Sparks Top Storm 108-106 in 2OT Part 2

Additional thoughts, interviews, and discussion on Seattle's loss to LA.

The Seattle Storm missed an opportunity to damage the Los Angeles Sparks’ chances of reaching the postseason by losing 108-106 in double overtime on Friday night. Despite a heroic effort from Nneka Ogwumike, who led with 37 points and 12 rebounds, Seattle was unable to stop LA down the stretch. It was Seattle’s defense that lost the game after they gave up 49 points in the 4th quarter and two OT periods. If you missed it, you can read the full game recap here.

In Part 2, I wrote about the Storm’s decision to give up their lottery pick (Rickea Jackson), and debated on if the Sparks will have any regrets with giving up their first-round picks. I discussed why I feel the Sparks have built a strong roster with height and athleticism. I also wrote more on the Storm’s inconsistency problems. Plus, I’ve included the post-game press conference video and audio interviews. You can listen to a very frustrated Coach Noelle Quinn during that interview. I’ve also fully transcribed the interviews since I didn’t get this out sooner.

Will Seattle Regret Trading Away Rickea Jackson?

The Seattle Storm traded away their lottery selection in 2024 to get rid of Kia Nurse’s contract. That allowed them to sign both Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike in Free Agency. But it certainly came at a steep cost. Despite being out of the Caitlin Clark and Cameron Brink sweepstakes, the Storm were still going to be able to draft a very talented player with the fourth overall pick had they kept their selection. No matter what, they were going to have the opportunity to draft one of these players: Kamilla Cardoso, Rickea Jackson, Aaliyah Edwards, or Angel Reese. Any one of those players would have been a key piece to build around.

From speaking directly with Coach Noelle Quinn during the 2024 season, she told me they were very high on Rickea Jackson and indicated she would have been the player that they would have selected had they kept their lottery pick. While one can make the argument that Angel Reese should have been selected third overall, or possibly even second, in retrospect. There is no denying the talent of Rickea Jackson. If Jackson had been the pick, Seattle would have added a very talented offensive scorer to their group. Jackson has averaged above 13 PPG in both of her seasons in the WNBA. Rickea scored 27 points in the Sparks’ win on Friday night, three points shy of her career high, which she set in June of this year.

The positive is that Seattle’s Front Office was able to get the Sparks to include their 2026 first-round pick in the deal. But it was still a risky move because there are no guarantees that the Storm would get a lottery pick in return. And the 2024 draft class was legitimately stacked with talent. The reality is that even if the Storm do get a lottery pick in return, they might not get a player as talented as Jackson. Even if they end up with a player like Azzi Fudd or Flau’jae Johnson, they might not end up having a better career than Jackson.

Worse yet, with the WNBA expanding by three teams from the time that trade took place, if the Sparks make the playoffs this year, the best the Storm’s pick will be is eighth overall.

It’s difficult to say if there was any way the Storm could have avoided giving away their lottery pick and still signed both Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins. Could they have paid Ogwumike and Diggins less? The way other teams have worked around the salary cap. Could they have traded the Sparks their 2025 first-round pick in this deal? If that happens, does that cause a Butterfly Effect where they’re unable to trade for Dominique Malonga?

We won’t know if it was a big mistake by the Storm to trade away their pick that became Rickea Jackson until we know what happens at the end of this season and during the 2026 WNBA Draft. But we can say this. Trading away Rickea Jackson to the Sparks cost them this game, and in turn, it might cost them a lottery selection next year.

Will LA Regret Trading Away Their Future Picks?

This is the opposite side of the spectrum. The Los Angeles Sparks haven’t been afraid to get rid of their first-round picks. Their management has treated the team like they are closer to competing than they actually are. They were willing to trade away their 2026 first-round pick to Seattle for a guaranteed lottery selection. Then this season, they traded the #2 overall pick as part of the three-team trade to acquire Kelsey Plum.

On the one hand, it seems like the Sparks have mismanaged their rebuild. They have missed the playoffs in four consecutive seasons. A team that hasn’t competed in the postseason in five years shouldn’t be giving away its draft picks as often as the Sparks have been. As a big believer in building through the draft, my initial gut reaction is that the Sparks’ Front Office has made a lot of mistakes.

