Jewell Loyd's buzzer three lifts Seattle above Dallas 105-102 in OT
Loyd's rainbow three with under one second to play gives Seattle their 6th victory in a row!
(Everett, WA) - JEWELL CALLED GAME! In what was the 2nd consecutive overtime game between the Dallas Wings and the Storm this season, it was Seattle that once again came out on top. The home team needed more than 40 minutes to take down the upstart Dallas team. The game looked like it was headed to double OT with it all tied up 102-102 and Seattle having just 0.8 seconds to inbound the ball and score. But Jewell Loyd’s crazy rainbow three delivered the knockout blow to the Wings.
“She has that clutch gene. If you look at the overall progression of Jewell [Loyd] in her game, you know she's blossoming before our eyes. What you see is consistency, confidence, and just stability. And she practices those shots. She has the DNA to hit those shots and she doesn't mind taking them. But she puts the work in. It's, not a surprise that she's able to do that. She has been so good this year. I mean, coming off last season, even just her consistency in both the offense and defensive end, I think you're just continuing to see her blossom and taking on the ownership of being steady for us night in and night out.” Coach Noelle Quinn said after the game.
Loyd wasn’t just the hero of the game for knocking down the game-winning shot. She also led the team in scoring with 25 points on a highly effective shooting night where she shot 73% (8-11) from the floor. That included 4-6 from beyond the arc and 5-5 from the foul line. She also had seven assists which were second-best on the team only behind Sue Bird’s 10.
Jewell wasn’t the only Storm player to have a nice game, however. Four players scored in double figures with Breanna Stewart putting up 23 points and nine rebounds, Stephanie Talbot had a season-high 21 points (including 4-5 from three), and Mercedes Russell added 12 points and nine rebounds. Ezi Magbegor (nine points) and Jordin Canada (six points, six rebounds) gave the team a nice lift off the bench as well.
Coach Quinn praised Talbot’s performance after the game.
“It takes the pressure off of our big three to have another score, and she scored efficiently as well. And it's not just offense, she provided great defense. Her assignment was [Marina] Mabrey and Arike [Ogunbowale] at times. And she's had tough defensive assignments, but she's taking them in stride, and she's done good and it's not a surprise. She came into camp ready. The things that she was doing into training camp, what we're seeing her do on the floor, and then now you add the confidence in it. It helps us tremendously to have another scorer in the mix.”
Breanna Stewart added some additional comments about Talbot as well.
“She kind of continues to figure out her role but also doing it all while having to guard the other team's best players and knock down big shots in big moments. I think as her teammates now we know this because we've had to play against her, whether it's with the National Team or the WNBA on other teams. But she's continuing to kind of find her niche in this team. And I really enjoy playing with her,” Stewie said.
Seattle improves to 7-1 on the season and have now won six games in a row as they remain in 1st place in the WNBA standings. The Dallas Wings have fallen to 2-5 on the year and currently sit in 10th place.
With a game as good as this one, the competition certainly didn’t make it easy for the defending champs. The Wings scored 102 points and also had four players score in double figures. The Dynamic Duo from Notre Dame continues to score at a high pace. Marina Mabrey scored 24 points including another four shots from beyond the arc while Arike Ogunbowale added 22 points and a team-high eight assists.
The Wings also got a huge boost off the bench from two players that have been missing from the team as they were participating in the 3x3 Olympic Qualifiers. Allisha Gray (Team USA) and Satou Sabally (Germany) have both missed the past several games for Dallas. This was actually Sabally’s first game with the Wings this season as she finished up her overseas play late and then immediately went into the 3x3 Olympic qualifiers after that. Sabally looks like she hasn’t missed a beat as she had 18 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Allisha Gray added 15 points for the Wings.
Head Coach Vickie Johnson was pleased with her team’s performance overall, but she would like to see them do a better job at the foul line.
“The biggest thing is to come out aggressive and that starts with defense. My team played very well. Jewell Loyd made an amazing shot at the buzzer. We shot 12 free throws and they shot 29. We have to do a better job of making our free throws. We were 5-of-12 for 41%. If we would have made our free throws, we still would have won. Those little things are very important, but the things that we have to focus on is transition defense, one-on-one, don't foul, move our feet, and then keep them off the free-throw line. We did a great job of rebounding the basketball and controlling the boards, but we cannot foul and send them to the free-throw line 29 times. We have to be aggressive, and we have to make the referee make calls.” Coach Johnson said.
