Instant Takeaways: Storm Squander Late-Game Comeback Opportunity, Fall to Mercury
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Fighting all the way back from nine points down, the Seattle Storm’s late-game heroics weren’t enough in an 85-82 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday. Credit: John Mac [/caption]
The Seattle Storm took their first lead of the game late in the fourth quarter but couldn’t string together the needed plays down the stretch in an 85-82 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday, Aug. 17, at Climate Pledge Arena.
Erica Wheeler put Seattle in front, 78-77, with just 2:21 remaining. However, as they had all game, the Mercury put together a strong response. The Storm had a chance for a game-tying shot at the buzzer, but a poorly executed after-timeout play led to a botched attempt.
Seattle (17-18) has now lost seven of its last eight games and is 3-8 since the All-Star break. Phoenix moved to 20-13 and snapped a two-game skid.
Here’s what we learned from the Storm’s loss to the Mercury in their Forever Sue game, in celebration of Sue Bird’s statue unveiling on Sunday.
Storm start slow offensively, but recover
Seattle was converting fewer than 30 percent of their shot attempts for most of the first quarter, but its defense kept them in the game. It helped that the Mercury struggled early from beyond the 3-point line, and the Storm stuck to their bread-and-butter interior and mid-range offense.
Following Seattle’s early 10-2 deficit, it was virtually even the remainder of the first half. The Storm trailed 43-37 at halftime.
Expectedly, Alyssa Thomas was the early aggressor for Phoenix. She had 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists in the first half, forcing the Storm to respect her interior threat. That also opened things up for the Mercury on the perimeter late, as Sami Whitcomb knocked down eight points — with a pair of threes — in the final 1:45 of the second quarter.
Seattle benefited from Mercury star Satou Sabally getting into foul trouble early, so she played just 11 minutes in the first two periods.
Nneka Ogwumike tried to keep pace, however, scoring seven of the Storm’s final eight points of the half. Ogwumike had a team-high 13 points at the break. Skylar Diggins, who had her first 20-point game since July 24 in the Storm’s win over the Atlanta Dream on Friday, had 10 points in the first half.
Mercury keeps Storm at arm’s length
Every time the Storm brought the game back to a one-possession difference, the Mercury would find a way to string together a run. Seattle trailed by as much as nine in the third quarter, but it trimmed Phoenix’s lead to 62-60 with 1:32 left in the third period.
The Storm went scoreless from there, however, allowing the Mercury to score five-straight points to close out the quarter. That was even with Phoenix not capitalizing on Storm turnovers — scoring zero points off Seattle’s 10 giveaways through the first 30 minutes.
That is an area the Storm have excelled this season, and they continued that with 16 points off of Phoenix’s 15 turnovers in the same span.
One of Seattle’s struggles since the All-Star break, however, has been its lack of long runs, and that was apparent against Phoenix. The Storm seem to dial back their aggressiveness and become mistake-prone as soon as they begin to string together consecutive quality possessions. They have to start consistently putting their foot on the gas pedal.
Seattle entered the fourth quarter trailing 67-60 and nearly took its first lead of the game with under five minutes to play. Wheeler finally pushed the Storm over the edge, but Phoenix immediately scored six straight points — again.
Phoenix gave Seattle multiple opportunities to get back in it, turning the ball over twice with less than 15 seconds left. That led to consecutive buckets by the Storm, trimming their deficit to 83-82, before they had to foul. Whitcomb made both of her free throw attempts, and Noelle Quinn had 2.9 seconds to work with on an after-timeout play.
Without much separation on their shooters, Gabby Williams tried to sneak the inbounds pass to Ogwumike, who was posted up on Thomas. The stellar Mercury defender got a hand on it, deflecting the ball to Wheeler, who threw up a prayer that went behind the backboard.
The Storm shot the ball well at 47.2 percent; the Mercury just shot it better (48.4 percent). Ogwumike finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. Diggins had 14 points, while Williams (13) and Brittney Sykes (11) also finished in double figures.
Thomas notches triple-double
With Sabally playing just 23 minutes, Phoenix needed Thomas to be even more productive. She came through, totaling 19 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists and three steals — her fifth triple-double of the season. Thomas has four triple-doubles in just the last six games.
The Mercury had strong contributors all around, as Kahleah Copper (17 points), Whitcomb (15), Sabally (11) and DeWanna Bonner (10) all finished with at least 10 points.
The situation
The Storm avoided dropping out of the playoff picture with their win over the Dream on Friday, but they are just a half-game ahead of both the Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks (both 16-18 overall) with nine games left in the regular season.
Seattle is at risk of falling two spots out of the playoffs if it continues to lose these critical late-season games. That’s made worse by the fact that the Storm will be on the road for five straight games beginning on Tuesday.
Up Next
Beginning a five-game road trip, the Storm visit the Chicago Sky (8-25) at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19. Seattle won its only matchup with Chicago this season in a dominant 95-57 victory on July 24. The Sky have won just one of their last 13 games.
