Storm Lose 10th in a Row Part 2

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

The Seattle Storm (3-14) lost their 10th game in a row, tying the franchise record for the most consecutive losses in the Storm’s 27-year history. Unfortunately, after the first period, this game wasn’t particularly competitive. Seattle was outscored by 25 points over the middle periods and never recovered. If you missed it, you can read Danny’s game recap at the link below.

For Part 2, I wrote about Seattle’s defensive mistakes. I discussed the Storm’s challenges for both players and Coach Raman. I couldn’t believe what happened in the WNBA later on Saturday night, so I had to write about it. I’ve included the audio interviews from that game and the Storm game as well.

Defensive Miscommunication

This game was extremely disappointing to watch from a defensive perspective. Seattle was outscored 29-17 in the 2nd quarter and 33-20 in the third period. They gave up 62 points over the middle quarters. Overall, the Storm had a defensive rating of 117.7. That means if Phoenix had 100 possessions in the game, the Storm would have given up roughly 118 points.

For a better perspective, this season the Storm averages a Defensive Rating of (DEF RTG) of 106.7. That ranks 8th in the WNBA. The defense has been noticeably worse over the past two games, where they’ve given up 93 points to the Mercury and 94 points to the Portland Fire. Over these two games, their DEF RTG is 121.4.

Now, this all could just be a coincidence, but this also coincides with the absence of Jordan Horston. Horston was injured during the Storm’s 76-72 loss against the Golden State Valkyries on June 12th and has missed these last two games.

The team has clearly missed the rim protection of Ezi Magbegor this year. And without Horston, Seattle is now missing their two best defensive players. That leaves the youngest players, Dominique Malonga, Awa Fam, and Flau’jae Johnson, to try to pick up the slack. And with young players, mistakes will be made. On Saturday, a lot of mistakes were made. It looked like the defense was missing their coverages. Proper rotations weren’t taking place. And there was clearly miscommunication because sometimes two players would go to one player, and leave a Mercury player wide-open for the easy shot attempt. That burned Seattle far too often in this game, and boosted the confidence of a Mercury team that has had its own fair share of issues this season.

Seattle will need to learn from this game. They need to figure out why the defense looked so out of place and erratic. Win or lose the next game, that needs to be corrected immediately.

Rookies + Rookie Coach

After the Storm dropped their 10th game in a row, I thought about the significant challenge that was placed on the organization this season. Not only do they have one of the youngest rosters in the WNBA, only one player is over the age of 30 (Stef Dolson), but they have a rookie head coach as well. That isn’t to say Coach Raman is an inexperienced coach. She spent more than a decade coaching college basketball at MIT. Then spent a handful of seasons as an assistant coach in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies before spending last year as an assistant with the New York Liberty. But this is still her very first year as the head coach of a WNBA team. Just as Flau’jae Johnson and Awa Fam are learning on the job and going through growing pains, so is Coach Raman.

I do question whether a veteran WNBA Head Coach would have made any difference. This isn’t to say I think Coach Raman is doing a poor job. She’s dealing with the cards she’s been dealt, which includes a major injury to Ezi Magbegor, a serious concussion to Dominique Malonga, the late arrival of Awa Fam, and other player injuries.

I like how Coach Raman has given her bench more opportunities and is letting some of those players grow and develop as well. As the WNBA has moved to a 44-game regular season and will shift to a 50-game schedule next season, teams aren’t going to be able to play their starters 32-38 MPG game after game. Teams must find ways to get strong bench contribution and that requires playing them more than just spot minutes. Zia Cooke, Jade Melbourne, Mackenzie Holmes, and Katie Lou Samuelson have all had solid games during some of these Storm games, despite the team’s struggles to find the Win Column.

While the defense was very poor on Saturday against Phoenix, overall, the team’s defense has been pretty good. And that’s been without having one of the WNBA’s best rim protectors in the lineup (Magbegor).

I think the offense is an area that probably needs the most improvement, but Natisha Hiedeman is having a borderline All-Star season. Hiedeman is averaging 15.0 PPG and nearly 4.5 APG. We’ve seen breakout performances from Dominique Malonga (28 points and 11 rebounds), Awa Fam (18 points and six rebounds), and Flau’jae Johnson (14 points and 12 rebounds). But because they’re young, they’re also going to have plenty of games where they score in single digits. I think that’s just what this season is going to be about.

