The Seattle Storm who are the four time WNBA Champions, brought the power in Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday night. Seattle Storm’s guard Jewell Loyd owned the floor majority of the game. Loyd was drafted first overall in the 2015 WNBA Draft. She played college basketball at Notre Dame. She came out in the 1st quarter scoring 13 points in the first 8 minutes of the game. The Storm gained a 10 point lead in the quarter. Towards the end of the quarter, Atlanta rookie Rhyne Howard nailed an 18 footer to help bring the Dream back within 5 points. Prior to the start of the game, Dream’s guard and floor general Erica Wheeler suffered in ankle injury and was questionable for the remainder of the game. Wheeler is one of Atlanta’s key scorers and is vital to their offense as we will witness this through the game.
At the start of the 2nd quarter, Atlanta Dreams go on a 12-3 run and brings the Storm’s lead to 1. The Dreams lead on the boards 16-11 versus the Storm. Awesome ball movement is what Atlanta displayed in the quarter. However, 8 team fouls caused the Dreams turnover to reflect. This gave an advantage for Seattle to capitalize on the Dreams carelessness. Surprisingly, Storms Coach gets hit with her first technical foul for verbally going off on one of the officials which took the Dreams to the line. This gave Atlanta a big possesion to receive the ball with 3 seconds on the tick before halftime. Dreams, Aari McDonald rushed the shot from the corner and was off the mark.
Seattle Storm leads the league in blocked shots which was a plus for the bright moments in the first half. Another notable factor, despite the Storms lead on the Dreams, Atlanta out rebounded Seattle 22 to 18. Opening the start of the 3rd, Dreams forward Nia Coffey, is called for a flagrant foul on Storm’s Breanna Stewart who is double figures around this time a bring her team’s lead to 6 points. This foul call was not a good look for Atlanta with it being their 14th team foul, it caused Seattle to constantly go to the line to take advantage of the lead they already had on the Dream. Unfortunately, Atlanta Dream to lead the league in fouls, 21.4 per contests. To add fuel to the fire, Aari McDonald is hit with her 4th foul in the 3rd. Star rookie Howard has been shut down by Seattle’s defense and her aver from the field is 3-11. Meanwhile, Storm’s Breanna Stewart is making it rain on the other end of the court and racks up 16 points in the quarter. Eventually, Atlanta finds their groove, gets a break and go on an 8-0 run to bring the Storm’s lead to 48-45. the Dream made 22 points in the paint for the end of the 3rd.
The Storm push back and apply pressure toward the end of the 3rd by going on a 7-0 run. Jewell Loyd is the scoring leading for Seattle with 18 points. She sends the Seattle crowd on a frenzy when she hits a 3 pointer at the buzzer and brings their lead to 60 -47, the biggest lead in the game. Atlanta starts the 4th scrambling to make any basket. Seattle does get a little sloppy from the field which allows Atlanta to come back within 6 points with 3:54 left in the game. Stewart drains a huge 3 with a minute left to play. Then Seattle’s Gabby Williams comes back and gain a huge rebound for the Storm and puts up a lay up to seal the win for the Seattle Storm. They shut the door on Atlanta 72-60. Jewell Loyd scores an outstanding 26 points for her team. Dreams lead scorers, Cheyenne Parker with 13 points and Kristy Wallace contributed 12 points. As the Storm rages in Seattle!
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