The Seattle Storm (17-10) are again in motion after a month-long break within the 2024 WNBA season, however not a lot has gone their means since they’ve returned to the courtroom. The Storm blew a 14-point lead to the Atlanta Dream final Friday, in the end dropping on a last-second shot by Tina Charles. Two days later, they gave up a large fourth quarter to the Indiana Fever in what ended up being a lopsided loss.
It’s simply the third time this season Seattle has misplaced a number of video games in a row. Each losses have been lowlighted by second-half collapses and an uncharacteristic lack of depth on protection; each Atlanta and Indiana scored over 50 second-half factors towards a sometimes stout Storm protection, one thing that Seattle head coach Noelle Quinn was fast to name out as unacceptable.
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“We have been on the highway taking part in towards a workforce that was very hungry,” Quinn advised media after her workforce’s heartbreaking loss in Atlanta. “We are able to’t permit ourselves to not be locked in on the defensive facet of the basketball.”
Whereas Seattle’s poor defensive effort was most noticeable when its opponents have been hitting 3-point pictures—Quinn bemoaned a scarcity of physicality and overeager assist protection towards Indiana after the Fever hit 15 pictures from lengthy vary—the Storm did themselves no favor on the boards, both. Seattle was outrebounded 37-27 by Atlanta and 43-32 by Indiana, and whereas it hasn’t essentially been a weak spot for the Storm in 2024, they now rank within the backside third of the WNBA in defensive rebounding proportion.
Maybe most disappointingly is how the latest offensive efforts of the Storm’s beginning guards have been overshadowed by the workforce’s defensive deficiencies. Skylar Diggins-Smith and Jewell Loyd—who, whereas each undeniably gifted gamers, have at instances struggled to play at their greatest concurrently mixed to attain 50 factors towards the Dream. It was simply the third time this season Diggins-Smith and Loyd scored not less than 20 factors apiece in the identical sport.
For a lot of the season, Seattle has been in a position to lean on its protection as its high offensive gamers have realized to play with each other, hoping that chemistry can be constructed as time went on and that the workforce can be firing on all cylinders when the video games mattered most. Because the Storm begin their post-Olympic break schedule lethargically, nevertheless, the other has occurred, with their often dependable protection faltering as their dynamic scorers strive their greatest to maintain them in video games. There’s nonetheless loads of basketball remaining within the 2024 common season, however with the Storm now in fifth place within the standings, they’ll have to reestablish their momentum shortly in the event that they’re going to enter the postseason on a excessive be aware.
