Mystics Clobber Storm 78-64 Part 2

Additional thoughts, discussion, and interviews from Seattle's loss to D.C.

The Seattle Storm (3-5) struggled to find a rhythm on Wednesday night against the Washington Mystics (3-3). D.C. led wire-to-wire and by as many as 25 points in the 2nd half as the Storm fell 78-64. If you missed it, you can read the full game recap below.

In Part 2, I wrote about the adjustments the Mystics made, how the Storm missed Dominique Malonga a lot, and how Coach Sonia Raman has the right mindset to move forward. I’m including additional quotes, plus the full post-game press conference audio interviews.

Tough Adjustments

It is always easier to make the tough adjustments for the team that ended up on the losing end of the first game in a series. That’s what Coach Sydney Johnson and the Washington Mystics achieved on Wednesday night after they were embarrassed by the Storm on Sunday. They had an answer for everything Seattle tried to do in this game. Defensively, they shut everything down. With just a few days in between the two games, the Mystics made significant adjustments on the defensive end, limiting the Storm to a season-low 64 points, 33 points fewer than they gave up on Sunday.

Georgia Amoore got abused on the defensive end by Natisha Hiedeman on Sunday afternoon. In this game, Coach Johnson made sure to put longer defenders against Hiedeman. Sonia Citron, at 6’1”, shadowed Natisha a lot, never allowing her to get comfortable.

It’s easy to say the Storm just missed more shots on Wednesday night, but I think the Mystics were significantly better with their defensive rotations in this game. When Seattle made the extra pass, they were ready for it. There were times a Storm player would kick it out for a corner three, but instead of having that shot open, the Mystics defenders were there with a hand up to prevent a good look at the basket.

Offensively, Washington put more of an emphasis on getting their post players involved. Shakira Austin dominated the opening minutes on Sunday, but was held to just three points over the game’s final 36 minutes. She didn’t allow that to happen on Wednesday. While Kiki Iriafen scored 13 points in both games, she was a much larger factor on the glass in this game, more than doubling her rebounds from Game 1 to Game 2.

I also wouldn’t underestimate Alicia Florez Getino’s impact on this game from both ends of the court. Not only did she have a game-high nine points off the bench, but she was very disruptive on the defensive end. She would pressure Natisha or Jade consistently when they would bring the ball up the court. That caused Seattle to get into their actions a little later than normal. She also had more size and physicality to her game, even at just 5’9”, compared to the 5’7” Georgia Amoore or the 5’6” Rori Harmon. Harmon didn’t play at all on Wednesday.

Florez is currently on a development contract with the Mystics. If she continues to play as she did in Seattle, I wouldn’t be surprised if they transitioned her into a full-time roster spot.

During the post-game press conference, Jade Melbourne talked about the differences between the two games.

“Well, we shot really well the other night. I think we show almost 50% from three. So that’s a big difference when the shots aren’t falling. We need to do a better job as a group to generate better looks. I think we got some good looks tonight. Our shots weren’t falling, but I think the ball movement got a little bit stagnant. We depended on maybe going a little bit, like one-on-one stuff that we’d gotten away with maybe in the past when the shots had fallen, but when the shots aren’t falling, we need to find ways to move the ball through hands.”

Jade went on to say, “I can take responsibility for that as a point guard calling particular plays, you know, to get the ball moving a bit more. It got a little bit sticky tonight. So just that. And I also think, too, we didn’t get a lot of stops like we did the other night. So when you’re not getting stops, you can’t get out in transition and have that free-flowing, you know, play 4 on three, 3 on 2 kind of basketball. So there were a lot of factors for that, but I think overall tonight we did generate some good looks, we could have gotten better ones, but ultimately they weren’t falling.”

Coach Raman also spoke about the differences between games.

“Their physicality disrupted us a little bit, and I think there were a few really good shots that we got as well that didn’t go down. Our shooting percentage was 21.7 from 3, and obviously, it was a lot higher in that last game. If a few of those fall, I think we feel a bit better about it. That 1st quarter was probably the biggest culprit right there, just the urgency that we came out with. And our focus on both ends of the ball, I think, was what set the stage. And then from there, we were just kind of trying to climb. But I think we got a lot of good looks as well, and there’s a lot to build on, and we just have to keep doing that.” Raman responded.

