Sancho Lyttle comes up big as the Atlanta Dream defeat the Seattle Storm, 77-64.

Last week, the Seattle Storm were able to win a nail biter against the Atlanta Dream in Seattle.  The Dream would end up losing six straight games, after starting the season 8-3 and on top of the Eastern Conference Standings.  On Tuesday, the Dream were out for revenge against Seattle and looking to stop the bleeding from a once very promising season. 

In the previous game, Atlanta was without Tiffany Hayes or Sancho Lyttle.  And those two players made a big different in Tuesday's game.  Sancho Lyttle was all over the place, leading all players with 22 points on 11-13 shooting.  She also led Atlanta with 11 rebounds.  Tiffany Hayes would add 15 points, four rebounds and four assists.  And Angel McCoughtry did Angel McCoughtry things, especially in the second half.  McCoughtry ended the game with 18 points, six rebounds, and three assists.  Neither team shot particularly well in this game.  Atlanta shot 42%, which was just a hair better than Seattle's 41%.  But Atlanta had three players with at least 15 points or more and Seattle had zero.

Seattle was led by Jewell Loyd's 13 points.  But it was an unusual 13 points as she picked up two quick fouls very early in the first quarter and had limited minutes in the first half.  Loyd was held completely scoreless in the first half and then exploded for 13 points in the 3rd period, as she led Seattle to a 54-52 lead after three quarters.  Unfortunately Loyd was held completely scoreless again in the 4th quarter for a second consecutive game.  And Seattle only managed to put up 10 points in the forth and final period. 

Seattle led by a small margin all game against Dallas last Thursday, but only managed to score 13 points in the final quarter and was out-scored 19-13 to lose that game by 5.  On Tuesday against Atlanta, Seattle managed just 10 points and was out-scored 25-10 to lose by 13, 77-64.

Jewell Loyd didn't get much help on offense from anyone else besides Breanna Stewart.  And even Stewart's 11 points was well below her 18.4 PPG average.  Stewart did record her 6th double-double of the season as she was able to grab 11 rebounds on the night.  She surprisingly only shot six field goals in the game and was bothered by the defense of Atlanta's Elizabeth Williams.  Williams was bothering everyone's shot in this game, as she had seven blocks total.

On a positive note, whether by necessity (foul trouble) or just coaching decisions.  Coach Jenny Boucek actually played the bench significant minutes in this game.  Four bench players got 10 minutes or more.  With Jenna O'Hea getting the most at nearly 20 minutes.  Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis even got almost eight minutes of game action, which is important if they ever want her to develop.

O'Hea and Quinn led the bench scorers with six points each and Tok and KML both added four.  In total, the Storm's bench scored twenty points on the night.  A huge upgrade over some games, where they've only scored two points total.  Unfortunately, this may have come at the cost of a poor performance by the starting five.

Key Notes from the Game:
*The Storm were out-rebounded (AGAIN) 38-27.
*Seattle gave up 16 offensive rebounds to Atlanta and only got 4 of their own.
*Seattle had 16 turnovers (it seemed like more), compared to Atlanta's 11.
*The 7 blocks by Elizabeth Williams is 2nd best in the WNBA this season, only to Brittney Griner's 8.
*Seattle's bench out-scored the Dream's 20-14.

What's Next?
Seattle won't have much time to reflect on this game.  As they have to face the New York Liberty on Wednesday afternoon in New York.