From Swish Appeal: Seattle Storm gets shocked in the preseason by Tulsa, 90-80
Tulsa Shock head coach Nolan Richardson described his desire to have games look “ugly as hell” before the season started. This stylistic preference is not reverberating well with league aficionados who are claiming that Richardson’s coaching methodology won’t work for women’s basketball, particularly not for the WNBA. Well, although the season has yet to start officially, the Shock now have their one and only preseason contest under their belt, a 90-80 Mother’s Day win over the Seattle Storm.
And ugly as hell it was indeed, with Tulsa forcing Seattle to commit 32 turnovers in the 40 minute game. All in all, 13 of the 14 women that checked in for the Storm committed at least one turnover, with guard Tanisha Wright having the dubious distinction of being the game leader with six in just under 24 minutes of play.
The turnovers were not limited to the visitors however, with the Shock having 22 of their own. That means there was 1.35 combined turnovers per minute of game action. Exactly half of the Storm’s 32 turnovers came in the form of Tulsa steals, a part of the game in which Richardson is already keying upon heavily.
“If we cut [the Tulsa turnovers] to 15, if we get that it’ll be awfully tough to beat us because the possession game – you’re winning the possession game. And a lot of the possession game if from stealing the ball. You almost have a chance to score every time,” Richardson said. “The possession game is not so much when you’re making turnovers . . . When you get a deflection or steal, boy that puts their defense at a disadvantage and it puts our offense at an advantage . . . So the quickness becomes a very important point of the game.”
To read more from this game, please click here.
One Comment on “From Swish Appeal: Seattle Storm gets shocked in the preseason by Tulsa, 90-80”
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Very good article. Hope Nolan Richardson takes them to the championships.
Shock it Up!
K