WNBA: Storm looking unusually lethargic on defense since Olympic break

The Seattle Storm (17-10) are back in action after a month-long break in the 2024 WNBA season, but not much has gone their way since they’ve returned to the court. The Storm blew a 14-point lead to the Atlanta Dream last Friday, ultimately losing on a last-second shot by Tina Charles. Two days later, they gave up a massive fourth quarter to the Indiana Fever in what ended up being a lopsided loss.

It’s just the third time this season Seattle has lost multiple games in a row. Both losses were lowlighted by second-half collapses and an uncharacteristic lack of intensity on defense; both Atlanta and Indiana scored over 50 second-half points against a typically stout Storm defense, something that Seattle head coach Noelle Quinn was quick to call out as unacceptable.

“We were on the road playing against a team that was very hungry,” Quinn told media after her team’s heartbreaking loss in Atlanta. “We can’t allow ourselves to not be locked in on the defensive side of the basketball.”

While Seattle’s poor defensive effort was most noticeable when its opponents were hitting 3-point shots—Quinn bemoaned a lack of physicality and overeager help defense against Indiana after the Fever hit 15 shots from long range—the Storm did themselves no favor on the boards, either. Seattle was outrebounded 37-27 by Atlanta and 43-32 by Indiana, and while it hasn’t necessarily been a weakness for the Storm in 2024, they now rank in the bottom third of the WNBA in defensive rebounding percentage.

Perhaps most disappointingly is how the recent offensive efforts of the Storm’s starting guards were overshadowed by the team’s defensive deficiencies. Skylar Diggins-Smith and Jewell Loyd—who, while both undeniably talented players, have at times struggled to play at their best simultaneously combined to score 50 points against the Dream. It was just the third time this season Diggins-Smith and Loyd scored at least 20 points apiece in the same game.

For most of the season, Seattle has been able to lean on its defense as its top offensive players have learned to play with one another, hoping that chemistry would be built as time went on and that the team would be…