By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In their game four matchup of the WNBA Playoff semifinals, the Seattle Storm would fall to the Las Vegas Aces, 97-92. In yet another down to the wire game in this series, Seattle punched first and seemingly had the upper hand for a majority of the series. As the fourth quarter waned on, the Aces showed their toughness, weathering the Storm and pulling ahead late. Seattle could not overcome their slow third quarter, thus their season, and Sue Bird’s legendary career, came to an end.
Chelsea Gray continues to fester nightmares for Seattle
For the fourth time in this series, Aces guard Chelsea Gray struck fear into Storm fans everywhere. As the second half ticked past, Gray started to wake up, hitting numerous contested shots and showing no signs of fatigue. While most of the attention defensively typically goes to A’ja Wilson or Kelsey Plum, Gray has terrorized the Storm all series long. The offensive presence that Gray brought to the table may ultimately have been a major part of Seattle’s downfall, as the Storm were not able to guard all of the Ace's weapons. Storm head coach Noelle Quinn discussed Gray’s impact postgame.
“I don’t think that anyone on planet Earth can guard her. She was unconscious. We tried a lot of different things this series to slow her down. We slowed her scoring down, limited her scoring. She has the ability to pass and play make, she is an incredible player. I think we did a great job at limiting her, but when a player is on a roll like that? It’s tough,” Quinn remarked.
Chelsea Gray terrorized Seattle all series long (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Stewie puts up MVP-like performance
Breanna Stewart put every fiber of her being towards trying to win this game. Stewart scored a WNBA Playoff record 42 points on the night, setting the tone for Seattle and pushing the pace of the game. Seattle did not help those two out much on the offensive end. A stat that indicates this, was that Seattle went nearly 28 minutes between field goals by players other than Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd. This spanned from Sue Bird’s three-pointer at the 7:11 mark of the first quarter until her second three-pointer of the game at the 9:25 mark of the fourth. Stewart shared her thoughts about the result, postgame.
“Tonight, we definitely left it all out on the court... Jewell and I texted before the game, and we wanted to make sure that we left it all out on the court, make sure that we did everything we possibly could. As sad as it is that we aren’t competing for a championship, I think that the most devastating thing is that we can’t be on the court with Sue. We won’t be with her in practice, we won’t see her in games. That’s what hurts the most, is that coming to reality really quickly,” Stewart stated.
Breanna Stewart tied a WNBA Playoff record for points in a game (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Sue Bird hangs it up
The final flight has come to its end. The legendary, historic career of Sue Bird has closed the book on the final chapter. That book features a list of accolades that would take up an entire article on its own, but let’s take a quick walk through. A four-time WNBA champion, the only player in league history to win a title over three separate decades. The league’s all-time assists leader. A 13-time All-Star. Five Olympic gold medals, joined by Diana Taurasi as the only basketball players to have that many. The winningest player in WNBA history, and so much more. Bird herself talked about what it feels like now that her playing journey is over.
“It’s kinda weird, definitely surreal. Initially, you feel sad about the season and the game... and then as the emotions come to the surface, I know that was my last game... overall it just feels kinda weird. I am proud of everything that we accomplished here, and of course I’m sad but, there is happiness too... to have a moment like that with the fans, to have them chant the way that they did,” Bird reflected.
Sue Bird's legendary career comes to an end (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Reflection
The 2022 Storm season could be deemed successful under most any under circumstances. While the goal for a professional sports team is always a championship, considering the condensed schedule, injuries, and issues with COVID early on, the Storm were very resilient. Breanna Stewart has all but won the most valuable player award. But, and it’s a big one, none of that necessarily matters tonight considering that Sue Bird did not go out with a title. Sadly, our heroes don’t always ride off into the sunset as we hoped.
The 2022 Seattle Storm season ends in the semifinals round (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
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