Valkyries decimate Storm, 84-57
By Christan Braswell
Not many teams have the Storm’s number this season, but the Golden State Valkyries do and have no plans on relinquishing it.
In front of their 10th consecutive sellout crowd at Chase Center, the Valkyries dominated the Storm, 84-57.
In their first matchup on June 14, Golden State was victorious in beating Seattle at their own game, 76-70. Overwhelming pressure by swarming every ball screen and scoring off turnovers while playing in the open court were key marks then and continued to be on Sunday.
Since that game, the Storm averaged 92 points in their last five games, shooting a league-leading 47% while ranking second in paint points (38.9), points off turnovers (18.2), and fast-break points (14.4).
For the second time, Golden State nearly beat Seattle in every hustle category. They led in points off turnovers (15-to-9), points in the paint (44-to-16), and fast-break points (20-to-4).
“It wasn’t that quarter,” said Diggins after the loss. “It was from the jump. I thought they did everything better than us tonight. Credit them. The effort was better, they went to 50-50 balls, the ran the floor harder than we did. 20 to 4 on fast-break points. We’re second in the league in points in the paint. It was 46 to 18. Second-chance points, we won that. They shoot 48% and we shoot 27% from the field and 21% from three. We don’t have one 20-point quarter. That’s what it is in the game. It don’t got shit to do with just the third quarter. We got outplayed.”
The Storm endured yet another slow start against the Valkyries, going scoreless for the first three minutes of the first quarter until Nneka Ogwumike scored on a midrange jumper at 6:58. From that point on, guard Skylar Diggins scored eight of the team’s first 10 points.
The second quarter was a slugfest between the two teams as neither could produce offensively. Seattle struggled mightily once again when facing Golden State’s heavy zone defense, shooting more three-point attempts (13) than shots inside the arc (4). At the half, the Storm shot 31% on twos (5-16) and 22% on threes (3-14). The Valkyries couldn’t be stopped at the rim, shooting 77% (7-9).
Golden State dominated the third frame from beginning to end, outscoring Seattle 31-17. A 12-5 run to start was capped by Valkyries guard Veronica Burton's layup, forcing a Quinn timeout at 3:56. The Storm scored four straight points, then Golden State marched off on a 10-0 flurry before Zia Cooke ended it with two free throws. Of the Storm’s 17 points, Cooke was responsible for seven in the quarter.
In the first meeting, the Storm launched a fierce comeback attempt before ultimately losing. There was none of that Sunday night. Golden State’s lead grew to as much as 30 points in the fourth quarter. Seattle didn’t score 20 points in any quarter and only netted more than 15 points once.
Diggins was the only Storm player to shoot above league average from the field who took more than than two shots.
Seattle shot a 27.0% from the field, which is now the fourth-worst in franchise history. The team will have several days off before continuing their road trip on Thursday in Atlanta.
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