Satou Sabally also spoke after the game about the importance of learning and continuing to grow as a team.
“Improving constantly game to game. I think we need to close out the tight games that we have had this year. We needed to close out the games that we had last year too. I feel like that has always been an issue, but we'll come together. We haven't even had a full 5-on-5 practice with a whole new squad. I'm really excited for that and I'm really optimistic for the season. I think we have great talent and a great coaching staff. The energy is amazing and I'm really excited so far this year. I want to get into the playoffs, but we have to take it game by game.” She said after the game.
Game Breakdown
The number one overall pick, Charlie Collier, got Dallas on the board with a short shot in the post. Mercedes Russell responded for Seattle on the other end. Stephanie Talbot had a nice move on Marina Mabrey down in the low post for the AND1 opportunity. But Mabrey responded with back-to-back triples. Then Arike Ogunbowale added another three-pointer to push Dallas’ lead to six at 13-7.
Seattle responded with multiple shots from beyond the arc by Jewell Loyd, Stephanie Talbot, and Sue Bird to give Seattle the 18-15 lead just five minutes into the first quarter. Both teams were red-hot to start this game!
The offense didn’t slow down from there. Seattle got two quick scores in transition. First Jewell Loyd got out in transition and hit a trailing Breanna Stewart for the wide-open layup. A steal by Seattle’s defense resulted in another transition basket, this time Sue Bird found a cutting Stephanie Talbot for the easy layup. Talbot led the Storm with 11 points in the first quarter. This gave Seattle a six-point lead at 26-20 with under three minutes to play in the opening quarter.
Marina Mabrey continued her torrid start to this season as she hit three shots from beyond the arc and led Dallas with 11 points after one period.
Seattle led 34-28 after the first quarter of play. The team’s combined for 62 points and knocked down 10 three-pointers total.
The Storm’s bench was able to give them a boost early in the 2nd quarter. Some nice plays by Ezi Magbegor helped push Seattle’s lead to eight at 43-35.
However, then Seattle’s bench went cold. Katie Lou Samuelson shot 0-6 in her first game back (0-4 in the 1st half).
Dallas turned Seattle’s aggressive close-out defense against them. Seattle would race to stop the three-point shooter and Dallas would then drive by them for an easy layup. They did this multiple times throughout the second quarter. The Wings used a 14-2 run in order to take a four-point lead over Seattle at 49-45 with under five minutes to play in the first half.
Seattle was able to draw several fouls against Dallas in the 2nd period. Including getting into the bonus with nearly seven minutes left to play in the half. Breanna Stewart went to the foul line several times which helped the Storm regain their lead.
Overall, the Wings outplayed the Storm in the 2nd quarter. They were able to capitalize on Seattle being out of place defensively which led to some easy offensive rebounds and putback layups. Marina Mabrey and Arike Ogunbowale continued to shoot lights out. Mabrey led the Wings in scoring with 16 points in the first half on 6-9 FG shooting including 4-6 from three-point range. Arike was also 6-9 from the floor, knocking down 3-5 shots from beyond the arc. In total, the Dallas Wings shot 48% (22-46) and 50% from three (9-18). They outrebounded Seattle 22-18 in the first half including eight offensive rebounds compared to the Storm who had just two.
Seattle was led by the 15 points from Breanna Stewart who got most of her first-half points from the foul line going 8-12 from the charity stripe. Stephanie Talbot added 11 points, all of which came in the first quarter. Seattle actually shot the ball even better than Dallas shooting 52% (16-31) and 50% (5-10) from three. But Dallas was getting significantly more shots (46 shots compared to 31 for Seattle). The Storm were able to take a halftime lead because they had 24 shots from the free throw line sinking 20 of them. By comparison, the Wings had just five free throws making just one of five through the first two quarters.
Stephanie Talbot came out hot in the third quarter knocking down two more shots from beyond the arc. She then found Jewell Loyd in the corner for another triple and Seattle pushed their lead to nine points at 69-60.
Breanna Stewart rebounded a missed shot by Dallas and tossed the ball the length of the court to Jewell Loyd who finished at the rim through contact that drew the foul for the three-point play. The Storm were able to push their lead to double digits at 75-65, but it didn’t last long as the Wings quickly went on an 11-0 run. Seattle was held scoreless over the final five minutes of the third period. Stewart missed multiple shots. Seattle’s bench did them no favors at the end of the third quarter missing several shots as well. In total, Seattle went 0-8 over the final 5:13 of the period.
