Storm Lose to Valkyries 84-57 Part 2

Additional thoughts and interviews from Seattle's loss to Golden State

For a second time this season, the Golden State Valkyries had all the right answers against Seattle, and the Storm had none. Seattle was sluggish out of the gate, falling behind 7-0. The Valkyries led by seven points at halftime, by 21 points after the third period, and by as many as 30 points before settling for a 27-point victory in front of a raucous home crowd of 18,064. You can read the full game recap here if you missed it earlier.

In Part 2, I wrote about Seattle’s Kryptonite and how the Storm shouldn’t look like this (ever). I’ve included the post-game press conference video and audio interviews, and transcribed the best quotes.

Storm Shouldn’t Look Like This

The Storm had one of the ugliest performances we’ve seen in recent memory. Seattle is far too talented to play that poorly. It’s not a talent issue. The Storm have a significantly more talented roster than the Golden State Valkyries. But you wouldn’t know that if you randomly stumbled upon their game.

Seattle must find their answers. Seattle must figure out ways to counter what is being done to them. They have to make better adjustments. Whatever their game plan has been for two games against Golden State, clearly isn’t working. And it’s not just about Seattle needing to make their three-pointers. Yes, they went just 6-28 FG (21%) from beyond the arc. But it’s not like the Valkyries were elite with their three-point shooting. They made 8-27 FG. They scored six more points from the three-point line. That doesn’t make up for the nearly 30-point gap between the two teams.

It’s also unrealistic to expect the Storm to have won the game if they had just made a few more from beyond the arc. No team in the WNBA is realistically going to make more than 45-50% of their deep shots. And no team can only win by shooting three-pointers. The fact that the Storm were outscored 46-18 inside the paint is the larger problem.

In the first game between these two teams, Nneka Ogwumike was marred with foul trouble and finished with six points. She didn’t have that problem in this game, but unfortunately, the Valkyries’ defense made her ineffective. Ogwumike had eight points on 3-10 FG shooting. Seattle has been unable to find ways to get inside against the Valkyries despite them not having an elite shot blocker down low.

Seattle settled for so many poor shots, especially in the first half. They had very little movement off the ball. Instead of moving around, moving the ball, and finding high-percentage opportunities, they often took three-pointers out of rhythm. 18 of their 34 field goal attempts at the half were from beyond the arc. That’s more than 50% of their shots. Which is exactly what Golden State wanted them to do.

It’s games like this that really make one question the direction of the franchise. Is this the best they can do? Are Skylar and Nneka still capable of winning a WNBA Championship as the team’s top players at this point in their careers? Is this the right coaching staff that can lead the team to the WNBA Finals? Are the Storm truly better than their middling 10-7 record? Why have they struggled so much with consistency this season? Should they enter a rebuild next season with a youth movement around Dominique Malonga, Ezi Magbegor, Jordan Horston, Gabby Williams, and the team’s three first-round picks? Or can their next draft picks and another strong Free Agency period be enough to put them over the top next season?

All of these questions should be on the table.

Seattle’s Kryptonite

Despite this horrendous performance, I’m still very confident that the Storm will be a playoff team at the end of the season. They just better hope they don’t get matched up with Golden State in the postseason. For whatever reason, the Valkyries have completely owned Seattle in their matchups this season. Multiple media members attempted to ask why this specific team is giving them such fits. The players seemed to either not have the answers or not want to give the answers.

Valkyries’ Coach Natalie Nakase was a part of the Las Vegas Aces coaching staff previously. Prior to this season, the Aces had beaten Quinn’s Storm 15 times in 18 games, including a 5-1 record in the playoffs. We gave a lot of the credit to the Aces’ Head Coach Becky Hammon. But it’s certainly possible that Coach Nakase played a larger role in those games when it came to coaching and preparation than we gave her credit for.

This year, Quinn and the Storm are 2-1 against Hammon and Las Vegas, but they are now 0-2 against Nakase’s Valkyries. Beyond that, no team has made Seattle look worse than Golden State. It’s honestly a bit befuddling.

Do we think the Minnesota Lynx are a good team? Do we think they have a good head coach? The standings say they are the best team. But they don’t give Seattle the problems that Golden State does. Neither does New York nor Phoenix.

The Golden State Valkyries are the only team to defeat the Seattle Storm multiple times this season. Their social media team posted a video after the game that showed one of the assistant coaches talking in the locker room.

She said, “All I have to say is that you guys stuck to the game plan from start to finish. We executed perfectly. That’s all we can ask you guys to do. Execute what we’re trying to tell you to do. If we need to make adjustments, we’ll make adjustments. We didn’t need them today. We’re out there, (up) 30 points at one point with the lead…”

The fact that the Valkyries had an initial game plan that worked so well that they never had to make any adjustments because the Storm weren’t able to make any changes says more to me than anything that was or wasn’t said in the post-game press conference after this game.

