Instant Takeaways: Valkyries Stifle Storm’s Offense, Snap 3-Game Win Streak

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The Seattle Storm’s inefficient road offense wasn’t enough in a 76-70 loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday. Credit: John Mac [/caption]

Ending their second three-game winning streak of the 2025 season, the Seattle Storm swallowed a tough 76-70 loss to a shorthanded Golden State Valkyries team on Saturday, June 14, at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California.

The Valkyries were without three of their top players, all of whom are competing with their international teams in EuroBasket. Temi Fágbénlé is playing for Great Britain, Janelle Salaün is playing for France and Julie Vanloo is playing for Belgium. Seattle, coming off a statement win over the Minnesota Lynx, had a massive advantage.

But they couldn’t capitalize. Here’s what we learned from the Storm’s disappointing loss to the Valkyries in the franchise’s first-ever game against the WNBA’s newest team.

Golden State dominates the glass

The Valkyries, despite missing two of their top glass cleaners due to international play, outrebounded the Storm 20-8 in the first half. That included a 5-0 advantage on the offensive boards.

It was an inexcusable effort from Seattle in that area, and it was purely from Golden State’s hustle and a lack of energy from the Storm. With every shot that went up, the Valkyries had multiple players crashing for the rebound. Seattle was standing around, waiting for the frontcourt towers to pull down the board. It translated to the scoreboard with a 44-31 halftime lead.

By the game’s end, Golden State won the rebounding battle 33-20 while shorthanded. Seattle’s post players — and guards, in certain situations — can’t allow that to happen.

The offense breaks again

Every fourth game, Seattle’s offense seems to forget its identity. One theme of the season has been Seattle’s occasionally disjointed offense, forcing the stars to play hero ball. It results in bad shot selection and the Storm taking anything that looks like a half-decent look. The shots don’t come within the rhythm of the offense.

Outside of its season opener, the Storm have had two three-game winning streaks and a three-game losing streak. The first win streak concluded with a statement 20-point win over the Las Vegas Aces. The most recent win streak ended by handing the previously undefeated Minnesota Lynx their first loss of the season. 

Seattle seems to get overconfident right when they’re beginning to build momentum. They have to become a more consistent basketball team on both ends of the floor.

Nneka Ogwumike, Gabby Williams and Erica Wheeler — three of the Storm’s starters — all finished with less than 10 points. Seattle isn’t going to win games with three of their top scorers all underperforming. Point guard Skylar Diggins led the Storm with 21 points.

Road shooting struggles

Entering Saturday’s game, the Storm were shooting 51 percent from the field at home. On the road, following this loss, Seattle is converting just 41.7 percent of their shots. The Storm made just 40.3 percent versus the Valkyries, which was the biggest reason they couldn’t keep up with a shorthanded squad (Golden State shot 48.3 percent). Whether that’s overconfidence or otherwise, they simply haven’t been effective away from Climate Pledge Arena.

Wheeler, who has been excellent this season shooting the basketball, had made 56.3 percent of her shots over the previous seven games. She was just 3 of 11 shooting Saturday and missed all four of her 3-point attempts. That, in addition to the lack of scoring from Ogwumike and Williams, hurt the Storm significantly in the end. Even though Seattle outscored the Valkyries 20-12 in the fourth quarter, it was too little, too late.

Alysha Clark shows up

Before Saturday, Clark had combined for 36 points in nine games this season in an average of 22.1 minutes per game. She had 11 points on 4 of 6 shooting against Golden State (3 of 5 3FG), finally stepping into the sharpshooter role she was re-signed to lead.

Her contributions helped make up for the deficiencies of Seattle’s stars, but it still wasn’t enough with how the Valkyries rallied. Golden State was more inspired throughout the entire game, making Clark’s season-best performance an afterthought.

Up next

The Storm fell to 6-5 overall, while the Valkyries improved to 5-5 in their inaugural season. This was just the start of a three-game road trip for Seattle, which could become dangerous if they don’t turn their season trend around.

The Los Angeles Sparks (4-8) host the Storm at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14, in the second game of Seattle’s road trip.