Jade Melbourne scored 23 points Saturday night, but the Seattle Storm still left with a 100-93 loss to the Portland Fire and an 11th straight defeat. Seattle’s latest skid now stands out for a different reason too: the Storm became the first team in WNBA history to have two double-digit losing streaks in the same season.
That is why Melbourne’s night drew attention even in defeat. Seattle needed offense after a 92-86 loss to the New York Liberty on Wednesday night, and Melbourne gave it to them, with the Storm staying close enough to reach 75-72 early in the fourth quarter on Ezi Magbegor’s jumper. But Jordan Harrison answered with a 3-pointer that pushed Portland ahead 82-75 with 7:26 left, and Bridget Carleton’s 24 points helped finish the job.
The result also carried a simple math problem for Seattle. The Storm scored 93 points and still lost by seven, which is what happens when a team cannot string together enough stops late. Portland had already beaten Seattle in the first two meetings between the teams, and this one followed the same pattern: enough scoring to keep it tense, not enough control to take it back.
There was also a more immediate concern inside the game. Flau’jae Johnson was helped off the court with 5:14 left in the third quarter after what looked like an ankle injury, then returned to the bench before the quarter ended and briefly came back into the game in the fourth. Katie Lou Samuelson, meanwhile, was questionable with a knee injury and did not play, leaving Karlie Samuelson to face her sister’s absent Seattle team. That missing matchup underscored how thin the night already was for Seattle.
The Storm now sit at 6-28, and the schedule does not offer much breathing room. Portland, which beat expansion rival Toronto 97-83 on Thursday, is set to host Minnesota on Wednesday night, while Seattle has to figure out how a team can score 93 points, get 23 from Melbourne, and still keep sliding this far.
