Home hasn’t been so sweet to the Storm, who are 2-12 at Climate Pledge Arena and 5-8 on the road this season.
“I can’t explain it,” coach Noelle Quinn said while sitting in a courtside seat after Monday’s practice. “First and foremost, I want to say our fans have been amazing and showing up consistently to give us home-court advantage as it relates to that comfort.
“I thank them for their support and by no means do we take that for granted. In terms of the games, I just feel like we haven’t put two halves together. … We might start off well, we might have lulls and then we find ourselves in holes. I can’t pinpoint why it’s like that here versus the road. Maybe it’s a little extra focus on the road because you don’t have your family, friends and fans. We just haven’t been consistent.”
The Storm rank third among the WNBA’s 12 teams in average home attendance at 8,652 fans per game, which, not surprisingly, is a drop off from last year when Seattle led the league with 10,632 while contending for a championship.
Barring a late-season revival, Seattle will miss the postseason for the first time since 2015.
With 13 games remaining, the Storm (7-20) are tied with Phoenix for 10th place in the overall WNBA standings and five games behind Chicago (12-15) for the eighth and final playoff spot.
Los Angeles (10-18) is ninth.
Seattle has the tiebreaker edge over the Mercury by virtue of its three wins during their matchups this season. The Storm have split a pair of games with both the Sky and Sparks.
Normally, Storm fans might expect their team to close the gap on Chicago during the next 10 days when Seattle plays four straight games at Climate Pledge Arena — their longest homestand of the season.
However, this year has been far from normal from Quinn’s perspective.
“I don’t know if I should be excited that we’re at home,” Quinn said smiling while noting the Storm’s three-game road winning streak heading into Tuesday’s 12 p.m. matchup against Connecticut (20-7) at Climate Pledge. “The one thing that we can point to is we didn’t have Gabby (Williams) and we’re playing a little bit different now.”
Following a lengthy delay, Williams made her season debut July 11 and Seattle is 3-4 with the versatile defensive menace in the starting lineup. In the past four games, Williams is averaging 13 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.0 blocks.
“We talked early on about trying to find combinations and rotations and Gabby does that for us,” Quinn said. “Rotations are a little bit tighter now so maybe that will bring more consistency in play. We’re finding a little bit more rhythm and maybe the experienced group can get us through the start of games with the lulls.”
During this homestand, the Storm will also host Atlanta, Phoenix and Minnesota. Seattle finishes the season with seven of its final nine games on the road.