The Seattle Storm (16-8) were not at their best last Sunday, but still managed to pull off a win over the Atlanta Dream (7-16), thanks in large part to the efforts of their two youngest starters.
Jordan Horston and Ezi Magbegor, aged 23 and 24, respectively, were terrific in Seattle’s 81-70 victory, combining to score 34 points on a highly efficient 16-for-22 shooting from the field. The duo also racked up five offensive rebounds, four steals and five blocked shots, thoroughly outplaying their individual matchups in every area the Storm have been relying on them for.
On a team with elite offensive talents such as Jewell Loyd, Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith, Horston and Magbegor’s work on the other end of the court has been crucial to Seattle’s success. They’ve often sacrificed their own offensive output, deferring to the team’s stars while bearing the burden of its most difficult defensive assignments. The Storm currently rank third in the WNBA in defensive rating (93.6 points allowed per 100 possessions) and opponents’ turnover rate (20.2 percent), and if those numbers hold for the rest of the season, both Horston and Magbegor are sure to get heavy consideration for the WNBA’s All-Defense teams.
On Sunday, however, the Storm’s young duo showed…
