On Saturday night, the Seattle storm got a much-needed victory to stay alive in the WNBA Playoff chase. Breanna Stewart and Jewel Loyd combined for 40 points helping the Storm to a 98-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury. Here's the latest Storm vs. Mercury game recap including top performances, game stats, a WNBA standings update, and what's next for each of these squads down the stretch.
Game recap
The Seattle Storm came into Saturday's game with just two wins on the road this season. Despite the return of one of the top scorers in the league for Phoenix, the Storm was able to get 59 combined points from Jewel Loyd, Breanna Stewart, and Crystal Langhorne.
Loyd shot 7-for-12 and finished with 20 points along with five assists. Stewart was 7-for-15 from the field to get her 20 points and also had nine boards, while Langhorne was 8-of-9. The Seattle center also picked up six rebounds, five assists, two steals, and a block.
For the losing side, Diana Taurasi led all scorers with 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting that included four 3-pointers made. The league's top scorer, Brittney Griner, made her return from injury and played 21 minutes. Griner finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, along with three blocked shots. Monique Currie was the only other player in double-digits for the Phoenix Mercury. She had 11 points on 2-of-5 shooting but also made all six free throws she had.
Seattle shot red hot for the game with a 56.3 percent field goal rate and a rate of 50 percent from downtown. Phoenix was able to win the rebounding battle 33-30 but had 13 turnovers compared to just 10 for the visiting Storm. The two teams were tied at 53 apiece at the half, but Seattle outscored Phoenix 45-36 in the second half to take the game.
Standings & what's next
With the win, the Seattle Storm are now 11-16 overall and 3-10 on the road. More importantly, the team stays even with the Chicago Sky, the No. 8 overall team, in terms of record. The Sky still own the spot via tiebreaker so Seattle isn't done yet. Next up, Seattle has a tough matchup on Wednesday night when they host the Minnesota Lynx at 10 p.m.
Eastern Time.
The latest loss dropped the Phoenix Mercury to 14-13 overall. They're still third in the Western Conference standings and sixth in the overall WNBA standings. The team is still ahead of the seventh team, Dallas, by two games. Next up, Phoenix will play an away game against the Washington Mystics. That game arrives on Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.