The Seattle Storm lost to the Washington Mystics yesterday, and Skylar Diggins-Smith was none too pleased with the outcome of the game. Considering they had a stacked roster, the point guard felt that their output had not lived up to their expectations this season.
Diggins-Smith was especially hard on herself after she gave up a foul on Mystics’ Brittney Sykes, which led to the opposing team scoring two more points and winning the game 74-72.
“I [expletive] it up at the end, and it’s a terrible foul. As a vet, you can’t make that play,” she said in the post-game press conference. “But it shouldn’t [expletive] (have) to come down to that.”
“In this league, if you aren’t ready to play, you’ll get beat every [expletive] night … They (Mystics) were ready to play, and we weren’t—on both sides of the basketball. They deserved to win,” Diggins-Smith continued, commending their opponent.
The Storm star then criticized her teammates for seemingly lacking effort throughout the game, calling them out.
“We need to be hitting our stride right now, and we’re not there…It’s unacceptable how we’re playing on both sides of the basketball.”
Diggins-Smith finished the game with 10 points on a measly 4-of-10 shooting, three rebounds, and eight assists. The Seattle Storm as a whole struggled with their shooting against the Mystics, shooting only 37.85% compared to their opponent’s 44.1 field goal percentage.
The loss marked their third out of four games and their fourth defeat at home this season.
Seattle Storm needs to ‘step it up,’ says Skylar Diggins-Smith
The Seattle Storm remains one of the top contenders in this season despite the loss to the Washington Mystics. But if the first round of the playoffs is to begin today, they will have a hard time facing the defending champions and current fourth-seed Las Vegas Aces.
Skylar Diggins-Smith wants her team to have a sense of urgency as the regular season approaches its end, determining the shape of the playoffs.
“We all have to step our game up. In this league, it only gets harder after the break,” Diggins-Smith said. “And that’s fine, that’s fine. But if we don’t come ready to play from the start, we’re going to [expletive] lose.”
It doesn’t get easier for the Storm after that loss. In their next five games, they will be facing the Atlanta Dream, the New York Liberty, and the Connecticut Sun. It will be up to Diggins-Smith’s teammates to heed her advice or else they will lose their contender status.
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