Storm heating up, looking to extend Sun's struggles

The Seattle Storm will be out to remain perfect, at least on the eastern swing of their four-game road trip, when they visit the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday afternoon.

The Storm started their journey with a loss to the Golden State Valkyries, but they went even further away from home to earn back-to-back victories over the Atlanta Dream and New York Liberty.

Seattle's 79-70 victory Sunday against defending champion New York was led by a stingy defense and a balanced offense. Gabby Williams scored 16 points for the Storm, while Nneka Ogwumike had 15 and Ezi Magbegor added 14.

The Storm (12-7) shot 45.1 percent from the floor, while holding the Liberty to 35.3 percent. Seattle took control with a 22-6 scoring advantage in the third quarter as New York went 2 of 18 (11.1 percent) from the floor, while Breanna Stewart was held to eight points.

"We see the standings and it would be nice to be (higher), but what does it take to get there?" Williams said. "It's getting points in the paint, it's Nneka shutting down one of the best players in the world (Stewart). It's those things that have gotten us here."

The Sun (2-16) enter on a franchise-worst 10-game losing streak as they head toward the worst season in franchise history with a .111 winning percentage. Their previous low for wins in a season was 10 in 2013 when they had a .294 winning percentage.

Their latest defeat was an 86-68 decision at home against the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday. Aneesah Morrow led Connecticut with 12 points but went 4-of-14 from the floor as the team shot 38.1 percent.

"I think the biggest thing is just finding the positives, trying to stay up, because in this league, you don't have time to lay back and soak in all that," Saniya Rivers said after scoring 10 points, per MassLive. "... So I think (it's) just really learning from your mistakes, trying not to repeat those same mistakes."

In a long season that is growing longer, the Sun not only are scoring a league-low 70.9 points per game on 38.7-percent shooting, they allow opponents to score a league-high 88.7 points on 45.3-pecent shooting.

The Storm earned a 97-81 victory at home against the Sun on June 27 when Seattle's Skylar Diggins scored 24 points, with the teams set to meet again in the Pacific Northwest on Friday night.

--Field Level Media