Storm ends regular season with big win in Phoenix

Seattle wins 89-70 for its 25th win of the season and secures the season series against Mercury

PHOENIX – On the night the regular season ended, the Seattle Storm got off to their best start yet.

And they're not finished yet.

Nneka Ogwumike scored 10 of her 24 points in the first quarter, Mercedes Russell had 10 of her 14 points, and the Storm scored 35 points in the first 10 minutes en route to a start-to-finish 89-70 victory over the Phoenix Mercury at Footprint Center.

Seattle (25-15) finished with six players in double figures and recorded the most regular-season wins since the 2018 team went 26-8 en route to the franchise's third WNBA title.

The Storm, who had already secured the No. 5 seed in the playoffs before play began Thursday, head straight to Nevada to begin their best-of-3 first-round series against two-time defending champion Las Vegas. As the No. 4 seed, the Aces will host Game 1 on Sunday at 7 p.m. and Game 2 on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. If Seattle wins at least one of those games and the series heads back to Climate Pledge Arena for a decisive Game 3, that will take place next Thursday, Sept. 26. The game time for that game has not yet been announced.

On Thursday, six Storm players ended up with double-digit scores, including all five regular players. Skylar Diggins Smith 14 points added, Sami Whitcomb counted 11, and Gabby Williams scored 10. For the third game in a row, they were without top scorer Jewell Loyd (knee) and top rebounder Ezi Magbegor (concussion).

Joyner Holmes came off the bench to record a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. It was her first of the season and second of her career, the first of which came during her rookie season in 2020 with the New York Liberty.

The Storm have struggled to get going for much of the season, but that was all seemingly forgotten Thursday. They scored the game's first 10 points, half of them by Ogwumike. The Mercury (19-21), who missed their first four shots, finally broke through with a 3-pointer by Diana Taurasi in what very well may have been their last home game of the regular season.

But Seattle kept scoring. With the score at 12-3, Williams made a three-pointer from the free throw line to make it 15-3, and the lead never fell below double digits the rest of the night. After trailing 19-9, the Storm scored the next 14 points in a row and extended their lead to 24 points, 33-9.

They finished the quarter with a 35-14 lead, their highest-scoring quarter of the year and tied for the best quarter in the entire league. (Indiana had scored 35 points in the opening period in Atlanta on June 21.) Seattle shot 68 percent (15 of 22), including 5 of 10 threes.

That dropped off significantly in the second quarter, when the Storm went the first 4:25 minutes without scoring, missing five shots in a row, while Phoenix got back into the game. Williams finally ended the drought with a 13-foot turnaround on the left side of the zone.

The Mercury got within 10-41 with 2:36 minutes left before halftime, but Seattle held them off the goal until the end and went into the break with a 43-31 lead.

The lead remained in the 10s for most of the third quarter before the Storm extended it back to 23 (65-42). In the fourth quarter, Whitcomb was the only starter for either team to play until Taurasi came back for a final curtain call with 3:16 left and finally went back to the bench at 3:05.

When she entered the court, her first stop was Seattle player Nika Muhl to congratulate her former Connecticut colleague on her first WNBA points. But with 4:40 left in the game, she managed a steal and used the ball for a layup. The Storm players jumped off the bench and surrounded Muhl as she came over during the next media timeout.

ONE RECORD SET… AND ANOTHER JUST MISSED

The Storm made 6 of 8 free throws on Thursday, just enough to set a new team record for success at the free throw line. They made 603 of 718, a percentage of 83.98. Their previous record was 83.95.

Seattle led the league in steals all season, stealing the ball from the Mercury five times for a total of 372 steals on the season, just one shy of the WNBA record of 373 set by the Indiana Fever in 2009.

–Seattle shot 44.9% on the night, making 35 of 78. That included season-highs in hits (13) and attempts (36) from downtown. They limited Phoenix to 38.1% (24 of 63) shooting and just 6 of 26 (26.1%) from behind the arc.

–The Storm had a 41-33 advantage in rebounds. They didn't allow the Mercury to get a rebound until 2:54 left in the first quarter, by which time Seattle already had nine.

–Of those 35 baskets, 27 were assists. Williams and Diggins-Smith each had six, and Muehl matched her career-high with three, matching the total he had against Phoenix on Sept. 7 in Seattle.

–That's over 20 assists in 24 of 40 games, including five of the last six and 20 of the last 24.

–The Storm won the season series 3-1. It is the sixth time in the last seven seasons that they have won the series.

— In addition to her 11 points, Whitcomb also had season-highs of eight rebounds and five assists.

—— StormBasketball.com ——