Storm, back at full strength, cough up lead in fourth quarter

The Storm welcomed the return of Sue Bird and Ezi Magbegor, who missed the previous three games while in the WNBA’s health and safety protocols.

Bird and Magbegor provided a much-needed 1-2 scoring punch, which sparked the Storm’s dormant offense that scored at will for three quarters Sunday against the Connecticut Sun.

However, in the fourth period the Storm went cold and squandered a 13-point during a 93-86 defeat in front of 11,330 at Climate Pledge Arena.

Magbegor finished with a team-high 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting, including her first three-pointer of the season. She also had seven rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals in 29 minutes.

Bird was equally sensational while tallying a season-high 17 points, six assists and two steals in 29 minutes.

The Storm recovered from a dreadful offensive performance in their last outing when they scored just 51 points and shot 31.7% from the field and 17.2% on three-pointers.

Seattle notched its third highest scoring tally – and its most points in a loss – while shooting 48.6% from the floor.

But when it mattered most, the Storm were outscored 32-19 in the fourth quarter.

Jewell Loyd finished with 16 points and seven assists, and Breanna Stewart had 12 points for Seattle, which dropped its second straight game and fell to 5-5.

Magbegor scored the first eight points for the Storm and combined with Bird to tally all of Seattle’s scoring while building an early 13-7 lead.

With Magbegor pouring in 10 points, Seattle led 26-20 and shot 66.7% from the floor after the first quarter.

The Storm built a 41-28 lead with 4:19 left in the second quarter while shooting 62.1% from the field. Making the 13-point lead even more impressive was the fact that Stewart, the WNBA leading scorer, attempted just two shots and scored two points.

However, Seattle couldn’t sustain its early success and nearly squandered all of its big lead in the final four minutes before the break.

Connecticut answered with a 12-0 run, including five layups to cut Seattle’s advantage to 41-40. The Sun seized the momentum, but the Storm never lost the lead and was up 43-42 at halftime.