In the wake of last night’s surprising outcome at KeyArena, here are the recaps, starting with Jayda Evans in the Seattle Times noting down performances helped galvanize the Storm last season.
In 2010, Seattle was equally as bad in early-season road losses at Chicago and Indiana. In its loss to the Fever, the Storm tallied just seven points in the second quarter.
Later, the team would say that game sparked its season, giving an example of what it was going to take to win in the competitive WNBA.
In The News Tribune, Chris Wells wrote the Storm’s poor start was just too much to overcome.
“We dug ourselves a huge hole and that was probably the worst quarter of basketball that I have seen since I’ve been in this franchise,” Bird said of the opening quarter. “Fifty percent of it had to do with what they were doing and the other half had to do with us.”
Aaron Lommers of the Everett Herald was surprised by the way the Storm’s home winning streak came to an end.
After 23 consecutive home victories, who knew it would end like that? If the Seattle Storm were going to lose in KeyArena, surely it would come on some crazy last-second shot or some fluky bounce of the ball.
The defending WNBA champions wouldn’t find themselves thrashed and thoroughly outplayed in every aspect of the game. No way would their home streak end like that. But it did.
On SB Nation Seattle, Nate Parham found it meaningful that the Storm made a game of it in the fourth quarter.
Down 26 points at halftime, the Storm could very easily have played out the final minutes of a dominant home streak waiting for the buzzer to sound and put the sour taste of a home loss behind them. Instead, whether due to confidence in their ability or the security of past experience, the Storm approached the second half as though it didn’t occur to them that a loss was inevitable.
In non-game-related news, Lauren Jackson chatted live with fans on ESPN.com this morning.
lynette (seattle)
Hi Lauren i was wondering what is it like playing with Sue Bird your whole wnba career? Oh yeah and your the best in the world and Seattle loves you
Lauren Jackson
(2:37 PM)She’s been amazing. She’s a great player. She’s a stabilizing person in my life. On the court, I can’t imagine being over here and not playing with her. She’s the best point guard in the world and she makes you better. I’m just privileged to know her and call her my good friend.
On Sports Press Northwest, Deidre Silva says there’s no excuse for ignoring the Storm and the WNBA.
John Wooden, the storied UCLA coach whose teams amassed 10 NCAA titles between 1964 and 1975, was an outspoken supporter of the women’s game. Wooden wrote an article called “Why I am a UConn fan” for Sports Illustrated in April 2003, just after the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team won the NCAA championship. Wooden said that UConn reminded him of his UCLA teams.
“The top women athletes play a more pure game than the men,” Wooden said.
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