Short-handed Storm fall to Aces, will start first round of playoffs on the road

The Storm’s bid to secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs came to an end Tuesday night after an 85-72 loss to the Las Vegas Aces.

Seattle will start the postseason, which begins Sunday, with two road games in the best-of-three series — a precarious proposition for a team that’s just 3-8 away from home against playoff-bound teams.

The Storm (24-15) are locked into the No. 5 seed, but their first-round opponent — the No. 4 seed — is still undetermined.

Heading into Thursday’s regular-season finale, the Connecticut Sun (27-12) have a one-game lead over the Aces (26-13). If the teams finish tied, Las Vegas claims the No. 3 seed and Seattle plays Connecticut in the first round.

It remains if the Storm’s latest setback in front of 14,298 at Climate Pledge Arena, which snapped their four-game winning streak, will be the last time they play in front of their fans.

“I wanted to win this game tonight,” guard Skylar Diggins-Smith said. “I wanted to win it for the fans. I wanted to win it for us. I don’t do moral victories. We respect the hell out of Vegas and everything that they got over there. We don’t fear them. And it’s looking like what it’s looking like right now. It’s a possibility, a strong possibility that we’ll see them again.”

Maybe that’s not good thing for the Storm considering they’re 2-10 in the past 10 meetings against the Aces, including a 1-3 this season, 0-4 in 2023 and 1-3 in the 2022 semifinals.

While Diggins-Smith said Thursday’s game felt like a playoff game, coach Noelle Quinn made it clear the loss was not a postseason preview.

“We’re not going to be the same team when we see them in the playoffs because we are without two of our starters,” Quinn said noting Seattle played its second game without Jewell Loyd (right knee) and Ezi Magbegor (concussion).

Quinn was unsure if the Storm would have their leading scorer and top defender when for Thursday’s regular-season finale against the Phoenix Mercury, but expected them to return Sunday for the start of the playoffs.

“I learned that we need Jewell and Ezi on the floor,” Quinn said. “Period. They’re at their best and we have to be at our best. We have to be healthy in order to combat what they have.”

Nneka Ogwumike led Seattle with 19 points and six rebounds, Diggins-Smith finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and three steals while Gabby Williams had 11 points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals.

The Storm trailed 29-16 late in the first quarter and fell behind 44-26 midway in the second quarter.

Seattle trimmed its deficit to 48-40 at halftime and Diggins-Smith drained a short jumper its first lead 65-64 with 8:26 left.

“We started playing our brand of basketball,” Diggins-Smith said. “I felt like defensively, we started being more physical. We started getting stops and we were able to make our run. We were sharing the ball and we got it moving, but it all started from our defense.

“When you play against a team like this, you can’t make a lot of mistakes and I thought we did that in the first half. It’s tough to beat them straight up anyway, but to be down 18 points and to come back and get a lead, it took a lot out of us being short-handed. We appreciate the effort. We did a few different things today.”

The Storm’s lead didn’t last long and they fell apart while the Aces outscored them 21-7 the rest of the way.

Seattle, which converted just two of nine 3-pointers, had difficulty against Las Vegas’ zone.

“We got to work on zone offense,” Ogwumike said. “That’s my takeaway.”

Diggins-Smith added: “Put that in the suggestion box.”

Quinn acknowledged the Storm’s offensive struggles against the zone.

“If we’re allowed to play a 2-3 zone and defensive three second isn’t going to be called, that’s one,” she said when asked about the Aces’ defense. “The other thing is, when were executing our zone (offense) we got easy stuff in the middle, but we just weren’t consistent in that.

“We have to be sharper in our zone execution. New York did it to us and it’s very clear that teams are going to continue to it to us. Yeah, we know that we’re not a high three-point percentage team, but if we see zone we need to be more focused, locked in and sharper in our execution.”

Aces forward A’ja Wilson, who has more points (1,021) and rebounds (451) in a season than anyone in WNBA history, had 21 points and seven rebounds.

Former Washington Husky star Kelsey Plum tallied 21 points and seven rebounds while Jackie Young had 16 points, for Las Vegas, which shot 53.3% from the field. Chelsea Gray chipped in 13 points and Tiffany Hayes added 10 off the bench.

Note

• The Storm set a total attendance record of 223,684 this season. This season, Seattle had four of the six largest crowds in franchise history.

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