Jewell Loyd hit a three to begin the fourth quarter. Seattle was then able to get a steal with Katie Lou Samuelson passing the ball up to Jordin Canada for an easy two.
In one of the weirdest plays of the game, Epiphanny Prince grabbed a defensive rebound, took a couple of dribbles then turned around to talk to the ref. Meanwhile, Marina Mabrey stole the ball away from her while she wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of her. Mabrey then swiftly passed the ball back to Ogunbowale for the uncontested layup.
I had to go back and watch the TV copy to figure out what the heck happened and why Prince would do such a thing in the middle of live-action. The replay revealed why Prince was so upset. Ogunbowale had fallen to the ground trying to draw the foul that wasn’t called. As Prince grabbed the rebound and started to push the ball up the floor, Ogunbowale (while still on the floor) grabbed Prince’s ankle to trip her without the referee taking notice. It was a dirty play by Arike but one that was rewarded as Dallas got the ball away from Prince and scored immediately. As dirty as that play was, Prince needs to keep her cool there and hang onto the basketball. In a game as tightly contested as this contest was, that could have been the difference between a win and a loss.
Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart checked back in and Breanna Stewart quickly scored four points to push Seattle’s lead back up to six points at 88-82. Bird found Stewart cutting to the basket for an easy layup which forced Dallas to call timeout.
Between the eight and the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Seattle went on a 10-0 run pushing their lead back up to double digits at 92-82.
The pesky Wings wouldn’t go away as they outscored Seattle 14-4 in the final three minutes of the game.
Stephanie Talbot would like to see the team close out games better when they’re up late in games.
“We really need to get better at putting our foot on the throats of teams when we have them in the fourth quarter and really extend the lead if we can or hold on to it. But it's also good that we can close out games over time and get the win when we need to.” Talbot said.
Satou Sabally appeared to hit the game-winner from three, putting Dallas up 97-96. However, the shot was reviewed and changed to a two-point basket. It was an extremely close call and frankly, the Wings and their fans probably have a legit complaint that it was changed to a two as that call would cost them the win.
Seattle could have played for the final shot, but rushed it with Stewie taking a shot immediately instead of using some clock. Stewart’s shot was partially blocked and Dallas recovered. Mabrey turned the ball over and Stephanie Talbot threw up a prayer that overshot the basket. The teams were headed to OT (again).
Mercedes Russell cut to the basket and received a dime from Jewell Loyd for the first points of overtime.
The Storm were careless with the basketball committing four turnovers in the extra period. The first was a costly pass that was intercepted by Allisha Gray and taken coast-to-coast for the two points to tie the game up at 98-98.
A fantastic defensive play by Arike Ogunbowale who jumped into the passing lane just as Mercedes Russell was about to pass the ball to Jewell Loyd forced Russell into a traveling turnover. Although it was a bad turnover, Russell was smart to commit the turnover via travel instead of the pass because Ogunbowale would have immediately scored two points had Russell made the pass.
On the next possession, Marina Mabrey went right to left and finished at the rim over Russell to put Dallas back up two at 100-98 with under three minutes to go in the OT period. Stephanie Talbot tied the game back up with a nice midrange jumper.
Jewell Loyd drove baseline from the left corner and laid it up to tie the game up at 102-102 with under 39 seconds left to play. She blew past Ogunbowale on the baseline.
The Wings ran the clock down and Satou Sabally took a shot to win the game but missed. Dallas was able to recover the ball and call a timeout to set up what appeared to be the final play of the game with about 16 seconds left on the game clock.
After the timeout, Dallas got the ball up to Moriah Jefferson at the top of the three-point line. Jordin Canada did an incredible job defensively of denying Arike Ogunbowale the ball. With limited time left on the clock, it forced Moriah Jefferson to drive the lane against Bird. Sue may have gotten away from a foul from my vantage point, but the refs didn’t call anything and Seattle secured the rebound and called timeout with less than one second to play.
Jordin’s defense on Dallas’ final possession to prevent Ogunbowale from receiving the pass up top really will go down as an unsung type of moment in this game. The difference between Moriah Jefferson getting that last shot compared to Arike is significant.
It looked like we were certainly headed to Double Overtime, but Jewell Loyd had other ideas. Words won’t ever do it justice, so please watch it.
