The Seattle Storm came back from down 21 points to defeat the Los Angeles Sparks Tuesday night at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, becoming the final WNBA team to earn their first win of the 2023 season behind 25 points from league leading scorer Jewell Loyd, who became the third individual to ever reach 4,000 points in a Storm jersey in the third quarter. Sue Bird (6,803 career points) and Lauren Jackson (6,005) are the other two.
With the Storm (1-4) up three and 10 seconds remaining, Ezi Magbegor blocked a Nneka Ogwumike reverse layup attempt and LA (3-3) was unable to foul until about four seconds remaining, at which point it chose not to foul Loyd, who was 13-of-14 at the stripe on the evening.
It was a disappointing ending for the Sparks, who led 27-6, but turned the ball over 23 times. Lexie Brown was key to the hot start, but took an ill-advised deep three with plenty of time on the shot clock at 43 seconds remaining instead of getting the ball to Nneka, who again led the way for LA with 22 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks.
Loyd added eight boards and three helpers to her stat line. She is averaging 28 points per game on the season.
With 1:29 remaining, the Storm nearly stole an entry pass intended for Nneka, but Nneka caught it and…
