Less than 24 hours after having a long winning streak snapped, the Seattle Storm have to face the Eastern Conference leaders in a place they haven't won in nearly nine years.
It wouldn't appear to be an ideal spot for the Storm to end that drought as they visit the Connecticut Sun on Sunday.
Seattle had been the hottest team in the league entering the weekend, but its five-game winning streak came to an end with a 77-59 loss in New York on Saturday. The game ended around 5 p.m. eastern time, after which the Storm had to make the trip for this mid-afternoon matchup.
The Storm (6-8) have lost their last nine visits to Connecticut, including one in the 2004 WNBA finals. That streak dates back to July 17, 2003.
The Sun (10-3) own a two-game lead atop the East and have only played once in the past nine days, never trailing in a 77-64 victory at Washington on Friday.
That game came after the team had a long break following the worst loss in franchise history, 95-61 at Indiana on June 21.
"We had a big cluster of games and we got really tired, but after a week of sitting around, we were ready to go again," said reserve forward Mistie Mims, who had a season-high 15 points against the Mystics.
Mims doesn't get much notoriety on a team which includes fellow frontliners Tina Charles and Asjha Jones, but she's made all nine of her field-goal attempts over the past two games and is shooting a league-best 67.9 percent.
"She's had several games where she's come in and been perfect from the floor," coach Mike Thibault said. "I would have tried to play her more (Friday) except Asjha and Tina were playing really well, too. It's a nice problem to have."
Jones tied a season high with 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds Friday, and Charles posted her eighth double-double but was held to 13 points on 6-of-15 shooting. Charles has been struggling, averaging 11.0 points and 8.7 rebounds over her last three games.
Charles averaged 19.0 points and 10.0 boards last season versus the Storm as these teams split two matchups. Sue Bird hit a 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to give Seattle an 81-79 home victory Aug. 5 in the most recent meeting.
Bird was held to nine points while shooting 3 of 11 on Saturday after averaging 18.2 points during the Storm's five-game win streak.
"We hadn't played like this for a while," Bird said after the Storm turned the ball over 25 times against the Liberty. "It was definitely disappointing.''
