How well can the Seattle Storm adjust?
After Seattle surrendered 56 points in the paint during Sunday’s 93-86 loss at Connecticut, Storm coach Noelle Quinn said her squad’s physicality needs to intensify when the teams reconvene on Tuesday at Uncasville, Conn.
“It’s not just the post-ups,” Quinn told The Seattle Times. “It’s the drives to the rim. It’s the offensive rebounds. We’ll start there defensively because that’s not where it needs to be.”
Connecticut’s Brionna Jones overwhelmed Seattle down low on Sunday, scoring a season-high 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the floor. The forward also grabbed six rebounds, including three offensive boards as the Sun won for the fifth time in their last six games.
“Her skillset is unbelievable,” Connecticut guard Tyasha Harris said.
Both the Sun (24-8) and the Storm (19-13) have clinched playoff berths, but Seattle is fighting to regain a top-4 seed, which ensures home-court advantage during the best-of-three first round of the eight-team postseason that begins Sept. 22.
The Storm have slid from a tie for third to sole possession of fifth amid their 2-5 stretch since returning from the month-long Olympic break. They enter Tuesday trailing the Las Vegas Aces by one game for the final home-court advantage slot.
“We had a lot of Olympians, including myself,” said Quinn, who served as lead assistant for the Canadian women’s national team at the Paris Olympics.
“This is a long season. There’s some reality to that, but no excuses. We’ve got to get back to playing the way we were playing before the break.”
Jewell Loyd has done so for Seattle, averaging 22.3 points per game since helping Team USA win gold in Paris. The 10th-year guard’s 20.6 scoring average this season ranks fourth in the WNBA.
Connecticut, meanwhile, does not have the same go-to scorer that the Storm have in Loyd. The Sun instead rely on a balanced cast that includes six players who average double figures, led by forward DeWanna Bonner and her 15.8 points per game.
“I like the fact that if somebody has a day where they’re just not having it, we’ve got another player that can kind of come in and fill the gap,” Connecticut coach Stephanie White said. “… We’ve solidified pretty much an eight-man rotation, and we’re gonna continue to just grow in that.”
The second-place Sun enter Tuesday 2 1/2 games behind the New York Liberty.
–Field Level Media