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The 2024 playoff curse is broken in two games in a row! Last year, teams that won game 1 managed to overpower in game 2 in the first round. But this time? The Indiana Fever and Seattle Storm had managed to take that to game 3. “I was just like, ‘I gotta step my game up’. I don’t think I had ever seen anyone that competitive. … With Sky, it’s all or nothing,” said Nneka Ogwumike once in praise of her teammate Skylar Diggins, who has emerged as her team’s second-highest average scorer this season. While she has gone viral in recent days over bizarre news stories of her wearing packets containing an overall 422 grams of protein sourced from real milk, and yelling NSFW words at Lynx players, she has also been leaving a mark with her playmaking skills. There is no better example of that than her recent playoff matchup.

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The Seattle Storm won Game 2 of their playoff series against the A’ja Wilson-led Las Vegas Aces. The same would not have become reality had it not been for Skylar Diggins’ clutch-time and overall performance. The 35-year-old led the scoring effort for the Seattle Storm by recording 26 points, along with 1 rebound and 7 assists. Diggins managed to get this score by shooting 10-20 field goals, 4-6 3-pointers, and 2-3 free throws.

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When the Seattle Storm were down 14 points in the 3rd quarter, it looked like their season was coming to an end. However, Skylar Diggins nor Nneka Ogwumike combined for 50 points on Tuesday to ensure that did not happen. With just 35 seconds remaining in the game, the Storm were down 83–81. Ogwumike secured a huge rebound. He kicked it up the floor to Diggins and into the hands of a streaking Dominique Malonga, who, in turn, helped put Seattle up by one. Later, Diggins took advantage of his team’s efforts to isolate Jackie Young and drilled a jumper from just inside the foul line, after a Chelsea Gray turnover, with just 4.2 seconds left on the clock.

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With that move, Las Vegas’ 17-game win streak came to an end, and the Seattle Storm got another chance to attempt to reach the next stage of the playoffs. Skylar Diggins’ overall total gave her team the push they needed to close out a close game. Fans realized this as well, and they didn’t hesitate to let it be known.

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WNBA Fans Praise Skylar Diggins On Her 26-Points Performance: “carrying Seattle to the sky!”

One social media user wrote, “Skylar Diggins carrying Seattle to the sky!” When looking to overcome a team with a huge win streak, while the points gap margin is so close, it would have been easy to get nervous. However, that wasn’t the case for Skylar Diggins. In fact, during a post-game interview with ESPN, she admitted that “for us, it was coming out and showing that we weren’t scared to play against them. I mean, you can respect a team of that caliber who’s been great all year, who’s been great for very many years, um, and not fear them.”

One individual wrote, “Seattle Storm played great tonight. The Las Vegas Aces need to take Game 3 seriously”. The Seattle Storm have won only 3 of their last 10 games against the Las Vegas Aces, including the most recent one. Therefore, if history is an indication, A’ja Wilson and co can quickly recover.

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One social media user wrote, “Skylar COOKED tonight.” The 26 points made by Diggins mark not only the highest score she recorded in the ongoing postseason, but also in the entire tournament, tying with the 26 points she recorded during a matchup against the Phoenix Mercury back on June 7th.

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One individual wrote, “Sky said she wasn’t going home!!!” At 35 years old, Skylar Diggins does not have much time remaining as a player in the WNBA. Though she is a 7× WNBA All-Star, has been named to the All-WNBA First Team 4 times, and has been named to the All-WNBA Second Team 2 times, she has yet to win a WNBA championship. Therefore, if there ever was a time to NOT go home, it was now.

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One social media user sent her love to the point guard by writing, “When she plays like she’s the SH*T they win!!!!”. Well, the Seattle Storm have won games even when Diggins scored in the single digits, and they have lost even when Diggins scored 20+ points. However, there is no denying that her performance gives the team the occasional boost from time to time.

Overall, the majority of reactions saw people being united in handing out praise to Skylar Diggins. Whether the 7x WNBA All-Star can bring out the same amount of prowess for Game 3 of the playoff series is something that remains to be seen.

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Written by

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Ashmit Kumar

2,900 Articles

Ashmit Kumar is a Senior Basketball Writer at EssentiallySports with over three years of experience covering the NBA. A journalism graduate, Ashmit has been a crucial part of EssentiallySports’ NBA live trends desk for the past two seasons. His work extends beyond game coverage to include analysis of player endorsements, brand deals, and Team USA's Olympics campaigns.

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Edited by

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Md Saba Ahmed

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