Seattle Storm: Takeaways from Thursday’s Win over the Sparks

Following a humbling defeat to the Minnesota Lynx, the Seattle Storm rebounded Thursday night with an 81-72 win over the Los Angeles Sparks at KeyArena.

Breanna Stewart led the Storm with 27 points and was one of four Seattle starers to score in double figures. Stewart was also one of three Storm players to collect eight rebounds, joining Alysha Clark and Natasha Howard.

Sue Bird continues to defy Father Time, scoring 10 points and dishing out 11 assists.

With Nneka Ogwumike out, Candace Parker had to do even more for the Sparks. The two-time WNBA MVP posted her fourth double-double (27 points, 11 rebounds), of the season.

Although the victory on its own wasn’t enough to erase the bad feeling left over from the Lynx loss, the Storm are tied for second in the WNBA after Thursday night.

Let’s take a look at some of the talking points from the game for Seattle.

Storm Control the Paint

The Sparks have the WNBA’s second-best defensive rating (96.9), but the Storm have the players to exploit Los Angeles’ biggest weakness on defense.

According to Synergy Sports, the Sparks were ninth in defensive points per possession in post ups (1.000) and 10th in offensive rebounds that led to put backs (1.192). Los Angeles is also 10th in defensive PPP around the basket (1.212).

The Storm had 12 offensive rebounds, including six from Natasha Howard, and they won despite hitting only four three-pointers.

In short, Seattle had a lot of success close to the basket on both ends of the court.

Howard’s seven made field goals were all inside in the paint, while Stewart was 8-of-11 on shots in the paint.

Whereas a playoff matchup with the Lynx should scare the living daylights out of Storm fans, Seattle appears to stack up a lot better with the Sparks.

Seattle and Los Angeles play for the final time in the regular season July 10, and it will be interesting to see how Sparks head coach Brian Agler tries to counter the combined presence of Stewart and Howard inside.

Jewell’s Still Looking for Her Shot

Jewell Loyd’s shooting struggles were highlighted in the last Storm recap, and the problem persisted Thursday night.

Loyd was 3-of-13 from the field and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc. That brings her overall shooting and three-point percentages to .364 and .255, respectively, in the month of June.

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Thursday’s win wasn’t all bad for Loyd, as she knocked all six of her free throws and registered six rebounds, three assists and four steals.

There’s no sense in belaboring the point too much having gone over it already, but the Storm are a much more dangerous team when Loyd is consistently scoring from all three levels.

Howard Battles Foul Trouble Again

For the sixth time this season, Howard finished a game with at least five fouls.

Howard is averaging 4.1 fouls per game, which is far and away the most on the team. In addition, she now has 66 personal fouls on the season to lead the league.

The importance of Howard’s foul trouble largely goes without saying. Her fifth Thursday came with 6:28 remaining in the game as the Storm led 65-61. Howard’s foul also allowed Parker three free throws to cut the deficit to one point.

During the most critical stretch of the game, Howard had to be extra careful both on defense and when crashing the glass so as to avoid fouling out.

Howard has been excellent for the Storm in 2018, but she may need to rein things in a bit so as to avoid being on the wrong end of the referee’s whistle too often.

Canada Follows Up Career High with Career Low

Jordin Canada was one of the few bright spots from the Lynx game, as she scored a career-high 13 points and added five rebounds and three assists.

Tuesday was a game to forget for the 2018 first-round pick. She had one point, two assists and two turnovers, and her 60.0 offensive rating was tied with Sami Whitcomb for lowest on the team.

For the most part, the Storm match up well with the Sparks, but Canada is one player who’s going to have serious trouble against Los Angeles.

The Sparks have the slowest pace in the league (77.9), which plays right to Canada’s biggest weakness so far. She averaged 0.522 offensive PPP in half-court sets entering Thursday, putting her in the seventh percentile, per Synergy.

If you can slow the game down—as the Sparks like to do—you can make life really difficult for Canada.

Alysha Clark Makes a Difference

Clark returned to the starting lineup for the first time since suffering an ankle injury.

She had eight points, eight rebounds and four assists in her 26:16 on the floor. Most importantly, her 76.9 defensive rating was best among Seattle’s five starters, and the Storm were plus-18 overall with Clark on the floor.

Clark is one of the biggest indicators for why the Storm have improved so much from last year.

The supporting cast was largely nonexistent for Seattle in 2017. Outside of Stewart, Loyd and Bird, only three players had a positive net rating. That number is up to five in 2018.

Head coach Dan Hughes made it clear right after he took the job Clark would help set the tone for the rest of the team. She has a 12.3 net rating in 13 games, up from 0.3 in 2017.

Outside of Stewart, there may not be a more important member of the Storm’s roster than Clark.