Storm Topple Sparks 82-64 Part 2

Additional thoughts, discussion, and interviews from Seattle's win over LA.

It may not have been their most impressive game of the season, but the Seattle Storm (6-17) dominated the LA Sparks (8-11) from bell to bell. The trio of Flau’jae Johnson, Natisha Hiedeman, and Jade Melbourne led the way in this game, combining for 49 of the Storm’s 82 points. On a night when Dominique Malonga shot 1-10 FG and scored just two points, they needed it. But it was the team’s defense that made sure the Sparks didn’t have any shot in this game.

The Storm picked up their first win against a Western Conference opponent this season. They kicked off this current five-game road trip by a final score of 82-64. If you missed it, you can read Molly’s game recap at the link below.

For Part 2, I wanted to write about Seattle’s defensive waves that they can throw at teams, Skylar’s problems in Chicago, LA’s draft decisions, and the old versus the new. Plus, I’ve included the audio interviews of the post-game press conferences for both the Storm and Sparks.

Defensive Waves

Dating back to training camp, one of the biggest things that stood out to me was the size and length of the Seattle Storm’s roster. Obviously, the three-headed monster of Dominique Malonga, Ezi Magbegor, and Awa Fam makes all the headlines, but there is really a lot more to it than that. Jordan Horston at 6’2” is a player who is often considerably taller and longer than other guards in the league, who generally range between 5’8” and 6’0”. But even Seattle’s sub-6’ players have unusually long arms. Jade Melbourne is around 5’10” - 5’11” tall, but her wingspan is listed at 6’3”. Natisha Hiedeman might only be 5’8”, but her wingspan is closer to 5’11”.

It took half the season, but the Storm’s roster is finally healthy. And we’re just starting to get glimpses of potential lineups and rotations. What stood out to me about this game against the LA Sparks was that their defensive pressure was unrelenting. A lot of that had to do with the fact that Coach Raman can consistently rotate length into the lineup as soon as another player goes to the bench. Teams have to deal with Dom and Awa starting the game. And when one of them is subbed out, they are replaced by All-Defensive Team member Ezi Magbegor. Arguably the WNBA’s best defensive post player not named A’ja Wilson. We saw another emphatic block in this game by Ezi. A welcome sight to behold.

Dominique Malonga had a defensive play where she was able to stay in front of Nneka, and Ogwumike was unable to shoot over her. I’m not sure if the ball got tipped or if Malonga’s outstretched arms just made the shot impossible from that angle. Either way, Nneka’s shot fell well short of its mark.

Jordan Horston rejected and ripped a ball right out of Dearica Hamby’s hands in this game. She had two other steals that stopped LA from scoring in transition. Awa Fam was credited with a team-high four steals, and it looked like she got several deflections throughout the game. Per Jade and Flau’jae during the post-game presser, they were giddy talking about their defense and talked about how the team has a leaderboard for most deflections, and they’re all trying to get on the board, hoping their name will be at the top of the list.

I spoke with Melbourne about that and how their length can cause problems for opposing teams.

“Bringing Jordy and also Ezi back into the lineup, that’s our defensive lineup as well. That adds 2 elements to our game, and we can show teams a bunch of different lineups now, which is really exciting. Ezi is still finding her feet. J (Horston) is still finding her feet. Every game, the more minutes and more reps that they play, the better. But yeah, we have a little competition who can get the most deflections. So that’s a big thing.” Jade told me.

“When you see your name at the top of the leaderboard, or you see it at the bottom, you want to keep going and going. So, I think that’s been a really good thing that we’ve added just to create some positivity and fun around the group. And yeah, it’s a shame when you don’t see your name on the leaderboard. So people are active now, people are getting their hands in the lanes. And it’s an exciting little game we play. So we’re looking forward to seeing that hopefully tomorrow, and hopefully I’m at the top of the leaderboard.” She added.

I also talked to Coach Raman about this and the team’s ability to continuously throw size and length defensively against their opponents with wave after wave of long, tall athletes.

“I think that you saw it play out a little bit with the activity, the deflections, at different times, we can switch as well with groups like that. So, I think it's just our multiple activity, the length with which they can kind of cover ground, and be able to be in helps and help like in gaps, but then also be able to close out and have really good contests,” Coach responded, “Today, what I loved was finishing the possession, going from those help positions or maybe being in scramble mode a little bit, to like getting back on the glass and keeping them off the boards. So I thought they did a really good job in that department.”

The stats don’t lie. Seattle limited Los Angeles to 34% (22-65 FG) shooting and forced the Sparks into 19 turnovers.

It’ll be interesting to see the team continue to build defensive chemistry over the remainder of the season with a full complement of players.

Skylar’s Problems in Chi Town

Let’s take a quick detour from Los Angeles and head to the Windy City, Chicago, Illinois, where we check in on an old friend, Skylar Diggins. Surprisingly…unsurprisingly? … The Chicago Sky are having yet another terrible season. The team traded Angel Reese in the offseason for two future first-round picks, but they made several other splashy moves to rebuild the team back into a playoff contender. It looked pretty good for them, at least on paper.

