Quick Three: Sky 78 Mystics 64
Chicago breaks their skid with a win over a Washington team struggling in the midst of a big trade.
After a brutal stretch of defeats, the Sky desperately needed to get back in the win column on Tuesday night—with the return of Ariel Atkins opening the door for Chicago to play closer to their best. Even with Angel Reese still out of the line-up, let’s dive into how the Sky made the most of their available assets against a Washington team in the aftermath of another huge trade.
1. Atkins’ Return a (Literal) Game-Changer
Sometimes one player’s return is all it takes to get a team back on track and, in spite of everything that’s gone wrong this season, it was once again quite clear that Ariel Atkins—while not enough to make this team a contender as GM Jeff Pagliocca seems to have thought—is a serious floor raiser for the Sky offense. Statistically, her performance wasn’t all that abnormal (15 points, 7/10 FG), but the way she completely reset the spacing had a considerable knock-on impact for those around her (especially Kamilla Cardoso, more on that in a second). Just take a look at this one rep to see a small taste of how things are different.
In recent games, the opposition has been pretty happy to collapse numbers to the ball because, well, the Sky didn’t have anyone that was capable of making this pass. With Atkins, the defense, for one, is already more attentive to the ball-screen action (mind you, the Mystics are always aggressive at the point of attack) because Atkins can score or play make out of it, but they now can’t forget what’s happening on the weak side either because Atkins is capable of getting the ball there. Of course, if Atkins is off the ball, it also drastically effects the equation as, unlike a Michaela Onyenwere or Kia Nurse that a defense might be somewhat comfortable leaving open, no one is going to (intentionally) leave Atkins behind.
Even if she hadn’t filled up the stat sheet (5 assists, 2 steals), Atkins’ impact tonight was incredibly evident and instantly added layers to the Sky offense that they’ve been missing without her over the last 7 games. Of course, her typically strong close (7 pts, 3/3 FG in 4Q) was also important in Chicago withstanding anything of a late rally from the Mystics (18-17 fourth quarter score).
2. Atkins’ Returns Benefits Cardoso Most
Cardoso, indeed, felt the impact of Atkins’ return more than anyone. In the last few games with both Atkins and Reese out, it was simply too easy for the opposing defense to thwart her post touches. Her match-up was free to force her high-up the court knowing that, should she get a touch, the other big would be there to protect the rim (Elizabeth Williams, after all, is not a floor spacing threat). Likewise, the opposing perimeter players were happy to dive down into a double-team on the catch because the Sky haven’t consistently made shots all season and couldn’t easily attack the rim with their available personnel (for a variety of reasons).
With Atkins back, there’s various spacing conundrums (as explored above) created, but there’s also a completely different dynamic as it relates to where Cardoso catches the basketball. Tonight, Williams, often, was setting a screen for Atkins at the perimeter. Because the ball-handler is an elite mid-range threat who’s also more than capable of creating something for the roller, the defense has to be more aggressive in guarding those combinations. The big guarding Williams can’t sag off towards the paint—meaning they’re not easily within reach of Cardoso. Consequently, it’s not quite so easy to push Cardoso away from the basket before the catch because there’s a real threat she could spin in behind and get the ball over the top thanks to her size and wingspan.
As a result, Cardoso’s match-up is now looking more at maintaining position than establishing it. Against a player with Cardoso’s strength, that’s easier said than done and, tonight, we saw her catching the ball a lot deeper a lot more often. Deeper catches often mean easier scoring opportunities, but it also opens the door to play-making—something Cardoso hasn’t been able to do much of in recent games because of the defense’s aggressiveness. Tonight, that translated into Cardoso having time to read the defense and make plays out of the post—with much of the Sky’s best offense coming from those reads (even if the shots weren’t always going in). Again, the difference that a single star player makes is sometimes hard to measure, but the other key players on the court—who slide one spot down the scouting report or face entirely different defensive coverages-definitely feel that impact in a number of different ways.
3. Sky’s Intentionality + Attention to Detail Critical
All of Atkins’ influence and Cardoso’s increased freedom might still have amounted to nothing if the Sky didn’t take the right approach to tonight’s game. Firstly, Chicago was aggressive getting out in transition early in the game. The Mystics were clearly lacking a little bit of wind in their sails after the Brittney Sykes trade earlier in the day and missed a number of makable looks—giving the Sky a chance to establish an early lead. After scoring just 3 fast-break points in the loss to the Mercury on Sunday, Chicago scored their fourth fast-break point before Washington reached four points total. Even if they didn’t massively capitalize from that point forward (8 total fast break points), there was intention in the way they approached their transition opportunities, and that energy put them on the front foot as Washington struggled to find its way into the game early on.
Similarly, the Sky established a really solid offensive balance early in the game—with Atkins’ screen-and-rolls and Cardoso’s post touches varying the looks that Washington was asked to guard and effectively breaking up their typically suffocating perimeter pressure. Even when they lost their way with the inside-out approach from Cardoso in the second quarter, they were able to get back to those types of touches in the third quarter—with whatever was said at halftime clearly helping them to reestablish what must have been pre-game points of emphasis. For a team that’s so often struggled to continue on its successes or make in-game adjustments, seeing a return to the successful tenets of a dominant first quarter was, perhaps, the number-one positive of tonight’s win.