Storm Clinch with 74-73 win Part 2

Additional thoughts, discussion, and interviews from Seattle's win over Golden State.

It took 44 games, but the Seattle Storm clinched a spot for the 2025 WNBA postseason. They did it with one of the more thrilling endings to a game in recent memory. The scrappy young expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, gave Seattle everything it could handle. The Storm weren’t handed anything. They didn’t back into the playoffs via an LA loss. Seattle was forced to take it themselves. They overcame a 10-point deficit late in the third quarter and outscored the Valkyries 21-12 over the game’s final period to extend their season for at least another two games.

You can read the full game recap by my intern at the link below.

In Part 2, I discussed Seattle’s three potential playoff opponents, how the Storm are now guaranteed a lottery pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, and discussed players (and coaches) coming through in the clutch moments.

Playoff Matchups

Seattle Storm versus the #1 seed Minnesota Lynx

The two teams split their head-to-head 2-2.
Game 1: Seattle 77 at Minnesota 82
Game 2: Minnesota 84 at Seattle 94
Game 3: Minnesota 91 at Seattle 87
Game 4: Seattle 93 at Minnesota 79
Total Points: Seattle 351 - Minnesota 336

Seattle Storm versus the potential #2 seed Las Vegas Aces

The two teams split their head-to-head 2-2
Game 1: Las Vegas 82 at Seattle 102
Game 2: Las Vegas 75 at Seattle 70
Game 3: Seattle 90 at Las Vegas 83
Game 4: Seattle 86 at Las Vegas 90
Total Points: Seattle 348 - Las Vegas 330

Seattle Storm versus the potential #2 seed Atlanta Dream

The two teams split their head-to-head 2-2
Game 1: Atlanta 94 at Seattle 87
Game 2: Seattle 80 at Atlanta 79
Game 3: Atlanta 85 at Seattle 75
Game 4: Seattle 80 at* Atlanta 78 - *Atlanta’s 2nd “home” game was in Vancouver, B.C.
Total Points: Atlanta 336 - 322 Seattle

Interestingly enough, Seattle matches up best with the Minnesota Lynx. Even though the Lynx have been the most consistent team all season, they’ve looked like the best team pretty much all year, and they also have a terrific home-court advantage in Minnesota. Minnesota also has one of the best players and the potential MVP winner, Napheesa Collier. The Lynx are also the most efficient offense in the league. They have the best field goal shooting percentage (47.3%) and the top three-point shooting (38%).

So why do the Storm match up so well against Minnesota? I’d say the number one reason is that the Lynx don’t have a dominant large low-post player. Both Collier and Aussie Alanna Smith are talented players, but neither has a dominant physical presence. Collier is undersized at 6’1”. Smith is still a very good player and can stretch the floor with her three-point shooting, but she isn’t going to consistently bully others down low like Brionna Jones, Jonquel Jones, A’ja Wilson, etc.

Meanwhile, we do know that Dominique Malonga has specifically given Napheesa Collier problems. I wrote a lot about that during the last time the Lynx and Storm faced off against one another.

Seattle would still be massive underdogs in that series, but their defense would at least give them a shot. They’d likely have to get hot from beyond the arc like they did in their 93-79 victory to have a chance to eliminate the Lynx.

The Lynx series would also be fun because of the drama. Skylar Diggins was talking a lot of mess the last time they faced off against one another. Diggins and Erica Wheeler also did Minnesota’s electric slide victory line dance at midcourt after the game, which felt like the ultimate disrespect.

But Minnesota and Seattle wouldn’t be the only fun matchup. There is also a very realistic chance that if the Storm get in, they’ll be facing the Las Vegas Aces. That would have some major storylines to it, as Jewell Loyd would be facing off against her old team. With the drama that took place in the offseason, during Unrivaled, and during an earlier game this season, it could be fireworks!

Another fun storyline would be that the Aces eliminated the Storm in the playoffs not only last season, but the last two times the Storm have been in the playoffs (2022 and 2024). That also followed the Storm sweeping the Aces in the 2020 WNBA Finals. To say there have been some intense playoff series between these two teams would be an understatement.

Las Vegas is on a 15-game winning streak. I don’t think any team wants to see them in the playoffs right now. However, I’d still give the Storm a fighting chance. A lot of the analytics say that Las Vegas isn’t nearly as good as its record or 15-game winning streak would indicate. Plus, with Ezi Magbegor, Nneka Ogwumike, and Dominique Malonga, they should have enough size to try and counter A’ja Wilson. No one is going to stop A’ja. But if they can even slow her down a little, they could win. Especially if Gabby Williams and Brittney Sykes can limit the additional damage from Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, and Jewell Loyd.