After watching the Sparks win six out of their last seven games, including scoring 108 points against the Storm, I am having second thoughts.

The Sparks knew they were going to be losing Nneka Ogwumike in Free Agency, so they took advantage of that decision. Instead of losing her for nothing, they were able to secure a lottery selection that they turned into Rickea Jackson. They drafted the Stanford Tree Cameron Brink with their own #2 overall pick. Brink, a tall defensive center with a nice outside shooting touch. Then they added the most talented offensive scorer of the draft in Rickea Jackson.

Once Los Angeles lost out on the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes, they had a decision to make. Do they keep their draft pick? Without Bueckers on the board, arguably the two best remaining players were Dominique Malonga and Kiki Iriafen. The problem for the Sparks is that they already had a loaded frontcourt with veterans Dearica Hamby and Azurá Stevens, plus their 2024 rookies Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson. Their decision likely came down to selecting Sonia Citron out of Notre Dame or swinging a trade for a known All-Star guard, Kelsey Plum.

Drafting Citron would have been fine. She would have been a nice piece to build a young core alongside Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson. But despite Citron having one of the highest floors of the draft prospects, there was the chance that she would never be more than a solid starter. Instead, they opted for the sure thing. At 30 years old, Plum is still right in the middle of the prime of her career. KP is now a four-time WNBA All-Star. She’s averaging 20.3 PPG, 6.0 APG, 3.3 RPG, and 1.4 SPG.

Despite the fact that the Sparks started the 2025 season with a 6-14 record, they are now putting it all together. Especially after they added Latricia Trammell to their coaching staff. They’ve won six out of their last seven games, and they are hitting their stride at the right time.

If Dominique Malonga turns into a multi-time WNBA All-Star and potentially even a league MVP one day, the Sparks might have regrets. If the Sparks miss the playoffs for a 5th year in a row and hand Seattle another lottery draft pick in 2026, then the Sparks Front Office may have regrets. But if they’re able to continue their momentum around a core group of Kelsey Plum, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink, Azurá Stevens, and Dearica Hamby, we can admit that Los Angeles made the correct moves to rebuild their team.

LA Has Ridiculous Height

One thing that really stood out to me during yesterday’s game was how tall the Los Angeles Sparks are as a team. Their starting frontcourt is 6’6” Azurá Stevens, 6’3” Dearica Hamby, and 6’2” Rickea Jackson. Once they brought in their subs, it was primarily 6’4” Cameron Brink and 6’2” Rae Burrell. Eight of the Sparks’ 11 players on their roster are 6’0” or taller. With seven of those eight players being 6’2” or taller.

At times, their height and length caused problems for the Storm. It certainly led to Seattle’s lower efficiency, especially with 5’9” Skylar Diggins and 5’7” Erica Wheeler.

It also led to the Sparks dominating offensively inside the paint. Seattle gave up 60 points in the paint. Gabby Williams is normally such a great defender, but it felt like she struggled to slow down the taller Rickea Jackson.

I previously wrote about some of the Storm’s height deficiencies in their roster. Seven of the Storm’s 11 active players are under six feet tall. It was interesting to see that both Alysha Clark and Zia Cooke were a DNP (Did Not Play) - Coach’s Decision. It’s unclear if Quinn felt they weren’t a good matchup against the Sparks due to their height or athleticism, or if they were being held out for trade-related purposes.

I will say that as Seattle currently holds three first-round picks and will enter a very busy Free Agency period in 2026. They should be mindful of their roster creation and the trends we’ve seen throughout the WNBA. Players like 5’6” Jordin Canada and 5’7” Erica Wheeler are extremely rare. It’s why we see so many sub-5’10” players fail to make the WNBA. Even the most talented college players aren’t able to make the transition to the league because WNBA athletes are just as athletic, if not more so, and they’re often 6’2”, 6’4”, etc.

Draft players like Jordan Horston. Draft players like Ezi Magbegor. Draft players like Dearica Hamby, Azurá Stevens, or Dominique Malonga.

Consistently Inconsistent

This is a wild stat to read. The Seattle Storm haven’t won two games in a row in a month. The last time the team put two consecutive wins together was at the very beginning of July against the Atlanta Dream (80-79) and the New York Liberty (79-70). Here is a breakdown of the past month of games.

