Film Study: How Can the Sky Slow Down Arike Ogunbowale?
Chicago did well for three quarters on Wednesday, but the superstar won out in the end.
As they head into game two against the Wings, Teresa Weatherspoon will have plenty of areas for improvement to hone in on after a disappointing yet very promising season-opening loss in Dallas. She’ll likely continue to tinker with her rotation, preach her offensive and defensive concepts and emphasize the need to get the small details right. But beyond those areas—which remain a work in progress for coaches all throughout the season, one thing Weatherspoon will almost certainly want to take a look at is how her squad defended Arike Ogunbowale on Wednesday night. Unfortunately for Chicago’s rookie head coach, she won’t find a whole lot her team could do differently after they put forth a strong effort throughout the game and simply ran into an offensive buzzsaw in the final frame. Let’s dive into what went well for the Sky against Ogunbowale and hone in on what (if anything) Weatherspoon can adjust ahead of Saturday night’s rematch (7 PM CT, NBATV).
Pro: Varied Looks
A coach can implement a certain style defensively and implore their players to give maximum effort, but so much of the result after the ball is tipped comes down to how players execute—making it uncontrollable for Weatherspoon or any other coach. One thing that is controllable is the looks a coach sends at the opposing offense. That includes the type of coverages (zone, man, etc.) you work in throughout the game, but it also includes the specific match-ups—which is especially important against an offense which often runs through a superstar player. Earlier in the week, I honed in on what the Sky did against Ogunbowale a season ago and suggested that, with completely different personnel this year, Weatherspoon would let Marina Mabrey—an always improving defender—take on the match-up in Game 1. And in the end, it was Mabrey who took on the task more than any other player—especially late in the fourth quarter.
And while the results above may appear mixed given Ogunbowale hit over 60% of her shots when defended by Mabrey, it’s hard to fault the effort. Even when Ogunbowale does get past Mabrey somewhat in the second play below, it’s after the Sky guard had already denied her once going downhill. No matter how great of an on-ball defender you are, you can’t expect to stop someone with that handle, quickness and finishing package from going to the basket every time—a fact that the Hall-of-Famer Sheryl Swoopes noted on Dallas’ broadcast during the fourth quarter barrage.
Meanwhile, the other, varied match-ups that Weatherspoon threw at Arike were very effective in stretches because of the unique physical traits those players offered. Chennedy Carter’s foot speed and balance allowed her to effectively stay in front of and, at times, deny Ogunbowale the ball altogether while Diamond DeShields was able to use her wingspan to mitigate (at least in part) the multi-level scoring threat. Expect to see plenty of those two on Ogunbowale on Saturday night with DeShields, perhaps, given a bigger role in the defensive coverage in crunch time after she played (a probably unplanned for) 16 minutes in Wednesday’s first-half due to her hot start and didn’t return until deep in the fourth as a result.
Pro: Help Defense
It felt like the help the Sky did send—both by double-team on the perimeter and from the front court players after Arike turned the corner—was well measured and, largely, did what it was intended to. Whether or not it was effective in slowing Ogunbowale is a completely different story. And for that, you can only tip your cap to her and her teammates for their execution. In the second and third plays of the Mabrey clip above, you see how—even when the Sky send two bodies to protect the rim—Arike still finds a way to score and assist. As is often the case, elite offensive players can find ways to score in spite of a tough defensive front and great ball movement will, sooner or later, expose the holes left behind by the help you’ve sent.
To further illustrate, the play below shows a lot of what the Sky did really well, but also hints at the Wings’ ability to find success anyways. First, Mabrey steps up ever so slightly to deny Ogunbowale a chance to turn the corner. After Teaira McCowan slips a screen, Elizabeth Williams, somewhat caught in no man’s land, makes herself big enough to force a floated entry pass. The extra air under the ball means it takes longer to get to McCowan and Evans has time to recover and make a brilliant steal. Even then, you see the obvious potential for the Wings to score. If Williams is a step or two further backwards, the pass to McCowan has a different trajectory and Evans may not arrive in time. If Evans tries to defend McCowan instead of going for the poke on the gather, Dallas’ center should score easily or might even kick to Sevgi Uzun who Evans has left open in the corner by helping across.
In other words, even when everything aligns perfectly for the defense, there’s always inherent risk in helping—especially as you try to reorganize on the fly. The Sky can hang their head about the plays that went wrong, but it won’t accomplish much. Instead, I think they should be satisfied with this game as a starting point for their growth as a defensive unit—especially when it comes to their collective engagement. As far as adjustments Weatherspoon can look to make for Saturday, it’s possible she could aim to have only one player help at the rim on Ogunbowale’s drives—leaving at least one extra body in better range for a closeout to the perimeter. However, there’s no guarantee that will work either as Ogunbowale clearly has ways to finish at the basket—regardless of the rim protectors she has to go past. In fact, a lot of coaches would probably prefer to have the extra help on the opponent’s best player at the rim and force teammates like Maddy Siegrist who get kick-outs (33% 3PT last season) to make the shots that come their way.
Con: Rebounding
This was another point I touched on in my series preview, and it should come as no great suprise that against the league’s premier rebounding team and without Isabelle Harrison and Kamilla Cardoso, the Sky struggled—especially in the latter stages of the first half. That said, Chicago stabilized well in the second half and didn’t let the rebounding edge balloon and become an entirely decisive influence on the result either. Where it was decisive, however, was when it came to defending Ogunbowale in the opening three quarters. At the start of the fourth, the Sky had held her to just 4/16 FG which, under any circumstances, has to be seen as a win. Unfortunately, everything that happened after shots went up soured that stat line to an extent. Instead of coming away with a dozen good looks in transition, the Sky gave up seven offensive boards on Ogunbowale’s twelve misses which led to twelve second-chance points on those possessions alone. Chicago, in contrast, scored only twelve second-chance points all game. It’s hard to say for sure, but there’s a compelling argument to be made that, had the Sky punished the Wings for these misses in the first three quarters, they may have held a bigger lead that could’ve withstood Ogunbowale’s late blitz.
Yet, there’s no quick fix that Weatherspoon can implement before Saturday to alleviate this problem because many of the boards Dallas gathered were hauled in by McCowan or Kalani Brown in spite of a solid box-out and/or a team effort to crash the glass by the Sky (thought the absence of Natasha Howard—who will miss the game due to a foot injury—should help). Jeff Pagliocca drafted Kamilla Cardoso both to counter teams like Dallas that have incredible size and to create a similar advantage for the Sky against teams that—like this currently depleted frontline—lack a player with truly extraordinary height. While the Sky wait for Cardoso to come back, all they can do is crash numbers from the perimeter and compete for every loose ball. They did very well in that respect (Mabrey, notably, had 9 boards) during the entirety of the season opener and will be looking to do the same on Saturday night in their rematch with Dallas.