Flau’jae Johnson scored a game-high 23 points, Katie Lou Samuelson knocked down three 3-pointers off the bench, and the visiting Seattle Storm extended the Los Angeles Sparks’ recent woes in an 82-64 romp on Monday.
Seattle (6-17) led almost wire-to-wire, trailing only at 3-2, en route to just its third win in the past 16 games.
The Storm built an advantage of as many as 26 points while sending the Sparks to a third consecutive blowout loss. All three routs, beginning with a pair of road defeats at Toronto and Indiana, came as Los Angeles (8-11) has adjusted with leading scorer Kelsey Plum sidelined by a leg injury.
Without their sharpshooting guard, the Sparks went just 22-for-65 (33.8%) from the floor against Seattle, including a dismal 5-for-29 (17.2%) from 3-point range.
The Storm, meanwhile, knocked down 10 triples on 33 attempts (30.3%), including three from Johnson. The rookie put up at least 23 points for the third time in Seattle’s past five games. She bounced back after scoring just one point in a loss Saturday to Portland.
The first two of Samuelson’s three 3-pointers helped ignite a pivotal Storm run early in the second quarter. Jade Melbourne added another 3-pointer to cap a quick 11-5 burst that gave Seattle a double-digit lead.
Los Angeles never came any closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Melbourne finished with 11 points for the Storm. Natisha Hiedeman posted 15 points to go with six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Hiedeman was one of three Storm players to swipe at least three steals. Awa Fam had four of Seattle’s 14 thefts, and Jordan Horston came away with three off the bench.
The Storm outscored the Sparks 25-10 off of 19 Los Angeles turnovers to Seattle’s 13.
Dearica Hamby led the Sparks with 17 points. Former Storm All-Star Nneka Ogwumike recorded 14 points and 11 rebounds against her former team.
No other Los Angeles scorer reached double figures, with Kate Martin’s eight points off the bench the next highest output for the Sparks.
–Field Level Media