“Who doesn't want to hit a buzzer-beater? I mean. you practice it all the time as a kid. That's how I grew up in the parks, always counting in my head ‘5, 4, 3, 2, 1—shoot’ and in my room with the toy hoops. Always playing like that with my brothers and stuff, so it's something I've always done as a kid. I visualized myself in these big moments trying to execute.” Jewell Loyd told the media after the game.
This was such a beautifully drawn-up play by Coach Noelle Quinn. You had two guards down in the low blocks and two posts up at the top near the three-point line. The play starts with Jewell Loyd setting a screen to free up Sue Bird so Sue becomes an option for a corner three. This also created confusion for Dallas as both defenders down low, shaded to Bird’s side to prevent that corner three. After setting the screen, Jewell runs up to the top of the three-point line, Mercedes Russell sets a screen and Breanna Stewart cuts down to the basket as Loyd is cutting up to the three-point line and closer to the ball. Stewie actually gets wide open under the basket because Satou Sabally sees Jewell running out to the three and she’s concerned about leaving a good shooter open. Stephanie Talbot could have potentially made a pass to Stewie for the game-winning layup but opted to go in Jewell’s direction. Isabelle Harrison stays with Mercedes Russell the whole time preventing Russell from also slipping to the rim for an easy layup. Allisha Gray runs to catch Loyd but since she initially went to Bird the separation has already been created. Talbot hits Jewell in stride with a pass and Loyd is able to turn and heave up a beautiful rainbow shot for the game-winning shot.
Let’s watch it again in beautiful slow motion with the Titanic theme! Excellent touch Seattle Storm Social Media team!
Seattle won the game 105-102 in OT. The Storm shot 50% (36-72) from the floor and 39% (10-26) from beyond the arc. The Wings shot 45% (43-96) and 39% (11-28) from three. Dallas outrebounded Seattle 44-40 including a massive 14-5 advantage with offensive boards. Seattle had a 31-25 edge in assists in the game but also committed more turnovers with 16 (Dallas had 13). The Storm did not take care of the basketball at all in the 2nd half committing 13 of their 16 turnovers after the break.
Additional Analysis
The Dallas Wings have to be one of the most offensively talented teams in the WNBA. Maybe the most talented on that side of the ball. The combination of Arike Ogunbowale and Marina Mabrey may be the most deadly combination of guards in the entire league. They are both in the Top 10 in scoring with Ogunbowale 4th at 21.9 PPG and Mabrey at 7th 20.0 PPG.
But the Wings’ biggest problem is their inability to get stops on the defensive side of the ball. That will be their Achilles heel until they can get that sorted out. They have so many scorers between Ogunbowale, Mabrey, Satou Sabally, and Allisha Gray. They are as challenging a matchup for the opposing team’s defense as it gets in the WNBA. But if they can’t stop anyone, they’re still going to lose more games than they should.
I spoke to Coach Noelle Quinn after the game and asked her to discuss how difficult it is to defend the offensive talent on the Dallas Wings and how they stack up compared to the rest of the league.
“There are talented women in this league and I don’t want to discredit them but Dallas is a tough matchup because you have to try and contain Arike and then you have Marina on the other side of the floor. Then you add in Alisha Gray and Satou Sabally, every one of them has the ability to get a bucket. To game plan them, you’re not going to be able to take everything away. You just try to limit it. And even that, it is tough because they are ballers. They have a lot of offensive firepower on that team.” Coach Quinn describes the Dallas Wings.
I also asked Coach Quinn if a key to beating Dallas or limiting them offensively is to force them to work hard on the defensive end of the floor.
“Absolutely! One thing they do is foul a lot. That is one thing we try to hone in on. As you can see we got to the free throw line 29 times. That was one of our keys to the game today. How you combat a high octane offense is making sure those ladies are defending as well. Trying to run Jewell off of multiple actions and trying to move the ball, push the pace, and keep them on their heels. I think that is key to the success against Dallas.” Quinn added.
Seattle did a fantastic job of scoring and getting to the foul line in this game. The Storm had a 29 to 12 advantage at the foul line connecting on 23 of the free throw attempts. The Wings missed seven of their 12 shots from the charity stripe which ultimately cost them the game.
I spoke about Mabrey and Ogunbowale above and how deadly they’ve been this season. But Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart have been even better. Stewart is currently 2nd in the league in scoring at 23.3 PPG. Jewell is 6th in the league at 20.1 PPG (just ahead of Mabrey). The Storm don’t have that consistent third scorer this season as they had with Natasha during her three seasons in Seattle. So both Jewell and Stewie have upped their game. Both of them are averaging career-highs in points per game this season. Breanna Stewart is also 2nd in the league in rebounding at 9.6 RPG and 5th in blocks per game at 2.0. Meanwhile, Loyd is 6th in the league in assists at 5.1 APG. She’s also 9th in steals at 1.6 SPG.
