SEATTLE — The chess match that is WNBA playoff basketball begins in earnest for the Storm and Washington Mystics following Seattle's 86-83 win in Game 1 on Thursday.
The Game 2 rematch is 1 p.m. Sunday at Climate Pledge Arena and the Storm need a win to capture a sweep in the best-of-three first-round series and advance to the semifinals.
Washington's narrow defeat in the postseason opener didn't dissuade its confidence, and Mystics players believe they can force a decisive Game 3 on their court on Wednesday.
"It hurts," Washington forward Elena Delle Donne said. "We're all feeling it. There's so many more things we all could have done. You can feel that, but it's a quick turnaround. We have to figure out what we need to do. Regroup and come back and give it another shot on Sunday."
Mystics guard Natasha Cloud added: "We get to play another game. We're going to feel this. ... Shower. Wash it off and leave it here at the gym. We're going to come back and take it back to DC."
Here are four things we learned from Game 1.
No Defense for Delle Donne
It's pick your poison when it comes to deciding on ways to defend the Washington Mystics star who is one of the most efficient scorers in WNBA history.
In 2019, the 6-foot-5 forward became the first player in league history to shoot greater than 50% from the field, 40% from 3 and 90% from the free-throw line, while meeting the league's minimums to qualify as a season leader in each category.
Delle Donne flirted with another 50-40-90 feat this year and finished the season at shooting 48% from the field, 36.8% behind the arc and 91.3% at the line.
In her first playoff game since 2019, Delle Donne was brilliant while tallying 26 points on 11-for-17 shooting, five assists, three rebounds, a steal and a block in 32 minutes against a multitude of defenders and varying defensive schemes, including double teams, traps and a zone.
Seattle did manage to force Delle Donne into an 0-for-4 shooting performance on 3-pointers, including a missed 3 that would have tied the game in the final seconds.
When the Storm rebound, they win
In recent history the Storm haven't been a very good rebounding team and whenever they finish the game with more boards, it's usually a good sign for them.
During the regular season, the Storm were 10-3 when they had more rebounds and 11-11 when they lost the battle of the boards.
Thanks to Breanna Stewart's game-high 12 rebounds, Seattle finished with 31 boards while Washington had 27 in Game 1. Gabby Williams and Tina Charles also contributed seven boards.
No Mystic player had more than seven.
Including their three regular-season meetings, it was the first time the Storm outrebounded the Mystics this year.
The playmakers are scoring
Washington defensive ace Alysha Clark, who spent her first nine years in the WNBA with the Storm, is defending Sue Bird and intent on disrupting Seattle's offense with tight coverage against the veteran point guard.
Quinn is content to rely on Williams to initiate the offense and she finished with a game-high six assists that offset four turnovers.
Bird played on the wing, set a bunch of screens and contributed 10 points and two assists.
At the other end, the Storm forced Natasha Cloud, who led the league with 7.0 assists per game in the regular season, into a shooter rather than a playmaker.
The defensive tactic had mixed results considering she finished with 16 points no 6-for-10 shooting, one assist and four turnovers.
The rookie is just fine
There was a thought that maybe Mystics center Shakira Austin would be overwhelmed in her playoff debut while playing in a game including former eight WNBA All-Stars and a handful of future Hall of Famers on both sides.
However, the lone rookie in the playoff series showed no signs of nervousness while tallying 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting, seven rebounds, a block and a steal in 25 1/2 minutes.
In fact, Austin got the better of her matchup against Charles who had nine points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes.
It will be interesting to see if the Mystics can continue defending Charles without a double team considering the 15-year veteran averages 17.8 points in the postseason.
