Instant Takeaways: Storm Help Sun Snap 10-Game Losing Streak via Tragic Fourth-Quarter Collapse
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Tina Charles led a furious late comeback by the Connecticut Sun, leading to a disappointing 93-83 Seattle Storm loss on Wednesday against the league’s worst team. Credit: John Mac [/caption]
The Seattle Storm surrendered a double-digit first-half lead and completely crumbled in the fourth quarter en route to a 93-83 loss to the league-worst Connecticut Sun on Wednesday, July 9, at Mohegan Sun Arena.
While the Storm suffered their worst loss of the season, Connecticut snapped a month-long losing streak in which they looked like they might lose every game the rest of the season. Seattle’s biggest weaknesses were on full display in an eye-opening defeat at the hands of the league’s basement dweller.
Here’s what we learned in Seattle’s brutal loss to Connecticut on Wednesday.
Complete collapse
The Storm led by as much as 14 points in the first quarter. Connecticut closed the gap to within 10 in the second quarter and then managed to hang around the rest of the game. But Seattle never appeared to lose control of the game.
That was until Tina Charles, who had a game-high 29 points, put the Sun ahead for the first time all game with 5:36 left to play. Seattle completely deflated once Connecticut took the lead, allowing its lead to balloon to 10 by the end of the game. The Sun just kept pouring it on, outsourcing the Storm 27-9 in the final period.
Sun guard Saniya Rivers deserves credit, too, as she led the initial resurgence with a quick 11 points in the third quarter. That got things going for Connecticut before Charles took over and finished the job.
Connecticut came into the game on a 10-game losing streak, having not won a game since June 6. It lost its last five games by a combined 125 points, with a season point differential of minus-16. This was a team that already had almost nothing to play for this season other than pride. Today, that pride overwhelmed one of the league’s top teams.
As soon as the Sun realized it wasn’t going to be another blowout, there was a clear energy shift. They showed much more resistance near the rim, giving up just 12 points in the paint in the second half after giving up 26 over the first two quarters.
Once again, when analyzing almost all of Seattle’s losses, it starts with rebounding.
Rebounding with the worst of them, and still losing
Seattle and Connecticut are the two worst rebounding teams in the league. The Sun are 13th, and the Storm are 12th. Seattle lost the battle, again.
The Storm have now been outrebounded in four straight games (Connecticut won the battle 38-31), though it isn’t exactly a surprise at this point. They have had to win despite their poor work on the boards, but they have made up for it in other areas like points in the paint, points off turnovers and fastbreak points. Nothing could’ve predicted or replicated Seattle’s total fourth quarter collapse, but the rebounding compounded their lack of offense.
It begs the question: How good would this team be if it were regularly winning the rebound battle? How many more second-chance points would Seattle get in critical games?
At nearly the midway point in the season, it remains Seattle’s biggest weakness. It’ll be hard for the Storm to compete for a championship this season if they can’t find a solution to consistently being dominated on the glass by even the worst teams in the league.
The bright spots
All of Seattle’s starters scored in double figures, led by Skylar Diggins with 23 and Gabby Williams with 21. Ezi Magbegor has continued her offensive resurgence, adding 13 points — her second straight game with double-digit points. Nneka Ogwumike had 12, and Erica Wheeler finished with 10.
While the starters fueling the offense are a positive, the bench added just four points, all from Alysha Clark. They also recorded 22 assists, which has been a key strength of Seattle's wins this season. However, with the loss, they are now 12-1 when reaching 21 or more assists this season. This game was an anomaly in every way.
Seattle’s strange place in the WNBA pecking order
The loss dropped the Storm back to fifth place in the league standings behind the Atlanta Dream (12-7). Seattle has beaten the league’s best teams while also playing down to the level of much lesser opponents.
Seattle has two wins over the New York Liberty (13-6), one win over the league-leading Minnesota Lynx (17-2), one win over the Atlanta Dream and two wins over the Phoenix Mercury (13-6). Those victories make up half of their wins this season — displaying the Storm can compete with the bona fide title contenders.
But this loss, and the one to the Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever, leave you scratching your head, wondering how good the Storm really are. Sure, out of 20 games played, teams are allowed to have two bad nights, but those are needed wins when they aren’t winning every game against the league leaders. If Seattle were instead 14-6, they’d be second in the league standings. It’s those “gimme” wins that make the difference at the end of the season.
Up next
Seattle (12-8) will have an immediate opportunity for revenge when they host Connecticut (3-16) at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 11. Following the earliest tip-off time in franchise history, the Storm will go back to their comfortable evening start time at home.
That will be the first of four straight games at home after concluding their four-game road trip.