They traded Ariel Atkins for Rickea Jackson. They signed veteran free agents Skylar Diggins, Azurá Stevens, and DiJonai Carrington. Then, a couple of weeks into the season, they signed Natasha Cloud.

Sky General Manager Jeff Pagliocca couldn’t have predicted that Jackson would tear her ACL just four games into the season. But he likely was well aware that Carrington wouldn’t be healthy to start the year. DiJonai hasn’t played at all yet, still recovering from an injury she suffered in the playoffs last year. Stevens was also hit with a small injury and missed the first five games of the season. Needless to say, their season has been a hot mess. Despite multiple trades to mortgage away their future, the Chicago Sky (6-14) sit in the cellar of the WNBA standings alongside the Seattle Storm (6-17) and Connecticut Sun (5-16). And unlike those two teams, the Sky intended to be competitive and a playoff contender this year. They also have zero incentive to lose, as they gave the Washington Mystics the rights to their picks in both the 2027 and 2028 drafts.

Pagliocca said in a viral moment during Skylar Diggins’ introductory press conference that, “I don’t wanna deal with Skylar Diggins every night if she doesn’t have players that she can go to war with.”

Fast forward to the present day. Diggins took to Instagram to let the world know she was being benched in Chicago. That made its way through all the social media channels throughout the day. But there is a lot more that is going on with the Sky than just a coaching decision to bench their starting point guard.

Alissa Hirsh of the Chicago Sun-Times posted a full story on what’s happening and had some great quotes from Diggins.

“Being in this environment, emotionally for me, [we’re] not having everything that we need to be successful,” Diggins said. “I’ve been elite for decades. And it’s not just from showing up. We fight so hard in our [collective bargaining agreement] to have access to a cold tub, a hot tub, a sauna, a steam room, a chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, IVs and things like that.”

“I was thinking we were going to be in a practice facility, and other things that were told to me. And that’s not been the case. There’s been things outside of people’s control that I understand, too, a lot of moving parts. Lots of places I’ve been were in that process as well, so I get it. But it’s hard to perform at a certain level without those [resources].” Skylar added.

Per the article, Diggins had surgery in October on her knee and has been rehabbing through that.

“I’ve been sacrificing my body for this team,” she said. “Maybe it’s time to take a step back and see what’s going on to see if I need to continue to make those sacrifices without having the proper resources to play at an elite level.”

Skylar Diggins caught off guard by benching

https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-sky/2026/07/06/skylar-diggins-caught-off-guard-by-benching-as-tension-builds-with-sky

Colin Salao from Front Office Sports dives deeper into the issues surrounding the Sky’s practice facility. And how that’s causing problems by the day for the Sky and their players.

Chicago Sky Practice Facility Delay Continues

https://frontofficesports.com/chicago-sky-practice-facility-delay-continues/

From an outside perspective, the Sky have looked to be in complete disarray for quite some time. But the practice facility stuff is really disheartening to read about. I know how much the Storm’s practice facility and performance center meant to Skylar as she tries to raise two young kids and play at the highest level of women’s professional basketball. It’s sad to see that the Chicago Sky organization sold her on a fake bill of goods. And it doesn’t look like it’s going to end well in Chicago.

LA’s Draft Decisions

I think it’s imperative that teams really have an understanding and a vision of what they are and what their plan is. They should also be realistic about their chances to compete. While the Storm were one defensive rebound away from beating the Las Vegas Aces in the first round of the playoffs one year ago, I don’t think it meant they were going to win the WNBA Championship if they had only won that playoff game. They would have faced off against the Indiana Fever in the semifinals, and the team did not match up well against them. They were swept 3-0 during the regular season. They might have been more competitive than that, but I don’t think they would have won that series. After all, it was the Storm’s 95-75 lopsided loss to the Fever that convinced me the organization needed to make massive changes.

Fortunately, Seattle decided to go in the direction of a rebuild around their youth. They would build around Dominique Malonga, the 2nd overall pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft, and the 3rd overall pick of the 2026 draft, which would later become Awa Fam. Funny enough, both of those selections came from the LA Sparks.

Los Angeles has lacked direction for several years now. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2020. Things aren’t looking good for them to reach the playoffs in 2026 either. After this latest loss to Seattle, they’ve fallen to 8-11 on the season. Worse yet, it sounds like Kelsey Plum’s leg injury might keep her out of action for quite a while. The franchise chose Plum over the potential of Malonga, as the two were both involved in the Jewell Loyd trade last year, with Loyd heading to Las Vegas, Plum heading to Los Angeles, and the #2 pick (Malonga) headed to Seattle.

