Storm Fall to Mercury 85-82 Part 2

Additional thoughts, discussion, and interviews from Seattle's loss to Phoenix

The Seattle Storm (17-18) lost another heartbreaker in what is becoming a theme in the 2nd half of this season. It was Seattle’s 7th loss in their last eight games and the sixth defeat by five points or less during the month of August. The Storm fell 85-82 to the Phoenix Mercury (20-13). You can read the full game recap here.

In Part 2, I wrote about some disappointing numbers when it comes to the Storm’s home record, celebrated “Forever Sue” day, discussed how certain players find more success after leaving Seattle, and took another look Around the W. I’ve included Sue Bird’s statue ceremony and the post-game press conference. Plus, some post-game quotes from players and Coach Noelle Quinn.

Gross Home Cooking

On Sunday afternoon, the Seattle Storm lost at Climate Pledge Arena for the 10th time this season. They have a losing record at home this year (8-10) with four home games remaining. The Storm will need to win all four games to finish above .500 at home.

It’s almost astonishing that a team with this much talent can play so poorly on its home court. Clearly, this is all your fault. The fans haven’t done enough to rally the team through these tough moments.

In all seriousness, the Storm haven’t won at home since July 16th when they defeated the Golden State Valkyries 67-58. That was right before the All-Star break. Since then, the team is 3-9 overall and 0-6 at home. That’s gross home cooking. The type that you politely decline and place an order with DoorDash.

What’s more troublesome to me is that outside of the 2023 season, where they finished 11-29 overall and 4-16 at home, this season is the worst the Storm have played at home in 15 years. That includes other seasons where they missed the playoffs, including 2014, where they went 12-22, and 2015, where they finished 10-24 overall. They didn’t have double-digit losses at home in either of those seasons.

I asked Coach Quinn why the team has struggled so much with their home games this year.

She said, “Everybody's good. A lot of parity in the league. It's match-ups and all the things that go into playing whoever. I think our fans have been great. I think our players have played too, you know, played at their best. We're not out here trying to not hit shots and not compete and win games. I think we're giving our all. And it's a little bit… we've had these tough games, these tight games at home. On the road, I don't know the stat of how close games have been, but I'm not sure why it's difficult at home, but we're on the road for a long time, and hopefully we can kind of get on a roll.”

While I don’t put a ton of blame on coaching for the 2023 season, that saw them lose Sue Bird to retirement, and all of their free agency plans fell apart as Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot, and Brittney Sykes went to other teams once Stewie decided to leave for New York. The hard truth is that the Storm have had two of their worst seasons at home under Coach Noelle Quinn.

Maybe Climate Pledge is just cursed. Are people touching the green wall when they’re not supposed to? The Seattle Kraken have also been a horrible home team since their inception, dating back to 2021. There might be something funky about the home arena. When they dug down 53 feet below ground, maybe they disturbed some graves or something.

I don’t know. I just know that the Storm (and the Kraken) are really struggling to win games at home, and that stinks for the fans who pay a lot of their hard-earned money to attend the games.

Forever Sue Day

Sue Bird’s legendary career was enshrined with the unveiling of her large bronze statue outside Climate Pledge Arena earlier on Sunday. Many of her former teammates were in attendance. Diana Taurasi was there. And, of course, Megan Rapinoe was there to support her partner.

It was great to see Sue Bird with most of her Head Coaches in attendance. Brian Agler, Lin Dunn, Dan Hughes, and Jenny Boucek were all there to celebrate Sue’s special moment.

And of course, it’s always wonderful when these two get together.

You can watch the full Statue Unveiling Ceremony at the YouTube link below.

Better Elsewhere

Another thing that is concerning is that there are now multiple examples of players playing better after they leave Seattle.

Sami Whitcomb is having a better season in Phoenix than she did last year. Some of her numbers are skewed higher because she’s back to playing 25 MPG as opposed to 15.3 MPG in 2024. But she’s up to 9.6 PPG (third highest of her career). More importantly, her three-point field goal percentage is up to nearly 35% after it dipped to a career-low 29% last season.

Alysha Clark has also improved since being traded to the Washington Mystics. It’s a smaller sample size, but Clark’s improved her scoring from 3.5 PPG to 6.3 PPG since landing in D.C. This is while also playing roughly the same amount of minutes (18 MPG - SEA to 20 MPG - WA). Clark was shooting 29% from beyond the three-point arc in Seattle, but has improved to 50% with the Mystics.

