Stellar Storm Defense Fuels Blowout Win Over Sky On the Road
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The Seattle Storm picked apart the Chicago Sky in a 95-57 victory on Thursday night, fueled by the team’s best defensive performance of the season. Credit: John Mac [/caption]
Posting their most complete game of the season, the Seattle Storm went on the road and walloped the Angel Reese-less Chicago Sky 95-57 on Thursday, July 24, at Wintrust Arena.
Seattle shut down Chicago in the second quarter and rode that momentum to an ever-growing lead. The Sky never found any rhythm offensively as the Storm flew around on defense and thwarted even their best efforts to get back into the game. The Storm shot more than 53 percent from the field while holding the Sky to just under 34 percent, while winning almost every statistical battle.
Here’s what we learned from a dominant, blowout Thursday victory for the Storm.
The run that opened the floodgates
Neither team could do anything offensively in the latter half of the second quarter. There were some impressive defensive plays sprinkled in — including a perimeter block on the Sky’s Marquesha Davis by Storm center Ezi Magbegor — but it was mostly just ugly, disjointed offense by both teams.
The Sky didn’t score at all over the second quarter’s final 5:50, and the Storm added just two points in the period’s final 4:14. Both teams combined to shoot just 8 for 30 from the field in the quarter.
Since the Storm had already built up a lead, however, it did allow them to hold the Sky at arm’s length. Seattle took a 39-26 lead into the locker room as Chicago struggled even more to generate offense consistently.
But the Sky’s drought persisted into the third quarter, going without a field goal until the 7:19 mark of the third quarter. By the time it took the lid off the basket, Chicago was just 89 seconds away from going an entire quarter’s worth of time without scoring a single bucket. It was a brutal showing for the Sky, and the Storm took advantage.
Seattle kept pouring it on, building up a lead that peaked at 39 in the fourth quarter. Six players scored in double figures, led by Skylar Diggins with 21. Dominique Malonga scored a career-high 14 points and posted the first double-double of her rookie season with 10 rebounds.
Swarming defense
One of the early-season themes was Magbegor’s lack of hustle, even when she was playing good defense near the rim and generating blocks. Magbegor has been excellent as of late, and in addition to her three blocks and a steal, she was all over the place poking the ball away and generating turnovers for the Storm. The entire roster was extremely active.
Seattle won the turnover battle 20-11, and the Sky allowed the Storm to score 26 points off of turnovers — an absolute landslide that made the biggest difference in the game. It was the second time this season the Storm have given up 58 or fewer points, which, before their July 16 win over the Golden State Valkyries, they hadn’t done since 2022.
That win over the Valkyries, however, ended with just a nine-point margin in favor of the Storm. Thursday’s 38-point win, with or without Reese for Chicago, was just about total domination.
Storm bench steps up
Entering Thursday’s game, the Storm ranked second-to-last in the league in bench points per game (15). Seattle has had extreme reliance on their starters to produce and win its games. That wasn’t the case against Chicago, however, as the Storm bench outscored the Sky’s reserves 32-13.
Malonga led that effort, but Lexie Brown also had by far her best game of the season. Brown had played in just 14 games all season and scored more than three points just twice. Against Chicago, Brown hit all five of her shots, including two from 3-point range, to finish with 12 points, two assists and two steals on the night.
Alysha Clark had a well-rounded game with four points, four rebounds and three assists. The Storm will need more similar performances from their bench if they want to make a deep playoff run. They used all 11 healthy players on the roster, and that meant nobody had to play more than 25 minutes.
Malonga’s new record
With her sixth point of the game early in the second quarter, Malonga became the youngest player in WNBA history to reach 100 points (19 years and 251 days).
Only two other players in league history have scored 100 points before their 20th birthday: Ann Wauters (drafted in 2000) and Liz Cambage (drafted in 2011). Malonga beat Wauters by 31 days after she set the record on July 20, 2000.
Malonga is continuing to add to what could someday be a historic resume. Considering her age, there could be many more firsts coming in her future.
Up next
The Storm (15-10) are just now starting a grueling stretch of their schedule, with just six of their next 15 games coming at home. Seattle will be on the road for the second of a three-game road trip versus the Washington Mystics (11-12) at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 26.
