SEATTLE — Alanna Smith scored 16 of her career-high 22 points in the first half, Napheesa Collier scored seven of her 20 points during a decisive fourth-quarter run, and the Minnesota Lynx beat the Storm 83-70 on Tuesday night, spoiling the Seattle debuts of Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike.
Smith carried the Lynx in the first half before Collier took over late, and Minnesota leaned on its defense to frustrate the Storm into a difficult night at the offensive end. Seattle’s Jewell Loyd, last year’s leading scorer in the WNBA at 24.7 points, was held to 10 points on 3-of-19 shooting.
“Seattle is a good team and I feel like we really shut them down in the second half, especially,” Collier said. “Just covering down for each other, really working as a unit and when we’re doing that it’s really fun.”
The opener was supposed to be the unveiling of the new-look Storm after they finished with the second-worst record in the league at 11-29 last season following the departure of Breanna Stewart in free agency and the retirement of Sue Bird.