(Everett, WA) - The Seattle Storm improve to a league-best 6-1 on the season after defeating the Indiana Fever 88-73. It was head coach Noelle Quinn’s first career WNBA victory. The win is Seattle’s 5th in a row. The Fever fall to 1-8 on the season.

“You know, she demanded before the game that we make her look good and get the win. Especially, considering it was an ESPN game.” Candice Dupree said with a little jest. “I’m glad that worked out, she got the game ball afterward. I’m happy for her.” Dupree told me after the game.

Sue Bird also spoke with the media after the game about what it meant to help Noelle Quinn win the first game of her WNBA head coaching career.

“I’m just so happy for Noey. Just truly deserving. She puts in the work. She takes time out to better herself as a coach. She’s already a solid person. I’ve been here with the Storm for a lot of firsts. I’ve been here for just about every first, except for maybe the first win (for the franchise). So to be here for Noey’s first win it’s something I’m proud to be a part of. Especially as the first black woman, a black person to be a head coach of this franchise. It’s really exciting and hopefully, there’s more to come.” Bird told the media.

Seattle was led by the 28 points of Breanna Stewart. Jewell Loyd gave Seattle 18 points including 4-7 FG from beyond the three-point line. Sue Bird was the only other Storm player to score in double figures with 12. Bird also had a game-high eight assists. Mercedes Russell led the team in rebounding with 11. The Storm got 21 points from their bench led by Candice Dupree who had eight.

Bird talked about Breanna Stewart’s performance after the game.

“I saw the box score I was like ‘oh dang, Stewie, you're at 28.’ It was a quiet 28, and that's what great players do. You're obviously going notice it when she's doing spectacular things, but Stewie, at this point she is the type of player that can drop close to 30 and you barely notice because she's just smooth with it. She picks her spots, she gets to the free throw line, which I think leads to some of the quiet points. But when we need big shots, we know she is there to make them. She had a huge three late in the fourth quarter, that just kind of gave us some breathing room” She said.

Mercedes Russell also spoke about Breanna Stewart’s performance during the post-game.

“It’s what I see from her every night. (Stewie) is a certified bucket. It’s so fun playing with her and being alongside her in the game. She’s so versatile and athletic. Her size is incredible. It’s really fun to be her teammate” Russell added.

After the game, I asked Coach Noelle Quinn what really stood out from this game that made her happy with the team’s performance and what still needs to be worked on moving forward.

“In this league teams find ways to just win when it doesn't feel good and when nothing is clicking. And again, I think we're so used to this level of excellence that sometimes when we don't hit it, it feels like we're not even doing very good things. And we did, you know? Our average of points in the paint was about 40. We kept it down at 28. We shot 50% from three. Stephanie Talbot did an excellent job on Kelsey Mitchell. We outrebounded them. We kept our turnovers low and we still scored 88 points. So, there is this that we have to get to with chemistry and in a flow and all of these things, but we're at a very good starting point. Obviously defensively, we will continue to work to get better. But keeping them below their averages is so important for us. We had only five steals, but we forced some turnovers and got some points for those turnovers. So, just building blocks, continuing to grow in what we do on both sides of the floor. And continue to have that synergy with offense and defense and then with one another.” Quinn told me.

Indiana kept the game competitive never allowing the Storm to blow them out as they did against Las Vegas in back-to-back games last week. However, they were never able to regain the lead after losing it midway through the first quarter. They did have balanced scoring with four players scoring in double figures, but no player had more than 12 points. Teaira McCowan was the best player for Indiana scoring 12 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. She also had three blocked shots and altered several others. Jessica Breland (12 points), Danielle Robinson (11 points), and Tiffany Mitchell (10 points) were the other Fever players to score in double figures.

McCowan spoke about her rebounding ability after the game.

“I grow each and every year and I've added something to the league every year. Rebounding is great and the stuff that nobody wants to do. If I could just go in and get a couple of rebounds and put-backs, that's good enough for me. I'm getting my touches there and don’t necessarily need to have separate plays called for me if I'm going in and rebounding. That's how I look at it. Not too many people want to rebound, but I like it.” She said.

“She’s just a presence in the paint. I’ve been playing against her for several years (including college). She’s really tall, even taller than me. So obviously, she’s really tall. She’s so strong. She solidified her presence in the paint. As a team, we did a good job on the defensive end, just rebounding.” Mercedes Russell on playing against Teaira McCowan.

