Quick Three: Dream 86 Sky 70
Shorthanded Chicago nearly out of playoffs after loss in critical match-up with Rhyne Howard and Atlanta.
After finding out Kamilla Cardoso wouldn’t be able to play just before tonight’s game, Teresa Weatherspoon and the Sky made the decision to keep Chennedy Carter—who’s evidently been dealing with a variety of nagging ailments—out of tonight’s game as well, and Chicago’s chances of qualifying for the postseason seemed almost non-existent with three of the team’s regular starters plus key reserve Diamond DeShields all missing. Even then, a Sky team that’s become famous for not quitting when adversity arises did the same once again, and a strong third quarter gave them a real chance to win the game late. Let’s dive into where the Sky’s absences made things extremely tough plus highlight one of the standouts from a brave performance—even in defeat.
1. Lack of healthy focal point dooms Sky offense.
With so few of the key pieces of the Sky’s offense throughout the 2024 season available, it would take a herculean effort by one player to keep up with a solid offensive performance from a Dream team (48%) that were just as desperate but far more healthy. But let’s not kid ourselves, the Sky’s skeleton group lacked that one player who’s capable of carrying a WNBA offense tonight. Isabelle Harrison and Michaela Onyenwere were Chicago’s most gifted remaining offensive pieces, and both have skills that can sustain an offense at times, but the inability of the pair (and the team as a whole) to keep up inside (-12 in paint scoring) meant a lot of mid-range efficiency would be needed to keep the scoreboard turning over. As the duo combined to go 1/10 outside the paint, that obviously wasn’t going to be the case tonight. Thus, the Sky’s last remaining outlets to put together a big offensive performance were to cobble together scoring with (1) strong sets every time down the floor in the half-court or (2) a lot of easy looks in transition.
And again, the make-up of the roster tonight meant those sources of offense, too, were never likely to come to fruition. Many of the Sky’s line-ups had played few (if any) minutes together before tonight, and Weatherspoon simply couldn’t expect those groups to run a crisp half-court offense—especially after the Sky’s primary personnel groupings have struggled to operate in the half-court so much this season. Lindsay Allen (16 p, 4 a) deserves credit for working with the available group and trying to piece together an offense and, in fact, the results, at least in a visual sense, were better than you’d expect for such an unfamiliar group. Even then, it still wasn’t enough to keep pace with a more complete (and thus diverse) Dream offense in the half-court. Similarly, the fast break scoring never came to fruition tonight (just 4 transition points)—something of a recent trend for the Sky even before the additional absences tonight.
2. Reese & Cardoso’s rim protection sorely missed.
Turns out, Cardoso and Angel Reese are pretty important to the Sky’s defense. If you hadn’t caught on to that with the Sky duo on the court all season, there’s no room left to debate after the defensive performance tonight. Don’t get me wrong, Harrison and Brianna Turner are good (even great) defensive players, but they don’t have the rhythm as individuals or chemistry as a pair that the Sky’s rookie front court have established this season. With the less familiar pair inside, the Sky’s interior defense suffered mightily, and the lack of teeth inside allowed the Dream to attack the paint possession after possession—especially in some key moments of the game when Atlanta were in need of a bucket.
Whether it was the perimeter players getting beat off the dribble, the interior players not being in range to make a play or a combination of both factors, the Sky just weren’t able to limit Atlanta’s penetration—with the result a dominant 46 points in the paint for the hosts. Tanisha Wright and her team deserve credit for refusing to settle and continuing to get to the paint (they shot 33% when they did settle for 3s), but the Sky’s inability to solution for their defensive issues in this area are, unfortunately, a simple consequence of their lack of health. Call it an excuse, but it’s hard to expect players who haven’t played together for most of the season to have smooth communication and coordination defensively at the drop of a hat. Even if your team defense has shortcomings, a rim protector like Cardoso—with her unique combination of size and athletic ability—covers for a lot of mistakes by other players, and that blend is something that Turner and Harrison simply can’t provide as individuals (by no fault of their own). The Sky deserve credit for even being in tonight’s game in the fourth quarter, but the realities of their situation ultimately cost them at both ends of the court.
3. Banham heats up again.
While the Sky didn’t have a “first option” type of offensive player, they saw great things from one of their complementary scorers again on Tuesday night as Rachel Banham hit all 6 of the team’s threes after hitting 8 total in two games last weekend against the Lynx and the Mercury. And while it’s no secret that Banham can shoot the basketball (remember she hit 8 threes in one game back on 7/14), her ability to keep knocking down shots even as she moves up the scouting report in the absence of several other key players has been particularly impressive in the last few games. After tonight’s outing, she’s up to 29/74 in a Sky uniform—good for a mark of 39.2% that places her first on the Sky in three-point efficiency. What has also stood out in the last two games is how many different ways she can get into her shot. Whether it’s a spot up shot, a quick catch-and-shoot, or a pull-up after navigating through screens off the ball on a designed play, Banham is always ready to fire (and hit), and she figures to be a key part of the Sky’s roster in 2025 thanks to her team friendly contract—with more shooters also likely to arrive as part of Jeff Pagliocca’s roster changes around his talented rookie front court this winter.