Li Yueru is another player who has improved since she was traded to the Dallas Wings. However, I think a lot of that is just from getting an expanded role and more minutes. She’s started 12 of her 22 games in Dallas, and her minutes have increased from 8.7 MPG in Seattle to 20.0 MPG in Dallas. She’s increased her points from 2.8 PPG to 7.4 PPG and her rebounding from 1.6 RPG to 5.8 RPG. One positive change is that with more shot attempts, she’s actually increased her shooting percentage from 30% to 42%.

The Yueru trade looks like it was a win-win for both parties. It gave Li a chance to earn more playing time. It gives Seattle an early second-round pick (projected to be 16th overall) in the 2026 draft. And it cleared the way for rookie Dominique Malonga to carve out a larger role off the bench.

Overall, it’s unclear if the improvements these players have seen are because they’ve gone to a better offensive system, or maybe just having a more defined role/more consistent minutes that’s helped improve the play of these players after they leave Seattle.

And since it’s easy to cherry-pick stats, I will add this. Joyner Holmes and Victoria Vivians had better seasons in Seattle last year, but struggled to stay on a roster this season (Holmes played in six games with Las Vegas before being waived, and Vivians didn’t sign with any WNBA team). Also, Erica Wheeler has had a much-improved season in 2025 compared to her 2024 season in Indiana. She’s averaged 10.6 PPG and 3.5 APG with the Storm compared to 3.6 PPG and 1.8 APG with the Fever last year.

What is concerning is that Wheeler has fallen out of rhythm since returning to the bench after she was replaced by Brittney Sykes. She was averaging 14.75 PPG in August before being benched for Sykes. Since coming off the bench, Wheeler is averaging 4.75 PPG over these last four games. “Slim” (Sykes) is averaging 15.3 PPG with Seattle, and plays better defense, so playing her isn’t a mistake. Seattle just needs to find ways to keep the bench players in better rhythm or give them more defined roles, so that they don’t struggle as much.

Around the W

Since I haven’t had the chance to do another Around the W article recently, I thought it was a good time to go over some things beyond just the Storm’s struggles of late.

The Minnesota Lynx remain the top dog with a 28-5 record. What’s most surprising is that they’re doing it without Napheesa Collier, who was playing like the MVP before she went down with a bad ankle injury during the Lynx’s 111-58 mud stomping of the Las Vegas Aces. Minnesota has won all four games since Collier went down with an injury. What’s really impressive about that is two of those games came against the New York Liberty, and another against the Storm in Seattle. They have been fortunate that they’ve had a lighter schedule in August compared to some of the other WNBA teams. Collier has only missed four additional games despite being out since August 2nd. Considering several teams have had to play 3 or 4 games in a week, multiple weeks in a row, it could have been a lot more hectic for them. Minnesota is also undefeated since they traded Diamond Miller to the Dallas Wings for DiJonai Carrington before the Trade Deadline.

Speaking of that embarrassing blowout loss for the Aces. That must have been the kick in the ass Becky Hammon’s team needed. Since that happened, Las Vegas has won every single game it’s played. They are having the complete opposite month that the Seattle Storm are having. They’re 7-1 in August, they’ve won seven games in a row, and they’re 9-1 over their last 10 games. That’s tied with Minnesota for the best record in the WNBA over the timespan. Jewell Loyd requested to start coming off the bench, and that’s done wonders for Las Vegas. Loyd is averaging 14.6 PPG off the bench, and the team has only lost once since she made that decision.

Over the past month, the Aces have gone from a team that was struggling to stay above .500 and fight for a playoff spot to being virtually tied for 4th place in the WNBA standings. They now have a legitimate chance to earn homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs if they continue this recent success. And while the decision to move Loyd to the bench has helped significantly, the larger story might be the strong play of A’ja Wilson. Wilson recently became the first player in WNBA history to have a 30/20 game. She finished with 32 points and 20 rebounds in their win over the Connecticut Sun. Wilson’s impressive numbers have shot her right back into the MVP discussion, especially if the Aces finish in the Top 4.

With the way the Aces and the Storm have been playing lately, it makes Seattle’s decision to trade away its own first-round pick look like a horrible mistake. Giving up one of their three first-round picks in itself isn’t a bad decision to acquire another All-Star player with the hopes of contending for a Championship. Especially when both Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart suffered injuries with uncertain return dates, weakening the top two seeds at the time of the trade deadline. But man, that decision, combined with Seattle’s horrific play as of late, looks like it might cost the Storm a Top 5 lottery pick. That is such a punch in the gut for the organization. They honestly should have hedged their bets and traded away the Aces’ pick that they owned instead. It’s like betting against your favorite sports team. If your team loses, at least you got paid some money. If your team wins, you might have lost some money, but your favorite team won. Instead, the Storm are looking at a massive lose-lose situation that they could have avoided.

