It has been more than a year since the Tulsa Shock have won consecutive games. The Seattle Storm will try to keep that stat in tact tonight.
The Storm face the Shock at 5 p.m. at the BOK Center, looking to avoid back-to-back road losses.
Seattle (2-2) fell in embarrassing fashion to the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday, 74-50. It was a disappointing loss for the Storm just two days after they pitched a defensive masterpiece in a 68-54 victory over the Indiana Fever.
On Sunday, the Storm not only couldn’t stop the Sparks, but also couldn’t seem to find a way to score. Seattle shot just 20-for-66 (30.3 percent) from the field, which was a season-worst for the defending WNBA champions.
Reigning league Most Valuable Player Lauren Jackson hasn’t been herself. Through four games, Jackson is averaging just 10.5 points per game, exactly 10 points under her season average from a year ago.
Jackson said after the game on Sunday that the Sparks game could be a wake-up call.
“I’m not really too worried, I just want to make sure that we all get on the same page,” she said. “We need a game like this to find ourselves.”
Seattle will need the defense to reappear tonight, Tulsa guard Ivory Latta is scoring 17.2 points per game and rookie Elizabeth Cambage is proving to be a force for the young Shock.
Cambage has a lot of growing to do at just 19-years-old, but already this season she is averaging 14.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
The Shock are just 1-5, but have seemed to get better each game. On Saturday, Tulsa won its first game of the season in convincing fashion, as 77-59 victory over the Washington Mystics. Under head coach Nolan Richardson, much of the focus for the Shock has been on the defensive side of the basketball.
If the Shock are to beat the Storm tonight, they will need that defense to slow down Storm point guard Sue Bird, who leads the team at 16 ppg.
A struggling Storm team has tonight’s game to try to gain some consistency before coming home on Friday to face the hottest team in the WNBA, the Minnesota Lynx.
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