Quick Three: Mystics 74 Sky 70
Chicago slumps to a disappointing defeat late despite a number of impressive performances in the absence of Chennedy Carter.
Tonight’s game, unfortunately, was a reproduction of many of the issues that have doomed the Sky throughout the 2024 season—as Chicago slumped to their 5th defeat in 6 post-Olympic break games. Again, the door is open for the Dream (who are in action in Seattle at time of writing) to close the gap on 8th, and, at this point, it seems more a matter of when not if the Sky slip outside the playoff bubble. Let’s dive into the problems that reared their ugly head again tonight, and highlight a standout performance by one of the Sky’s young stars.
1. The Sky cannot close a basketball game.
There’s a lot of nuance in the Sky’s failure to close games throughout the 2024 season, and I’ve tried to highlight those unique circumstances on a game by game basis and be generous to this young roster in the process. Last Friday in Connecticut, for instance, the Sky lost it late, but it was easy to see how the game played out in a one-of-a-kind way that was difficult to adapt to on the fly. On a number of other occasions this season, I’ve picked through the last 4-5 minutes with a fine-toothed comb with hopes of illuminating how failures in crunch time are not as one size fits all as they’re made out to be. However, tonight it’s fair to be practical and say that the final 6:14, where the Sky scored just 5 points, are a reflection of a team with a lack of offensive diversity (and some bad habits) on that end. When it comes to that diversity, the Sky were already limited with Marina Mabrey as a three-level scoring threat, but the last 6 games underline how much worse things are without her. Chennedy Carter, at her best, papers over some of the cracks, but the Sky simply don’t have enough players who can consistently score the ball outside the paint to survive when defenses tighten up.
Case in point, tonight’s late game offense repeatedly saw Angel Reese turn, see two defenders and try to score anyways. Even if you’re a well-refined low post scorer (and Reese still has work to do to become that), it’s a big ask to try and score past that type of coverage time and time again. Perhaps, there’s a call or two that Reese doesn’t get, but you can’t expect the opposition to bail you out with contact when they know what’s coming. Now, that could be seen as a criticism of Reese alone (and there is moments where she’s too single-minded when she catches the ball), but if you look closely at tonight’s game, there’s plenty of times where she catches the ball and the other four players stand still. Other than forcing a pass to a teammate, she’s out of options at that point. Now, when the double comes, someone is open, but the lack of movement before that point is still troubling. Indeed, that stagnant offense is a huge source of the Sky’s late game struggles. Whether it’s players standing still when the ball goes in the post or the lack of off-ball action while a perimeter player dribbles away half of the shot clock, the offense just looks out of ideas or stuck in the mud too often. To see the Sky go from the team that’s working the ball through Kamilla Cardoso (more on that in a second) while Michaela Onyenwere and Rachel Banham fly off of carefully set screens to catch the ball in motion to what they were late in tonight’s game is problematic at best and speaks to some kind of disconnect between game plan and execution. Indeed, if Teresa Weatherspoon can install these plays for her team to run early in games, there’s no reason for the offense to go so iso-heavy late. If one of the game’s great closers is on your side (and Chennedy Carter has been that at time), you have reason to simplify things, but tonight was a perfect example of where the Sky are lacking when they don’t have that “hero ball” player on the floor.
2. Kamilla Cardoso has arrived.
Cardoso, despite everything that went wrong for the Sky, was virtually flawless tonight. Perhaps the only criticism you’d give her is that, with nearly 7 minutes remaining, she picked up her 4th foul and had to come out of the game. (Even then, she shouldn’t have stayed out for so long.) But, everything before and after that showcased a player who has gone from promising to indispensable since the Olympic break. Statistically, she was great with 10 points, 11 boards, 6 assists and 3 blocks, but her presence felt more impactful than those gaudy numbers suggest. Specifically, her role as the Sky’s secondary playmaker behind Lindsay Allen which, tonight, produced some of the best and hardest to defend offensive possessions of the game. It’s not the fact that she can pass that’s impressive as her passing out of the post all season has been solid, but the fact that she can—unlike many veteran bigs—take the ball at the top and dictate the offense. As the years go by, she’ll need to hone a jump shot or work off the dribble with enough regularity to ensure that the opposing center doesn’t drop deep into the paint to prevent the pass, but the fact that she has the vision and touch right now (as a 23-year-old rookie!) to execute these types of passes speaks to the potential she has as an offensive focal point long term.
On the defensive end, she again flashed the physical tools and recovery ability that make her so special on the way to her eighth multi-block performance in 24 WNBA games. At times, she wasn’t even well positioned after being caught stood still watching the play (s/o Stephen), but she still has the instincts to recover and make the play. Similarly, in the clip below, you see the physical gifts that heavily contributed to Cardoso going third in April’s draft.
It’s a foul in this case, but Cardoso nearly recovers to block the shot even while backpedalling against one of the W’s premier athletes in Sika Koné. The ability to flip the hips and change body angles not once but twice is something that most 6’7” players simply cannot do with so much fluidity, and it’s what gives her the potential to be a perennial all-defense player. With time and experience, it seems increasingly likely Cardoso will be a premier two-way player.
3. Tale of two defensive halves (again).
I’ve hit on this point a couple of times in the last few games, but it’s worth repeating because of the context tonight. The Sky’s first-half defense since the Olympic break has fallen off a cliff. Opponents are averaging 44.8 first half PPG even after Vegas struggled to just 32 on Sunday, and the Sky gave up 38 in the first 14 minutes tonight before Washington went ice cold before the break. Even then, it didn’t appear that the Sky’s defense played much better as the Mystics scored just 6 points in the final 6 minutes. Instead, Washington missed shots and failed to punish the Sky with easy looks in the half court and on the break. Because they couldn’t consolidate their big lead and Lindsay Allen hit a couple of key shots, it’s largely a moot point tonight as Chicago went to the break down just two possessions, but a better opponent would have (and will) scored 50+ points in the first half and virtually buried the game.
One area of weakness in the opening twenty minutes, which is a department where defensive standouts Reese and Cardoso can improve, is with defending the opposition’s bigs at the perimeter. Tonight wasn’t the first time the rookies, due to either loss of focus or cheating to help inside, have lost an opposing big who can shoot, but it was an obvious weakness in the first half when Stefanie Dolson and Emily Engstler combined to make a trio of threes. Given the athletic profile and basketball IQ of Reese and Cardoso, I don’t envision this being a long-term problem, but it’s definitely something that other coaches will notice on the Sky’s recent tape. And whatever the wider cause of the first half struggles, the Sky have to find a solution for their lack of early defense—just as they needed an answer to early offensive struggles before inserting Allen and Carter into the starting five in June. Whatever Teresa Weatherspoon is saying at half-time is working as the Mystics, like many before them, scored just 30 in the second half, but the Sky aren’t a good enough offensive team to play from behind every night and have virtually no chance to make the WNBA playoffs if they can’t lower that first-half scoring average for opponents below 40 points the rest of the way.