SEATTLE — Things haven’t been perfect for the Seattle Storm in 2025.
The roster has turned over a fair amount, and the squad has consistent issues in rebounding the ball and hitting a ton of 3-pointers. But the six-game losing streak that was extended by Seattle’s 85-75 loss to the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday night wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card.
With three All-Stars in Nneka Ogwumike (29 points, nine rebounds), Skylar Diggins (seven points, four assists) and Gabby Williams (11 points, six assists), Seattle was expected to be a no-brainer for one of eight WNBA playoff spots. At 16-17 with 11 games to play, head coach Noelle Quinn, who has tried to maintain a positive demeanor during the skid, acknowledged reality.
“Time is running out, and my team knows it,” Quinn said after the game, as her team sits in the league’s eighth seed.
The previous five losses were nailbiters, to the team’s credit. But the Wednesday’s loss wasn’t shielded by the storyline of a late rally or a missed opportunity. Seattle gave up a 9-0 run, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer off a stolen inbounds pass from Dream star Rhyne Howard (25 points, seven assists), to give Atlanta its largest lead at 14 at the end of the third quarter.
Seattle never recovered from the flurry, something Ogwumike wants to improve on going forward.
“No game is perfect, and being able to understand, OK, I could have done better here, and move on,” Ogwumike said, as Seattle didn’t find the late kick it has in recent games. “That’s a synapse that I don’t think is really firing right now that we know we need to work on.”
Seattle got bruised by a more physical Dream squad, which loaded up the paint to take away easy Storm looks at the rim. Ogwumike, who would score 16 in the first half, left no doubt as to why she was an All-Star starter. While no other Storm player scored over five points in the first two quarters, the WNBPA president looked right at home by finishing through contact and hitting her patented fallaway jumper.
The Dream finished the first half up two thanks to standout performances from role-players in Maya Caldwell (10 points, seven rebounds) and Brittney Griner (11 points, eight rebounds), who combined for 19 points. Meanwhile, MVP candidate Allisha Gray (22 points, 11 rebounds) scored 10 by converting tough finishes and 3s off the dribble.
The Storm kept the energy up in the second half, as Williams came to life with some tough drives along with new star addition Brittney Sykes (seven points, five rebounds). Rising star rookie Dominique Malonga (four points) played her way out of the lineup, earning just five minutes in the second half as she finished with a game-low 25 net rating. Meanwhile, Gray and Howard showed why they are one of the best backcourts in basketball right now, with 23 combined third-quarter points. The duo finished with eight of Atlanta’s 12 3-pointers.
But all the quarter will be remembered for is the 9-0 run engineered by Howard, who hit three straight triples in 30 seconds.
For Quinn, the play that killed Seattle was the stolen inbounds pass from Ezi Magbegor (8 points, two blocks) to Williams that turned into the last 3-pointer of that sequence. The entire Atlanta sideline went ballistic in watching the triple go in while Seattle looked lost coming to the end-of-quarter huddle.
“(The Dream) wanted it more and kind of put the stake in the heart right there with a lazy pass and another three from Howard,” Quinn said of the moment.
From there, Seattle momentum plays were met with crushing scores from Atlanta. The Dream got an easy reverse layup from Naz Hillmon (seven points, eight rebounds) to start the fourth after Ogwumike had to work for a tough layup. That disparity was clear throughout the game, as the Dream constantly moved off the ball to create easy looks while the Storm had to settle for contested looks in a crowded paint.
As a result, Ogwumike was one of two Storm players to score in double figures with Williams, while Atlanta had four players score 10 or more. Add to the fact that Atlanta outrebounded Oguwmike and company 26-7 in the second half, and you have a recipe for disaster late.
But at the end of the day, it would be trivializing the losing streak to call Seattle lazy altogether.
Repeated issues like securing rebounds don’t overshadow the fact that Seattle’s hustle on the defensive end typically earns it twice as few turnovers as its opponent — something that was true again on Wednesday. Seattle forces mistakes with active hands from the likes of Williams, Ogwumike and Sykes, and that simply doesn’t happen on a team content to mail it in.
But with six straight losses and a roster full of names that carry expectations, the “want” to win needs to be more apparent.
“We were talking after the game and I think (Sykes) said it best, we need to have a little bit of pride in those small moments,” Ogwumike said.
If there was ever a time for pride to show up, it’d be Friday night in Vancouver, British Columbia, when the Storm face the same Dream squad in the first-ever WNBA regular-season contest in Canada.
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