Despite the final score, the Seattle Storm did manage to get within single digits of the Indiana Fever tonight.
Unfortunately, after closing to within two possessions in the third quarter, they allowed the Fever to shoot 80 percent in the fourth quarter and suffered a 78-61 loss to finish their road trip at 1-2.
The Fever were led by center Jessica Davenport's 15 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks. Part of what made the Fever so difficult to contain inside was that they established a 3-point threat early to spread the court and seemed to drop one at timely moments just to maintain the threat with 42.9 percent shooting. Fever forward Tamika Catchings was one of four players to hit a three and she finished with a typically well-rounded game of 11 points, six rebounds, four steals, and three assists.
In contrast to the Fever's balanced inside-outside attack, the Storm's bid to make this a game in the second half was all about point guard Sue Bird. Bird was as aggressive as ever scoring 21 of the Storm's 61 points along with five assists, both game highs. Bird led a much more potent 3-point attack than usual this season, hitting 5-for-6 as the Storm shot 36 percent. But the bigger problem than balanced scoring throughout the game was turnovers, which made for inconsistent offensive performance.
The Storm had 19 turnovers for the game, which is a higher rate than usual and made it difficult for them to find a flow in their offense. That combined with a lack of free throw shooting (2-for-4 for the game) and shooting 25 threes is the mark of an offense that isn't particularly fluid.
The Storm's next game is on Saturday at KeyArena against the Los Angeles Sparks at 7 p.m. PST.