Now, I always try to be fair when it comes to these things because it’s easier to make judgments now that we’ve seen Malonga’s potential (37 points, 12 rebounds against Dallas). But you want to judge the process of their decisions at the time they were made. If we look at the Sparks roster, they really needed guard help. They had already drafted Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson, plus they had Dearica Hamby, and (at the time) Azurá Stevens. Plum was 30 years old when the trade went down, and pretty much in the prime of her career. As someone who covered KP at the University of Washington, Plum is a player who has star potential and can sell tickets. I get that there is appeal there, too.

If they had kept the #2 overall pick, would they have drafted Dominique Malonga even though they already had Cameron Brink? Or would they have chosen Kiki Iriafen, who played at the University of Southern California? But they already had Dearica Hamby. Before the draft, I’m not sure if they would have considered Sonia Citron. Citron is an excellent player and well worth the lottery pick that was used to select her. But I think her ceiling isn’t even in the same ballpark as Malonga’s. And I’m not certain if it’s even higher than Plum’s. I can confidently say I didn’t think it was when I watched her at Notre Dame.

I believe there is even less criticism for how they handled their 2026 first-round pick. That was a trade made two years in advance, and they essentially traded for a guaranteed lottery selection in a talented 2024 draft for a future first-round pick that they had hoped would be worse than 4th overall. Ironically, it wasn’t, but the cost of business wasn’t egregious. And even if we look at the selections made from those picks, I feel it was a reasonable trade by both parties. The Storm essentially traded Rickea Jackson for Awa Fam. It’s a little funny because Fam actually reminds me a fair amount of Jackson. Both players share some similarities in that they have a smooth shooting stroke, but they still need to improve their defense and rebounding. I believe Fam will be better on that end than Jackson, and she may end up being better offensively as well, but we’ll see.

I think the larger criticism would go towards the Sparks for trading away Rickea Jackson for Ariel Atkins. But I believe there were also issues between Jackson and the Sparks’ Head Coach, Lynne Roberts. That likely played a factor in her being traded this offseason.

Ultimately, it really just leads me to my last topic.

Old Versus New

It seems to me that the teams investing in older players have really struggled this season. If we check the average age of each WNBA team, 3 out of the top 4 teams are the Phoenix Mercury (oldest), Chicago Sky (second oldest), Las Vegas Aces (third), and Los Angeles Sparks (4th). Of course, the Aces have won 3 out of the last 4 championships, and they’re favored to win their 4th again as long as A’ja Wilson can stay healthy. But the other three teams are having massively disappointing seasons. They were banking on older players like DeWanna Bonner (38 years old), Alyssa Thomas (34), Skylar Diggins (35), Natasha Cloud (34), Courtney Vandersloot (37), Nneka Ogwumike (36), and Erica Wheeler (35).

To be fair, some of the youngest teams are also struggling. The Storm rank 12th oldest (or 4th youngest) overall and feature the youngest starting lineup in the WNBA with Jade (23), Natisha (29), Flau’jae (22), Awa (20), and Dom (20). The Connecticut Sun are 14th (second youngest) and have the worst record in the league. Seattle has the second-worst record. But there is a major difference between these two teams, which purposefully went very young, as they look to rebuild, and the ones listed in the previous paragraph. The Sun franchise is being relocated to Houston, so they had zero incentive to be competitive this season. Especially when losing games means they likely will end up with either JuJu Watkins or Madison Booker.

But we also see a team like the Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, and Indiana Fever, who all rank as some of the youngest teams in the league, and all three of them are currently positioned to make the playoffs this year. The Mystics really seem like the most comparable franchise to Seattle right now, but they are probably one year ahead in their development. That makes sense as Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen are both 22 years old, whereas Dominique Malong and Awa Fam are 20. That’s where the Storm should aim to be one year from now. Potentially competing for one of the lower-end playoff seeds (6th-8th), or being one of the first teams just outside the playoffs (9th-10th).

The players entering the WNBA now are extremely talented because there is more investment in women’s basketball than at any other time in history. That’s why the past three drafts have been loaded with talent. That talent is only going to keep coming. The teams that are investing in the draft are most likely going to be the ones that have the most success over the next few years. That’s why it’s important for the franchises to pick a direction, have a plan, and stick to it.

In a lot of ways, this isn’t anything new. The young always take over for the old in due time. When the Storm won in 2018, they had to get through the Phoenix Mercury, which was a much older team with Diana Taurasi, DeWanna Bonner, and Brittney Griner. When the Aces went through the Storm in 2022, they were the young, hungry lionesses. Sure, Stewie and Jewell weren’t old in 2022, but Sue Bird and Tina Charles certainly were. And as good as the Aces have been, their time, too, will come eventually. The team that eventually knocks them off their perch, maybe still a few years from now, is building that roster today with new, young, active, energetic players. Maybe it’s in Dallas, Indiana, Atlanta, or Washington. Hopefully, it’s in Seattle.

LA’s Post-Game:

Player Interviews

Flau’jae Johnson and Jade Melbourne:

Coach’s Quotes

Coach Ramam pre-game:

Coach Raman post-game:

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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