Today’s game
Opponent: New York Liberty
When: 5 p.m.
Where: Prudential Center
TV: ESPN 2
Radio: KPTK 1090
Scouting Report
The Seattle Storm complete their quick two-game road trip today against the New York Liberty.
Both
teams are looking to rebound from weekend losses, but the Storm might have more to prove than the Liberty. Seattle was thoroughly outplayed and embarrassed on Sunday in a 70-53 loss to the Atlanta Dream. The loss ended the Storm’s three-game winning streak.
Both teams come into tonight’s game with 12-9 records, the Liberty are chasing the Indiana Fever and the Connecticut Sun in the East, while the Storm are in a dogfight with the San Antonio Silver Stars and Phoenix Mercury for second place in the West. The Storm could easily stake claim to the second seed if it weren’t for such poor performances on the road this season. With Sunday’s loss to Atlanta, the Storm fell to 4-8 away from KeyArena this year, and are winless against the Eastern Conference.
The fact that there is such a disparity between the Storm’s record at home and on the road isn’t all that surprising, but it’s how they are losing on the road. Many of the Storm’s road losses have not even been competitive.
Sunday was a prime example, just another road loss where the Storm shot sub-40 percent from the field, and to top that off Seattle committed a whopping 27 turnovers.
“We had 16 turnovers in the first half, 10 of those in the first quarter,” Storm head coach Brian Agler said. “We are not a team that can overcome stuff like that. We have to be efficient with the basketball.”
The Storm will also have a challenge in stopping guard Cappie Pondexter. Pondexter has elevated her level of play recently and is sixth in the league in scoring with a 17.1 points per game average.
The Storm will also need a better performance out of point guard Sue Bird. Bird scored just two points on 1-for-3 shooting in Sunday’s loss to the Dream.
Although, the last time Bird had a bad game, she went out and got a season-high 29 in her next game.
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