappiest teams in the league.
Head coach Noelle Quinn said one of the keys to the recent run has been avoiding “paralysis by analysis.” The Storm are struggling when overthinking the needed adjustments within a game, and they seem to get bogged down by consecutive negative plays.
“Don’t think, just go out there,” Quinn said of what she’s been telling her team. “We’ve been playing this game for a long time. Obviously, we have rules and [we] scout [opponents] and all the things that we have to really be sharp and locked in on. But at the end of the day, they know basketball. Play hard, play together and just hoop. That’s what it is.”
Seattle undoubtedly has one of the most talented rosters in the WNBA. That talent is on display when the team is firing on all cylinders. Their veterans, despite having to carry much of the load for the first half of the season, have stayed mostly healthy, and the emergence of No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga has been a huge boost on both ends of the court.
Every win remains crucial, as they still haven’t locked up a playoff spot.
With only three games remaining, the Storm are a half-game ahead of Golden State (20-18) and three games ahead of the Los Angeles Sparks (17-20). The former still has six games remaining and the latter has seven. If Seattle doesn’t win out, its destiny could be out of its hands.
That places even more emphasis on their matchup with the Sparks on Monday, Sept. 1, as a win there would give the Storm a six-win advantage over LA. The Sparks would essentially have to win out at that point and hope the Storm lose their final two games to have a chance of knocking them out of the postseason.
If the season ended today, the Storm would face the Las Vegas Aces — currently on a 12-game win streak — in the first round of the postseason. Dropping to the eighth seed might even be favorable at this point, as Seattle has fared well against the top-seeded Lynx.
In the situation where Seattle passes up the sixth-seeded Indiana Fever (21-18), the Storm would face the Atlanta Dream in the first round. The Storm also split that season series 2-2.
All of that goes out the window in the playoffs, of course, but the matchups remain. The Storm, at the very least, need to continue playing their best basketball to close out the season if they hope to even receive a playoff seed.
