Ha ha ha, that sucked! Not that there weren’t fun things in there (looking at you 2nd and 3rd quarters) but man, that sucked! Tuesday night the Storm got look at crumpled up and tossed into a fire that burned very hot on missed threes and poot backcourt play by the very cool if unfortunately coached by, as well as owned by, a goon Las Vegas Aces. Though it was only one game, it definitely gave some weight to those who questioned the Storm’s off season moves.
The Storm backcourt was a real pile o’garbaggio in this one, combining to go 1-10 from three and get smoked by just about every guard the Aces put on the floor. Jackie Young did the most thorough tableside flambe-ing with 21 points but she got a fair amount of help from the I guess in this metaphor people who rolled the flambe cart and prepped the Storm as if they were bananas Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum. Young seemed to get to the free throw line endlessly, perhaps due to consistently picked up by the courtside mics complaints of her coach, the previously mentioned goon, Bill Laimbeer. I swear I heard that dude say “and one” every time an Ace took a shot in the first quarter, it sucked and he also sucks!
This was a game where the Storm deeply missed Natasha Howard on both ends of the floor. Ezi Magbegor showed some flashes, including hitting another three , but right now she doesn’t have the inside outside game on the offensive end and is not quite as fluid as Natasha was on the defensive end. This will be less of a problem against teams that do not have both Liz Cambage AND Aj’a Wilson but I have a feeling knowing how to beat the Aces might be very important to this season’s title hopes.
This game also showed the limits of Jordin Canada. With the lane already crowded by the Aces’ bigs she could not find space inside for her usual darting through the redwoods like drives and her two 3 point attempts were, and I say this with all the love in the world, abominable. The return of Epiphanny Prince and Mercedes Russell may mitigate the problems raised in this and the previous paragraph, but man it would be cool if the Storm had a backup point guard that could hit threes and a smooth shooting inside defensive presence.
Some good things though!
Katie Lou Samuelson looks very good so far, she was 3-4 from three, including this slick end of the 3rd buzzer beater, and was generally a bucket every time she shot the ball. Unfortunately she has to leave the team to compete in a Olympic Qualifying 3x3 (dear god why) tournament for a couple weeks. Ahhhhh, the first taste of how the very dumb and should not happen Olympics are going to cause havoc for this WNBA season (sorry, I know I said this was the good things section)
Kiana Williams got some run, she was not super great but her getting on the floor is a good sign for her future with the team.
The Storm did claw their way back into this game over the 2nd and 3rd quarters after being down 20 points with the kind of defense/3 point shooting/transition game that makes them real killers. This kind of resilience rules and also augers good things for the rest of the season. I did think they were on the verge of making it a real game but then a, very heavy ahem, questionable offensive foul call erased a transition layup that would’ve tied things up. Unfortunately, as every Seattle sports fan knows, you cannot win a game in the 2nd or 3rd quarters.
Sue Bird wore this sweater before the game and it is a dope sweater.
I first saw this dope sweater on Dwyane Wade during an interview and thought “wow, that sweater, so dope!” So I looked it up and it costs… $870!!!!! And is out of stock everywhere. So if you enjoy this newsletter think about buying this impossible dope sweater for me.
Up next hopefully the Storm can get right against the heretofore winless Minnesota Lynx. SEE YOU LATER!