The Connecticut Sun dropped their second straight loss to a Western Conference opponent Sunday, falling 72-61 to the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena just two days after its first double-digit loss to the Las Vegas Aces on Friday.
Despite another double-double from superstar Alyssa Thomas with 14 points and 14 rebounds, the Sun dropped to 13-3, now in second place in the East behind the 15-3 New York Liberty. The team opened the 2024 season on nine consecutive wins but has suffered all three losses in its last seven games.
“It’s a long season, so I don’t think at any point there’s a given team that’s going to lead the way and dominate the way we’ve seen in the past, and I think that’s one of the exciting things about the league,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “From our standpoint, you know it’s going to be a battle every single day, particularly on the road. You have to play nearly flawless basketball for 40 minutes … We had some missed opportunities at the rim, missed opportunities at the free throw line, and when you’re playing really good teams those things hurt you.”
Thomas was dominant from the start after one of her least productive performances of the season in the loss to the Aces. The 2023 MVP runner-up bounced back immediately, logging eight points, six rebounds and three steals in the first quarter for Connecticut shooting 66.7% from the field. Brionna Jones also contributed to the Sun’s early paint dominance with six points in seven minutes in the first quarter, and the Connecticut defense didn’t allow more than two points to a single Seattle player.
Doing what the Engine does 🗣️
Alyssa Thomas is your Seriously Nice Player of the Game, brought to you by @BreezeAirways with nonstop flights to @VisitSarasota! pic.twitter.com/3PuR51ssfS
— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) June 23, 2024
The Sun’s bench provided an offensive spark into the second quarter as the starting guards struggled to gets shots to fall. Tiffany Mitchell nailed a long jump shot out of the break to start the scoring for Connecticut, and she had six points by the end of the second quarter. Rachel Banham and Olivia Nelson-Ododa also both made their first shot attempts off the bench, and the reserves combined for 10 points before halftime.
Connecticut led by as many as 11 points early in the second quarter, but Seattle went on a 17-3 run over the final five minutes before halftime to take a 34-31 lead. The Sun were held without a field goal for the entire Storm run with all three of their points coming from Tyasha Harris at the free throw line. Still, Connecticut went just 5-for-11 from the charity stripe in the first half to Seattle’s 5-for-6.
Despite shooting just 37.8% from the field, the Storm scored 26 points in the second quarter alone after they were held to single-digits in the first, led by 11 points from five-time All-Star Jewell Loyd. Thomas meanwhile was held scoreless for the entire second quarter.
The Storm continued to extend their run into the third quarter as the Sun another minute and a half without a field goal, but Harris finally ended the scoring drought with Connecticut’s first 3-pointer of the game after the team started a combined 0-for-7 beyond the arc. DeWanna Bonner then scored four points in under a minute to make it a single-possession game again for the Sun.
Seattle opened the lead back up in the final minutes of the third quarter, and the Sun entered the fourth trailing by seven. Thomas had her double-double by the end of the the third with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but she struggled to facilitate at her usual clip finishing with just three assists. For the Storm offense, ball movement was a calling card with 23 of 27 made field goals coming off of assists. Skylar Diggins-Smith led Seattle with eight assists plus 13 points, and her dagger 3-pointer with under three minutes left in the fourth quarter pushed the Storm lead to double-digits for the first time in the game.
“They pressured us, and I think we did a poor job of making the reads and seeing the mismatches,” Thomas said. “I think it was on us. We have to be better and be ready to play … It happens. No one expects to be perfect or win every game. You win some and you lose some, so this will be a great learning experience … but we can’t come out and play the way we did.”
D3WANNA BONNER #BringTheHeat pic.twitter.com/RLxXk6wiSm
— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) June 23, 2024
Connecticut came within five points of the Storm early in the fourth quarter after Bonner got a 3-pointer to fall, but the team was doomed by another poor shooting performance at all three levels. Though 40 of the team’s points came in the paint, the Sun shot just 37.3% from the field and 2-of-14 from 3-point range. Connecticut also went 9-for-17 at the free throw line to Seattle’s 14-for-16.
The Storm finished with all five starters scoring in double figures led by 16 points from Loyd. Jones also matched Thomas with 14 points for Connecticut, but Bonner, usually the Sun’s leading scorer, finished with just nine on 4-for-13 shooting. DiJonai Carrington also had a difficult showing offensively going 1-for-7 for two points.
“They’re long and really good in their rotations, so I thought some of the time our decision-making at the rim wasn’t great. We tried to shoot it over longer defenders instead of making the second or third pass,” White said. “When you miss easy bunnies, it leads to transition offense on the other end of the floor. When we had them in the half court for the most part we did a really good job defensively, but they were able to get loose in transition because of some of our (misses).”
