Well this was a very pleasing first game of the Noelle Quinn era of Storm basketball, our beloved hoopers calmly took care of the kind of sad Indiana Fever in a game that got close for a minute but never really was. The starters played well, the bench played well, the defense was good, so I will admit I dipped out for a minute to watch this craziness (I had to! I had already missed this craziness that night! I needed to erase my craziness FOMO). I honestly do not have that many thoughts about this game! The Storm did what they needed to do, so on to the notes section with its new name!
Brain Drizzles
There was a really nice stretch for the bench group in the second quarter. Noelle ran out the little seen Burke/Canada/Dupree/Magbegor/Prince lineup and it did fine. I think the key to this being an effective combo is making sure Epiphanny touches the ball every time down the court on offense, her playmaking ability has been a great surprise so far this season. It’s a little short on size and outside shooting, not usually a compliment when talking about basketball, but they made it work.
Outside of that little bench group run, one of the Bird/Loyd/Stewart trio was on the court at all times and I think that trend should continue. However, when it was Jewell running with subs the offense needs to flow through her every time down the floor. She’s such a dynamic player and there should not be a possession where she spends it waiting to take corner three, something I noticed a couple times during the game.
Congrats to Noelle Quinn! Though we are avowed Kloppenstans here, I think she was the obvious choice to replace Dan Hughes.
THAT’S IT FOR TODAY! See you after the Storm play the first of two at home against the Dallas Wings Friday night!