The Storm beat Las Vegas twice this season. That included a thrashing where they led by nearly 30 points early on in the season, and another game in Las Vegas. Even in Seattle’s most recent loss to the Aces late in the year, it was a close game that the Storm lost by four points. It was also Brittney Sykes’ first game with the team, and they were still getting a feel for how to play together.

Seattle won’t be favored in any playoff matchup, but that doesn’t mean they can’t win a playoff series.

Their most difficult matchup would probably be against the Atlanta Dream. The Dream are the best rebounding team in the league, the Storm are the worst. Atlanta also takes the second-most three-point shot attempts (28.4/game). The Dream can win with their size with Brionna Jones, Brittney Griner, and Naz Hillmon. Or they can beat you with their shooting with Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray, and Te-Hina Paopao. They have multiple ways to win and multiple ways to take advantage of matchups. Of the three possible playoff opponents, Atlanta is the only team to outscore the Storm in total points, as I’ve listed above. Seattle finished 2-2 against all three opponents (Minnesota, Las Vegas, and Atlanta), but Seattle’s largest defeats and smallest victories came against Atlanta. Of the three teams, the Dream feel like the worst matchup for the Storm.

Hello, Lottery Pick!

General Manager Talisa Rhea’s massive gamble to part with the team’s 2024 lottery pick has paid off. The team traded away the fourth overall pick, which turned into Rickea Jackson, in order to shed Kia Nurse’s contract. That allowed Seattle to sign both Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike during the 2024 WNBA Free Agency period.

It was essentially trading their 4th overall pick for Nneka Ogwumike. But they also got some insurance in the form of the Spark’s 2026 first-round pick. Through the first couple of months of the season, that pick looked like it would remain a lottery pick for Seattle, but as the year progressed, the Sparks kept winning and the Storm kept losing. Every win by Los Angeles was painful, and every loss by the Storm was excruciating. The losses to LA were specifically the worst, as Seattle was undermining its own future by blowing leads and giving the Sparks a ton of hope.

In the end, it took until the final game of the regular season, but the Storm clinched the 8th and final playoff spot. Storm fans might want to write “Thank You!” letters to Rhyne Howard and the Atlanta Dream. Atlanta handed Los Angeles two losses last week that helped the Storm avoid falling into a tiebreaker with the Sparks (one Seattle would have lost).

Currently, the Storm have the third-best odds to win the #1 overall pick. They are guaranteed no worse than the 5th overall pick, but they can also move up to #1 or #2. The league draws the lottery numbers for the top two picks, and the rest play out by a combined two-year record of the (now) five lottery teams.

Unfortunately, because the Washington Mystics tanked the final month and lost 10 games in a row to end their season, they are within one game of the LA Sparks’ combined record. Across the Timeline has the lottery standings by record that you can view here.

Currently, the Sparks have the third-best odds to win the lottery at 17%. Dallas has the best odds at 40% and Chicago (actually Minnesota) has the second-best odds at 25%. Washington has the fourth-best at 11%. Connecticut (owned by Chicago) has the worst odds of the lottery teams due to their strong 2024 season. They will have just a 7% chance to win.

I spoke with ESPN’s Kevin Pelton. He said that if LA wins its last game against the Las Vegas Aces on Thursday, then the two teams will split their lottery odds. That means LA (Seattle) and Washington would each have a 14% chance to win. If neither team wins the lottery, then a coin flip decides who would pick third and which team would pick 4th.

Your rooting interest for the rest of the week goes like this:
Root for Atlanta to beat Connecticut on Wednesday to keep the pressure on the Las Vegas Aces.
Root for the Aces to defeat the Sparks to guarantee the Storm have the third-best odds and stay at 17%.
If the Sparks beat the Aces, take solace that the Storm’s other draft pick moves from #14 to #13 (this only applies if Atlanta wins on Wednesday).

Coming through in the Clutch

With so many games being close losses this season, it was nice to see one go the positive way for the Storm on Tuesday night. Especially with so much on the line (a playoff spot, a lottery pick, etc.). Seattle got no favors from the Phoenix Mercury, who pulled all of their starters in the 4th quarter, handing the LA Sparks the win on a silver platter.

That was the large concern going into this week’s slate of games. On paper, the Mercury at home should have beaten the Sparks. But you just never know what’s going to happen or what changes once a team has nothing to play for. The Mercury were mostly locked into the 4th overall seed, with a minor chance to move up to 3rd in the standings, but only if Las Vegas lost its final two games. That included a home game against the lowly Chicago Sky (10-33). The Aces led by 20 points entering the final frame. Once the Mercury’s coach saw that, he pulled all of his starters against the Sparks.

