Quick Three: Sky 88 Storm 84
Chicago delivers a statement victory over Seattle which could serve as an inflection point for the team's fortunes in the race for a playoff spot.
After an important victory over Atlanta on Tuesday, the Sky continued their strong start to their latest road trip with an unexpected win over the red-hot Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday. Chennedy Carter exploded for another season-high in scoring—this time pushing the mark to 33 points—while Angel Reese extended her double-double streak and Chicago finally found an opponent that they could out shoot from long range. Before turning focus to a second meeting on the Storm’s home floor on Sunday, let’s highlight the keys to tonight’s victory plus underline why the Sky must remain wary of the Storm’s potential heading into game two.
1. Horston - Carter match-up is box office.
In the open to tonight’s game, Seattle’s broadcast crew mentioned how one of the challenges second-year pro Jordan Horston had taken on as part of Seattle’s star-studded collective was guarding the opponent’s best player. Given Carter’s recent form, it should come as no great surprise that—at least at the start of the game—the two former SEC standouts were matched up. The result, unsurprisingly given their personalities and play style, was a back-and-forth affair that saw both players lead their team in scoring on spectacular efficiency (66% combined FG%) while adding valuable impact in other areas of the game. Granted, Horston certainly didn’t put the clamps on Carter and, if anything, looked a step behind the Sky standout, but none of the other Seattle options—including Skylar Diggins-Smith had much more success. Simply put, the Storm had no solution for Carter besides elite help defense from their all-World rim protector Ezi Magbegor (more to come on the Aussie’s impact). Her first step gave Seattle all sorts of problems on the perimeter and the result was a lot of easy scores that allowed Carter to threaten her career high (35) in scoring and finish as an insane +13 in a game the Sky won by just 4 points
.Also of note was Carter’s performance in the clutch which mirrored the one she delivered on Tuesday night in Atlanta. At this point, opponents know that Carter is Chicago’s primary offensive option. She’s taken 28% of all of Chicago’s shots in the last two games and scored 34% of the team’s points. Because she’s not a high-volume three-point shooter nor a heavily used off-ball player (despite the fact she could be), the other team also knows how Carter will attack them. Yet, even a strong defensive team like Seattle, who entered tonight 2nd in defensive rating, couldn’t find a way to limit her influence. Late in the game, with Seattle sending as many as three defenders towards her in possession, they still couldn’t prevent a critical drive that led to a pair of free throws that bumped the lead to 7 nor the ensuing pull-up make that stretched the lead out to 9. While a slew of avoidable and unfortunate moments eventually let the Storm back in the game, Carter’s performance in the opening eight-and-a-half minutes of the final frame made it possible for the Sky to pull out the victory—even after a chaotic final 90 seconds.
2. Angel Reese delivers again.
Because this young and always evolving Sky team have so many different angles to hone in on after each game, Reese’s performances haven’t always gotten the appropriate love in this space. However, tonight’s performance was simply too dominant to ignore. She tacked another double-double onto her ever-extending streak (though I’m unsure why the “streak” record is such a moving target game-to-game) thanks to a dominant performance on the offensive glass (7 o-boards), hit the first two threes of her WNBA career, authored her second consecutive multi-block game and offered a solid defensive showing against Nneka Ogwumike (who scored 16 but was just 5/11). The defense and work on the glass, while never guaranteed, always seemed likely to come, but the way she’s quickly improved her efficiency as a scorer has been impressive in the last few games (Minnesota aside), and that stuck out again tonight.
Reese’s FT percentage also crept up to 76% with 4 huge makes late in the game.
At some point in her Sky career, Reese may be dominant enough offensively that Teresa Weatherspoon wants to play through her, but tonight’s game was a stellar example of how the rookie can score even without hunting shots. Because of the positions she gathers offensive rebounds in, Reese can quickly add to her tally without any offensive sets coming her way and she got to a career-best 27 points tonight despite very few periods where it felt like she was actively trying to go and create offense for herself. Of course, Weatherspoon and her teammates still put Reese in positions to be the focal point of the offense off the dribble or via post-up, but they did so carefully and the result was greater impact when Reese did have the ball in hand. With Carter shouldering so much of the offensive burden, Reese looked far more free to attack only when the moment was right, and there ought to be little surprise that she was highly efficient (8/13 FG) as a result. Of course, for this strategy to work long term, the Sky will need more than one other player to score in double figures (they can’t count on Reese scoring 27 PPG when she’s sometimes passive offensively), but tonight’s game, nonetheless, represented a perfect window into what the Sky envisioned Reese providing for their offense when they selected her in April’s draft.
3. Sky have no solution for Magbegor’s presence.
Normally, analysis of where the other team succeeded would be limited in my recap of a Sky victory, but the nature of this weekend’s doubleheader means a note on Magbegor’s brilliance is definitely warranted. En route to setting her new career high in blocks with 8, Magbegor completely changed the dynamic of the Chicago offense with her presence under the rim. Despite playing for the side that lost the game by 4, Magbegor finished with the third best plus-minus in the game (+5) and was the only player who was capable of doing anything to slow Carter’s drives. She sat for some brief periods due to a bit of foul trouble, but still played more minutes (32:24) than her season average (31:30)—suggesting there was little Noelle Quinn could have realistically done to get more from her impact and avoid the down periods they suffered when she sat. That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Storm coach push Magbegor well beyond tonight’s total and her season average in Sunday’s game.
Reason being, there’s little the Storm can develop between now and Sunday that will truly stop Carter. They can (and almost certainly will) send more numbers her way and force the Sky’s other players to score, but there’s still likely to be a number of instances where Carter’s first step is simply too much for any/all of Seattle’s perimeter players. Try as they might, there’s no way to fix that problem before Sunday—beyond making sure Magbegor is there to protect the backline even more often than she was tonight. With the Storm’s next game (a big one against Wilson’s Aces) coming less than 72 hours after Sunday’s rematch with the Sky, Quinn won’t want to play Magbegor the entire game, but she’ll likely play her upwards of 35 minutes to try and limit Carter in any and every way possible. Just as how the Storm can’t easily fix their disadvantages before Sunday, the Sky have no easy way to limit what Magbegor does defensively in 48 hours either. Their only hope is to apply pressure and hope the Aussie gets in foul trouble while making sure to attack the basket as often as possible when she eventually sits. If nothing else, expect the Storm’s energy from the opening tip to mention that which they showed in their furious comeback in tonight’s final 90 seconds. This is a veteran group, and they won’t take a loss like the one tonight (which was full of easily correctable mistakes) lightly.