SEATTLE \u2013 They\u2019re in.<\/p>\n
Erica Wheeler drained the go-ahead basket with 18.5 seconds left for the last of her 17 points, and the Seattle Storm clinched a WNBA playoff berth on Tuesday night by fending off the Golden State Valkyries inside Climate Pledge Arena, 74-73.<\/p>\n
Nneka Ogwumike had 18 points for Seattle and Brittney Sykes added 14. Skylar Diggins had 10 alongside six assists, giving her 258 to break her own single-season team record of 257, which she set last year.<\/p>\n
While the Storm have secured their spot in the playoffs, they won\u2019t know their seeding until after Thursday\u2019s final games. Seattle will either be No. 7 or No. 8. In either case, it will open the best-of-3 first round on the road on Sunday, September 14 against an opponent and at a time yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
Regardless of how all of those details ultimately pan out, the spot is theirs. It no longer matters whether Los Angeles wins or loses its final game on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent things come into play, and you don\u2019t ever want to rely on other people to win or lose,\u201d Head Coach Noelle Quinn said. \u201cTo be able to seize the moment and take care of business on your home court against a team that is trending positively shows a lot of resilience. But we also can breathe a little bit to know that we\u2019re in and not having to rely on other people to control our future.\u201d<\/p>\n
In front of a sellout crowd of 12,500 fans, the lead changed hands four times in the last three minutes of the game.<\/p>\n
The Valkyries got two shot attempts during the final possession, but both fell short. In a scramble under the basket, Wheeler secured the rebound.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew how important this game was to get into postseason. Yeah, that shot won the game, but it was a team effort,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cWe did everything we had to do as a team. It so happened that I was the last one to take a shot, and I was grateful to be in that position. But it\u2019s always about the team. I\u2019m going to do whatever I\u2019ve got to do to help the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a big shot at a big moment. She has had multiple moments like that this year,\u201d added Quinn. \u201cThe trust we have in her, that her teammates have in her \u2013 she puts in the work, and she\u2019s a really good shooter. To have somebody come off the bench and give us a boost that was needed at both ends of the floor \u2013 not just one end of the floor \u2013 she has done that all season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Storm limited Golden State to just 12 points in the last quarter on 5-of-20 shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could say we were able to win a game like this from experience,\u201d Ogwumike said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in a lot of tight games to the end. Over time, we\u2019ve been able to train that muscle, and to be able to win in what ultimately was a playoff environment \u2013 even a lot of the games we played in August felt like a playoff environment \u2013 I can\u2019t help but believe that it\u2019s going to prepare us for what we\u2019re going to experience in the postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a step in the right direction, and coming out on top is really what we wanted,\u201d added Ogwumike.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rookie center Dominique Malonga finished with nine points, with eight of those in the paint. That gives her 262 paint points for the season, a WNBA record for a reserve player.<\/p>\n
Ezi Magbegor pulled down nine of Seattle\u2019s 37 rebounds. She also recorded three more blocks, giving her 96 for the season. She is just the fifth player in league history to finish with 90-plus.<\/p>\n
Sala\u00fcn led the Valkyries with 22 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2013 They\u2019re in. Erica Wheeler drained the go-ahead basket with 18.5 seconds left for the last of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-135540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}