The Storm dropped their second consecutive game on the road tonight, losing 84-75 to the Tulsa Shock, who had played them well in a previous meeting in Tulsa.
The Storm matched a season-high 24 turnovers -- previously set in Tulsa on June 27th -- and were quite badly outshot in the first half.
More on the game from SBN's Swish Appeal:
Statistical summary: Turnovers calm the Storm in Tulsa - Swish Appeal
As surprising as the Tulsa Shock's 84-75 win over the Seattle Storm tonight might be, the manner in which they won it was quite predictable.Maybe you can dismiss the pre-season game in which the Shock's 40 Minutes of Hell forced the Storm into 32 turnovers. But it's much harder to overlook the Storm's season-high 24 turnovers in Tulsa during their 83-72 win in which they needed a 4th quarter rally to win.
Again tonight the Storm turned the ball over 24 times but this time the 4th quarter rally never came -- despite holding the Shock to 2-12 shooting in the 4th quarter, the Storm turned the ball over while putting the Shock on the free throw line 12 times allowing the Shock to hang on to the 9 point lead they entered the quarter with.
So while the opponents' free throw rate might be among the biggest commonalities between the Storm's consecutive road losses, the bigger issue is that they lost the turnover battle in both and particularly badly against the Shock.
The Storm will return home for their first game of the season against former UConn center Tina Charles and the Connecticut Sun on Thursday and then host the Shock again on Saturday looking to return tonight's favor.