Notes & Quotes: Dream Beat Storm, 67-64


GAME HIGHLIGHTS • Forward Natasha Howard tallied her second double-double in a Storm uniform with a team-high 15 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Her previous career-high for rebounds was 11, achieved on 7/15/15 against Tulsa. • Trailing by 12 (58-46) in the fourth quarter, Seattle exploded for a 15-2 run to take a one-point lead (61-60) with 2:34 left to play but went scoreless in the next two minutes. Meanwhile, Atlanta notched three straight buckets from Tiffany Hayes to pull away down the stretch.

KEY STATS OF THE GAME • The Storm shot just 33.8 percent (25-for-74) from the field while Atlanta hit 40.6 percent (28-for-69) of its field goals. The Storm’s four three-pointers made was a season low, as was the team’s percentage from deep (15.4). • Seattle entered the game leading the WNBA in scoring, but Atlanta’s defense held the Storm to a season-low 64 points.

STORM HIGHLIGHTS • Storm guard Jewell Loyd scored 14 points to go along with eight rebounds. • Breanna Stewart registered 12 points despite seeing a career-low 20 minutes of action due to foul trouble. Seattle outscored Atlanta by eight while Stewart was on the court. Her previous low in minutes was 22 on 6/27/17 at Washington. • At the 7:36 mark of the second quarter, Natasha Howard notched her 100th career block. She now has 17 this season, just 10 shy of tying her career-high for a campaign. • Natasha Howard attempted a career-high 17 field goals. Her previous high was 16 (achieved twice). • Jewell Loyd started her 100th career game. • Rookie guard Jordin Canada faced former UCLA teammate and first-round draft pick Monique Billings. Canada recorded three points and three assists off the bench. • Seattle outrebounded Atlanta for the first time since 9/4/16, owning a 44-36 edge on the glass. • The Storm dropped to 9-4 all-time vs. the Dream at KeyArena. Seattle has taken five of the last seven meetings in the Emerald City.

DREAM HIGHLIGHTS • With her 15 points, Angel McCoughtry now has 5,120 in her career. She has now moved passed Swin Cash for 15th all-time on the all-time WNBA points list. • Angel McCoughtry recorded her second double-double (15 points/10 rebounds) of the season and 18th of her career. • Layshia Clarendon finished with a season-high eight points, all in the second quarter, in 18 minutes off the bench. • Jessica Breland grabbed a season-high 14 rebounds tonight, her fourth game this season with 10 or more. • Tiffany Hayes played a season-high 37 minutes and finished 23 points, her fifth game with at least 20+ points this season.

ATLANTA DREAM HEAD COACH NIKKI COLLEN

(On the game) “I thought it was a battle. Coming into the game, I thought it was going to take a monumental defensive effort. Seattle has been so good from (behind) the arc and really sharing the basketball. Obviously a big key was getting (Breanna) Stewart in foul trouble. People can argue whether they were charges or not, but I can tell you one thing: (Jessica) Breland doesn’t flop. I was really proud that when Seattle took the lead, that we kept our poise and got the lead right back. So often when a team is clawing back from down double digits, and then they take the lead, that sometimes clinches it. So I thought that was a big moment in the game. (Tiffany) Hayes battled like a maniac. She made every big play late and (Damiris) Dantas made a couple of big plays as well.”

(On the key defensively tonight) “If I could lobby right now for Defensive Player of the Year, Tiffany Hayes has been unbelievable. Between guarding Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi … if you look at their stats in those games. I thought she did a number on Jewell Loyd, who has been as good as any two-guard in the league so far. (Loyd) is having to take contested shots, not getting easy catches and easy kickouts because of the job Hayes did on her. And Stewart is in foul trouble. Seattle did a great job on the offensive glass, but we got a lot of first shot misses. We had a lot of contested shots. We know we haven’t shot the ball well so we’re kind of hanging our identity right now on defense. We feel like when we start to make shots then we’ll be pretty fun to watch.”

(On her assessment of the team so far) “We’re learning how to win close games. We have an Olympian in Angel (McCoughtry). Tiffany Hayes is an All-Star and just a big moment player. We’re learning to play through them in late-game situations and screen for them. We’re getting good bench production from Dantas. I think this team is just learning that we can be the best defensive team in the league. We can compete with what we put out on the floor and compete with any team in the league, which we’ve showed in our last three (games).”

DREAM GUARD TIFFANY HAYES

(On the game) “We fought hard until the end. We had a lead, they came back, but we stayed poised and got stops down the stretch, ran our plays and ended with a win.”
(On the team’s defense) “It’s the game plan. Coach has a game plan for us and we’re being disciplined, doing what she says and everything is working. Everybody is communicating with each other so when somebody gets beat there’s someone helping. Our team is always going to be a defensive team so when we do that right, everything else falls into place.”

(On what the message was when Seattle took the lead in the fourth quarter) “I don’t think we had to say anything. We just looked at each other and we knew. We stayed calm and continued to run our plays. Even though we gave them that lead we continued to play the defense that we know we can play. Like I said, down the stretch we ended up getting the stops we needed.”
(On her assessment of the team after beating Connecticut and now Seattle) “We know we’re a good team, but just have to show everybody else. We’ve worked hard in practice since training camp started. We know how dangerous we can be and I think people are going to start to see that.”

STORM HEAD COACH DAN HUGHES

(On the game as a whole) “It was a basketball game that was anything but smooth. I did appreciate our efforts to put us back in it but our strengths weren’t necessarily our strengths today. We didn’t finish well from anywhere on the court. We didn’t finish well from the free throw line. We didn’t finish well from three, we didn’t finish well inside so it put a lot of pressure. Defensively we weren’t bad but it put a lot of pressure on that phase and really I thought we still had a chance – we took the lead – even late. Our consistency, especially from an offensive perspective was not in a rhythm that we typically play in.”

(On team’s grit and potential different outcomes) “I told them afterwards obviously we wanted to finish better at everything we did but they had good fight. This was one of those games that, and I know coaches say this,I have to go watch that thing again to try to get an understanding because it was so choppy to me coaching it and I’m sure it was for the players too in situations. Those are the games that we want to try to find a way to finish. And they put us in situations to finish with some of that grit but we didn’t get it done. That’s one where I’m going to have to sit down with my computer and go through the time and the score and understand things because we just didn’t finish with the rhythm that I’ve typically seen this team. We’ve got to move on and we’ve got to get ready. I thought the crowd was into the game. I would’ve loved to have found a way to finish.”

STORM GUARD JEWELL LOYD

(On the fourth quarter) “Things go up and down and we did the best we could.”

(On the home stand) “It is good to be home, it is nice to be back for our fans. They come and support us all the time, we are just trying to play hard for them and get wins for them.”

STORM FORWARD BREANNA STEWART 

(On the fourth quarter) “We will never let ourselves stay down. We knew that at some point we would have an opportunity to get into the zone, and today that was the fourth quarter. We fought back in that quarter.”

(On the home stand) “We want to win at home, especially because it is still early in the season. We will be back in the gym tomorrow and be ready for Tuesday. We want to win it for our fans, they were with us the whole night, they have our backs and when you have fans like that you want to come out and give them your all.”