Storm Lose to Sparks 88-83 Part 2

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

The Seattle Storm (3-11) dropped their 7th game in a row by a final score of 88-83. The young team continues to battle hard, but hasn’t been able to get across the finish line over their past seven games. Progress is certainly being made, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re able to turn some of these games into wins. If you missed Part 1 with the full game recap, you can read it at the link below.

“Quick” Thoughts

I wasn’t sure if I was going to do a Part 2 after this game or not, considering I didn’t get Part 1 completed until around 12:30 AM. I’ve also been working to train up new interns so that they can help me out and produce additional content outside of this ecosystem.

I just wrote a ton on Monday night, and I feel I would end up just repeating a lot of that after Wednesday’s game. The Storm are very well equipped to build sustained success for the next several years because of their draft selections in 2025 and 2026. I’ve always been such a huge believer in building through the draft, so I’m loving what I’m seeing from these young players.

The wins aren’t happening right now, and I’m sure that’s frustrating the players. That might be why Natisha Hiedeman put me on the spot during the post-game press conference and started asking me questions. The role reversal certainly took me by surprise. But I like what I’ve seen from the team. The losses aren’t bothering me because I see the vision of the future. If they lose today, they win tomorrow. You’re telling me that the team can take a year with no pressure to grow, develop, and get better, and the more they lose it increases their chances of landing another franchise-changing player in the 2027 WNBA Draft. That reminds me of the Internet meme phrase going around. "Oh no, my lobster is too buttery, and my steak is too juicy!"

Sure, let’s just add Madison Booker, Mikaylah Williams, Hannah Hidalgo, or JuJu Watkins to a young core of Dominique Malonga, Awa Fam, Flau’jae Johnson, Jordan Horston, and Ezi Magbegor.

Alongside Hiedeman, Flau’jae, Dom, and Awa were the three best players on the court for Seattle. They all played extremely well, and they are so young. 3/5ths of the Storm’s starting lineup are 19, 20, and 22 years old. Losing competitive, close games this season is literally the best-case scenario for the long-term success of the franchise.

I also want to shout out Jordy. As many of you know, I’ve always been incredibly high on Jordan Horston’s potential. Wednesday’s game was a big reason why. Horston finished with 11 points on 5-10 FG, four rebounds, four assists, one steal, one block, and she was the primary defender on Kelsey Plum. Plum is one of the best offensive scorers in the entire WNBA. KP scored 19 points in the game, nearly 7 points below her season average. Plum also needed 17 shots to score 19 points, which is awful efficiency. She made just 6-17 FG. Horston had a huge impact defensively that doesn’t show up in the box score.

It wasn’t a coincidence that on Monday, Jackie Young exploded for 14 of her 29 points in the 4th quarter, and Jordan Horston didn’t play a single minute in the fourth. Seattle tried to go with more offense in the final 10 minutes, and that paid off because they scored 32 points (nearly as much as periods 2 and 3 combined). But defensively, they were much worse. They gave up 29 points to the Aces (14 of those to Young).

On Wednesday, Horston impacted both ends of the court. When she does that, it takes this team’s ceiling to a much higher level. And I believe Jordan will continue to get better on that end. We’ve seen plenty of players be better defensively and improve as they continue to grow, get older, and become more experienced. Jordin Canada is a player who fits that bill. She’s a much better offensive player in Atlanta than she was in Seattle because she developed a more consistent three-point shot. Gabby Williams is another player in that same vein. Gabby didn’t become a double-digit scorer until her 6th season in the WNBA. She’s averaging 15.4 PPG and 39% from beyond the arc this season in Golden State, both career highs in her 8th season in the league.

Horston is coming off a major ACL injury. And it’s only her third year in the WNBA. She deserves time to grow into the player that she can become. I spoke with Flau’jae and Coach Raman after the game about Jordan.

Flau’jae said, “She plays great defense. That's what she does. Just happy to see her confident on the offensive end. She really works hard on her game. She’s a great teammate. So just seeing that happen for her, seeing that confidence literally come out today, was great, and it was going to be great for our team. She’s a huge asset to what we do. Proud of her, defensively, but I know she can do that, but offensively, she just, she made the right plays.”

Raman added, “She was great. I mean, she’s a really, really strong defender, as you saw. She really takes pride in taking on those matchups. Plum is just a really high-level scorer, facilitator. And I thought she did a really good job of really understanding her tendencies and making every single thing that she did out there really challenging. And, you know, she’s been doing that this season. Really nice to see some of the things she did as well, like translate on the offensive end. She’s a really effective screener, can get into that short role, can make plays. She’s really unselfish, so just really great to see her finding her spots tonight really well.”

Nneka Ogwumike Interview

Roberta Rodriguez and I had the opportunity to interview Nneka Ogwumike before Wednesday’s game. It’s short, but I wanted you to hear what she had to say. I’ll post some of the Q&A below, and you can listen to the entire thing above.

Q: Nneka, do you have a favorite moment or two that stand out from your time in Seattle?

A: “I really do believe that the last like 2 weeks of our last season were very memorable. You know, we had, obviously, a long kind of push to try and make the playoffs. We were able to make the playoffs versus that Golden State game. And then we had a really intense series versus Vegas, although it didn’t go how we wanted. I was proud of how we fought.”

Q: Before the draft, there were comparisons made that Awa Fam reminded people of you (Nneka). Do you see the similarities in your two games?

A: “Yeah, sure. I don’t ever want to claim someone’s talent, but she’s very young and wise, despite people knowing exactly how old she is and how long she’s been a pro. She’s been a pro longer than a lot of our rookies, actually. So she brings that maturity to her game. Obviously, she is very athletic. And I can imagine it’s very similar to Dom, someone coming in, ready to learn, ready to get better, and I see that with each game.”

Q: Speaking of Dom, what have you seen with her growth from Year 1 to Year 2?

A: “You know, something about Dom that we noticed while we were playing together was that you could watch her getting better during the game. And you can see that she’s made strides in the offseason, being able to compete at Unrivaled, and then coming in here. And having to carry a very large roll very early on. She’s someone whom I consider incredibly mature. And to have someone like Dom and Awa, who have a lot of pro experience coming in, even as rookies, is something to look forward to.”

Q: How do you see Awa and Dom benefitting by playing with Ezi?

A: “Yeah, I mean, that’s a hard front court to deal with. Obviously, they all have very similar frames, all very athletic and very skilled. So I’m sure that they can learn a lot from Ezi, especially with her being here for so long. And I think through that as well, Ezi is kind of coming into her own leadership position. I saw it some last year. She helped me a lot, and it’s nice to be able to see her leading. Leading in her own way as she assumes kind of more of this veteranship in her career.”

Player Interviews

Flau’jae Johnson and Natisha Hiedeman:

Coach’s Quotes

Coach Raman Pregame:

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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