Outside of Las Vegas and Minnesota, the Atlanta Dream (22-12) have been playing some inspired basketball. They’re 8-2 over their last 10 games. They were the hottest team in the WNBA until they lost the Canada game against the Storm on Friday. They had won six games in a row, but after that loss, they quickly regrouped and beat the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday by a final score of 79-63. As the New York Liberty have struggled without Breanna Stewart (4-6), the Dream have moved ahead of them in the standings and currently hold the second-best record in the league. Despite another injury to Jordin Canada, they are in a great position to finish as a Top 4 seed with 10 games remaining on their schedule.

Three teams that are about to be officially eliminated from the playoffs are the Connecticut Sun (6-27), the Chicago Sky (8-25), and the Dallas Wings (9-26). They have no shot at making the postseason. Because the WNBA uses a two-year record rule for the lottery draft odds, the Wings currently have the best odds to secure the #1 overall pick, followed by the Chicago Sky, and then the Los Angeles Sparks. The bad news for Chicago is that the Minnesota Lynx own their 2026 draft pick, which means there is a very high probability that the Lynx could win the 2025 WNBA Championship AND have the top pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. Now that’s impressive!

The LA Sparks have cooled off a bit from their hot stretch. They’ve lost three out of their last five games. What’s incredibly frustrating is that Seattle, who own LA’s first-round pick, could have put the stake in their heart by handing them two additional losses in August. But instead, the Storm lost both games by a combined five points. If Seattle misses the playoffs and misses out on the opportunity to have a Top 5 Lottery pick, they’ll have nobody to blame but themselves.

Another team worth keeping an eye on is the Indiana Fever (19-16). They’ve had horrific injury luck this year. Not only has Caitlin Clark missed 22 games (and counting), but they lost Aari McDonald and Sydney Colson to season-ending injuries. Sophie Cunningham also went down with a bad knee injury on Sunday, and it’s possible that she will also miss the rest of their games with that injury. To their credit, Coach Stephanie White and players like Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, and Natasha Howard have stepped up to keep them afloat. They’re currently the 6th seed in the standings.

Post-Game Press Conference

If you prefer to listen to the audio version, they are below. Some quotes have been transcribed below as well.

Player Interviews

Nneka Ogwumike on the positives

“I think being closer in the rebound race is also really good. Being able to share the ball, you know, being able to share the ball and play in transition. I think that there's, and not just for this game, but for all of these tight games that we've been in, there's much to build off of. And those are just amongst some of the few things that we know we did pretty well today.”

Gabby on how the transition game helps them

“I think it allows us to play off more of our instincts, and it allows us just to get back to kind of our bread and butter of what we do well. I think we have a bad habit of overthinking and overanalyzing the game when it can just all be so simple, especially with the pieces that we have and the athletes we have on this team. So I think transition just allows us to just get to the simple stuff, just get to drags, just get to pockets, just get to early seals. And those kinds of things are also momentum and momentum-building plays that we can get our energy, we can feed off of.”

Nneka on what gave Phoenix the edge

Ogwumike said, “I think that recognizing when something is working and going back to it, I think sometimes we try our best to play hard and play aggressive, but there are moments when we don't need to necessarily, we just need to get to space, get to space, and get to the spots that are working. And I feel like this has kind of been something year-long that we can be better at just being pros and understanding okay that work let's do it again you know this mismatch is is working you know let's go at that and recognizing that as a group for us to be able to really play the game within the game.”

Coach’s Quotes

Coach Quinn on the positives from this game

Quinn said, “Yeah, along with 56 points in the paint and also 14 fast break points, I think these are areas where we've been pretty consistent. The other thing I thought we were doing early was getting to the free throw line. Kind of didn't happen the same in the second half, but a lot of positive things. You know, our pace is pretty high. We've been getting a lot of good shots, a lot of shots, more shots than our opponents. Got to be a little bit more efficient in that area. You know, good minutes from, you know, a lot of people. And so for this road trip, yeah, I think we can try to stack some days. It starts in Chicago, making sure we had that same mindset with continuing to attack and get into the pain. We've been sharing the ball pretty well and our turnovers have been low, so staying in that pocket of basketball and trying to get some stops defensively as well.”

On Alyssa Thomas’ impact on the game

“We talked about it before the game. When she's a facilitator, the stat is averaging 10+ assists… not saying we want her to score, but kind of make her a score in that capacity and eliminate everyone else getting involved. But she's just, she's physical, she's smart, and she makes timely plays. And so, you know, when you have an athlete like that who plays hard every possession, she's going to continue to impact the game the way that she does. And she did all three things at a high level. But I thought, for the most part, we were engaged with the coverages there. It's just she knocked her shots in today.”

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

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