Storm Struggle Against Valkyries

The Seattle Storm turned in another disappointing performance on Saturday night, falling 76–70 to the Golden State Valkyries in a game that exposed some troubling patterns in their season. Despite a late push, the Storm spent most of the night flat, disjointed, and outplayed.

Seattle (6–5) looked out of sync from the opening tip — taking poor shots, making careless passes, and lacking communication on defense. The loss continues a frustrating trend: every time the Storm notch a statement win, they stumble in the very next game. After dominant victories over Las Vegas (102–82) and Minnesota (94–84), Seattle followed each with a loss. Even a three-game win streak earlier this season was quickly followed by three straight defeats.

Against Golden State (5–5), the Storm fell behind early and never recovered. A layup from Carla Leite broke a 13–13 tie late in the first quarter, and the Valkyries didn’t trail again. Golden State led 21–15 after the opening period and extended their lead to double digits early in the second quarter. By halftime, they were comfortably ahead 44–31.

The Valkyries pushed the lead to 20 in the third quarter, and although Seattle rallied late — trimming the deficit to five with just under six minutes remaining — they couldn’t complete the comeback. Skylar Diggins-Smith led the Storm with 21 points, including a three-point play that brought the team within 74–70 in the final minute. But Seattle failed to score again.

Alysha Clark contributed 11 points off the bench, and Ezi Magbegor added 10, but the offense was largely stagnant and inefficient for most of the game.

Carla Leite led Golden State with 14 points and was instrumental in building and maintaining the Valkyries’ lead throughout the night.

Saturday’s performance adds to a growing list of inconsistent outings for Seattle. The team has barely scraped by the struggling Dallas Wings (1–11) twice, and they’ve had collapses like the blown 17-point second-half lead in a loss to Atlanta. Even in this game, where a comeback effort emerged, the Storm trailed by more than 20 in the second half — highlighting deeper issues that go beyond a cold shooting night.

It’s not the first time Seattle has looked unprepared. The season opened with a lopsided 81–59 loss to the Phoenix Mercury, and unless something changes soon, the Storm risk continuing this up-and-down cycle.

They’ll look to regroup quickly before facing tougher competition ahead.