After the Seattle Storm's 70-57 loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday, Flau'jae Johnson covered her face with her jersey and tried to hold back tears during the postgame press conference as Awa Fam spoke about the team's difficult season. "That's who Flau is, that's who our players are," Storm coach Sonia Raman said a few minutes later. They want to win, they're really competitive, they're really hungry and they feel it when they lose." Johnson and the 8-35 Storm have done a lot of losing this season.
With one game to play, they've already set the league's single-season losses record and are guaranteed to finish in last place. If they drop Wednesday's finale against the Dallas Wings, they'll record the worst winning percentage in franchise history. The sting of defeat has been hard to handle for Johnson.
The No. 8 overall pick in this year's WNBA Draft, Johnson was traded from the Golden State Valkyries – now in second place and a primary title contender – to the Storm on draft night. In five months with the Storm, she has lost more games than she did in four years at LSU, where she won a national title as a freshman and went a combined 125-20. "I don't know that I've dealt with [the losing] all the way," Johnson told CBS Sports over the phone earlier this week.
"It's kinda just irritating for me because it's hard. Every day you're chasing a goal and you're giving everything you got in these games and they just don't go your way." As frustrating as the season has been at times, Johnson is trying to "keep perspective" because "these are the best players in the world and we're giving them a run for their money." The young, rebuilding Storm have six defeats by three or fewer points and 13 by five or fewer points. In "clutch" games, defined as the score being within five points with five or fewer minutes remaining, the Storm are 2-16.
The WNBA's clutch game data goes back to 2006, and since then the Storm's 16 defeats are tied for the third-most in a single season. Their .111 winning percentage in such games is better only than the 2012 Tulsa Shock (.077). The good news in Seattle?
The reason for the futility in late-game situations is the same reason the Storm have one of the brightest futures in the league: youth. The 22-year-old Johnson is the oldest member of the team's core, which includes All-Star center Dominique Malonga and Awa Fam, the No. 3 overall pick in this year's draft – both 20. "Playing with them, they're so smart," Johnson said.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
