Quick Three: Sparks 91 Sky 78
Chicago's early-season woes continue as West Coast road trip begins with a second-half fade and third straight loss.
The Sky, playing just their third game of the season while other teams are already deeper into their schedules, hit another stumbling block Sunday against the Sparks. While this wasn’t a blowout on the level of their losses to the Fever and Liberty, Chicago was overwhelmed in the third quarter—an explosive stretch by Kelsey Plum helped the Sparks put up 33 points in that period. Although the Sky recovered to limit LA to just 15 points in the final frame, their own 14-point effort made a last-ditch comeback impossible. Let’s dive into the highs and lows of tonight’s loss—including one worrying trend across all three defeats so far.
1. Sky Can’t Cool Off Red-Hot Plum
Plum wanted a trade this offseason for many reasons, but chief among them was a genuine belief that she could be a number-one option in the WNBA. So far this season, she’s done nothing to undermine that claim—and the way she completely dismantled Chicago’s defense in the second half of tonight’s game was a clear sign she’s poised for a strong run as the Sparks’ lead star. The concern, from the Sky’s perspective, is why it seemed to take so long to respond to Plum’s offensive eruption with any kind of impactful defensive adjustment.
Like in their first two games, the Sky showed defensive highs and lows, but up until Kelsey Plum’s third-quarter explosion, their performance had been relatively solid. The issue was that Chicago seemed content to stick with one-on-one defense while Plum caught fire—relying on the earnest efforts of a single defender to contain her. The result? Plum repeatedly used screens to drag the Sky’s bigs into open space, with help only arriving after she had already blown by the point-of-attack defender. By then, even when the help stopped her from finishing at the rim, the veteran guard capitalized by finding open teammates—especially Azurá Stevens—with sharp baseline passes.
At first, the Sky kept pace with a series of buckets in response to Plum’s scoring and playmaking, but the trading of baskets quickly became unsustainable. The Sparks hit six threes in a seven-possession stretch, turning a tie game into a nine-point lead that ballooned to twelve by the end of the quarter. On one hand, Plum deserves full credit for orchestrating a brilliant offensive run—some of the shots she created for herself and others were simply unguardable. But what stood out most was Chicago’s reluctance to force the ball out of her hands. It wasn’t until the deficit had reached thirteen that the Sky finally applied the kind of pressure a ball-screen for Plum demanded—and by then, the game had likely already slipped away. To be clear: the individual efforts from Chicago’s defenders were respectable given the caliber of opposition. The real issue, in my view, was a lack of urgency from the coaching staff to be more aggressive and make someone else beat them.
2. Sky’s Bench Maintains Impressive Output
While she struggled when isolated in space against Plum, Kamilla Cardoso delivered a solid offensive performance (12 pts, 6/9 FG, 3 ast), and it would’ve served Chicago well to keep her out of foul trouble and on the floor longer. That said, Elizabeth Williams made the most of her extended minutes, offering a strong reminder of the luxury option she provides off the bench. Her efficiency (4/10 FG) left room for improvement, with a couple of rushed attempts, but the patience and post technique she showed on her made baskets were impressive, while her defensive timing (2 blocks) and awareness (1 steal) rivaled what she displayed at her peak under Emre Vatansever two seasons ago.
In a game the Sky ultimately lost by 13, Rebecca Allen—in her seventeen minutes—was a +4 and remains the only one of the winter additions consistently hitting outside shots (11 pts, 3/5 3PT). Meanwhile, Rachel Banham was the team’s most effective player in plus-minus terms (+10 in 17 minutes), providing much more stability as the second unit’s primary ball handler and offensive initiator than she did in her first attempt at that role against Indiana last week. The overall outcome? Every bench player who logged minutes—except for Williams, whose numbers took a hit due to being on the court during Plum’s aforementioned heroics—finished with a positive plus-minus. In total, the Sky’s bench outscored the Sparks’ reserves by a decisive 24-8 margin. And while that total bench output fell short of the Sky’s pregame average (30.5 bench points per game, the league’s highest entering tonight), it remains a bright spot for a team struggling collectively, averaging just 70 points per game—the second fewest in the WNBA.
3. More Aggressive Atkins Still Needs Backing
After averaging just seven shots per game in her first two outings with the Sky, it was clear that Tyler Marsh needed to get Ariel Atkins more involved offensively tonight. Early in the first quarter, the Sky seemed committed to that plan, deliberately creating a couple of opportunities for Atkins. However, after hitting three early free throws and missing a baseline shot, Atkins took only five more shots over the remaining thirty-seven minutes of the game. Foul trouble did keep her off the court briefly in the first half, but she made shots early in both the second and third quarters—indicating that any rhythm those early chances were meant to build hadn’t faded during her time on the bench.
Thus, the natural question—for me—becomes, what gives?
Sky GM Jeff Pagliocca passed up the chance to acquire a cost-controlled player on a rookie contract spanning multiple seasons to bring in Atkins, with the intention that she would be a game-changing offensive talent who could help Chicago accelerate their timeline to the playoffs—and perhaps compete at a higher level. After three games, neither Marsh, Pagliocca, nor you and I can say if that was a good or bad decision, because Atkins has taken only 20 shots so far. That total ranks her sixth on the Sky, with a desperation three-pointer late in this game the only attempt separating her from Williams and Banham (19 shots each), who are tied for seventh. For a player Chicago mortgaged a highly valuable future asset to acquire as a rental, that’s simply not enough!
It’s impossible to say whether Atkins’ low shot attempts are due to her being too passive or unselfish, Marsh not creating enough opportunities, teammates not sharing the ball, or some combination of these factors after just three games. But this can’t continue much longer. By the Sky’s next game against Phoenix on Tuesday night, Atkins needs more touches and more shots. She averaged 12.4 attempts per game last season with Washington, and given the similar struggles of both that Mystics team and this Sky squad early on, there’s no reason she shouldn’t be taking at least that many shots every night. Most alarmingly, if the Sky had to make a decision on Atkins’ future right now, they wouldn’t even know if resigning her to a near-max deal is the right call. Of course, no one expected an answer on that after just three games (and I admit I’m getting ahead of myself), but it’s genuinely puzzling to see a team invest so much in a player to fill a very specific need—and then not empower her to step fully into that role.
Perhaps most concerningly, Atkins actually looks in great rhythm in the clips above (Indeed, her season shooting splits are a solid 40/67/80). For a team that’s scoring just slightly above the rebuilding Sun at the bottom of the league, a player who can speed up the tempo and consistently get buckets in the mid-range would be exactly the spark they need. (After all, that’s why the trade was made, right?) This issue may resolve itself with time and, in hindsight, seem overreactionary, but with only 41 games left before the Sky must make a decision on her future, there’s no time to waste.