Quick Three: Fever 71 Sky 70
Chicago loses a nail biter late in a highly anticipated battle of young stars Reese, Cardoso, Clark and Boston.
The Sky dropped the opening game of their Commissioner’s Cup campaign on Saturday and, with the new format, likely lost their chance of reaching the final of the competition in the process. On the whole, the Sky can again reflect on a number of positives from the defeat but can also see where they fall short when compared to others around the W—even an Indiana team that entered the game with just one win from their opening nine games. The Sky will be back in action against a familiar foe, the New York Liberty, who they’ve already beat twice in the early stages of the season (once in the preseason) on Tuesday night, but let’s take a look at key takeaways from today’s loss before looking ahead to that one.
1. Chennedy Carter’s Redemption Arc Hits New Heights
Aside from an unnecessary foul in the third quarter (which easily could’ve been upgraded), Saturday’s game was Carter’s best in a Chicago uniform as she led all scorers with 19 points on 67% shooting while also providing 6 assists and ending as a +6 in a 1-point loss. It’s no secret that Carter’s energy has been a difference maker for the Sky in each of the season’s opening six games, but the impact in Indiana felt even more overwhelming. Unlike in other games (like Thursday’s win over the Sparks) where it felt as if the Sky were always out in transition, they struggled to find as many fast-break opportunities in this game, but Carter has shown a unique ability to inject pace into the half-court offense with her work off of the dribble. By consistently getting downhill, she forced Indiana’s interior defense, which was largely dominant, to be reactive to her drives and make split second decisions about stepping across to block her path or staying with Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and others deep in the paint.
The result was Carter’s highest scoring output since July of 2022, and her sixth consecutive game scoring in double figures off of the Sky bench. I mentioned in my preview of Tuesday’s game against Seattle how desperately Chicago needs their bench players—particularly Carter—to score, and nothing we’ve seen this week has contradicted that notion. At the defensive end, she has also been a largely positive player for Teresa Weatherspoon—despite her reputation being largely based around her offensive ability. That said, Carter, and the Sky guard group as a whole, had a slow start today against Indiana. The Fever did a great job, especially in the first half, of spacing out the Sky defense and attacking the holes in that space off the dribble, and it felt like Chicago’s perimeter defenders were just a step behind in a lot of circumstances. Carter and company tightened up in this aspect as the game went on, and made it more difficult for the Fever guards to get to the rim—with their paint scoring far more reliant on their bigs than their guards attacking.
And speaking of penetration, another important function Carter served today was as the primary provider for Cardoso in her debut. She assisted on four of the Brazilian’s five made field goals and it was evident Carter understood where the ball needed to be for Cardoso to quickly generate high-percentage makes against a defensive force like Aliyah Boston. As long as Carter is providing one valuable source of offense for the Sky with her own scoring and enabling another source by setting up Cardoso, she figures to remain one of the Sky’s two or three most important offensive players on a nightly basis.
2. Periods of Predictability Doom Sky Offense
Saturday’s game was, as a whole, a very streaky contest for both sides, but it felt relatively easy to pinpoint the Chicago offensive tendencies which allowed the Fever to go on runs. The third quarter, in particular, seemed to be emblematic of this struggle with the Sky scoring just 16 points and not finding the spots where they were likely to be most successful. The opening minutes of the quarter felt like an exhibition in isolation play for Marina Mabrey while the stretches that followed featured a lot of the aforementioned drives by Carter and then a clear effort to feed Cardoso in the post once she returned to the game. As mentioned at various times early this season, each of these is an important source of offense for the Sky. However, it was the way the Sky cycled through these offensive ideas over the course of minutes—rather than possessions—which caused the offense to stagnate. Instead of alternating between a spot-up Mabrey shot, a Carter drive and a Cardoso post-up within three offensive trips, it felt as if the Sky ran some individual concepts 3-4 times in a row.
A further review of the film will probably show it wasn’t quite that predictable, but the Fever were clearly keying in on what the Sky were trying to do. Mabrey, as mentioned by Fever coach Christie Sides in one of the clips aired on ESPN, was the Fever’s defensive target all game, and Indiana quickly started fronting Cardoso in the post when the Sky looked to feed her several possessions in a row. As I mentioned after the puzzling rotational decisions in Tuesday’s loss, all of these processes (play calling, rotations, decision making, etc.) take time for a new team to establish and are made even more difficult by the Sky integrating in players like Cardoso and Isabelle Harrison over the last week. Yet, this is a definitely an area where the Sky will want to focus on improving (file this away as part of the “offensive execution” that Weatherspoon has highlighted). And at the same time, the Fever—who have had plenty of struggles of their own—are due a lot of credit for the way their play flipped the game during that third quarter. They got to many of the loose balls, forced the Sky into situations where they had to commit to semi-predictable offensive strategies because of pressure and offered a high-energy approach that, at least in that stretch of the game, the Sky weren’t able to match.
To their credit, the Sky—for all the “negative” I’ve mentioned here—found their offensive groove late in the fourth quarter and nearly got back into the game as a result. The low (or at least lower than Indiana) energy, somewhat predictable third and early fourth may have made the uphill battle just a little too steep, but it’s obvious there’s no team in the league (Vegas, perhaps, aside) that will easily put this Sky team. Their ability to respond to what they’re doing wrong and correct it mid-game also stands out as an important trait after 7 games—with both Weatherspoon and her players owed some of the credit for this adaptability.
3. Fever Bigs’ Offense Provides Glimpse of the Sky’s Goals
If there’s one takeaway for Indiana from this game (beyond their energy), it has to be the performance of Aliyah Boston and NaLyssa Smith. On defense, Boston, in particular, was fantastic. Chicago’s starting front court shot just 3/16 from the floor due, in large part, to the way she was patrolling the paint, and her work on the offensive glass (4 orb) was key to the Fever closing what was a massive gap between the two teams early in the game. And while Boston was just 4/14, her impact as a passer from the elbow was game changing. Though she and Smith finished with just 5 combined assists, there were numerous other plays where Indiana missed shots or a subsequent pass left the starting bigs without any recognition in the box score for their distribution. In any case, that facet of the Indiana offense was, alongside the aforementioned drives by the guards into space, what allowed them to put the Sky defense under pressure—especially in the first half. It’s also worth noting that Smith’s efficiency (7/12 FG) and range (2/4 3PT) were key in forcing the Sky to respect those four and five-out looks.
And while Chicago hopes their new front court will be able to replicate what the Fever did today long term, it’s also important for the Sky’s internal brain trust (as well as fans and media) to remember that these are very different players. For all the offensive skills Smith has that Reese and Cardoso lack, there’s lots of things the Sky’s duo does on defense or on the glass that Smith can’t match. And as for Boston, she is—despite the lack of efficiency today—much further along in her overall two-way development as a player than the other three in this group, and that’s okay. Understanding the contrast in current skill between the Sky’s front court and those that they go against is important for contextualizing wins and losses in the present, but shouldn’t be taken as an indictment of what any have the chance to become. And if we’re being honest, Cardoso, in her first pro game, lived up to expectations—especially on defense against a premier big like Boston.