By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Storm rally falls short in 85-82 loss to Mercury

 Before the game, the Seattle Storm unveiled the Sue Bird statue outside of Climate Pledge Arena to immortalize the franchise’s greatest player. The pregame festivities led to a concert-like atmosphere.  The atmosphere had very different effects for the  Storm and Phoenix Mercury.

The  Mercury was full of energy and bolted to a 10-2 lead to start the game.  The Storm quickly found their footing and responded with a 7-2 run that featured buckets from Skylar Diggins, Ezi Magbegor, and a three-pointer by Gabby Williams. A tight quarter ended with the Mercury holding a 17-20 lead.

BACK AND FORTH SECOND QUARTER

The second quarter was a repeat of the first quarter, with the teams trading buckets and the  Mercury continuing to hold the lead.  While Alyssa Thomas led the Mercury with 7 points in the quarter, it was Nneka Ogwumike’s 11 points that led all scorers in the quarter.  The two All-Star forwards were the leading scorers for their teams in the first half, which saw the Mercury enter the halftime break with a 43-37 lead.   Ogwumike finished the half with 13 points and Thomas had 11.

TIGHT BATTLE CONTINUES


  Back-to-back baskets by Magbegor to start the second half cut the Mercury’s lead to just two points, 43-41. A  Satou Sabally three-pointer increased the  lead to 46-41. Back-to-back baskets by Ogwumike and Williams had the Storm down by just one point with 7:52 left in the quarter.  The  Mercury continued its red-hot shooting from the three-point line, making 4 of 7 shots, and finished the quarter with a 67-60 lead.

STORM FINALLY CATCH THE STORM

A determined effort by the Storm on both ends of the court saw the Storm finally catch  Mercury midway in the fourth quarter. Ogwumike’s put back of a missed layup by Williams, who had deftly stolen the ball at midcourt, tied the game at 75 all.  The Storm took their first lead of the game moments later on  Eric Wheeler’s three-pointer with  2:21 left in the game. Back-to-back Kahleah  Cooper layups and a   Thomas bank shot saw the Mercury extend the lead to 83-78 with  35 seconds left in the game.

UNABLE TO CLOSE OUT THE GAME

  The Storm cut the Mercury’s lead to just one point with  8.4 seconds left in the game after a layup by Ogwumike and Brittney Sykes.  Former Storm  Sami Whitcomb iced the game with back-to-back free throws with 2.9 seconds left in the game. The Storm advanced inbounds with a timeout but was unable to get a shot off as the buzzer sounded to end the game.  

—

TEAM 1 2 3 4 FINAL HIGH PTS HIGH REB HIGH AST 
SEATTLE 17 20 23 22 82 N. Ogwumike (24) N. Ogwumike (8) G. Williams (7) 
PHOENIX 20 23 24 18 85 A. Thomas (19) Sabally, Thomas (10) A. Thomas (11) 

KEY STATS OF THE GAME 

  • The Storm became the first team since 2023 to finish a game without allowing a single point off turnovers. 
  • Seattle scored nine points off nine Phoenix turnovers in the first half while holding the Mercury without a single point off turnovers, marking the first time this season that Phoenix was limited to 0 points off turnovers in a first half.   
  • The Storm scored a season-high 56 points in the paint and won the paint scoring battle 56-38.  
  • Seattle forced 19 Phoenix turnovers and scored 22 points off the Mercury’s giveaways.  

STORM HIGHLIGHTS 

  • Nneka Ogwumike led the Storm with 24 points on 58.8% (10-for-17) shooting from the field while grabbing eight rebounds and two steals. Ogwumike passed Candice Dupree for the seventh-most defensive rebounds in WNBA history (2,379) This marked Ogwumike’s 242nd career game of at least 15 points and five rebounds, passing Tamika Catchings for the second-most such games in WNBA history. She also passed Janell Burse for 13th on the Storm’s franchise scoring list (1,245) and has made at least 10 field goals in a league-high 11 games so far this season. 
  • Skylar Diggins put up 14 points on 50% (5-for-10) shooting from the field along with two steals and a block. Diggins made her 400th field goal in a Storm uniform, becoming the fifth-fastest player in franchise history to make 400 field goals (74 games) and passed Lauren Jackson for 13th on the all-time FTM list (1,392). 
  • Gabby Williams finished with 13 points and a team-high seven assists while grabbing three rebounds and a steal. Williams dished out at least seven assists for the ninth time this season, joining Skylar Diggins and Sue Bird as the only players in franchise history to record at least nine such games in a single season. 
  • Brittney Sykes scored 11 points on 55.6% (5-for-9) shooting from the field, including six points on 75% (3-for-4) in the fourth quarter. Sykes added four assists, three rebounds and two steals for her seventh multi-steal game since the All-Star break, which is tied for fifth most in the league during that span. Sykes made two clutch buckets to tie Nneka Ogwumike for the most clutch field goals made in the WNBA this season with 19. 

MERCURY HIGHLIGHTS 

  • Alyssa Thomas led Phoenix with 19 points alongside 11 assists and 10 rebounds.  

—UP NEXT: The Storm leaves for its last road stand of the season with the first stop on Tuesday, August 19 in Chicago against the Sky. Tipoff is at 5:00 pm PT and will be broadcast locally on KOMO and CW Seattle and available for streaming for Prime Video users in Washington state. 

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