Too easy: Storm clobbers Liberty, improves to 11-1

This is getting ridiculous. 

The Storm is making a mockery of the WNBA while drubbing anyone in its path the way Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods and Serena Williams would dominate opponents back in their prime. 

For the third straight game, Seattle led from start to finish and practically sealed Tuesday night’s 105-64 victory over the hapless New York Liberty in the first half at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. 

“For us, once we kind of get going, I guess we’re hard to stop,” Jewell Loyd said. “We’re in a good rhythm.” 

That’s an understatement.  

Seattle (11-1) has strung together nine straight wins – its second longest winning streak in franchise history – and stretched its first-place lead in the WNBA standings to 2½ games over Las Vegas (8-3).

The Storm plays the Indiana Fever (4-7) 5 p.m Thursday before a pivotal matchup against Las Vegas, which should be a barometer of how good Seattle really is. 

Aside from the Washington Mystics, who upset the Storm 89-71 with a three-point barrage on July 30, no one has been able to slow down the Storm juggernaut. 

“I like the way we’re playing,” coach Gary Kloppenburg said. “We’re playing with a lot of confidence. We’re really sharing the ball at the offensive end and shooting the ball with a lot of confidence. We want to keep that going. I like the way we’re pushing the pace. We’re getting a lot of easy baskets.” 

Against an overmatched Liberty team playing without No. 1 overall draft pick Sabrina Ionescu and relying on eight rookies, the Storm used a lethal perimeter attack and a smothering defense to pull away early and never look back. 

Seattle raced out to a 10-0 lead, and the rout was on. 

“We’re really just trying to limit teams to one shot and get out and run,” said Loyd, who scored 10 of her 14 points in the first period. “Everyone on our team can finish really well around the basket. Once we kind of settled in, that gets us going.” 

Thanks to Loyd, the Storm led 27-16 at the end of the first period. 

Seattle essentially put the game away while outscoring New York 34-12 in the second to take a 61-28 lead into halftime. 

The Liberty, which trailed 84-42 at the end of the third, didn’t put up much of a fight against an unrelenting defensive assault that turned 23 turnovers into 30 points. 

New York shot 32.8% on field goals, including 6 of 27 on three-pointers, and Seattle connected on 13 of 25 behind the arc and was 53.2% from the floor. 

“We had good defensive energy, especially that first half,” Kloppenburg said. “They just didn’t get a lot of good, clean looks. It triggered our fast break. We were able to get out and get some easy run-outs to get that lead.  

“That’s what we want. We want to score off turnovers, and we did a good job of that tonight.” 

For the first time this season, the Storm had six players score in double digits, including Epiphanny Prince (16 points), Breanna Stewart (14), Sami Whitcomb (14), Natasha Howard (12 points and 11 rebounds) and Sue Bird (10 points and seven assists). 

Kia Nurse led New York (1-10) with 21 points. 

Seattle continues to make statements with each outing. 

The first game to start the second half of the season was a testament to how much the Storm has improved from its opener, an 87-71 victory over New York on July 25. 

“We’re not in the same place that we were for the first game of the season,” Stewart said. “Then we were still kind of getting a rhythm working some kinks out and figuring out the entire wobble situation. 

“Now we’re still in this stretch where we have games every other day and finding our rhythm. Closing out games and not letting teams fight back in.”

None of the Storm starters played more than 22 minutes, and the 41-point victory was the latest in a stretch of nine wins by 17 or more.

“We’re on a good roll in playing well, but you never want to relax,” Kloppenburg said. “You always want to push getting better in some areas.”