Seven teams have clinched a spot in the WNBA playoffs. The Storm are not one of them. With one game left against the Golden State Valkyries on Tuesday, they can finish seventh, eighth or ninth. They need a top-eight finish to make the playoffs.
The Storm have a 22-21 record overall. Against the top five teams — the Minnesota Lynx, Las Vegas Aces, Atlanta Dream, Phoenix Mercury and New York Liberty — Seattle has a respectable 10-9 record. They went 2-2 against each of the top four teams and 2-1 against the Liberty.
They have not fared as well against the middle of the pack, though. They were swept by the Indiana Fever, went 1-3 against the Los Angeles Sparks, and went 1-2 against both the Valkyries and the Washington Mystics.
They also suffered one loss each to the 11th-place Connecticut Sun and the last-place Dallas Wings. They only swept one team, the 12th-place Chicago Sky.
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Despite these numbers, and although the focus is first and foremost on qualifying for the playoffs, the Storm’s belief in their ability to win a championship remains the same as it was to start the season.
“You can’t cherry-pick a season like this because it’s unprecedented,” Storm point guard Skylar Diggins told The Next at shootaround on Friday, before a loss to New York. ”We’ve never played this many games before. We’ve never had this type of format. We’ve never been in this situation.
“And it’s a lot of parity in the league this year. … Every year it comes down to this type of situation, as far as a fight for positions, fight for spots and fight to get in. Obviously, we didn’t anticipate cutting it this close, but we still have [the] opportunity to control our own destiny. I think there’s something to be said about that.”
If the Storm win against the Valkyries on Tuesday, they clinch a playoff spot. If they lose, they need the Sparks to lose at least one of their final two games.
Guard Brittney Sykes requested a trade from the Mystics midseason because she wanted to compete for a championship. That landed her in Seattle, where she said her belief in the team now is the same as when she arrived in early August.
“Nothing sways that. Wins and losses, opportunities, doesn’t matter,” Sykes told The Next before Friday’s game. “My intent is my intention, and this team is intentional on competing for a championship, however that looks. It might be ugly. There’s a lot of champions that have won and that shit did not look cute at all. I mean, it’s all just a part of our story and all a part of our journey to what we all want.”
Sykes added, “If I’m being very honest, I think people get lost in our losses. Our wins don’t get talked about as much. I feel like … as soon as we lose one game after three in a row winning, it’s like, ‘Oh damn, they fucking suck.’ I don’t know how. Everybody in this league is so fucking good. …
“I’m not mad at it. People talk about us because we’re that damn good. So we’re just going to continue to show up the way we do.”
Similarly, head coach Noelle Quinn believes strongly in all her players and the team as a whole. But she doesn’t want to look too far ahead.
“If we’re talking about big picture, we have really good athletes, we have former championship experience, we have a young superstar player who’s in the mix as well, and yeah, bringing Sykes into the fold was positioning us to make a long playoff run,” Quinn told The Next. “So I think that’s my focus, to make sure we’re continuing to play good basketball to get where you need to be in order to even talk about [a championship].”
Seattle’s strengths
Beyond self-belief, Seattle has plenty of positives working in its favor for a playoff run. First and foremost, it has an incredibly talented roster.
Diggins, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and six-time All-WNBA honoree, is the head of the snake at point guard. Former WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike is having yet another record-breaking season and leads the team in scoring. Center Ezi Magbegor set a single-season franchise blocks record and has improved her offense. Forward Gabby Williams earned her first All-Star nod this year; she is having the best offensive season of her career while being a frontrunner for WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. Sykes also earned her first All-Star honor this season before the trade and is another defensive menace.
And that’s just the starters.
Seattle Storm guard/forward Gabby Williams (5) blocks Minnesota Lynx center Alanna Smith’s shot during a game at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Aug. 28, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
“I think that we have the pieces and we have the bodies,” first-year Storm guard Lexie Brown told The Next. “I think our bench is one of the most talented in the entire league.”
