Storm Lose to Sky 95-90 Part 2

Additional thoughts, discussion, and interviews from Seattle's loss in Chicago.

The Seattle Storm (6-20) were unable to overcome the Chicago Sky’s double-digit lead despite a strong rally to end the game as they lost their 20th game of the season by a final score of 95-90. If you missed it, you can read the full game recap below.

In Part 2, I wrote more about the young team’s growing pains this season, how they miss Ezi Magbegor, and the pros and cons of the two-year lottery system. I’ve also included some quotes, plus the audio interviews from Coach Raman, Flau’jae Johnson, and Awa Fam.

Growing Pains

It was around two weeks ago that I wrote and asked if the Seattle Storm had everything they already needed. I said, “We’ve seen growth even amid these losses. Several of their losses in June came down to the 4th quarter. Most of them were in the clutch moments where veterans on other teams just made a couple of additional big plays to close out the game.”

Unfortunately, those issues are still happening throughout July as well. The team is continuing to struggle in late-game scenarios. We saw this more in Sunday’s game against the Mystics, where they lost the lead late with too many turnovers. But they definitely had a chance to win this game against the Sky after cutting the deficit to two points with more than four minutes to go. They had to use a lot of energy and effort to cut the double-digit deficit down to a one-possession game, but even with that momentum, they weren’t able to close things out.

This continues to be a tough lesson for them to learn. Costly turnovers or defensive mistakes at the end of these games are the difference between wins and losses. The good news is that this young team is close. And even if the wins aren’t coming this year, I don’t believe that all hope is lost or that they need major changes. I’d be much more concerned if the team were losing by 25-30 points every night.

After this game, I spoke with Flau’jae Johnson about what the team is learning during these late-game moments.

Johnson answered, “How to win, but also like the game ain’t never, it’s not ever really over. Like, you know, until the buzzer sounds, the game is not over. So we got to continue to play and have the mentality of the next play. If they score, okay, we’re going to get a stop, we about to score. I think us being so young, we kind of get too focused on the small things, and I think kind of just getting out of ourself and having those reps in those clutch times to know, like, okay, this is how you do this. This is when you do this. You know, communication, et cetera, so. It’s just growing pains. We just got to figure out how to win. That takes time.”

Awa Fam was also asked in the post-game about this topic.

She replied, “I think we need to take care of the ball. We need to, to know what is the best advantage… who is scoring all the time. We need to pass to that person, we need to defend this person because (s)he’s a hot player. I don’t know. We just need to take care of the ball more. We just need to be more balanced and just read the game.”

I intentionally left the “I don’t know” in Awa’s response as she’s working her way through her answer in real time, because I think that’s appropriate. This is the youngest starting lineup in the WNBA. They aren’t going to have all the answers in their first season in the league. Nor should they be expected to.It is something they will learn over time.

Courtney Vandersloot made some clutch plays in this game, including finding her teammates for some crucial baskets. That’s because she’s played in the WNBA for more than 15 years. Dom and Awa were 15 years old just a few years ago!

Flau’jae was also asked about the message Coach Sonia Raman is giving to them in these clutch moments.

“Stay poised, calm, composed. Obviously, they (Chicago) have a lot of veteran leadership, you know, a lot of vet players. I think, for us, our core, we’re pretty young. So just learning to play off of T (Hiedeman), you know what I’m saying? She gives us direction, and then we understand what we’re doing.” Johnson said, “Jade’s young, too. Like, I just know she’s one year older than me. So, we’re all pretty young. I think it’s got a lot of communications, and then we just got to look back, right? Watch film, dissect this together, and kind of talk through it. Like, what were you thinking? Like, what are you doing? I’m always talking to Awa on the court, but I think it’s just constant communication, and just looking back and trying to see how we can improve.”

Flau’jae added more thoughts on the growing process and Coach Raman’s message.

“We gotta get better with our processes and continue to use the next day to get better. And I think it shows up in spurts. We are a really good team, but if you want to be a great team, you can’t play in spurts. You know what I mean? Her message is just for us to stay composed and keep getting better day by day.”

Day by day, the Storm are getting better. Even if we’re not seeing that improvement result in the win column this season.

Missing Ezi on Defense

As we’ve had to watch almost the entire season without Ezi Magbegor, I am reminded of how excellent a defensive rim protector Magbegor is. I still remember Gabby Williams praising Ezi’s defensive ability and how her being back there to clean up everyone else’s defensive mistakes makes the team look so much better defensively than any one individual.

Magbegor missed the first two months of the season with a right foot injury. She returned to action on July 2nd against the Phoenix Mercury. In the first half of the Storm’s July 9th game against the Atlanta Dream, Magbegor took an elbow to the nose or face area. She has missed the last two games against Washington and Chicago since then, and is not expected to return during this 5-game road trip.

I don’t believe we’ve been given any official timeline on her potential return, but I believe it was said that it would be at least a few weeks. ESPN has her listed as an estimated return date of July 28th, but that is often just a placeholder.