Jewell’s performance so far this season will make it difficult to keep her off the Olympic team. She should be a lock to make the All-Star team and if she keeps up this play she’s likely to be named to the All-WNBA first (or second) Team as well.
Other observations from this game, are that Stephanie Talbot sure doesn’t look like she wants to give up her starting spot back to Katie Lou Samuelson after Friday night’s performance. It’s just one game and I believe both players can provide good things for the team, but Talbot’s performance really looked like the WNBL (Australian league) MVP. Talbot won the top award in her native Australia this past season. She also won defensive player of the year there.
Talbot is a player that has impressed the team throughout training camp and you can just see her getting more and more comfortable out there with each game. I’m not expecting 20+ point performances from Talbot consistently moving forward, but if she can start reliably giving them 10+ PPG that’ll be a huge boost to the team.
For Katie Lou Samuelson, it was one game but the 0-6 performance with several threes well-off the mark wasn’t the return Storm fans were hoping for. I’m going to chalk this one up to jet lag having just traveled from another country a few days ago. They’re going to need Lou’s scoring and rebounding so hopefully she’ll have a better game on Sunday.
Mercedes Russell continues to impress me this season. She didn’t have the best season in the bubble last year, but I did think her defense in the WNBA Finals had an impact in slowing down A’ja Wilson. Since joining the starting lineup, Russell has been consistently good. She had arguably the best performance of her season so far scoring 12 points and pulling down nine rebounds which tied Stewart for a team-high. Her length and size also help alter shots at the rim, so even if she isn’t getting the block she is still making a difference.
Lastly, it was nice to see Ezi have another strong game off the bench after she hasn’t done much since the 2nd game of the season where she put up 14 points and 13 rebounds against Las Vegas. Magbegor scored nine points on 4-4 FG shooting in just under nine minutes of play. At just 21 years old, Magbegor still has so much room to grow. Part of me feels the team would be better off giving her more minutes and letting her develop more throughout this season likely at the expense of Candice Dupree’s playing time.
I don’t expect that to happen considering Dupree’s veteran status and the amount of money they paid to sign her in the offseason. But I do feel Ezi could give the team the same contributions (if not more) than they’re currently getting from Dupree if given the playing time to contribute.
Jersey Count
Seattle was back to wearing their Explorer jerseys Friday night against Dallas. They have now worn these jerseys more than any other type as this was the 4th game this season in the green and yellow. The Storm improved to 3-1 on the season with their Explorer jersey combo.
Not only that, but Seattle is now 5-0 in the WNBA Commissioner Cup standings. The Storm need to finish the 10-game “tournament” with the best record in the Western Conference in order to play for the Commissioner Cup Championship which will take place on August 12th after the Olympic break is over. The Storm have now swept the Minnesota Lynx and Dallas Wings in Commissioner Cup games. They have five games remaining including on the road at Las Vegas on June 27th and home/away splits against both the LA Sparks and Phoenix Mercury between July 4th and July 11th.
Seattle’s biggest competition to reach the Commissioner Cup Finals will be the Las Vegas Aces (2-1) and the Phoenix Mercury (2-1). If the Storm can finish 8-2 or better, they will likely be the team from the Western Conference that will make the Commissioner Cup Championship game.
No real surprise the 7-2 Connecticut Sun who are 3-0 in Cup games would be the likely opponent for Seattle from the Eastern Conference.
Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 1-0
Explorer: 3-1
Heroine: 3-0
Overall Record: 7-1
Up Next
These same two teams will face off against one another on Sunday at 4:00 PM local time in Everett. After two amazing OT thrillers, you won’t want to miss that one!
Editor’s Note: Thank you for your support! If you know any Storm fans that aren’t currently aware of my coverage through Substack and Twitter (@WNBAStormChaser), please let them know. Word of mouth can be super helpful and is greatly appreciated! Photo Credits to Neil Enns/Seattle Storm. Members of the media on the call asking questions along with myself: Percy Allen (Seattle Times), Kevin Pelton (ESPN).
What a game!! Excellent recap! Loved the Titanic music with the buzzer beater.
Amen.