It began with getting a stop, specifically, rookie center Dominique Malonga playing good defense to force a miss from three-time MVP A’ja Wilson. Veteran forward Nneka Ogwumike pulled down the rebound and found her point guard Skylar Diggins. Diggins’ get-ahead pass found Malonga streaking down the floor to the basket where she finished the layup through the contact foul, tying the game.
With 31 seconds left in the game, tied at 83, Seattle’s ability to take the lead rested on a 19-year-old taking one free throw. In front of 12,500 fans that had been deafening loud until she stepped up to the line, Malonga sunk it to bring the crowd back even louder.
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“I’m really impressed by the free throw. That’s a big moment by a 19-year-old to have to go in there,” Diggins said post-game. “We’ve been asking a lot from her all year. We always make fun that she’s the youngest player to do whatever in a game, but it’s really historical — [what] she’s been doing at her age in this league, her poise. And that was a big play for us.”
On their next possession, Vegas threw the ball away on a bad pass, giving Seattle the ball and the lead with 27.7 seconds left to play. Ogwumike held the ball for most of the following possession, thinking Vegas would foul. Eventually, the ball went to Diggins, who found an open lane to the rim and knocked down a rainbow two-pointer, extending the Storm lead to three points with 4.2 seconds on the clock. Loyd would get a good look from three on Vegas’ final trip down the court, but her shot hit the front of the rim as the clock zeroed out, snapping the Aces’ winning streak at 17 games.
Seattle’s ability to mount a late-game comeback and make big shots when it mattered was the culmination of all the lessons they learned from the many close games they were in this season.
“I think a lot of times you go through moments, and you don’t realize what they’re for. I feel like a lot of August was for today,” Ogwumike said. “We are not unfamiliar with tight games. We’re not unfamiliar with playing from behind, especially kind of in the second [half]. And I think that today was probably one of our best showings of composure. We weren’t too high, we weren’t too low. We were responsive, we weren’t reactive. And we took every possession as seriously as we could. So, for us to be able to use that experience that we got since the All-Star break in the postseason, that’s exactly what it’s for.”
At any moment, the Storm could have succumbed to a game-losing lull. But, particularly in the fourth quarter, fans were locked in to cheer for every bucket, every defensive stop, every possession, and against every Aces free throw (Vegas only converted 20 of their 29 free throw attempts.)
“I was yelling all night at them because it was so loud in here I couldn’t hear myself. And that’s the atmosphere that they’ve had all year for us, regardless how we played,” Diggins said. “They’ve been very supportive of us this year, and that’s why we were very concentrated on the type of effort that we wanted to come out with tonight. … The Storm crazies have been very supportive of us all year. And in the biggest moment where we needed them to be, they were the loudest. And so, we appreciate everybody that supported us, and we wish we could bottle that up and take some of that on the road with us.”
Mindset and execution
On a team level, the Storm executed the things they wanted to change from Game 1 — they started well and played good defense, which fed their offense. In Game 1, the Storm were outscored 45-25 in the first half. The score was 45-44 in favor of the Aces entering halftime of Game 2.
“We’ve got great leadership, and our best player showed a lot of poise. I feed off Nneka, and the way that she started the game with force, it kept us in that first quarter,” Diggins said. “We knew we didn’t want to start the game how we did. We talked about not going behind double digits in the first quarter. … We talked about situations where you let the game come to you, and tonight we came to the game. I thought we didn’t react, we responded. We talked about some adjustments we wanted to make, and we were able to make those.”
Diggins also felt her team played with necessary physicality, which allowed them to win the rebounding battle 32-29. The three-point line was also important to Seattle’s victory, as they knocked down 10 threes at a 50% clip.
Critically, they also limited the contributions of players around Wilson and Jackie Young, who had 21 and 25 points respectively. Kierstan Bell, Nalyssa Smith and Chelsea Gray were each held to seven points. Jewell Loyd got some early threes and finished with 13 points, but the other bench players, like Cheyenne Parker-Tyus and Dana Evans, had one and two points respectively.
“It was part of the scout. I thought that we were locked into the others at the three-point line was where we didn’t do well in Game 1,” Quinn said. “That’s the pocket that we have to stay in. We know that A’ja is a load. If we could keep her to her average that’s a plus for us. But we have to be locked into the others, taking away their comfort, because they can knock in threes at a high clip. They can really impact the game and stretch the game and get on a run, and if we can lock into their tendencies, then we can be in the game.”
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Defensively, the Storm broke up Vegas’ offensive flow, allowing them to dominate the transition game. Seattle scored 16 fast break points to Vegas’ 4, with some being points the Storm scored off of Vegas’ 15 turnovers.
The team also brought an unwavering positive mindset, which helped them get through the game’s toughest minutes:
“I thought coming into time outs and huddles, our posture was positive, it was confident and never wavered,” Quinn praised. “But all the stuff that we had gone through in the past month, that mattered. Close games, being down, being up, these moments are particularly important to have the deposits for playoffs.”
Full team contributions
Within their full team effort, individual players also came up big. Every player gave just enough at crucial times.
“Everybody made big shots all night and big plays for us,” Diggins said.
Diggins credited Ogwumike with keeping their team in the first quarter, where she scored 11 of Seattle’s 21 points. Her performance gave Seattle both the start they needed and the offensive spark to get their other players going.
