The Seattle Storm stayed alive on Wednesday night by doing what seemed impossible. Seattle beat Las Vegas 86-83, snapping their opponent's 17-game winning streak in an epic playoff victory. Seattle rode their stars Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike to the statement win.
Diggins explained how the Storm managed to beat the Aces, who hadn't lost a game in over a month.
“This team hasn't been beaten in a long time,” Diggins said. “We felt like we could because we've had success versus them before this year. It was about putting together first of all the start that we wanted and playing with the type of force, physicality. We won the rebounding battle — that was a big deal for us. And we kind of kept their others in place who have been playing really well coming off the bench.”
Diggins was the star of the game, scoring 26 points with seven assists, one rebound, and two steals.
She explained that Seattle was not afraid of Las Vegas despite their lengthy winning streak.
“Nobody's found the answer to this equation for what, 16, 17 games? But for us, it was coming out and showing that we weren't scared to play against them,” Diggins declared after the game.
Diggins also gave plenty of credit to her teammate Nneka Ogwumike. She logged 24 points and 10 rebounds, including a hot first quarter where she scored 11 points.
“Any time I'm in a two-woman game with this person right here, I feel really confident,” Diggins said, sitting next to Ogwumike on the podium. “I thought they were going to foul, so I just let Nneka keep holding the ball. It was like a 3- or 4-second differential on the shot clock and game clock. They didn't foul and we got into our game. I saw an opening there and took my chance.”
Now the storm need to get ready for their most important game of the season.
Seattle travels to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Thursday night. The winner moves on to the semi-finals and the loser goes home.
