Quick Three: Lynx 80 Sky 75
Chicago comes up just short against Minnesota, the WNBA's gold standard.
After a week off, the Sky dropped their return to action on Sunday, but it’s hard to fault one of Chicago’s best efforts of the season so far. Let’s dive into what went so well, and where there’s room for improvement to get more wins across the line in the weeks ahead.
1. Sky Fade Out After Strong First Quarter
fter jumping out to a 24–10 lead in the first quarter, the Sky were never likely to dominate for a full forty minutes against a team as composed as the Lynx. Still, Chicago did well to keep things close throughout. Their biggest regret, though, will be how poorly they managed the early moments of the second quarter—right after building that 14-point cushion. Within just over two minutes, the lead was down to five, and the Sky largely had themselves to blame. After a crisp, turnover-free opening quarter, the offense became rushed and sloppy, coughing up six team turnovers in the second. Meanwhile, their smothering defensive standard from the first began to slip just enough to let Minnesota back in. The Lynx would take the lead before halftime and hardly relinquish it, with Chicago chasing the game for nearly the entire second half.
From that point on, there’s little to criticize. Chicago put up 38 points in the second half—surpassing the 34.6 points per half the Lynx had been allowing entering the night—and closed with an impressive 23 points in the final 10 minutes, outpacing both their own season average (+2) and Minnesota’s usual allowance (+6). While not flawless, the offense was creative enough to generate real disadvantages for the Lynx, particularly through Rachel Banham’s shooting (more on that later). Defensively, the Sky nearly matched their outstanding first-quarter standard. Their team-oriented approach to guarding Napheesa Collier—highlighted by Angel Reese’s one-on-one efforts—was largely effective throughout. If there’s a critique to be made, it’s that Chicago may have overcommitted to Collier at times in the second half, allowing her to locate open teammates. Fortunately for the Sky, those looks rarely translated into much of anything offensively (0 assists for Collier).
Indeed, holding a player of Collier’s caliber to just 7-for-16 shooting is no small feat. Many of her makes required a high degree of difficulty or came only after one or two elite moves to score past otherwise strong defense. In short, the Sky’s connectivity, focus, and commitment on that end were miles ahead of where they’ve been in recent outings. Whether that represents a real turning point or simply a response to facing the league’s top team remains to be seen. But make no mistake: this level of effort—on both ends—is good enough to beat a team like Minnesota. That should bode well for the Sky’s ability to compete with anyone going forward. For Tyler Marsh, the task now is to sustain this defensive standard and continue refining an offense that, while promising in stretches tonight, remains a work in progress.
2. Banham Rises to the Occasion Once Again
Since the injury to Courtney Vandersloot, Reese (6 more assists tonight) has justifiably drawn lots of praise for her improved playmaking, but Banham’s work as Chicago’s lead ball-handler has been equally as crucial to keeping the offense ticking over—with tonight just the latest example of the multiple dimensions she adds to the offense. Entering tonight’s game, the veteran guard had the second best net-offensive rating on the team (+5.0) behind only Ariel Atkins (+10.7), and it should come as no surprise that those two are, at least on an analytical basis, the two most positive players for the offense.
Yet, even on a night where Atkins largely struggled (3/14 FG), Banham was still able to help lift the offense. This time, more as a shooter (20 pts, 6/10 3PT) than a playmaker (2 assists)—though she still served as a functional initiator for the offense even if the final numbers don’t reflect it. Whatever the case with her ball-handling, Banham’s shooting is simply essential for this Sky team. After the front office invested considerable assets in improving the shooting talent on the roster before the season, the expected step forward hasn’t really materialized.
In 2024, the Sky were last in the WNBA in three-point makes (4.8 per game) and ninth in three-point percentage (32.3%)—making them easily the least productive long-range team in the league. A year later, their volume is up enough to drag them off the bottom of the league in that department (7.0 makes per game, 10th best), but they’ve not gotten any more efficient (32.2%) and still sit ninth.
Banham, mind you, has been more part of the problem (34.3% 3PT down from 38.2% last year with Chicago) than the solution so far this season, but her hitting at the rate she did tonight represents a big step forward for the overall potential of the offense if she can sustain something closer to a 40% clip moving forward. Indeed, with Atkins (36.4%) and Kia Nurse (35.1%) the only other regulars above thirty percent, the marginal value of every extra made three tonight is huge, and you saw that in the way the Lynx defended the Sky tonight. As the game wore on, they were clearly increasingly alert to her threat, and it created a few easy looks where someone used her gravity to allow them to slip away from the defense. On a roster that still lacks the shooting talent it needs to free up the paint for its talented young frontcourt pairing, every little bit of shooting helps.
3. Shorthanded Chicago Bench Outgunned
The Sky’s lofty rank amongst the WNBA’s top-scoring benches has slipped in recent games because, well, there’s few highly-used players left on their bench without either of Vandersloot or Kamilla Cardoso. Yet, the few players that do get consistent bench run have still been able to make a noteworthy impact on the game—often to the point where reserve minutes are a net positive for the Sky. Tonight, it was much the opposite as only two players (Nurse and Rebecca Allen) played a real significant role—with Allen also playing her second fewest minutes of the season to date.
Across the way, the Lynx bench minutes were simply dominant. The bench scoring numbers, unsurprisingly, show a clear advantage for the Lynx (19-5), but the impact was actually far more staggering than even those numbers suggest. Because the Sky were so starter dependent, those Lynx reserves had to hold their own, for the most part, against Chicago’s starting five, and they actually went well beyond that—largely outplaying the Sky starters in their time on the court. Maria Kliundikova was a game best +16 in her 12 minutes, Diamond Miller was just behind with a +13 in 16 minutes and Jessica Shepard—just back from a strong EuroBasket with Slovenia—was also +12 in 11 minutes.
In short, some of the key stretches of a 5-point game were played with this trio on the floor. Kliundikova, in particular, deserves credit for being Minnesota’s most effective defender in space against Reese—with neither the Sky forward nor her head coach having the awareness to move away from a match-up that wasn’t working.
Taking a wider view, this particular issue isn’t one the Sky should expect to be so damaging moving forward as Cardoso will return to the line-up in the very near future after a successful run at AmeriCup with Brazil. When she does, Elizabeth Williams—off the back of another solid outing tonight—will return to the bench group where she can add energy alongside Nurse and one of Allen or Michaela Onyenwere (who was exceptionally strong in just her second start of the season tonight).