Quick Three: Dream 93 Sky 80
Despite major improvements from Saturday’s blowout loss, Chicago’s lack of late-game variety leads to another defeat.
After Saturday’s loss to Phoenix, it would’ve been easy for the Sky to fold just 24 hours later—on the road, against another of the league’s early standouts. Instead, they flipped the script and competed hard against a Dream team that’s looked consistently sharp in the early stages of the Karl Smesko era. The result may have been the same, but today’s loss came with far more positives to unpack. Let’s dive into those—along with what still needs to change for strong performances to start turning into actual wins.
1. Sky Cut Down Turnovers with Backcourt Shake-Up
The Sky made another tweak to their starting lineup today—something that might raise alarms in some contexts, but felt like a necessary and welcome adjustment after Saturday’s drubbing against Phoenix. With Ariel Atkins struggling under the Mercury’s relentless pressure in the first quarter of that loss, Tyler Marsh turned to his bench—specifically Rachel Banham—for added ball-handling support in the starting five.
While Banham hasn’t always been the answer to Chicago’s point guard needs this season, she struck the right balance today: a willing initiator and effective off-ball complement to Atkins. As a result, the offense looked noticeably more composed (granted, the Dream entered the game ranked last in turnovers forced), with both Atkins and Banham free to bring the ball up and initiate sets on their own terms.
That shift paid off almost immediately. The Sky committed just three turnovers before halftime and finished with nine overall—tying their season low. It also freed Atkins to create more of the offense—particularly in the second half—without having to navigate 50+ feet of pressure on every possession. Banham’s presence added a true combo-guard element: she set tempo when on the ball and moved with purpose when off it. Kia Nurse, by contrast, simply hasn’t filled that initiator role in 2025 and is often stationary at the perimeter, which—when paired with Rebecca Allen, another shooting specialist—can make possessions feel static and overly reliant on Atkins creating in isolation.
The added spacing and shared ball-handling responsibility allowed Atkins to post her highest scoring output of the season (29 points), while repeatedly putting Atlanta’s defense on its heels. She also tallied a season-high in free throw attempts (11), converting all of them. For long stretches of the second half, Atkins’ shot creation was the difference between Chicago keeping pace and falling behind—and it was only when the Dream clamped down on her time and space in the final quarter that they were able to pull away.
This setup won’t be a nightly fix, but it gives the Sky a lineup that better protects Atkins from being overburdened—especially when opposing defenses apply heavy pressure. The eventual return of Moriah Jefferson, who did not play today despite being back from injury, adds another ball-handling option that could further preserve Atkins’ energy and role as a multi-dimensional scorer first—not a one-woman offense.
2. Offense Shows Signs of Balance, But Falls Short Late
The ending of today’s loss—where the Sky’s offense collapsed and mustered just 11 points in the fourth—leaves a sour taste. But for much of the game, Chicago played some of its most balanced and unselfish basketball of the season. Beyond the backcourt efforts of Atkins and Banham, the continued playmaking growth of Angel Reese was a major factor. She recorded her 11th straight game with multiple assists—a streak more than double her longest from 2024 (five games)—and notched 4+ assists for the third time in the Sky’s last four games. For context, she reached that mark just once all of last season.
More than just a stat bump, Reese is making consistently smarter reads. She’s not forcing the issue as much on drives, instead drawing help and making the simple pass. Take this first-quarter play:
It’s a basic offload, but in previous situations like this, Reese would’ve likely forced up a contested shot—often resulting in a miss or a block. Now, she’s showing patience, driving with purpose, drawing defenders, and creating high-quality looks for teammates. Defenses have long been willing to collapse on her drives, regardless of efficiency, and she’s learning to weaponize that attention rather than push through it.
Yes, the efficiency still needs work (3-of-11 FG), and the Sky as a whole couldn’t buy a bucket from deep today (4-of-15 3PT). But this shift in Reese’s mindset—toward trust, simplicity, and connection—has started to ripple across the roster. Eight players recorded at least one assist, with five registering multiple. The team finished with 19 assists on 27 made field goals—nothing outlandish compared to their season-long assisted percentage (70.4% today vs. 68.9% entering the game), but what stood out was the number of believable scoring options Chicago had on each possession. That begins with players like Reese refusing to be boxed into a low-post role and using every tool in their skill set. Her willingness to create rather than force gives others permission to do the same—and with time, that can unlock a more fluid, less predictable offense.
The challenge now is sustaining that balance in late-game scenarios. Today, the Sky defaulted to an Atkins-heavy approach and spot-up threes once the pressure ramped up. To win games, they’ll need to maintain variety, ball movement, and an attack-minded rhythm down the stretch. Just as important, they’ll need to ensure that balance reaches all players consistently throughout the game—something that didn’t quite happen today (more on that in a second).
3. A Tale of Two Centers
With Allen (4 pts), Nurse (0), and Onyenwere (2) offering little scoring punch, Chicago’s “balanced” offense may not have looked as favorable if not for the strong play of Elizabeth Williams. The former Dream center turned in her highest scoring output (16 points) since May 2024, breaking double digits for the first time since her season-ending injury last June. With a confident touch and her ever-underrated post arsenal, Williams found ways to score from multiple angles against nearly every frontcourt defender Atlanta threw at her. As seen in the clip above, she also benefitted from clean setups by Reese and Banham—but that’s exactly where Chicago’s otherwise positive offensive showing started to unravel.
Because while Williams thrived on slick offloads and pocket passes in the pick-and-roll, those same opportunities were oddly absent for Kamilla Cardoso. She opened the game with a fairly standard diet of post touches, but as the game went on, Banham, Atkins, and Allen consistently opted for contested mid-range shots instead of feeding Cardoso on the roll. At first, it felt like a one-off. But when Williams entered and started receiving those same looks, the discrepancy became harder to ignore. In the second quarter, it made sense to ride the hot hand. But after halftime—when Williams cooled off (1-of-3 for 2 points)—Chicago still didn’t shift back to Cardoso.
Even after one of their strongest third quarters of the season, the Sky needed offense. Surely they'd look to the 6’7” Cardoso to make an impact, right? Wrong. Instead, her final shot attempt came with 4:39 remaining in the second quarter. That simply can’t happen.
Missing her on the roll is one thing, but failing to get her traditional back-down post touches is another. Yes, Chicago committed at least two turnovers trying to force the ball inside to her, but that’s no reason to get gun shy. Cardoso is too important to let a few miscues push her out of the offensive picture entirely. To their credit, Atlanta adjusted after early one-on-one coverage against Cardoso didn’t hold up—but the coverage wasn’t so overwhelming that she couldn’t find touches. If the Sky had a roster full of elite perimeter scorers, letting Cardoso drift in and out of the offense like Atlanta does with Brittney Griner might be justifiable, but Chicago doesn’t have that luxury.
Add in the fact that she was efficient again today (7 points on 3-of-4 FG), and her absence from the second-half offense becomes even harder to justify. Yes, Williams’ hot hand earned her extended minutes—and that was mostly warranted—but Cardoso still played about nine minutes after the break. With that much floor time, she can’t finish with zero second-half shot attempts unless she’s being swarmed or living at the free throw line (she had just one FTA today).