The Seattle Storm dropped another one Saturday, a tough 70-57 loss to the Golden State Valkyries, and honestly, the final score barely tells the story of the heartbreak. Rookie Flau’jae Johnson, our No. 8 overall pick, couldn’t even hide it. She buried her face in her jersey, fighting back tears during the postgame press conference while Awa Fam spoke about the team’s brutal season. This isn’t just another loss, y’all. This is the sting of a season that has officially set the league’s single-season losses record at a brutal 8-35 with just one game left to play. Our Storm are guaranteed to finish in last place, and if they lose Wednesday’s finale against the Dallas Wings, it will be the worst winning percentage in franchise history.
The Irritating Truth of a Record-Setting Season
Coach Sonia Raman gets it. She said it herself: “That’s who Flau is, that’s who our players are. They really care. They want to win, they’re really competitive, they’re really hungry and they feel it when they lose.” And man, have they been losing. For Johnson, who came from LSU with a national title as a freshman and a combined 125-20 record over four years, these five months with the Storm have meant more losses than her entire college career. That’s a gut punch no rookie expects. She told CBS Sports, “I don’t know that I’ve dealt with [the losing] all the way. It’s kinda just irritating for me because it’s hard. Every day you’re chasing a goal and you’re giving everything you got in these games and they just don’t go your way.” That’s the voice of a competitive athlete watching history unfold in the worst way.
Youth and Clutch Woes: A Glimmer of Hope
It’s not that the Storm are getting blown out every night. They’ve had six defeats by three or fewer points and 13 by five or fewer points. The problem? When it gets tight, they collapse. In “clutch” games, where the score is within five points with five or fewer minutes remaining, the Storm are a dismal 2-16. Those 16 defeats are tied for the third-most in a single season since 2006, and their .111 winning percentage in those situations is better only than the 2012 Tulsa Shock. The good news, if you can call it that, is that their futility in late-game situations points to one thing: youth. Johnson, at 22, is the oldest in the team’s core, which includes 20-year-old All-Star center Dominique Malonga and 20-year-old Awa Fam, the No. 3 overall pick. Johnson herself, despite all this losing, is putting together one of the most productive rookie seasons. She sees the upside, too, saying about her young teammates, “Playing with them, they’re so smart… We’re still kinda learning each other when you don’t have a full offseason and then you come in learning a new system, new players. But we have so much time to grow.”
So, one more game Wednesday against the Dallas Wings. It’s a chance to avoid the franchise’s worst winning percentage ever, and maybe, just maybe, give us a glimpse of that “so much time to grow” payoff. Let’s finish strong, Storm. We’re bleeding green and blue right alongside you.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by CBS Sports.
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