Scouting Report
The good news for the 2-6 Storm is that they play at home for just the third time this season. The bad news is they welcome defending WNBA champion and undefeated Minnesota to KeyArena tonight.
The Lynx owned the Storm last season, winning all six meetings and eliminating Seattle from the playoffs in the first round. Minnesota has knocked Seattle from the postseason each of the past two seasons.
The Lynx are in the midst of a mini-dynasty, having won two of the past three league championships and advancing to the WNBA Finals in three consecutive seasons. Based on their 7-0 record, there’s no reason to think that trend is going to change this season.
If the Storm are going to pull off an upset, they will have to score. Minnesota hasn’t scored fewer than 75 points in any game this season and has scored at least 87 in six of its seven wins. That doesn’t bode well for Seattle, which hasn’t scored more than 73 points in a game and has reached 70 just twice in eight games.
In her fourth season, Minnesota’s Maya Moore is the early favorite to be the league’s Most Valuable Player, averaging 27.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and three assists per game — all while shooting better than 51 percent from the field.
Moore is joined in double-figure scoring by forward Seimone Augustus and point guard Lindsay Whalen.
The Storm’s most consistent player over the past several games has been forward/center Crystal Langhorne, acquired by Seattle on draft day from the Washington Mystics. Langhorne had her best game of the season in Tuesday’s loss to Phoenix, scoring 27 points and grabbing eight rebounds. Langhorne’s season averages are up to 15 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
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