At 3:00 Pacific Time today, I'll be starting my first live coverage of a Storm game! I hope to post a few times every quarter and then give a wrap up at the end of each quarter with a longer one at halftime. Announcements aside, let's start with what the game looks like today!
As always, the Storm are really better off losing this game. Currently, the Storm are 3 games up on San Antonio. If they were to remain only 3 games ahead, the Storm would get the best odds for the number one overall draft pick, but if the Storm are 4 games up or more by the end of the season, San Antonio will get the best odds. This is because of the newly implemented draft system, in which both this year's and last year's records count in determining the worst overall team.
The Sky, on the other hand, desperately need a win to stay in second place in the East over the Indiana Fever, who are only one game behind Chicago, and the Washington Mystics, who are 2.5 games behind. They have a slim chance of finishing first in the East as well, but that's only if New York loses all of their upcoming games and Chicago wins all of theirs, so that seems fairly unlikely.
Jewel Loyd returns to her hometown today, so hopefully she gets a nice round of applause from her supporters in Chicago.
Cappie Pondexter may or may not play for the Sky. She hasn't played in the last two games because of a concussion, and going into the playoffs I'm sure that Pokey Chatman, Chicago's head coach, REALLY doesn't want to see that concussion turn into a more serious one by pushing her to play before she's ready. Ramu Tokashiki and Abby Bishop are still out for the Storm, but hopefully we'll see Sue Bird rejoin the team today after resting during Thursday's game.
Whenever you talk about a game against the Sky, you have to talk about Elena Della Donne. She's the clear favorite to win MVP this year, averaging 24.3, 8.9 rebounds, and 2.13 blocks, all while shooting 47.9% from the field (and very few of them are uncontested shots at this point, with most teams sending a double-team to her every time she has the ball) and a scalding 95.3% from the line. We'll see what kind of game she has today, but I wouldn't be surprised if she went off for 30 or so points in such a critical game for the Sky.
Courtney Vandersloot has also been playing remarkably well this year, averaging 8.6 points and 5.0 assists per game (in fact leading the WNBA in the assist category). She's a Gonzaga graduate, so I always root for her to do well, even against the Storm- she's our only local WNBA star, so what choice is there, really?
Well, that's it for the pre-game- stay tuned to find out what actually happens!
Here's a transcript of the in-game coverage with a short post-game wrap-up:
It looks like Cappie Pondexter will not be playing today. We'll see how that changes things.
Sue #Bird's not playing either! BIG mismatch with 5'4" Angel Goodrich against 5'8" Courtney Vandersloot at the point.
8-0 start by #Chicago until Jenny Boucek called a timeout. Vandersloot has 6 points. I may have been wrong to cheer for the local…
Wow. Finally Alysha Clark scores for #Seattle 4 and a half minutes into the game. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis got a layup shortly afterwards so now the Storm are only down 16-4. This could be a long game.
#Chicago's still on fire, but the Storm have at least scored some points at the end of the first quarter, 5 of them from Kaleena, 4 from Alysha, and 4 from Jewel. Vandersloot has 8 points, but Della Donne only has 4. We'll see how long that low-scoring from her lasts. Sky leads 25-16 at the end of the quarter.
My bad, it was 26-15. The Sky continue shooting almost 60% about 5 minutes into the 2nd quarter compared to the Storm's 39%. Unsurprisingly, they lead 39-25, although the Storm did pull within 6 at one point (it was 29-23 at the time) behind a couple of threes from Jenna O'Hea.
45-27 Sky 2:33 left to go in the 2nd quarter. They are just out-shooting and out-hustling the Storm. Halftime stats coming soon.
Alright, 51-35 at halftime. #Chicago is crushing #Seattle in the rebounding game 21-11, 5 coming from Della Donne and Jessica Breland each. 10 different Sky players have points, Vandersloot leading the way with 10. The starting point guards for both teams (Angel Goodrich and Courtney Vandersloot) each have 4 assists. The Storm have 9 turnovers to the Sky's 3. It's just better team #Basketball from #Chicago at this point. I miss Sue.
End of third quarter: 68-50 Sky
The Storm only had it as low as a 14-point deficit before #Chicago got it back behind Allie Quigley's 2 3-pointers. The Sky still leads the Storm in rebounding 33-20. Jewel Loyd, Jenna O'Hea, and Crystal Langhorne are pretty much the only ones scoring for #Seattle right now. Not much hope at this point unfortunately.
Final score: 94-65
There's not a whole lot to say about this one that hasn't already been said. Jamierra Faulkner had a great second half and had 6 steals, 6 assists, and 14 points (many of them a result of her steals). Allie Quigley went 3-4 from three-point range and had 17 points. Surprisingly, Elena Della Donne "only" had 13 points and 7 rebounds. On the Storm end, Jewel was easily the best with 21 points and 7 rebounds (but also 6 turnovers- definitely something for her to work on in the off-season. Crystal had 12 points, 4 steals and 5 rebounds, but she ALSO had 6 turnovers to add to the Storm's cumulative abysmal total of 21 turnovers.
Well, one step closer to the number one pick, I suppose.
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