Playoff hopefuls meet as Jewell Loyd, Storm face Sky

The winning formula for the Seattle Storm is easy to figure out: Get Jewell Loyd cooking and find ways to get stops defensively.

That worked out Sunday night in Minneapolis, where Loyd went off for 31 points and Seattle held the Minnesota Lynx to 35.3 percent shooting in an 88-74 win that kept its slim WNBA playoff hopes alive.

The Storm will stay on the road Tuesday night for a matchup with another team currently outside of the playoff picture, the struggling Chicago Sky.

Seattle (10-22) is playing its best basketball of the year, winning six of its last nine games. The Storm have also received nearly 23 points per game in that span from Loyd, the league's scoring leader. They now trail Los Angeles by 3 1/2 games for the final playoff spot.

Loyd said the team played textbook road basketball in Minnesota.

"You want to get off to a good start and take the crowd out of it," she said, per the Seattle Times. "We kind of got momentum. We were hitting shots and competing. We wanted to be aggressive, whether it was screening, going to the rim hard or running the floor hard."

While the Storm might finally have found a groove, Chicago (12-20) is stumbling at an inopportune time. With just eight games left, the Sky are on a five-game skid after Sunday's 79-73 home loss to Connecticut.

The Sky hit only 41.3 percent of their field goal attempts, including 3 of 21 from the 3-point line. They were outrebounded 33-25 and allowed the Sun to make 47.4 percent from the field.

"If we don't tighten up, our last game is going to be Sept. 10," said guard Courtney Williams, referring to the regular season's end. "We have to show up every game with the same energy. At times, we just don't do that."

Chicago trails Los Angeles by 1 1/2 games and the Sparks also have a game in hand.

The Sky and Storm have split two games this season with each team winning on the road.