Quick Three: Mercury 85 Sky 65
Copper emerges victorious in Chicago return as "post-Mabrey" era starts with some considerable growing pains in Carter's absence.
Losing Marina Mabrey was always going to put the Sky’s offense in a difficult position after the Olympic break, but Chennedy Carter’s absence made things exponentially more challenging. Even then, the Sky found themselves in a huge hole after 16 minutes, and the rest of the game from that point forward was largely a formality—even if the Sky clawed their way back into the game over the remainder of the game. The lessons to take from this game are somewhat limited as Carter’s illness meant the Sky were never likely to be near their best, but there’s still plenty to observe and aim to correct before a doubleheader of games on the west coast this weekend that could see the Sky’s leading scorer absent once again. Let’s explore how the Sky got down by 28 early and what worked well as they marginally closed the gap in the second half of the game.
1. Defensive energy and communication lacking early.
The biggest factor in the Sky digging themselves a big hole early in tonight’s game was the lack of defensive energy and communication for the opening quarter and a half. Brittney Griner put the Sky’s interior defense under a load of pressure (more to come on that), but Chicago was also left chasing shadows when she or other Mercury players were able to keep the ball moving. The Mercury rank near the bottom of the league in assists per game (9th - 19.6 per game), but you wouldn’t know based on the way they picked apart Chicago’s defense in the opening 15 minutes and change. With Griner being the obvious problem, the Sky coaching staff started to make adjustments, but the extra bodies they sent to the Mercury’s superstar big only worsened their problems limiting Phoenix’s outside shooting. The Sky’s rotations always looked a step behind and a team who are already so willing to shoot threes (4th most attempts per game) were just further encouraged to get shots up given the number of open looks coming their way. The end result was a highly-impressive 12/23 (52.2%) three-point shooting mark for the visitors.
Now, to some degree, that’s not a totally unexpected outcome of a long lay-off and a couple of changes to the starting line-up. Yet, Teresa Weatherspoon has always spoken to the pride her team must take in their defensive identity, and they were simply miles off the standard their coach expects in the early stages of the game. With more time for Banham in Chicago or Onyenwere in the first five, things may clean up naturally, but the Sky cannot afford to start any of their final 15 games of this season in this fashion if they want to have any chance to reach the postseason. Compounding the problem was the exceptional defensive energy and connectivity that Phoenix showed across the way. 45 points in the first 16 minutes is a nearly impossible pace to maintain, but the Sky might have been in with a chance of a comeback had their offense been able to keep things closer early on. The length of Phoenix’s perimeter players made it tough to work the ball inside, and Griner and company swarmed the ball whenever Chicago did find a suitable scoring opportunity in the paint. Without an option to space the floor and no one beyond Onyewnere attacking the rim in the starting five, the Sky were left in a world of hurt—with Weatherspoon forced to go to her bench early for the attack-minded pair of Dana Evans and Diamond DeShields.
2. Griner gives rookie bigs a WNBA education.
Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso have had a lot of impressive moments in their debut WNBA campaigns and have stood up admirably to some of the league’s premier players on the inside. However, the 10-time All-Star out of Baylor gave the pair, and especially Cardoso, a serious lesson on what more there is to learn at this level tonight. It started early with Griner scoring 7 points in 3-and-a-half minutes as the Mercury raced to an early 13-2 lead, and the veteran continued on in that form—eventually finishing with 23 points on 10/12 FG. Frustratingly for Cardoso, Griner hit shots even when she stepped away from the basket, but it was also much too easy for the Olympic-gold medallist to get to the basket when she had her mind set on an easy finish inside.
Shimmy Gray-Miller gave a great assessment of the Brazilian’s struggles in defending Griner throughout most of the game—underlining how the former Gamecock was trying to defend with her arms not her lower body. In truth, it was really that simple. Griner has some of the best footwork of any big in the W (no surprise given her accolades), and she’s capable of backing down a player of any size if they’re waiting to swat her shot instead of making an effort to keep her away from the basket. Griner shoots a ridiculous 79.6% at the rim, and the positions where she was catching the basketball tonight meant she didn’t even need to do a lot of work to get to that type of range. The fact that Cardoso was so passive in trying to stop her advances after she caught the basketball made this a clear mismatch that contributed heavily to the Mercury’s early run away. And in truth, that’s fine. Part of the value in Cardoso being on the court so much in the absence of the injured Elizabeth Williams is that she’ll learn these types of lessons sooner rather than later. As much value as a veteran safety blanket can provide to a young player, it can also hold back their chances to fail and learn from those failures. Williams, an all-WNBA defender, never would’ve taken on this challenging match-up in the same way, and Weatherspoon—in the interest of winning—would likely have cut Cardoso’s minutes tonight if Williams was holding her own. It might have been difficult to watch at times tonight, but the rookie will now have some extremely valuable film (and no doubt feedback from her coach that mirrors that of Gray-Miller’s) to learn from moving forward.
3. All is not lost after second-half improvements.
As long as Chennedy Carter is out of the Sky’s line-up, their odds of making a push towards the WNBA playoffs are severely hampered. That should come as no surprise. The positive Chicago can take from the second-half of tonight’s game is that a number of the adjustments that Weatherspoon and her staff made did have a positive impact. At this stage, there’s no indication that Chicago is expecting Carter to miss any games beyond this weekend’s doubleheader, and their performance in the final three quarters (which Phoenix only edged 55-53) suggests they at least stand a chance of winning one or both of their games this weekend against the 6-19 Sparks and this same Mercury team even if their star guard is unable to make the trip West.
The biggest change, unsurprisingly, was to the team’s energy. After the slow start, a number of individuals stepped up with Diamond DeShields and Michaela Onyenwere’s defensive versatility and relentlessness better reflecting the standard we’ve come to expect from this team under Weatherspoon. The team defense on Griner was also improved as the game went on—though she seemed unlikely to miss even when well-guarded. Crucially, the rotations that followed a double on Griner were also more well-organized in the latter parts of the game—forcing the Mercury to take more difficult shots from the outside. None of this was perfect, mind you, but the Sky shouldn’t expect it to be given the roster overhaul they’ve undergone thanks to the absence of Carter and the trade for Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson (both of whom showed impressive flashes tonight). Given the way the Sparks struggled against the Liberty tonight (57-28 halftime deficit), a full forty minutes of this team’s normal energy and sharper communication may be all that’s needed to pull out a victory in LA on Saturday. If they can pick up rhythm and confidence after that game, Chicago would then be better positioned for the rematch with Phoenix on Sunday night. In any case, considerable adjustments are needed to flip the script against this team in 72 hours’ time. Most notably, Chicago has to do something to slow Kahleah Copper (29 P, 12/19 FG), and the shot selection of the team as a whole (37/21/50 shooting tonight) will need to be more reflective of their strengths and weaknesses.