Two steps forward, one step back. Or maybe it’s one step forward, and two steps back in the Storm’s case.

In the post-game press conference, Percy Allen asked both Natisha Hiedeman and Coach Raman if the team took a step back in today’s game.

Hiedeman answered, “I don’t want to say we took a step back because I just don’t even want to say that. But obviously, our performance today, I mean, it’s a reflection of the score. We didn’t play our best game. We've got to show up better as a team and just keep battling. (Bring) Good energy, good effort. Like, have all of those things to keep us in games.”

Coach Raman added, “I don’t think so. I think that we’re just continuing to, it’s a process, you know? And we’re continuing to follow that path and stay with the process and stay with the commitment to getting better and to really learning each other. These things can take time, and this is a group that hasn’t played a lot of minutes together. Combinations, injuries, and people who have been in and out of the lineup, we’ve had this ever-revolving door of players, and so that’s hard to do, especially with the young team. We didn’t have like a core from last year that you know has some familiarity with playing with each other in that way, so that’s all being developed right now in real time. Having a core, having a group, that when we need a bucket knows what we’re looking to do, and how we’re looking to do it. And we’re still developing that type of connective tissue. It’s there in moments, and it’s there off the court. We’re really connected. So we just have to continue on the defensive end, on the offensive end, being on a string. All of that takes time.”

The team is struggling badly right now, but Coach Raman is right in saying that the players are developing in real time. Even in these losses, even when Dom Malonga shoots 4-16 FG, because we then see the growth, like her 28-point performance against Portland. Growth and development for players and coaches aren’t always linear.

All of this takes time, and in an instant gratification world that we live in these days, it’s easy to get impatient. The Aces finished six games under .500 in 2018 after getting back-to-back #1 overall picks (Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson). Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings went 10-34 last season. Give the players and Coach Raman time to figure out this league and themselves.

The Sky is Falling

The Seattle Storm have had some heartbreaking losses this season, but they aren’t the only WNBA team playing through misery. If you thought the Storm getting outscored 10-0 in the final 2:39 in the game against Portland was bad, I feel Chicago’s collapse on Saturday night was even worse. The Chicago Sky led by six points (92-86) with 36 seconds left in the game. From there, the following happened:

• Sydney Taylor fouls Arike before the ball is inbounded, leading to one FT for Azzi Fudd plus Dallas retains possession of the ball.

• On that same possession, Paige Bueckers scores a three-pointer and is fouled by Natasha Cloud. Bueckers finishes the 4-point play.

• Kamilla Cardoso catches the ball, then steps into the backcourt, and is whistled for a backcourt violation.

• Cardoso is called for a questionable foul against Li Yueru. Yueru makes both free throws to put Dallas ahead by one.

• Skylar nearly turns it over. Jacy Sheldon recovers the ball and gets a great look at a midrange pull-up, but misses the shot. Azurá Stevens grabs the offensive rebound and misses the putback (possibly fouled - no call), Stevens gets the offensive rebound again, misses again.

• Clock expires, and Dallas somehow wins the game 93-92.

The Sky are 1-9 in their last 10 games and only ahead of Seattle and Connecticut in the WNBA standings. This season has been a colossal failure for Chicago. I don’t see it getting much better. General Manager Jeff Pagliocca has made some really poor decisions, as he or the owners above him refused to pick a lane. After drafting Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese in the 2024 WNBA Draft and failing to reach the playoffs, they should have taken the long approach. The approach that I believe the Storm are taking now. Instead, he tried to rush the timeline and made one of the worst trades in WNBA history. He gave up the #3 overall pick in the 2025 draft, which ended up being Sonia Citron for one season of Ariel Atkins. That trade also included sending a second-round 2027 pick to the Mystics. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also gave the Mystics the rights to swap first-round picks in 2027. As of this writing, the Sky have the second-best odds to land the #1 pick. If they do, the pick goes to Washington. There is a realistic scenario where the Sky will hand the Mystics Sonia Citron and JuJu Watkins.

Both Seattle and Chicago are going through a rough spot right now. I wanted to include their post-game interviews as well to hear how another struggling team is sounding after their losses.

Azurá Stevens post-game interview:

Sydney Taylor post-game interview:

Coach Tyler Marsh’s post-game interview:

Player Interviews

Natisha and Flau’jae:

Coach’s Quotes

Coach Raman Pregame:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Coach Raman Postgame:

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

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