Seattle Storm vs New York Liberty | Brooklyn, NY | September 5, 2024

Only once on Thursday night did the Seattle Storm allow New York to put together an extended scoring run. But once was enough for the WNBA-leading Liberty.

New York put 12 straight points on the board bridging the third and fourth quarters, building an 11-point lead, and went on to beat the Storm inside the Barclays Center, 77-70.

Skylar Diggins-Smith, who has taken her performance up several notches since the month-long break for the Olympics, continued that trend for the Storm (20-14). She pumped in 21 points and logged six assists, four rebounds, two blocks and two steals. It was her seventh 20-point game of the season.

Gabby Williams, coming off a season-high 11 points on Tuesday’s 74-61 victory at Connecticut, came up even bigger on Thursday with 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting, plus five assists and four rebounds. Ezi Magbegor added 13 points and a team-leading seven boards.

The 12-0 burst for New York (28-6) was part of a larger 17-2 run that turned a 55-51 deficit at the 4:06 mark of the third quarter into a 68-57 lead with 8:41 left in the game. Chipping in five points of that was Breanna Stewart, who didn’t hit her first field goal until the 44-second mark of the third quarter, but then went on to score 10 points in the fourth on the way to a final total of 14.

Neither team ever had a double-digit advantage during the back-and-forth first half, which ended with New York up by just four at 40-36.

Tied at 48-48 midway through the third quarter, the Storm put together a 7-3 surge on a lay-in by Magbegor, a 3-pointer by Diggins-Smith, and a pair of free throws by Williams. The second of those free throws gave her 1,000 career points and gave Seattle the 55-51 lead.

But through the next 7:08 to finish that quarter and start the fourth, the only points for the Storm came off a driving lay-in by Jewell Loyd with 1:21 to go in the third.

The margin never got closer than five during the fourth quarter.