Storm to head out on road after return from Olympic break

Coach Noelle Quinn is back in Seattle, finished with a stint with the Canadian women’s national team and preparing the Storm (17-8) for their stretch run. Storm assistant coach and associate general manager Pokey Chatman was in charge during the Paris Summer Olymipcs.

On Monday, Quinn oversaw a long and spirited practice that was missing a trio of Olympians at the Center for Basketball Performance in Interbay.

“That’s a huge piece that really contributes to the nature of how we work,” Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike said of their coach’s return.

Canada didn’t earn a medal in Paris, but all three Storm players did with their respective teams. Jewell Loyd, a member of the U.S. team, took home her second gold medal after a 67-66 victory against France. Loyd didn’t play in Sunday’s championship game.

Storm teammates Ezi Magbegor and Sami Whitcomb won bronze with Australia, thanks in large part to Magbegor’s 30 points, 13 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals Sunday against Belgium. Whitcomb added 14 points as the Opals returned to the podium for the first time since the 2012 London Games.

The Storm’s Olympians are set to rejoin the fray as Seattle heads out on a three-game road trip this week. Seattle’s first game in exactly a month is Friday against the Atlanta Dream.

Next up is a nationally televised game Sunday against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever, the last time those teams will meet this season. Rookie of the Year hopeful Clark leads WNBA newcomers in points, assists and steals per game, plus threes, field goals made and free-throw percentage.

On Tuesday, the Washington Mystics host the Storm, who will then head home. The Mystics are set to visit Climate Pledge Arena, where Seattle enjoys an 11-3 season mark, nearly a week later on Aug. 26.

The Storm are tied for third in the league standings with the Minnesota Lynx, trailing New York (21-4) and Connecticut (18-6). The Lynx have the advantage in head-to-head matchups and the tiebreaker. Minnesota and Seattle would earn home-court advantage in the best-of-three first round of the playoffs if this order holds. The top eight teams make the playoffs.

Nine of the Storm’s last 15 games are on the road, giving them plenty of opportunity to improve a “not very sexy” 6-5 road record, as guard Skylar Diggins-Smith put it.

“It’s going to require a little bit more this last stretch of games, where everyone’s fighting for position playoff-wide,” Diggins-Smith added. “Every game becomes that much more important.”

Diggins-Smith has represented the U.S. before, helping the Americans to their seventh of eight consecutive gold medals in 2021. Her Olympic hardware – medal and ring – are tucked away safely, to be remembered and admired occasionally. This summer, however, she watched from home and rested up.

For those who weren’t in Paris, something of a midseason minicamp was underway at the CBP following the long layoff. They’re staying disciplined, which Ogwumike called the “season ethos.”

In four consecutive days of practice, they have fine-tuned details and focused on individual work that there maybe wasn’t time for early on.

“It’s not necessarily big, overarching themes,” Diggins-Smith said. “It’s more like the little things.”