GAME HIGHLIGHTS

• Breanna Stewart tied game-high honors with Candace Parker for scoring with 27 points, while Sue Bird notched her 25^th-career double-double with 10 points and a season-high 11 assists.
• For the first time in franchise history, Seattle never trailed in two consecutive meetings against Los Angeles. This also marked the first time the Storm led wire to wire twice in one season. Seattle never trailed in its 88-63 win at Los Angeles on 6/7/18.
• With the win, Seattle improved to 11-5 on the season, officially marking its second-best start in franchise history through 16 games. The Storm started 10-5 in 2004 before falling to 10-6 with a 70-67 loss at Charlotte on 7/8/04. The franchise went 14-2 through 16 games during the 2010 campaign.

KEY STATS OF THE GAME

• With a 65-64 lead in the fourth quarter, Seattle scored eight unanswered points to go up 73-64 after a three-pointer by Breanna Stewart. The Sparks went 0-for-3 with one turnover during that run.
• In points off turnovers, Seattle outscored Los Angeles, 20-12.
•  The Storm outscored the Sparks in the paint, 48-36.

STORM HIGHLIGHTS

• Breanna Stewart registered 25 or more points for the 8^th time this season, logging a team-high 27 on 11-for-20 shooting.
• Jewell Loyd booked 13 points to go along with six rebounds and a season-high four steals.
• Natasha Howard scored in double figures for the 12^th time this season, finishing with 14 on 7-for-13 shooting.
• Tonight’s double-double (10 points, 11 assists) for Sue Bird marked her second of the season and 25^th all-time.
• Sue Bird did not have a turnover tonight, marking the fourth time this season she has accomplished the feat. She now boasts a 4.04 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• Ten-time All-Star Sue Bird dished out nine or more assists for the 5^th time in 2018, including her third-straight game. She needs to do that two more times to match last season’s total of seven games with nine assists or more.
• At the 5:26 mark of the 4^th quarter, Sue Bird collected her 634^th-career steal, tying Jia Perkins (634) for fifth all-time on the WNBA’s all-time steals list.
• With the win, Seattle improved to 2-0 this season against Los Angeles, and the Storm also extended its home winning streak against the Sparks to six-straight games, a streak that began in 2015.
• Seattle evened the all-time series to 35 games apiece. Both teams now have matching records at home against one another at 22-13.
• The Storm started game on 7-0 run and went on to shoot 57.9 percent (11-for-19) in the first quarter en route to outscoring the Sparks, 26-18. All five Seattle starters scored in the quarter, led by Jewell Loyd’s seven points.
• Seattle improved to 9-1 this season with the starting lineup of Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart, Alysha Clark, and Natasha Howard.
• The Storm collected its first win of the season when hitting four or less three’s.
•  Seattle hasn’t last back-to-back games this season.

SPARKS HIGHLIGHTS

• Candace Parker recorded a team-high 27 points to go along with 11 rebounds, her fourth double-double of the season.
•  Candace Parker scored 14 of her 27 points in the third quarter.
• Guard Chelsea Gray posted 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting.
• In the last two games, Candace Parker has scored a combined 56 points.
• Chelsea Gray grabbed her 300^th-career rebound tonight, finishing with 7.
• Jantel Lavender had a season-high 10 points and added seven rebounds.
• Despite the loss the Sparks retained first place in the WNBA at 11-4.
• The Sparks played without Nneka Ogwumike (back) and Sydney Wiese (left knee).

STORM COACH DAN HUGHES

(On how a win like this can help down the road) “I think it imitates what we’ve got to become good at. As we get into the second half of the season and as you get yourselves in the playoffs, [the games] are going to be like this. And you are going to be staring at a game where you’re in the fourth quarter, it’s a tie score and whether it’s a nine minute game, a five minute game or a three minute game, you got to have the poise to finish, and I thought we showed good poise today.”

(On if this win was more satisfying than the first matchup) “What was satisfying to me about it was the game was a game, we could separate down there (in the first matchup), we couldn’t separate here. So, you’re testing different stages, like Natasha [Howard] getting into foul trouble. To come out on the other side, you can’t replace the confidence to understand on how really competitive situations are and finding a way to have poise down the stretch.”

