Jewell Loyd scored 12 of her 16 points in the final five minutes and the Seattle Storm (4th seed) beat the Washington Mystics (5th seed) 86-83 Thursday night. Breanna Stewart had 23 points and 12 rebounds for the Storm which took an 1-0 lead in the series.
Loyd missed a long 3-pointer with 51 seconds left, but Tina Charles grabbed the offensive rebound, leading to Loyd’s runner in the lane that gave the Storm an 82-81 lead. Washington turned it over and Loyd was fouled with 24.2 seconds left before making two free throws.
View this post on Instagram
Sue Bird scored 10 points and became the fourth player in WNBA history with 100 career 3-pointers in the playoffs. Elena Delle Donne made 11 of 17 shots and scored 26 points for Washington in her first playoff game since the 2019 WNBA Finals.
Alyssa Thomas added 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists and the Connecticut Sun cruised past the Dallas Wings 93-68 Thursday. Third-seeded Connecticut pulled away in the third quarter, scoring 13 straight points to build a 64-45 lead.
Jonquel Jones nearly had a double-double with 19 points and eight rebounds for Connecticut. Dijonai Carrington added 13 points and DeWanna Bonner scored 10 points of her 12 points in the first half for Connecticut.
Dallas scoring leader Arike Ogunbowale sat out because of an abdominal injury. However, Satou Sabally played in her first game since July 12. She scored 10 points n the first half before going scoreless in the second. Allisha Gray led Dallas with 17 points.