Despite the 15-point loss, Indiana Fever coach Marianne Stanley was quite pleased with her team’s performance against Seattle.

“I thought we competed. I thought our energy was great no matter which group we had out there. I mean to have, what, four people in double figures and one with nine. So we're getting contributions from a number of people, which is what we want. We also took better care of the basketball and that was a key for us for this game because Seattle likes to trap. They like to come aggressively on pick-and-rolls and they did it. And I thought we handled it well. We only had 10 turnovers for the whole game and that's probably our best performance in that category this season, so that's another bright spot. I thought we made some strides defensively. We're still a work in progress, but we made some strides. We used our whole roster and got good plays no matter the combinations.”

She would go on to praise her point guards after the game.

”I thought Lindsay Allen had a heck of a floor game with six assists and two turnovers. In between her and Danielle Robinson there were 10 assists. That’s an excellent floor game from the people that are running the show out there. I was happy with that. As I told our team, none of us are in for consolation prizes. We're not about the business of that type of thing. I'm asking them to give everything they have and to just keep getting a little bit better each game. I trust that if we do that as a team, then in due time, we will be where we want to be. We've had a tough stretch of six games in 12 days … so it's been a little bit of a grind this early in the year for a team that's just getting used to playing together and we'll come out the other side okay. We just got to tough it out and grind it out right now, but we made some good strides today in a number of categories” Coach Stanley said.

Game Breakdown

Two things stood out early in this game. The Seattle Storm struggled against the Indiana Fever last season. The Fever were one of only three teams to beat Seattle last year. The Storm also struggled against Danielle Robinson who played for the Las Vegas Aces last season. Both of those things were apparent in the early minutes of Tuesday night’s game as Danielle Robinson led the Fever out to a 5-0 run.

Breanna Stewart got the Storm going scoring the team’s first four points. A Jewell Loyd three-pointer tied the game at 11-11

Seattle used a pair of triples from Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart to take a 19-13 lead with a little over two minutes remaining in the quarter.

The Fever cooled off a bit as the Storm took a 25-16 lead after the first quarter. Seattle finished the quarter on a 19-5 run after trailing 11-6 early on.

Breanna Stewart (11 points) and Jewell Loyd (10 points) did almost all of the damage. Seattle held the Fever to under 39% (7-18) shooting from the floor.

Candice Dupree gave the Storm a nice boost off the bench scoring six points in the first half.

Sue Bird came in and immediately hit a three in the second to put Seattle up 11 at 36-25.

The biggest thing that stood out in the 2nd quarter was the Fever’s Teaira McCowan’s ability to alter several shots in the paint. She officially had two blocks in the first half, but she altered several other shots while in the game.

Seattle shot very poorly from two-point range going 9-25 from the floor for 36%. They did shoot 5-10 (50%) from beyond the arc and 40% total in the first half.

Indiana was down 12 points in the 2nd quarter but used several drives for easy layups to cut Seattle’s double-digit lead to just five points at the midway point. The Storm led 43-38 after two quarters.

Breanna Stewart led the team with 16 points in the first half. While Jewell Loyd added 10 points (all in the first quarter). Danielle Robinson led the Fever in scoring with nine points. Teaira McCowan added seven points and eight rebounds through the first two quarters.

The Storm regained a 10 point lead after Loyd hit a three and Stewie knocked down a pair of free throws to put Seattle 48-38.

Both teams made the occasional runs against one another.

A ludicrous Flagrant 1 foul was called on Jewell Loyd when Danielle Robinson stuck her leg out and tripped when coming down from a jump shot. Robinson sank both free throws and the Fever immediately scored another basket to cut Seattle’s lead to six points at 50-44.

The home team got some transition baskets after that to pull back up by 12 which forced a timeout by Indiana with Seattle leading 56-44.

Seattle pushed their lead to 15 points after Breanna Stewart knocked down one of three free throws, but the Storm got the offensive rebound where Stewie took the ball straight to the cup.

The Fever made another run with most of Seattle’s starters on the bench. They cut the Storm’s 15 point lead down to nine at the end of the third. Seattle led 61-52.

Epiphanny Prince hit a three to begin the 4th quarter and put the Storm up 12 at 64-52. However, a quick 5-0 run by Indiana cut Seattle’s lead down to seven and forced the Storm to take a timeout. After the timeout, Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird returned. Loyd hit a three and Bird hit a midrange jumper to put the Storm back up 12.