79-70 at New York - W
93-83 at Connecticut - L
79-65 vs Connecticut - W
74-69 vs Washington - L
67-58 vs Golden State - W
87-63 vs Dallas - L
95-57 at Chicago - W
69-58 at Washington - L
101-85 at Connecticut - W
108-106 vs Los Angeles - L

Over these past 10 games, their five losses have come against some of the “worst” teams in the WNBA. While the WNBA is a highly competitive league where any team can beat another on any given day, it is still frustrating to see.

Seattle lost to the 5-21 Connecticut Sun by 10 points. They lost to the 8-21 Dallas Wings by 24 points at home! They’ve lost twice to the 13-14 Washington Mystics. And most recently to the 12-15 Los Angeles Sparks. All five of their losses have come against teams with a below .500 record.

The losses don’t feel acceptable at this point. Although I suppose it depends on what type of team the Storm are. If they had handled business like they should have, they would probably have the second-best record in the WNBA right now. Even if they had gone 7-3 in these 10 games, which isn’t unreasonable when looking at the 10 teams they faced over July and the first of August. They would have an 18-10 record, which would be the second-best record in the league. Instead, they’ve lost five times to the bottom half of the league. And because of that, they deserve to be where they are, falling to 6th place in the standings.

The Storm have 16 games remaining in the regular season. If they’re only going to play around .500 basketball the rest of the way, they won’t have homecourt in any of the playoff rounds. The top four teams get home court advantage in the first round. It’s put up or shut up time for Coach Quinn and her ballclub.

Post-Game Press Conference

If you prefer the audio versions, I’ve posted them below with full transcriptions.

Player Interviews

Nneka Ogwumike on fighting through the double-overtime game.

Ogwumike said, “Yeah, it's just next play mentality. I think we knew that more basketball had to get played, and understanding that every possession really matters and not just in overtime. I think that we were realizing too in the game that these were important possessions. I think for us, though, today it was more about figuring out how we could score and get stops, you know, and that's we were just a possession short in that way.”

Gabby Williams on Nneka’s incredible performance (37 points and 12 rebounds).

Gabby said, “And 46 minutes, you know, she's doing this under fatigue. And I think obviously that hurts a bit more that she has a game like that, and we can't reward her and reward ourselves. But this is again, someone who's not talked about enough in this league, and she's just, she's just a steady Betty, steady Betty every day. Honestly, she's just the most… we watch her be disciplined every single day. I mean, she teaches me how to be more disciplined and how to be professional. And I think that's why you see these results like this. So hopefully we can just give her some more support and more help next game. But now she inspires us to be better because, you know, we want to support a 37-12 rebound performance as well. And Noey said it in the locker room that the plays that she made and the things that we did, we did a lot of great things too, even though we didn't get the result we wanted, but it'll pay off later.”

On the Storm’s ability to fight and battle back to the very end.

Ogwumike answered, “Absolutely. For us to be able to start the second overtime without the aggression that we wanted and then come back and bring it to the second one, I think was good. Us being able to kind of manage the runs in that short amount of time was amazing. You know, Gabby had an amazing play. I think it was at the end of the second one, right? Yeah. But just being able to stay locked in in that way and understanding that every single possession matters. Every single possession matters. And I know that we're probably going through the back of our heads thinking about any possession that we could have changed, but still staying locked in and being able to force double overtime and play to literally the last second. I think you can definitely grow from that.”

On trusting Nneka Ogwuike to deliver in the clutch moments.

Gabby replied, “I mean, it's pretty obvious that's who we're going to when we need something because she's an MVP, she's a WNBA champion, and she's been in these moments more than any of us ever. So, of course, we trust her the most. She has the most experience in these moments. So still performing like this every single day so consistently. So it looks very easy from the outside what she's doing. Obviously, it's not. But I think just like she's freaking, she's Nneka freaking Ogwumike. So she's been in these moments as many times as more than anyone, I think, in this league, honestly. And yeah, we trust her more than anyone in these moments.”

On playing more than 45 minutes in a game, and the fatigue involved.

