Top Storm takeaways from Seattle’s home win over the Phoenix Mercury, May 23rd, 2025
By Rowan Schaberg, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - In their home opener on Friday night, our Seattle Storm secured a 77-70 revenge win over the Phoenix Mercury, bouncing back from an ugly 81-59 loss in Phoenix’s home opener earlier last week. The Storm, now 2-1 on the season, continue to be led by veterans Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike, both in their second seasons in Seattle. Seattle’s “big two” led all scorers with 24 points apiece, with Diggins adding a franchise record and personal best 14 assists to record her 14th career double-double. The Storm’s infamous defense held Mercury stars Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally to 16 and 15 points, respectively, after Seattle allowed a 27-point performance from Sabally and 20-point showing from Thomas last week. Here are a few takeaways from that Storm home win over the Mercury, the second consecutive win for the Storm.
Gabby Williams’ versatility saves the Storm once again
While Ogwumike and Diggins often draw the spotlight as the team’s leading scorers, Gabby Williams continues to use her incredible versatility to fill in the Storm’s gaps, arguably making the biggest impact of anyone on the roster. Finding a remedy to three-point shooting problems was a major emphasis in the off-season after Seattle finished last in the league in three-point percentage in 2024. The roster additions of Zia Cooke, Alysha Clark, and Lexie Brown were cited by head coach Noelle Quinn and general manager Talisa Rhea as the fix for these issues, but so far this season, the highest producer beyond the arc has been the second-longest tenured player on the roster. In her four years in Seattle, Williams has lived up to her “French Army Knife” nickname; year after year picking up the slack in whichever category on the stat sheet the team is lacking in. Last season, it was rebounding. This season, it’s beyond the arc. Williams has attempted and made the most three-point field goals of anyone on the roster at a highly efficient 50%. While there is certainly no downside to Williams’ success from three so far this season, it’s not a secret that the team’s plan for remedying last season’s shooting issues was not Williams. In her first season on Quinn’s roster in 2022, Williams ranked eighth on the team in attempted three-pointers and while that has gradually increased each year, the Storm has never expected to rely on her for outside shooting. As we’ll later discuss rotations and bench management as another takeaway, it’s worth noting that a growing reliance on Williams’ three-point shooting raises questions about the roles of players who were signed specifically for that purpose.
Rotations and bench management
After great disappointment from fans about bench management in Seattle’s road win against Dallas, I was pleasantly surprised by Quinn’s rotations and bench usage last night, especially given that the game had a bit higher stakes following the 30-point loss earlier in the week. In just the first quarter, Quinn’s staff tried out five different lineups, with everyone except rookie Dominique Malonga checking in. After Cooke and Brown sat out against Dallas, both guards entered the Phoenix game within the first ten minutes. Much to the delight of fans, Malonga made her home court debut early in the second quarter. While the scorer’s table was buzzing with Seattle subs in the first half, the heavy usage of the bench unfortunately tapered off by the end of the game. Brown only played one minute–bringing her total career minutes with the Storm to only 11 over three games–and is still yet to score her first basket in Seattle, while Cooke tallied two points in eight minutes on the floor. Malonga recorded two points, one steal, and one rebound in just five minutes on the floor with the tough defensive assignment of Thomas.
Prior to the matchup, Quinn told media that her low usage of Malonga off the bench for the first two games of the season were due to Malonga’s late arrival to training camp and thus her need for more time to adjust to Seattle’s system. I was definitely expecting more minutes for Malonga against Phoenix, especially after seeing how effective she was against Thomas and how comfortable she looked on offense in her short stint in the second quarter. We have seen in the past how early in the season Quinn decides who is going to play a lot and who is going to ride the bench, so I worry that in “easing” Malonga into the system, she will not get the in-game reps that she needs to be successful throughout the season. These first three games seemed to present the perfect opportunity to somewhat throw Malonga into the fire and give her real minutes to show what she can do before meeting a team like Las Vegas, for example, that requires immense understanding of their experienced system, which would be a better time to rely on veterans and keep the rookies on the bench.
The most notable observation on the topic of rotations and lineups, however, was the minutes/usage discrepancy between Clark and Erica Wheeler. Less than three minutes into the match, Wheeler was the first sub off the bench for Seattle, in for starter Clark. While Clark totaled 12 minutes on the floor, Wheeler ended up being Quinn’s go-to in the final minutes to put on the court with the four locked-in starters of Diggins, Ogwumike, Williams, and Ezi Magbegor. In 22 minutes on the court, Wheeler recorded the highest plus/minus rating of any player on either team, in addition to six points, three assists, and three rebounds on zero turnovers, compared to Clark’s two turnovers and two points that both came from free-throws. Reflecting on the first three games of the season, it is clear that Wheeler has been more efficient with her given minutes, arguably earning her the starting spot in the backcourt with Diggins. Behind the scenes, however, there are many different factors in determining a starting lineup. It is worth noting that Clark is earning over $100,000 more than Wheeler, suggesting that a starting position may have been part of the deal or that Quinn will keep Clark in the starting role to ensure that she gets her money’s worth.
What’s next?
Following last night’s home win over the Phoenix Mercury, our Seattle Storm are back at Climate Pledge Arena tomorrow afternoon at 3PM PDT to take on the Las Vegas Aces. Jewell Loyd will take the court in Seattle in a different jersey for the first time in her career and fans should expect a statement performance for her return (even more so after securing the Aces’ win against Washington last night with a game-winning buzzer-beater!).
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