Storm Drop Another Close One 82-80

The Chicago Sky's hot start kept Seattle at bay.

(Seattle, WA) - The Seattle Storm (7-30) came out extremely flat and never recovered. The Chicago Sky (13-22) jumped out to a 12-point first-quarter lead, led by as many as 21 points, and never gave the lead back. Seattle was without veteran guard Natisha Hiedeman, and it showed through the first half, where the Storm looked out of sorts and Chicago was sharp. To Seattle’s credit, they made a huge second-half push, outscoring the Sky 51-36 and nearly coming back to win the game.

Seattle was led by their literal Big 3 lineup. Dominique Malonga led the team with 19 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks, and two steals. Ezi Magbegor had another impressive performance with 17 points on 7-12 FG. She also had five blocked shots. Awa Fam added 14 points on 5-10 FG and grabbed five rebounds.

Coach Sonia Raman utilized her Big 3 lineup for extended minutes for the first time this season, and they showed great promise. Dominique Malonga, Ezi Magbegor, and Awa Fam shared the court for 11 minutes in the second half of this game. During that time, they scored 33 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, had six blocks, and outscored the Chicago Sky by 17 points. When digging into the advanced stats, they had a 122.2 Offensive Rating, a 59.3 Defensive Rating, and a Net Rating of +63.0. Obviously, it’s an extremely small sample size, and you can find other three-player lineups with similar ridiculous Net Rating scores in limited minutes. But for just a little perspective, the Minnesota Lynx, the WNBA’s best team, has an overall Net Rating of 10.5 for the season.

I spoke with both Ezi Magbegor and Coach Raman about that after the game.

Ezi told me, “Yeah, I think, obviously, saw a little bit of it in the last few games, but I think it was nice to have, like you said, an extended time together. We’re still learning how to play with each other. I think our teammates are as well, but it’s nice.”

“And you can kind of switch it up and, you need a different lineup, or you need something different defensively, offensively. So just being able to capitalize on that and making it harder for the other team to come from.” Magbegor added.

I asked Coach Raman about what she liked about the Big 3 lineup, and she had a lot to say about it.