Post-Game Press Conference

Player Interviews

On what went wrong in the third quarter, where Seattle was outscored 31-17.

Skylar Diggins answered, “It wasn't that quarter. It was from the jump. I thought they did everything better than us tonight. Credit them. Their effort was better. They went to 50-50 balls. They ran the floor harder than we did. 20-4 on fast break points. We're second in the league in points in the paint. It was 46 to 18. Second chance points. We won that. They shoot 48%. We shoot 27% from the field and 21% from three. We don't have one 20-point quarter. That's what it is in the game. It don't got shit to do with just the third quarter. It’s how we played that first half of basketball, but it has to do with them playing good basketball. So before I say what we did wrong, I'll give them some credit on what they did right. It's embarrassing. It's bullshit effort on our part. As professionals, you need to come out here and play with a level about yourself every night. Or this is what's going to happen next game if we don't come out with a level of sense of urgency to ourselves. And credit the atmosphere that they've created. They had (32) points off the bench. I mean, I hope they feel good about this first time when they see it, because that's all I can say about it. I mean, we did not show up to play tonight. And so those are my thoughts about the game.”

On what the Valkyries did defensively to slow down Seattle.

Erica Wheeler added, “They were playing harder than us. We did work for everything. But we just got to get back to ourselves. Like Skylar said, credit to them. But we just got to get back to what we do. It's not about any other team when we lose games. It's always about us. So we just got to get back to us.”

What lessons can they learn from this game to take into their next game?

Diggins said, “We’ve got to go look at the film first. You're ready for a good Atlanta team. I mean, the W in these games, nobody's going to come save you. They come fast in the W, the games do. And so go back and look at the film, see what we can take from the film, and get ready for a good Atlanta team.”

Is there something about this matchup that gives the Storm problems?

Skylar sat there for several seconds and eventually said, “Yeah.”

Erica Wheeler was asked a similar question.

Wheeler stated, “Skylar explained it with the first question. They just outplayed us. I think that's really it.”

Coach’s Quotes

On the team’s effort and the Coach’s thoughts on the game.

Coach Quinn answered, “I agree with her 100%. 50-50 balls, loose balls, quicker to actions, running down the floor, that it's unacceptable and quite frankly embarrassing to wear a Storm uniform and to perform like that. I don't have to look at the film to understand and know that the effort was not there, period.”

On what the team needs to do to avoid another performance like this.

Quinn said, “They know. They know exactly what has to happen. There are vets in that locker room. They know how it feels. We have champions in there. We have all-stars in there. We have some young players in there and players who are trying to figure it out within the league, how to win and how to play these games. They know. It is a mindset. It is a focus. It is a preparation. (It’s not the) X's and O's and all the basketball things, it's intangibles. The effort, the will to do things, it's an individual-by-individual thing to get ready. Same with me, as me, myself, and my staff. It's the same thing. You got to be ready to battle every night. And they know. Hey, nothing I'm going to say that's going to help them. They know. Everybody in the locker room knows.”

What is it about Golden State that gives the Storm fits?

Coach answered, “The 5:30 start, the shooter. Like, nah, don't matter. Put your jersey on. They put their jersey on the same way. Court is the same. Tie your shoes the same. Like, it's basketball. We are pros. We know the schedule. We already came here last week, a couple weeks ago, whatever it was. We know how the atmosphere and environment is. No excuses. No excuses. The Valkyries outplayed us, played harder than us. They out-executed us. 46 points in a paint to 18. That's us. That's not our identity. It ain't got nothing to do with it. No excuses. We didn't get it done today.”

On why Dominique Malonga played just 11 minutes despite the blowout.

“Matchups.”

On if this was the team’s worst performance of the season.

“We can't win games shooting the ball 27%. We shot 10 more shots than them. Four points in transition. Yeah, I feel like this is the worst game that we've played all year. I don't know statistically if it is, but it does feel like it. Just letting them know that the effort is unacceptable. There's an expectation level here. We didn't meet it or exceed it at all in this game. We have to watch the film. We have to get better. But this season is continuing to go. We have to get ready to be prepared to get on the road again and play some really, really tough teams. Part of it is buckling down and letting them know after the game is unacceptable. But the other part of it is moving on and getting better.”

On why Golden State out-executed Seattle in this game.

“It wasn't X's and O's. Out hustle. Out intangible us. Out hustle. Out work. Out run. cut harder, get some balls quicker. When we were in our stuff, we were able to get what we wanted. We got open shots. Got to knock down our open shots.”

Notes:
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