The Seattle Storm will proceed their four-game highway journey on Sunday afternoon in opposition to the defending champion New York Liberty in Brooklyn.
Seattle (11-7) owns wins excessive 4 groups within the WNBA standings, together with a 10-point house victory in opposition to New York on June 22.
“It is not that tough. After we play at a excessive stage and are locked in, we’re a very good group,” Storm coach Noelle Quinn mentioned. “When we aren’t locked in, we’re not a superb group. For us to actually personal it, we’ve to point out we’re improved each single sport. It is a tough schedule and a tough season, however on the finish of the day we’ve gamers in our locker room dedicated to one another.”
Seattle is led by veteran All-Stars Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike. Diggins scored the game-winner on a driving layup with 3.4 seconds left in Thursday’s 80-79 victory in opposition to the Atlanta Dream.
“Skylar does Skylar issues,” mentioned Ogwumike, who contributed 24 factors. “She is relentless. She goes to maintain on going. There’s only a hearth in her that’s lit on a regular basis. She is actually the top of our snake.”
New York (12-5) has dropped 4 of its previous six video games whereas its protection has slipped to fifth within the WNBA in factors allowed at 79.8 per sport.
The Liberty welcomed again starter Leonie Fiebich in an 89-79 win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday. She had missed seven video games whereas taking part in for Workforce Germany in EuroBasket.
Coach Sandy Brondello had known as the sport a must-win.
“I used to be happy with how we responded,” Brondello mentioned. “We have been doing foolish issues. As soon as we turned to protection, our communication went to a different stage.”
The Liberty are nonetheless lacking star Jonquel Jones with an ankle harm.
Natasha Cloud has picked up the scoring slack in Jones’ absence. She had a season-high 23 within the win in opposition to the Sparks and has averaged 19.0 factors over the previous three video games.
“Day-after-day I get to come back out and play is a blessing,” Cloud mentioned. “To have the ability to proceed to play at an elite stage as an underdog, as a second-round draft choose (in 2015), it actually does matter to me sporting Liberty throughout my chest.”
–Subject Stage Media