After 10 seasons with the Seattle Storm, Jewel Lloyd will return to the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, when the Las Vegas pays the Aces that is expected to be an emotional journey for the storm.
Lloyd was traded in the aces in a three-team deal in February, including Los Angeles Sparks.
Loyd prepared for travel by creating a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds, as Aces (2–1) won the 75–72 return to Washington Mistics in his home opener on Friday.
The game-winner helped Loyd cross 2-9 shooting nights as Jackie Young scored 25 points, Chelsea Gray 17 and A’ja Wilson added 15 points with 12 rebounds. Wilson also excluded five assistants to cross 500 assistance for his career.
Now, Loyd returns where she was twice the WNBA Champion, 2015 Ruki of the Year, six-time all-star and an all-star game MVP. He led WNBA in 2023 with 24.7 points per game. But the goals of Aces will now be on his mind.
“We want to win; This team is just formed in this way,” Loyd said about his new team on “Birds Eye View” podcast. “Standard is excellence and this is what you see every time you walk in practice facility. We want to be healthy and go back to what Vegas wants to do.”
The Storm (2–1) shut down Phoenix Mercury 770 in his home opener on Friday as Skylar Digins scored 24 points and tied the Franchise record of the So Bard with 14 Asist.
“This means a lot, especially with a decorated franchise,” Digins said about setting up the team’s assistance records against their former team. “That’s why I came here. Just looking at people like Suu Bird and trying to continue that legacy.
“But it shows the particular group that we have. When you play with great players, you have a lot of options to pass it.”
Nneka Ogwumike also scored 24 points with eight rebounds, while Gabby Williams scored 11 points for the storm.
Seattle overtook 61-54 with 3:37 in the third quarter, leaving 12–0 before 66–61 to move forward with 8:50.
The game was tied at 70 with 4:48 remaining and Seattle never left the rest of the way. The mercury was 0-5 from the floor at the final 3:07 and 3–18 in the fourth quarter and 3 -18 (16.7 percent), during which the storm took advantage of 15-9 scoring.
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