Fortunately, in Seattle’s final game, they came through in the clutch, edging out the Golden State Valkyries by one point. Erica Wheeler knocked down the game-winner with less than 20 seconds left in the game. Wheeler talked about that moment during the post-game press conference afterwards.

She initially downplayed her heroics.

“It's not really about me. We knew how important this game was to get into the postseason. So yeah, that shot won a game, but it was a team effort. We did everything we needed to do as a team. So it happened. I was the last one to take the shot. But I'm just grateful to be in this position. It was a team effort. It's not about me. It's never really about me. It's always about the team. And I'm going to do whatever I got to do to help the team win.” Wheeler stated.

Wheeler was later asked more about the game-winning moment, “Super special. Think about when you're a kid, when you're in the driveway, countdown. Five, four, and you hit the shot. I just hit it live. I mean, those are the moments you live for. And in front of this crowd, this crowd is amazing. So, for me, I feel good. I'm still shaking. My dad keeps hugging me nonstop. So I just feel amazing. I'm happy to be in the postseason.”

I spoke with Nneka Ogwumike after the game about the importance of actually earning the playoff spot instead of getting in due to a Sparks loss.

Ogwumike answered, “Yeah, that's important, you know. In my experience, this is my 15th season, so being in a position where you have some level of control of your destiny is incredibly important. You don't ever wanna leave it to chance or leave it to someone else's hands, hoping that a game goes one way or the other. And quite frankly, that's not how you want to enter the playoffs anyway. You know, it's the reality of it. It happens at times. But that's really not how you want to go into a season where it's win or go home.”

Before I sign off, I did want to credit Coach Quinn. I thought she made a lot of the right moves throughout the game that helped the team get the victory. If I’m going to write about her faults or call into question some of her coaching decisions during the team’s losses, it’s only fair that I offer up praise during moments that I thought helped the Storm win.

Early in the game, I thought she did a good job of subbing in Dominique Malonga when the team couldn’t score at all in the first quarter. Ezi’s offense wasn’t working, and the team was really struggling on that end. Malonga scored four of the Storm’s 12 points in the opening frame.

I don’t recall the specific time period, but I believe it was in the 2nd or 3rd period. I remember the Valkyries were getting to the rim too easily, and Malonga isn’t as skilled as Magbegor on the defensive side of the ball. I remember Quinn got Ezi back in the game, and it helped the Storm’s interior defense improve.

Another thing that really stood out to me was that Skylar was getting beaten badly off the dribble defensively a lot, especially as the game got into the 2nd half. Instead of trotting out a tired 35-year-old, she had Brittney Sykes and Erica Wheeler pick up the slack. In fact, in a game where Gabby shot 1-5 FG and Skylar shot 3-12 FG, Quinn didn’t force them into action. Both players spent five minutes on the bench in the 4th quarter with the game on the line. In the past, we’ve seen Seattle’s coach grind her players down, and they have nothing left at the end of the game.

I liked that decision because Williams and Diggins were struggling and they weren’t playing well. Wheeler and Sykes were playing better, and both of them played the full 10 minutes of the 4th quarter. “Slim” actually played all 20 minutes of the 2nd half without any rest (she played 37 minutes total). And while Sykes also didn’t have a great shooting night, she did what she does best. She got to the free throw line eight times and made all eight of her foul shots. Every single one of them was crucial to Seattle’s victory.

Even though Skylar was struggling on both ends, she played her in more condensed minutes in that fourth quarter, and that still allowed her to be effective. Diggins scored just one point, but had a couple of important assists. Her pass to Sykes near the rim for two was one of the best plays of the 4th quarter for Seattle.

Lastly, for the game’s final defensive possession, Quinn subbed Gabby Williams back in for Skylar. Leaving Gabby and Ezi on the bench during the final two minutes against the LA Sparks cost Seattle that game as they lost a seven-point lead with two and a half minutes to play. Quinn learned from that mistake and properly swapped Gabby back in for the final possession in Tuesday’s contest. And because of that, the Storm are headed to the playoffs.

Post-Game Press Conference

If you prefer the audio versions, you can listen to them below.

Player Interviews

Coach’s Quotes

Notes:
Thanks for all the great support! Please tell other WNBA fans about my coverage. Please share, retweet, repost, etc., if you enjoy my articles.
Thanks to Her Hoop Stats and Across the Timeline for being great resources.
Photo Credits: Seattle Storm/WNBA Photography

Social Media:
Follow me on Bluesky (@wnbastormchasers.bsky.social)
Follow me on Threads (@WNBAStormChasers)
Follow me on X/Twitter (@WNBAStormChaser)