SEATTLE -- The Storm ended the Minnesota Lynx's undefeated start to the 2025 season Wednesday, rallying from an 11-point deficit in the third quarter to win 94-84 at Climate Pledge Arena and drop the Lynx to 9-1.
Behind much of the final period after a Seattle surge late in the third, Minnesota cut the deficit to one on a Kayla McBride 3-pointer with 1:07 to play. The Storm's Erica Wheeler answered with a 3, kicking off a 9-0 run to end the game.
Despite the outcome, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve played down the significance of a single loss during the WNBA's expanded 44-game regular season.
"I'm not concerned," Reeve said. "This doesn't mean anything. We didn't play well enough to win. It's probably a good message: If you want to win on the road, especially a place like Seattle and a team like Seattle, you've got to play a hell of a lot better."
Coming off last year's loss to the New York Liberty in a WNBA Finals that went the full five games, Minnesota had matched 9-0 New York win for win to start the season as two of nine teams in league history to start 9-0 or better.
According to ESPN Research, the Liberty and Lynx were the first pair of teams to remain undefeated since Minnesota went 13-0 and the Los Angeles Sparks went 11-0 to start 2016, when the Sparks eventually defeated the Lynx in the Finals.
Given Minnesota's realistic aspirations to get back to the Finals, players know they must perform better than they did Wednesday.
"Obviously, it's harder to learn after a loss," forward Bridget Carleton said, "but I think it's a good moment for us to just look inward. They had 50 points in the paint, where we pride ourselves on the defensive end. Things like that just can't happen if we want to do what we want to do this season, so I think good reminders for us to be better."
"They flat-out beat us," said Reeve, highlighting the Storm's 22 points off turnovers in addition to their points in the paint, six more than the Lynx had allowed in any game this season.
Seattle coach Noelle Quinn pointed to her team's performance against a top opponent as evidence of what the Storm are capable of doing this season.
"Minnesota is a great team," Quinn said. "They're a well-oiled machine. They play with so much continuity, they move the ball. You make a mistake and they make you pay. I think the measuring stick was whose discipline is going to prevail today, because you look at Cheryl Reeve's teams, they're so disciplined what they do in their system.
"Today, we had to match that or exceed that. To be able to score 90 points and relatively hold players to their averages, I think that's super important."
Seattle shot 56.5% behind balanced contributions from the team's starting five. Nneka Ogwumike had 21 points and 10 rebounds in her second double-double of the season, while Wheeler handed out a season-high nine assists and scored 20 points. Skylar Diggins had 18 points and six assists, becoming the fastest player in league history to reach 5,000 career points and 1,500 assists in 302 games.
No. 2 pick Dominique Malonga also played a key role for the Storm, scoring eight points and grabbing four rebounds in 13 minutes of action while defending Napheesa Collier. According to GeniusIQ tracking, Collier -- who had a game-high 25 points on 9-of-23 shooting -- missed five of her seven shot attempts when Malonga was her primary matchup.
"She had her way with us, and she was very productive in her minutes today," Reeve said of Malonga. "She's getting more and more comfortable, and she dominated our bigs."
The outcome had important ramifications for the WNBA Commissioner's Cup standings. Seattle tied Minnesota, the reigning Commissioner's Cup champion, atop the West standings at 3-1. Because head-to-head results are the first tiebreaker and no other West team has fewer than two losses in Commissioner's Cup play, the Storm will represent the conference in the July 1 final if they can win their remaining games on Saturday at Golden State and Tuesday in Los Angeles.
"There's a few layers for today," Quinn said. "There's Commissioner's Cup, you know, we're at home and we want to get on a streak and a roll. I talk to you guys a lot about the wins and losses, but there's a way we want to be playing and today that feels really good."
Although losing doesn't feel good for the Lynx, Reeve was already looking ahead to the team's next game Saturday, hosting the Sparks.
"We're going to do like we always do," Reeve said. "We didn't win a basketball game. We didn't accomplish the schemes that we were trying to accomplish. We have to get ready for Saturday's game."