Three-pointers by Breanna Stewart and Stephanie Talbot put the Storm up 14 points with under 90 seconds left in the game.

Ultimately, Seattle prevailed 88-73 to hand Indiana their 8th loss of the season already.

Additional Analysis

This was a little bit of an odd game. Besides Indiana’s early 5-0 and 11-6 start to the first quarter, Seattle led the entire way. Once they tied the game up at 11-11 with 4:24 left to play in the 4th quarter, the Fever never regained the lead. Seattle led by nine after one, five at the break, and nine points again heading into the 4th quarter. The Storm carried double-digit leads multiple times throughout the 2nd half. And yet, occasionally Indiana would make a run and cut the lead to seven or five. They threatened to regain the lead, but Seattle would always respond with a three or a 5-0 run, etc.

Seattle’s defense played well in limiting the Fever to just 73 points on 39% field goal shooting (29-74). But the Storm weren’t able to force Indiana into very many turnovers (just 10). Seattle had just five steals in the game. And they weren’t able to speed up their pace or get out in transition like they normally do in games.

I spoke to Coach Noelle Quinn, Candice Dupree, and Sue Bird about the pace of play after the game.

“I felt there were lulls to this game. I felt like we got lulled into their pace. They have an excellent post player in McCowan and I think they slow it down and they’re intentional in getting her the ball. We’re at our best when we’re moving, getting out and running, and playing out of our defense. It may look a little bit different this year, but we have to find that sweet spot of that pace we need to play at. And the turnovers we need to generate to get to that pace.” Coach Quinn told me.

“I think that if we had done a better job getting stops, we would have been able to get out and run more. They rely heavily on their half-court for offense, so it slowed us down a lot. And that was some stuff that we definitely talked about in timeouts and at halftime. You know, try not to play at their pace and play at our pace to get out and run” Dupree stated after the game.

“They slow it down a little bit more than we would like to and I think it lulled us a little bit in the beginning. It was at some point in the 2nd half that we talked about that. We talked about not letting their offense and defense dictate what we’re going to do. It’s funny that you say that we were up double-digits most of the game because I think from our standpoint we evaluate ourselves on how we’re playing and not on the score. So it didn’t really feel that way. That’s why you saw some of the funk out there. But like I said, a win is a win and if you can do it when you’re funky it’s even better because it shows you’ve got some grit.” Bird told me during the post-game press conference.

Another thing that stands out to me is that the Indiana Fever simply don’t have that dominant scorer that can give them 20-30 points a night on a regular basis. I think this is the biggest reason for the team’s struggles over the past few seasons. They have several nice players. Tiffany Mitchell, Kelsey Mitchell, Teaira McCowan, Victoria Vivians, etc. But none of them are elite scorers. The Fever have only scored above 80 points in two of their nine games played so far this year. They currently average 76.0 PPG which is 10th of 12 (or third-worst in the league).

They really need a scorer on their team like Betnijah Laney. It is ironic because they had Laney on their roster in 2019, but she only averaged 5.6 PPG that season despite starting 27 games and playing 26 minutes a game. It’s unfortunate for the Fever that Laney would then go on to have back-to-back breakout seasons with the Atlanta Dream last year and the New York Liberty this season. Laney is averaging 22.3 PPG this year after winning the MIP award in 2020 with the Dream.

Jersey Count

The Seattle Storm looked fresh in their green and white Heroine jerseys on Tuesday night. With the 88-73 victory over the Indiana Fever, they improve to 3-0 on the season when wearing their white and green uniforms. They now have more wins in their Heroine jerseys than any other type. It’s also a little surprising to me that after seven games, they’ve only worn their black Rebel uniforms once (the season opener against Las Vegas).

Records per jersey type this season:
Rebel: 1-0
Explorer: 2-1
Heroine: 3-0
Overall Record: 6-1

Up Next

On Friday, June 4th, the Storm host the Dallas Wings at 7:00 PM in Everett, WA. This will be another Commissioner’s Cup game for Seattle and they have a chance to improve to 5-0 in those standings with a win over Dallas.

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 along with myself: Percy Allen (Seattle Times), Kevin Pelton (ESPN), Zack Ward (Swish Appeal), Doug Feinberg (Associated Press), Mazvita Maraire (CascadiaSports.net)

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Stewart, Loyd, lead Seattle past Indiana…