Angel McCoughtry Had Her City Doing Front Flips With Historic Performance
“(Angel McCoughtry) has been a premier scorer for a while. When she gets it going she’s tough to stop.” Those were the words of Seattle Storm head coach Jenny Boucek late Wednesday night, shortly after she had a front row seat to McCoughtry’s spectacular one-woman show, which played to raucous applause from the Atlanta crowd.
Regardless of how many Seattle torsos or arms or hands or fingers were in her way, McCoughtry spent the night getting bucket after bucket. She knocked down triples, drilled mid-range jumpers, and finished strong at the rim, and when the final buzzer sounded, she had accumulated 37 points on 14-21 shooting. And if that wasn’t enough, she dished out a playoff career-high seven assists (two of which were on three-pointers), thereby playing a direct role in 53 of Atlanta’s 94 points. In case you were wondering, yes, that is in fact ridiculous.
McCoughtry’s 37-Point Performance
With Tiffany Hayes serving a one-game suspension, and Sancho Lyttle sidelined by a foot injury, McCoughtry’s performance was just what the Dream needed. It was also just another night in the (postseason) office for McCoughtry.
Entering Wednesday’s game, McCoughtry held the WNBA record for the most points scored in a single playoff game–a 42-point masterpiece against the New York Liberty back in 2010– and a career postseason average of 22.2 points per game (second only to Cynthia Cooper), and averaged 26.7 points a night during the Dream’s last trip to the playoffs back in 2014.
She also had three of the six highest-scoring games in WNBA Playoff history. Now, she has four of the top seven. The 37 points McCoughtry dropped on Wednesday night were the seventh-most ever scored in a WNBA Playoff game. In addition to being breathtaking to watch, the Atlanta guard’s performance was also historic.
Top Scoring Games in WNBA Playoff History
| Player | Game | Date | Points |
| Angel McCoughtry | ATL vs. NYL | Sept. 7, 2010 | 42 |
| Tamika Whitmore | IND at DET | Aug. 19, 2006 | 41 |
| Elena Delle Donne | CHI vs. IND | Sept. 21, 2015 | 40 |
| Maya Moore | MIN at PHX | Sept. 27, 2015 | 40 |
| Angel McCoughtry | ATL at CHI | Aug. 24, 2014 | 39 |
| Angel McCoughtry | ATL at MIN | Oct. 5, 2011 | 38 |
| Angel McCoughtry | SEA at ATL | Sept. 21, 2016 | 37 |
Even the most recent Basketball Hall of Fame inductee was impressed.
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And there isn’t much more you can say about it than that.
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