Quick Three: Sky 101 Liberty 53
Chicago coasts to a dominant preseason victory in front of a national audience--with several players including Angel Reese making a statement.
After Friday’s preseason loss to the Lynx, the Sky had no reason to panic, but an appointment with what turned out to be, essentially, a national TV audience in their preseason home debut meant plenty of the Sky’s new faces had a chance to show the rest of the league what they have to offer early. And in the end, the new look group in Chicago, led by coach Teresa Weatherspoon, delivered across the board—with all 11 players who played scoring and the collective effort producing a dominant victory over last season’s Commissioner’s Cup winners who, of course, also reached the WNBA Finals last fall. Let’s dive into what went well for the Sky on Tuesday night and what it could mean for the season ahead.
1. The Sky’s front court depth is for real.
Let’s start with the obvious. In her first game at Wintrust Arena, Angel Reese was everything the Sky’s new front office envisioned when they drafted her and more. She finished with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and an assist in just 19 minutes and was just behind the team leaders (Evans and Allen, +33) with a +32 plus-minus. The outside the boxscore stuff—which Reese became notorious for in Baton Rouge—was also on display. At 22 years old, she already looks ready to be one of the Sky’s leaders but also looks comfortable taking guidance from her veterans during stoppages and on the bench. Her offensive game—usually the criticism of her profile in the pre-draft prospect—was solid (6/10 FG) and she didn’t seem bothered by the physical challenges that the Liberty sent her way—including occasional two-player coverages. On the defensive end, the physical adaptations that usually hamper a player who is so athletically dominant at the collegiate level didn’t look a problem—with her conditioning standing out as one of the highlights of the Sky’s dominant all-around display. It’s no secret she can box out and get to the rebounds she should collect, but the way she grabbed the rebounds that scattered away from the basket was even more impressive.
As for the veterans in the front court, Weatherspoon largely got what she expected. Elizabeth Williams had a nice impact in the fourth quarter but, more importantly, didn’t expend much physical energy banging with Jonquel Jones in the first half of the game. The Sky will ask a lot of the thirty-year-old who played heavy minutes in Turkey this offseason—meaning there is little to be gained by a heavy preseason workload. Isabelle Harrison, who was questionable pre-game, got on the floor for only twelve minutes but was able to flash some of the extended range she showed in Athletes Unlimited by hitting a three on her first shot of the night. The more of those she can make this season; the better the Sky’s spacing will be. Last but certainly not least was Brianna Turner. Often under appreciated in Phoenix, the former Notre Dame big once again showed that she’s good at doing everything the team needs at just the moment they need it. She played only 13 minutes but registered 4 points, 8 boards and a steal in that time. Her ability to consistently do the little things could be the glue that turns this group of talented individuals into a dominant front court.
2. Chennedy Carter understood the assignment.
Coming into training camp, I viewed Chennedy Carter as one of the players in competition for the final two spots on the Sky’s opening day roster, but her performance on Tuesday put to bed any doubts about her being with the team in Dallas next Wednesday. I’ve said it many times throughout the offseason, but Carter’s path to making the roster was always going to be predicated on her defensive output. Against the Liberty, she registered 2 steals and 1 block in 19 minutes, and her effort was evident even when she wasn’t picking up the stats to prove it. Crucially, she also showed her ability to transition strong defensive plays into quick offense at the other end—leading a handful of fast breaks for a Sky team that had a huge edge (30-8) in transition scoring. Weatherspoon wants players who can lock in at the defensive end, and the sample size we’ve seen here indicates that Carter—even after a season out of the W—can do that.
Of course, her offensive game is what got her this training camp ticket in the first place, and there’s no signs of decline with her skills as a scorer either. She scored 11 points on 4/8 FG, and the change of pace both she and Dana Evans displayed going to the basket was key to the Sky establishing their interior game and opening the floor up in the half court as the game went on. On one or two occasions, Carter was perhaps too committed to the drive and didn’t give herself a chance to pass out, but that’s very nit-picky. On the whole, Carter seems to have impressed Weatherspoon throughout camp and could only have left a very positive impression with the Sky fanbase after her debut at Wintrust Arena. As long as the personality conflicts of past stops remain a non-factor here, Carter should play a significant role for the Sky’s bench unit—with an eventual run as a starter not out of the question either.
3. Chicago can’t count on opponents to shoot 31%.
I don’t want to be the one to bring Chicago fans back down to earth, but it’s worth pointing out a couple of things. First, the Liberty’s starters didn’t play much after half-time. The game was out of hand before the break so there’s no guarantee they would’ve worked their way back into the contest, but what we saw in the second half from the Liberty makes weekend AAU tournaments look cohesive. That’s to be expected from a team that’s carrying 18-players into a two-game preseason slate and needs to figure out what they want to do with their roster, but it also likely made the Sky come off looking quite a bit more cohesive than they are so early on in their own chemistry-building process. Second, the Liberty—starters or not—simply did not shoot the basketball well. New York slashed 32/18/71 and those numbers actually got better in the last few minutes of the game when the hodgepodge line-up made a couple of garbage time shots.
Obviously, the Sky deserve some credit for forcing tough looks, but the Liberty also missed a lot of easy shots. Those easy misses didn’t just stop New York from scoring; they also fueled the aforementioned edge the Sky built in transition. If and when the Sky hold opponents to similarly low shooting numbers this year, they should fare quite well. Almost everyone on the team has at least one skill that is crucial to a transition offense and many—like Reese and Marina Mabrey (who finished with 20 points in 23 minutes on 4/7 threes)—have a handful of complementary skills that make them an individual standout on the break. However, when the Sky can’t get so many stops and easy looks in transition, things will be much more difficult for them in the half court. They were more measured as the game went on, but there was a handful of instances early where the Sky settled for outside shots and didn’t look to attack the basket. After the first couple of timeouts, that problem largely went away—leading me to believe Weatherspoon probably reminded her guards to focus on penetration—but it wouldn’t be totally surprising if this is an on-and-off problem throughout the season.
Those other key aspects of the game may be a work in progress (not unusual for a new/young team) throughout the season, but Weatherspoon and general manager Jeff Pagliocca built this team to be sturdy defensively and dominant in transition. On Tuesday night—regardless of what the opponent did or did not do, the Sky were both.