Gabby answered, “I mean, I'm looking at the box score, and Rickea played 47 minutes, Kelsey played 47 minutes. I mean, we're all playing the same schedule, so I think we're all tired. So it just becomes a mental battle. I think tonight we did a lot of great things under fatigue. Like I said, Nneka being able to have those clutch baskets after playing 45 minutes, it's just completely mental toughness.”

Gabby on her mindset when having to take clutch shots.

Williams added, “I've said this before, where I feel like I'm better in these (moments). I feel like I'm better when I don't have a choice. When I'm like, ‘this has to go in, this has to’, like those are the moments that I honestly feel like the best in.”

Coach’s Quotes

Coach Quinn on her frustration with the refs.

“Sky played 43 minutes and took zero free throws. It's ridiculous. And maybe I have to come up here and get fined and rant and rant and rave for us to get respect and consistency. That's all I want. I'm not a coach that complains often. But I see what happens when people come up here and do it, so now I'm about to do it. Sky to (play) 43 minutes and zero free throws is bullshit. Period.” Quinn said.

On the failed challenge, where the ball was off Kelsey Plum, but the refs awarded the ball to Los Angeles.

“I saw with my own eyes, they go off the opponent, and they said there was not enough camera angles to figure out, to change that call. Again, the lack of respect, the disrespect, I can't. I know I'm young and early in my career, but I work very hard and so does my team and we deserve to get refereed consistently and we deserve to get the calls that are just blatant. But there's not enough camera angles. My guy, I showed him on the iPad, it goes off of KP. Not enough angles from what they saw.”

On Nneka’s impressive performance.

“I didn't even get to congratulate Nneka for 7,000. She continues to exceed We got to talk about her more, what she's doing. You guys got to talk about her more. What she's doing is nothing short of amazing, where she's at in her career to continue to be so efficient. She willed us in a lot of possessions, and I know my group was tired, but she's one of the best players, if not the best player on my team, and she continues to showcase that every night.”

On the challenges Rickea Jackson presents.

“Rickea is a difficult matchup. We try to put Ezi on her a little bit later in the overtime, but she's able to post up, she's able to shoot from the outside, and she's able to defend. She was guarding Sky all night because of her length and her ability to guard multiple positions.” Quinn added.

On Nneka being a clutch performer.

Coach stated, “No comparison. I think she's one of one just, you know, because of how she's gotten here. She came into the league utilizing her athleticism and jumping out the gym and footwork and all those things. And now she's expanded her game to shoot threes. And whether it's in the corner or above the break, she's still able to go at any big, small matchup. She's incomparable in my opinion. So that's a tough one.”

How do the players and the team recover mentally and physically before the quick turnaround to the next game?

Quinn answered, “And we can't get this one back. We can't get Friday night back. So the focus is Indiana, our preparation tomorrow. It’s an early game, so we don't have a lot of time to prepare. And that's what it is. Focusing on the day being where our feet are and getting ready to mentally and physically attack a team who's playing at a high level. My players played a lot of minutes, so it's about rest recovery and getting their minds back right.”

On if Quinn should have picked up a technical foul during the game for her players to get respect.

Coach stated, “It's Dom. It's Gabby. It's Nneka. It's Ezi. It's our entire team. And I also have to be smart. There's no point in trying to get a tech late in the game. And now, you know, we're changing a one-possession game to a two-or-three-possession game. So I have to be smart and diligent in trying to contain my composure. But at the end of the day, if that's what it's going to take to get calls, then I have to do it. It's ridiculous. It's been happening since game one. And I haven't said anything. But I watch what other people do and watch what other people say and how it changes for them. So I'm saying something today. My players work so hard. And we're not foul merchants. We're not seeking to get to the freedom line. We're just trying to play basketball. And we're not getting rewarded for that. So I'll continue. Yeah, maybe I need to get more techs.”

On the fight the Storm displayed down multiple possessions in both overtimes and continued to battle to the very end.

Quinn told me, “That's who we are. We have a group of resilient women who want to play the right way, play for each other, present the best version of themselves for fans and everyone who comes and supports. It is. It's going to pay dividends hopefully down the stretch with a game like this, whether it's reps, whether it's execution down the stretch and all the things that matter, good and bad. We will take a look at it and learn from it and grow from it. But this is a game that will help us down the road.”

Notes:
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