Instead of having a broken nose, if Magbegor had a broken orbital or cheekbone, she would be expected to miss at least a month. If that’s the case, she may only be able to return for the final 4-8 games of the season.

Without Ezi, the Storm will need to rely more heavily on Dominique Malonga and Awa Fam throughout the rest of the season. Both of them have a long way to go before they are anywhere near Ezi’s level on the defensive end, but since this season is all about growth and development, the Storm should utilize the unfortunate Magbegor injury to build their younger posts into more well-rounded players.

We’ve seen Dom pick up her rebounding ability even more in recent games. Malonga has pulled down 27 rebounds over the past two games. She’s totaled double-digit rebounds in five of her last nine games. And two of those four games, she finished with nine rebounds.

Meanwhile, I thought Fam had one of her best games as a rim protector in this game, picking up two big rejections. Seattle will need more of that over the remainder of the season.

Pros and Cons of the Two-Year Lottery Rule

With their recent losses and the Connecticut Sun’s 90-87 victory over the Portland Fire on Tuesday, the Seattle Storm officially have the worst record in the WNBA this season. Whether that holds for the remainder of the year or not is still to be determined.

What we know is that even if they do end up with the worst record in the league, they aren’t likely to finish with the best odds to land the #1 pick due to the WNBA’s two-year lottery rule. The fact that the Storm went 23-21 last year and was a playoff team will ultimately hurt them come lottery time. How much it’ll hurt them will depend on what the other teams do.

Right now, the Connecticut Sun and Chicago Sky will be the clear favorites to win the draft lottery. Ironically, neither Connecticut (the city) nor Chicago will be able to reap that reward if that happens. The Sun are moving to Houston after this year, and the Sky’s pick will head to Washington D.C., as the Mystics own the swap rights to the pick.

Even if the Storm were to finish the rest of the season without another win (0-18), they would need Chicago to go 12-8 to have better odds than the Sky (Mystics). Seattle would need the Sun to finish 13-7 to have better odds than them. For every win the Storm have, those records would need to be even better. If the Storm finish 4-14, they’d need Chicago to go 16-4, and Connecticut 17-3. That’s not happening, so Seattle’s best bet is to finish with the third-best odds.

But that’s far from a given. The two newest expansion franchises, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, are both sitting with a 10-14 record, which is a .417 winning percentage. Because they will only have one year of outcomes, the two-year rule doesn’t apply to them. And Seattle’s above .500 record last year will hurt them. The three teams are currently hovering around the same win percentage. After the Tempo and Fire lost on Tuesday, they both fell below the Storm in the two-year standings, moving the Storm to 5th in lottery odds. Then the Storm lost on Wednesday and fell back below the two expansion teams. It’s that tight right now.

Realistically, Seattle will finish somewhere between 3rd and 5th unless there is a major change in how one of the non-lottery teams performs over the final 15-20 games.

The two-year lottery rule has played a big role in two of the seasons for the Storm since it was implemented in 2016. The first year the rule was changed happened to be the Breanna Stewart lottery. Had the WNBA stuck with the one-year rule, the San Antonio Stars (now Las Vegas Aces) would have had the best odds to win the draft lottery. But with the new rule, Seattle won the lottery, drafted Stewart, and won two WNBA Championships.

But in the 2024 Draft Lottery, the Storm’s dismal 11-29 record in 2023 did not help them because they finished the 2022 season with the fourth-best record in the league at 22-14. If the WNBA just had a one-year rule like most leagues, the Storm would have had the second-best odds to win the lottery and land Caitlin Clark.

This should be a reminder for next season. The Storm might finish the 2026 season with the worst record in the WNBA, but they still could end up with the 3rd, 4th, or 5th pick in the 2027 draft*. However, we may also see a scenario where it benefits them in 2027 for the 2028 draft. If Seattle misses the playoffs next year, but is more competitive, we might see the Storm finish with the 5th or 6th worst record, but because of the two-year rule, they might end up with the 2nd or 3rd overall pick in the 2028 draft.

What are your overall thoughts on the two-year rule? Do you like it because it’s weighted to benefit teams that are struggling for multiple seasons? Would you prefer if it’s based on just one year, like most leagues? Would it be better if they had something like the PWHL’s Golden Plan? For those unaware, the PWHL implemented a Golden Plan that benefited teams that would then pick up wins after being eliminated from playoff contention. I think there are faults to that method as well, but it’s interesting to hear what everyone else thinks.

*Depending on what odds the Storm finish with, that will determine how far they can fall. For instance, if they end the season with the third-best odds, they could only fall to the 5th pick in the draft. However, if they finished with the 5th-best odds, they technically could fall to the 7th pick in the draft, although the likelihood of that happening is less than 1%.

Player Interviews

Flau’jae Johnson and Awa Fam:

Coach’s Quotes

Coach Ramam post-game:

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

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