“I think that when I was aggressive in the beginning, it allowed for things to open up. It allowed for people to discover different looks,” Ogwumike said. “Being empowered to be more aggressive, it made things more open for [Diggins] then she could flow. Then I could flow. Then [Erica Wheeler] let the game come to her. Then Dom was cleaning things up. And that’s how we’ve got to play. That’s how that’s how we have to play off of each other and understand that the game isn’t going to end with this one possession and build off of what we see and what is open.”
“And great teams change things up. We saw so many different ways about being in the ball action today. So being cerebral, being students of the game, I really do attribute our win tonight for that.”
As Ogwumike alluded to, the next quarter belonged to Diggins, who scored 15 of Seattle’s 23 points. Then, in the third quarter, when Vegas outscored them 24-17, Ogwumike contributed 11 points.
Outside of the aforementioned three-point play from Malonga, all of Seattle’s fourth quarter scoring came from Diggins and guard Erica Wheeler, who each added 11 points. Diggins finished as the game’s leading scorer, with 26 points on top of seven assists.
“I think part of us on that run was a lot of Skylar’s aggressive activity level, her mentality. She’s built for these moments. She’s been in a lot of these moments,” Quinn praised. “Talked about this before the game with the group, Sky’s off-season preparation, being in a gym at 5am and these difficult workouts that I observed her do — there’s a reason why she can excel in these moments. It’s not just physically what she does, but mentally, where she takes her mind, and when she plays like this, we’re very hard to beat.”
Even though she was held scoreless in the third quarter, Diggins knew that everyone was going to have their moments in the game. Balancing the duality of being a point guard — distributing while also getting her own shot — Diggins stepped up in the moments her team needed her.
“Obviously, it’s not the first time I’ve been in that moment. I’ve been in the playoffs a few years of my career, I’ve been to the finals before. But also I know that this team has a level of trust in me too, and that also gives me an air of confidence about myself, how I prepare for these moments,” Diggins said. “But not being afraid of the moment is the playoffs. So can’t be afraid to take the shot. I know the ball is in my hands for a reason — to play make — and I just took my opportunity.
“And I think that was the biggest difference in my game, personally, between Game 1 and 2, was being relentless and turning the corner, getting to the paint, engage and making them guard me, just being super aggressive. … I just feel like nobody can stay in front of me when I have that mindset.”
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Wheeler also stepped up in the game’s biggest moments. Going into the fourth quarter, Wheeler had zero points, having missed all five of her shots through 15 minutes played. But in the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter, Wheeler went 4-for-4 from the floor, including two massive three-pointers, and 1-for-1 from the free-throw line.
“She showed a lot of resiliency because she had a goose egg for a little bit,” Quinn said of Wheeler. “To come and hit a big three and to come in, find her sweet spot, get to her kill spot, but also what she’s doing defensively. I don’t think it’s talked about enough, defending all of their perimeter players, being in their space, being physical, getting through screens.
“I think that when she can provide things that she provided tonight, it gives us another scorer, gives us another defensive presence. And I thought she did an excellent job of bouncing back and having mental fortitude to give us what we needed.”
However, Malonga’s fourth quarter defense on Wilson was critical to keeping the Aces’ at bay during Seattle’s comeback. The 19-year-old rookie managed to keep Wilson, who is the running for her fourth WNBA MVP award, scoreless for the final seven minutes of the game, effectively preventing Las Vegas from gaining any offensive momentum. Overall, Wilson was held to 21 points on the night, below her average of 23.4.
“A lot of Dom being in her space, utilizing her length,” Quinn said of what worked defending Wilson. “We’ve spent some time looking at Vegas and what they’re going to run, knowing that where we need to be physical [is] before she gets to basketball, [there’s] not a lot of capability to congest a lot of times because there’s shooters on the floor. So, a lot of those possessions become Ezi, Nneka and Dom going one-on-one and utilizing their length and physicality. And just with a player as great as A’ja, you just want to make it as difficult as possible. And I thought our group did that.”
Beyond her tying bucket and go-ahead free throw, Malonga finished the game with yet another double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“I actually think that not only is Dom wise, but I also feel like there is a bit of naivete that contributes,” Ogwumike said. “She’s like, okay, ‘I’m who I am. I’m out there. I’m going to do this,’ you know. And it’s, actually beautiful. …”
“But I think that that kind of innocence mixed with what experience she already has, and then her realizing who she is in almost every single possession — you know, there is an evolution in every single game that we play. We have not seen the same Dom in two games. She’s just learning and improving that much, and we just try our best to continue to empower her to know how truly capable she is.”
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Buoyed by defeating a team that had been unbeatable for a historic stretch, Seattle must perform with the same energy and execution in front of a hostile crowd in order to move on the second round of the playoffs.
“We’re going to look at the film, and we’re going to make the adjustments that we need to make, as are the Aces, we know it’s going to be a chess match, a battle,” head coach Noelle Quinn said. “But what we can learn from this game is A, the way that we started, it was important. … And then, just being sharp in every area, not allowing the runs to get too big, stay in the moment. So, all these like intangible things with mindset, spirit, all of those things that come into play in a Game 3 plus now, the execution that we saw that we can do on both sides of the floor, and we got to package all of that and bring it on Thursday.”
The Seattle Storm will take on the Las Vegas Aces for Game 3 at Michelob ULTRA Arena on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 9:30 p.m. ET.
