Instant Takeaways: Storm Suffer Worst Loss in 8 Weeks vs. Wings

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Seattle Storm forward Dominique Malonga goes up for a layup in the team’s 92-70 loss to the Dallas Wings on Sunday, Aug. 23, at Climate Pledge Arena. Credit: Courtesy of Seattle Storm [/caption]

Paige Bueckers scored 18 of her 32 points in the first quarter to help the Dallas Wings build a massive early lead, and the Seattle Storm fell flat in a 92-70 loss on Sunday, Aug. 23, at College Park Center.

Seattle (7-31) was sluggish and mistake-prone in its first game in the last seven days. Dallas (22-16), on the other hand, looked like a team prepared to make a playoff run. 

Flau’jae Johnson led the Storm with 23 points, six rebounds, two assists and three steals. Jade Melbourne added 15 points, four rebounds and two steals. Bueckers gave the Wings their early lead and helped them never look back after a 34-point first quarter.

Here’s what we learned from a rough outing for the Storm, and one that was far different than their last meeting with the Wings.

Wings come out red-hot

The Storm missed their first three shots. Dallas made four of their six attempts (including three triples) in that same span and took an 11-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.

Bueckers started a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, scoring 13 points for the Wings in seven minutes. The Wings dominated every phase early, and the Storm appeared rusty and sluggish after not playing a game for a week.

Seattle scored just 17 points in the first quarter. Bueckers scored 18 for the Wings, and Dallas poured in an insane 34 points in just 10 minutes.

One play summed up the first half. Awa Fam fed to a wide-open Ezi Magbegor down low, and she missed a virtually uncontested layup. On the other end, Jessica Shepard got a pinpoint feed from Arika Ogunbowale and sank a contested layup to put the Wings up 26.

The Wings’ lead just kept growing. It had reached 30 points midway through the second quarter and peaked at 35. At one point, Dallas had 11 more assists than the Storm and were converting nearly 30% more of their shot attempts.

There wasn’t a single area of the game going in the Storm’s favor, and they were trending toward their worst loss of the season.

A surge did come eventually. Seattle concluded the first half on a 14-0 run that trimmed the Wings’ lead to 21 heading into the second half. The Wings had cooled off from their previous rapid-fire offensive output, but the Storm still had a lot of ground to make up to get back into the game.

An insurmountable deficit

Seattle found much more success trying to get into the lane in the third quarter and generate points in the paint. But that was also only enough to keep the pace and not allow Dallas to inflate their lead even higher again.

Even then, the Storm still just missed too many shots. Twelve offensive rebounds just didn’t translate to enough points, as the second attempts typically missed by just as much as the first one.

Then Johnson brought the energy the Storm needed, dropping in three triples and finishing with 11 points in the third quarter. That trimmed the Wings’ lead all the way down to 15 heading into the final period.

Johnson had 23 points after three quarters. That, coupled with Jade Melbourne’s 15, kept the Storm in the game.

It was too little, too late. The Wings’ massive early lead proved insurmountable, as Dallas re-took control of the game in the fourth quarter. 

Johnson and Melbourne, who made up the only leg the Storm had to stand on, went scoreless in the final period. Seattle’s offense evaporated once again, and Dallas coasted into the finish line.

Dominique Malonga finished with 12 points, but it was mostly in garbage time at the end. The Storm didn’t get nearly enough contribution from their No. 1 star.

Moving in the wrong direction

The Storm were much more volatile early in the season, sometimes winning games but also frequently losing by large margins. Over the last nearly two months of the season, however, that shifted to Seattle frequently being in close games but never winning them.

Before this loss, the Storm hadn’t lost by more than 20 points since a 90-67 defeat against the Phoenix Mercury on July 2. Phoenix has accounted for the Storm’s only two 20-plus-point losses since June 20.

Seattle’s last game against the Wings was a 112-110 overtime thriller that still resulted in a loss for the Storm. In that game, the Storm had one of their best offensive performances of the season, led by a career-high 37 points and 12 rebounds from Malonga.

It was similar to their first game against Dallas, though, which resulted in a 23-point loss. That was less than a month into the season, and they’ve come a long way since. For the last month, the Storm have looked like a team that is better than their 7-31 record that just couldn’t close out games.

This was the first time the Storm genuinely looked like a 0-38 team, which was especially discouraging considering it was the first time Fam, Malonga and Magbegor all started the game. That lineup isn’t quite ready.

Up next

The Storm return home for a game against the Toronto Tempo (11-25) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 26. Seattle has lost each of its first two games against the expansion Tempo this season, with the last matchup on May 30. This will be the last contest between the two teams this season.