The Golden State Valkyries have limped into the All-Star break.
Just two weeks ago, the Valkyries were two games above .500 with the chance to climb to the top of the league standings.
But after a 67-58 loss to the Seattle Storm on Wednesday, the Valkyries have now lost their third straight game and their fifth in six games to drop to 10-12 on the season. While boasting a 7-4 record at home, the Valkyries are now 3-8 on the road.
The Valkyries had a balanced scoring attack as all 11 players who were available for Wednesday’s game scored.
But it wasn’t enough.
Stanford alum Nneka Ogwumike had 22 points and eight rebounds to lead Seattle to the win. Erica Wheeler had 15 points and Skylar Diggins totaled 10 points and six assists.
Cecilia Zandalasini led the Valkyries with 12 points. French rookie Janelle Salaün had 10 points.
Golden State was held to a season-low 58 points.
In the two previous matchups with the Storm in San Francisco, the Valkyries built sizable halftime leads but that wasn’t the case in Seattle.
Despite holding the Storm to 34.2% shooting, Golden State struggled to stop Ogwumike, who scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds in the first half.
Ogwumike combined for just 14 points in the two games against the Valkyries this season.
Golden State kept the ball moving on the offensive end as the Valkyries had nine assists on 11 made shots in the first two quarters. They went into the halftime break tied at 31 with the Storm.
Though they struggled to score in the third quarter, the Valkyries went down four points going into the final 10 minutes of play.
Golden State got within one possession of Seattle’s lead multiple times throughout the fourth quarter, but couldn’t find consistent scoring in the final period to take a lead.
Golden State has now dropped to ninth in the WNBA standings going into the All-Star break.
Here are takeaways from Wednesday’s win win/loss in Seattle:
Struggles to score
For the second straight game, the Valkyries couldn’t get anything going on offense.
Golden State shot 31.7% from the field in Wednesday’s win/loss. In the third quarter, the Valkyries shot 4 of 16 in the third quarter and were outscored 17-13 in the period.
Leading scorer and All-Star game representative Kayla Thornton scored just four points on 1-of-9 shooting. She came into Monday’s game shooting just 30.5% in the previous five games.
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Zandalasini making way back into rotation
Zandalasini struggled in her first few games since returning from EuroBasket. She was a healthy scratch against the Indiana Fever and the Atlanta Dream last week.
But head coach Natalie Nakase had acclimated the third-year sharpshooter more into the rotation in the last few games, and even inserted Zandalasini into the closing lineup in Monday’s loss to the Phoenix Mercury.
Along with her 12 points, Zandalasini totaled four rebounds and a block. She hit a clutch 3-pointer at the 6:35 mark of the fourth quarter to cut the Storm lead to two.