The Seattle Storm could have easily gone 3-0 on their three-game road trip which came to a conclusion on Tuesday night Chicago.
Instead, the Storm finished the trip 0-3 after a 78-69 loss to the Chicago Sky. The Storm didn’t lose any of the games by more than nine points.
The Storm are
now 7-7 and seeing the gap between themselves and the top seed in the Western Conference continue to grow. The Storm’s seventh loss of the season surpasses the total they amassed in all of 2010 including the playoffs.
This season certainly doesn’t have the storybook feel of a year ago, but the great thing is, the Storm still have several chapters to write.
The Storm had opportunities to get their first win on the road trip, but a 9-0 run by the Sky to start the third quarter was a big blow to the Storm.
“I just don’t think that we came out strong in the second half,” Storm head coach Brian Agler said. “At 1:20 (into the second half) we were down by six points, and they scored quite a few points off of our turnovers. It’s not just one major thing. We turned it over in critical times, we missed some free throws, defensive breakdowns, it is a combination of multiple things. But we are not sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves. We have a lot of the season to be played, and hey, we are going to keep working on it and get ready for the next one.”
Despite a poor shooting first half, a four-point play by Sue Bird with 1.6 seconds left in the second quarter gave the Storm a 33-30 lead going into the intermission. Before making the three and getting fouled, Bird had missed her first nine shots of the half.
In the second half, Bird’s teammates continued to get her looks at the basket. She made 10 of her final 14 shots to finish with a season-high 26 points and keep her team in the game.
“I am like the quarterback of a football team, and you have to give a lot of credit to your offensive line, right? What the girls do screening wise, we run a ton of pick and rolls and there is no way that I would get a glimpse if it wasn’t for my teammates,” Bird said.
Bird also got help from center Ashley Robinson, who started her first game of the season. Robinson scored a career-high 14 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and blocked three shots, helping to disrupt the rhythm of the Sky’s offense.
But Robinson fouled out of the game with 3:03 to play in the fourth quarter and the Sky finished the game on a 9-1 run.
Chicago rookie guard and Gonzaga alum found the WNBA’s leading scorer Sylvia Fowles for a bucket and a foul with 39 seconds to play that sealed the win for the Sky. Vandersloot scored 11 points and dished out seven assists on the night that she, Fowles and guard Epiphanny Prince were named as Eastern Conference all-star reserves.
“She definitely has a calm demeanor about her and doesn’t really get rattled,” Bird said of Vandersloot. “She just kind of plays her game. That is good enough for a point guard and a young player. And you can see it, she has a role out there and she is going to play it to the best of her ability.
Fowles scored a team-high 24 points and Prince chipped in 23 for Chicago.
The Storm return home for a much needed game on Thursday at KeyArena. Seattle is just 2-6 on the road, but 5-1 at home. The Storm will look for a much needed victory before going into this weekend’s all-star break.
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