Seattle’s bench doesn’t get the most playing time, but it has provided big boosts. French rookie and No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga brings immense offensive contributions despite her youth and has improved defensively. Veteran guard Erica Wheeler is having a career year and always provides a spark with her energy. Guards Tiffany Mitchell, Zia Cooke and Brown and forward Mackenzie Holmes play less consistently but have each contributed in their own way throughout the season.
Related reading: Can Dominique Malonga, Storm bench complete Seattle title push?
Additionally, Seattle’s roster boasts valuable playoff experience. Ogwumike leads the pack with 36 career playoff appearances and a WNBA championship in 2016. Diggins has played in 17 playoff games, advancing to the WNBA Finals with Phoenix in 2021. Magbegor has 14 playoff appearances, six of which came when Seattle won its last championship in 2020. Williams has nine, most of them with Seattle. Sykes has eight. Brown also has eight, including a championship in Chicago. Wheeler has six and Mitchell has four.
“They know what it feels like. They’ve been through it,” Quinn said. “This team hasn’t been through it multiple seasons, as some teams have, as a unit. But to have elite players in certain positions … who you know can carry a lot of what that feels like and show it and produce within that environment, it’s very important.”
Although most teams want to finish the season high in the standings to secure home-court advantage during the playoffs, Seattle has played particularly well on the road this season. The Storm are 9-11 at home and 13-9 on the road.
They’ve also shown how well they can play in spurts. More often than not, when they lose games, it’s because of poor individual quarters rather than all-around bad performances.
“Our transition, turning teams over, our efficiency from three — these are the things that we’re going to continue to build upon,” Quinn said. “Defensively, we have to be better with keeping things out [of] the paint and rebounding. But … overall, the things that we’ve done within the last five, six games, that will give us the momentum of what we need to continue to build.”
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What it takes to win a championship
The prevailing sentiment in Seattle is that the Storm are not far off from being able to contend for a title.
“Of course there’s little things that you can change, [but] there’s nothing drastic,” Sykes said. “It’s all internal. It’s all in-game decisions, inward shit. … It’s just little tweaks that everybody is doing right now. All these teams are getting stronger. They’re getting more confident in their possessions. So we’re doing the same.”
“There are moments where we see who we can be,” Quinn told reporters after the home loss to New York. “Whether it’s matchups, whatever the case is, there just hasn’t been this fortitude that we need through moments and stretches of the game. This team hasn’t been together long, though talented. … So there is some growth that is happening in real time that this group hasn’t had together, and we’re just taking the lumps and the bruises.”
The biggest way those “lumps and bruises” have shown up is in inconsistency, both within games and throughout the season. Seattle’s most recent losses, against Los Angeles and New York, were examples of failing to “put together 40 minutes of consistent basketball,” Ogwumike said.
The solution is implementing a lesson that the Storm have learned time and again this season and that Ogwumike said is imperative for playoff success.
“I think just taking every possession, every moment, as seriously as the rest, making the small moments as imperative as the big ones,” Ogwumike explained. “I mean, it’s something that I’ve had perspective on in the beginning of the season, [and] I think a lot of us have had. And the season can be long, and so understanding how to weather the different types of challenges that come with that and not lingering too long. Because at the end of the season, when you’re trying to fight for position, and in the playoffs, you don’t have a lot of time to kind of dwell.”
The Seattle Storm huddle after a game against the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Aug. 28, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
Rather than simply needing a full change, Ogwumike said the Storm also need to refocus. “When you refocus, I think things will change,” Ogwumike said.
There is no simple formula to consistency. It is made up of a wide variety of elements.
“A lot goes into consistency: Your habits, your work, your preparation before getting onto the floor,” Quinn said postgame. “Understanding moments in the game and how to conquer those moments. Attitude-wise, not being too high [or] too low, having mental fortitude in that capacity. There are a lot of things that go into play — not just schematically, X’s and O’s. There are things that, as an individual, we have to conquer, and as a group that we have to conquer as well. So that’s part of it.
“Our team has changed from the beginning of the season until now. Part of that is finding some consistency with one another — minutes, reps, all of those things. So a lot of different iterations of ourselves this year. Just trying to focus on when we do have good moments, have good games, just trying to mimic those. Sometimes even in the games … just staying sharp and locked into those moments.”
