Minnesota @ Seattle, August 3

[MilfordHusky]

Minnesota looked good in the first half, playing strong defense and feeding Sylvia. They pushed the lead to about 9, then Seattle cut it to 1 at halftime. To start the second half, Minnesota built the lead to 9, but then things fell apart. Seattle forced turnovers on 3 straight possessions and ran the break for baskets. Then Stewie sank a three, and the oldest player in the league sank several. They basically ran Minnesota, who had a game in L.A. last night, off the floor over the last 14 minutes. The final was 85-75.

Sue finished with 14 points, including 4-5 from the arc (she also had one nullified by a moving screen) and 11 assists. Over her last 6 games, she has had 49 assists and only 9 TOs. The MVP had 20/7/2/3/2. For Minnesota, Sylvia had 20 and 16, but Maya had only 7 points, fell hard in the first half, and sat out crunch time.

Seattle clinched a playoff berth. The crowd was over 12,000, including folks in the upper deck, which is typically closed.

This was Breast Cancer Survivor Night. After the game, Stewie gave an autographed sneaker and a hug to Holly Rowe.

 

[UConnCat]

Stewie's defense (steals/block) changed the game.

 

[UConnCat]

Sue was pretty good too. Great crowd and great atmosphere.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Stewie's defense (steals/block) changed the game.

Dick Fain gets very excited.

Yep, Stewie did a little of everything. She is so dangerous, both inside and outside.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Sue was pretty good too. Great crowd and great atmosphere.

Sue was 4-5 from the arc and had one waved off. Note the play with Kaleena, where KML dribble penetrates and then dishes back to Sue in the corner. Sue is on track to hit 3,000 career assists next year.

The atmosphere in L.A. for the Lynx on Thursday and in Seattle for the Lynx on Friday was definitely that of the playoffs. 12,000 in attendance last night. Maybe Minnesota should have pulled the Las Vegas strategy of declining to play.

 

[EricLA]

Not only is Stewie my MVP, but it's pretty obvious she can play all 5 positions better than anyone in the world. And I don't mean she's a better PG than Sue or SG than Dee.

I mean that there is no one in the world with her abilities on defense and offense - with the ball, off the ball, shooting, dribbling, driving, defending, passing, etc.

 

[UConnCat]

You know what was great about watching this game last night? There wasn't a lot of talk about the officiating. There were complaints here and there (Hughes was particularly upset about missed call against Stewart) but the focus was on the basketball. That sure was refreshing.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Article in the paper today said the game was a sellout. Storm attendance has been fairly good this year but I think that's fairly unusual.

 

[Undercovervol]

Maya Moore looked dead tired in that game. She didn’t even play half of the fourth quarter.
She hasn’t looked like herself for much of the year. I think she may need a break.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Maya Moore looked dead tired in that game. She didn’t even play half of the fourth quarter.
She hasn’t looked like herself for much of the year. I think she may need a break.

She didn't play any of the 4th quarter against LA the day before. She scored 6 early points against the Sparks and then mostly disappeared the rest of the game.

 

[Undercovervol]

There’s no shame in it. Angel mccoughtry did, Candace has multiple times. Every major player has done it practically.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Article in the paper today said the game was a sellout. Storm attendance has been fairly good this year but I think that's fairly unusual.

They sold out the lower deck and opened the upper deck. I think a "sellout" refers to the lower deck only. But the attendance looked comparable to that at the ASG in Minnesota on Saturday. 12,000+ is good. And it got loud!

 

[MilfordHusky]

Maya Moore looked dead tired in that game. She didn’t even play half of the fourth quarter.
She hasn’t looked like herself for much of the year. I think she may need a break.

Maya has not played to her usual level. I'm not sure what is up. She looked like her normal self on Saturday in the ASG, but not in L.A. or Seattle.

 

[nwhoopfan]

There’s no shame in it. Angel mccoughtry did, Candace has multiple times. Every major player has done it practically.

To be clear all of the starters sat out the4th quarter against LA, coach's decision.

 

[eebmg]

Accoring to the wnba.com follow up story,

08/03/18: Minnesota Lynx @ Seattle Storm - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA

Seattle had its third sellout in a row with a crowd of 12,064.

 

[EricLA]

Accoring to the wnba.com follow up story,

08/03/18: Minnesota Lynx @ Seattle Storm - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA

Seattle had its third sellout in a row with a crowd of 12,064.

It goes to show, for the most part, if you put a good and entertaining product on the court, fans will want to come see them play. Of course it helps that they are in first place. But compare them to the disaster that is the NYL or the bumbling but hard working Indiana Fever...

Maybe they should follow the example of the Sun and Aces - put teams in arenas that have casinos and are owned by Indian tribes. It will be interesting to see how their profitability fares against the rest of the league... Clearly putting them in NBA markets did not work...