Quick Three: Valkyries 83 Sky 78
Chicago hangs in for three quarters and nearly rallies late but ends up losing to Golden State on the road.
Facing a Golden State team that’s impressed early this season—and doing so in a sold-out Chase Center—the Sky were always up against it tonight. Yet, the game played out in strange fashion: Chicago stayed close despite stretches of poor play and, in the end, lost largely because of the very things that had kept them competitive. Let’s dive into what went right and how, eventually, even that went wrong.
1. Hot Shooting & Late Surge Can’t Save Sky
Chicago blew past their previous season highs (11 and 28) with 13 made three-pointers on 33 attempts, and despite a sluggish start to the fourth quarter, they were the stronger team during a key stretch when Golden State’s 73–64 lead narrowed to 79–76. Still, the Sky left Chase Center empty-handed—and a few critical factors explain why.
First, the early makes from three seemed to falsely embolden the Sky to keep taking long-range shots—even as the quality of those shots progressively dipped as the defense adjusted. After three quarters, the Sky were 11/25 (44%) and they had actually picked up steam out of halftime (4/7, 57.1%), but the Valkyries defense accurately observed that Chicago had almost no interior presence and gradually pushed their defense more-and-more aggressively to the perimeter to make the looks that, at one point, had been clean more difficult.
In addition, the Sky also allowed themselves to become one dimensional. They often looked set on taking a particular shot that an offensive action was meant to generate—even if it didn’t make sense by the time the ball got there. Their success through the opening three quarters, no doubt, offered extra courage to keep shooting the ball, and the complete absence of confidence scoring the ball inside made them far too gun-shy attacking Golden State’s tighter defense.
To their credit, the Sky didn’t give up and, in the end, they found an interior presence in the final few minutes of the game—primarily because of another superhuman effort by Angel Reese on the offensive glass, but it was much too late. As the saying goes, you live by the sword and you die by the sword, and the three ball was definitely the sword for the Sky tonight. Without it, they probably wouldn’t have even been in the game after the third quarter (or maybe even after the first, to be honest), but their over-reliance on the shot watered down their offensive process and kept them from getting the highest quality looks in the fourth quarter.
2. Cardoso’s Absence Felt Heavily Inside
There are plenty of reasons for the Sky’s struggles inside tonight, but it’s hard to overlook the absence of Kamilla Cardoso after her standout performance in Tuesday’s win over Los Angeles. Reese, despite a strong finish, couldn’t get much going early—scoring just 5 points on 2-of-9 shooting through three quarters. The rest of the frontcourt wasn’t much more effective: Elizabeth Williams (1 point, 1-of-6 from the line), Rebecca Allen (3 points, 1-of-7 FG), and Michaela Onyenwere (4 points, 0-of-3 FG) all struggled to provide reliable production. While Allen or Onyenwere often filled the power forward role when Williams sat, neither gave Chicago any real interior presence—just 3 of their combined 10 field goal attempts came from inside the paint.
Golden State deserves credit for its interior defense—Chicago shot just 4-of-17 in the paint over the first 30 minutes—but Tyler Marsh and his staff also need to find more creative ways to generate high-quality looks near the rim. Aside from Reese's second-chance scoring, the Sky showed little ability to produce high-quality paint looks organically. And while Golden State ranks fourth in defensive rating, even elite defenses shouldn’t be able to completely shut off the interior this easily.
Driving into the paint is the obvious solution, but those are the easiest looks for a defense to deter. Instead, the Sky need to create paint scores through movement. The same players who eagerly launched threes tonight must be just as willing to cut—especially when Reese is operating from the perimeter. If those shooters can attack the spaces Reese opens up by drawing her defender out, Chicago can generate easier looks inside and force defenses to think twice about extending on the perimeter. On paper, lineups with Allen or Onyenwere should offer more shooting and spacing than those with Cardoso. But spacing only matters if you know how to use it.
3. Sky Rotation Also Missing Impact
Few players beyond Ariel Atkins (who was +9 on her season average) went heavily beyond their typical minutes share; so, the concern here isn’t strictly fatigue. Instead, the Chicago groupings just felt like they lacked punch. The same absence in bench value that was temporarily felt when Courtney Vandersloot got hurt but, seemingly, worked itself out in the last few games before tonight has been exacerbated by the temporary loss of Cardoso, and the lack of trust Marsh seemingly has in either of Maddy Westbeld or Moriah Jefferson to help with providing a different look off the bench is telling.
Jefferson, in fairness, has Hailey Van Lith to contend with for minutes (and, as has been the key call-out all year, has a guaranteed contract); so, her situation is more understandable. However, it’s hard to see what scenarios Marsh will be comfortable using Westbeld in if now is not the time.
Sunday’s game against LA, perhaps, will call for a different approach than facing a relatively undersized Golden State team did tonight; so, Westbeld’s name is one to watch. If she can’t get run when the Sky are down to two true bigs, I’m not sure how much (if at all) she can truly be expected to develop in 2025. And if she doesn’t develop in 2025, then you have to start asking questions about where she’ll add value in 2026. Of course, rookies sometimes learn in the shadows and blossom over time, but the ruthless nature of 12-player rosters in the WNBA (which, in theory, could change with the CBA shift) means that players who don’t develop quickly often end up struggling to maintain their place on the roster. Not saying we’re they’re with Westbeld yet, but it’s definitely worth flagging as—once Cardoso returns—the path to any type of role will likely close up for good unless the Sky decide to pivot to a 100% growth driven mindset at some point this season (unlikely, in my opinion).