The Dallas Wings will travel west for a Commissioner’s Cup matchup with the new-look Seattle Storm on Friday.
Seattle welcomes Dallas to town in the Storm’s second regular-season outing of a new era without former Most Valuable Player and two-time Finals MVP Breanna Stewart.
The Storm opened 2023 sans Stewart, who left for New York in the offseason, and lost last Saturday to the reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, 105-64. Jewell Loyd, who finished with 22 points, was Seattle’s only double-figure scorer in the loss.
“No one wants to lose this bad, so we understand that as professional athletes you’ve got to come up with some pride and integrity,” Loyd said in her postgame press conference. “We had a lot of new people in there (who) were kinda shocked.”
Seattle tries to come out of the opening-game shock against a Dallas team that won its opener last Saturday, 85-78 against Atlanta.
While the Storm had just one double-figure scorer in their opener, three Wings went for 20-plus points Saturday: Arike Ogunbowale (27), Satou Sabally (25) and Natasha Howard (20).
Ogunbowale had games of just two and 12 points in two of Dallas’ four meetings with Seattle last year — well off the two-time All-Star’s 2022 scoring average of 19.7 points per game — albeit against a different Storm lineup.
The Wings have their own new faces, as well, including Howard — a member of Seattle’s 2018 and 2020 WNBA championship-winning lineups — and the No. 3 overall pick in last month’s draft, Maddy Siegrist of Villanova.
Dallas also welcomed a new head coach in the offseason, Latricia Trammell, a former Los Angeles Sparks assistant whose credentials include winning two NAIA collegiate championships as head coach at Oklahoma City University.
“If you asked me if I’d ever think there was a chance I’d be at the professional level? I’d say ‘You’re dadgum right,'” Trammell told NewsOn6 in Tulsa, Okla. “Because when you set your goals to something, your expectations, and do the right thing along the way, I think there’s always going to be that opportunity.”
–Field Level Media