(On how the team shut down Candace Parker in the fourth) “I thought it started with Natasha Howard trying to keep the ball out of her hands. And if you noticed, we congested her, there were double teams on Parker, there were people in the area when she played isolation to that. To me the first thing was Howard got her off of her sweet spots, she wasn’t catching it in a situation and attacking her. She denied her in a way that her weight distribution was going away from the basket, and we had a chance to [adjust] our defense to help.

STORM FORWARD SUE BIRD
(On her defense) “I think that, I am able to help based on the match ups. Against a team like LA you are really just picking your poison, they have such a talented team, that you have so many players that you need to stop. I just try to help where I can. I think that I have been in league so long that I know people’s tendencies. It is not even something that I have to think about, I see a player and I know what they want to do. I just try to play to that more than anything.”

(On getting the win) “We were just talking about how the second half didn’t really have a flow to it, for them a bit in the third quarter they were able to chip away but for us it was just a bit jerky. This is one of those games when we did just enough to win. We found a way to win. People made a lot of plays, Stewie [Breanna Stewart] taking it to the rim, Natasha [Howard] driving, people just found a way to make plays and win. We may have outscored them in the paint, but this is not the type of game where I would pin point one stat that won us the game. We did enough early to get going and to get a lead and then did enough late to hold on and win. That’s all it is, making plays.”

(On the race for the playoffs) “We can’t get ahead of ourselves, we may be winning but we still have a lot of work to do. We had a lull in the third quarter. Basketball is a game of runs but you still want to limit them and even though we were up 10 you want to be up, 14,18, you don’t want to let a team come back. I think that there is always a lesson win or lose.”

STORM FORWARD BREANNA STEWART

(On Sue Bird’s defense) “I think that like she [Sue Bird] said, she knows people in the league, and she knows where to be. A lot of the plays tonight she was matched up with Alana Beard, and any time Alana Beard was on the other side of the court Sue was coming to help me with Parker [Candace Parker] or help someone in the post, Sue just gets her hands in the play. Like I said defensive player of the year.”

SPARKS HEAD COACH BRIAN AGLER

(On the game) “It was a very competitive game. I was proud of how we battled. We didn’t play with as much poise and composure down the stretch as I thought we needed to. We had our opportunities and didn’t take advantage of it. Seattle made some timely shots and got some timely rebounds. That was the difference down the stretch.”

(On missing Nneka Ogwumike) “We don’t worry about who’s playing. We expect to win every game. It doesn’t matter who we have, we expect to win. And we have to play to win. We did a lot of good things to put ourselves in position, but we just couldn’t get over the hump.”

(On Candace Parker’s game tonight) “Candace did a good job. She was aggressive and played smart. She had a good effort … everybody had good effort tonight. We just didn’t make enough plays. Rebounding, finishing at the rim, needed a couple more stops … that’s where we’re at.”

(On this tough six games in 10 days stretch) “We need to get rest and get ready for tomorrow (at Las Vegas). There’s no choice. I don’t make any excuses about the schedule – everybody has a schedule like that at some point so we just have to push through.”

SPARKS FORWARD CANDACE PARKER

(On the game) “We can’t start the way that we did. I felt like they put it to us initially, but they’re a good team. It’s hard to win up here and they do a good job. Obviously Sue (Bird) is the head of their snake. In the first half, it was the tale of offensive rebounds. They outrebounded us and made more hustle plays than us. In the second half, we kind of cleaned it up, but a couple plays here, a couple plays there. And I can’t turn the ball over seven times. That’s a huge part of what they feed off of in transition.”

(On what the biggest difference was down the stretch) “They made those two plays – they got an and-1 and I think somebody came down and hit a three. They made plays and that’s how WNBA basketball is – it’s a play here and a play there.”

(On what they need to do going forward) “We need to play hard – that’s key. We have to get our rest and figure it out while playing games. We don’t have a lot of time to practice.”