Storm lose 6th straight, Brittney Sykes struggles in home debut

A quick trip home wasn’t enough to jolt the Seattle Storm out of their worsening slump. They suffered a sixth straight defeat Wednesday night against the Atlanta Dream, 85-75, at Climate Pledge Arena.

Atlanta wasn’t the ideal team to bounce back against. Heading into the game, the Dream were third in the league with a 20-11 record, had won five straight and were 8-2 in their past 10 games. The standings are constantly churning, however, and Seattle had hope.

After an enthusiastic welcome from the home crowd, Brittney Sykes kicked off her home debut with a running layup less than two minutes in. The Storm acquired Sykes, a first-time All-Star this season, in an Aug. 5 trade with the Washington Mystics. Seattle gave up forward Alysha Clark, guard Zia Cooke and one of its first-round draft picks next year.

Sykes finished with a game-high, 27-point performance in the Storm’s most recent loss to the L.A. Sparks on Sunday. This wasn’t a repeat — seven points, five rebounds Wednesday — but her three-pointer with four minutes gone in the third quarter gave Seattle its only second-half lead, 49-48.

Then Dream guard Rhyne Howard dealt an impressive blow in the final three seconds of the third quarter. She sank a three, stole the ball back and hit another as time expired. Atlanta’s lead stretched to a game-high 14 points, which soon became 16.

That was too much to overcome, and the league’s longest active losing streak hit six.

It wasn’t looking promising for most of the first half, either, when the Storm couldn’t seem to bite into a Dream lead that hovered around five points. Seattle cut it to two at an opportune time — the halfway point.

The Storm came out of the break cold, but an Ezi Magbegor three-pointer got them started, then Nneka Ogwumike took it from there. Ogwumike paced the Storm in the first half with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists. Her fingerprints were all over the scoresheet during the next stretch, and she finished with a game-high 29 points to go with nine rebounds and four assists.

The Storm and Dream will face each other again Friday in Atlanta. It’s their final meeting of the season.