On a night that was supposed to be memorable for Sue Bird and Seattle Storm fans, celebrating the point guard’s outstanding decade of basketball in Seattle, the Storm played a game that Bird and the rest of the team would rather forget.
The defending Eastern Conference champion Atlanta Dream
came into KeyArena and handed the Storm their second worst loss ever at home, 92-63, ending the Storm’s eight-game home winning streak.
A theme in recent Storm losses has been their inability to take care of the basketball, Saturday was no different. The Storm committed 20 turnovers resulting in 32 Atlanta points. The Dream committed just nine turnovers resulting in only 11 Seattle points.
“They force a lot of people into turnovers,” Storm head coach Brian Agler said. “It was something that we talked about coming in, so we were prepared in terms of our communication, but we didn’t play prepared on the floor.”
Turnovers weren’t the only problem, the Storm defense was absent as well. The Dream outscored the Storm in every quarter and the Storm led only once — late in the first quarter for about 30 seconds. Five Atlanta players scored in double figures led by Angel McCoughtry and Iziane Castro Marques, who each had 17.
The Storm’s poor defense was masked early on by the fact that the Storm shot the ball well in the first quarter (52.6 percent), but it caught up to them in the second half.
“We never played well defensively all night long,” Agler said. “We stayed in the game because we did shoot the ball pretty well early. But it wasn’t that we didn’t take notice of that – we recognized that pretty early on.”
The Storm locker room was a place full of disappointment and anger following the loss. Storm players seemed to recognize the importance of winning each game as the season winds down and there is nothing that the players hate more than losing at home.
“That was a crappy game,” Bird said. Definitely embarrassing. For us, at this point, any loss at home (is). The way that happened? There’s something about playing here that we’ve always enjoyed, it gives us energy. In a way, we owe it to our fans to give a better effort than we did tonight. That’s where that embarrassment comes in. We always want to put on a good show, for lack of a better term. Tonight, I don’t think we did that. Obviously, the scoreboard shows that.
It was a pretty bad night, but there are a few bright spots for the Storm. Guard Katie Smith continued her improvement offensively after early season struggles. Smith scored 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting to lead the Storm.
Perhaps even more important, the reigning WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson practiced in full contact with the Storm on Friday. It is still unknown when Jackson, who is recovering from hip surgery, will return to the team, but practicing certainly means she is getting closer.
After Saturday night, the Storm might need Jackson now more than ever.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