Need to get Dom Back

Stefanie Dolson and Mackenzie Holmes have stepped up in a big, big way early on this season. They’ve had some impressive games this year, whether that was Holmes’ 18-point performance against the Connecticut Sun or her near double-double on Wednesday night. Dolson has already had a couple of 16-point performances this season. A year ago, she didn’t score that many points in any of her 43 games.

I have been really impressed by both of their performances this year. In fact, I’m working on a feature piece about Stefanie Dolson that will hopefully come out over the next few days to discuss that.

With that said, the team definitely needs Dominique Malonga back as soon as she is healthy. Malonga was the Storm’s leading scorer when she went out with her concussion, averaging 16.0 PPG. She also has more gravity, drawing defenders to her more than Seattle’s other post players. Malonga can get easy baskets due to her size and athleticism. The Storm needed that on a night like Wednesday night, when many of Seattle’s guards struggled mightily with their efficiency.

The team isn’t going to win any games when only one player scores in double figures (Melbourne). Not only is Malonga one of the most likely players to score in double figures, but she’ll open up more looks for Seattle to find ways to exploit the defenses. If defenses collapse on Dom, that’s going to free up several outside shooters like Natisha Hiedeman, Katie Lou Samuelson, Zia Cooke, and Lexie Brown. If teams leave Malonga with single coverage to defend the perimeter, Dom is going to be able to score against most players trying to defend her one-on-one.

Seattle isn’t quite ready to try and run the offense through Awa Fam, nor should she be expected to carry that burden right now. Fam’s been with the team for only one week and has only had the opportunity to practice with the team once or twice. But the Storm can run their interior offense through Malonga. If Dom is on the court, that’s also going to make things easier on Awa because Fam likely won’t see the top post defender guarding her if they have to worry about Malonga.

It’s truly unfortunate that the Storm had to go up against one of the league’s most intimidating front courts in Shakira Austin, Kiki Iriafen, and Lauren Betts without having either Dominique Malonga or Ezi Magbegor on the floor for Seattle. Injuries, unfortunately, took away an Ezi, Dom, and Awa versus Shakira, Kiki, and Lauren battle this year. Maybe, we’ll still be able to watch it happen on TV when the Storm travel to D.C. to face the Mystics on July 12th, but it’s not one we’ll get to witness in person this season.

Don’t Turn the Page

I really liked Niko Tamurian’s (KOMO Sports) question to Coach Sonia Raman after the game. It was a pretty typical question that is used when the local sports team has a terrible performance. After the players told him that the post-game locker room talk was kept relatively short, he asked Coach Raman how much of that was just flushing this (bad performance), turning the page, and getting ready for Saturday’s game?

I thought she had an appropriate response.

“No, we won’t turn the page, you know? We’re never gonna turn the page on any game. We want to make sure that, win or lose, we learn and we grow. So we’ll go back, we’ll watch film, and we’ll process it, and then make the adjustments that we need to make because some of the things that happened today are things that we want to be better at going forward, no matter who we play. So that’ll be about our process, but after games, there’s not that much to say at the end of the day, right? It’s like they know they played really hard. We’ll go back, we’ll watch film, and then we’ll get with them the next time we meet and just highlight a few things in particular that we want to focus on.” Raman stated.

I loved this answer because, as a coach, your job is to teach. And Seattle has a very young roster. It would be easy to say, “Yeah, just throw this game out the window and move forward.” But it’s better for the team’s long-term outcome if they don't just ignore these types of performances. It’s OK to have these types of games if the team can learn from their mistakes. Make the necessary corrections and get better. Coach Raman seems determined to do so. That’s what this season should be all about!

Player Interviews

Jade Melbourne and Mack Holmes:

Coach’s Quotes

Pre-Game:

Post-Game:

Notes:
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Photography Credits: Seattle Storm/WNBA Photography
Thanks to Her Hoop Stats and Across the Timeline for being great resources!

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