Most of all, the Storm’s focus is on themselves.
“There’s so much movement still going on at the top that we really have no choice but to focus on ourselves,” Brown said. “Because today, we could be matched up with one team, and in two days, we’ll be matched up with a completely different team. So the best thing that we could do is focus on ourselves [and] lock into our principles, our standards, and I think that will take us a long way.”
(From left to right) Seattle Storm guard Lexie Brown and forward Nneka Ogwumike defend Minnesota Lynx center Alanna Smith and guard Natisha Hiedeman during a game at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Aug. 28, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
The Storm don’t have all the answers. As Diggins pointed out, if they did, they wouldn’t be in this situation. But it won’t stop them from trying to find them.
“Obviously, yes, we’re disappointed with where we are,” Diggins said after Friday’s loss. “… But it’s not going to be a ‘woe is me’ [outlook]. Games are still going to be played. We still have to come out and compete. And most importantly, we have to be professional. … I’ve got to be a better leader when it’s hard. …
“Obviously, it’s tough. We’re pissed. … This is what it is when you’re passionate. We do everything passionately, and that’s what it is. We don’t want to fucking be in this predicament, but here we are. So we’re going to continue to show up and be pros every day, be leaders by example — how we come in and prepare and come out and get ready to compete — and that’s all we can do.
“And if we don’t do that, then we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.”
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Remember the 2021 Chicago Sky
There is precedent for a team like Seattle to find success in the playoffs. The 2021 Chicago Sky finished the regular season in sixth place with a 16-16 record, winning just six of their last 14 games and two of their last five. Though the playoff format was different in 2021 than it is in 2025 (there are no more single-elimination contests or byes for the top two seeds), the Sky went on to win the franchise’s first WNBA championship.
Brown was on that Sky team for much of the season, signing a rest-of-season contract on June 14. Her signing came after a seven-game losing streak that was not unlike the skid Seattle had this season after the All Star break.
Brown doesn’t see direct similarities between the two teams because the situations on a team and personal level are so different. Yet there are still lessons the 2025 Storm can take from the 2021 Sky.
“I think you just have to lean into your work ethic and lean into your stars that you have on your team and the veterans. Just go from there and focus on what you can control at the end of the day,” Brown said. “The hard part is getting to the playoffs. After that, it’s 0-0 for everybody. So the regular season really doesn’t matter.”
Chicago Sky guard Lexie Brown (in black) cheers during a playoff game at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sept. 26, 2021. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)
Mindset switch when playoffs hit
The rest of the Storm share Brown’s sentiment that the playoffs present a type of reset — “a new season to kind of reinvent yourself,” as Ogwumike put it.
“I think at the beginning of every season, every team has the same goal, but understanding it’s not just about winning a championship,” Ogwumike said. “It’s about competing every day, stacking days, winning games, putting yourself in a position to play in — although we’ve kind of struggled in that area. I think that we’re trying to take these one day at a time, especially since once the playoffs come — once you’ve been able to kind of determine what your position is, which is something we’re still fighting for — it’s kind of 0-0 once again.”
Quinn thinks this is especially true this year given the Storm’s success against the top teams and pointed to Chicago’s example.
“In [the playoffs], the mindset is different,” Quinn said. “Playoff basketball becomes different than [regular-]season basketball — possession by possession, matchups, adjustments on the fly. … I think getting into the playoffs is understanding that everything that we’ve been through in the season is for that particular moment. I believe there’s a lot of parity. I believe that it is about matchups. Some teams we match up well against, some teams we don’t.
“At the end of the day, it’s a different beast.”
It is a delicate balance to strike between treating the playoffs as a clean slate and not forgetting what the regular season taught you. But Sykes sees it as part of being a professional and a grown adult, as the implications are similar in life and basketball.
“You do things [and] there’s consequences, there’s lessons. If you keep doing those same things, then that means you’re making the choice to do it,” Sykes said. “You go into playoffs, it’s anybody’s game; it’s 0-0. But you also don’t want to take the bad shit that you were worrying about in the [regular] season into playoffs. It’s a whole new game. Every team has a clean slate.
“You just come to play, as simple as that.”