The Sky are falling fast with the season winding down and WNBA playoff spots on the line.
Chicago has lost eight of its last 10 games, the most recent one in embarrassing fashion, as it enters Friday night’s game against the Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis.
The Sky (13-23) stand one game ahead of the Atlanta Dream and Washington Mystics for the final playoff spot with four contests left to play.
Washington tightened the race by steamrolling host Chicago 89-58 on Wednesday. It was a stunning result with so much at stake and the Sky had no explanations for the collapse.
“You don’t ever come to a basketball game thinking, ‘Oh, my energy is not going to be there,'” Chicago rookie Kamilla Cardoso said. “We’re competitors. We come here every day. We want to compete and we want to win. So I honestly don’t have an answer for you, but this was embarrassing. So I hope we figure out what was wrong.”
Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon also was in disbelief.
“There’s ways that you can lose,” Weatherspoon said. “But not like this. That’s not who we are.”
The debacle occurred in Chicago’s second game since losing rookie star Angel Reese to a season-ending broken left wrist.
The Sky now tackle the lava-hot Lynx (27-9), who have won four straight games and 11 of their past 12.
Minnesota recorded a 76-64 road win over Atlanta on Tuesday. Kayla McBride scored 15 points and star Napheesa Collier added 14 points and eight rebounds.
The win completed a three-game road sweep in which the Lynx prevailed by an average of 10 points.
“Three games, five days,” McBride said afterward of the trip. “We’re relentless in our ability to stay together. Collectively, we had a toughness.”
Collier averaged 19.7 points, 10 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.3 steals on the road trip.
Minnesota is 2-0 against the Sky this season. The Lynx won 70-62 at Chicago on June 30 and posted a 79-74 home victory on Sept. 1. Courtney Williams led Minnesota with 22 points in the recent matchup, while Cardoso had 22 points and nine rebounds for Chicago in that one.
–Field Level Media